caspercrf
caspercrf on Hacker News
Classic cars, if you're into cars. Think older Porsche 911, muscle cars, Broncos, old pickup trucks, etc. This is not mine, and probably not $35k, but it can be an investment that you can have a lot of fun with.
https://ibb.co/Vcby0WXC
Posted by
caspercrf on Monday April 07, 2025 @01:34PM
from the ask-hn dept.
I was recently laid off and have been considering a career change. I'm 46 and have been in software testing/QA for 20+ years with a BSEE degree. I'm getting burned out on doing the same thing for so long and a friend of a friend was telling me about his job as an Insurance Risk Engineer. It sounds interesting, basically assessing risk of a commercial business for coverage. I think it would...
Posted by
caspercrf on Monday March 25, 2024 @01:00PM
from the ask-hn dept.
Those that got laid off in the past couple of months and were able to find a new position, was it a step up or down relative to your last job? I've been out of work since November and the only interviews I've been getting are for positions that pay less, and/or contract work. I wasn't making a large salary at my last job, just about the average market rate. Just wondering how others are doing.
I have a motorcycle lift and a car lift, but the desk is great for motorcycle engine rebuilds or working on a steering rack, just like a normal workbench but you can raise what you're working on to chest high instead of bending over all the time.
I love them, I have one at work and three at home. I end up standing about 80% of the time and I feel that I'm more productive when I'm standing. When I sit at my desk, I tend to try to get comfortable and slouch a little in my chair, which makes me want to be lazy.
A big plus I found is that at work, it is much easier to show someone a coding problem or something I'm working on if the desk is at the standing height. It's kind of like working on a whiteboard.
Both my wife and I have adjustable desks for our home offices, and my wife doesn't even have a chair with hers, she's always standing.
I was able to get a used one from my last job after they remodeled our offices. I'm going to use that one for my garage workbench. I weigh 230 pounds, and just for fun, I wanted to see if the desk could lift me, so I sat on it and my desk had no problem going up and down multiple times. That made me have the idea it would be a perfect workbench for working on my motorcycle or car parts.
Posted by
caspercrf on Wednesday November 15, 2023 @05:09PM
from the ask-hn dept.
I was driving home today and I noticed a couple of businesses that always seem to be open and have been around for a while, it made me wonder how they stay in business. Some might be passion projects, but I'm amazed how other businesses come and go, but these stay open. Makes me wonder if niche businesses really are where to focus.- Lamp Shade store
- Light bulb store
- Harpsicle store
-...
This is true, and there are many strategies that hedge funds use besides just buy(long) or sell(short) the market. High frequency trading is one, another is spread trading. With spread trading, you take 2 stocks that are highly correlated to each other, let's say Ford and GM. You buy one, and you short the other. You are technically market neutral, so if they both go up or down, you are still break even. When the 2 stocks start trading closer or further apart by a couple of standard deviations, you can put on a trade that bets the 2 stocks will revert to the mean of their historic ratios.
I was laid off in 2009, in the middle of the housing bust and it was rough. Fortunately, I was on my own, so I only had to take care of myself, but being laid off taught me to keep current with my skills when times are good. I was caught flat footed and unemployed, and it took me nearly 9 months to get another job. 9 months is a looong time to be sitting around wondering about your future as you watch more and more layoffs happen.
The one good thing about layoffs is that it grows your network. Eventually you and your old coworkers find new jobs at different companies and now you have new contacts there. This is how I got my first job after being laid off, my old co-worker got a new job and he reached out to me.
It's not a safe car by any modern means, we got it for drives on the weekend. It only has a lap belt and no power brakes, but it's fun to drive :-)
2008 Toyota Tundra with 208k miles. I needed a truck to tow a toy hauler and also to take my dirt bike to the track. I also race down in Mexico and the truck is old enough that I'm not worried what happens to it, but it's still reliable not to leave me stranded.
My wife drives a 1967 Chevy Nova with an 525hp LS3. We sold her BMW 435i because used car prices were ridiculous and we got an offer for only $2k less then we bought it for 5 years earlier.
We both work from home so MPG of our cars were not a concern.
HA! I was just going to write this. It's like my official 'old man' gift for Christmas. People laugh about it, but when you get one, it's amazing lol.
Posted by
caspercrf on Wednesday August 24, 2022 @06:02PM
from the ask-hn dept.
I met my wife about 12 years ago and at the time, we were making about the same salary ~$70k. Over the years both our salaries went up about the same until we both got to the $100k mark. About 5 years ago her career has really accelerated and her total comp is 2.5x what I'm making. On top of her salary, she hit the startup lotto and had a large cash buyout.We had a hard time dealing with...
MP3 players, beepers, pay phones and phone booths, phone charger battery vending machines at airports, boom boxes, laser disks... basically everything I remember growing up with in the 90's :-)
Apples(if you like them). If you are hungry, and an apple doesn't sounds good to eat, you are probably bored and not hungry. It helped me from eating snack foods.
Wouldn't any gaming systems with cartridges be considered finished? Atari, Nintendo, etc.
Acupuncture. I had a similar issue with my pinkie and ring finger on my right hand started going numb at work. I had an ergonomics specialist from my company give me a whole new setup, but the only thing that actually helped was getting acupuncture/massage 1-2 times a week for a couple weeks straight. One interesting thing I found out was that while I was having numbness in my hand, the nerve that was causing it was in my shoulder/upper back.
Posted by
caspercrf on Thursday December 03, 2020 @02:18PM
from the ask-hn dept.
How do you deal with large missed opportunities? Recently this has been eating me up. I have been dwelling on a couple of missed financial opportunities which would have been life-changing for me. I just can't seem to get over it, the ‘what ifs?’ keep me up at night. I’ve Googled and read advice about how to deal with this and the one upside is that I've identified the opportunity once, the...
Ex-Nortel here! First job out of college working in NY.
In hindsight, concentrating on finding a side hustle or a business of my own instead of just trying to be a better engineer. 90% of new ventures fail, but everyone thinks they will be the exception. I was basically broke with no savings and no job when I was 32. I'm 40 and bounced back a bit, but I feel so behind in my career and saving for retirement.
Posted by
caspercrf on Thursday August 22, 2019 @03:50PM
from the ask-hn dept.
Yesterday I was driving and had Google maps directions on audio. For the first time, one instruction said: "In 300 feet, make a right at the In and Out Burger." It's the first time I heard a business name in the directions. The interesting thing is that this was making a right onto a freeway, and on the corner was the back of a large strip mall. There could have been 4-5 other business...
Not common in San Diego either... the sunshine tax is real.
Posted by
caspercrf on Wednesday November 28, 2018 @04:45PM
from the ask-hn dept.
I'm down in San Diego and the few tech meetups that I used to go to have basically dried up and haven't posted a meetup in over a year. Is this happening in other areas as well?
It would be for a senior QA/test/automation engineer position. I don't have an impressive GitHub account and I wanted to show that I have an interest in writing code outside of work.
Posted by
caspercrf on Thursday March 01, 2018 @01:28PM
from the ask-hn dept.
I have one line that says I have 8 apps published with over 500k combined downloads, would it be tacky to include that they have made $1x,xxx amount in revenue? The revenue is not super impressive number, but it's not insignificant either. Should I save that info for an interview and only if they ask?
I use unusual options activity to find stocks. From there I check the charts and will either go with, against, or pass on the trade. 2-3 trades a year in my 401k. +38% YTD, +55% YOY.
Motocross, Street bike riding, Desert Racing, Riding in Baja, throwing a wrench on my bike/truck/RV.
Looking at starting a company motorcycle related...hope it doesn't kill my hobbies :-/
You are I are almost the same. Me and my girlfriend are both 38, no kids, no plan for kids, been together for 7 years, just got back from a 7 day Alaska cruise.