Hacker News: LurkerAbove

New comment by LurkerAbove in "Ask HN: What are you working on? (May 2026)"

LurkerAbove — Mon, 11 May 2026 12:38:43 +0000

I had an idea about explaining ML predictions without direct access to the data or the model: provide basic stats about your data, use them to generate synthetic data, then train a surrogate to predict your model's predictions on the synthetic data.

Could be handy for model risk management and governance, e.g. if you need a challenger model for SR 11-7 without all the hassle of getting access to the original data, getting the black box model set up, and so on. I wrote it because I remember having to create "throwaway" models to show why I needed a better model; it would have been nice to just make a couple of API calls instead.

SDK: https://github.com/proxyml/proxyml-sdk-python

Schema builder: https://github.com/proxyml/schema-builder

Landing page: https://proxyml.ai/

New comment by LurkerAbove in "Banks scramble to fix old systems as IT 'cowboys' ride into sunset"

LurkerAbove — Tue, 11 Apr 2017 17:50:26 +0000

I had a recruiter contact me about a COBOL --> Java project a couple of weeks ago. I don't remember the $100/hour part though, seems like that would've stuck with me!

New comment by LurkerAbove in "Why Are Ultrasound Machines So Expensive?"

LurkerAbove — Wed, 21 Dec 2016 20:07:13 +0000

I don't have experience with medical ultrasound, but I have built a few basic ultrasonic systems around a PC or a single board computer for structural testing applications. If you're not doing phased array ultrasonics you can build a system for under $1000USD, possibly less if you can use PVDF instead of PZT. The expensive part is the software.

New comment by LurkerAbove in "Quit Social Media, Your Career May Depend on It"

LurkerAbove — Sun, 20 Nov 2016 14:35:05 +0000

I've recently started reading the dead tree version of the newspaper and I've noticed that only do I seem to retain more of what I've read vs. reading the electronic version, for me it's something along the lines of a focus exercise. It really feels like it's clearing out the cobwebs.

New comment by LurkerAbove in "Sputtering Startups Weigh on U.S. Economic Growth"

LurkerAbove — Mon, 24 Oct 2016 18:41:11 +0000

If SEP IRAs as mentioned above aren't an option, HSAs might be worth considering - after 65 they aren't restricted to medical expenses. I-bonds might be an interesting component for future retirement as well.

New comment by LurkerAbove in "Ask HN: Experiences with the free GitLab account vs. competitors?"

LurkerAbove — Mon, 24 Oct 2016 12:24:48 +0000

Page loads on GL.com can take a while, but I wouldn't say that I've found the actual pull/push cycle to be slow per se. I'd describe it more like "measurable."

New comment by LurkerAbove in "Ask HN: Experiences with the free GitLab account vs. competitors?"

LurkerAbove — Mon, 24 Oct 2016 11:49:49 +0000

I used to more or less alternate between Github and Bitbucket but I've been using GitLab exclusively for the past six months. So far it's been a mostly painless transition. I've only had one hiccup, I had an IP banned for an hour or so but that's more Netbeans' fault than GitLab's .

New comment by LurkerAbove in "JDK 9 release schedule"

LurkerAbove — Tue, 18 Oct 2016 18:58:15 +0000

Earlier this year I was working with an outfit that was on Java 4 for A Really Important Business Application. That said, they were looking at moving to IIRC 7 just as I was leaving.