trapperkeeper79
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9 years ago
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on: Google Brain Toronto
Spot on. This new institute (and other govt efforts like it) all fail to answer this fundamental question - why would someone work at half the pay (or less) if they were a Canadian citizen? It is a chicken-and-egg problem .. salaries and labour pool quality go hand in hand.
trapperkeeper79
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9 years ago
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on: How “engagement” made the web a less engaging place
For the past few years, I've noticed that a major news site (CNN) has titles that I would term click-baity. Seems wrong to me.
trapperkeeper79
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9 years ago
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on: Open Source Needs FPGAs; FPGAs Need an On-Ramp
I really wanted to get that board - but the price difference between academic and regular users was a bit too much given this was coming out of my own pocket (I ended up buying used FPGA dev boards from ebay, etc.).
I recall there was a lot of excitement around the Pynq. Has anything notable been done with it yet?
trapperkeeper79
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9 years ago
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on: Logic Production Systems: A new mixed logic/imperative programming language
Getting RETE right isn't trivial. I tried looking into the fundamentals a few months ago, and was very unsatisfied - it felt like people explaining it knew parts of it but not the whole thing. I guess it is good that we have some open source implementations that can be reverse engineered by someone motivated enough.
trapperkeeper79
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9 years ago
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on: Canada to announce marijuana will be legal by July 1, 2018
It was a unique situation - we spent a lot of effort to get a baby sitter. Movie theatre was completely full. We just ended up leaving and got a refund.
trapperkeeper79
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9 years ago
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on: Canada to announce marijuana will be legal by July 1, 2018
I'm not a user but have a question for people with more experience. I recently had a few very bad experiences at the movie theatre where (a) the entire outside area smelled of what I think was weed, and (b) the person next to us in a very full theatre reeked of it. We had to leave because it was a really bad odour. Is Toronto going a bit overboard in the short term while people are experimenting or is this just the way it is going to be? I.e. we stop going to movies, etc. I'm not being judgemental .. want to try to be open about it. What does one do in this situation?
I see drunk people from time to time too but I can avoid them fairly easily. MJ seems harder to avoid. I also had a run in at a beach recently where I was there to watch the sunset. The MJ user also seemed to be there for that reason .. I just moved away. Harder to do in a packed theatre.
trapperkeeper79
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9 years ago
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on: Why is this little construction crane illegal in New York City? (2016)
The plumbing unions made some dumb arguments about toxic gas coming up from the sewer IIRC. Why does the regulation care about costs anyways?
trapperkeeper79
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9 years ago
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on: Why is this little construction crane illegal in New York City? (2016)
This reminded me of my time in NYC :)
trapperkeeper79
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9 years ago
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on: Logic Production Systems: A new mixed logic/imperative programming language
Any tips for introductory/intermediate material on the topic? In undergrad, we used Russel and Norvig. Surely there are more advanced books or courses.
trapperkeeper79
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9 years ago
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on: Logic Production Systems: A new mixed logic/imperative programming language
Logic programming and productions are a wonderful idea that I studied in undergrad back in pre-2000. These days, people seem hostile towards them. People just don't like the idea of specifying rules. I couldn't find modern intro textbooks on the topic or classes that cover it on MOOCs. I'm very surprised and confused.
trapperkeeper79
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9 years ago
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on: Amazon's Tepid Response to Counterfeiters Frustrates Sellers
I bought some Pokemon bracelets (yeah .. I know) for some family members. I have a big suspicion that they are counterfeit. The boxes had asian writing on them, and it did not seem Nintendo-like. The device itself has horrible connectivity with the game and phones - almost unusable. I'm pretty ticked off. As a consumer, I had no good way to verify that the device is not counterfeit. For similar situations, I actually started to go to my local best buy to ensure I am not getting fake stuff.
trapperkeeper79
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9 years ago
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on: Rents in Megacities Can't Go Up Forever
From Toronto. We have it worse. We are actually thinking of moving to Vancouver and renting :-p The rents in both places seem the same, except Toronto has shitty traffic, very limited tech opportunities, bad weather, and bugs. I looked around at jobs in Vancouver and it seemed a bit surprising how many tech employers there were.
Can you shed light on why you are fed up with V? Where else are you considering?
trapperkeeper79
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9 years ago
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on: Rents in Megacities Can't Go Up Forever
That's right. At the start of the crisis, I had landlords offer crazy incentives - 2 months rent free on a 13 month lease. They just wanted to lock people in. In a few months, when it was clear that people abandoning houses were moving into apartments, these deals disappeared and rents actually started to increase!
trapperkeeper79
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9 years ago
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on: Rents in Megacities Can't Go Up Forever
This article crystalizes a point that was vague in my mind: "megacities have a problem making it affordable to raise large or even medium-size families. How many of us could live in San Francisco, London or New York City and bring up three children in a decent neighborhood with good schools? Only the already well-to-do can manage such a feat.".
As a mid-30s person with a new baby, I don't see how the numbers work for new entrants to the housing market - unless you were a gambler. Your gamble would be that (a) you don't ever take a hit on your income, and (b) property prices continue to rise. We've been unable to take that gamble .. and homes have increase 40% in the blink of an eye.
In Canada, we have a lot of family in the GTA. We're basically priced out of areas as far away as Mississauga and Milton (Milton went up 20% since Nov 2016). An option we are considering is to move to BC and just rent for a few years in Vancouver. At least we get a better city out of it. For any Canucks, are there any other decent places with tech jobs, and somewhat affordable housing?
trapperkeeper79
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9 years ago
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on: GitHub lets staff own IP developed for personal projects using company resources
I've seen good people get fired for what seem like purely political reason (in California). They got a month of severance but come on. My father worked for a handful of companies his entire career and had true loyalty for them. The company, in turn, took care of him his whole life. This does not exist anymore in the private sector. If your org seems to have it, I'm sorry to tell you that it might change one day (and very abruptly). I've seen this happen to places that were considered unassailable.
trapperkeeper79
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9 years ago
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on: Show HN: My friends and I started a data science consulting firm after our PhDs
Wanted to do something similar in cloud computing. Couldn't figure out how to get clients. Best of luck!
trapperkeeper79
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9 years ago
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on: Microsoft Pledges to Use ARM Server Chips, Threatening Intel's Dominance
trapperkeeper79
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9 years ago
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on: IBM has found a way to store data on a single atom
trapperkeeper79
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9 years ago
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on: VR social productivity app Bigscreen raises $3M with Andreessen Horowitz
I haven't been able to type in the other screen viewer app I got on the rift. Does BigScreen offer that?
trapperkeeper79
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9 years ago
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on: 27 Jobs with Unbelievably Tough Interview Questions
The clock question always pissed me off in school. It assumes the clock's arms move in a continuous way. The clocks I grew up with made discrete movements.
