Viewing profile — alarge

I think the problem here is the implication of the term "politics". We've been conditioned (at least in the US) to think of politics as a tribalistic "us vs. them" activity where i…

No, your manager doesn't decide your promotion. The difference between before and now is that before, your manager was expected to make the case for your promotion. Now, the manage…

Lest anyone draw the conclusion that this is a US thing, it certainly is not. I've lived in many places throughout the US and have never heard anyone say "three or two". Nor does "…

This is so cool! And I'm dismayed that you have been subjected to the typical Hacker News cynicism. By looking through some of your other project and interests, I can see that you …

When I first entered this field in the 80s, there was a rivalry between vi users (as I was) and emacs users. There was so much about emacs that I couldn't stand, but I'll admit to …

Roughly 10 years ago, I was working for a startup that offered a live conversational video service where you could also have hundreds (or eventually, thousands) of near-live watche…

When I started college, all of our classes would assign a temporary (semester-long) account on one of the various Vax 11/780s supplied by the computing center. Talk wasn't availabl…

There is no way that New York style pizza can be compared to Focaccia. They have almost nothing in common. Now that Chicago thing, maybe. But as far as I'm concerned, that's not pi…

I don't think this is a "SV techbro" thing. In the 80s (when I was in college), "hacker" had a connotation of someone who built cool things in software, usually outside the "normal…

Atherton is a bit of a weird case and seems to derive its land values almost exclusively from lot size (and maybe inertia?). The peninsula in general tends towards low density and …

The philosophy at Google is that the hiring bar is high enough that anyone who passes it should theoretically be able to fill any open position at their level. This is somewhat les…

I'll take a slightly more nuanced position than a peer poster and say this is "mostly wrong" and somewhat backwards. (I've been out of this area for a few years, so my perspective …

I'm obviously not Doreen, but I was a military brat and military myself and can relate some of what I saw. First off, there's a sense of impermanence to everything. Your best frien…

The issue isn't whether or not your character encoding is always a multiple of 8 bits. It is whether or not you can use standard (octet-focused) parsing functions to deal with thos…

The comment about the 90's is simply not true. I've been a successful (e.g., getting paid) developer since the 80s and have never been in the Microsoft stack. With the exception of…

You've already been voted down, so not sure how much I'd add to this, but... Wanting to have an office outside the home doesn't mean you are trying to escape - it means you are try…

Chiming in here to agree with the others. In particular, finding simple, understandable solutions to complex problems is highly valued at Google. Complex solutions are an anti-patt…

I also had a cat that went absolutely bananas for (especially ripe) cantaloupe. She could smell it across the house, would aggressively beg for it, and would purr the whole time sh…

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ogre_(game)

Not sure I understand your point here. You need to use your password manager credentials to autofill also (at least for 1Password). The only reason to copy/paste is if you don't th…

In addition to books others have already mentioned, I'd put "Lies My Teacher Told Me: Everything Your American History Textbook Got Wrong". It made me understand just how much of w…

Counter-example: I went to a state university, graduating with a degree in Computer Engineering in '89. I've had a number of jobs over the years - several startups, but also roles …

Imagine a situation where a company is routinely misbehaving towards its employees. What are the tools that can be brought to bear to change a company's behavior? 1. Government reg…

Are you asking about diversity of race only? Or diversity in general? The argument is that a more diverse student body creates a better educational environment for everyone - it br…

I don't know that it's just the procurement strategies to blame. Many years ago, I was asked to bring a command and control system into (Orange Book) C2 compliance. Among the thing…