Hacker News: genwin

New comment by genwin in "Show HN: Opinionated Dress Color Simulation"

genwin — Sat, 28 Feb 2015 03:10:44 +0000

Thanks for explaining. I question my sanity when I see lots of comments and can't tell what's so exciting about a black & blue dress you can change the lighting for.

New comment by genwin in "How My Mom Got Hacked"

genwin — Sun, 04 Jan 2015 18:56:54 +0000

The guilty parties (where known) are local heroes. The US has a bad reputation in much of the world.

New comment by genwin in "F-35 stealth jet 'will not be able to fire its guns until 2019'"

genwin — Fri, 02 Jan 2015 21:18:19 +0000

> It really seems like they're throwing good money after bad.

When making rich people richer is the primary goal, it all makes sense.

New comment by genwin in "Japan records lowest number of births on record as population shrinks"

genwin — Thu, 01 Jan 2015 20:39:42 +0000

They should default. A few years later the investors will be back the same as before.

New comment by genwin in "In Seattle, a Sinking Feeling About a Troubled Tunnel"

genwin — Wed, 10 Dec 2014 21:14:27 +0000

And likely forevermore too. $10 to cross the lake round trip, increasing faster than inflation.

New comment by genwin in "In Seattle, a Sinking Feeling About a Troubled Tunnel"

genwin — Wed, 10 Dec 2014 21:08:30 +0000

A $5 billion cost overrun is a decent possibility. That's about $20K for every worker in Seattle.

New comment by genwin in "In Seattle, a Sinking Feeling About a Troubled Tunnel"

genwin — Wed, 10 Dec 2014 20:57:37 +0000

For a 1 bedroom? Wow, guess I'm out of the loop on that.

New comment by genwin in "In Seattle, a Sinking Feeling About a Troubled Tunnel"

genwin — Wed, 10 Dec 2014 20:52:50 +0000

I didn't support a surface street because it would have stop lights, in which case it wouldn't begin to replace the viaduct. (For some reason the US can't have Germany-style streets that dip below cross streets.)

> The whole thing always had the feel of a land grab for real estate developers, too.

Yep. A quote from the NYT article:

> “They’re talking about greenbelts and all that, but I think it’s a bunch of baloney,” he said. “I think it’s going to be all condominiums.”

I agree, the project is mainly about $700K 1-bedroom condos.

New comment by genwin in "In Seattle, a Sinking Feeling About a Troubled Tunnel"

genwin — Wed, 10 Dec 2014 19:55:29 +0000

It could hardly have been more obvious that the cut and cover option (trench with a lid "tunnel") was the best choice for the public.

New comment by genwin in "After Threatening Hacker with 440 Years, Prosecutors Settle for a Misdemeanor"

genwin — Wed, 26 Nov 2014 19:17:24 +0000

Which isn't worth much in some states, like Texas.

New comment by genwin in "After Threatening Hacker with 440 Years, Prosecutors Settle for a Misdemeanor"

genwin — Wed, 26 Nov 2014 19:16:19 +0000

And if it goes to trial, the jury's likely to think in terms of compromising on the multitude of charges (rather than outright rejection), in which case the defendant still goes to prison for many years.

New comment by genwin in "Introducing Driver Destination"

genwin — Tue, 25 Nov 2014 22:04:15 +0000

That's a nice chunk but insufficient nowadays. (The 24-year old in that article might've been able to make several $million in his remaining career.) The Lyft driver could still end up on the hook.

New comment by genwin in "Spooky Alignment of Quasars Across Billions of Light-years"

genwin — Thu, 20 Nov 2014 18:54:08 +0000

Why would it? If you enlarge the scale and find that the principle applies, it's useful.

New comment by genwin in "Spooky Alignment of Quasars Across Billions of Light-years"

genwin — Thu, 20 Nov 2014 18:52:12 +0000

You never get outside the universe, if it's infinitely large (and there's no evidence to the contrary).

New comment by genwin in "Spooky Alignment of Quasars Across Billions of Light-years"

genwin — Thu, 20 Nov 2014 03:44:58 +0000

The principle is meant to apply only at a sufficiently large scale. If any particular scale goes against the principle, one can enlarge the scale to see if the principle still applies.

New comment by genwin in "Letter to Amazon Board from Fired Ad Exec"

genwin — Fri, 14 Nov 2014 01:26:19 +0000

Devil's advocate: She may be as high as she is because of those false credentials, and Amazon might keep her because she's profitable. Falsifying credentials may have a greater average benefit/cost than actually getting the degree.

IMO it isn't more unethical than what big businesses typically do, like take advantage of unfair tax loopholes. Someone else pointed out that requiring a degree is illegal; if so, I'd say it's ethical for people to lie about their credentials when businesses engage in unlawful behavior by screening for them.

New comment by genwin in "F# 4.0 Preview"

genwin — Thu, 13 Nov 2014 15:29:19 +0000

Good thinking to be considering the demand. Why not a remote job? Also consider the trend. There's a site that ranks language popularity on a periodic basis.

New comment by genwin in "Letter to Amazon Board from Fired Ad Exec"

genwin — Thu, 13 Nov 2014 15:15:15 +0000

Degrees are only HR filters. Businesses often care more about profit than principles, so many of them don't care about lies that don't lower profits.

New comment by genwin in "Why College Is a Poor Choice for a Lot of People"

genwin — Wed, 12 Nov 2014 18:30:20 +0000

Work teaching is generally efficient. If you're told anything at all, that is; more often you have to ask if you can't figure it out yourself. You can say "I got it, I'll take it from here" and people are happy to hear it. School teaching is generally the opposite.

My bosses always want me to figure out how the algorithm works, while fixing it!

New comment by genwin in "Why College Is a Poor Choice for a Lot of People"

genwin — Wed, 12 Nov 2014 17:18:54 +0000

For some, there's a stronger argument against college: you mentally can't abide being taught. Those people need to learn on their own, and for software development there's little reason they shouldn't.