alarge

7 ms·

1.
by alarge 1y ago
I think the problem here is the implication of the term "politics". We've been conditioned (at least in the US) to think of politics as a tribalistic "us vs. them" activity where interactions have winners and loser
2.
by alarge 2y ago
No, your manager doesn't decide your promotion. The difference between before and now is that before, your manager was expected to make the case for your promotion. Now, the manager is expected not to be an advocate, but to provide
3.
by alarge 2y ago
Lest anyone draw the conclusion that this is a US thing, it certainly is not. I've lived in many places throughout the US and have never heard anyone say "three or two". Nor does "two or three" carry the connotati
4.
by alarge 3y ago
This is so cool! And I'm dismayed that you have been subjected to the typical Hacker News cynicism. By looking through some of your other project and interests, I can see that you likely have a healthy sense of your own capabilities an
5.
by alarge 3y ago
When I first entered this field in the 80s, there was a rivalry between vi users (as I was) and emacs users. There was so much about emacs that I couldn't stand, but I'll admit to quite a bit of envy as well. Then, some time aroun
6.
by alarge 3y ago
Roughly 10 years ago, I was working for a startup that offered a live conversational video service where you could also have hundreds (or eventually, thousands) of near-live watchers - with recording and later playback. The founder pitched
7.
by alarge 3y ago
When I started college, all of our classes would assign a temporary (semester-long) account on one of the various Vax 11/780s supplied by the computing center. Talk wasn't available yet (pretty sure we were on 4.1 BSD), so we&#x27
8.
by alarge 4y ago
There is no way that New York style pizza can be compared to Focaccia. They have almost nothing in common. Now that Chicago thing, maybe. But as far as I'm concerned, that's not pizza.
9.
by alarge 4y ago
I don't think this is a "SV techbro" thing. In the 80s (when I was in college), "hacker" had a connotation of someone who built cool things in software, usually outside the "normal" approach. It was sort
10.
by alarge 4y ago
Atherton is a bit of a weird case and seems to derive its land values almost exclusively from lot size (and maybe inertia?). The peninsula in general tends towards low density and high property values and Atherton is just really on one end
11.
by alarge 5y ago
The philosophy at Google is that the hiring bar is high enough that anyone who passes it should theoretically be able to fill any open position at their level. This is somewhat less true for higher levels, but it is also much harder to pas
12.
by alarge 5y ago
I'll take a slightly more nuanced position than a peer poster and say this is "mostly wrong" and somewhat backwards. (I've been out of this area for a few years, so my perspective might be a little dated, but I doubt it
13.
by alarge 5y ago
I'm obviously not Doreen, but I was a military brat and military myself and can relate some of what I saw. First off, there's a sense of impermanence to everything. Your best friend is often someone you will only know for ~3 yea
14.
by alarge 6y ago
The issue isn't whether or not your character encoding is always a multiple of 8 bits. It is whether or not you can use standard (octet-focused) parsing functions to deal with those strings. This is what makes utf-8 "special&quo
15.
by alarge 6y ago
The comment about the 90's is simply not true. I've been a successful (e.g., getting paid) developer since the 80s and have never been in the Microsoft stack. With the exception of a small bit of VMS-hosted development in the 8
16.
by alarge 6y ago
You've already been voted down, so not sure how much I'd add to this, but... Wanting to have an office outside the home doesn't mean you are trying to escape - it means you are trying to establish the conditions for maximizin
17.
by alarge 7y ago
Chiming in here to agree with the others. In particular, finding simple, understandable solutions to complex problems is highly valued at Google. Complex solutions are an anti-pattern. And the comment about readability and testability
18.
by alarge 7y ago
I also had a cat that went absolutely bananas for (especially ripe) cantaloupe. She could smell it across the house, would aggressively beg for it, and would purr the whole time she was eating it.
19.
by alarge 7y ago
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ogre_(game)
20.
by alarge 8y ago
Not sure I understand your point here. You need to use your password manager credentials to autofill also (at least for 1Password). The only reason to copy/paste is if you don't think your password manager will put the right inf
21.
by alarge 8y ago
In addition to books others have already mentioned, I'd put "Lies My Teacher Told Me: Everything Your American History Textbook Got Wrong". It made me understand just how much of what I was raised believing about the history
22.
by alarge 8y ago
Counter-example: I went to a state university, graduating with a degree in Computer Engineering in '89. I've had a number of jobs over the years - several startups, but also roles at Sun Microsystems, Yahoo!, and (currently) Goog
23.
by alarge 8y ago
Imagine a situation where a company is routinely misbehaving towards its employees. What are the tools that can be brought to bear to change a company's behavior? 1. Government regulation 2. Union representation 3. The threat
24.
by alarge 8y ago
Are you asking about diversity of race only? Or diversity in general? The argument is that a more diverse student body creates a better educational environment for everyone - it broadens the experience. In addition to your academic studi
25.
by alarge 8y ago
I don't know that it's just the procurement strategies to blame. Many years ago, I was asked to bring a command and control system into (Orange Book) C2 compliance. Among the things I introduced were personal user accounts wit
26.
by alarge 8y ago
I'm not sure I follow your logic. First off, he didn't say that Republicans are reprehensible. He said that voting for a Republican implies that you are voting for a lot of reprehensible stuff (by proxy through your Republican r
27.
by alarge 8y ago
My military experience was in the Air Force rather than the Army, but I'm pretty sure there's crossover in this case. It sure appears to me like your opinion is informed by shallow media depictions rather than reality. You seem t
28.
by alarge 8y ago
I have what (may be?) a counter-example. I'm a moderately accomplished amateur musician. I play the trumpet in an orchestra and sing in a chorus. Both the orchestra and the chorus consist primarily of amateurs. The director of the c
29.
by alarge 10y ago
To be a little pedantic here, the numbers quoted here are San Francisco numbers, not "Bay Area" numbers. With just a quick check, I found considerably cheaper commercial lease rates in Mountain View.
30.
by alarge 10y ago
I haven't used nvi in many years, but for me, vim is much more than just the vi key bindings. Absolutely core features for me include folding and the various syntax-related features (filetype identification, syntax highlighting, filet

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