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surrealon Show HN: “How do I know it's the right time to ask for a raise?” (free course)

People struggle with this stuff a lot. This course looks really helpful.

Something a friend was battling with recently: how long after joining a company could/should someone start thinking about a raise?

surrealon “If you get a C or lower, I’ll buy you a present”

> What's interesting about our education system is we focus a lot on precision and accuracy and not that much on strategy and planning. It seems like a system built to produce accountants and actuaries more than a new generation of entrepreneurs.

You're spot on (nearly). Seth Godin will tell you[1] that it's a system quite literally built to produce compliant workers for factories during the industrial revolution: https://youtu.be/sXpbONjV1Jc

[1]: as will many others. But I like how he puts it in this video.

surrealon How “Silicon Valley” Nails Silicon Valley

See also "You couldn't make it up."[0]

[0] http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/english/you-cou...

surrealon Facebook will show ads to non-Facebook users on other websites

Google has internet searches. As well as often locations and journeys (Maps; Android). What a user watches (YouTube). Their emails (Gmail). What they do online (Analytics).

Facebook knows personal details, mood, etc for people who explicitly choose to share these things with their friends, or participate on Facebook in other ways. This may be an oversimplification, but I suspect Google is able to learn much more about a user passively than Facebook is.

Of course it'll differ for different people, but on balance I'd say Google knows _a lot more_ about me than Facebook does.

(...And they probably both know more about me than I do.)

So yes, this news may affect Google, but I disagree that Facebook has an advantage over Google when it comes to knowledge of users.

surrealon Instagram insists littergram app is renamed

Identical usage to Instagram, then.

But yes, I agree, the similarity in app functionality suggests that the name derives/can be confused with Instagram as opposed to a telegram, and so there may well be merit in the C&D.

surrealon Chrome Cleanup Tool

I might be wrong, will try to dig deeper, but to me it seems like this is for removing third party crapware that might affect your Chrome experience (toolbars, ad-injectors etc), not for removing Google's own stuff. So kind of makes sense to be an optional standalone tool.

surrealon Facebook paid £4,327 corporation tax in the UK in 2014

Many a true word spoken in jest! It depends on the specifics of your company of course, but between FreeAgent, HMRC's free filing software[0], and a very mild interest in accounting, I've yet to find an accountant that could give me a positive ROI.

[0] https://www.gov.uk/guidance/corporation-tax-use-hmrcs-free-f...

surrealon Facebook paid £4,327 corporation tax in the UK in 2014

Have you looked into accounting software? Like you, I de-registered for VAT for a while, but since using FreeAgent I've re-registered and haven't looked back. VAT returns are now just a click each quarter (plus the minimal clicks to upload and explain my bank transactions periodically). VAT nuances (VAT on reclaimed mileage, reverse charges, etc) are taken care of automatically too.

Not to mention all the other time savings (expense receipts uploaded straight from smartphone, tax return & accounts now only take 5-10 mins at end of year using the reports FreeAgent generates, etc etc etc).

I'm not affiliated with FreeAgent (other than my referral code 44gf6bbt, which would give both parties 10% off for life). Just an incredibly satisfied customer; it was by far the best of the 3 or 4 tools I trialled.

surrealon Ask HN: What should I do if I feel burnt out?

And equally, sometimes the deadlines are somewhat arbitrary because the manager doesn't know any better. I've seen situations where a manager has said "so you'll have this done in a week, yes?", and a response of "I actually suspect it would take 3 weeks because X" was received most gratefully. Deadlines are sometimes set on a whim, not by some external necessity.

surrealon The freelancer's guide to good jobs and great pay

I can vouch for this. Not with the emails, but came across bdunn's free blog and podcast 2 months ago. They earned me an extra $8,000 last month, and a better end product for my client. Spending a fraction of this to get more advice (the paid course) was a no brainer.

(Brennan, feel free to use as testimonial / ask me to elaborate.)

surrealon AudioQuest Diamond RJ/E Ethernet Cable: £6899

Without commenting on whether the product is worth the price (I don't know enough about HiFi quality):

There is a bell curve of purchasing mentality - from a minority who buy solely based on what's cheapest, through varying degrees of cost/benefit tradeoff, through to a minority who will tend toward whatever is most expensive. It often pays to offer something to that latter group.

surrealon Great Quotes

What is it that marks them as successes now? Still audience opinion, just not those audiences who first watched it.

surrealon Peter Thiel Planning to Live 120 Years

Presumably because we are yet to find a way to detect cancer, years earlier, in bodily fluids.

surrealon A Poor Imitation of Alan Turing

Don't worry, you haven't missed it.

"“We’ll follow the pattern laid out with ‘The King’s Speech,’ ‘The Artist’ and pictures like that and move slowly and deliberately,” said Erik Lomis, distribution chief for the Weinstein Company.

[Just 4 theaters to begin with.]

"The slow but steady expansion will see “The Imitation Game” add six markets and between 25 and 30 theaters on Dec. 12. It will go nationwide in between 600 and 800 theaters on Christmas Day.”

(http://variety.com/2014/film/news/imitation-game-box-office-...)

surrealon Velocity.js

Great library. Original discussion (April 2014): https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7663775

surrealon Python idioms I wish I'd learned earlier

Also read other people's code :) You'll see this being used countless times in libraries / on GitHub.

surrealon FbStart – A new program designed to help early stage mobile startups

Official (and several months old): https://developers.facebook.com/blog/post/2014/05/14/fbstart...

surrealon FbStart – A new program designed to help early stage mobile startups

Doesn't look like there's any equity involved. I suspect this is a way for Facebook to spot "the next big thing" as early as possible..?

surrealon Ask HN: What's the best way to buy a claimed domain name?

Could your showing interest in it have caused it to be registered by someone else?

Always take precautions: http://www.thesitewizard.com/gettingstarted/precautions-to-t...

surrealon Android 5.0 Lollipop reviewed

The CyanogenMod OS has this built in. Very similar to what you describe (provides empty contact list, empty folder etc to apps you specify). Don't know if there's a standalone app to do the same.

surrealon Google Blacklist – Words That Google Instant Doesn't Like (2010)

In case you haven't found a way around those ridiculous validations, try adding arbitrary dots ( . ) in the middle of the "offensive" part. Gmail will deliver any dotted version of your own username into your own inbox as normal.

surrealon Ask HN: Why aren't we automating all the things?

In the meantime a number of large supermarkets in the UK let you scan everything as you drop it into your trolley, and just pay at the end. A nice middle ground until, as you say, supermarkets disappear.

http://www.tesco.com/scan-as-you-shop/ is one example

surrealon Twitter Emoji for Everyone

We do indeed - http://xkcd.com/927/

surrealon Twitter Emoji for Everyone

Do WhatsApp license Apple's emoji? They've been in WhatsApp's Android app for years.

surrealon Ask HN: Which Employers Request Current Salary Prior/During/Post Interview, Why?

My understanding of the "never tell them your current salary" advice is that it's less cultural and more "they can use it against you to pay you less than you're worth". It's a negotiation, and "never give the first number" isn't for culture/privacy.

surrealon ASK HN: I made up a word game back in high school. What do you think of it?

  cat /usr/share/dict/words | grep '^[fur][hibernate][claws][latin][brown][omnivores]$'

Have I missed the point somewhat... :)

surrealon The Best Photo Organizing App? I’m Still Looking

We're doing exactly that at FOMO - we were fed up of missing out on great memories just because someone else happened to press the shutter. www.fomo.fm

Get in touch if you need anything and/or have feedback :) shai@fomo.fm

surrealon JQuery 3.0: The Next Generations

Un-respectively. 1.x is becoming jQuery Compat, 2.x is becoming jQuery.

surrealon Retailers are disabling NFC readers to shut out Apple Pay

I'm inclined to agree with you here, but if I may question a couple of your points:

1. Isn't Apple Pay/the tokenization it uses is a whole new ball game? The contactless that currently exists in the UK is only for transactions up to 20 GBP, which presumably won't be the case with Apple Pay. Do we know that merchants will only be charged what they currently are for contactless?

2. Your statement that no one uses credit cards in shops seems anecdotal. Do you have a source? Most people I know in the UK do all their spending on a credit card, for a number of reasons. (Me included; I only use a debit card for the few things that have credit card fees - flights, council tax, ...)