amcintyre

8 ms·

31.
by amcintyre 14y ago
I hope he got paid well for it--that kind of thing can leave you wiped out for a long time.
32.
by amcintyre 14y ago
If you take the general idea a bit further than glucose-monitoring phone attachments (which already seems fairly good to me if it means people are more likely to have a meter with them and monitor their condition), there's probably a signif
33.
by amcintyre 14y ago
I found that odd myself--the implication is that said entrepreneur needs non-trivial programming done in order to make an idea succeed, and that's something you can just pick up in a couple of weekends? If you can pick it up (with zero ini
34.
by amcintyre 14y ago
One of my favorite questions is: "What's the best bug you've ever found?" One of the problems I always have with questions like that is this: I don't keep mental lists of events or other things ordered by potential "interestingness" to my
35.
by amcintyre 14y ago
"If you’re a psychologist, the news has to make you a little nervous—particularly if you’re a psychologist who published an article in 2008 in any of these three journals...<snip>...Because, if you did, someone is going to check yo
36.
by amcintyre 14y ago
The first generation of Java programmers were C++ refugees from the 90s. While C++ has advanced a little since then, it really hasn't changed that much. You should have a look at C++11 if you haven't already.
37.
by amcintyre 15y ago
For some fields, it seems like the model should shift to "you will publish your source code and data alongside the writeup, else you won't be publishing here." Not doing so seems equivalent to publishing a paper about applications and cha
38.
by amcintyre 15y ago
I'm not inclined to do any of those things in a serious way, much less in a way that I'd call professional. I post on HN sporadically and solely for my own amusement, and I don't know that any employers would find my history here relevant
39.
by amcintyre 15y ago
Sometimes developers don't have a choice about putting their work online--many large companies actively discourage (or prohibit) their engineers from participating in any meaningful way in open source projects. Want to post your personal ha
40.
by amcintyre 15y ago
"You overestimate the number of general engineers who are capable of quantitative work. When I said there is value being the guy in the room who understands regression and confidence intervals, I meant it." I'd just like to second that.
41.
by amcintyre 15y ago
I'm going to guess they're not eliminating the positions of the key decision-makers that got them where they are, but that's just pure cynicism and stereotyping on my part. :)
42.
by amcintyre 15y ago
"The changes we’re announcing today will put our customers first, allow us to move fast, and to get stuff done." I always find it amusing that, when big companies keep adding people and byzantine processes to a project, it's so they can "
43.
by amcintyre 15y ago
Oh dear. Is this a thing now? Thanks for the heads up...looks like I have another set of snake-oil buzzwords to watch out for.
44.
by amcintyre 15y ago
"You saved yourself from hiring a B-player, or worse." As somebody that's probably not up to "A-player" status for this guy, I'd consider myself lucky if this method saved me from getting hired by anybody using it.
45.
by amcintyre 15y ago
I just wish people could forget the idea that Math is fun. It is not. Maybe it's not for you, but don't generalize that to everybody. It requires more work at higher levels of education, but that doesn't prevent it from still being fun f
46.
by amcintyre 15y ago
If they've got a monitor/TV that's compatible with a Roku, just spend the $60 for that.
47.
by amcintyre 15y ago
Having a liberal work-from-home-if-you-want policy would definitely make it a lot more tolerable, but this: "It wasn't the managers that choose this, it was higher up who believe collaborative is nothing but a buzz word." always worries m
48.
by amcintyre 15y ago
Thanks! Oddly, I'd probably prefer your job in an open office to some of the arrangements I've seen where people have offices--at least you have direct indications that you're making a direct impact to the company and customers, whereas so
49.
by amcintyre 15y ago
"Individuality costs money and makes more work." Hey, if filtering on something like open floorplan workspaces also filters out employers with that attitude, that's awesome in my book. The sooner I can know they want cookie-cutter work,
50.
by amcintyre 15y ago
I'm surprised people that push the open-floorplan idea would allow devs to work from home. I would expect them to view that as "ultimate productivity-killing isolation." I mean, "how can we know you're actually working. You're at home, w
51.
by amcintyre 15y ago
Just curious: what are you actually there to do, that the designers, salespeople, tech-support staff, managers and accountants are more productive by bugging you all day? (I'm not saying it isn't true, just that I assume by the way you've s
52.
by amcintyre 15y ago
Every building I've seen at Microsoft is big enough, although some are (or are being switched to) open-plan. Now that I think about it, everywhere I've worked there was enough space so that everybody working there at the time could have had
53.
by amcintyre 15y ago
"Is it time to go back to the cubicles?" Personally, I think cubicles are just about as bad as open-plan offices. I want an office and a door I can close to keep people out when I need quiet.
54.
by amcintyre 15y ago
Surely there's a point where you'd want it to stop, though, because it's too invasive? The only way to make sure we know everything about the potential stalker is to coerce everyone into frequently providing detailed information, since (
55.
by amcintyre 15y ago
Unfortunately, they can afford the lobbyists and lawyers necessary to buy life support for their business model.
56.
by amcintyre 15y ago
Good post--I'm in the midst of doing a PhD on the side while working, and I've noticed that "I'm afraid it won't work" behavior in myself during both my research and working on hard problems in my day job. Glad to know I'm not alone!
57.
by amcintyre 15y ago
I don't have to imagine; I've received, "What is an interface?" as a first question in three different interviews over the last couple of months. Never mind that Java isn't anywhere on my resume, I made it clear to the recruiter before the
58.
by amcintyre 15y ago
>Most of the anti-college rhetoric originates from the US, I think, because of the high cost. Some of it is just cultural--I received a heavy dose of the anti-college mindset 30 years ago (from relatives while growing up in the southe
59.
by amcintyre 15y ago
I hadn't thought about this before, but I wonder how many people on the anti-college bandwagon had the benefit of starting in an environment that provided some of those opportunities that you (and, by chance, I) didn't know about or have ac
60.
by amcintyre 15y ago
Thanks for mentioning that--I'd never heard of that before. (Although it's not like I'm in danger of getting a job there. :)

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