Hacker News: khalidmbajwa

New comment by khalidmbajwa in "ProtonMail pays $6k ransom, gets taken out by DDoS anyway"

khalidmbajwa — Sun, 08 Nov 2015 10:12:10 +0000

I belong to a minority community in Pakistan target of regular state backed oppression.In addition to violence and flagrant discrimination the community representatives are also targets for abductions. The community has a rule.It never pays ransom to the kidnappers because this sets a precedent and exposes the representatives all over the country to even more kidnappings. This strategy while it may seem brutal is a necessary one and over the years kidnappings for ransom has gone down. Again, computer security is different, but the principle is same, you dont want to send out the message 'We'll give you money to make you go away' because it just goads even more to resort to such tactics.

New comment by khalidmbajwa in "The growing irrelevance of MongoDB"

khalidmbajwa — Wed, 14 Jan 2015 13:30:15 +0000

We are building a music streaming website. Think of it as a Spotify for Pakistan and Mongo has been wonderful for the kind of Data Structure we have. Its perfect for a catalogue like structure where objects can very easily nest inside each other. Each Artist has multiple albums, and multiple artists have multiple songs. All of this nestles very neatly inside eachother, and when i want a song, i almost always need its album and artist data, so i can very easily get that. Mongo is blazing fast on such kind of nested data structures. The only slight problems is where you have playlists and need to reference songs for a certain Artist. That could be countered by Data Duplication, since the song artist data etc once entered will very rarely change. So for us it makes perfect sense. You really need to understand what your data model is, and what you want from it, and then Mongo will be your friend, other than that it will cause you a world of pain.

New comment by khalidmbajwa in "Ask HN: What do you do to blow off steam?"

khalidmbajwa — Sun, 03 Aug 2014 19:29:10 +0000

Wow. I always thought i was the only crazy one around . The reasons you mentioned are exactly the ones for which i have been running a story for so long (Not as long as you though, i started 5 years ago). I weave my personal frustrations, pain points and unfulfilled wishes into this universe and since i control that universe it helps me feel more in control of myself. Another very important aspect of this is that i am extremely hyper-active, and my brain is always, always thinking. Escaping into this world is the only way i know to shut out all the external thoughts and let me my brain loosen up a little.

New comment by khalidmbajwa in "Ask HN: What do you do to blow off steam?"

khalidmbajwa — Sun, 03 Aug 2014 19:26:07 +0000

Haha. I hope its that way, because the alternate reality is pretty cool :P

New comment by khalidmbajwa in "Ask HN: What do you do to blow off steam?"

khalidmbajwa — Sat, 02 Aug 2014 12:12:47 +0000

I sleep. Its going to sound really weird but over the years i have constructed this alternate reality. A whole universe over the years i have built up in my mind, and whenever i am angry, or depressed, i lie down on a bed, pretend i am in this alternate reality and it helps me relax and slip into a peaceful slumber :)

New comment by khalidmbajwa in "Rolling your own CDN for $25 in 1 hour"

khalidmbajwa — Mon, 28 Jul 2014 12:10:09 +0000

I think he means Genius the company (formerly RapGenius) which annotates the web. (http://genius.com/)

Google's own self driving car

khalidmbajwa — Wed, 28 May 2014 02:10:22 +0000

Article URL: http://www.theverge.com/2014/5/27/5756436/this-is-googles-own-self-driving-car

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7808022

Points: 8

# Comments: 0

New comment by khalidmbajwa in "Wayback Machine Hits 400,000,000,000"

khalidmbajwa — Sun, 11 May 2014 15:19:24 +0000

As expected, i am getting downvoted because of my pro-quora stance. You clearly haven't spent much time on the site. The beauty of it is, that you can reach people, and ask questions who you normally can only dream of reaching.Nasa's engineers, Phd Doctors, Entrepreneurs, famous bloggers, Actors, filmmakers,World class athletes, they are all there. If you have a specific question , ask away. I once needed to find out how Gana.com the biggest music startup in india operated, i asked its CEO a question, and within a day i had a response. For all this amazing value, i dont see why taking a few minutes to register is such a big deal.

New comment by khalidmbajwa in "Wayback Machine Hits 400,000,000,000"

khalidmbajwa — Sat, 10 May 2014 07:22:17 +0000

And why would you do that ? I can see why the must-register roadbloack is annoying in theory but It takes a few minutes to register, and then its an absolute gold-mine of knowledge, with an extra-ordinary community, which is very positive, constructive and helpful. I find it way more engaging than HN Actually to be honest.

New comment by khalidmbajwa in "Ask HN: Freelancer? Seeking freelancer? (May 2014)"

khalidmbajwa — Thu, 01 May 2014 15:26:58 +0000

SEEKING WORK - Remote Front End Developer with over 10 years of experience. Primary expertise include Javascript/Angular and iOS. In addition , a UI/UX designer who obsesses over every last pixel. Love building apps that not only work great but are a complete joy for the end-user to use as well. oDesk Profile:https://www.odesk.com/users/~015a98a14e8f368860 Behance:behance.net/khalidmbajwa

New comment by khalidmbajwa in "Quick tip for developers who use OS X"

khalidmbajwa — Mon, 13 Jan 2014 21:33:09 +0000

Nothing will ever be the same again #HolyWow

New comment by khalidmbajwa in "Started a stupid company. Failed. "

khalidmbajwa — Wed, 27 Nov 2013 03:46:15 +0000

Big fan of your books, an even bigger fan of you now. You sir, are a good man. Here, have a virtual hug !

New comment by khalidmbajwa in "Nuclear fusion milestone passed at US lab"

khalidmbajwa — Mon, 07 Oct 2013 23:45:47 +0000

Let's A/B Test that !

New comment by khalidmbajwa in "Pakistan quake island off Gwadar 'emits flammable gas'"

khalidmbajwa — Wed, 25 Sep 2013 21:57:05 +0000

I am from Pakistan, and this damn island is all everyone is talking about. My facebook feed is flooded with people planning to go visit the island :P. Personally, i dont see what all the fuss is about. Might just be the rise of planet of the apes people :P

New comment by khalidmbajwa in "ODesk vs Elance vs Freelancer vs Guru"

khalidmbajwa — Mon, 09 Sep 2013 17:54:57 +0000

Hey, Yeah for the past year i have been working on a startup so i only do about 20 hours per week. I turn down all projects that demand more. Thankfully i have a few very decent clients who have given me an extraordinary amount of runway on the project, in terms of the time they need , the hours i work,and the exact scope of work. Basically the conversation is mostly like, hey i think it would be cool if we put in this feature, and the client goes 'yeah sure' and i go ahead and do it, this frees me up to bootstrap a startup and at the same time make a very decent living out of it :) But the more i dive into my own projects the less appeal freelance work holds the the point that i barely do enough to get by in terms of money i can make and not an hour or penny more :)

New comment by khalidmbajwa in "ODesk vs Elance vs Freelancer vs Guru"

khalidmbajwa — Mon, 09 Sep 2013 17:51:08 +0000

You are probably right but i was just trying to give a ballpark estimate of how good is a 5K USD income in pakistan.The conversion rate is a fair if not a perfect gauge.I can sustain a full family of 5 with an excellent lifestyle in about 2K here in Pakistan so its a very decent amount.

Nissan launching gorgeous smartwatch with driving, car, and social apps

khalidmbajwa — Sun, 08 Sep 2013 23:36:33 +0000

Article URL: http://venturebeat.com/2013/09/08/goodbye-gear-nissan-launching-gorgeous-smartwatch-with-driving-car-and-social-apps/#vb-gallery:1:809814

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6351008

Points: 2

# Comments: 0

New comment by khalidmbajwa in "ODesk vs Elance vs Freelancer vs Guru"

khalidmbajwa — Sun, 08 Sep 2013 22:55:49 +0000

Umm, no not really. I charge around 60$/hr on oDesk.Have closed to 5000 hours and can easily pull in upwards of 5K USD a month, which is an extra ordinary sum for someone sitting in a country in Pakistan where the conversion rate i 104 PKR to a USD.You can easily get well paying clients if you spend a little time building up your history, and are really good at what you do.

New comment by khalidmbajwa in "ODesk vs Elance vs Freelancer vs Guru"

khalidmbajwa — Sun, 08 Sep 2013 22:51:38 +0000

I am a long time contractor on oDesk and owe a great deal to this site.I wanted to talk a little about the hate the hourly model with screenshots is getting. Here's the primary reason the video thing won't work. Most of the providers are from third world countries where internet while decent is rarely good enough to support uploads in such massive volume. I have a 4 Mbps DSL connection and while i get great downstream, the upstream maxes out at 20 KB/s. So yeah, that's out of the window. However, screenshots work extremely effectively. I have close to 5000 hours logged on oDesk and barring a one off incident where i forgot to shut the logging software down and ended up logging extra hours( I refunded the client) i have never had a buyer dispute my hours. Here's the thing, as an employer you have to be smart about it. When you post a job, only interview candidates with a good oDesk history,look at their past jobs, the buyer's feedback, their portfolio etc. Then talk to them over Skype, ask for code samples etc. If you reach out for the bottom of the pool ofcourse you will get burned, but a contractor with a good history (who might be charging higher)will never ever endanger his feedback history in such a cut throat marketplace where even a single 4.99 out of 5 can knock you off the first page of search results and costing you big time, all for a few extra bucks. This alone will weed out 99% of the dishonest providers. But you can still go and initially, for a week or so, monitor the contractor's work logs closely, you will know instantly if they are padding their hours since oDesk uploads around 5 to 6 screenshots per hour, along with mouse and keyboard activity reports. Just monitor them closely initially and then semi regularly afterwards and you will know what type of contractor you are dealing with. Once you have built trust and seen the contractor's work you can ease up. Finally,set tight milestones and demand regular daily updates and you will know what's going on. So yeah, don' be lazy, be a little more vigilant and you can find some really good contractors at great prices .All the top contractors i know only work hourly and IMHO Its a great model for the employer and for the contractor, a simple win win.

New comment by khalidmbajwa in "Average Income per Programming Language"

khalidmbajwa — Wed, 21 Aug 2013 13:01:08 +0000

The actionscript programmers may be getting paid higher (Mostly because the Flex enterprise hangover is still lingering), but in my experience the actual number of actionscript jobs available is sharply falling. I have been doing Flash/Flex dev for about 8 years now, and while my evidence is certainly anecdotal,i have gone from having tons of contract offers swamping my inbox to once every few months.Make no mistake, Flash and Flex IS dying. Javascript meanwhile is maturing remarkably, and it will soon be in a position where enterprise will seriously start considering it as a viable platform.