Hacker News: vikingcaffiene

15.5-Inch MacBook Air Expected to Launch in Spring 2023

vikingcaffiene — Thu, 15 Dec 2022 15:31:46 +0000

Article URL: https://www.macrumors.com/2022/12/15/15-inch-macbook-air-spring-2023/

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=34001055

Points: 19

# Comments: 12

New comment by vikingcaffiene in "TX-6 – Teenage Engineering"

vikingcaffiene — Thu, 21 Apr 2022 16:54:04 +0000

I have an OP-1 and love it. Its a mainstay in my recording and live performances and honestly my "main" synth despite it looking like a toy. I keep finding new uses for it. Example: I needed backup vocals for a part and none of my bandmates could do it. I sampled the backup vocals and just play them while I sing lead in that spot. Really cool.

As for this mixer, I would love this bit of gear but I just can't justify spending that kind of scratch for what essentially amounts to a mini mixer (which I already have). It seems really great though and it being battery powered and tactile like that is great.

Atlassian just gave us an estimate on our support ticket it's not pretty

vikingcaffiene — Tue, 12 Apr 2022 14:14:19 +0000

Article URL: https://old.reddit.com/r/sysadmin/comments/u14qqq/atlassian_just_gave_us_an_estimate_on_our_support/

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=31003015

Points: 4

# Comments: 0

New comment by vikingcaffiene in "Real World Recommendation System"

vikingcaffiene — Mon, 11 Apr 2022 22:55:20 +0000

Fair enough. I still think people should read stuff like this with a healthy measure of skepticism.

New comment by vikingcaffiene in "Real World Recommendation System"

vikingcaffiene — Mon, 11 Apr 2022 17:16:25 +0000

Gentle reminder to anyone reading this that your problems are probably not FAANG problems. If you architect your system trying to solve problems you don't have, you are gonna have a bad time.

Elon Musk appointed to twitters board of directors

vikingcaffiene — Tue, 05 Apr 2022 12:41:24 +0000

Article URL: https://twitter.com/paraga/status/1511320953598357505

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=30918232

Points: 41

# Comments: 12

New comment by vikingcaffiene in "Ask HN: When did 7 interviews become “normal”?"

vikingcaffiene — Sun, 03 Apr 2022 02:45:49 +0000

Yeah you have to use the appropriate strategy for the interviewee. In the case of a junior, you are looking for potential and teachability as you said. You tailor your questions towards that angle. I've yet to see any take home or live coding challenge that answered those type of questions for me. All it told me is what I already knew: they were more junior and needed mentoring.

New comment by vikingcaffiene in "Ask HN: When did 7 interviews become “normal”?"

vikingcaffiene — Sun, 03 Apr 2022 02:38:28 +0000

This is the right way to go. If I were looking for a job right now I'd be hitting you up. I've said as much in a few other threads but it's not only the right thing to do, its a competitive advantage.

New comment by vikingcaffiene in "Albini pitching Nirvana: “I would like to be paid like a plumber” (1992)"

vikingcaffiene — Sat, 02 Apr 2022 23:39:30 +0000

I'm not sure a lot people know that Albini ended up washing his hands of his work with Nirvana. After the recordings were wrapped and the mixes were done, Kurt was really unhappy with some of the sounds. If memory serves it was the vocals and the bass. They ended up doing some overdubs and sharpening things up in the low end in mastering. The very thing Albini specifically said he didn't want them to do. I personally think the results speak for themselves. In Utero is a FANTASTIC rock record. I can't help but wonder what the original would have sounded like though...

New comment by vikingcaffiene in "Ask HN: When did 7 interviews become “normal”?"

vikingcaffiene — Sat, 02 Apr 2022 23:21:38 +0000

While I see where you are coming from but respectfully disagree with your conclusions.

> My point is that there's less need to test people during their interviews for occupations with licensing, because they've already been tested before they even showed up for the interview.

I mean past job experience and education are pretty good indicators? Is there some facet to the accounting certification process I am unaware of that filters out under performers? If my past few accountants are any indication, then no. :)

All of that aside, I've not seen any data that suggests the hiring practices common in our field produce better outcomes than that which I am evangelizing for. Furthermore, those practices are common FAANG type companies which can offer much higher compensation packages than a typical startup. I assert that it's not only the right thing to do, it is also a _competitive advantage_ to have a streamlined, humane, hiring process.

New comment by vikingcaffiene in "Ask HN: When did 7 interviews become “normal”?"

vikingcaffiene — Sat, 02 Apr 2022 22:31:48 +0000

> Hiring managers are timid about letting people go and it can take an extraordinary amount of time to part ways with unproductive people.

With respect, it sounds like you had a bad manager. Underperforming teammates are your managers responsibility. They should be working to address that issue with said teammate or part ways. Sucks. Not fun. It's the job though.

New comment by vikingcaffiene in "Ask HN: When did 7 interviews become “normal”?"

vikingcaffiene — Sat, 02 Apr 2022 22:27:17 +0000

> generic backend principles are very easy to spew correct answers for without actually knowing how to code

I'm not sure I agree with this. IMO trying to get someone to explain the ins and outs of a particular facet of the technology your team works in is less effective than getting a sense of how a candidate architects their code and manages complexity. That type of "art more than a science" craftsmanship is not something you can easily fake in my experience. Maybe I'll be proven wrong. We shall see. So far I've had pretty good luck with the approach and gotten some really great teammates.

New comment by vikingcaffiene in "Ask HN: When did 7 interviews become “normal”?"

vikingcaffiene — Sat, 02 Apr 2022 22:18:11 +0000

> Yea because we live in a place where everyone is super honest and no one is going to try and take advantage of that to make 500k a year.

You are right that there is more risk with this approach. I honestly think that its a better, more humane way to do things though. Anecdotally, I've hired a couple _really_ solid developers via this methodology. At least in my case, it's been working out well. As always, you try stuff and iterate.

> I'm an introvert, I suck at communicating orally.

I get it. So am I. Its actually very hard for me to reply to these comments b/c of my general aversion to putting myself out there! I don't think there's a one size fits all solution. At my company at least, being able to communicate effectively both orally and written, is important. We do a lot of pairing and documentation etc. Thats not for everyone. YMMV.

New comment by vikingcaffiene in "Ask HN: When did 7 interviews become “normal”?"

vikingcaffiene — Sat, 02 Apr 2022 22:08:45 +0000

> Accountants have occupational licensing.

Forgive my ignorance, but is this during every interview? If I am reading this right this is a certification they'd need to get which would be on their resume. Do they need to re-prove those skills every time?

New comment by vikingcaffiene in "Ask HN: When did 7 interviews become “normal”?"

vikingcaffiene — Sat, 02 Apr 2022 20:34:45 +0000

Thanks! So, I'll say that we are still tweaking and trying to get things just right but, as of the time of me writing this, here is the process:

- HR call 30 min.

- Talk to hiring manager (me) 30 min. Get to know each other and feel out if there is a mutual fit.

- Technical panel 1hr. Speak with several engineers on the team who share your discipline (front end or back end for example). Again no live coding. We just talk through stuff.

- Talk to the team PM. 30 min. Get a sense of how you collaborate with our product team partners to build new features in our application.

After that it's the usual comp negotiations, background, and reference checks. Assuming all that works out then hired!

We're hiring so, if anyone is interested in finding out more, contact info is in my bio.

New comment by vikingcaffiene in "Ask HN: When did 7 interviews become “normal”?"

vikingcaffiene — Sat, 02 Apr 2022 18:39:07 +0000

Hiring manager here. IMO the current tech hiring norms are gross and not sustainable. It feels like a weird hazing ritual and with the current market, is the single biggest reason you can't hire. Why on earth would someone burn a weekend on a take-home test for your startup when they have 15 other irons in the fire? At my current employer we got rid of all that ridiculousness. No take home test. No live coding. We've gotten the whole process down to a few hours over a few days. I'd like to think it's a mutually respectful process.

I think it's time we accept that the person we are talking to is who they say they are on their resume. You don't see accountants balancing books before they get hired. Why should this be any different? If you aren't who you say you are, its either blatantly obvious in the interview or we'll find out when you join and we'll try to correct or part ways. This is like pretty much any other job out there.

Interview with Senior JavaScript Developer in 2022

vikingcaffiene — Fri, 04 Mar 2022 06:06:34 +0000

Article URL: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uo3cL4nrGOk

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=30551242

Points: 3

# Comments: 0

New comment by vikingcaffiene in "Brandon Sanderson’s Mega-Kickstarter"

vikingcaffiene — Thu, 03 Mar 2022 15:59:58 +0000

I've never heard of this author. Anyone have any good recommendations on where to start? Specific book titles would be appreciated (its hard to find the starting point in a given series sometimes for example)

New comment by vikingcaffiene in "Why I Like Java (2014)"

vikingcaffiene — Mon, 21 Feb 2022 16:58:42 +0000

Modern Java is actually pretty good. It's taken great features from other JVM languages like Kotlin and Scala and is much better for it. The JVM is a wicked fast run time and its nice to have a mature ecosystem of libraries to work from and large pool of developers available who know it inside and out. You could do far worse when picking a language for your team to use.

New comment by vikingcaffiene in "Case against OOP is understated, not overstated (2020)"

vikingcaffiene — Fri, 11 Feb 2022 02:41:58 +0000

I dunno man... I think that giving an entity the ability to perform operations upon itself and thereby changing it, looks neat in these examples but scales poorly in a sufficiently commplex codebase. You could express exactly the same thing but get a lot more bullet proof code if you separate out the thing doing the action from the thing you are acting upon. You could have the thing doing the action return the updated version of the thing you wanted to do said operation upon and its unambiguous what has happened. So something like (psuedocode):

    transferredEmployee = employeeService.transfer(employee, department);

IMO this forces a certain style of coding that ages better and requires keeping less stuff in your head.

My two cents. Have a good one!