Hacker News: ScalaFan

New comment by ScalaFan in "Lilium achieves first main wing transition for all-electric aircraft [video]"

ScalaFan — Mon, 13 Jun 2022 14:04:15 +0000

Any idea how reliable electric motors/systems are compared to fossil fuel systems (primarily piston driven as opposed to jets)?

New comment by ScalaFan in "Tech Salaries in 2022: Why the Six Figure Pay Makes Techies Feel Underpaid"

ScalaFan — Wed, 11 May 2022 19:51:57 +0000

Going overseas also carries risk. It could be something as irritating as just cultural or language friction or as bad as a civil disturbance or war breaking out.

Never mind just the quality of workers available for the price you have set as the threshold.

New comment by ScalaFan in "Google developing own CPUs for Chromebook laptops"

ScalaFan — Sat, 02 Oct 2021 23:45:11 +0000

Anyone remember the Motorola families of chips? 68xxx and 88xxx.

New comment by ScalaFan in "Comparing SARS-CoV-2 natural immunity to vaccine-induced immunity [pdf]"

ScalaFan — Wed, 25 Aug 2021 22:30:13 +0000

It is easy to stand at a distance and claim that it would be immoral to give booster shots when many countries don't have enough first shots. However, they (WHO) are ignoring the realities of the logistics problems that these countries have in distributing and shipping these vaccines that have stringent storage and utilization requirements. Those countries need to fix their medical distribution systems first to handle the volumes that are really needed for the vaccines that they have access to.

New comment by ScalaFan in "Has UML died without anyone noticing?"

ScalaFan — Sun, 25 Apr 2021 22:09:16 +0000

It would have been sad if we had given up on AI/ML ideas due to the failure of AI back in the 80s/early 90s. See: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fifth_generation_computer

New comment by ScalaFan in "Man fined for sharing a Facebook link ruled as defamation in Singapore"

ScalaFan — Wed, 14 Apr 2021 18:33:11 +0000

in a private facebook group!

New comment by ScalaFan in "“Really successful people say no to almost everything”"

ScalaFan — Sat, 03 Oct 2020 14:42:30 +0000

Sounds like these may be multiple startup opportunities - one for each industry or mode of dealing with businesses.

Of course, those businesses that are reasonable or customer-centric are less likely to make these kinds of choices.

New comment by ScalaFan in "The case of a maid who battled a millionaire has gripped Singapore"

ScalaFan — Wed, 23 Sep 2020 12:12:56 +0000

This is well understood and as like the rich and powerful in many places do, thought that the rules and laws do not apply to them and their maid (Parti) was too afraid to report them to the government.

In this case, they thought incorrectly and have been caught, exposed and worse.

However, I doubt that true justice (as in legal punishment of some sort) will ever be meted out to the rich and powerful family.

New comment by ScalaFan in "Lee Kuan Yew's Singapore"

ScalaFan — Sun, 06 Sep 2020 02:43:01 +0000

The playing field is nowhere close to being level.

https://thediplomat.com/2015/02/soft-repression-the-struggle...

For more info: https://sg.news.yahoo.com/dispute-pm-lee-hsien-loong-not-mer...

No privacy either: https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-singapore-crime-li/singapo...

New comment by ScalaFan in "Microsoft President: We Need a Hippocratic Oath for Software Engineers"

ScalaFan — Mon, 10 Aug 2020 14:30:08 +0000

The key to lawyers and doctors losing their licenses to practice is that they have professional bodies that will police/enforce the rules. However, they also have a monopoly to provide those services.

I suspect corporations don't want limit software engineers to those with licenses only as there would be less of them available and costs of said licensed software engineers would increase.

New comment by ScalaFan in "Don’t shoot the dogs: The growing epidemic of cops shooting family dogs"

ScalaFan — Thu, 02 Jul 2020 22:47:25 +0000

It is interesting that PETA doesn't seem to say very much about this. Does any organization?

New comment by ScalaFan in "Opinions I have formed about the “geospatial industry”"

ScalaFan — Tue, 23 Jun 2020 15:14:18 +0000

What does FOSS GIS software have to do in order to compete against ESRI? Or which packages have the best chance to?

For example, few consider going with Oracle anymore now that you have PostgreSQL but that took a long time. So, looking perhaps as far as 10 years, which FOSS GIS software might even have a shot to start displacing ESRI in the future?

New comment by ScalaFan in "Executive order expected to suspend H-1B, other visas until end of year"

ScalaFan — Sun, 21 Jun 2020 17:04:20 +0000

Tech labor has historically cheaper than in the US. It would have been nice to see more Canadian tech success stories at 1/10 the number that have occurred in SV alone. There must be some other variables that explain the difference.

New comment by ScalaFan in "U.S. mulls paying companies, tax breaks to pull supply chains from China"

ScalaFan — Wed, 20 May 2020 16:01:48 +0000

All corporations should follow the idea of not putting all their eggs in one basket even if that is the cheapest/best idea if you want to over-optimize.

In IT, we have backup plans, we have backup locations and resources and yes it costs money to keep such options available. Global companies need backup countries and suppliers that can supply what they need should something happen to the main supplier/country. It doesn't have to be full equivalents in capacity but should be possible to scale eventually.

Having backups and alternatives reduces the likelihood and effectiveness of explicit threats by your main location.

New comment by ScalaFan in "Ask HN: How does your company approach hiring diversity?"

ScalaFan — Wed, 12 Feb 2020 23:21:09 +0000

On the other hand, a law could be passed where all large companies have to report on diversity hiring numbers so that the general public would know what the current reality is like.

New comment by ScalaFan in "Pioneers vs. Process People"

ScalaFan — Sun, 02 Feb 2020 22:51:34 +0000

Corollary to this is when a business is so mature that they decide to no longer take risks (or higher risk) by designing a new product, or go after a new market or go for the next disruptive change that is valid. Instead they go after reliability based on exploiting a current product or resource or asset and optimize the product or process to extract out yet even more value. The latter is always viewed as safer and more predictable than the former. The truth is to recognize that that is what is happening and accepting that in the long run, the latter will not produce sustainable growth.

New comment by ScalaFan in "Many Strategies Fail Because They’re Not Strategies (2017)"

ScalaFan — Sat, 14 Dec 2019 03:41:41 +0000

And yet when you ask a chess player whether the situation has a tactic or a strategy in it (in some cases both), they can tell you which choice is a tactic and which is a strategy. Tactics are so well recognized that you can practice them: https://www.chess.com/puzzles/rated

New comment by ScalaFan in "Many Strategies Fail Because They’re Not Strategies (2017)"

ScalaFan — Fri, 13 Dec 2019 20:27:41 +0000

Here is an example within the world of chess:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chess#Strategy_and_tactics

They are very well understood and delineated within that context.

New comment by ScalaFan in "Why Taxpayers Pay McKinsey $3M a Year for a Recent College Graduate Contractor"

ScalaFan — Thu, 05 Dec 2019 21:46:32 +0000

Their loss. Your new employer's gain.

New comment by ScalaFan in "The Case Against Boeing"

ScalaFan — Sat, 16 Nov 2019 20:08:06 +0000

Certain items just have a danger level that requires an elevated sense of responsibility and awareness and I don't just mean firearms. Workshop tools like power saws or table saws need to be handled with respect and care and those that cannot provide it should just not use them. Those that have worked in some kinds of environments know what I mean. Some factories or manufacturing places have lots of extra safety regulations. Those that have been in the military also know of dynamic and changing circumstances of their operating environment with all the specific equipment they use.

Even on a sailboat you need to be aware of the boom.