oldprogrammer2's comments

This was my experience with Xamarin. It was easy to get started, but then it was nearly impossible to get the "finer points" working just right. Instead of just doing "x" I was fighting the tools to get "y" to do "x", with that extra level abstraction sometimes requiring custom code to generate the right native output.

My kids are in 2nd, 4th, and 6th grade. They all work very independently, and seem to enjoy school more than they did in person.

We always hear about the negative aspects of virtual education, but I think a big positive effect is that they are required to be more independent about watching the schedule and managing time.

Another big positive effect is that I feel like we have more time together as a family. A couple minutes here and there add up throughout the day, and I'm grateful for the extra time with them at this age.

Our elementary school has grouped the remote kids together so that the teacher can manage the class consistently, without trying to be hybrid. Their schedule follows a regular school day from 8-3, approximately alternating 30 minutes synchronous/asynchronous. We pick up a bag of take-home classroom material every 2 weeks, including textbooks and readers, and the students generally work on paper and submit photos of their work through Google Classroom or present during a Google Meet.

I graduated from college with an Economics degree. I was working as a Business Analyst. I started looking at database schemas so I could write better documentation, and then started writing SQL to deliver reports myself instead of waiting on the engineering team. It didn't take long until executives were coming to me directly for their custom reporting needs. Eventually, I was running a rogue web server for generating dynamic reports. When I was "found out", I was absorbed into engineering, and started my "real" career as a SWE and started building web applications on a team.

I broke that first-job barrier by getting myself a job close to the technology, and then solving problems that had a visible impact. (I want to add that, though I constantly pushed at the edge of my authority, I avoided ruffling feathers and was always a team player. I never went over my boss' head, for example, and generally asked permission.)

I'm now in my third executive role, running engineering for a Series-A funded startup. Being able to bridge the divide between business and engineering really hits the sweet spot for me. I very much enjoy what I do.

This looks like a standard Department of State advisory message. A fairly moderate one to “exercise caution”. The purpose of these advisories is to make sure travelers are aware of any situation. The article on France, for example, has messages about Covid-19, terrorism, and civil unrest, along with advice.

Don’t read too much into it.

No, just stop eating meat and spread that message to everyone. You don’t need big acts of legislation.

https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-019-02409-7

They have details here: https://nickcraver.com/blog/2016/02/17/stack-overflow-the-ar...

Lots of caching, lots of RAM, SSD storage, and a low-level ORM for SQL.

The trend is to move to 10-year exercise windows. Plenty of arguments to both sides, I suppose.

1. Setting the exercise window to 90 days instead of a more reasonable window (measured in years) should be a strong indicator that whoever is structuring their deals is not at all interested in the welfare of your equity.

2. You no longer have a seat in the company (much less at the deal table).

3. Their desperation will be apparent, and they will accept very bad terms in the round (firing your staff = no leverage).

Even if they manage to stay in business, your investment is unlikely to be worth anything. As someone else said, would you really want to invest in this company if not for your history? Why not put that $13k into another investment?

I am also optimistic for this reason, too. In the 1980's, I had nightmares about a nuclear armageddon. We were told that by the time we were teenagers we would no longer be able to play outside: because of ozone depletion, air pollution, and acid rain. In the 1990's, we were told modern society would collapse because we would literally run out of oil. We were told that 20% of us would die from AIDS.

Don't mistake me - these threats were real, not imagined, but based completely on static trajectories. We countered these problems by changing behaviors, changing laws, and innovating.

The threat of runaway climate change may be greater than these threats, but we have shown a remarkable ability to effect change on those things that the experts told us were unchangeable.

It wasn't so easy for all the boomers. I remember my dad losing his business after he lost a loan during the S&L crisis, and I remember my parents struggling to afford a 3-bedroom house in 1983 at something like a 16% interest rate on the mortgage. And I'm sure they remember gas lines during the 1979 oil crisis, as well, even though I don't.

To be fair, there are plenty of state universities in the US that are considerably cheaper than private schools. Students entering college are generally making two bad decisions:

1. Selecting a very expensive, non-prestigious private school.

2. Selecting a major that has no ROI for the cost of tuition.

To give concrete examples:

Option 1.

   4 years at U of Texas at Austin.

      Tuition = $40k.

Option 2.

   2 Years at Tarrant County College.

   2 years at U of Texas at Austin.

      Tuition = $24k.

Option 3.

   4 years at Southern Methodist University.

      Tuition = $250k.

So a student could spend $24k versus $250k, and I would imagine most would consider the UT Austin degree more valuable, as well, though these two schools are ranked similarly for undergraduate.

And, while I would support further taxes to support state schools, I have no desire to support students who are personally selecting to attend a school that will cost 10x just because they want to. And I have no desire to forgive their loans, either.

Beyond the cost/benefit analysis, and apart from the programming element, are you up for 3 semesters of calculus, linear algebra, and discrete math, and differential equations? Are you prepared to start calculus in your first semester (you have a working knowledge of functional algebra and trigonometry, right)? If not, you will need extra time to level up your math skills before you can advance very far, possibly stretching your time to finish out by another year or two.

From Wikipedia:

He left in 1992 to study business and physics at the University of Pennsylvania, and graduated with an undergraduate degree in economics and stayed for a second bachelor's degree in physics. After leaving Penn, Elon Musk headed to Stanford University in California to pursue a PhD in energy physics.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elon_Musk#Education

In the spirit of making the best argument for an opposing viewpoint, I think the better argument that would be made is that climate science is the only scientific discipline that seems predisposed to a certain, predicted outcome.

The argument is made that facts are selected or engineered to support a negative outcome because those producing the science already deeply believe in a particular truth and inject that bias into their work. Any scientist seeking to prove otherwise is silenced or ridiculed by the majority, who happen to be true believers. It only takes a few dissenting voices or a few cases of statistics being "manipulated" to add credibility to it.

The conspiratorial nature of it makes it even more compelling to untrusting, unsophisticated outsiders.

I'm also suddenly reminded of Umberto Eco's book 'Foucault's Pendulum', which deals with belief and conspiracy. While a fun, satirical work of fiction, I found it to be very constructive in understanding how people can come to believe things that are completely wrong.

Dallas native here... and a runner and weather nerd constantly monitoring for the best running conditions...

In July and August it will often stay above 90F until midnight. There’s usually a few evenings in August where it will still be 100F at 2200.

The overnight lows in the upper 70s won’t be reached until dawn, and it will be back into the upper 80s before 10.

And the breeze is a hot wind, that feels like it makes it worse rather than helping.

I live in a rural area (only 2 neighbors within a mile), and have a 50/5 Mb internet plan through a fixed wireless provider. The tower is about 5 miles away and is uplinked to another tower at least 20 miles away. This, along with Verizon LTE as a backup, allows me to consistently work from home.

Last year the best I could get was 15/5, and a few years ago 10/3. So it’s definitely changing for the better.

Warnings for those thinking about fixed wireless: they tend to turn off tower equipment to prevent damage during storms, your connection can be over saturated at peak times, you may have to pay overages (on non-business Plans, but significantly cheaper that overages by cellular providers), and line of sight and distance from the tower can prevent service.

On second look, I think I am incorrect. Altering Section 132(j)(8) doesn't yield a substantial change.

Before:

Amounts paid or expenses incurred by the employer for education or training provided to the employee which are not excludable from gross income under section 127 shall be excluded from gross income under this section if (and only if) such amounts or expenses are a working condition fringe.

After:

Amounts paid or expenses incurred by the employer for education or training provided to the employee shall be excluded from gross income under this section if (and only if) such amounts or expenses are a working condition fringe.

I'm not sure where this is in the tax bill.

This seemed so bizarre, I had to research it. Best I can tell, it originates on Page 97 of the proposed bill: https://waysandmeansforms.house.gov/uploadedfiles/bill_text.....

(2) Section 132(j)(8) is amended by striking "which are not excludable from gross income under section 127".

I looked up the mentioned sections:

Section 132: https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/26/132

Section 127: https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/26/127

This does seem to be true.

But to be fair to the intent, these sections of the tax code are aimed at educational benefits provided by corporations, and there is not a specific clause in the proposed bill that is targeting graduate education. It seems like an oversight that PhD students are affected by this, or possibly there's a deeper nuance in the tax code that makes this irrelevant to educational institutions. Hopefully all of the attention this has received will result in clarification and amendment before approval.

Given that the US is large and varied, what you describe doesn't sound like where I live (Texas). Oddly enough I had that same reaction when I first visited London: life seemed worse than where I was from.

I don't know anyone who works more than 40 hours a week, in tech or elsewhere. Those of us in the corporate world have 15-25 days of paid time off (not including holidays, to be clear), based on time with a company. As an employee, I would love to see this increase. As an employer, I would see it as a recruiting opportunity that many job candidates would value.

Most people I know own a home, and others rent houses or apartments at relatively low cost. And probably significantly larger and nicer than European expectations. And they all have plenty to show for their hard work, though much of it may not be enriching our lives substantially.

On the healthcare side, maternity leave is usually only 30 days (not very much, I know, but much better than none). While our healthcare is not "free", I feel like the higher compensation, lower taxes, and lower cost of living in the area enables my family to afford paying higher premiums for better insurance.

Having said that, I still feel anxiety about the future. Losing my job doesn't just mean I lose my income, I also lose my health insurance coverage. I'm not sure how quickly I could switch to an ACA plan with an income-based discount, and I wouldn't be able to afford it otherwise if I had no job.

Unfortunately, I don't think switching to a single payer system alone will address the deep issues in the US healthcare system. People are quick to blame the insurers, but much of the blame also needs to be placed on the providers who charge astronomical fees. The source of the problem, in my opinion, is lack of transparency in pricing resulting from the presence of a middleman (the insurer) and the inability to shop around for many medical services that could be commoditized.

So while I agree that in many ways Europeans have it better (but not without cost in terms of lower wages, higher cost of living, or high unemployment), I don't think painting such a dismal view of the US is warranted. Based on my experiences traveling in Central and South America, a comparison to the third-world, even if limited to work/life balance, is highly inaccurate.

Disclaimer: others' experiences will absolutely vary.

I can't speak for Trump's motivations, but I've noticed something similar in the corporate world. If a capable executive is particularly critical of an aspect of the business, he may (inadvertently) find himself put in charge of it. It's a method for breaking status quo. And just because this new leader starts as an outsider doesn't mean he stays an outsider after becoming intimate with all the invisible challenges facing that business unit.