nmalaguti's comments

nmalaguti | 2 years ago | on: The man who broke bowling

I tried bowling like this when I was a teen, trying to get massive spin on the ball. I never got to a point where I could be consistent with spin and went back to using my thumb. Seeing a pro do it (and be successful) might have encouraged me to keep trying it.

nmalaguti | 3 years ago | on: Urgent: Sign the petition now

Why not let the market sort it out? Maybe these startups need to take a down round, or be acquired for a fraction of their value?

Maybe the VCs should step in and make bridge loans available if they want to keep their investments? If you believe in your portfolio, why not help them weather the storm? Or are you afraid to be exposed to additional risk? Should the taxpayers take on that risk instead?

nmalaguti | 3 years ago | on: Twitter has re-suspended ElonJet account

I believe the worst thing you can be is a hypocrite. We can disagree about value systems, but if you don’t practice what you preach then I have no reason to respect you.

I don’t care if Twitter decides to allow this kind of information or not, but don’t claim safety and then disregard the safety of others. Don’t claim free speech and then silence speech you don’t like.

Elon is clearly doing what’s best for Elon, and that’s fine too. But I won’t tolerate him pretending he’s doing anything other than putting himself first. And I’ll make my own choices based on that. If I think my interests align with his, I should stick with him. But practically none of our interests align. We don’t share any common problems.

Elon doesn’t think he needs me or anyone else (and he has so much wealth he really doesn’t). I wouldn’t count myself lucky to be in the same lifeboat as him on the off chance he decides I’m dead weight and tosses me overboard.

nmalaguti | 3 years ago | on: A conflict with a manager ended with me being disallowed to work at Spotify

The lack of empathy in the comments here is worrisome. The manager was clearly failing to manage effectively. Blaming the engineer for not managing up with a manager who didn’t want to listen doesn’t make sense.

This scenario is my biggest fear as a people leader - that ICs are being mismanaged and I won’t be able to see it or intervene before it is too late.

nmalaguti | 3 years ago | on: Math on GitHub: The Good, the Bad and the Ugly

My theory is that there’s already a lot of existing content using $ and $$ that GitHub wants to start rendering without requiring any changes.

I agree the code block approach would be less ambiguous, but there is an advantage in going where people already are.

nmalaguti | 4 years ago | on: QOI – The Quite OK Image Format

No. This is a very simple and reasonably efficient image format. It is notable for its simplicity and straightforward implementation, as well as its speed compared with png.

nmalaguti | 4 years ago | on: Strict Python function parameters

While this is nice in a lot of ways, it also can make it harder for your callers to use more dynamic patterns. You can no longer call it with

    process_data(**kwargs)
and have the data field pulled out of kwargs. Of course you can still do

    data = kwargs.pop(“data”)
    process_data(data, **kwargs)
but if you are the only library doing it, it can cause things to break when it breaks programmers expectations.

nmalaguti | 7 years ago | on: Why software projects take longer than you think – a statistical model

The reason my team uses Fibonacci is that it cuts down on the “is this a 3, 4, 5, or 6 point ticket?” discussion. Each larger value should have more uncertainty, so there isn’t any point in getting more precise. Not being able to argue over 1 point differences but having to choose between 5, 8, and 13 has a clarifying effect on the process.

nmalaguti | 7 years ago | on: Ask HN: What is a secure way to allow 2FA resets?

One of the problems with that is it makes account recovery after a compromise that much harder. If an attacker manages to prevent you from seeing those notifications (compromised email/sms) and you aren’t actively signing in, it’s possible for the month to lapse.

Once the attacker has control and you try to reassert ownership, the attacker gets a loud warning every time you try to login/change the TFA and a month to respond.

nmalaguti | 7 years ago | on: U.S. Congress Renews $5M Open Textbook Pilot for Second Year

Take a look at Knewton Alta[1] as an alternative to MyMathLab. It uses OER content and is aimed at being very affordable - $44 for 2 year access or $9.95 a month (cancel anytime, which is great for those 6 week summer classes).

We have courses available in Math, Econ, Chemistry, and more on the way.

The biggest change Knewton champions is mastery based learning by using adaptivity and just-in-time remediation. By encouraging students to reach mastery throughout the course, they learn more and do better on tests and assessments. We offer comprehensive analytics for instructors and administrators to identify struggling students for offline intervention.

Many students love it for homework because they can get questions wrong, get remediation in the assignment, learn the material and still get a 100% on their homework.

Disclaimer: I work for Knewton.

1. https://www.knewtonalta.com/why-alta/

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