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smaili

7,460 karma · joined April 22, 2013

Engineering at Uber.

The opinions stated here are my own, not those of any current, past, or future employer. Consider yourself warned young Jedi.

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smaili··on Canada grounds Boeing 737 Max 8
It's very possible the "new information" may be what WSJ just reported: https://www.wsj.com/articles/pilot-of-crashed-ethiopian-airl...

tldr - The pilot had reported flight-control problems and wanted to return to the airport

smaili··on Intel ends 5G modem alliance with Beijing-backed chipmaker
Has anyone else been experiencing horrendous data speeds with their iPhone XS? I only ask because this was the first model shipped with an Intel modem, amd compared to my 6S this is nowhere near as fast or reliable over 4G and LTE.
smaili··on Payless is closing all its U.S. stores
Another one to add to the list -KB Toys, Sears, Kmart, Blockbuster, Montgomery Wards, Circuit City. Thanks for the memories.
smaili··on Police stop people for covering their faces from facial recognition camera
Is there a formal definition of what words are considered “swearing” or is it at the discretion of the officer?
smaili··on Apple Financial Results – Q1 2019 Conference Call LIVE
Couple of interesting tidbits:

* Calling out challenges with China's App Store on app game approval.

* Appreciation of dollar on international markets.

* Subsidized iPhones are making people less incentivized on purchasing a new phone.

smaili··on eBay CEO Has a Stark Choice: Show Growth or Break Up Company
To this day I still can't list any of my extremely valuable items because of "seller limits" even though I've been a member for over 15 years and have not once gotten a negative review. Pretty disappointing considering the money they could be making off my sold transactions.
smaili··on To Cover China, There’s No Substitute for WeChat
> the messaging app that’s the equivalent of WhatsApp plus Facebook plus PayPal plus Uber plus GrubHub plus many other things.

It's unfortunate not much of their architecture is publicly shared or discussed. With their massive amount of users and incredibly diverse service offerings I'd love to see their backend architecture design choices/tradeoffs.

smaili··on PG&E Sparked at Least 1,500 California Fires, Now Faces Collapse
On a somewhat similar note, president Trump recently threatened to cut off funding for wildfires[0].

[0] https://www.cnbc.com/2019/01/09/trump-threatens-to-cut-off-f...

smaili··on The unlikely resurgence of Dungeons and Dragons
Speaking of CCG's, any collectors who happen to be coders? I haven't met too many at the local shops I stop by so I always figured collecting cards wasn't very popular amongst engineers.
smaili··on Teachers Quit Jobs at Highest Rate on Record
> The departures come alongside protests this year in six states where teachers in some cases shut down schools over tight budgets, small raises and poor conditions.

Even as a child myself growing up in the US education system, this was a common topic where even the students knew teachers were underpaid and education in general had a lot less money in it -- but at the same time I don't ever recall schools shutting down because of it. I can't imagine what it must feel like to be a student now and being told school is closed because my teachers are protesting.

Not really sure why I'm getting downvoted so much, just wanted to express empathy.

smaili··on 911 emergency services go down across the US after CenturyLink outage
I'm quite surprised no fallback/failover was put in place for a critical tier service like this.
smaili··on Sheryl Sandberg: I want to address some of the claims that have been made
> I also want to address the issue that has been raised about a PR firm, Definers...I did not know we hired them or about the work they were doing, but I should have.

To be fair, are COO's normally aware of every firm that the company is working with? I feel like the CFO would need to know given their role in overseeing company financials, but not sure if it would make sense for a COO to be in the loop.

smaili··on UFOs spotted off Irish coast under investigation
I know meteors seems to be a common theory, but do they normally travel that fast?
smaili··on A web-based mission control framework by NASA
Looks like their live demo site https://openmct-demo.herokuapp.com/ has an error.
smaili··on 30 spies dead after Iran cracked CIA comms network
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18370900
smaili··on Police told to avoid looking at recent iPhones to avoid lockouts
Very strange. I submitted this story about a half day ago and was marked as a dupe.
smaili··on Air India Express 737 Hits ILS, Damages Wall on Departure, Flies for 4 Hours
If anything this is great free advertisement for Boeing's quality.
smaili··on New Evidence of Hacked Supermicro Hardware Found in U.S. Telecom
Supermicro shareholders just can't catch a break. Down yet another 25% today.
smaili··on BlackBerry announces a new quantum-resistant code signing service
I'll be honest, my knee-jerk reaction was "BlackBerry is still in business?". Anyone on HN own one or know of someone who does? I can't recall the last time I walked into a store who actually carried BB products on their shelves.
smaili··on Tesla’s Model 3 Is Becoming One of America’s Best-Selling Sedans
> Tesla’s competitors are feeling it. Sales of the Mercedes-Benz C-Class, the best-selling luxury sedan in the U.S., plunged 24 percent last month and are down 28 percent for the year through September.

> And it’s doing so at a higher price than other mass-market cars. The most expensive versions of the Model 3 are currently the most popular, with an average selling price approaching $60,000.

It would be very interesting if Tesla's surge in ranking would be caused more by fleeing luxury customers (from brands like the referenced Mercedes) versus gaining new customers.

smaili··on Full Hacker News: single page with top 30 articles inlined
Infinite redirects? :)
smaili··on Coinbase Wants to Be Too Big to Fail
To be fair, at peak BTC I recall seeing people claiming confirmation times of in the hours.
smaili··on iOS 12 Safari Array reverse bug
It appears this was already reported and fixed in WebKit - https://bugs.webkit.org/show_bug.cgi?id=188794 but not specifically for the Safari browser.
smaili··on New Roomba Has Persistent Maps, Selective Room Cleaning, Automatic Dirt Disposal
Based on how the show's been progressing, I'd be quite worried if/when we do get there :)
smaili··on Magic Leap One now available for $2295
> We created a new kind of computer so we built a whole new operating system. One that gets the most out of our spatial computing system by working in tandem with digital lightfields and the brain. Lumin OS is fully optimized for environment recognition, persistent digital content and the performance to power high-fidelity visual experiences that turns your wildest imagination into even wilder realities.

Super curious if it's built from the ground up or a mod of an existing OS.

smaili··on Coinbase Custody is exploring a range of new assets
I know this is literally the first sentence in the article but just thought it worth repeating for anyone coming straight to the comments:

> Coinbase Custody is exploring the addition of many existing and forthcoming crypto assets for storage only, and will be working to add them as quickly and safely as possible. At this time, we have not yet considered these assets for trading.

TLDR - assets in Custody != assets in Trading

smaili··on Apple's Board Says Tim Cook Has to Fly Private from Now On (2017)
For those thinking "What about Jobs?", the article actually alludes to it at the end:

> On a historical note, Cook's predecessor Steve Jobs actually had a private jet all his own: Apple gifted it to him in 2000, a few years after he came back to the company in 1996, as a thank-you present for turning around the company. Apple actually reimbursed Jobs for any time he had to take the jet out for business purposes.

smaili··on MacBook Pro with faster performance and new features for pros
Does anyone know if Apple has any policy in place for those customers who recently purchased a Macbook Pro without these new upgraded specs? Can they be turned in for these newer models with an upgrade fee of some kind?
smaili··on Massive Comcast Outage Hits the US
> Customers were also taking to Twitter to reach out to the company about the possible outage. The company recommended that some users try checking the status center online, which would require an internet connection of some kind.

Got to love you need internet to check the status of your internet :)

smaili··on Nintendo and Microsoft team up to promote cross-play, while Sony remains silent
If anyone is curious, this was Sony's official response:

> We’re always open to hearing what the PlayStation community is interested in to enhance their gaming experience. Fortnite is already a huge hit with PS4 fans, offering a true free-to-play experience so gamers can jump in and play online. With 79 million PS4s sold around the world and more than 80 million monthly active users on PlayStation Network, we’ve built a huge community of gamers who can play together on Fortnite and all online titles. We also offer Fortnite cross-play support with PC, Mac, iOS, and Android devices, expanding the opportunity for Fortnite fans on PS4 to play with even more gamers on other platforms.[1]

[1] https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-44477524

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