<rss version="2.0" xmlns:dc="http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/" xmlns:atom="http://www.w3.org/2005/Atom"><channel><title>Hacker News: kcexn</title><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/user?id=kcexn</link><description>Hacker News RSS</description><docs>https://hnrss.org/</docs><generator>hnrss v2.1.1</generator><lastBuildDate>Fri, 30 Oct 2026 03:07:15 +0000</lastBuildDate><atom:link href="https://hnrss.org/user?id=kcexn" rel="self" type="application/rss+xml"></atom:link><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by kcexn in "What makes software development engineering"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>The grading rubric for all engineering units here in Australia require that students develop an understanding of ethics and professional practice. There are a number of units dedicated to teaching project work, legal, and business aspects of engineering.<p>Typically the software engineers also do more maths than CS students. Reasoning from first principles is an important skill for professional engineers to have.</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Tue, 29 Sep 2026 21:53:43 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49901222</link><dc:creator>kcexn</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49901222</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49901222</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by kcexn in "Why don't machine learning research agents overfit?"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>Huh. This reminds me of the asymptotic equipartition theorem. Samples taken from higher and higher dimensional spaces will concentrate into a typical set.<p>Does model performance also concentrate into a 'typical case' where things work pretty well and a non-typical case where it's completely unpredictable as the number of parameters increase?</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Fri, 18 Sep 2026 13:04:23 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49753853</link><dc:creator>kcexn</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49753853</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49753853</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by kcexn in "Telstra outage: The night a network decided the year was 2006"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>That's also plausible.</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Fri, 18 Sep 2026 11:05:09 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49752632</link><dc:creator>kcexn</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49752632</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49752632</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by kcexn in "Telstra outage: The night a network decided the year was 2006"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>No. The official report seems to suggest that software in IMS core (the subsystem that controls VOIP signalling in the mobile network) bugged out after the time was shifted back 20 years. That doesn't narrow down the specific failure that stopped calls from going through very much. IMS core is full of timers, but it could also have been a license server issue for all the report said about it.</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Fri, 18 Sep 2026 08:24:58 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49751582</link><dc:creator>kcexn</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49751582</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49751582</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by kcexn in "Google avoids a breakup of its ad tech business"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>I think most of these problems could be solved through contracts.<p>A contract for purchasing Parent Co.'s HR, legal, and compliance expertise for child co.<p>And a contract for sharing technology infrastructure.<p>The terms and pricing of the contract would likely be strictly regulated to prevent preferential treatment and encourage a clean separation over time.<p>I'm not a lawyer though, so who knows.</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Thu, 03 Sep 2026 09:56:55 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49548003</link><dc:creator>kcexn</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49548003</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49548003</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by kcexn in "No country for mediocre mathematicians"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>It's still impressive, but it's not enough.</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Mon, 31 Aug 2026 22:29:22 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49515639</link><dc:creator>kcexn</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49515639</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49515639</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by kcexn in "AI is hitting entry-level jobs hardest, Stanford study finds"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>Australia's bar for skilled employment is pretty low and deflates wages as well. That's before we get into the prevalence of exploiting working holiday visas for practically slave wages.</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Tue, 25 Aug 2026 18:07:43 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49438123</link><dc:creator>kcexn</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49438123</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49438123</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by kcexn in "AI is hitting entry-level jobs hardest, Stanford study finds"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>You can't really force someone to work for X years at a place they don't want to. I don't know if what you're describing is an enforceable contract term.</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Tue, 25 Aug 2026 18:02:49 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49438062</link><dc:creator>kcexn</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49438062</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49438062</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by kcexn in "uBlock Origin is giving up the fight to keep ads off Facebook"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>I mean. That's how profiteering works for the most part. Extracting wealth from people who don't know better is many times easier than creating more wealth for everyone.</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Wed, 12 Aug 2026 22:15:27 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49279343</link><dc:creator>kcexn</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49279343</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49279343</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by kcexn in "“Code was never the hard part” is an insult to all programmers"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>Most hardware tinkerers are not EE's. But will rely on EE's to certify that their electronics are safe.</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Mon, 10 Aug 2026 07:35:28 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49240514</link><dc:creator>kcexn</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49240514</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49240514</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by kcexn in "“Code was never the hard part” is an insult to all programmers"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>You don't need to be an "Electrical Engineer" to do simple design work like this.<p>Professional Engineers are qualified to take on more liability than just creating a design. So you don't need an Engineer to design a product, but (depending on jurisdiction) you will need an engineer to certify that your product won't hurt or kill people.<p>If you do a lot of design work, then you may want to hire a Professional Engineer in-house so that your company has more confidence that they will produce compliant designs with fewer iterations.<p>Engineers are often the best people to work with if you need to do things that are done infrequently since theoretically, they're trained in the prerequisite first principles so they can make judgments that are rooted in rigorous analysis in addition to their practical experience.</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Mon, 10 Aug 2026 07:31:24 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49240482</link><dc:creator>kcexn</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49240482</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49240482</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by kcexn in "“Code was never the hard part” is an insult to all programmers"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>If you can call yourself an Engineer if you feel like it, then it's not a protected title.<p>"Doctor", is for instance a protected title. You can not advertise yourself or your services as a doctor unless you're a qualified and practicing medical professional. I believe some kinds of legal practices are the same.</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Mon, 10 Aug 2026 07:22:57 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49240419</link><dc:creator>kcexn</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49240419</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49240419</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by kcexn in "“Code was never the hard part” is an insult to all programmers"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>I don't think Software Engineers in the US would sign any documents that expose them to legal liability as a professional engineer either.<p>It's still not clear to me from this discussion whether the term "Software Engineer" is legally protected in Germany (or any other European country) or if it's just a cultural convention.<p>The distinction is basically, if a software developer started a consultancy developing custom software solutions and called the company XY Software Engineering, would they be penalized for false advertising if they didn't have professional engineering qualifications?</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Mon, 10 Aug 2026 07:20:22 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49240396</link><dc:creator>kcexn</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49240396</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49240396</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by kcexn in "“Code was never the hard part” is an insult to all programmers"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>In which countries are Software Engineers not allowed to call themselves engineers unless they are professionally qualified engineers?</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Sun, 09 Aug 2026 09:28:02 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49229842</link><dc:creator>kcexn</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49229842</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49229842</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by kcexn in "“Code was never the hard part” is an insult to all programmers"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>I think most people who write code are the latter and not the former. The industry has diluted the term "engineer" so much that they maybe don't even realise that traditional engineering projects are about more than just implementation work.</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Sat, 08 Aug 2026 23:39:49 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49226934</link><dc:creator>kcexn</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49226934</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49226934</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by kcexn in "Taste Is All That's Left"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>I think whether "taste" was ever important comes down to whether software is a commodity to be bought and sold, or something more strategic.<p>The company that needs a webapp because everyone else has one is never going to value "taste".<p>To adapt to this AI world, we need to either ship more lower-quality software, or start seeking out higher value problems. I don't see any other way around it.</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Fri, 07 Aug 2026 10:52:38 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49208463</link><dc:creator>kcexn</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49208463</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49208463</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by kcexn in "Ten advances in mathematics and theoretical computer science"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>Interesting. Do you have any more specific insights into where you feel AI was a big value-add to these problems? I don't want to be overly dismissive of AI, but I also feel that the AI hype engine frequently positions claims as being 'ground-breaking' when they are really just interesting incremental results.<p>The general consensus of developers is that AI can only do the work of a strong 'junior'. Yet as soon as we are presented with pure mathematical results, people seem incredibly ready to accept that AI can do more than what a strong student could achieve.</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Sun, 02 Aug 2026 04:49:26 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49141210</link><dc:creator>kcexn</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49141210</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49141210</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by kcexn in "Ten advances in mathematics and theoretical computer science"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>I have no idea how many PhD's have spent how much time of their careers tackling these very specific problems, and I doubt you do either.<p>I'm trying to understand if these specific problems were the kinds of problems that would have justified an expert investing weeks or months to solve. Or if they were the kinds of problems that would normally have been given to students to investigate.</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Sun, 02 Aug 2026 04:35:14 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49141129</link><dc:creator>kcexn</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49141129</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49141129</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by kcexn in "Ten advances in mathematics and theoretical computer science"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>I assume you're talking about No. 5, the arithmetic circuit complexity bound? The existence of a lower bound than state-of-the-art is certainly a significant result and worth publishing.<p>But the wording of the result makes it sound like we don't know what the lowest possible complexity bound might be. So, prior to this result did we think there couldn't be a lower possible bound? Or did the arithmetic circuit community think there were lower possible bounds but didn't see it as a high value target for experts to tackle (maybe a problem that was instead regularly given to students to study).</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Sun, 02 Aug 2026 03:40:19 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49140858</link><dc:creator>kcexn</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49140858</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49140858</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by kcexn in "Ten advances in mathematics and theoretical computer science"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>I'm not arguing that this isn't innovative or worthy of publication. Basically any result that moves the needle meets those criteria. I'm interested in how the results that OpenAI has published here differs from finding optimality solutions for incredibly niche optimization problems by throwing the problem in an enormous solver.</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Sun, 02 Aug 2026 03:33:19 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49140819</link><dc:creator>kcexn</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49140819</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49140819</guid></item></channel></rss>