Hacker News: vijayr

New comment by vijayr in "“This Is Serious”: Facebook Begins Its Downward Spiral"

vijayr — Wed, 24 Jan 2018 22:01:46 +0000

What are you replacing gmail with?

New comment by vijayr in "California Police Chiefs Misrepresent License Plate Privacy Bill"

vijayr — Sat, 20 Jan 2018 14:53:38 +0000

Why?

Your phone number is public, but you wouldn't be happy if the lat/long of your phone during various times of the day is public, right?

Ask HN: Is it possible to train oneself to be calmer/kinder?

vijayr — Sat, 20 Jan 2018 14:10:42 +0000

Not referring to "grit your teeth and be fake polite" which I've noticed many people do. But genuinely be calm (when production systems go down and customers are yelling, for example) and kind (especially when others around us are unreasonable just because they can) and lastly, be kind to self. And absolutely not use crap like sarcasm to deal with the situation.

Any tools that worked for you in professional and personal life?

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16193377

Points: 36

# Comments: 29

New comment by vijayr in "Ask HN: What are the better countries to immigrate for software developers?"

vijayr — Wed, 17 Jan 2018 14:09:52 +0000

From my limited research Germany and Australia seem good, though it doesn't seem easy in Germany if you want to become a citizen. With more and more job losses and automation, I think this hysteria against (legal) immigration is only going to grow, justified or not. There would always be a place for people with highly valued skills though.

I wonder if there are smaller countries (like Estonia etc) which might be worth exploring.

On this topic, does anyone know of any resource that can ask a series of questions (age, qualifications etc) and suggest countries they are qualified for?

New comment by vijayr in "Dropbox Developer Terms and Conditions"

vijayr — Tue, 16 Jan 2018 19:52:58 +0000

It is beyond absurd. It is a lose-lose situation for end users - if we read each line of every EULA, thats all we would be doing all day. If we don't, then we accept very unfriendly terms.

Here is a funny example:

https://www.geek.com/games/gamestation-eula-collects-7500-so...

New comment by vijayr in "How Automakers Invented the Crime of “Jaywalking”"

vijayr — Tue, 16 Jan 2018 16:42:01 +0000

But there is a difference between promoting a product vs shifting blame, isn't it?

New comment by vijayr in "How Automakers Invented the Crime of “Jaywalking”"

vijayr — Tue, 16 Jan 2018 16:32:00 +0000

Reporters could send in the basic details of a traffic accident and would get in return a complete article to print the next day. These articles, printed widely, shifted the blame for accidents to pedestrians

To me, that is the craziest sentence in the article. Reporters were outsourcing writing to the auto industry? Of course they blamed the pedestrians! In what world is this ethical?

What is next? Sending overdose details to pharma companies for them to blame the drug users?

New comment by vijayr in "The British Once Built a 1,100-Mile Hedge Through the Middle of India"

vijayr — Tue, 16 Jan 2018 13:22:54 +0000

India was a collection of many many smaller kingdoms when the British came to the scene. There was a whole bunch of infighting and backstabbing going on which the British happily encouraged and exploited.

It is definitely amazing that they could do what they did, considering the sheer size of the country.

New comment by vijayr in "U.S. Bicycle Industry: Statistics and Facts"

vijayr — Wed, 10 Jan 2018 21:23:05 +0000

I was thinking the same. Many links on the page are behind a paywall (ex: https://www.statista.com/statistics/225342/export-value-of-b...) Curious on kind of people who use this, journalists maybe?

New comment by vijayr in "A Cryptocurrency Website Changes Its Data, and $100B in Market Value Vanishes"

vijayr — Wed, 10 Jan 2018 02:22:57 +0000

Does anyone know where CMC gets the circulation numbers?

New comment by vijayr in "Apple's privacy feature costs ad companies millions"

vijayr — Tue, 09 Jan 2018 15:50:13 +0000

Here is an experiment that seems to have gone well (banning outdoor advertising)

https://99percentinvisible.org/article/clean-city-law-secret...

New comment by vijayr in "James Damore has filed a class action lawsuit against Google"

vijayr — Mon, 08 Jan 2018 18:55:57 +0000

presence of Caucasians and males was mocked with ‘boos’ during companywide weekly meetings.

What does this even mean? People booed simply because they were white and male? I honestly don't get it. And who did the booing?

New comment by vijayr in "Motel 6 routinely gave guests' information to immigration officials"

vijayr — Thu, 04 Jan 2018 19:30:37 +0000

My experience is similar to your parent comment - I've never been able to check into a hotel without showing photo ID (I never paid cash btw, always credit card, always in advance and in many cases had the print out of the booking). Same for hip boutique hotels and motels.

There was a free street concert - even for that the road was blocked on both sides and only those with valid IDs could get in.

So yeah, maybe not universal but it happens enough to be a hassle.

New comment by vijayr in "Canadian open data portal"

vijayr — Thu, 28 Dec 2017 13:16:57 +0000

One of the most striking columns in that list is the "Government Spending" column. It is red all over the place, including top two in the list - Taiwan and Australia!

New comment by vijayr in "Cities with Uber Have Lower Rates of Ambulance Usage"

vijayr — Tue, 26 Dec 2017 12:54:41 +0000

They sent me a bill for over $900. For taking a picture, and giving me tylenol and an ace bandage.

That is awful :(

Imagine someone making minimum wage. 900$ is huge for most people.

Honest question - outside of politics, is there anything a person on the road do to help make this situation better (other than not falling sick)? Any company/org working on solutions?

New comment by vijayr in "Can You Think Yourself into a Different Person? (2015)"

vijayr — Mon, 25 Dec 2017 22:13:33 +0000

I've seen this mentioned multiple times here. Did you go to any of the retreats? Could you share a bit more info, about your experience?

New comment by vijayr in "Land Registry data reveals London’s secret tunnels"

vijayr — Tue, 19 Dec 2017 13:10:29 +0000

This blog is awesome. Some of the entries are eye opening and scary - like this one https://whoownsengland.org/2017/04/17/the-thirty-landowners-...

Is there anything like this for the U.S?

It is crazy to see such huge amounts of land owned by a few individuals/companies.

New comment by vijayr in "Ask HN: What are you planning to learn next year and why?"

vijayr — Mon, 18 Dec 2017 20:37:10 +0000

Any specific projects you are planning to make? Also, what resources are you using to learn?

New comment by vijayr in "Ask HN: How can I become a self-taught software engineer?"

vijayr — Mon, 18 Dec 2017 16:06:50 +0000

This might be true in law, medicine etc, not necessarily software. Sure, there are some big companies that will filter resumes based on degrees, but there are tons of companies that will hire based on skill set and expertise. Software development is still one of those jobs where one can go pretty far with skills alone (both technical and soft skills).

Also, "most coveted" in this case may be big companies

Ask HN: What are you planning to learn next year and why?

vijayr — Sun, 17 Dec 2017 18:44:46 +0000

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15947015

Points: 20

# Comments: 28