skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
Agreed. We use a coding challenge that mimics the type of work we do, and we pay people for their time. We talk through their solutions and get a good sense for their ability to focus, follow written user stories / specs, and their familiarity with common tools. We also get a feel for how well they can talk about their work and the product.

We see a strong correlation between performance on this task and performance and happiness when working with us.

The other important point is that this is very similar to the work we do and the way we generally do it. If someone doesn't like or want to get paid to do this task, they're likely not going to be happy doing it every day if they get the job.
It does apply to Elixir. It will help all around performance but more so it does this on a per-instruction level by reducing dispatch cost in that the interpreter pays (as well as managing to specialize things a little better than what the fixed instruction tables can express).

To get an idea of the instruction stream of the BEAM (not the same as .beam asm), you can use the erts_debug module:

iex> :erts_debug.df(String)

This will dump a BEAM machine instruction stream to a file named Elixir.String.dis in your current working directory. You'll see things like:

000000001B81AFB0: i_func_info_IaaI 0 `'Elixir.String'` `at` 2
000000001B81AFD8: is_integer_fx f(000000001B81AFB0) x(1)
000000001B81AFE8: is_ge_literal_fxc f(000000001B81B008) x(1) `0`
000000001B81B000: i_call_only_f loc(`'Elixir.String'`:`do_at`/2)
000000001B81B008: allocate_tt 2 2
000000001B81B010: move_window2_xxy x(1) x(0) y(0)
000000001B81B018: i_call_f loc(`'Elixir.String'`:`length`/1)
000000001B81B020: i_plus_xyjd x(0) y(0) j(0) x(0)
000000001B81B030: is_ge_literal_fxc f(000000001B81B060) x(0) `0`
000000001B81B048: move_shift_yxx y(1) x(0) x(1)
000000001B81B050: i_call_last_fQ loc(`'Elixir.String'`:`do_at`/2) 2
000000001B81B060: move_deallocate_return_cQ `nil` 2

Each of those instructions are what the .beam file loader currently generates. With the JIT, these will be replaced by machine code.
Then, don't.

I want to move from my 2000 USD a month (this is a good salary already) in a 3rd world country to a FAANG that pays 20k USD per month.

I'm willing to go through any challenge because the reward is superb for me.

Not to mention, without objective interview questions, an introverted non-native English speaker (who doesn't speak latin-germanic-based language) like me would fail most of these subjective questions (e.g. bad culture fit, can't articulate as well as a native speaker).

I like coding challenges. Please do more.
Managing Several Displays with the Multi-Screen Window Placement API
The bank numbers we use in Europe (IBAN) have checksums so you will probably not end up sending your money to a wrong account (at lrast if you type one wrong digit or invert two digits).
The proposed solution to me, is much worse.

> Ask them to build something – anything!

> Instead of a coding challenge, ask them to spend a short time building something they enjoy, and talk about what they did and why.

To me this would be a MUCH more difficult task. A blank canvas is much harder to work with, and downright frightening. Constraints foster creativity.

Having everyone code the same thing helps the interviewer (who is also very busy and has many other things happening in their work life) gauge the different levels of the people applying easily by comparing them on the same task.
You write it, use it once, then throw it away.
Human pilots to battle AI fighters in 2024, says Esper
That's an incredibly weak claim. The statement is certainly true for some value of 'many', but then so is its opposite. Unless many means, "the vast majority", which certainly is not clear and definitely would need some support, it is a meaningless claim.

It is also difficult to see how it is a feature. In a world where additional app stores or side-loading was enabled for those that want it, it wouldn't somehow remove the ability to use a single app store for those that don't.
The NBC Chimes Machine (1999)
I got chance to appear in a couple of coding challenges while applied for jobs. In one test I failed. It was a typical hacker rank riddle. The other I passed as I see my test ran properly yet I got a rejection letter. Another HN based job interview I was asked for a challenge but I simply refused.
Some B350 boards still had legacy PCI slots. I have another PCI card I need to use so there was a spare slot left over. My use case was ripping CDs and for that you are better off using a longer wavelength CD-ROM laser and Plextor drives in particular for their better firmware capabilities.
Can't speak for today (since I don't have an iOS device at the moment) and I understand that some of these things were eventually added as options, but when I used an iPad 2 back in the day, some of the things I jailbroke it for:

Systemwide adblocking, non-Safari browser that wasn't artificially limited, ability to connect bluetooth mouse (mostly for when I used the iPad to remote into other computers), modified keyboard with a number row, file manager, some minor homescreen/launcher tweaks for usability, and one that allowed non-iPad apps to run at a higher resolution (at the time, non-universal apps would run in the old iPhone res, but scaled up instead of running at the higher, newer phone resolution).

I'm sure there were other little tweaks, but the main thing was that there weren't any decent Android or Windows tablet options at the time and while the iPad did many things quite well, there were all sorts of little quality of life things that I was just used to having. They weren't included in iOS and there was no way to (officially) change the launcher or keyboard or any of those other things.

It would have been quite nice to have other software repos besides just the App Store which didn't require me to exploit security flaws to use. Instead I just stopped buying iOS devices after that iPad.
> The virus has come and gone in most of the world and vaccines are still at the stage of being paused because of serious reactions.

Huh? The virus has not "gone," except perhaps in places that implemented actual lockdowns (not just stay at home orders) and maintain strict travel restrictions, like China.

For comparison: China's population is 136 times that of Sweden [1] and it has had fewer COVID deaths in absolute terms than Sweden (4,634 vs 5,846) [2]. Even assuming the true figure in China is 10x what the official number is, that's still far fewer deaths per capita. If China has had an equivalent per capita dealths, it would have had 800,000 dead from COVID [3].

[1] https://www.google.com/search?q=sweden+population vs https://www.google.com/search?q=china+population

[2] https://www.google.com/search?q=sweden+covid+deaths vs https://www.google.com/search?q=china+covid+deaths

[3] https://www.google.com/search?q=(5846+%2F+10.23+million)+*+1...
> Plus the death of all non-mainstream window managers, it seems.

Thanks to wlroots, many new window manager projects are starting, often inspired directly by particular X window managers:

https://github.com/swaywm/wlroots/wiki/Projects-which-use-wl...
I wouldn't worry about it. We've all had bouts of imposter syndrome, or just realizing the limits of our natural abilities compared to others. There's nothing wrong with being a "working-class programmer", as long as the job gets done.

To become better and not "terrible", it takes persistence and continuous improvement - same as any other skill like playing a musical instrument. Keep writing code, paying attention to what's good and what feels messy. Keep learning new patterns and tricks, ways of organization.

What helps me the most are role models: find people whose works you admire, read their books, articles, the code they write. Find examples of software you'd consider excellent, and study what makes it good. Spending time with the best quality material, you'll become more familiar and fluent, to be able to produce works of similar quality and excellence.
Agreed: adding port-knocking and fail2ban in addition to passwordless should not be and are not silly ideas.
- Make sure you're on a NAT.

- Use privacy-respecting mobile devices, such as Apple.

- Use an anti-tracking measures as mentioned like pi-hole and/or hostfile service.

- Forbid social media apps, they are a scourge.

- Use privacy-respecting browsers like Firefox and Safari. Set protection higher than standard.

- Consider browser extensions like ghostery, etc.
I don't think what you call mid-level would be considered only mid-level by other people.

FAANG is also quite a bit harder to get into in London than in the valley, smaller offices and more picky.
A corny phrase that's had an outsized effect on me is, "Esteemable people do esteemable things."

Do you imagine yourself to be the kind of person who does x, y, and z? Or are you actually the kind of person who does?
Per day vs. per year, got it. I thought the comment was arguing about how many "figures" that number represented.
I've had this same thought for a while now, anti-trust is completely tangential to the current situation; we need new laws. I'm just worried that the new laws are generalizable enough to serve their purpose without creating loopholes or stifling innovation.
Ok, then put a premium price on that feature and see how many actually pay for it
This seems absolutely important
At least this time around we already have OAuth.
ATAPI and SATA are also SCSI at their core.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ATA_Packet_Interface
I find it funny they say Whatsapp "chose" Erlang. They "chose" Erlang because ejabberd was written on it, and they chose ejabberd because of a Jabber mailing list suggestion. That's about it...
How about a summary of the paper?
This is the reason why I like cinemas. You have to be on time, there is no pausing to go pee or get a drink etc.

I hate these interruptions but my family does not care that much (fortunately they like to go to the cinema with me as well)
> Have a probationary period

That seems very taxing on the company. I'd rather screen the candidate before committing to anything via interview/coding challenge, etc... The take-home coding challenge seems like a good idea -- less pressure than coding during the interview and allows the interviewer to assess the "real life" performance.

> Ask them to build something – anything!

That's great, but a big part of working at a company is building something that you don't like or don't understand well -- talking to stakeholders, customers, figuring out specs, etc -- something that a good take-home exercise can assess
Obscurity takes many forms, and some are useful, particularly to common hackers, and others are completely useless.
There are a number of code walking tools and disassemblers that will rename all variables and function linkages and provide annotated source. Someone still has to crawl through that source, but all the obfuscation is removed. I know professionals that use these tools, not to hack, but to perform security audits on products that they use within highly secure settings.

I attended a security conference a few years ago, cannot think of the speakers name right now, but he said you should assume that professional hackers have better tools and larger budgets than you will ever have access to.
Alright, fair enough.

Though I gotta say: I was around and listening to music at the time, and it was Napster which struck the death blow. Apple came along a couple years later to put the album out of its misery.

The album doesn't seem dead, so much as diminished, but I know a harmless rhetorical flourish when I see one...
It looks like "else-idgaf" is meant to describe not considering all cases. What do you think about pushing input validation to the caller; you write code that explicitly considers some subset of all possible inputs and thoroughly document that subset -- behavior for other inputs is not guaranteed.
"People quickly forget that software was distributed on the web long before the App Store existed."

Independent software development was an absolute wasteland. It was extremely hard to get a user to give you money outside of a few extremely fortified ghettos (Steam, for instance, which takes a 30% cut as well). Begware was the most common tactic.

Even now with multiple options, while everyone piles on Apple, we should note that iOS was the single most profitable platform for Epic, across all platforms. Apple did more to liberate payments from a user than any other platform. Through trust, through standardization and normalization, and even through things like the wide availability of App Store gift cards (which are often heavily discounted - $85 for $100 of App Store gift cards at Costco many times through the year).

Elsewhere people are arguing that Windows is a wonderful platform because look, it's so open. Okay, go and make money from Windows users and see how great it is. Unless your name is Microsoft or Adobe, you are in for a really, really rough time of it. You'll get 100% of nothing.

As always, of course this is downvoted. Anyone looking to HN for rational, reality-based discussion might find it a bit disappointing. Here apparently the Windows ISV market is a vibrant, lucrative market. Everyone here is profiting from it, right? (LOL -- close to none of you are). This is farce.
Edit: OK, someone is downvoting ALL comments because opinions. No more comments by me. I'll delete everything that I can. Seriously, if someone doesn't want to read opposing opinions, I guess it's their right. And mine is to STFU, for good.

Edit2: hey TeMPOraL, I don't care too much about that, it's the feeling of being in a community where someone thinks this is an acceptable behaviour.

I've been writing here for very long. But this is getting ridiculous. Anything that is minimally controversial gets downvoted. And the thing is that I am already censoring myself a lot.
True. Though I would say an underlying issue here is that too much stuff is criminalized. Case counts shouldn’t be that high to begin with.
Really powerful piece. It points out a significant coordination problem that comes with low income multi-family real estate. How can you ensure that enough people pay rent, so that the owner can keep the lights on?

In normal circumstances you can replace people who don't pay rent, but under current circumstances, I don't know if there are enough folks around who can fill that gap.
> When I'm hiring, I give applicants a real-code task, something they'd really do if they were hired - and I pay for their time too.

Most real code task require a lot of ramp up time to gain context.
The feeling is mutual towards you two and the dull apparatchiks that inhabit HN.

The right fought against the Nazis and the Communists including Germany. What antifa leaves out of its messaging where they pretend to be the one true faction that was anti-Nazi - is that the reactionary right in Germany was one of the few holdouts against the Nazis - but this history doesn't fit into the Liberal story time any more than the Left's story time so it doesn't get mentioned.
Ugh. If whitespace is wanted the value should be quoted. The glib ini parser is insane.
The thing is: LaTeX might try hard to look like a declarative language for structured documents, but it is not. It is a set of TeX macros. And TeX is a type setting system.

There is no good reason to put the accessibility into the type setting. Instead, use a declarative (e.g., any markup) language, translate that a) to (LaTeX) and b) to accessibility annotations and then combine the two results. Problem solved.

Unfortunately you will either lose a lot of expressiveness along the way or you have to find a very sophisticated markup language.
Technically a strong password is a diversionary tactic where incorrect passwords could be considered diversions. The difference between what is generally regard as "obscurity" and "security" is orders of magnitude in the number of options one must explore in order to break-in.
I freelance, and if asked to do a coding test I'll tell them to pay for my time, usually they drop the test and contract me right away.
Is it really promotion if you pay the same 30% cut as your competitor, but their app ends up on national TV and yours doesn't?
> This is fine stuff, but I would rather have a type system, so this is just making up for a deficiency with some other stuff, so it's really just a sidegrade, not so much an upgrade or a downgrade.

Sure, I'm just saying the lack of a type system in erlang is not quite as bad as, say, in javascript.

> Go has always "built distribution in" by offering to build single static binaries. If anything, BEAM languages are harder to deploy.

Distribution in the sense of distributed computing, not in the sense of giving somebody else binaries to run. That is not something erlang is good at. But you can rather easily join nodes together and not just have them communicate but have them leverage one another e.g. spawn processes on an other node in the cluster.

> I agree that immutability is an advantage.

Immutability and isolation are different things, though Erlang has both.

> In general, third parties can't come in and unexpectedly mess with your state in Go either, as long as you're either maintaining your state local to a function or keeping your global variables private to each package.

Go is a shared-memory concurrency language, with no restrictions on the sharing.
Are you paying the person you date or are you paying the dating app?
> You don’t have to pay 30% to Apple. Jail break your phone is you want or just buy one of the 1000s of other phones for. Sale

That's a completely unreasonable sales strategy for a company to take, telling their customers to jailbreak their phones or to purchase a different phone.
A few comments above you said:

> There are no sidelobes
Something about this has always confused me...

IIUC (at least in US legal system), using software without an appropriate license from the copyright holder is considered a violation of civil copyright law.

Suppose that courts deemed shrink-wrap EULAs to be invalid. If the EULA is the agreement that grants end-users permission to use the copyrighted software, would the invalidation mean that users were in violation of copyright law? Or is there a right to use the software that's implicitly granted by the original purchase?
It's a tough problem, but eventually you have to demonstrate some sort of competency. White board, open source contributions, homework. There has to be some way of demonstrating you know what you are doing.

I'm a consultant so I've been through tons of interviews at this point in my career (21+ years).

If I had my choice? I'd pair program with my potential teammates on a bug/feature for the product I'd be working on.

Give me something real that's been in the backlog for a while, and we'll pair on it for the allotted time.
Summary: add a rate limiter to your api endpoints to block DoS, and a cdn like cloudflare to block DDOS
Nope they can't. In fact to use an iOS device you pretty much need an Apple account (if you want to be able to install any apps) and that comes with a privacy policy and some extra "features" you might not know about like every sender e-mail on iOS Mail being synced to their cloud.

However, at least we can find comfort in the fact that their business model so far has been against the surveillance/advertising economy and their entire marketing strategy has been based on that for the past few years, so at least they currently do not have any incentive to misuse that data even if they do collect it (and if they do eventually think about misusing it, we can hope that there would be some actual enforcement of laws such as the GDPR that would discourage them from doing so).
We are addicted to high population density, making babies and helping get everyone to what we consider is the minimum level of consumption, which is exactly 2x higher than the Earth can provide sustainably.

At one point we’ll have to say “Earth can only feed X billion people if we want to have a medium pressure on our environment”.
Yes, it's hard to verify simulations. Not because we don't know what the equations are, but that solving the equations with finite amounts of computing requires a lot of clever approximations which are hard to verify except by comparing with experiments, which we can only do for the laws of physics that operate in our neighborhood of the multiverse.

The ultimate experiment would be to start simulating at the big bang with slightly different parameters and see if intelligent life evolves on one of the simulated planets after several billion years of simulated time. But we're very far from such an experiment being feasible.
Should. Not "must not"
I think the future is very grim for biodiversity. Even if we stopped destroying habitats tomorrow, many larger animals are already living in small, isolated pockets surrounded by roads, farms, and industry. Meanwhile, plants and smaller animals face intense competition from invasive species - often brought in by accident thanks to the constant flow of goods around the globe. We're probably headed for a pretty homogeneous global ecology - where "economically significant" or highly adaptable plants and animals thrive, while the others are relegated to zoos, national parks, or extinction.
Not in the UK though.
It would be socially destructive if America directly admits free market capitalism wasn't globally competitive after all. They don't have any other option but to hide behind national security justifications.

To those who still think this is about national security and most definitely not protectionist actions: why aren't these companies blanket banned immediately rather than given arbitrary timelines? India has demonstrated it is possible to do so and continues to be a self sustaining democracy.
I haven't used Apple's App Store; is it really true that, say, Ford Motor Company can buy one $9.99 (or $99.99) copy of some useful application and use it on all of the corporate Macs?

Individual use (there's a funny story here) doesn't really matter; what matters is groups, corporations, with tens to tens of thousands of users, and yes, Autodesk is an example (and GitLab (https://about.gitlab.com/pricing/), sort of). Things that make X necessary and useful are typically, something that you absolutely need, that requires custom support and big hardware, but not something that everyone on your staff needs all the time.

Funny story: At one point, a security researcher realized you could run a program through an instruction-level compiler, reordering operations without changing behavior, so that the machine running the program would broadcast RF signals containing the program's license number. It wouldn't really do anything for single machines because the signal was too weak, but if everyone at a company were using the same license for program X, you could drive around the neighborhood with a van and pick that fact up clearly.

Microsoft was completely uninterested. If it would not prevent every individual from pirating even one copy, they didn't care. Which may be why I recently typed in a twenty-odd character string into my new gaming machine.
I love this but then the thought of breaking down a task becomes a challenge and a task in itself to be broken down. Turtles...
Most people don't understand the difference between "Google Play served a malicious app" and "Their Android device had a malicious app installed".

This is one reason Google Play Protect scans all apps installed, not just those installed through the Play Store. "That way, no matter where you download an app from, you know it's been checked by Google Play Protect"[1]

[1] https://www.android.com/play-protect/
Yes, indeed an impressive project. I think we should not use the termination "stored at IPFS" like they do. Distributed via IPFS would be much more correct in a technical sense.
Actually more like 100-120 hours. But who's counting?