skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
Depends on your definition of credible evidence, and your personal theoretical bias, as with most things in economics (see: China bull vs bear case).

My position on the matter is "I don't know, and I'm unwilling to invest the effort to know"; the extent of my interest in Japan is how the ever lowering JPYSGD makes for good value holidays. But it was an interesting theory worth chucking in.

The Japanese have "interesting" statistics elsewhere; for example, their famed longevity might just be the result of people not declaring deaths: http://www.theguardian.com/world/2010/sep/10/japenese-centen...

I've also seen some interesting playing around the components of CPI in Japan and elsewhere, taking them in and out of the index as required to obtain the right result. Can't find a link, unfortunately; it was probably a paid bank research report and I've been out of the field for half a decade.
For what it's worth, I think these are great interview questions. You can quickly pick up how much experience a candidate has in a particular area by how in-depth their thoughts on the topic are. Asking a candidate to compare two languages, data structures or technologies in general usually yields good results too.

I think what some of the replies to your post are forgetting is there are no right or wrong answers to these questions. The questions are about gauging the experience of the candidate so you can make an appropriate offer if you wanted to hire them. It's probably not a huge deal if you couldn't describe MVC but you gave an in-depth answer to the OOP question for example. It is a problem however if several questions reveal there are major holes in your knowledge and experience though.
I'll admit I don't know if I'm correct or not, but a single counterexample doesn't really show anything.

I imagine there must be at least some who have gotten it correct, and perhaps the issue is that the best coding practices for stable systems haven't been propagated far enough, but I don't think that 99.9% of companies have this ship fast and fix it later philosophy at least.

It's not an easy problem to solve I'll admit, but I don't think that stems from the tendency for most software firms to want to push out features quickly.
Videos from the 2014 Workshop on Spacecraft Flight Software at Caltech
John Kenneth Galbraith includes a good discussion of the Florida land rush in his book The Great Crash: 1929.
Why are you looking for work? Can't be that great of a place if you're looking, so maybe the risk is worth it considering.

Why would you expect them not to pressure you?

They probably have some other canadidate who will cost more than you and they don't want to drop the ball with them.

Also, while they are pressuring you they are obviously not rushing. You have had three interviews with them. That must take some time, more than a few days I'd imagine (probably a week or two minimum).

Shit or get off the pot man :)
I think @salgernon was expressing his perception, practically in the form of a question, seeking constructive dialog on the topic. I think a call for citation followed by random anecdote is not a great response to an invitation for a thoughtful dialog with someone with unique experience in the field.

I'm not sure if you're talking about a completely different issue, or the flip side of the same coin. Awareness and sensitivity to others' abilities I guess could be on the same spectrum as making excuses for violent behavior, but I think it's different forces at play.

We definitely need more empathy in this world (and lets not even get into police assault here). But at the same time, there can be a good reason why a child is misbehaving or even acting violently, but that behavior is still unacceptable. I've never personally experienced the parent who feels like their child is entitled to their kid's violent outburst in public space ____, but certainly we hear the stories. More often, I just feel awful for parents who are dealing with a meltdown in the moment, because, been there, done that.

As a parent in that situation, it's usually just, "ok, lets get the heck out of here." As a parent watching those situations, I always want to help somehow, but it seems like there's a huge taboo to even acknowledge the situation, let alone try to intervene. Personally I'd be too afraid to even open my mouth because the other parent would assume I was going to chastise them rather than try to help somehow.
RISC-V Tutorial at HPCA 2015
I was lost here for a minute until I finally realized that IL was Israel not Illinois.
The thing is when the company gets big and its not just you, your going to wish your original language was something more scalable.

For example, you tube engineers probably curse that the thing was made in python, because in a 1000 engineer org, making changes can break things you wouldn't be aware of elsewhere. While something more statically typed like java or go would break on the compile step instead of the run time step.

Python was fine when the project was 1 - 20 engineers, but it became a liability later on.

That is why people want you to spend a week or two to learn something better and more maintainable, so you wont curse your future self later.

But if your making small build utility type things, then it's fine. Contact websites for small firms. Or if it's for your quick test project, etc.
I fully understand the difference, and I know that you're technically correct.

What I'm saying is that people tend to abbreviate "pass-a-reference-by-value" to "pass-by-reference" because the differences between passing a value (value snapshot) and passing a reference-value (passing the address-of) are way more important* than if the language syntax allows you to pass an "implicit" variable reference or not. (the swap example)

*"more important" for code-reading, code-analysis, code-safety analysis, and also even more important in a concurrent environment because of side-effects and data-races.

Maybe the feature should be called "pass an implicit reference", which describes better what Java does, instead of saying "everything is pass-by-value" which is correct but, as the evidence shows (the mere existence of the article), it is very confusing for "folks".

>I'm really tired of hearing folks (incorrectly) state "primitives are passed by value, objects are passed by reference".
I'd think they would get beaten first before being left out in the fields.

To quote wikipedia[0] on the matter:

> Until quite recently, children had very few rights in regard to protection from abuse by their parents, and still continue to do so in many parts of the world. Historically, fathers had virtually unlimited rights in regard to their children and how they chose to discipline them.

[0] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Child_abuse#History
I want it all. The monthly cost of the major streaming services combined
Any chance you can share more details? You can send me a message with @sethladd or plus.google.com/+sethladd

[I'm a PM on Dart, and would love to learn more.]

Cheers!
When it interferes (negatively) with your day to day life.
> On her good days, she's a joy and a wonder. On her bad days, she's a beast from the nether pits of hell. But we will stick by her.

I don't understand this. Shouldn't the behavior be constant?

Have you been able to coax good days out of her by changing the environment, food, your behavior, etc? Can you predict the bad days? Is there a pattern?
Maybe we should just offer a choice of what kind of interview candidates want.
No,that's completely natural (if verbose). This is from someone coming from a C background, FWIW.
Airbus A380 Emergency Evacuation Test (2007) [video]
Some of these solutions have code from 15-20 years ago. After the original authors left the company with deep knowledge, a complete UI redesign went from uphill battle to sheer cliff climb. Once every generation comes and goes, rewrites just get more complex. Even then, the code then was probably based on standards from that long ago, and its quality will most definitely slow you down. Now couple that with the problem of high turn over, and no one wants to handle the shit pile. We keep shoveling things over to get paid.

Considering the staggering size some of these projects are (peripheral evidence of complexity like table counts as mentioned here, and more solid evidence like raw lines of code, number of UI controls from big to small), it quickly becomes economically infeasible to put a modern shine on things when you have features you could be building to make more sales.

A decent UI in 2000 looked much different from now anyway. Also, the programmers probably aren't in charge of looks/design.
As with any child, one can address behavior issues without shaming or hating who the child is. In an adult relationship, it's the difference between "You make me feel bad when you do xyz" and "Why do you always have to be such an a-hole" - these are two very different ways to raise an issue.

That's what many (including me) are saying about autism. The point is not to cherish harmful behaviors. The point is to cherish the children who are different. Their differences make it harder for them to learn some behaviors, but they do have a positive side much of the time.

My son is awesome and I would change nothing. Personally I find him much easier to get along with than "typical" kids.
Actually, it never worked in Windows GUIs either. [1] It's just a broken concept.

Separation of concerns and DRY are both good. MVC doesn't succeed at either, except in idealized corner cases.

[1] A lot of widgets in Windows, for instance text fields, encapsulate the view (it's where the text is displayed), the model (which keeps the text in the control), and the controller (the widget handles the UI for entering text, catches and handles the mouse, etc.).
I work full-time in JavaScript and I've always thought of JavaScript as a pass-by-reference but this article made it clear that JavaScript is pass-reference-by-value. The `swap` function from the article doesn't swap the variables outside of the function.
So goodbye to accessibility.
Correct me if I'm wrong (my Java's rusty), but isn't the most common NPE scenario when a class has a member variable that's a class and has to be initialized in the ctor or elsewhere, but the programmer forgets to.

The alternative to this seems to be to require every class to have a no-arg ctor in order to be a member variable of another class. C++ takes this route, and it has the irritating effect of making iostreams, for example, hard to work with.
People who rely on screen readers probably don't like this.
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-03-20/dozens-of-...

I want real statistics...anyone with interesting source?
Your example could hardly be more at odds with your premise.
>> Please don't judge a tradition that's thousands of years old

Somewhat off topic question but I'd like to ask anyway - How exactly do you know its thousands of years old ?

I'm not saying it isn't, but how do you know for sure ?
That's helpful, thanks, but to be clear: that case supports damages for having relied upon the offer and thus quitting a prior job, rather than any obligation-to-employ-in-the-offered-role. So:

* withdrawing the offer before the candidate quits the old job would seem to imply no damages (and no obligation-to-employ)

* any damages would be based on lost wages at the old job, not the new offered compensation rate or other benefits of the withdrawn position

It might also be kind of an interesting legal puzzle as to whether a person trapped in such a situation would be eligible for unemployment compensation. (It doesn't fit the usual eligibility pattern... but it is sort-of-involuntary... and the employer-who-withdrew-the-offer might prefer to take a hit on their unemployment-tax-rates as a way to offset their damages with unemployment-payments... but the system probably can't even model that.)
I wrote something similar in Apple ][+ Basic. It had a cool optimization: it would scan 16 points around the boundary of each 64x64 pixel block, and if they were all-black (in the set) or all-white, it would assume the rest of the block was the same and finish quickly. My dot-matrix printer had something like 2000 pixels of width and limited-only-by-patience height, so the printouts were amazingly detailed.

I wish I'd had similarly inclined peers at the time. We could have totally geeked out. But I was the only one I knew.
Specifically it was folded into ASD in the DSM-5, the 2013 edition of the American Psychiatric Association's Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders. The change was rather controversial, and in any case the DSM is only considered gospel in the USA.

(As a person with autism/Asperger's, I'm not sure I have a strong opinion. Asperger's is clearly at least related to autism, and the autistic spectrum is a pretty broad umbrella anyway.)
Spot on. And then you get the pessimistic doctor that says you're trying to ruin "the art of medicine."
> Java passes "references by value". Meaning the target method receives a _copy_ of the pointer, not the actual pointer.

Which is exactly how C does it. I don't see how this is a difficult enough concept to grasp that we need an article explicitly pointing out how Java is just like C in this respect.
> Start ups are moving quickly and trying to get to the next milestone.

I honestly think that's what it is; i don't ascribe malice towards my potential employer.

> That said, it sounds like you already made up your mind right? You are having second thoughts so own that and say "Thanks, but no thanks." and keep looking and/or doing what ever it is you are doing.

No, you're reading too much into it. :-) Even if they are bears to work for, there's lot of work to do that I'd like to do. Then, maybe I won't have a hard time getting a job next time.

Thanks for your input. It is not often I hear from management types, especially at the VP level. Thanks!
Entrepreneurship Lessons from Hip Hop Icons
Fuck this article and HN -- it's all over. Stop coming here. It's officially over. Stop coming here hoping to find something. Go back to your lodge master and ask what to do, because it's not out here any more. This is the sixth sign. There is nothing but an endless arbitrary wall of suburban words for you. This is the wasteland. Go back. Give up. 3D printed kidneys, neo-millenium-entreprenureal hogwash apocalypse. Fuck you and your white family. The grinding of the gears can be heard halfway around the world.
Unfortunately Heritage has become a propaganda outlet, paid for by people like the Koch's. That doesn't make their information right or wrong, just not useful for determining facts (IMHO).
Children, neurotypical or not, have very inconsistent behaviors. You may be able to generalize in some broad cases, but a child presented with a stimulus may react one way any given day, and completely the opposite the next day. They're as unpredictable as can be.
> The only people that believe that internet access is only for the rich, is rich people.

> The Net Party ran for elections in 2013 and got 1.2% of the votes in Buenos Aires

How do you justify that most of the votes came from wealthy neighborhoods of the city?

https://twitter.com/seppo0010/status/578031940651118593
The problem here is the equivalence between weight lifting and crossfit. Within weightlifting and powerlifting circles crossfit is perceived as an abomination and something that should be killed. The main issue here is the culture surrounding the crossfit movement, which is what you've already observed. Note that I've said nothing about crossfit as an idea in and itself.

And to the point about weightlifting being a form of meditation - it absolutely is.

Just as a thought exercise - think of a some restriction you have had. Be it going to bed early, getting up early, drinking less, eating less, doing something, etc. That's the temptation with breaking form - it's usually super easy to break your form and that's the thing you have to mindfully control. Repeating cues and having that mind-body connection. That really trains your focus.

Then you have the burden of lifting the weight when you can no longer see or think. Every set, every rep you have to do something incredibly pointless - it has no immediate effects, no one is forcing you and the only reason is because you want to. But that thing is incredibly hard and the alternative is just not doing it. I'm sure you've been faced with a tough decision or choice that you must make and you wanted to just not make it. At a point lifting is choosing to face that decision over and over and over again - it's not just a physical exercise it becomes a huge mental exercise as well.

Everyone has that story when you didn't see what weight you put on the bar and you just made a 10% PR when you've been struggling with the previous weight for months.

Usually when being at your maximum when performing an exercise(squat, deadlift, sprinting, etc.) all extraneous thoughts disappear, you focus is on the movement, your thoughts become a tad slower, and your will is tested all the time. There's a very similar sensation when meditating and I've felt that also when focusing on a problem or riding a bike. Also the shouting and getting angry is a mix of getting your body ready and focusing at the task at hand - a bit similar to the chants or music during meditation(not really a fan of that tbh but some people swear by it - ambiguous on purpose). Sometimes when warming up or just during submaximal sets, thoughts just come and go and you are definitely there doing the work and thinking them and yet you're on the sidelines calm, relaxed and observing yourself and your mind.

It's a bit weird and I maybe gave a crappy description but that's my experience with lifting and meditation.
Well they charge you extra for food that doesn't have any poison in it, so it's only fair.
> Chances are there is nothing nefarious going on here...

I agree, and I should have probably mentioned that in my initial comment. I just don't know how common this sort of thing is. They seem like good people, and there's a lot of work to do.

maybe after doing some work like that I won't be so terrible. :)

Thanks!
If drunk driving deaths are reduced then it's worth it.
Very annoying. Someone should sue MS with an antitrust case.
The problem is that programming skill is not normally distributed. There are some big outliers at the brilliant end, and some big outliers at the toxic end.

So "average" is not really a meaningful term. I mean "average programmer" as "can be trusted with routine tasks".

Behind every successful startup, there was one 10x or 100x outlier who did the hard work, even if he was not the person who got public credit for the startup's success.

If you're at a large corporation and trying to minimize risk, hiring a large number of average people is the most stable path. You'll get something that sort of mostly works. If you're at a startup and trying to succeed, you need that 10x or 100x person.
These types of comment are now officially off-topic so I wouldn't normally make them but, since this submission is about the design of the webpage:

http://imgur.com/NNmmxdx

http://imgur.com/qv6BPj4

This is latest Chrome on iOS. That header banner is fixed (that's sub-optimal) and all the content is in that little box.
When that trait interferes with your daily life. It's pretty common for people to be afraid of heights but if that fear interferes with getting a job, having relationships, enjoying everyday activities, then that's a disorder.

The problem is lay people think of "autism" the way that creationists say evolution is a "theory". An awkward introvert with technical interests isn't going to be professionally diagnosed as autistic unless they have some pretty serious and defined symptoms. But that doesn't stop misinformed lay-person usage in everyday conversation.
I moved to the Bay Area about a year ago and interviewed at more startups than I'd care to count. The time-pressure offer is pretty much SOP in my experience - 48 hours for a response was the usual limit. Personally, I find it tacky and pathetic, and yep, I ended up going with someone who gave me a week to make my decision. It has far less to do with them "wanting to move on to the next thing" than them wanting to prevent you from following through with other interviews you may be in process with.
Because in C you have to specifically ask for something to be a pointer. "pass by reference" is an incorrect phrasing, but at least it's an attempt. There is a crucial distinction between Java and C.

And C++ shows actual reference passing.
I believe in developing a product, especially the UI, by constantly getting feedback from the user but I'm racking my brain on how to do that for a product for medical professionals.

I can't observe them when they are with a patient and its impossible to schedule time to get feedback, they are so overworked.

My theory why the UIs of these EMRs are so awful is because of this very reason: there's no feedback loop. And I'm not blaming the doctors, they have no time.
This was already submitted here today and has 157 comments (at last count):

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9243169
>US's military might has everything to do with the geopolitics that continue to make it rich

I'm sceptical that the military might does that much to make the US rich besides providing basic peace. Obviously things would be screwed if WW3 started.

The US has got rich mostly by trade and enterprise and producing much of the worlds high value stuff. Spending a huge portion of governments revenues on the military rather than things like education, R&D and science has probably been a drag on growth.
You are assuming that the percentage of people interviewing for a job are a good representation of the general programming population. That's not true at all.

First, unless you really think we are terrible at hiring as an industry. So even if on a given day all developers that start looking for a job have a skill level that matched the average population, the good developers will find jobs faster, leaving the 4th, 5th and 6th job applications for the developers that did not manage to get hired after applying ina couple of places at the most. So yes, your talent pool on any particular day, just due to this effect, is far worse than the average talent in the industry.

Then there's how bad developers are fired or laid off more often than the good ones, so they are added to the pool more often. Typically companies make bigger efforts to keep good developers happy than those that they considered hiring mistakes.

And then there's the issue with the very top of the market being a lot about references and networking. In this town, no place that does not know me would give me the kind of compensation that places that do know me would. I'll interview well, but nobody will want to spend top dollar in someone based just on an interview. In contrast, if one of their most senior devs say that so and so is really top talent, then offers that would not be made normally start popping up. The one exception is 'anchor developers', people that have a huge level of visibility, and you still won't get them to send you a resume at random. You will have to go look for them, at a conference, user group or something, and convince them that you want them in the first place.

My current employer has a 5% hire rate from people interviewing off the street, and that's not because our talent is top 5%, but because you go through a lot of candidates before you find someone competent. We've actually tested this: Interviewers do not know candidates, even when they were referred by other employees. But, as if by magic, when there's a reference, the interviewed almost always is graded as a hire.
To me, that sounds like a convincing argument that your specialty is not worth learning. I'd rather work someplace that wants to invest in their employees, rather than expecting them to already be experts in some obscure techniques.

Are you hiring people who are brilliant, or people who are so desperate that they'll spend a couple months preparing for one interview?