Hacker News: fhkatari

New comment by fhkatari in "US Immigration on the Easiest Setting"

fhkatari — Fri, 06 Feb 2026 12:33:04 +0000

I want to share a couple of stories of immigration.

1. Personal. In the aftermath of 9/11, a simple switch from F1 Student Visa to H1 work visa became a perfect Kafkaesque nightmare. The consulate denied the visa without giving a reason. After two months of non-response, my company reached out to the congressman's office. Apparently, the consulate wanted a copy of my transcript and they reached out to my university, but did not tell me that. The university would not release my transcript without my permission, but did not tell me that DHS was asking for it. It was an infinite loop that left me out.

2. In 2006-2007, I was consulting for Hormel Foods (this time with a legit green card). There was a raid at one of their plants, and I was talking to a couple of middle managers who commented how difficult the jobs are, and people only last for a short time. Only migrants are willing to do the job. I would later learn that meat packing jobs used to be unionized, and that put limits on the number of animals processed per shift. The deregulation of the eighties did away with unions and regulations, and created an untenable work situation. This can ONLY be done by disposable labor, which happens to be immigrants.

A simple solution to the immigration problem would be to arrest the CEO of the company employing illegals. Perhaps that will percolate down to the line level to make the jobs humane.

New comment by fhkatari in "Death rates rose in hospital ERs after private equity firms took over"

fhkatari — Thu, 25 Sep 2025 17:09:37 +0000

Here is a thought experiment, especially for people with pensions (unlikely on the HN comments board). PE's are being funded by pension funds. So, as a pensioner, maybe you get a slightly better return. However, the services you will need as a pensioner (hospital and nursing home care) are significantly degraded by private equity. Would it not be better if pension funds pulled out of PE entirely?

New comment by fhkatari in "Advertising without signal: The rise of the grifter equilibrium"

fhkatari — Sat, 19 Jul 2025 18:33:46 +0000

RFID is a possible solution. Tags are now about five cents, and likely to drop further in price with volume. Newer tag designs can be sewn in the seams of garments and shoes.

New comment by fhkatari in "My AI skeptic friends are all nuts"

fhkatari — Tue, 03 Jun 2025 10:35:58 +0000

This: "Important caveat: I’m discussing only the implications of LLMs for software development. For art, music, and writing? I got nothing. I’m inclined to believe the skeptics in those fields. I just don’t believe them about mine". I want to emphasize this. AI seems like a great 'first draft', but not a 'finished product'. In the hands of a programmer, a first draft is a great start. But pushing AI to frontline workers or customer support fails, as Klarna learned, because a first draft is not good enough.

New comment by fhkatari in "Getting AI to write good SQL"

fhkatari — Fri, 16 May 2025 22:45:39 +0000

You move all the tools to debug and inspect slow queries, in a completely unsupported JSON environment, with prompts not to make up column names. And this is progress?

New comment by fhkatari in "All BART trains were stopped due to ‘computer networking problem’"

fhkatari — Fri, 09 May 2025 14:54:33 +0000

I used to live in Oakland, and am really sad to see continued failures of BART. They had started significant expansions right before the pandemic, allowing a long (but no traffic) ride possible from Oakland to San Jose. A key challenge for BART is that they depend a lot more on ticket sales than subsidies, and as a result, have been hit much harder with lower ridership.

New comment by fhkatari in "Medicare Pays Different Prices for the Same Drug"

fhkatari — Tue, 26 Nov 2024 17:16:10 +0000

I recently learned that my neighbor works for Partners in Health (pih.org). They have built an open-source EMR, which they use in far-flung regions like Haiti. I suggested that they can maybe sell their software under commercial terms in the US, to subsidize their international work. Her comment was that EMR systems like Epic are actually a billing system, less a medical record system. The whole system has been built to be opaque.

New comment by fhkatari in "Jimmy Wales building a community-led and funded Reddit alternative"

fhkatari — Mon, 19 Jun 2023 21:41:51 +0000

I am surprised this is getting so little traction on HN. I posted a similar link.The page views just went past 1 million.

Jimmy Wales is building a new social network

fhkatari — Mon, 19 Jun 2023 21:38:19 +0000

Article URL: https://wts2.wt.social/en/faqs

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=36396801

Points: 4

# Comments: 2

New comment by fhkatari in "The Voyage of Life"

fhkatari — Sat, 26 Nov 2022 12:51:45 +0000

As a non-Christian, I highly recommend the writings of Franciscan priest Richard Rohr, and his metaphor of 'Two Halves of Lives'. The specific title of the book is 'Falling Upward'.

New comment by fhkatari in "Supreme Court Overturns Roe vs. Wade"

fhkatari — Fri, 24 Jun 2022 14:45:40 +0000

I work for a company, headquartered in the Mid West, that has been very public in their support of LGBTQ rights, among other things. Do you think corporations should take a public stance in support of abortion rights? Will tech companies continue to flock to Texas, in what will become a very difficult environment for abortion?

New comment by fhkatari in "Ask HN: What book changed your life?"

fhkatari — Sat, 19 Mar 2022 16:54:47 +0000

Factfulness by Hans Rosling

New comment by fhkatari in "People Who Do Not Exist Invade Facebook"

fhkatari — Fri, 20 Dec 2019 23:05:11 +0000

I was forwarded Sacha Baron Cohen's facebook critique (https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2019/nov/22/sacha-bar...) by a friend, as an argument to outlaw facebook. I brought up how Bush swiftboated Kerry and won the election. Media has always been used as a political weapon, it seems. Is FB much worse?

New comment by fhkatari in "40% of Americans can't cover a $400 emergency expense"

fhkatari — Tue, 22 May 2018 22:51:58 +0000

Not sure why you got downvoted. Upvoted

New comment by fhkatari in "Time to Take a Stand"

fhkatari — Sat, 28 Jan 2017 19:59:03 +0000

This strikes a personal chord. Shortly after 9/11, I had taken a short trip back to India. I was transitioning from a student to work visa, and got held up indefinitely by the US consulate. It was a grueling experience, but what I remember most is how my employer stood by me. They contacted our local congressman, kept me employed, and even paid me for the time I could not work (two months), at a time when they were a struggling start-up. I know I am not the only immigrant who has experienced the incredible generosity of this country. For beneficiaries like us, it is all the more important to speak up, and take actions to welcome and support the next generation that wants a shot at the American Dream.