Hacker News: callingbull

New comment by callingbull in "Magic of software; what makes a good engineer also makes a good engineering org (2024)"

callingbull — Wed, 21 May 2025 05:42:52 +0000

Not a gamer, but it seems "highly rated" is a matter of attention and status, and the number would increase with the population not with the overall number of games.

New comment by callingbull in "AI killed the tech interview. Now what?"

callingbull — Fri, 21 Feb 2025 02:27:17 +0000

There is still the reputational risk of using selection methods with widely known disparate outcomes. Other methods also have disparate outcomes, but most of the criticism is directed at IQ tests. I've heard "IQ tests are culturally biased" but never "work sample tests are culturally biased", and I'll guess that's the experience of most hiring managers too.

New comment by callingbull in "AI killed the tech interview. Now what?"

callingbull — Fri, 21 Feb 2025 01:40:20 +0000

There are real risks for companies without deep pockets (for settlements or public relations). People I know, responsible for hiring, have told me they won't use IQ tests because of how it would come across, so the concern at least exists but how widespread is the question.

New comment by callingbull in "AI killed the tech interview. Now what?"

callingbull — Thu, 20 Feb 2025 23:19:31 +0000

Possibly legal and reputational risks, considering some groups do badly on IQ tests.

New comment by callingbull in "AI killed the tech interview. Now what?"

callingbull — Thu, 20 Feb 2025 23:18:31 +0000

Schmidt et al., 2016 The Validity and Utility of Selection Methods in Personnel Psychology: Practical and Theoretical Implications of 100 Years of Research Findings

New comment by callingbull in "AI killed the tech interview. Now what?"

callingbull — Thu, 20 Feb 2025 22:22:55 +0000

Nothing works well but IQ tests predict job performance better than anything else.

New comment by callingbull in "Smoot–Hawley Tariff Act"

callingbull — Sun, 02 Feb 2025 02:11:50 +0000

The actual answer is that congress has already authorized the president to set tariffs by executive order.

New comment by callingbull in "A visual proof that a^2 – b^2 = (a + b)(a – b)"

callingbull — Sun, 15 Dec 2024 19:54:00 +0000

Trying the proof with a < b, with the b square from the bottom-right as in the diagram, I get a region to the top and left, and moving a piece (differently to the diagram) I get (a + b)(b - a) as a positive area for that region, and then flip the sign because it's negative.

New comment by callingbull in "A visual proof that a^2 – b^2 = (a + b)(a – b)"

callingbull — Sun, 15 Dec 2024 19:27:27 +0000

> just swap the names

Then you've just skipped the case when a^2 - b^2 is negative. The diagram does not prove that case and swapping the names still doesn't prove it.

New comment by callingbull in "Gukesh becomes the youngest chess world champion in history"

callingbull — Fri, 13 Dec 2024 02:00:36 +0000

I've seen the same suggested of Sergey Karjakin, and he made it to the top (and I've seen it suggested that it helped him get to the top, that being a GM sooner got him more access to top trainers sooner).

New comment by callingbull in "Limbo: A complete rewrite of SQLite in Rust"

callingbull — Wed, 11 Dec 2024 03:20:59 +0000

They could have CC0 licensed the code or they could have said they would not enforce their copyright. They did neither. SQLite is closed source. The "dedication" (which has no legal effect, what does it even mean?) encourages widespread adoption and big players are spooked into paying for a license (or "warranty of title"). That's quite a strategy.

New comment by callingbull in "U.S. math scores drop on major international test"

callingbull — Wed, 11 Dec 2024 02:57:25 +0000

> Those two branches do live among Americans.

If you were not referring to extinct branches I don't know why you thought "they would likely represent two clusters" if they did not already in the clustering given.

> Afro-American people have the biggest genetic diversity in America and their genetic subgroups are so distinctive that they require separate testing in clinical studies.

Yes, and?

> I bet you won’t be able to tell the difference between them from their appearance though.

Maybe, and?

> Now good luck redefining the concept of race with this knowledge.

Good luck trying to deny biological race when you've just listed more evidence for it.

New comment by callingbull in "U.S. math scores drop on major international test"

callingbull — Wed, 11 Dec 2024 01:48:01 +0000

> We already know by now, that before going out of Africa at least two major genetic branches developed in addition to early Eurasians.

Nice of you to acknowledge genetics.

> At K=4 and clustering by genetic distance, they would likely represent two clusters while the rest of Africa would fall into one of remaining two.

I suppose they would.

> Not even close to what average American would understand.

The average American would understand if those two branches lived among us today. The value of science is to inform us of what is occurring now and to predict what will occur next, including the impact of immigration on test scores.

New comment by callingbull in "U.S. math scores drop on major international test"

callingbull — Wed, 11 Dec 2024 01:18:04 +0000

> The tragedy of American slavery is that it erased any links of slaves to Africa, so modern black Americans have barely any relationship to Africa, still carrying the pain but losing any cultural or ancestral connections.

I don't know why you deny genetics.

New comment by callingbull in "U.S. math scores drop on major international test"

callingbull — Tue, 10 Dec 2024 23:47:40 +0000

Races are also based on objective criteria: physical characteristics, which convey information about ancestry and genetics.

I don't know why you're talking about "culture"?

New comment by callingbull in "Limbo: A complete rewrite of SQLite in Rust"

callingbull — Tue, 10 Dec 2024 23:13:15 +0000

> They explicitly state, "Anyone is free to copy, modify, publish, use, compile, sell, or distribute the original SQLite code, either in source code form or as a compiled binary, for any purpose, commercial or non-commercial, and by any means."

It's not clear this is a license grant rather than legal advice (which would be correct legal advice if the code were public domain, but it is not).

New comment by callingbull in "Limbo: A complete rewrite of SQLite in Rust"

callingbull — Tue, 10 Dec 2024 22:53:54 +0000

> It's Public Domain.

Is it though? The website does say "All of the code and documentation in SQLite has been dedicated to the public domain by the authors" but copyright law has no exception for "dedications" to the public domain. At best the authors are estopped from bringing suit but even that is unclear.

New comment by callingbull in "U.S. math scores drop on major international test"

callingbull — Tue, 10 Dec 2024 22:30:11 +0000

> Races do not exist, it is a scientific fact.

Races do not exist in the same sense that the periodic table does not exist. Both are constructs over reality, and they are both informative (i.e. science).

New comment by callingbull in "What Will Enter the Public Domain in 2025?"

callingbull — Mon, 02 Dec 2024 00:58:32 +0000

> Copyright, at least in the U.S., is automatic.

It is now, but back then a work was public domain if released without a valid copyright notice.

Charade, a 1963 film, entered the public domain immediately on release.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charade_(1963_film)#Public-dom...

New comment by callingbull in "Testing for gender differences in Python programming style and quality on GitHub"

callingbull — Thu, 31 Oct 2024 03:38:21 +0000

> Is the wiki entry entirely wrong?

Yes. The reference it cites contradicts it: "The first algorithm intended to be executed by a computer was designed by Ada Lovelace" with a link to https://www.cs.virginia.edu/~robins/Ada_and_the_First_Comput... which says "Many people, for instance, incorrectly claim that Ada was the first computer programmer. (Babbage, not Ada, wrote the first programs for his Analytical Engine, although most were never published.)"