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stevenwliao

328 karma · joined January 9, 2015

Software engineer (Google, Twitter, Doordash). I like distributed systems and marketplaces.
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stevenwliao··on The End of OS X
and you don't mind violating the licensing agreement.
stevenwliao··on Advice to Young Web Developers
How did you handle XSS?
stevenwliao··on Too Many of America’s Smartest Waste Their Talents (2018)
How does a student determine if a role produces real value?
stevenwliao··on Apple Warns Looters with Stolen iPhones: You Are Being Tracked
When armed robbers took my iPhone, it ended up in Ho Chi Minh City after 3 weeks. I'm guessing it went robber -> fence -> exporter -> foreign shop. Presumably someone there defeated the Find My iPhone lock or parted it out then.
stevenwliao··on Hey Personal is $99/year (mail by Basecamp team)
Eventually.

https://twitter.com/dhh/status/1232733919847469057?s=21

stevenwliao··on I won’t buy ebooks anymore
This someone only bought a book when they couldn't pirate it anywhere, unlike the rest of their "virtual library". They then "lent" the book to "everyone involved who really wanted to read it" and then wondered why DRM exists.

Seems appropriate.

stevenwliao··on Organ donation in England has moved to an opt-out system
But they can't if they don't know it's opt-out, which is why thread OP argues that BBC should announce this.
stevenwliao··on Uber cuts 3000 more jobs, closes 45 offices
An architect that doesn't leave documentation and share knowledge isn't doing their job and management needs to get ahead of this. What if this "key person" decides to find another job?
stevenwliao··on It’s OK for your open source library to be a bit shitty (2015)
Who has read through all the code of their direct dependencies, let alone transitive ones?
stevenwliao··on Drastic makeover looms for S&P 500
As a holder of S&P 500, it won't look big. As a majority stakeholder in a company that is on the border, it will.
stevenwliao··on Drastic makeover looms for S&P 500
The timing of when individual stocks are added or removed from the index seems like valuable information to holders of those stocks.
stevenwliao··on Drastic makeover looms for S&P 500
> the index committee is probably hesitant to add more technology firms

This surprised me. I had thought that S&P 500 was an objective list of large cap stocks, without subjective decisions about which companies to include.

stevenwliao··on GM self-driving tech unit Cruise laying off about 8% of staff
Some businesses' fixed costs mean raising prices won't prevent bankruptcy.

Restaurants will remain available, but will movie theaters? They were already being disrupted by streaming services.

stevenwliao··on Tech workers consider escaping Silicon Valley’s sky-high rents
Google Jamboard with company issued iPads solves the whiteboarding.
stevenwliao··on 92 of top 500 subreddits controlled by same 5 people
Most people prefer to reinforce their own views instead of challenge them.
stevenwliao··on NHS rejects Apple-Google coronavirus app plan
There are other concerns- availability, durability, security, privacy (once info leaves the box and goes into some system).
stevenwliao··on Google's top quantum scientist explains why he resigned
How's the state of Lisp in production these days?
stevenwliao··on US Senators Introduce Resolution to Allow Remote Voting During Emergencies
Mobs are highly visible. A senator's flaky Internet is less so.

I agree that new Senate conventions could cover these cases.

stevenwliao··on US Senators Introduce Resolution to Allow Remote Voting During Emergencies
Imagine a DDoS attempting to prevent quorum or affect vote outcomes! Lots of edge cases to iron out.
stevenwliao··on The San Francisco Bay Area shelter-in-place order is being extended through May
If you enroll in COBRA within 60 days, you can retroactively claim coverage. If you have current cashflow issues but have only minor healthcare expenses, you can wait to see if you need it.

Of course before going this route, check with a reputable source.

stevenwliao··on NHS rejects Apple-Google coronavirus app plan
We can't expect everyone to secure their own data infrastructure. Billions don't even know how to use a Raspberry Pi.
stevenwliao··on A Failure, but Not of Prediction
Agreed. There's a difference between "stop buying masks because we need to save them for nurses" and "stop buying masks because they don't help at all*".

Lying erodes public trust.

stevenwliao··on A Failure, but Not of Prediction
There's an awesome book about getting better at predictions called "Superforecasting"

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/23995360-superforecastin...

The idea is to make lots of time-limited, falsifiable predictions with percentage estimates attached and check your track record.

stevenwliao··on Amazon begins temperature checks and will provide surgical masks at warehouses
It's crazy that the only people in power talking about reopening the economy are the ones who advocate taking less precautions.

I hope the public conversation will shift towards a culture of wearing face covers and having temperature checks and that governments will mobilize to make it happen. The status quo can't hold for 18 months while we test the vaccines.

stevenwliao··on A video conferencing service – that rickrolls you
tgif
stevenwliao··on Charter staff told to report to offices despite positive coronavirus tests
How many employees will this policy kill?
stevenwliao··on Chrome 81: Near Field Communications, Augmented Reality, and More
Found a Web NFC site to try it out:

https://webnfc.app/

stevenwliao··on Fed cuts half point in emergency move amid spreading virus
I can't wait for the SP500 to replace the Dow in news reporting.
stevenwliao··on Top Anki add-ons used by med students
Pokemanki looks awesome!

The idea of Polar is also intriguing. I found a visual bug on your page:

https://i.imgur.com/P8dHkI9.png

stevenwliao··on The specification for native image lazy-loading is merged into HTML standard
I want a browser that can predict when I'll have patchy Internet, loading and prefetching as much as possible right before.
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