skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
A new Toyota Corolla in the Netherlands costs around €25k, of which around 11k are taxes (5k sales tax plus 6k vehicle tax). Gas price at the pump are €1.67/L (= €6.32/gallon), of which almost half are (sales+excise) taxes.

Our vaunted public services don't come cheap.
Disinfection and mobility robots unveiled at new station in Tokyo
Yes absolutely ! That is why I was also talking about the Tesla has a "status symbol" :) .

Tesla are doubly expensive also because they usually fall into the sports cars category and insurance will make you pay way more.

Also, you probably need a safe place to park it. It is not true everywhere but I know that where I live, there is places where it would get vandalized pretty quickly.
I bet they're doing a lot more A/B tests than that. I work with a system that has thousands going on at any one time, I wouldn't be surprised that that is typical for bigger companies that get into the testing culture like that.
I have access to my (Google) building to allow me to get to the hardware lab there, but it's somewhat discouraged to do so.

Equipment is not to leave the lab, but we are encouraged to set things up to allow as much to happen remotely as possible. So I've got remote power, remote debug probes, a brace of EM100 QSPI emulators, etc. The net result is that unless I need to physically change the cabling on something I can work from home. I work on data center hardware which makes this pretty practical. I don't know how folks on the consumer side of things are faring.
(attempt to) being sarcastic ain't necessarily condescending. my take from the unedited parent comment was that it was patronizing towards the grandparent ("in english it is" so and so), but anyway thanks for clarification.
> What is the functional difference between a named construct "Params" and just allowing named parameters?

That "just" is doing a lot of work. I've not used PHP for a few years, but off the top of my head I can forsee the following problems:

- `call_user_func` would need to change to support this, e.g. accepting and passing-along named parameters.

- `call_user_func_array` would need to change, e.g. passing along associative-array arguments as named parameters.

- `func_get_args` would need to change, e.g. returning an associative array

Other parts of the standard library, like ReflectionParameter, would also need corresponding changes.

On their own I don't think those are necessarily bad. However, this would break a lot of code which relies on those functions and their invariants. For example, currying and partial application would become more complicated (e.g. http://chriswarbo.net/blog/2014-02-21-partial_application___... ).

I'm not necessarily against this change, but I would make the following points:

Extending APIs is a breaking change, since it breaks invariants/contracts that previously held (in this case by function definitions and call sites). This breaks backwards-compatibility, and that should be acknowledged and stated explicitly, rather than ignored. Here's a quick example of code which breaks, since it relies on the now-violated invariant that the parameter order of a function call matches that of the definition:

function call_with_strings() {
$args = func_get_args();
$f = array_shift($args);
$strings = [];
foreach ($args as $arg) {
$strings[] = strval($arg);
}
return call_user_func($f, $strings);
}

Secondly: there's a definite bandwagon effect between scripting languages like PHP/Python/JS/etc., for better (easier to transfer between) or worse (uncompelling monocultures lacking innovation/USP). Just because a feature exists in one, doesn't necessarily make it a good idea for the others (or the first, for that matter!); conversely, there are lots of great features out there which scripting languages don't seem to have picked up, and which are hardly ever brought up in these discussions. For example:

- Default arguments are generally supported, e.g. `parseInt(i, base=10)`. Alternative approaches to the same problem, like currying, are mostly absent, e.g. `parseIntFor(base, i); parseInt = parseIntFor(10);`

- Generators are generally supported, e.g. `for x in foo: yield x`. Alternative approaches to the same problem, like delimited continuations, are mostly absent, e.g. `reset; for x in foo: shift(x);`. This is especially interesting, since it's just an extension of exception handling, which is another generally-supported feature!

- Named parameters are generally supported, e.g. `foo(a=1, c=5)`. Alternative approaches to the same problem, like row-polymorphism, are mostly absent, e.g. `foo(['a' => 1, 'c' => 5])`.
Patent for 6800 CPU includes a diagram of a Slushy Machine
If the USPS would stop filling my box with pounds of junk newsprint and other spam, then I might be sympathetic. Amazon sends me stuff I ask for. The majority of stuff USPS sends me goes directly in the trash. It shouldn’t be allowed to send people bulk mail unless that person opts in. Mailbox spam is worse than digital spam because there is a distinct environmental cost to printing so much crap. USPS shouldn’t be providing discounted services for anyone.
i agree, you're never going to be able to ski down a black-level route if you don't take the very first risk: going from blue-level to red-level.
but with my prev comment i hope to kind of shed light on how dangerous skiing actually is as i often hear people having very relaxed opinions on skiing so i just feel obligated to share my experience lol

so to lead back to the original comment, i don't think it's ironic at all that Schuhmacher had his accident while skiing instead of driving F1. i consider skiing much more dangerous. however do take that opinion with a grain of salt. i'm not into F1, have never driven a F1 car, never watched a full race and don't know the statistics about average injury rates of F1 drivers. but i do know that the mountains are full of idiots going high speed, which isn't even required to get a high level injury. while on the race track, you drive against other professionals.
The trilogy overall is worth wading through, if only for the ridiculo-scienceFiction on offer - but if you enjoy good characterisation and dialogue, I'm afraid it doesn't improve on the first.
> immigrants are always second-class citizens

That is true for every country on the planet.
Blackboard Hacking
More interesting is the cause: "because others might find them offensive." Americans are discovering that freedom of speech doesn't imply freedom from societal consequences over what people heard, and the Internet has amplified everyone's speech such that the radius of hearing is out of one's control if one decides to say something on the loud channels.
FB has valet parking for employees, are you going for a black tie event everyday of the week, but in a hoodie?
I find keeping up with the popular frameworks improve my knowledge of best practices and patterns.
They are referring to hypersonic glide vehicles here. Whereas conventional warheads follow a ballistic trajectory that can be predicted while in transit, hypersonic glide vehicles (HGVs) can at least to a limited extent maneuver. HGVs also tend to fly on a lower trajectory than ballistic warheads, meaning they are more difficult to detect by radar. These two factors make HGVs good at getting past current anti-ballistic missile (ABM) systems like those the US has spent a lot of time and money developing.
I haven't been this exhausted ever. Being productive at work and handling my children's needs throughout the day is unbelievably taxing, leading to Friday nights where I fall asleep with them ~730 and end up sleeping 12 hours.

I hope this leads to realization of how important work/life balance is here in the States. This Protestant work ethic simply isn't necessary with today's productivity.
I meant environmentally independent power sources as being baseline power. Probably bad wording on my part.

You can not guarantee, no matter the capacity of power storage, that you never produce too little power over a long enough period.

This is the basis of my opinion that the closer to 100% renewable you get the faster the amount of additional capacity you need rises.

Something like 1/x over-provisioning[1] needed, where x is the percentage of environmentally independent power sources.

[1] Not sure if that is the right word.
Nope. Analog reading devices.
If everyone's moving to remote working. Do you believe this will push for dumping wages as well? I don't mean moving jobs to India, but rather recruit remote workers in relative low-income areas of the US?

Not discrediting the amount of skills available on the US East coast but why wouldn't FAANG try to source new remote employees elsewhere in the US?
Once there is a vaccine in the US, readily available.
I am sometimes tempted to tell colleagues "well I've done this professionally since before you were born, so...", but so far I've resisted the temptation. Hope I can keep the streak going :)

Even if you're right, it's not a great argument, because there isn't really a rational counter argument.
There is a formula for working out how long it will take for a conspiracy theory to be made public based on how many people are involved in it.

I guess you could use it in reverse and produce an upper limit on how many people could be involved in a conspiracy if you assume that it has been secret for five years.

That said, Elon Musk gives every impression of being a massive chatterbox who can’t keep his mouth shut even when its the SEC threatening to take Tesla away from him, so I very much doubt any conspiracy involves him.
You answered your own question:

> you wonder why more people in the suburbs are not buying EVs.

> Money is not the problem given how many expensive German cars are on the streets.
I'm sure a small percentage of people would do the same!

On the other hand, I think the large majority of people want to go back to the office (once it is safe to do so)
I have first-hand experience of this with OpenFaaS and other projects and wrote-up about it here, if anyone is interested in some long-term experience - https://blog.alexellis.io/the-5-pressures-of-leadership/
So like https://www.forbes.com/sites/beasleydavid/2020/05/27/google-...
This kind of situation is not evenly distributed. For example the Linux kernel is mostly like this, but lots of other things are not like this.
NSA-tapped undersea cables, North Pacific Ocean, 2016
True. Many thousands of people have security clearances in the US. The penalty for breaking security clearance is harsh and many have done so but still, there have to be tons of secrets kept by the state. Not a big stretch to imagine companies convincing people to keep secrets.
Google did give employees about $1300 to spend on office equipment.
Intel weighs exit from manufacturing chips
On the other hands, many JetBrains IDEs will insert the names of parameters in a function call inline to help identify what passed variable belongs to which parameter. It’s not inserting it in the actual source code, but exists purely in the UI (https://www.jetbrains.com/help/clion/parameter-hints.html). It’s useful if $LANG doesn’t have named parameters
I'm sure a small minority of people are in the same boat as you.

I think the vast majority want to go back once it is safe to do so.
I couldn't buy a car because my email address was 'invalid'
I'm pleased to see that WFH is becoming more normal.
Those are already challenges the USPS has to deal with. They have infrastructure in place to address those challenges. If they're paying those costs anyway, they might as well add services that can take advantage of that investment in exchange for more revenue.

There certainly would be an additional marginal cost, but it would be much, much less than an entity trying to start that from zero.
Credentials are non transferable and non-voidable unless you are later discovered having cheated. I don’t get what point you’re trying to make here.
I love this document as well for very similar reasons. It's interesting how attached people become to the ritual of doing things instead of thinking about why they are doing it.

In my experience it seems like a ton of things that people want to do with agile is get to skip the writing and design work that has to happen to make deep technical projects happen. There is a really strong desire to just start implementing and then be able to refactor to working code. Of course there is always pressure to deliver faster so the refactor only ever gets half done and then there is an architectural mess.
>Ironically the truth is the opposite - there's a good reason for saying "all business is personal".

I'm amused that often the same people screeching that Trump is incompetent will also deride him for going "on and on" about relationships.
Sure, but how would you organize the new one?
Prezto default prompt (soren) is async.
Not having to spend lotta money in licenses to work with their computer helps also.
I mean if they took results from Bing and Yandex and applied their own ranking algorithm to form the composite are they still a UI over Bing?
Lesson 1: Use the tech you have

Lesson 2: People crave contact

Lesson 3: The workday is changing

Lesson 4: To attract talent, you might need some new perks

Lesson 5: Take it slow
...Do we think that opium farmers in Afghanistan have the same equipment as your parents' exurb? I would be surprised
For your second point, I think you meant FeliCa. Osaifu-keitai is the name of the integration with phones, but FeliCa is the name of the far superior NFC standard that never took off outside Japan.
Can you elaborate on your problem with Yahoo? I ran into that a while back, where a yahoo email address couldn't send to me... strange since DKIM validates for the domain.

There are all valid points and I question my decision to run my mailserver, but in the spirit of the Internet I continue to do so.
For some background—the Yamaha FM chips were fairly clever. Tie together an adder, some lookup tables, and a few registers and you’ve got sound. In particular, no need for a multiplier! The spartan design is the reason why they could release such inexpensive digital synthesizers in 1983, and then stick them in PCs and consoles.

People still write songs or develop games to be played on retro hardware, and having a VST plugin for the Adlib means that you can easily use your favorite DAW to write the track, and then export the MIDI file for playback on real hardware or in your demo or whatever.
Nope. They have to generate recurrent income in some form or another, otherwise they won't get the green light.
I would gladly pay $5 a month for a totally ad-free and tracking-free search engine that lets me easily block sites and/or downvote results that aren’t relevant to me. I already pay for Apple hardware and Protonmail, and use FF and DDG whenever I can, in no small part to avoid Google and MS. I would love to see DDG or someone else offer a no-nonsense, “premium” search engine.
>This depends on what your "client" is. If you're making library calls, lawyers get uncomfortable.

Ah, in this case, this software is designed to maximize conversions to the paid commercial license, so they deliberately use the AGPL in a way which makes it inconvenient for your internal use. This is not common in software which does not have an alternative commercial license. I don't really appreciate this model because it is disrespectful of the copyright of third-party contributions.
Congratulations on having already couple of years of experience at your age. I've been on the same boat 10 years ago.

As for 10, 15, 20 years of experience: As long as you make sure it's actual 10 years instead of 1 year repeated 10 times you mostly gain awareness and intuition for engineering on a higher level of abstraction as well as the place of technology in a broader business context.

Ruby, Django, MVC, Elixir, TS, React, Vue, functional programming, immutability... specific things, tools, technologies, approaches are becoming less important. The experience is getting transferable and you learn when it makes sense to code the Rails way in Django.

Slowly "I'm going to learn React/Vue so I can do front-end" will become "I have to do front-end so I'm going to use React/Vue". When choosing technology you'll realize that the "job" in "finding the best for the job" is not just delivering the solution. It's making sure the solution is easily maintainable for years. In that timescale stack homogeneity, hiring strategy etc sometimes become even more important than the tech fit. You might think serverless is the way to go for your new task. But is it really worth to introduce go lambdas to the system when you already have 20 ruby devs?

I recommend early switch from "I'm an engineer, let me know what to code" to "I'm here to grow the product/business, let me see what I can do". No one pays for delivering code, companies pay to to solve business problems. The problems you solve don't have to be contained to those that come with your job description and the solutions doesn't have involve technology. No matter the aspect of the inner workings of a company (or life in general), everything can always be improved. Identify the things, suggest/provide solutions and you'll be both satisfied and rewarded.

Good luck! :)
I work on open source projects* when I have a need that other tools don't quite fill properly, and because I like to work with languages like Rust and C that I don't get to use at my day job. I'd like to have a "buy me a cup of coffee" button on my Github because I have put thousands of hours into my side projects, but have no idea how to monetize really. And I wouldn't want to use the monthly supporter model because often when I finish a project I want to take months off, and may not have another idea for a while.

*like https://github.com/spieglt/flyingcarpet

https://github.com/spieglt/whatfiles

https://github.com/spieglt/cloaker
The company I worked for as a dev lead was acquired by private equity and by the time I had any knowledge about AWS the infrastructure gatekeepers and consultants took over.

I started looking for a job and got lucky that another company was trying to build an in house development department led by a new CTO. They had outsourced all of the development before.

The new CTO was very forward looking and wanted to make the company “cloud native” and improve the processes. He only had a high level understanding of AWS as did I. He took a chance on me and I became both the de facto “cloud architect” and the person he called when he wanted a customer facing project done from the ground up without having to deal with the slow moving “scrum process”.

I was quite happy at the company and would have stayed a couple of years probably even knowing I could make more money somewhere else and then Covid hit along with an across the board pay cut.

I was still not really looking, a 10% pay cut at a time when we couldn’t travel or really go out was an inconvenience but not earth shattering.

Then a recruiter contacted me for a software development position at Amazon. I wasn’t willing to relocate or do the leetCode monkey dance but we talked a little and then she forwarded my information to a recruiter on the AWS side.

I saw the interview process was basically a high level technical interview to determine whether I knew the basics of AWS (I did) and all about the Leadership Principles. I knew I could answer the “tell me about a time when...” questions with the best of them and the interview process was going to be fully remote.

To keep a long story from getting longer - I work at Amazon as an AWS Consultant from the comfort of my own home in the suburbs in a low cost of living area.
It's all about accounting.

Naively, you might want to keep track only of money that flows in and out of your business.

But that can be rather misleading. So typically account for expenses when they are incurred. That means for example that in your accounting you set aside a bit of money for your rent every day, even if the physical cash only leaves your wallet once a month or even once a year.

That way your accounting reflects the economic reality of your business, even if it doesn't reflect how much cash is in your wallet.

The economic reality is important, because even if you have cash on hand now, but predictably won't earn enough money to pay back a debt that's coming due at the end of the year, you better panic early instead of acting all surprised.

See https://www.accountingtools.com/articles/when-are-expenses-i... for more details.

Well, when you promise people a pension dependent on how long they worked for you, it makes sense to make a provision every day they work for you, for the predictable outflow of cash you will have in a few decades.

Typically you build up a fund or some kind of reserve to meet these predictable future outflows. See also https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reserve_(accounting)

In the special case of pensions, you might even go one step further: instead of just having a reserve on your books, you might want to ring fence a specific amount of money and put that part of your balance sheet in a separate investment vehicle or fund. So that for example bankruptcy of the parent company wouldn't imperil pensions already promised.

See also https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pensions_crisis

The opposite of having such reserves is called 'unfunded liabilities'. Sounds nasty, doesn't it?

From the Pension Crisis article:

> In addition to states, U.S. cities and municipalities also have pension programs. There are 220 state pension plans and approximately 3,200 locally administered plans. By one measure, the unfunded liabilities for these programs are as high as $574 billion. The term unfunded liability represents the amount of money that would have to be set aside today such that interest and principal would cover the gap between program cash inflows and outflows over a long period of time.
The unedited comment literally has a line above the one you mention saying:

> Eat the frog? Which language is that? The expression sounds _really cool_!

...
Indeed: GPT-3 is liable to produce the same density of typos as its learning corpus, which is from humans.
Toothpaste For Dinner feels like he's carrying the farside torch. prolific, albiet sometimes at the expense of sensibility http://www.toothpastefordinner.com/