Long story but can anyone use Google Search with Firefox 52 (last one which works on Windows XP)? I'm stuck at the reCaptcha (https://www.google.com/sorry/index) where it spins the blue circle forever due to a recaptcha_en.js string error. The issue has been happening for about a week now.While I can find alternatives to search, reCaptcha not working is concerning.
This is a discussion I hope can lead to some answers among the developer community about what's going on these days.I previously wrote about how various shopping sites are being very hostile to their customer base [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=29384866]. Why does a 32kb text article need 10MB of battery draining heavy javascript to just work? But this is more then just shopping sites...
Hi, It's been a while HN.Amazon is going to win heavily aren't they?Or to put it another way, 3 out of maybe 10 of my computers can checkout at the newly updated Walmart.com. For Apple's Online store, it says "please call us to make an order". For an indie online bookstore I went too and few others, it says "your browser is not supported" please use a new browser where some devices can't use...
Yes, there are actually people with real life issues who actually face this scenario.
During your journey, your portfolio sank with your ship. You have no contacts in the New World. It would take months to years to gather the letter of recommendations from Europe - that is if they are still there and you remember their address from memory. The other evidence of your work is in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean.
A historical notion that still has applicability in today's world. Think refugees.
Also, in many places, having the "Junior Dog Walker" outshine the "Lead Dog Walker" can end up being a severe career limiting move. This seems to lead to some hierarchical tensions as many people seem to want their juniors to be juniors and little more but not too much more. How is this countered?
I asked this questions a while back "Ask HN: Why is it easier to make money by being evil?" (http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4609433).I gave an two examples. One of internet companies keeping track of their users and selling the data to the highest bidder. The other is how it's easier to make money selling Orwellian central management software vs employee empowerment software.It seems...
I was reading some history on immigrants from Europe to America and how their entire future existence depended on keeping a portfolio book safe. If they lost that then, well, they got to start their lives all over again from the bottom of civilization.Imagine if you had a large amount of knowledge, a tremendous amount that would rival any senior technical lead in the field of your choice. You...
Tesla, Turing, Oppenheimer.. great men, great scientists, great intellects - all harmed and some destroyed by the people they helped protect.I've been reading the biographies of some of the greatest minds in science. I'm saddened with what I found. While intellects will protect other intellects, intellects have little power to protect themselves against the majority who control society. ...
One of the biggest mantra in the open source world that more eyeballs looking at the problem = better software.There's another area in life where there is a lot of eyeballs looking at it. Vastly more than any open source software. Those are Hollywood Celebrities.In theory, by having so many eyeballs look at the life of a celebrity, they can have a better understanding of said celebrity. Yet,...
I never want to wear a name badge for work again.Which companies have no or optional name badges?
Crowdsourcing, democracy, large conversations. Thousands to millions of brains looking at a problem trying to figure out the answer. And when they fail spectacularly, they fail spectacularly.So I ask the HN crowd today, how can so many brains be wrong? How can millions of brains seeing the same problem come up with the wrong answer? If a million brains failed, would a billion or a trillion...
I'm curious. You know all those super smart people you didn't want to be apart of your team because they had personalities which was horrible to work with.What would happen if you took a bunch of them, lock them up in a room, and told them they can't leave until they created something interesting? What would be the output?
A large group interview usually consists of you having 7 or so individual interviews, a lunch interview with another 3 people, an afternoon interview with a manager - all with no or little breaks in the middle.This interview style is very popular with a lot of tech companies. What's the logic behind it? What output does it produce?
Did it? If so, how?
"Jargon increases the accuracy and efficiency of communication between specialists." I think this statement is too broad. This really depends if we're on the same page (i.e. think Java and Javascript). We could end up having a long conversation about something and end up with two ends if we're not careful.
If we've been doing the same thing and working together for many months on end, then I would say yes, jargon works as an efficient means of communication. If we've never met each other and you and me have 20 minutes (realistically 15) before the next interviewer takes me - then we're going to have a problem.
I like looking at things tick from the inside. I like keeping up to date about the field. I like making things work. I still get stumped by the technical interview. I usually fail miserably. The interviewer usually ends up saying something like "If you don't get this simple thing, I don't believe you'll understand anything more complex."I'm not really sure what more I can do. I just don't...
What I consider unethical is sites which track you across hundreds of internet sites while trying to figure out your previous URL history of sites it doesn't track all the while hiding behind the fine print saying what it does is legal.
Internet advertising is nothing like newspaper or magazine ads. Internet advertising has a tracking component built into it and that tracking component doesn't stop once you leave the site. It follows you forever.
The answer to the question is "follow the money".
People don't get paid to learn the inner workings of something. They get paid to do stuff that produces results even if they do it in the worst possible way. Except for a rare few companies (who usually are very good at what they do but are rare), the incentive to make things better does not exist.
The short and even medium term payout of deeply learning the inner workings of something is very small. The people who decided that are the ones with the cash and cash is what most people follow.
Your company is in need of good managers. Your company is in need of good programmers. You can do both pretty well but you enjoy programming more. Unfortunately, the place is in desperate need of a good manager. You know if you don't become the manager, someone very bad will do it. The other way it might happen is you could work under the good manager while your coworkers who you enjoy...
I know someone who is very soft spoken, non confrontational, and super smart. Nobody listens to him even though he is usually right about things. I'm not sure why. You only need to look at his accomplishments to see this is someone you really should be listening to. It's very scary to see how smart he is if you just sit down and listen. It's also sad to hearing how low his salary compared...
Fifty or so years ago, you only needed basic computing knowledge to be the head architect for the personal computer industry. Today? 20+ years experience and vast political connections.Where the computer industry was fifty years ago is what today? What fields can you make a huge difference in without dealing with the "credentials" or "politics" that hamper other fields?P.S. I think the...
I've been seeing a trend of people wanting to work with people who are EXACTLY like them. Same knowledge, same mindset, same thinking, etc. That does kind of work until your "gold mine" runs out and you need to do something new.It would be like having algorithm designers trying to create an entire social network.
Is there an Akihabara equivalent in the USA? Any in NYC? Seattle? Boston? Silicon Valley? Austin?
The industry is going towards a direction that you know is a bad idea. A lot of money is being poured into so-and-so technology that you know is going to bite back - badly. However, everyone else is going that way and that's where the jobs are heading and where "investors" are 'spending' a lot of money there and the tech kool-aid is gushing out.Would it be better for your career to follow...
You know the drill. When you left college, you wanted to work for the big guys - Intel, Google, Apple, NASA - doing things which can change the world. You wanted to do stuff like create a compiler or figure out an algorithm.Unfortunately, reality hit back hard and you got stuck at a typical company doing CRUD operations. Make reports here, manage documents here, upgrade calendar software...