Hacker News: tomcorrigan

New comment by tomcorrigan in "Navier-Stokes – Tristan Buckmaster [pdf]"

tomcorrigan — Wed, 09 Sep 2026 00:15:15 +0000

> Also keep in mind we've only heard one side of the story, so any interpretation of events so far is incomplete.

That’s not quite true though is it. OpenAI is fortunate enough to have one of its employees (you) here to advocate for its side of the story.

New comment by tomcorrigan in "Navier-Stokes – Tristan Buckmaster [pdf]"

tomcorrigan — Wed, 09 Sep 2026 00:07:12 +0000

Sure; if you define the quality of a problem by reference to your ability to solve it.

In the real world the quality of these esoteric problems is typically gauged by the difficulty of solving them.

New comment by tomcorrigan in "On the Navier–Stokes Millennium Prize Problem"

tomcorrigan — Tue, 08 Sep 2026 23:50:20 +0000

I’m pretty sure you think you are doing a good job of defending your employer and you probably believe “Open”AI are the good guys here. I also acknowledge that they butter your bread so your financial future currently depends on their success.

However the way you are conducting yourself in public, while announcing yourself as an OpenAI employee is doing enormous harm to the greater and magnanimous aim of your organisation. Take a step back and read the temperature of the room. Being the smartest guy in the room will never protect you from alienating the rest of the room into a baying mob. Right now you are Icarus flying straight into the sun.

New comment by tomcorrigan in "Atlassian fired me while I was taking care of my wife who is fighting cancer"

tomcorrigan — Tue, 21 Sep 2021 19:40:22 +0000

What you are describing is 'no guaranteed PTO - everything is at the whim of your manager' which is a far cry from the 'unlimited PTO' narrative the employer is pushing. Calling it unlimited if it comes with limits is disingenuous and likely to cause anger and resentment as we can see here.

New comment by tomcorrigan in "Atlassian fired me while I was taking care of my wife who is fighting cancer"

tomcorrigan — Tue, 21 Sep 2021 18:50:02 +0000

So you mean 'no defined limit but definitely not unlimited' or do you mean 'unlimited except with the following limitations'? You don't have a great argument.

New comment by tomcorrigan in "Things Unexpectedly Named After People"

tomcorrigan — Sun, 19 Jul 2020 18:41:50 +0000

For the benefit of anyone else reading fabrication is the key word in the origin of “Mobile homes”

New comment by tomcorrigan in "Takotsubo cardiomyopathy triggered by wasabi consumption"

tomcorrigan — Wed, 25 Sep 2019 14:54:10 +0000

She didn’t die

New comment by tomcorrigan in "Apple Agrees to Deal with Ireland Over $15B Unpaid Tax Issue"

tomcorrigan — Tue, 05 Dec 2017 05:37:23 +0000

That's called transfer pricing and is essentially illegal in almost every jurisdiction. There are of course plenty of loopholes and ways around it and large companies such as Apple spend a fortune with the big 4 accounting firms to take advantage of every such loophole.

New comment by tomcorrigan in "Stripe Elements: Pre-built UI components to help you create checkout flows"

tomcorrigan — Wed, 04 Oct 2017 02:05:17 +0000

That's only if linking from https to an http page which is not the case here.

New comment by tomcorrigan in "Apple adds a tracker blocker to desktop Safari"

tomcorrigan — Tue, 06 Jun 2017 12:04:39 +0000

I am in Australia and we have had contactless payments for years. Apple Pay with an iPhone was more trouble than using a card. On the other hand since I got my Apple Watch I haven't carried credit cards with me. It started out as a 1 month experiment to see if I could survive and it has never been a problem.

New comment by tomcorrigan in "GitHub announcements: Marketplace, Apps and GraphQL API"

tomcorrigan — Mon, 22 May 2017 14:20:52 +0000

I don't think you understand your "really qualified audience" very well if you thought a coordinated marketing campaign with all the other "chosen" launch partners was a good idea.

New comment by tomcorrigan in "What do you prefer – the French or the Silicon Valley dinner?"

tomcorrigan — Tue, 28 Mar 2017 06:28:41 +0000

The deeper you get in to a bottle of wine the easier the conversation becomes.

New comment by tomcorrigan in "Why is this little construction crane illegal in New York City? (2016)"

tomcorrigan — Mon, 27 Mar 2017 23:48:39 +0000

Next time carry it up one flight of stairs and put it in the lift out of sight of the doorman.

New comment by tomcorrigan in "America's Biggest Asphalt Plant Is Shutting"

tomcorrigan — Mon, 06 Feb 2017 07:27:28 +0000

I'm very dubious about the first source you posted. It claims vehicles consume 15-20% less fuel when travelling on concrete compared to asphalt. That statistic doesn't pass a basic sniff test in my opinion.

New comment by tomcorrigan in "How Australia is stubbing out smoking"

tomcorrigan — Wed, 01 Feb 2017 03:16:25 +0000

You are correct about the HK case. However there weren't many observers who though Phillip Morris stood a chance. The lawsuit was much more about signalling to other countries considering plain packaging than actually overturning the laws in Australia. There is still a pending WTO arbitration which is also expected to be decided in Australia's favour.

See also the outcome of Phillip Morris v Uruguay

New comment by tomcorrigan in "How Australia is stubbing out smoking"

tomcorrigan — Wed, 01 Feb 2017 02:47:26 +0000

Their concerns were misplaced and the outcome lawsuits against the Australian government (they won every time) show how ridiculous the scare campaign about ISDS was.

New comment by tomcorrigan in "How Australia is stubbing out smoking"

tomcorrigan — Wed, 01 Feb 2017 02:45:06 +0000

It's definitely not. Illegal drugs are also much more expensive in Australia than in many other places in the world. There is a growing problem with black market untaxed "chop chop" tobacco here. The tax increases have made it more and more attractive to both importers and smokers.

New comment by tomcorrigan in "Uber Hires Former Google Search Chief Amit Singhal as SVP of Engineering"

tomcorrigan — Sat, 21 Jan 2017 11:24:34 +0000

That ignores common sense. If Uber is more profitable by circumventing W2 regulations it will do so. There is no morality in capitalism, only worship of the bottom line. Businesses don't care about "reasonable" regulations, they care about profit. I don't think there is anything wrong with that. A corporation is not a person, it can't be expected to think like one. Instead people must elect representatives that impose laws that force business to operate in a way that is compatible with our collective morality.

New comment by tomcorrigan in "Browser auto-fill phishing"

tomcorrigan — Thu, 05 Jan 2017 23:54:59 +0000

Why would I even care about credit card information being stolen. My bank will reimburse that no questions asked. I am much more concerned about my personal information being leaked. CC fraud costs other people money, identity fraud is much more damaging to me.

New comment by tomcorrigan in "HP Allegedly Time Bombs Unofficial Ink Cartridges from Working in Its Printers"

tomcorrigan — Sun, 18 Sep 2016 15:29:46 +0000

The conduct described in the article is definitely unlawful in Australia.