Hacker News Reader

trav4225on Tell HN: Tesla rear-ended me on autopilot, no one will investigate

I think that some of us would argue that these are not "reasonable traffic participants". People who do not maintain sufficient stopping distance are one of the most frustrating parts of the American driving experience and are (IMO) extremely disruptive to safe travel, especially on highways.

trav4225on A math tutor teaching calculus on Pornhub

https://youtu.be/KUXb7do9C-w :-)

trav4225on Climate Clock

Yeah, as skeptical as I am about a lot of this stuff (for one, I personally believe that the climate is too chaotic and has too many significant independent variables to model with much certainty), I've always cringed a bit at the people who insist that the leaders in the movement should all but stop emitting carbon. Certainly there is hypocrisy among those leaders who preach guilt and carbon abstinence, but there is a logical case to be made for pragmatism and focusing on the macro things rather than the micro details. I probably could word this better... but I think I've mostly made my point. :)

trav4225on Nearly half of toys from third-party online sellers found to be dangerous

It doesn't say that Rebecca bought them, FYI.

trav4225on Danger: Overloaded Constructors Ahead

Makes perfect sense. Thanks!

trav4225on Danger: Overloaded Constructors Ahead

Oh, agreed 100%. Thanks for the clarification. This is indeed what I do. I heavily enforce contracts (something some of my coworkers do not appreciate ;-).

Perhaps we don't agree on everything here, though, because I still do not see any problems with the existence of NPEs. However, I do appreciate language features that allow you to enforce non-nullability at compile time if desired.

trav4225on Are software engineering “best practices” just developer preferences?

I'm pretty sure that most people consider "software engineer" to be just a fake title that makes business cards look fancier... sort of like referring to a janitor/custodian as a "sanitation engineer".

trav4225on Danger: Overloaded Constructors Ahead

> Just because one field tells you something should be there doesn’t mean an extra null-check would hurt.

IMO, it would. NPE exists for a reason: to instantly alert you to a bug and/or contract violation. Maybe I misunderstood the author's intent here, but sweeping the contract violation under the rug with a superfluous null check doesn't seem to help anything here. If successMsg is null, what are you going to do, display "" instead? Often, immediate termination with NPE seems to be the best approach in cases like this, IMHO.

trav4225on Linux Sucks 2021 – The End of Linux Is Nigh [video]

Yeah, this is almost like criticizing democracy for being messy. The mess is sort of the point. :-)

trav4225on Detecting a permgen memory leak in a Java application

It wouldn't surprise me if many enterprise systems were still reliant on Java 7. Where I work, most of our stacks still depend on Java 8.

trav4225on California Megafires Are Solvable

We are tired of it, but we're also too busy blaming the problem on electric utilities and cow farts. ;-)

trav4225on Apple enabling client-side CSAM scanning on iPhone tomorrow

> Eliminating the 4th amendment or mandating clear walls sure would make the cops' job easier. But no one thinks that's even a remotely good idea.

Yet.

trav4225on Apple enabling client-side CSAM scanning on iPhone tomorrow

And the Clipper chip!

trav4225on California moves to cut off water to thousands of farmers

Not to mention that official state travel to many of these states is banned...

trav4225on WiFiDemon – iOS WiFi RCE 0-Day Vuln, and a Zero-Click Vuln That Was Patched

This website is constantly shifting around with my browser... :-/

trav4225on Facebook test asks users if they're worried a friend is 'becoming an extremist'

Wow, I guess I'm an extremist too. I wonder if Facebook knew that when they interviewed me. ;-)

trav4225on Stay Away from Cloudflare (2017)

Wow. I haven't had an ISP that used CGNAT in a long time, but something vaguely related is probably happening. Maybe I occasionally get assigned IPs that are on some sort of abuse list...

trav4225on We're Levels.fyi, the most accurate resource for tech salaries, ask us anything

I dunno. I think they just treat fresh grads differently. They probably look more at one's graduation date than at one's (lack of) experience at that point. They want really fresh meat. ;-)

My views here are purely anecdotal, and based only on interactions with former peers (students) and something an Amazon recruiter told me at one point.

trav4225on Ivermectin and the odds of hospitalization due to Covid-19

It contained the word "Ivermectin".

trav4225on We're Levels.fyi, the most accurate resource for tech salaries, ask us anything

Yeah, personally, I constantly receive calls from FAANGs for interviews, but I pass on them all. My current lack of free time to work on interview prep is the sole reason. I almost feel like it's impossible to find the time to prep without quitting my current job first... :-/

What's always been a little baffling to me, though, is how easily these companies hire fresh grads. I have several friends that walked straight into FAANG jobs right out of school with little more than a couple quick phone interviews. One recruiter told me that the bar is lower for fresh grads because they can be more easily molded into the company culture.

trav4225on Stay Away from Cloudflare (2017)

Yup. Personally, I'm constantly being hit by CAPTCHAs. For some inexplicable reason, I sometimes have to solve several (5 or 6?) in a row before a site will let me in.

trav4225on Mountain climbing trained me for startup life (2020)

Depending on season and conditions, this makes it sound like it can definitely be less than trivial for some:

https://www.outsideonline.com/2330916/mount-whitney-climbing...

I live near Mt. Shasta and, though inexperienced climbers do climb it, many people, because of their inexperience, vastly underestimate what can go wrong there, including very sudden changes in weather conditions.

trav4225on NymphCast – Open-source Chromecast Alternative

> Sadly google seems to hate the chromecast and even their own software gets worse at casting to it every year.

Yeah, I've always been amazed at how unreliable and broken the Chromecast software seems to be (for me, at least). I feel like Google really missed an opportunity here.

If this hadn't been the case, I personally would have purchased more of them and, importantly, recommended them to many people. But, after a couple tries (gen. 1 and gen. 2), I gave up.

trav4225on Amazon devices will soon automatically share your Internet with neighbors

I suspect a lawyer will say "ignorance is not innocence". :)

trav4225on Amazon devices will soon automatically share your Internet with neighbors

This also seems like it would violate ToS for some ISPs.

trav4225on Green gold: Avocado farming on the rise in Africa

"Come on, man!"

trav4225on Green gold: Avocado farming on the rise in Africa

I can almost guarantee you that recycling cadavers into protein shakes will be one of the "next big things" proposed. To save the planet, of course.

trav4225on Green gold: Avocado farming on the rise in Africa

Well, if she's a mother of three, we already know her life goal is obviously planetary destruction, so what's a few avocados grown by Big Ag? ;-)