<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: kiwijimm</title><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/user?id=kiwijimm</link><description>Hacker News RSS</description><docs>https://hnrss.org/</docs><generator>hnrss v2.1.1</generator><lastBuildDate>Mon, 27 Jul 2026 20:32:59 +0000</lastBuildDate><atom:link href="https://hnrss.org/user?id=kiwijimm" rel="self" type="application/rss+xml"></atom:link><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by kiwijimm in "The Computer That Helped Win World War II"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>It doesn’t resemble the computers of today, but none the less it was indeed a stored program digital computer. The first of its kind. The bombes were more akin to a special purpose calculation machine. Colossus was something a bit more special.</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Mon, 27 Jul 2026 15:12:05 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49070824</link><dc:creator>kiwijimm</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49070824</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49070824</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by kiwijimm in "MaskerAid iOS App"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>Yes. This.<p>There are some segments from a few episodes that show that Marco is demonstrably not a super great programmer. I suspect some of his server side code is horrible. But he doesn't matter because he is super strong at other stuff super focussed on solving his own problems at gets it done. You don't need to be super great at programming you just need to be tenacious.</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Fri, 18 Mar 2022 13:06:58 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=30721700</link><dc:creator>kiwijimm</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=30721700</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=30721700</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by kiwijimm in "MaskerAid iOS App"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>I also didn't get this. Why put photo's on social media of your kids AT ALL if you feel weird about it. Making them look weirder feel a bit strange to me.  But now you point out that is basically to enable virtue signalling for parents its makes more sense.</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Fri, 18 Mar 2022 12:59:40 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=30721617</link><dc:creator>kiwijimm</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=30721617</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=30721617</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by kiwijimm in "MaskerAid iOS App"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>You've found Casey's next app right there...</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Fri, 18 Mar 2022 12:53:55 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=30721553</link><dc:creator>kiwijimm</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=30721553</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=30721553</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by kiwijimm in "Ask HN: Learn K8s"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>The best advice I got was to use Kubernetes in Docker or kind (<a href="https://kind.sigs.k8s.io/docs/user/quick-start/" rel="nofollow">https://kind.sigs.k8s.io/docs/user/quick-start/</a>) as your playground.<p>It contains the K8's cluster and makes it easy to recreate things if (when) you screw up. You wont spend the majority of your time fixing the cluster instead of learning how to use the cluster itself.<p>Then you can pick any K8's tutorials or courses. As previous folk have said there are plenty of them about. Udemy, Coursera, Pluralsight, Oreilly all have really good resources. Or just use all of the free tutorials and resources out there. Search GitHub for some 'awesome lists' etc.<p>I can't give any detailed advice on courses having not done them myself! I have used books online and kind to figure stuff out though!<p>Good Luck!
James</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Sun, 13 Mar 2022 16:39:55 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=30662944</link><dc:creator>kiwijimm</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=30662944</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=30662944</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by kiwijimm in "Inside Australia's Covid Internment Camp"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>Isn't this a sample of one person with a very skewed perspective? "... moved from Melbourne to escape never-ending lockdowns..." seems like this person was already of a frame of mind to avoid the mitigation measures so is ripe to provide a certain perspective. They also seem determined to rail against these measures. I think Australia and NZ have to come to terms with COVID for sure, but having lived through two long lockdowns and seen what the virus could do if it overwhelmed the health system, one shouldn't be so flippant as to restrictions. Some people don't have the luxury of being angry like this. They are would get critically ill or die if exposed. In countries where the health system is more fragile (NZ and Australia might be in this camp...) its really important not to let this get out of hand before there is a good number of vaccinated people. It's easy to have an angry uninformed opinion about this stuff. Its still unprecedented to a large degree and public health people are working it out as they go still.</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Fri, 03 Dec 2021 16:06:31 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=29431513</link><dc:creator>kiwijimm</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=29431513</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=29431513</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by kiwijimm in "Microsoft says mandatory password changing is “ancient and obsolete” (2019)"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>Password expiry policies are useless. No one recommends using them. As has been pointed out already, the standards orgs and government cyber security departments advise not to have expiries. However most enterprises  (I did a straw poll of all my friends and people they knew) still do it. I wrote about it here: <a href="https://jgandrews.com/posts/password-expiry-policies-dont-work/" rel="nofollow">https://jgandrews.com/posts/password-expiry-policies-dont-wo...</a> back in January. Nothing makes sense about password expiry.</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Tue, 20 Apr 2021 11:06:47 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26873052</link><dc:creator>kiwijimm</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26873052</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26873052</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by kiwijimm in "Is a billion dollars worth of server lying on the ground?"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>Seems to me that this sort of thinking is predicated on the the idea that infrastructure should still work like it did 10-20 years ago.<p>Cost is not the driving factor, and in any case, cost is often calculated wrong. Putting one set of prices 'for stuff' in one column and another set in another column and looking at the difference tells you almost nothing.<p>Forget about start-ups for a minute. There are certainly arguments to be made both ways there. Focus on big enterprises for a second. Infrastructure complexity isnt getting smaller over time and neither is demand. Delivering on demand and managing complexity with a bounded number of people requires a change in thinking when it comes to infrastucture writ-large. We cannot sustain the old on-premises, dinosaur pen style data centres and deliver and grow our core businesses. It just wont work... So you either go cloud or create something very cloud like and do it on-premises. Heck that is how AWS came about in the first place.<p>Anyone that thinks going cloud is a good way to reduce headcount is going to get a shock. Going to cloud (or lets say changing the way you do infrastructure) is a way to continue to do business with the headcount you have. It's not a question of carrying on with the 'old school' infrastructure you have, you just want keep up doing that. Do nothing and your headcout requirements are unbounded.<p>Anyone that thinks cloud infrastructure requires you to hire only a bunch of cloud experts is wrong. Chances are you have the bulk of the infra people you need right now. All those people that have been doing 'old school' infrastructure for years are still your most valuable resource. The mechanics of the infrastructure are fairly irrelevant (ok they are not, but in the grand scheme of things we can kind of cancel the mechanics out in the equations), oft missed value is the operational knowledge. The operational bit is what gets swept under the rug in the DevOps discussion. I believe the knowledge of how to translate existing infra into a 'new' model doesnt come from hiring DevOps people or cloud people, it comes from the infrastructure people that have been doing it for years. Leverage the intellectual capital you already have.<p>The flip side of that bargain is that 'old school' infrastructure people need to recognise we have to adapt. Those that dont are doomed to be cancelled out in the same equations that cancel out the mechnanics of the infrasturcture itself.<p>Enterprises that fail to recognise the shift are also doomed. Those start-ups we arent talking about? They can scale far more quickly and quickly get to a point where they can deliver at the level a much bigger organisation can. They can eclipse the slow movers. I assume this is why a lot of consolidation happens... The slow dudes only really have one move and that is to buy the little guys before they can get there (the Facebook defence). But thats like doubling your bet on red every time you lose at roulette. Eventually you go bust or the game moves quicker than your bankroll...<p>Thanks,
James</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Mon, 02 Nov 2020 23:10:37 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24974564</link><dc:creator>kiwijimm</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24974564</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24974564</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by kiwijimm in "Ask HN: I want to resign with nothing lined up"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>That sir, is a great story, and great advice.</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Wed, 22 Apr 2020 14:09:35 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22945707</link><dc:creator>kiwijimm</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22945707</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22945707</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by kiwijimm in "Ask HN: I want to resign with nothing lined up"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>If its not doing it for you and you can support yourself for a bit, quitting is not a bad option. Not enjoying the bulk of something you do every day will destroy you... BUT... As someone who has done the rounds, I'll offer this bit of advice for what its worth:<p>1.) The grass is not necessarily greener on the other side of the fence. Have you got an idea of what you want to do? What you will accept? Even if you just want to leave, you need a plan. Otherwise you'll take something worse out of desparation down the line.<p>2.) Even if you find a "dream job" or even just a better job things always change. Especially in London. This might also be the case for the job you are in. Is it a temporary rut you are in? Like another commenter said, do you like the company but not the current position? If so the company might do a lot to retain you rather than see you walk.<p>3.) Exploit your network to explore options before leaving. Use the current situation as a chance to seriously look and to build a plan. Its easier to find a job when you already have one that to find one when you are desparate. I am sure you have but... If you have friends or connections at other places tap them up. You never know...<p>4.) This lockdown is doing funny things with all our heads. Take a deep breath, work out if its just the insanity of the situation that is clouding your vision. If you commute into London normally and now you are stuck at home, you might be suprised how much energy that city imparts when you are in there.<p>I have experienced this first hand. I mean... Its nice to have flexible working, to be at home and in the city because the opposite is also true, London can really bite you! But... London in the summer, especially after work in the City... One of the best places in the world.<p>If after all those questions your mind is still set on leaving, then you are making the right choice! Hell there is no wrong choice. We only live once!<p>Best of luck mate!</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Wed, 22 Apr 2020 14:07:50 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22945685</link><dc:creator>kiwijimm</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22945685</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22945685</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by kiwijimm in "WWII Bombe operator Ruth Bourne: I'd never heard of Enigma until after the war"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>I think the fact that the Turing-Welchman machine is called a Bombe in a nod towards the Polish blurs the connection a bit. The British Bombe and the Polish Bomba pretty much only have the name in common. The Polish machine wasn't usable by the British by the time the Poles told them about their techniques.<p>However... The Polish codebreakers are without doubt the first true heroes of the Enigma story during the war. Their genius, bravery and dedication opened up breaking enigma and saved a lot of time for the British codebreakers early on. As Welchman says, the Polish provided details of the machines that helped immensely in breaking into the military enigma. That said, the British were already working on it and had in parallel come up with some of the same methods as the Poles. The Turing-Welchman Bombe was designed from the ground up to attack the military enigma and used different principles than the Polish Bomba.<p>This is not to underplay the Polish role in all of this. They are without doubt in my mind as much the hero's in this as Welchman, Turing and the others at Bletchley. Without them the allies would have been way behind the game at the start of the war and therefore many additional lives would have been lost. The Polish codebreakers need more acknowledgement in this story. Glad to see the new Dermot Turing book out on this subject: <a href="https://www.amazon.co.uk/Real-Story-How-Enigma-Broken-ebook/dp/B07D98S1BQ/" rel="nofollow">https://www.amazon.co.uk/Real-Story-How-Enigma-Broken-ebook/...</a><p>Thanks,
James</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Wed, 26 Sep 2018 11:57:54 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18074979</link><dc:creator>kiwijimm</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18074979</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18074979</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by kiwijimm in "WWII Bombe operator Ruth Bourne: I'd never heard of Enigma until after the war"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>The thing the allies did know and the Germans largely ignored was the fact that their Ciphers could be vulnerable. They tested them. Despite some pockets of dissent the Germans thought enigma was totally secure and never subjected it to proper analysis from their side. Also the German hierarchy during the war made it difficult for dissenting voices from the ranks to be heard on these topics.<p>Donitz was one exception. He suspected the allies were breaking enigma and hence the security of the naval enigma's was increased. I believe he advocated for more changes but was stopped or ran out of time.<p>After the war the allies sent in teams of intelligence operatives to assess how much the Germans knew about allied codebreaking and intelligence efforts. What they found was that the secrecy of Ultra worked and held throughout the war.<p>James</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Wed, 26 Sep 2018 11:40:39 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18074863</link><dc:creator>kiwijimm</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18074863</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18074863</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by kiwijimm in "National Museum of Computing to hold live Enigma code-breaking demo with a Bombe"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>This machine was housed within the Bletchley Park museum for years. It has recently moved to the TNMOC<p>Thanks,
James</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Thu, 20 Sep 2018 16:02:19 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18033452</link><dc:creator>kiwijimm</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18033452</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18033452</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by kiwijimm in "National Museum of Computing to hold live Enigma code-breaking demo with a Bombe"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>They dont call it a replica. Its a rebuild. It's not a copy of an existing Bombe is a unique machine built from the ground up. It is identical to the machines used in WWII.<p>Thanks,
James</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Thu, 20 Sep 2018 16:00:23 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18033441</link><dc:creator>kiwijimm</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18033441</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18033441</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by kiwijimm in "National Museum of Computing to hold live Enigma code-breaking demo with a Bombe"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>Thats just not true... The British Bombes worked just fine and were VERY effective. You might be confused in thinking that the British Bombe was a single machine. It wasn't there were several iterations of it and it evolved throughout the war to meet the new demands. Additionally the ORIGINAL Bombe didn't include the diagonal board enhancement invented by Gordon Welchman. This improved the performance of the Bombes greatly.<p>The US Bombes were better and workloads moved over to them for that reason, mainly because the US could make them faster with a better (later) design. But they come online 3 years after the first British Bombes which were in effective use until the US Bombes were available. It was the 4 rotor naval enigma that slowed things down somewhat.<p>Thanks,
James</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Thu, 20 Sep 2018 15:58:06 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18033425</link><dc:creator>kiwijimm</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18033425</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18033425</guid></item></channel></rss>