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whileonebegin

146 karma · joined May 9, 2011

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whileonebegin··on Machine Learning for Programming – Peter Norvig
Have you seen this project yet? I only thought of this link while reading the last part of your sentence (the AI writes a program with very similar output).

Self-Programming Artificial Intelligence Learns to Use Functions http://www.primaryobjects.com/CMS/Article163

whileonebegin··on Why I Left the .NET Framework
I think there is migration away from .NET underway, as Windows loses market share to other OSes. Desktop apps are becoming more rare. Web apps are being written in open-source platforms. A lot of the companies still using .NET are large fortune 500 ones, maintaining existing systems. Remember Cobol? I'm almost at the point where I consider .NET legacy. Perhaps, not yet, but maybe in 5 years. Does this mean the well is dry for .NET developers? Not at all. Large companies will pay small fortunes to find people to maintain their legacy systems. Either way, I think it's important for developers to become proficient in multiple programming languages.
whileonebegin··on Employees That Stay In Companies Longer Get Paid Less
This is a great explanation. It's also called "golden-handcuffs".

In your 30's, I think you need to start thinking about exit-strategy (saving enough to live financially independent), rather than hopping to yet another job.

Then, you can job hop down in salary and do something more fun.

whileonebegin··on Ask HN: What games do programmers play?
Starcraft 2, Might and Magic X, Age of Wonders III
whileonebegin··on This is your brain on engineering
I get the point they're trying to make, but putting a little girl in a kitchen with pink pastel colors, a princess egg, and other gender-biased artifacts defeats the purpose. It only reinforces the idea that girls are different and need to be treated that way. I suppose it eases gender-biased parents into buying more constructive toys for their girls, but that's only addressing the symptom, not the problem: equality.
whileonebegin··on Dead Man's Switch
Better solution?

Google Inactive Account Manager https://support.google.com/accounts/answer/3036514

And for sending emails in the future:

Boomerang for Gmail https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/boomerang-for-gmai...

whileonebegin··on My website was stolen by a hacker and I got it back
Isn't escrow.com supposed to prevent payments from being stopped after the domain is released? Obviously, in this case it's justified, but for regular customers, you don't want escrow releasing a domain and then the buyer stops payment.
whileonebegin··on Nodemailer: Easy e-mail sending from your Node.js applications
Is this really much easier than using https://www.npmjs.org/package/mailer? Also, unless nodemailer is written by the same developer as mailer, it appears they copied the tagline, "simple as cake".

        email.send({
            host : "smtp.gmail.com",              // smtp server hostname
            port : "465",                     // smtp server port
            ssl: true,
            domain : "localhost",            // domain used by client to identify itself to server
            to : "recipient@somewhere.com",
            from : 'sender@somewhere.com',
            subject : 'My Subject',
            body: 'Blah\nBlah\nBlah.,
            authentication : "login",        // auth login is supported; anything else is no auth
            username : '',
            password : ''
        },
        function (err, result) {
        });
whileonebegin··on Joint Statement Regarding the Insolvency of Mt. Gox
"So, my Coinbase account was hacked, bitcoin stolen, now what?" https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6946832

FYI, after some time, Coinbase followed up with my support ticket and said tough luck, bitcoins lost, better luck next time. No mention was made of any effort to track-down the hacker or fraudulent transaction. They probably didn't even block the hacker's IP address.

And yet, Coinbase declares, "We strongly believe in transparent, thoughtful, and comprehensive consumer protection measures. We pledge to lead the way."

whileonebegin··on Ask HN: Dream job emails back shortly after accepting "very good" job. Thoughts?
If the interview is local and they will pay more, why not give it a try. You could always walk from the already accepted position. However, the fact this co took so long to respond doesn't bode well. I think you accepted the right job.
whileonebegin··on Statement Regarding Bitcoin Withdrawal Delays
What's not to trust? When your bank's name stands for "Magic: The Gathering Online Exchange".
whileonebegin··on Show HN: Human Headers
At first, I liked this idea. It's an ego boost. But then I realized this extra HTTP header information is going out with every request, and really only serves to increase bandwidth. Yes, I know, what's 72 more bytes per request? Still. With humans.txt, the request is on demand.
whileonebegin··on Satya Nadella – Microsoft's CEO
You should try Thunderbird. I switched from Outlook a few years ago and have never looked back.
whileonebegin··on Show HN: Hubble Ultra Deep Field Viewer
It's like looking at a drop of ocean water, filled with plankton. Just imagine what's out there.
whileonebegin··on Engineer-to-Engineer Recruiting
If a recruiter is open to telling you the company name, I usually respond. If not, they're much more likely to be ignored.
whileonebegin··on Interviewing as a Front-End Engineer in San Francisco
The ability to emulate different versions of IE. Of course, the only reason this is necessary is because of the many breaking changes that the different versions created.
whileonebegin··on So, my Coinbase account was hacked, bitcoin stolen, now what?
I agree, and that's why bitcoin needs accountability. If not bitcoin, then Coinbase. PayPal is a good example of this. For all of the flak they receive, you can trust them to honor reports of unauthorized transactions and feel (mostly) confident making purchases.

I'm very cautious now about considering bitcoin any further. I'm certainly glad I never linked a bank account to Coinbase.

whileonebegin··on So, my Coinbase account was hacked, bitcoin stolen, now what?
I didn't have two-factor enabled (it's enabled now though). API was disabled. No malware installed.

Transferred to: 12aW8jPeEc9iQa5ocXCDReJ6Nij4c9xHtX

Transaction: d3f6547f901b45b3c79315e78a1bbcc988e27e6b98feab321f5628e2312b5377

I think this might be related to a recent Twitter account hack that happened a month or so ago, where a fake tweet was posted on the account. I had used the same email and pw on that account. Maybe they were scanning the stolen Twitter accounts against Coinbase.

whileonebegin··on Saying Goodbye
In addition to the new job: lower property taxes, lower cost of living, and cheaper housing. Sounds like the right move.
whileonebegin··on Quit Your Job Now, Before It's Too Late
Foreclosing isn't as easy as it sounds. For one, the bank can sue you for the difference between the auction price and the loan. For two, the IRS will expect you to pay taxes on that "forgiven" difference. For three, your credit will be (temporarily) ruined and it will be difficult to get a new apartment/mortgage/loan. So, owning an underwater house can be a big problem. Though, sometimes it is worth it to sell for a loss in exchange for freedom; within reason.
whileonebegin··on Fixing the Turn-based Strategy genre
I'm also a fan of the "energy" system in TBS. A recent game that used this method is Legend of Grimrock (really great game if you like old school). Also, the author mentioned Age of Wonders. That's another great game with a good turn-based system. AOW2 is coming out this year!
whileonebegin··on Show HN: 6 months ago I quit my job to pursue indie dev. Here is our first game
Nice game. Please post any monetary results, once you have some data. I thought making serious money from a game in the app store today is very difficult.
whileonebegin··on Shutting down my side project of two years
If you really want to sell, you need to improve your Flippa auction. Set your starting bid to $1. Set your reserve price to something realistic; in the low $100's. I know the site was your baby and you put a lot of effort into it, but buyers are mainly concerned with if the site is currently making money or if it has a high ranking and gets a ton of traffic. Your site is a PR-2 and has no income, so that's a factor. Reduce the auction time-length to 5 or 7 days. You'll get most bids in the final 24 hours. That's how you move a site. :)
whileonebegin··on Russian meteor largest in a century
Isn't it quite a coincidence that the largest meteor impact since 1908 occurs just hours before the closest fly-by of a large asteroid in 100 years? Yet, NASA claims these two are unrelated.
whileonebegin··on Computers I have known
Nice nostalgia. Now, where is my 100-core CPU?
whileonebegin··on Meeteor.com Has Shut Down - Post Mortem
Did you make any money at all?
whileonebegin··on Intelligence Council Predicts 3D Printed Organs, Megacities, Brain Chips by 2030
If you enjoy these kind of brain modification technologies, check out the book The Brain That Changes Itself, which discusses neural plasticity http://www.amazon.com/Brain-That-Changes-Itself-Frontiers/dp.... This is the science that led to the cochlear implant and may lead to other brain-interface devices.

Also, the part about biohacks and bio-weapons, reminded me of the movie Prometheus.

whileonebegin··on How I went from $100-an-hour programming to $X0,000-a-week consulting
I was thinking the same thing, even down to the sign-up form for the newsletter. Not that there's anything wrong with that, shoemoney has done quite well and his posts are usually quite good.
whileonebegin··on How I went from $100-an-hour programming to $X0,000-a-week consulting
The title is also a little confusing. It's not about making $XX,XXX per week programming. Rather, it's about marketing. I'm not sure the same rates would apply to developers becoming "consultants". I think it's something like this (two different tracks):

Web Site Developer => Marketing/SEO => Consultant => $XX,XXX OR Programmer => ISV => Product => $XX,XXX

whileonebegin··on How I automated the boring parts of life
That's kind of what sites like Service Magic (Home Advisor) try to solve. But, I think their biggest benefit is the user comments and reviews, not their service.

I prefer to just DIY. Then when it breaks again, at least you're empowered and know what happened.

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