Hacker News: theprop

New comment by theprop in "AWS: Inaccurate Estimated Billing Data – $1.7 billion"

theprop — Sat, 18 Jul 2026 00:01:24 +0000

$1.7 billion? That's all? I usually spend around 75 cents a month (migrated off AWS due to it being way too expensive). They emailed me with an estimated bill of $264 billion.

New comment by theprop in "xAI has acquired X, xAI now valued at $80B"

theprop — Fri, 28 Mar 2025 22:17:39 +0000

This is interesting and may point to X / Twitter becoming more AI-driven in the future (many possibilities). Grok has become my go-to AI -- I personally find it better than (the free version at least) of ChatGPT, paid Gemini, and anything else -- though it does have a lot of problems.

New comment by theprop in "Ask HN: How Do I Escape Homelessness After Rebuilding My Mental Health?"

theprop — Wed, 19 Mar 2025 04:11:08 +0000

You're doing excellent. Don't worry about anything. Here are my quick thoughts which are in a kind of Maslow-ian Hierarchy of Needs. You're already on them by getting your mental health in order, nice work.

Immediate Steps:

1. Work. Keep driving full-time or more until you pay off the tires, insurance, car payment and amass some savings. Working a lot will keep your mind focused and bring in income while you start to get other things in life in order and apply for other jobs.

2. Living. There are probably great & beautiful campsites in Utah. Probably avoid hotels as much as you can in order to save money. Sleep in your car or better in a tent at a campsite or in a state or national park (backpack out a bit, pitch your tent and sleep). To take showers and exercise, join Planet Fitness or something similar for $10 / month. If you're not familiar with backpacking, it's easy to pitch a tent. Try sierra.com to find a cheap tent and supplies.

Other Living idea: check out couchsurfing.com. Folks will house you for free.

3. Food. If you camp, you can use a small propane powered stove to cook inexpensive meals e.g. rice, beans, pasta, etc. Eat a lot of nuts, inexpensive fruits & vegetables.

4. Get a Laptop. A laptop will be critical to getting a resume ready & sending it out. Check out Free Stuff in Craigslist, NextDoor, or Facebook Marketplace. Check out real cheap laptops (for less than $100) in Craigslist, NextDoor, or Facebook Marketplace.

5. Internet / WiFi / Unlimited Mobile Data. I recommend visible.com for like $25/month. There are tons of places with free WiFi like libraries which you can use as well.

6. Upskilling / Up-job-ing. To get a new job or learn or other things, you'll need a laptop and an internet connection so first get that. If you already have ready programming skills, then you need get your resume together and start applying and or reach out to your network. Make sure you're in a stable position to work both mentally and otherwise before you start this process. You will get tons of job rejections and it will be disheartening because you're working very hard, so be prepared and don't worry, something will eventually work out.

7. Roommate / Living / Health Insurance --> once you have some savings (a few thousand) and a reasonable stream of income at least from driving, you could look for a roommate situation. If you don't have or lost your health insurance, you probably qualify for an affordable health care act plan (off-schedule) and can get that -- list income very low and you won't have to pay much. You could try Medicaid, but I think the affordable care marketplace is probably simpler and you plan anyway to have income soon.

8. Networking. I highly recommend networking with other professionals in your field in your area. One good way to meet them is to join relevant meetups and check for other events. Some meetups on specialized things like ML or online privacy, etc. can have really excellent and relevant attendees you can network with. These are all generally free.

9. AI/ML work. If you already code, you can start tinkering with the AI platforms and such to get some experience. I'd look for a job with your current skills and simultaneously keep learning -- after you get a bit stable via the current driving job.

Those are my thoughts. Feel free to message me if you have any questions or need any resume editing help (ChatGPT is probably a more effective editor than me :-). I'm not in your area, but hopefully other folk in your area are messaging you already with some potential job opportunities. Focus on small steps, small wins. Good luck, you are and will make it.

‘Incomprehensible’: The Australian Bushfires Are an Ecological Catastrophe

theprop — Sat, 11 Jan 2020 07:24:48 +0000

Article URL: https://www.vice.com/en_uk/article/akwggz/incomprehensible-the-australian-bushfires-are-an-ecological-catastrophe

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22018667

Points: 2

# Comments: 1

Gene Therapy Arrives

theprop — Sat, 11 Jan 2020 04:49:21 +0000

Article URL: https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/gene-therapy-arrives/

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22018207

Points: 2

# Comments: 0

A security empire deployed guards with violent pasts across the U.S.

theprop — Sat, 11 Jan 2020 03:01:34 +0000

Article URL: https://www.usatoday.com/in-depth/news/investigations/2019/10/30/dangerous-guards-low-cost-security-g-4-s/3994676002/

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22017800

Points: 2

# Comments: 0

I Biohacked for 10 Weeks to Try to Live Forever

theprop — Fri, 10 Jan 2020 21:26:20 +0000

Article URL: https://gen.medium.com/i-biohacked-for-10-weeks-to-try-to-live-forever-300cf1376cdf

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22015727

Points: 4

# Comments: 0

New comment by theprop in "Ask HN: I am at crossroads in my life. Pursuing my own idea or a full-time job?"

theprop — Fri, 10 Jan 2020 09:39:43 +0000

This is a good thought too :-). Decisions...decisions...

New comment by theprop in "Ask HN: I am at crossroads in my life. Pursuing my own idea or a full-time job?"

theprop — Fri, 10 Jan 2020 09:38:21 +0000

I'd look for a partner. It's very hard to be a solo founder and it sounds like you're not sure of an idea/market, etc. I'd also start keeping a list of problems you face/solutions i.e. ideas for a possible product to build. It's very, very hard to build a business. If you're not sure, don't have a partner or idea, I wouldn't recommend you get into it just yet. I'd recommend you look for a company you're really interested in and get to know a market, how their business runs, etc. You may meet other potential partners there (co-workers) and you'll get to know a business niche, etc. So I'd recommend 1. for now. Also, differentiate when you start between a business and a project: a business really has revenues/a model to grow quickly while a project is something you build more for fun that may or not generate revenues or go somewhere. Projects can become the biggest businesses (google, facebook were started as projects), but you don't necessarily want to bet your savings on that initially. Just some random thoughts...hope they're helpful, good luck and congrats on the previous 11 years of dedicated, rewarding work it sounds like, nice!!!!!

New comment by theprop in "Boeing employees mocked FAA in internal messages before 737 Max disasters"

theprop — Fri, 10 Jan 2020 09:29:09 +0000

The McDonnell Douglas leadership seems to have put business ahead of engineering (and safety) at Boeing (from other pieces I've read). There are at present just two manufacturers of big planes in the world (China may have a third soon I believe) so it would be terrible for airline safety/efficiency if Boeing did go bankrupt (which is still unlikely) and left just one company with no competition. I think what we should all hope for is a return to Boeing's engineering-centered roots. There are tens of thousands of people who work hard at Boeing, do incredibly difficult work and take justifiable pride in the amazing planes they build. It's a shame that some bad leadership has led to these tragically avoidable crashes. As disturbing and infuriating as these messages are, I believe Boeing if it is once again engineer-lead can get back to strong form and that's what we should all hope for.

A scandal in Oxford: the curious case of the stolen gospel

theprop — Thu, 09 Jan 2020 18:06:24 +0000

Article URL: https://www.theguardian.com/news/2020/jan/09/a-scandal-in-oxford-the-curious-case-of-the-stolen-gospel

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22003708

Points: 67

# Comments: 24

Suicide rate up 33% in less than 20 years, yet funding lags

theprop — Thu, 09 Jan 2020 05:28:47 +0000

Article URL: https://www.usatoday.com/in-depth/news/investigations/surviving-suicide/2018/11/28/suicide-prevention-suicidal-thoughts-research-funding/971336002/

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21998782

Points: 2

# Comments: 0

Can We Build a Sun Screen to Combat Global Climate Change?

theprop — Thu, 09 Jan 2020 00:24:37 +0000

Article URL: https://www.forbes.com/sites/startswithabang/2018/05/26/ask-ethan-can-we-build-a-sun-screen-to-combat-global-climate-change/

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21997282

Points: 2

# Comments: 2

Astronomers find 19 more galaxies missing their dark matter

theprop — Sun, 15 Dec 2019 23:51:14 +0000

Article URL: http://www.astronomy.com/news/2019/12/astronomers-find-19-more-galaxies-missing-their-dark-matter

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21799801

Points: 1

# Comments: 0

New comment by theprop in "VPN Report – Reviews of the top VPNs"

theprop — Thu, 10 Aug 2017 03:36:05 +0000

We don't know if IPSec or L2TP is compromised...could be either or both. So why is using Ikev2 with IPSec secure??

New comment by theprop in "India will ban driverless cars in order to protect jobs"

theprop — Tue, 25 Jul 2017 08:39:15 +0000

Sorry yes China's the biggest by that data, but India has more fatalities per mile driven than China and at about 10x the rate of the U.S. which itself isn't doing that great.

New comment by theprop in "India will ban driverless cars in order to protect jobs"

theprop — Tue, 25 Jul 2017 00:47:22 +0000

What a complete idiot in soooo many ways...now you can understand the situation of India's development when such utter morons are "leaders" of India! India actually needs driverless cars more desperately than any country in the world given it's world-leading 200,000 fatalities every year.

How to keep cool without costing the Earth

theprop — Wed, 19 Jul 2017 03:51:59 +0000

Article URL: https://www.economist.com/news/science-and-technology/21716599-film-worth-watching-how-keep-cool-without-costing-earth?fsrc=scn/fb/te/bl/ed/materialssciencehowtokeepcoolwithoutcostingtheearth

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14801899

Points: 2

# Comments: 0

New comment by theprop in "Desktop Metal gets $115M in funding to deliver metal 3D printing"

theprop — Wed, 19 Jul 2017 02:10:27 +0000

What 3D printer or service -- in any material, metal, wood, plastic, glass, anything -- can print something affordably i.e. $5 for something that's say 1" by 5" by 5" ???

New comment by theprop in "Build a burner phone with Twilio and Kotlin"

theprop — Wed, 19 Jul 2017 02:07:46 +0000

I got a 212 number for no extra cost from MagicJack.