Hacker News: sloaken

New comment by sloaken in "BMWs shows in-car ads for Spiderman"

sloaken — Mon, 27 Jul 2026 19:13:33 +0000

This occurs in YOUR car!?! WTF That is a great reason to never buy an BMW. Thanks for the warning.

New comment by sloaken in "Let's talk about: LinkedIn ghost jobs"

sloaken — Sun, 12 Jul 2026 21:22:31 +0000

Back when H1B visas were new. Companies would post jobs they did not want to fill. The posting was to provide evidence that they could not find anyone who could do that job. Personally I have seen so many Microsoft listed jobs, that it seems impossible that they could have a layoff, unless of course ....

New comment by sloaken in "Ask HN: Thoughts on AI in Personal Finance?"

sloaken — Fri, 10 Jul 2026 05:11:26 +0000

Yes, but I would not trust it to execute those decisions.

I would use it to analyze my situation, take into consideration my goals, as well as my fears and anxiety. e.g. I worry about taxes, and do not trust bonds.

Expect it to provide several plans with a list of reasons as well as pros and cons.

But I must own the final choice. One of my fears is if it does it, someone will learn to anticipate its moves and then exploit me via the AI.

New comment by sloaken in "Ask HN: Why are so many "AI evangelists" posting such insufferable content?"

sloaken — Thu, 02 Jul 2026 20:38:27 +0000

Those that can, Do.

Enough said.

New comment by sloaken in "Ask HN: Who remembers Fry's Electronics – the "church" of IT people?"

sloaken — Fri, 26 Jun 2026 13:27:59 +0000

Hmm must be different than the one I went to.

For me CompUSA was the one stop get your tech.

In Orlando (altmonte springs) we would go to lunch at Fudd Ruckers, followed up with an hour at CompUSA.

New comment by sloaken in "Ask HN: Would you want to know when and how you die?"

sloaken — Wed, 17 Jun 2026 17:33:39 +0000

Only if it is fixable ...

Take it as a warning sign. If I cannot change it, then all it does is cause anxiety.

New comment by sloaken in "What if we legally required politicians to work regular jobs 2 months a year?"

sloaken — Sun, 14 Jun 2026 14:30:35 +0000

In the US, I think it would be great to have them do a service type job, and to keep a camera on them. Keep their government pay, but this will document what a real person they are, or are not.

Personally when I vote use the 'what job did you do' as a major criteria. Bottom to top: Politician (never a real job), Lawyer / lobbyist (practiced liar), Government employee or student or never worked (never facing market economy impacts), college professor, ex con - then a big gap - Used car salesman (hard working but a bad reputation), other sales

Top for someone I vote for is Farmer, then any hourly worker that does a job I would not want to do, or physically cannot.

New comment by sloaken in "Ask HN: What is your opinion on index rule changes to accommodate Mega-Cap IPOs?"

sloaken — Wed, 03 Jun 2026 17:43:23 +0000

So is there a fund, that follows the S&P 500, but not the top 10? Or is S&P 500 minus tech? I know there are a lot of specialized but I would like to follow the US market as a whole but a little less into the tech.

New comment by sloaken in "Ask HN: What is your opinion on index rule changes to accommodate Mega-Cap IPOs?"

sloaken — Tue, 02 Jun 2026 20:14:10 +0000

Throw me a bone here. What rule changes?

New comment by sloaken in "Ask HN: I found out that I'm about to be laid off. How do people find jobs?"

sloaken — Fri, 29 May 2026 02:08:15 +0000

Semi related - If USA and you have a FSA - it is like an insurance policy, so there is no REAL balance. Spend it before you are laid off. Glasses etc.

Sorry to hear you are about to be in a struggle.

Get resume out, and start looking. You will get more if you are employed vs unemployed.

If USA apply for unemployment as soon as laid off. Companies have paid into this pot, you deserve the payout. Not collecting does not leave more for others.

New comment by sloaken in "Ask HN: Should AI credits be refunded on mistakes?"

sloaken — Wed, 08 Apr 2026 13:11:31 +0000

Interesting, you have just identified a potential market distinction. First we need a group (ala consumers report) to evaluate different services. Then different services would be motivated to perform the sub agent verification automatically as a Competitive Advantage,

New comment by sloaken in "Intelligence Cannot Be Trained?"

sloaken — Sun, 05 Apr 2026 03:14:11 +0000

I have heard, not sure the validity, that they believe the removing of lead from Gasoline, has stopped the suppression of intelligence caused by lead consumption.

New comment by sloaken in "Ask HN: How Do You Relax?"

sloaken — Sun, 05 Apr 2026 03:11:18 +0000

Reading hacker news and playing civilization. Then a long walk.

New comment by sloaken in "Ask HN: Does anyone else notice that gas runs out faster than usual"

sloaken — Tue, 31 Mar 2026 01:48:52 +0000

Check tire pressure. I had a prius and milage would drop significantly (60 to 50) when the tires were low.

Of course tune up.

Have you changed gas stations / brands recently?

New comment by sloaken in "Ask HN: How did you figure out what you wanted to do with your life?"

sloaken — Thu, 26 Mar 2026 13:11:04 +0000

Now having said that. It is great to follow a passion, but you need to feed yourself. So you have to weight the two 'what I love' vs 'what pays the bills'

When I finished school, I had a lot of biology major friends, who were real passionate about biology. At the time they could only get low paying jobs in a human waste water plant. They envied me for being smart to choose CS, they thought I did it for the money, not realizing it was passion, and I could have had the same problem they did.

Likewise When I was laid off, about half of the other who were laid off, claimed 'Oh thank God. I have always hated programming stuff'.

Once again, it is a balance. Very few get the best of both worlds.

New comment by sloaken in "Ask HN: How did you figure out what you wanted to do with your life?"

sloaken — Thu, 26 Mar 2026 13:05:06 +0000

I have heard, but have not read, 'What color is my parachute' is a great book for that.

There are a bunch of psychology based tests you can take to help decide on general career paths. I remember taking one 20 years ago. It had questions like: Do you enjoy working on your own. Does fame get you excited. Writing out direction cause you anxiety. Surprise surprise Software Engineer... Just what I love doing.

New comment by sloaken in "Ask HN: Why isn't the NSA categorized as an APT?"

sloaken — Sat, 21 Mar 2026 18:59:45 +0000

It is perspective. From the Iranian stance, NSA is an APT and theirs is not. Likewise the UK version, Russian versions etc.

Them / Us.

New comment by sloaken in "Ask HN: Why isn't the NSA categorized as an APT?"

sloaken — Sat, 21 Mar 2026 18:58:08 +0000

Thanks. Well that answers the question. Opponents are threats, your tools to counter are not.

As in: Your gun is a threat to me, my gun is how I defend against YOUR gun.

New comment by sloaken in "Tell HN: H&R Block tax software installs a TLS backdoor"

sloaken — Fri, 20 Mar 2026 17:45:23 +0000

Thanks for the warning.

New comment by sloaken in "Ask HN: What was it like for programmers when spreadsheets became ubiquitous?"

sloaken — Sun, 15 Mar 2026 18:06:14 +0000

I agree, and would push it further, that almost all professionals need to have a basic understanding of Logic and programming. At least to create a Sort routine (without copying it).

I believe schools should require a Logic (not just philosophy) class.