vrutberg's comments

vrutberg | 3 years ago | on: AirPods Pro Service Program for Sound Issues

I contacted Apple about this issue with my 1st gen AirPods (non-pro) in mind. They were basically unusable since the batteries would only hold a charge lasting a few minutes. I was offered to send them in for a battery replacement IIRC, but that would’ve set me back as much as the cost of a new pair, so I ended up just buying a new pair instead. I agree, it does feel quite wasteful.

vrutberg | 5 years ago | on: IBM looking for 12 years’ experience in Kubernetes administration

No, I know it wasn’t anything personal. Google is a big company and my application probably got lost in a sea of applications. Still, I think it reflects poorly on a potential employer to ghost candidates.

vrutberg | 5 years ago | on: IBM looking for 12 years’ experience in Kubernetes administration

Yeah, no, I know. Google is a big company and my application probably got lost, overlooked or buried in a sea of applications. Still, I think it reflects poorly on a potential employer to ghost candidates.

vrutberg | 5 years ago | on: IBM looking for 12 years’ experience in Kubernetes administration

After I had worked as a software engineer for about 5-6 years, struggling with impostor syndrome during portions of that time, I decided to apply for a job at Google mostly just to see what would happen. Guess what happened? They ghosted me. Nothing. No 'thanks, but no'. Just nothing.

I remember that it I felt embarassed and was frankly a bit ashamed that I hadn't received a reply. It took a while before I realized that I had in fact gotten ghosted as well. I waited for a reply from them for weeks. My self esteem took a definite hit from that. This was about 5 years ago now, so I've since gotten over it - but it changed my perception of Google as an employer from a place I'd be lucky to work at, to a place that I would have a really hard time applying for a job at again.

vrutberg | 5 years ago | on: Moving Away from Gmail

I have been on a similar journey to distance myself from Google and my Google account for a little more than a year now. It's taken longer than I thought to get to where I am now, and now I'm skeptical that I'll ever be completely Google free. My steps so far have been:

1. January 2019: Bought a domain name and registered for FastMail.

2. Progressively over the following months: Every time I got an email sent to my Gmail address, I'd either unregister for that service or change it to my new FastMail powered email address.

3. Early summer 2019: Logged out from my Google Account in Firefox, and created a Firefox Container where I am logged into my Google account in case I would need it

4. Deleted Google Maps app from my phone

5. Logged out from my Google account on the Gmail app on my phone

A few tips I can share:

* If you have this email address registered at FastMail: [email protected], emails sent to [email protected] (where x can be anything) will be forwarded do [email protected]. I found this very useful when using it to sign up for various services.

* You can register as many aliases as you want in FastMail. For example I have my personal email address be [email protected]. I also have [email protected] registered as an alias, so if I sign up for some online service I can use [email protected] as my email address.

The things that I've found hardest to migrate are:

* iMessage. I've used my Gmail address as the primary iMessage handle, so that's what people have been sending messages to. Not sure what'll happen if I remove it from my Apple ID.

* GitHub. I've used my Gmail address as my email address in Git for years. Removing the Gmail address from my profile in GitHub removes the connection between those commits and my profile. For now I have it as a secondary email address (or whatever it's called on GitHub) for this sake.

* YouTube. I want my viewing history, channel subscriptions, etc. Maybe I should create a new Google Account just for YouTube?

vrutberg | 5 years ago | on: Questions to ask at the end of a technical interview (2017)

I can agree that most, if not all, questions in the linked blog post are good questions to ask any interviewer. I also feel that simply asking questions, no matter what they are, is good as that shows interest and curiosity.

On the occasions where I have interviewed people that have applied for mid to senior level positions I expect at least a handful of questions from the candidate. Someone interviewing for a senior position but not asking any questions comes off as a bit odd.

vrutberg | 7 years ago | on: Boeing delays 737 MAX software fix delivery

Not sure it should be that simple either. You would probably want someone with physical access to the aircraft to deliver upgrades in order to avoid someone tampering with it.

vrutberg | 7 years ago | on: AirPods with Wireless Charging Case

True wireless headphones for me is a big improvement. It’s just so darn convenient. Also, during the year I’ve had mine I’ve never found myself in a situation where I’ve had to use them while charging. Having one more thing to keep charged is of course a downside, but when compared to the convenience they bring it’s a small one.

vrutberg | 9 years ago | on: Dear Apple

As a developer who moved from Java and JavaScript (IntelliJ IDEA) to Swift and Xcode about a year ago, the experience has been horrendous. How is it okay for a company as big and serious as Apple to have an IDE and tooling as bad as Xcode? The IDE frequently crashes, there is no refactoring support at all, practically non-existant code completion, syntax highlightning frequently stops working, etc etc.

vrutberg | 10 years ago | on: Ask HN: Share your best personal productivity tips and tricks

Not a lot of people can spend 1/3 of a year on vacation. I'm in Sweden and I consider my vacation time pretty generous (6 weeks per year), but still, I'm still nowhere near 1/3 of a year.