Hacker News: I_AM_A_SMURF

New comment by I_AM_A_SMURF in "WebUSB Extension for Firefox"

I_AM_A_SMURF — Tue, 21 Apr 2026 07:15:33 +0000

You can also flash Android from the browser: https://flash.android.com/.

New comment by I_AM_A_SMURF in "How I Left YouTube"

I_AM_A_SMURF — Thu, 25 Dec 2025 07:39:55 +0000

In my experience, by the time you get to do a full round interview your chances are pretty high, about 50% in big tech.

New comment by I_AM_A_SMURF in "How I Left YouTube"

I_AM_A_SMURF — Thu, 25 Dec 2025 07:35:11 +0000

E6 -> E7 at Meta is $1M (which sounds a little bit crazy tbh). Google L6 -> L7 is 300k, but their numbers look smaller than what I'm privy too. A generic Level 6 to 7 (staff to senior staff) promotion can easily be $500k at a tech company.

New comment by I_AM_A_SMURF in "What makes you senior"

I_AM_A_SMURF — Wed, 24 Dec 2025 07:11:56 +0000

Hardly. Senior at Amazon is pretty prestigious. A Senior at Google is also a pretty nice title. In my experience smaller companies are more likely to give out the Senior title like it's nothing.

New comment by I_AM_A_SMURF in "What makes you senior"

I_AM_A_SMURF — Wed, 24 Dec 2025 07:03:40 +0000

talk to their manager. If their manager doesn't respond you go to your manager or the manager's manager.

New comment by I_AM_A_SMURF in "What makes you senior"

I_AM_A_SMURF — Wed, 24 Dec 2025 07:01:56 +0000

For sure, a staff engineer asking lots of question is "disambiguating" a junior engineer asking a lot of questions is asking somebody else to figure out his/her project. Which is kinda true in a sense, you don't give a super-vague project to an engineer who's just starting up for a reason.

New comment by I_AM_A_SMURF in "Raccoons are showing early signs of domestication"

I_AM_A_SMURF — Tue, 18 Nov 2025 06:30:38 +0000

We're programmed to take care of (human) babies. That's pretty fundamental to our species survival.

Those features activates the same areas of our brain that babies' faces activate.

Feeling that something is "cute" is the evolutionary way that our brain is using to make us care of our kids.

New comment by I_AM_A_SMURF in "Minecraft removing obfuscation in Java Edition"

I_AM_A_SMURF — Thu, 30 Oct 2025 05:20:20 +0000

TBF sales didn't start dying

New comment by I_AM_A_SMURF in "Apple M5 chip"

I_AM_A_SMURF — Thu, 16 Oct 2025 06:10:15 +0000

Lately AI = LLM (at least in popular culture).

New comment by I_AM_A_SMURF in "Why your outdoorsy friend suddenly has a gummy bear power bank"

I_AM_A_SMURF — Mon, 22 Sep 2025 02:20:08 +0000

Zoom on medium format? what's the point?

New comment by I_AM_A_SMURF in "Nest 1st gen and 2nd gen thermostats no longer supported from Oct 25"

I_AM_A_SMURF — Sat, 06 Sep 2025 04:36:09 +0000

> It would maybe cost an engineer at Nest/Ecobee a day or two of work

I think you misspelled a _year_ or two of work. Especially with the scrutiny that comes with software written at a major corp like Google.

New comment by I_AM_A_SMURF in "Mozilla to shut down Pocket and Fakespot"

I_AM_A_SMURF — Fri, 23 May 2025 05:50:45 +0000

Last I checked they have some money from the Yahoo settlement. But nowhere near something they can use to operate in perpetuity.

New comment by I_AM_A_SMURF in "Rust’s dependencies are starting to worry me"

I_AM_A_SMURF — Sat, 10 May 2025 02:55:43 +0000

I've never seen a place that does it quite like Google. Is there one? It only works if you have one product or are a giant company as it's really expensive to do.

Being able to change a dependency very deep and recompile the entire thing is just magic though. I don't know if I can ever go back from that.

New comment by I_AM_A_SMURF in "June Huh dropped out to become a poet, now he’s won a Fields Medal (2022)"

I_AM_A_SMURF — Thu, 08 May 2025 05:39:02 +0000

The US Health Insurance system is specifically used to keep working class people (and most middle class) at work. You can't really go without a job here.

New comment by I_AM_A_SMURF in "Supreme Court upholds TikTok ban, but Trump might offer lifeline"

I_AM_A_SMURF — Sat, 18 Jan 2025 08:17:39 +0000

In fact, I think it makes the goverment's argument even stronger. Would we allow the NYT to fall in the hands of the CCP? I'd say no way, congress would act way before that's even possible.

New comment by I_AM_A_SMURF in "TikTok preparing for U.S. shut-off on Sunday"

I_AM_A_SMURF — Wed, 15 Jan 2025 17:38:24 +0000

We certainly _do_ want this. I think the fact that we let a foreign company own a social media platform in the first place is preposterous. As others have said, we would never let the CCP own a TV broadcast, why should we let china own a major social media platform? That's just absurd.

New comment by I_AM_A_SMURF in "Disappointed with the TVs at CES 2025"

I_AM_A_SMURF — Fri, 10 Jan 2025 04:13:09 +0000

Yeah that's what I was thinking too while reading the article. For a tech-focused person, sure, input switching might me obvious. But to a lot of people having only active and valid inputs being selectable might be the best solution.

New comment by I_AM_A_SMURF in "Zildjian, a 400-year-old cymbal-making company in Massachusetts"

I_AM_A_SMURF — Thu, 02 Jan 2025 21:50:29 +0000

I think here under the radar means that locals didn't know the factory was there, not that Zildjian is an unknown brand, it even goes on to say

> Even in Massachusetts many people have no idea an industrial factory outside of Boston designs, casts, blasts, rolls, hammers, buffs and tests at least a million Zildjian cymbals each year.

New comment by I_AM_A_SMURF in "Grim Fandango"

I_AM_A_SMURF — Sun, 10 Nov 2024 06:56:43 +0000

Heh. Resident Evil 1 feels like a (well designed) escape room.

New comment by I_AM_A_SMURF in "I quit Google to work for myself (2018)"

I_AM_A_SMURF — Sat, 09 Nov 2024 07:22:15 +0000

I thought once I reached Staff at Google it would go away. It in fact made it even worse now that I have a whole slate of incredible peers to compare myself to.