Hacker News: sysk

New comment by sysk in "How to speed up the Rust compiler in 2020"

sysk — Fri, 24 Apr 2020 11:35:08 +0000

Stupid question but could Rust skip monomorphization during development builds and use dynamic dispatch? I heard generics were often to blame for slow builds.

Ask HN: Encrypted cloud storage?

sysk — Wed, 10 Oct 2018 19:58:54 +0000

I'm running out of space on my laptop and would like to move some old files to the cloud. I also have old files on a couple of USB sticks and external HDs that I'm a bit paranoid about losing so I'd like to move this data to the cloud as well. What's a good solution for that type of problem? Since some of that data is sensitive, I would require a solution that supports encryption.

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18188331

Points: 3

# Comments: 2

New comment by sysk in "The growth in passive funds has caused markets to become more correlated?"

sysk — Fri, 05 Oct 2018 10:56:47 +0000

Ah, it makes a bit more sense when interpreted that way. So the capital that is described as being allocated is really the company's capital to the investor, not the investor's cash to the company.

New comment by sysk in "The growth in passive funds has caused markets to become more correlated?"

sysk — Fri, 05 Oct 2018 10:29:45 +0000

Thanks for the elaborate reply but I was aware of all of this already. I wasn't questioning the utility of the stock market and understand its role as a price discovery mechanism and liquidity provider.

I was however questioning whether this sentence from the article was really accurate: "The function of the capital markets is to allocate capital".

I'd argue that trading existing shares, although it contributes to price discovery and liquidity, is not "capital allocation" (unless we're talking with respect to the buyer's capital like another commenter pointed out).

New comment by sysk in "The growth in passive funds has caused markets to become more correlated?"

sysk — Fri, 05 Oct 2018 02:02:28 +0000

I understand the concept of liquidity and the reward mechanism you describe but it doesn't ultimately answer my question, which why is the process of buying an existing share called "capital allocation"? Let's say I buy a GOOG share from Larry Page. Is it the idea that I "allocated capital" to Larry Page's bank account? It seems to me like the correct thing to say would be that I provided liquidity to Larry, not that I allocated capital. Or is it the idea that I allocated some of my own capital to the stock market?

New comment by sysk in "The growth in passive funds has caused markets to become more correlated?"

sysk — Fri, 05 Oct 2018 01:31:56 +0000

> The function of the capital markets is to allocate capital.

I never fully grasped this idea. I have no problem understanding that venture capitalists, angel investors or investors that buy shares at IPO do allocate capital. However, why is trading existing shares considered "allocating capital"?

Ask HN: Why can't I just install stock Android?

sysk — Tue, 02 Oct 2018 08:45:22 +0000

Why can't I install stock Android on my phone just like I can install Linux on pretty much any PC? Is there a fundamental difference with phone hardware which makes this especially difficult?

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18119807

Points: 2

# Comments: 1

New comment by sysk in "Tesla beats expectations with $3.4B in revenue"

sysk — Wed, 02 May 2018 22:03:08 +0000

> Tesla's 5.3% bonds are unchanged at 89 cents on the dollar

Can anyone explain this like I'm 5?

New comment by sysk in "America's Reverence for the Bachelor's Degree"

sysk — Mon, 13 Mar 2017 17:00:44 +0000

> many programs have, instead of the former, means to satisfy some portion of credit requirements without actually taking classes if you can demonstrate equivalent knowledge gained elsewhere (e.g., credit-by-examination.)

Can you name some of those programs? I keep hearing about those but can't find them.

Ask HN: How much do you spend on hosting?

sysk — Sat, 04 Mar 2017 20:48:06 +0000

I was recently asked to give an estimate of how much it would cost to host a PHP/MySQL website that is expected to get X monthly page views. Unfortunately, I couldn't answer and wasn't able to Google it. It seems like this sort of knowledge only comes with experience and is rarely documented.

In the spirit of transparency, it'd be interesting if we all shared how much we're spending on hosting. Of course, every application is unique but knowing what others are spending for a similar application can be valuable information.

Please include some information about your stack (hosting provider, programming language, database, etc.) and how much traffic you are handling.

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13792854

Points: 4

# Comments: 2

New comment by sysk in "Georgia Tech Offers Online Master of Science in Analytics Degree for Under $10K"

sysk — Thu, 12 Jan 2017 18:39:17 +0000

Can professional experience and a partially completed bachelor's degree in SE substitute for the undergraduate degree requirement?

New comment by sysk in "Fidel Castro has died"

sysk — Sat, 26 Nov 2016 06:39:06 +0000

I'm with you up until "the US tried to save Cuba from itself". Castro was an awful dictator but the US embargo not only didn't save Cuba from itself, it made things worse for ordinary Cuban citizens. I wouldn't be proud of it.

New comment by sysk in "The 2016 Election"

sysk — Mon, 17 Oct 2016 23:33:34 +0000

This is 900% rationalization.

> When you see him and his followers advocating misogyny, racism, xenophobia, homophobia, aggressiveness, and basically all the other -isms and -obias, it becomes much harder to "see the other side" of the debate

The exact same argument could be convincingly used to discriminate against members of the two largest organized religions. Are you also going to ask potential hires who they voted for at the last election too?

New comment by sysk in "The 2016 Election"

sysk — Mon, 17 Oct 2016 21:24:03 +0000

> Aren't those, pretty much by definition, the traits of a poor manipulator? A great manipulator wouldn't seem so false.

This is a good point and it baffles me to be honest. I said "great" manipulator because it seems to be working so far. Great manipulators don't necessarily need to be great with everyone all the time. Or maybe she intentionally wants us to think she's a poor manipulator so that we trust her more? But that surely fails Occam's razor.

To answer other comments, I didn't get this impression solely by watching her on TV, it is corroborated by her history as a politician and recently leaked emails.

New comment by sysk in "The 2016 Election"

sysk — Mon, 17 Oct 2016 20:16:21 +0000

As a non American who would probably vote for neither of them, Hillary definitely ranks way higher on my internal psychopath detector. The constant fake smiling, cold and calculated question answering, passive aggressiveness, etc. In short, the traits of a great manipulator. Trump is guilty of some of that too but he is somewhat redeemed by the fact that he seems dumb/naive enough to believe whatever he preaches.

New comment by sysk in "On DRY and the cost of wrongful abstractions"

sysk — Sun, 18 Sep 2016 19:39:35 +0000

Am I the only one who thinks this sort of advice would be immensely more useful with some concrete examples?

New comment by sysk in "Google's plan to deter aspiring ISIS recruits"

sysk — Sat, 17 Sep 2016 23:23:32 +0000

> and more importantly, free access to information.

Yeah, they should provide a search engine or something.

New comment by sysk in "Keep your identity small (2009)"

sysk — Fri, 20 May 2016 15:57:55 +0000

I didn't mean to discuss, just to correct OP in case he was genuinely misinformed.

New comment by sysk in "Keep your identity small (2009)"

sysk — Fri, 20 May 2016 09:30:39 +0000

Yes, that's what I meant.

New comment by sysk in "Keep your identity small (2009)"

sysk — Fri, 20 May 2016 07:01:58 +0000

Just a nitpick but atheism is not a faith, it's the absence of faith.