Hacker News: jiggy2011

New comment by jiggy2011 in "Facebook Sued Alleging Sex Discrimination, Harassment, Other Charges"

jiggy2011 — Wed, 18 Mar 2015 18:39:48 +0000

In a country with statutory maternity leave the maximum maternity period is much longer than the average holiday (The UK allows up to a full year). So you have to fill the gap by hiring another developer with the same skills who is happy to work on a temporary contract which might be more difficult and expensive than finding someone seeking a permanent position especially if you require rare skills.

Industries where skills and certifications are more standarised don't seem to have this problem.

New comment by jiggy2011 in "Silicon Valley doesn't create jobs; it's wiping out middle-class jobs"

jiggy2011 — Wed, 18 Mar 2015 17:47:35 +0000

The concern is about what happens to people who are no longer employable if we cannot create new jobs for them? Will everyone be happy when a majority of the population depends entirely on charity and hand outs?

New comment by jiggy2011 in "I was a professor at four universities. I still couldn’t make ends meet"

jiggy2011 — Mon, 09 Mar 2015 00:58:34 +0000

In the UK increases in tuition fees (by up to 3x) has had no effect on the diversity of university applicants. This is because repayments are income linked (and have an income floor) so that a graduate on a low income makes no repayments at all. Only those who earn a large salary will make significant repayments.

If tuition is funded by the government then this will force those without a university education to subsidise those who do go to university. Also university places would have to be limited to control costs.

New comment by jiggy2011 in "I was a professor at four universities. I still couldn’t make ends meet"

jiggy2011 — Sun, 08 Mar 2015 23:45:37 +0000

That's a problem caused by people making poor choices rather than a problem with loan financing.

New comment by jiggy2011 in "I was a professor at four universities. I still couldn’t make ends meet"

jiggy2011 — Sun, 08 Mar 2015 22:58:10 +0000

The student loan system allows more people from every social class to go to university and join the middle class. Loan repayments are linked to income after graduation so nobody has to pay back more than they can afford.

New comment by jiggy2011 in "Ten million people around the world have no nationality"

jiggy2011 — Wed, 04 Mar 2015 21:07:56 +0000

The problem is "brain drain". Educated people with in demand skills move to places where they can get the best compensation leaving behind people who are either retired or poor.

New comment by jiggy2011 in "An $89 remanufactured Ubuntu workstation"

jiggy2011 — Mon, 02 Mar 2015 16:48:08 +0000

That depends on how much time it spends powered up. Someone in the market for a PC this cheap is probably not a heavy computer user.

New comment by jiggy2011 in "An $89 remanufactured Ubuntu workstation"

jiggy2011 — Mon, 02 Mar 2015 16:21:11 +0000

x86 still has more software available and the option to run Windows.

New comment by jiggy2011 in "Internships Abroad: Unpaid, with a $10,000 Price Tag"

jiggy2011 — Fri, 06 Feb 2015 20:00:35 +0000

What is the incentive for employers to do this?

New comment by jiggy2011 in "Techies Who Are Homeschooling Their Kids"

jiggy2011 — Thu, 05 Feb 2015 15:08:52 +0000

A cargo cult understanding is probably superior to no understanding because science operates at different levels of abstraction. Most programmers have a cargo cult understanding of hardware for example.

New comment by jiggy2011 in "Techies Who Are Homeschooling Their Kids"

jiggy2011 — Thu, 05 Feb 2015 13:56:15 +0000

Can you study "real science" without knowing the basic facts about atoms, elements/compounds and cells?

New comment by jiggy2011 in "Techies Who Are Homeschooling Their Kids"

jiggy2011 — Thu, 05 Feb 2015 13:34:03 +0000

A car with a 2% failure rate would break down on average once every 50 years. How many cars from 1965 are still running today?

New comment by jiggy2011 in "CoreCLR is now open source"

jiggy2011 — Tue, 03 Feb 2015 19:26:11 +0000

Large enterprises would continue to pay for support, individuals and small business might not. It could cut license sales in half.

New comment by jiggy2011 in "Software Architect: The Best Job in America"

jiggy2011 — Sun, 01 Feb 2015 17:02:32 +0000

A systems analyst is (usually) someone who is only semi technical and functions as a bridge between management , customers and technical people.

A software architect is usually a senior programmer or computer scientist who makes high level tech decisions.

At least, that's how I have always seen these titles used.

New comment by jiggy2011 in "When the Boss Says, 'Don't Tell Your Coworkers How Much You Get Paid'"

jiggy2011 — Sat, 24 Jan 2015 19:12:04 +0000

It also requires a man to make a child, so isn't it reasonable to expect the father to pay rather than the employer?

New comment by jiggy2011 in "Crunch Makes Games Worse"

jiggy2011 — Wed, 21 Jan 2015 00:11:22 +0000

Everyone I knew who went into games knew what the conditions were before they joined. It's only bad if you don't have a backup plan.

New comment by jiggy2011 in "Crunch Makes Games Worse"

jiggy2011 — Tue, 20 Jan 2015 23:38:43 +0000

What if you really enjoy working on games that much?

New comment by jiggy2011 in "Crunch Makes Games Worse"

jiggy2011 — Tue, 20 Jan 2015 23:24:26 +0000

If people continue to work in the games industry despite the workload and pay they must be getting something out of it.

New comment by jiggy2011 in "What Blocks Ruby and Python from Getting to JavaScript V8 Speed?"

jiggy2011 — Fri, 16 Jan 2015 22:08:59 +0000

It does seem strange to me that so few people are paid to work full time on ruby etc (core tech) when you consider the massive total benefit from making ruby a few % faster or better. Why is the funding not there?

New comment by jiggy2011 in "BBC uses RIPA terrorism laws to catch TV licence fee dodgers in Northern Ireland"

jiggy2011 — Fri, 16 Jan 2015 15:41:52 +0000

It is legal to watch shows that have already been broadcast without a license, and it's legal to watch netflix/DVDs without a license.

It is only illegal to watch or record live TV broadcast without a license. This applies regardless of whether you use a TV or BBC iPlayer to receive the broadcast. IANAL etc.