japesinator's comments

japesinator | 11 years ago | on: Announcing Starfighter

Because free time is something disproportionately available to the privileged. I grew up in a household where money, even if it wasn't abundant, wasn't a huge concern, so I could spend my time outside of school learning math/computers. I've never had to keep a part-time job to put food on the table, spend anhours walking because I couldn't afford gas, or generally be forced to trade my time for money at a terrible ratio. There are people who have, many of whom are likely a better candidate than me, who might just not have the time or mental energy to get home and spend 6 hours hacking on microcontrollers.

japesinator | 11 years ago | on: Announcing Starfighter

I’m curious as to how much this will select for people with free time. Many of the CTFs I’ve played in required a quite non-trivial amount of investment of time (which I didn’t mind, as they’ve been quite enjoyable), but there are certainly people who can’t afford n dozen hours to solve problems due to family/work/other obligations.

I do think this is significantly better than the alternative, but I’m also concerned that it will just create a new class of people who do unfairly poorly in the hiring process.

japesinator | 11 years ago | on: Ask HN: Who wants to be hired? (March 2015)

Location: Normal, Illinois

Remote: Yes

Willing to relocate: Yes

Technologies: Haskell, Security, Machine Learning, Linux, Math, Technical Writing

Résumé/CV: http://writes.co.de/resume.pdf

Email: jp @ writes.co.de

I'm in the market for a summer internship where I can learn new things and solve interesting problems. I love technologies at the intersection of mathematics and computing and helping real people solve real problems, and I would love to get in touch. Thanks!

japesinator | 11 years ago | on: Ask HN: Who wants to be hired? (February 2015)

Location: Bloomington, IL

Remote: Yes

Willing to relocate: Yes

Technologies: Haskell, Python, Idris, Technical Writing, Mathematics, Machine Learning, Security

Résumé/CV: http://writes.co.de/resume.pdf

Email: [email protected]

Github: https://github.com/japesinator

Blog: http://writes.co.de/

I'm looking for a summer internship where I can solve interesting problems. I love the intersection of mathematics and computer science, learning new things, and helping people. Get in touch!

japesinator | 12 years ago | on: HMO: Help Me Out

HMO: I'm designing and running a STEM curriculum for a local Boy Scout camp. We'll have more than 1000 11-17-year-olds come through to do merit badges and "Open STEM" which is basically relatively unstructured exploration of STEM related stuff (see: building catapults, model aircraft, what-if.xkcd.com style questions). We don't have a huge budget, but there's a small fund for needs.

I would appreciate:

- Advice on what to cover/the kinds of activities to put on

- Resources for cool cheap/free science-y things to give out/use

- Cool demos/graphics that explain difficult concepts (think https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Diffie-Hellman_Key_Exchan...)

- What you wish you had seen as a kid in STEM education

- General advice on teaching science/math/technology to people without much background in the middle of the woods

Thanks!

jp [dot] smith [at] wq23 [dot] org

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