Hacker News: s_baby

New comment by s_baby in "Ask HN: Favorite subreddit?"

s_baby — Thu, 12 Jan 2017 23:13:06 +0000

The whole truth is probably more fluid and multifaceted but these are some of the interesting claims I've seen on there.

1. Al Nusra a branch of Al Qaeda is embedded amongst the moderate rebels and were the main fighting force in Aleppo.

2. Allies Qatar and Saudi Arabia have been flooding Syria with weapons to anyone who will take them including radical groups. SA sees situation as opportunity to spread Wahhabism to the region.

3. Early on the coalition had been using a funneling strategy that involved bombing locations peripheral to ISIS with the goal of forcing them to move into civilian regime territory.

New comment by s_baby in "Wikileaks: Julian Assange's internet access 'cut'"

s_baby — Mon, 17 Oct 2016 22:01:13 +0000

http://www.salon.com/2016/10/11/leaked-hillary-clinton-email...

New comment by s_baby in "Ask HN: To those who became fluent in a second language, what did you do?"

s_baby — Sun, 16 Oct 2016 07:02:34 +0000

A polyglot marketed his method a couple years ago that makes sense to me.

>But basically: buy a Lonely Planet phrasebook. Learn full phrases off, use them. Get courses like Assimil, Teach yourself, Colloquial and use that for a little bit more of a base. Use it. Practice a tonne. When you are somewhat comfortable in the language, then (and only then) study some grammar to tidy it up. Practice more.[1]

I imagine starting with common phrases and pronunciation cuts through the learning curve.

1. https://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/y70v0/by_request_i_am...

New comment by s_baby in "MailChimp’s founders built the company slowly by anticipating customers’ needs"

s_baby — Fri, 07 Oct 2016 22:57:55 +0000

I meant density not total population.

New comment by s_baby in "MailChimp’s founders built the company slowly by anticipating customers’ needs"

s_baby — Wed, 05 Oct 2016 18:04:26 +0000

>For example, we have bunch of white only elementary schools and then we have some with black majority ones. Also putting my son through this system convinced me schools like to keep this segregation.

Does London not have school districts? If you have a neighborhood that is predominantly black then that's going to be represented in school demographics. I believe that's how it works everywhere in US.

New comment by s_baby in "MailChimp’s founders built the company slowly by anticipating customers’ needs"

s_baby — Wed, 05 Oct 2016 14:59:44 +0000

Atlanta has the 3rd largest LGBT population behind SF/Seattle and is pretty diverse in general. It's the other parts of Georgia that can seem backwards. Same goes for North Carolina. A person from SF would feel at home in Asheville or Raleigh despite everything going on in the news.

New comment by s_baby in "Former Sequoia partners: The Midwest is the future of startups"

s_baby — Wed, 31 Aug 2016 16:49:20 +0000

>Furthermore, there is a rash of jobs that are primarily cost-cutting measures from companies based out of more expensive areas, which puts you at a kind of career positioning disadvantage

Does/will the midwest not have this problem though?

>jobs seem to regularly pay under $100k for senior developers here when the cost of living has gone up dramatically compared to my perception that I could get a decent place for <$1500 / month where I wouldn't have to suffer from a horrible commute - this is patently untrue I've found after spending a month searching for housing (not apartments, admittedly).

You can rent a family home on the north perimeter for around $1700 a month. Not nearly as cheap as some midwest locations but not nearly as expensive as the Bay Area. You also do have the option of having a 40 minute commute and paying a fraction of that in rent. It's a nice option to have on the table especially if your job is located outside the city or allows remote days which is often the case.

New comment by s_baby in "Former Sequoia partners: The Midwest is the future of startups"

s_baby — Tue, 30 Aug 2016 19:24:48 +0000

Any reason why midwest and not southeast? The outskirts of Raleigh and Atlanta have the same cost of living benefits while having access to a large talent pool and being close to the coast line/major cities.

New comment by s_baby in "An industry that helps Chinese cheat their way into and through US colleges"

s_baby — Thu, 26 May 2016 04:07:57 +0000

Now imagine that B was a 60-80 post-curve and your financial assistance was tied to this number.

New comment by s_baby in "An industry that helps Chinese cheat their way into and through US colleges"

s_baby — Thu, 26 May 2016 00:56:49 +0000

The international students have unreasonably high standards for maintaining financial assistance and staying out of academic probation(3.5-3.8 at my university). By design college courses give work just a little beyond what a student can reasonably accomplish(with a "good" grade) and curve accordingly. These kids aren't just cheating they are marginalizing students who are honest or don't have this kind of social access. If you're not part of a fraterntiy/sorority that archives coursework/tests of previous students or part of an international student in-group then you can easily fall through the cracks from this grade deflation effect.

New comment by s_baby in "The Tech diversity story not being told (2014)"

s_baby — Mon, 29 Feb 2016 05:57:38 +0000

Asian women are also statistically over represented. But that doesn't fit that narrative of this post so ignore.

New comment by s_baby in "The Exploitation of Paris"

s_baby — Sun, 15 Nov 2015 00:16:35 +0000

You rather live somewhere where this kind of behavior is common:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mdvFfSGxtNI

New comment by s_baby in "The Enlightenment bull market and its decolonial future"

s_baby — Fri, 30 Oct 2015 17:50:37 +0000

If you gave every 18th century American a vote there would be an official church in every state along with all the marginalization/oppression that brings along. Not extending the vote was part of the checks and balances negotiated as a result. Right or wrong it was a valid existential problem for a young democracy.

New comment by s_baby in "Why WhatsApp Only Needs 50 Engineers for Its 900M Users"

s_baby — Wed, 16 Sep 2015 12:19:41 +0000

>I'm sure you could do it in an afternoon, right? Just like anyone on HN can make a "basic CRUD app" like Facebook in a weekend.

Maybe the backend. I couldn't write a Blackberry Java app though which was WhatsApp's initial value proposition.

New comment by s_baby in "The Internet of Way Too Many Things"

s_baby — Mon, 07 Sep 2015 15:36:08 +0000

I would still run cat6 as if I was going to use smart devices. You're already inside the walls.

New comment by s_baby in "Modafinil for cognitive neuroenhancement: a systematic review"

s_baby — Sat, 22 Aug 2015 13:41:37 +0000

That's true for all stimulants I've tried. They're better for repetitive tasks or ones that rely on motor activity. Better yet don't do stimulants unless you truly need them.

New comment by s_baby in "Liu Cixin, China’s hottest science-fiction writer"

s_baby — Sun, 09 Aug 2015 12:48:28 +0000

The NYT book list is already a joke.

New comment by s_baby in "Ask HN: Books with a high signal to noise ratio?"

s_baby — Sat, 08 Aug 2015 16:05:46 +0000

Richard Dawkins is OK. Sam Harris and Steven Pinker are more relevant.

New comment by s_baby in "Tinder and the Dawn of the “Dating Apocalypse”"

s_baby — Fri, 07 Aug 2015 15:21:08 +0000

I don't see how anything like that would become a trend. But I think it makes for an interesting double standard in how we talk about these issues. If a sociologist was to describe a scarcity of sex for men as gender inequality she would be informed that men aren't entitled to sex from anyone and that she is promoting rape culture. A woman isn't entitled to a relationship from men any more than men are entitled to sex from women.

New comment by s_baby in "Tinder and the Dawn of the “Dating Apocalypse”"

s_baby — Thu, 06 Aug 2015 21:24:12 +0000

>“For young women the problem in navigating sexuality and relationships is still gender inequality,” says Elizabeth Armstrong, a professor of sociology at the University of Michigan who specializes in sexuality and gender. “Young women complain that young men still have the power to decide when something is going to be serious and when something is not—they can go, ‘She’s girlfriend material, she’s hookup material.’

That's just as much a reflection of what women are looking for. If a woman is attracted to a guy who is "high value" relative to her then she is attracted to a guy who has options. She is attracted to guys she has a power differential with. These women could choose to settle for a relationship where they have the options and power but that's not what they want.