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travelbuffoon

78 karma · joined August 22, 2018

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travelbuffoon··on The Descent to C (2013)
Speaking of such funny business: unfortunately I have seen *(array + i) quite a few times.

To make it worse, it’s in a parser for external data in binary format, where you really shouldn’t be playing funny tricks.

travelbuffoon··on Google's payments team is seeing an exodus of executives and employees
Some people aren’t even applying because their orgs have made it clear that remote won’t be approved, and some people are being denied for spurious reasons. (Best one I’ve seen is: personal reasons not strong enough for remote.)

So it’s not as rosy as it seems.

travelbuffoon··on Google's payments team is seeing an exodus of executives and employees
Yes, anyone can apply. But no, not all orgs will accept a remote application.

And if your org says no, there aren’t that many internal remote options yet. And some orgs will say no to remote transferees for the first N months or a year.

So it’s better than before, but some orgs are still stuck in no-remote, and for many a departure is the way to go remote.

travelbuffoon··on Zx 3.0
There’s a difference between: unrelated to your job, and unrelated to the business as a whole.

In some locations, employers can’t claim copyright on works unrelated to your current role.

travelbuffoon··on Zx 3.0
Yup - or at least that’s what Google tells their employees. Want to publish something - you’d better get permission, and stick the Google name on it. And based on my limited understanding of the US contracts, is also true in practice.

There are some exceptions depending on local laws and contracts though, so it’s only mostly and not always true.

travelbuffoon··on What the interns have wrought, 2021 edition
14.5k is almost the monthly base pay for a senior software engineer at a FANG in Bay Area/NY/Seattle/ZRH (not counting bonus and stock though - which make a significant difference).

So it does seem very high, but not impossible?

travelbuffoon··on Phone and laptop searches at US border 'quadruple'
And they're supposed to only store the data temporarily until it gets put on the passport chip (i.e. not go into the database).

Of course there's no way to verify that, but I generally have a bit more trust in German authoroties.

(you can also travel widely with just an ID card which doesn't get the biometrics, although that does limit you to Europe.)

travelbuffoon··on Phone and laptop searches at US border 'quadruple'
OP meant Schengen when they said EU.
travelbuffoon··on Avoiding a transit of the United States
Disclaimer: this might not be the case at all airports, but certainly YVR and YYZ have implemented this.
travelbuffoon··on Avoiding a transit of the United States
It's hard to be silent towards an online checkbox.
travelbuffoon··on Avoiding a transit of the United States
Yes, indeed. US/Europe to -> rest of world (except US) involves no security when transiting Canada.

Domestic connections do require security, connections to US generally require preclearance security. Connections from most other countries also go through security.

The odd thing is that they don't separate arrivals: so you'll mingle with worldwide arrivals, go through transfer immigration with everyone else, and finally you show your boarding pass and get routed either to the departure gates, or to security, based on your boarding pass.

travelbuffoon··on Avoiding a transit of the United States
Canada is massively better - many routings don't require going through security, leaving only a cursory immigration check (at special transit desks).
travelbuffoon··on An AI Lie Detector Is Going to Start Questioning Travelers in the EU
Nope. It's for customs, not immigration. You're already in the country, they just need to figure out whether they need to search your bags for contraband.
travelbuffoon··on An AI Lie Detector Is Going to Start Questioning Travelers in the EU
Significant note: this appears to be a customs screening, not immigration screening.

Which makes perfect sense since it's extremely hard for customs agents to actually catch smugglers. (Compared to immigration screening which is largely based on hard criteria which human agents evaluate with much less leeway.)

The bigger question is whether it's effective - but anything is likely to be more effective than customs agents selecting people to search based on gut feeling.

travelbuffoon··on Google’s smart city dream is turning into a privacy nightmare
Until the data gets sent to US servers.
travelbuffoon··on Google drops plans for Berlin campus after protests
Needing that kind of recognition seems unhealthy.

I'm pretty sure both London and Switzerland have cultures (OK, UK culture is mostly just drinking but still...).

Large software hubs generally need to pull in people from around the world, not just USSR. And that's the crux of the problem. London, Berlin, Paris, Zurich are all major international cities - it's easier for people from all around the world to settle down there than in places like Warsaw or Perugia.

travelbuffoon··on Google drops plans for Berlin campus after protests
> 2nd class citizen

Huh?

Also, those places are way more international than most places in Europe, which makes relocation more attractive. Good luck attracting non-Italians to Italy, or non-Polish to Poland.

travelbuffoon··on Ask HN: Founders, what is the worst experience you had with developers?
Mine wanted to get paid. Can you imagine it? Building the best product ever just wasn't enough.

P45's all round and the issue was solved, permanently.

travelbuffoon··on TSA announces “biometrics vision for all commercial aviation travelers”
That's because US bound flights have separate security, which operates with different standards.
travelbuffoon··on Show HN: Test Your Culture – What's your (English-speaking) cultural knowledge?
Hmm, when "English-speaking" actually just refers to the United States.
travelbuffoon··on Americans Want to Believe Jobs Are the Solution to Poverty. They’re Not
Really? SF is the worst place I've seen for queues, but Americans also spend plenty of time in TSA and CBP queues around the country.
travelbuffoon··on 'Right to be forgotten' could threaten global free speech, say NGOs
US free speech isn't even that expansive. Food libel laws are the most hilarious thing that a "free speech" country could do, after criticising others for banning nazi speech.
travelbuffoon··on Passport queues vex airlines
No, thanks. Countries should serve people by making border crossing fast for everyone. GE is an ugly workaround, and shouldn't be needed in any civilised country (and yes, my country has an efficient border, the absolute longest I've seen or even heard of on the news is a 15 minute wait due to unlucky arrival timing - EU/EFTA still had no wait on that occasion due to automatic border gates).