Hacker News: iamthemalto

New comment by iamthemalto in "Jane Street barred from Indian markets as regulator freezes $566M"

iamthemalto — Mon, 07 Jul 2025 17:27:56 +0000

Helpful comment, but it's also mildly amusing you picked one of the few agricultural underlyings you can't trade futures on (Onion Futures Act). Not sure if that was intentional or not!

New comment by iamthemalto in "Httptap: View HTTP/HTTPS requests made by any Linux program"

iamthemalto — Tue, 04 Feb 2025 07:13:46 +0000

Really appreciate the "How it works" section in the README. In general I think it's great when projects give a high-level overview of the architecture and techniques involved, it provides an easy way for a newcomer to quickly grasp the fundamental workings of the project.

New comment by iamthemalto in "Show HN: I convert videos to printed flipbooks for living"

iamthemalto — Tue, 04 Feb 2025 07:01:47 +0000

Obligatory link to infamous dropbox comment: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9224

New comment by iamthemalto in "I Like Makefiles"

iamthemalto — Sat, 21 Sep 2024 09:49:54 +0000

I understand this perspective if considering CMake in the past (i.e. pre 3.0 or so), but in my experience CMake today is much nicer (albeit definitely still not without its flaws). Specially for the points you mention:

* “Weird bugs”: I suspect CMake wasn’t finding the version of Python you wanted because your find_package command was just finding a different version first. This is much easier to debug today by using —-debug-find-pkg=Python, which will print all the places it searches Python for and what it finds. You can then modify your find_package invocation as appropriate to find the Python you really want to use.

* Messy structure: yes, unfortunately I’ve also seen my fair share of nightmare-inducing CMake files.

* Opaque process: here I actually quite disagree. In my experience I’ve found it super easy to modify things like compiler flags (just use target_compile_options, or add_compile_options for directory wide options). And what made a big difference was using Ninja as the generator (I also use Ninja on Windows), which makes it super easy to view the final compiler commands that will actually be invoked. CMake is essentially a compiler that emits Ninja on the backend, and several times it’s been invaluable to confirm in the generated Ninja code what is actually being invoked.

CMake is definitely not perfect, but it’s much better than what it used to be! It’s ultimately a perfect match for C++ (both extremely powerful, configurable, hamstrung with decades of backwards compatibility, terrible ergonomics, etc.).

New comment by iamthemalto in "All code is technical debt"

iamthemalto — Thu, 21 Dec 2023 05:35:02 +0000

I understand what you’re trying to say with this analogy, but even gold bars have related costs, known as the cost of carry.

New comment by iamthemalto in "I worked at LastPass as an engineer"

iamthemalto — Sun, 25 Dec 2022 16:38:33 +0000

Interesting, have your recommendations changed?

New comment by iamthemalto in "Ask HN: What HN post made you money?"

iamthemalto — Fri, 05 Aug 2022 13:31:56 +0000

Glad you seemed to have learned that you were playing with fire, since that could have easily left you with 65k in the red.

New comment by iamthemalto in "TypeScript as fast as Rust: TypeScript++"

iamthemalto — Sat, 09 Apr 2022 17:11:01 +0000

Interesting idea, but honestly that seems too far in the other direction. A midpoint between the two ends that optimizes both brevity and readability is probably ideal.

New comment by iamthemalto in "Lessons from a tech job search"

iamthemalto — Thu, 10 Mar 2022 10:07:46 +0000

I understand the ethical concerns when choosing to join a company, but I'm not quite sure I follow your reasoning regarding some of the specific companies you listed. Skeptical about Google and Meta, but not Microsoft, which also doesn't exactly have a clean name when it comes to questionable operating practices? Suspicious about Netflix, but JP Morgan seemingly flies under the radar?

The Dumbing-Down of Programming

iamthemalto — Sat, 19 Feb 2022 11:24:18 +0000

Article URL: https://www.salon.com/1998/05/12/feature_321/

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=30396270

Points: 18

# Comments: 2

New comment by iamthemalto in "Foundations of Computer Science"

iamthemalto — Fri, 28 Jan 2022 09:37:09 +0000

How about a compromise: theoretical computer science

New comment by iamthemalto in "Masterclass on mathematical thinking"

iamthemalto — Fri, 28 Jan 2022 09:34:35 +0000

Sure, if you're a full time youtuber already with years of experience knowing how to script, film, light, edit, do post production, etc. etc. etc.

A lot of these youtubers who put out fantastic videos do essentially all the same things as the Masterclass production crew, but just on a smaller scale. Countless hours are poured into producing these youtube videos that are maybe just as short as 10 minutes.

And even if Terrance Tao wants to make some infotainment, what's wrong with that?

New comment by iamthemalto in "How bad is my gas stove?"

iamthemalto — Sat, 15 Jan 2022 13:57:58 +0000

Well the gas feeling slower to bringing things to a boil is to be expected; induction is much much much quicker at boiling things (~10 mins on gas vs ~2-3 mins using induction).

Why Do Harvard Kids Head to Wall Street?

iamthemalto — Sat, 08 Jan 2022 11:10:32 +0000

Article URL: https://baselinescenario.com/2010/05/04/why-do-harvard-kids-head-to-wall-street/

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=29850589

Points: 5

# Comments: 0

Google's “Director of Engineering” Hiring Test

iamthemalto — Sat, 01 Jan 2022 16:54:04 +0000

Article URL: http://www.gwan.com/blog/20160405.html

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=29760190

Points: 144

# Comments: 68

New comment by iamthemalto in "My Path to Financial Independence as a Software Engineer"

iamthemalto — Mon, 27 Dec 2021 17:29:28 +0000

Hahaha I wish these numbers were quoted post-tax... unfortunately UK numbers are in my experience all quoted pre-tax, just like in the US. So yes, that £74,000 really is before ~22% tax (income tax + national insurance).

New comment by iamthemalto in "Blacksmith – Rowhammer bit flips on all DRAM devices today despite mitigations"

iamthemalto — Tue, 16 Nov 2021 11:12:11 +0000

I'm a CS student as well, curious what course taught you about ECC? Would be interested in such a course as well, the only course I can imagine teaching this is an information theory course (which my university doesn't offer).

Welcome to the Jungle Or, a Heterogeneous Supercomputer in Every Pocket

iamthemalto — Mon, 25 Oct 2021 12:18:14 +0000

Article URL: https://herbsutter.com/welcome-to-the-jungle/

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=28986930

Points: 1

# Comments: 0

New comment by iamthemalto in "Facebook-owned sites were down"

iamthemalto — Mon, 04 Oct 2021 18:46:13 +0000

Wow this really works, thank you. What actually is the reason for it being much faster in a private window? Is there so much tracking going on in a normal window?

New comment by iamthemalto in "FCC finally starts tackling America's robocall scourge"

iamthemalto — Wed, 14 Apr 2021 06:49:27 +0000

Interesting that seems to be an exclusively American problem (as far as I know). I’ve experienced exactly 0 robocalls in all the other countries I’ve lived. My friends and I are constantly astounded when our American friends complain about spam calls, it’s just unheard of here and everywhere else I’ve ever lived.