> Passion and interest don't really come across ... What an oblivious statement made by your actual reviewer!
A useful reminder of the nature of academia
Many corporate cultures are no different.
How I accepted myself into Canada's largest AI hackathon
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Re: How I accepted myself into Canada's largest AI hackathon
#72> Passion and interest don't really come across ... What an oblivious statement made by your actual reviewer!
Agreed.
Admittedly, "passion and interest don't really come across" might've been a valid impression, since the post after sounds like it wasn't the top priority:
> I decided to apply even though I was pretty busy that weekend, hoping my schedule would clear by the time the hackathon came around.
However, this could be yet another instance of gatekeeping that has sprung up, now that there's tons of money involved, and a whole lot of petty posturing and maneuvering.
When I was a kid, from a non-affluent family, who was fortunate to be able to start programming computers, I could just do things.
I'm not aware of anyone ever being appointed arbiter of whether I had enough "passion and interest" to participate in some activity or venue.
You'd just show up, and other enthusiasts would be reasonably encouraging and supportive.
Too much nowadays in our field has a whiff of being about classism and collusion, to create barriers to joining the clique.
Don't get me started on the obviously frat-pledging interviews that Google popularized, and then way too many newcomers mimicked that gatekeeping baggery, as if it was good and reasonable, rather than bro snobbery.
Re: How I accepted myself into Canada's largest AI hackathon
#73What, hackathons require admission applications these days? Holy crap I'm getting old...
There are two types of non-corporate hackathons:
1. The kind where you have to advertise all over and work hard to convince people to come to. You're happy with whoever shows up.
2. The kind where you have so many entries that you need to filter out the non-serious people and save your limited space for people with the actual skills and motivation to show up and contribute.
The second kind is usually associated with some big institution or influencer. It might have a history of participation from people who went on to be successful.
In this case, it's associated with universities. Different universities probably encourage their students to apply and compete.
Re: How I accepted myself into Canada's largest AI hackathon
#74> Passion and interest don't really come across ... What an oblivious statement made by your actual reviewer!
Agreed. Admittedly, "passion and interest don't really come across" might've been a valid impression, since the post after sounds like it wasn't the top priority: > I decided to apply even though I was pretty busy that weekend, hoping my schedule would clear by the time the hackathon came around. However, this could be yet another instance of gatekeeping that has sprung up, now that there's tons of money involved, an…
You can still just show up.
A recent highly advertised hackathon rejected my application.
I DM'd an organizer and got told there was no space at the venue.
I showed up anyways and security was checking names before allowing entrants in.
Walk in with a box of "stuff" and shuffle over with a look of friendly inconvenience, and as they're scouring the list for my name: "Oh uh sorry I was a really late application so I might be towards the end or something".
"Ah thanks for letting me know!", and after some half hearted searching security pens in my name, and off I go. My team ended up being finalists.
The room was probably half empty btw. I get fire codes are a thing but as someone who's helped organize hackathons, organizers are notorious for overestimating the conversion rate from "accepted" to "actually shows up"
Re: How I accepted myself into Canada's largest AI hackathon
#75Buzz online where? I haven't heard about it, feel like I'm missing out.
Re: How I accepted myself into Canada's largest AI hackathon
#76Earlier quoted context omitted.
Wait, firebase allows full access to http connections accessible from a browser ? Wtf? Why would you want to give the user direct access to a database to begin with? Is firebase built around the idea of not running your own servers or something?
Pretty much. Google manages everything. It handles Auth, which ties into the rules for accessing Firestore (the db), and you've got Functions for any code that needs to run server-side. All with libraries in a lot of languages to make it easy. Pretty solid product with a cohesive experience and a generous free tier. Naturally, you'll pay an exorbitant amount once you start to scale and realize you've been locked in.
Aren't firebase apps notorious for having really stupid vulnerabilities?
Re: How I accepted myself into Canada's largest AI hackathon
#77Slightly tangential: I'm currently working on a web app that uses Firebase and I'd like to potentially open source it in the future.
Given all these recent articles where people have been finding vulnerabilities in Firebase apps, should I be careful to open source it? The data in my app isn't super sensitive (e.g., social security or bank info), but does contain PII like names, emails, passwords.
Re: How I accepted myself into Canada's largest AI hackathon
#78Nice catch. I remember the days when one could just show up to a hackathon and do cool hacks. Now it feels like they only exist for serious reasons.
The hackathons I have been forced to participate in always seemed like a cheap shot at labor and ideas from some corporate overlord And for the record.... PIZZA is not an appropriate compensation. Especially if someone is lactose intolerant!
It’s always Little Caesars too. At that point, I’d rather just have the $5 that the pizza cost.
Re: How I accepted myself into Canada's largest AI hackathon
#79Slightly tangential: I'm currently working on a web app that uses Firebase and I'd like to potentially open source it in the future. Given all these recent articles where people have been finding vulnerabilities in Firebase apps, should I be careful to open source it? The data in my app isn't super sensitive (e.g., social security or bank info), but does contain PII like names, emails, passwords.
You should triple-check the configs for your Firebase instance, make sure you understand all the security implications.
If you release the app as open-source make sure you remove references to your specific Firebase instance.
I'll also say that the app being open-source isn't the problem. As you can see from the blog-post, there's a LOT you can do just from looking at the frontend code delivered to your browser.
Re: How I accepted myself into Canada's largest AI hackathon
#80There used to be a local hackathon where I used to live in London. Amazingly talented people used to attend, great social, I really miss going to these events