hungrygs
hungrygs on Hacker News
>or claimed to already know how to program.
This was the key fact. They knew how to program Pascal from Computer Science AP and got 5's on the AP exams and came into UT Austin with abundant confidence but when presented with hardcore mathematical logic data structures and algorithm analysis in functional programming starting week 1 of college they got the rug pulled out from the under them. Of course, this was real computer science, not "infantile" imperative/OOP programming.
Ham "Haskell" Richardson was a total fanboy of Dijkstra!
I will note that the current 1st UTCS course is a serious joke - CS312 was a remedial course, non-counting for major, before 2014, called CS 305J. It's an embarrassment compared to Berkeley's CS61A.
Dijkstra had a lot of influence for some years on the UTCS undergraduate program, whose first undergraduate course for much of the 1990s was taught in Haskell and was a brutal weed out, at ~70% attrition for the first year courses.
However, by 2001, the failure rate was so high that the department moved to Java, much to Dijkstra's chagrin: https://chrisdone.com/posts/dijkstra-haskell-java/
The UTCS undergrad program has been "nerfed" twice since the 1990s - in 2001 and in in 2014. Various political interests during the first tech bubble - to produce more graduates - and later, to have more under-represented minorities, have dramatically reduced what Dijkstra pushed for.
I worked at a Radio Shack in 1986-87, sort of a dream job for 18 years old. Now I know what it would have looked like if I showed up for work one day on LSD!
Just anecdotal, but my life observation of DK is often highly intelligent and competent people in a particular field who then generalize that to pontificate and proclaim, directly or indirectly, superior understanding to certified domain experts (e.g., have directly related advanced degree(s), work in the field for decades.)
It thus seems more or as much a psychological effect - in short, people with a personality type of superiority and know-it-all, yet have never done the deep and hard work to gain or demonstrate any competency in said areas.
A common side observation is of course unfounded conspiracy theories, that the derided experts have sinister intentions.
It's baffled me for years that Russia is making such an obvious geopolitical mistake by not becoming an EU style country aligned in that direction. Culturally, Russia and China are dramatically different and Russia is going to end up as a glorified North Korea under its current leadership. Putin and his cronies just want to loot all that they can while they can.
Look on Youtube- the power and internet are still on. There are live streams still.
Not stealing any credit - this should embolden the Ukrainians, if they are indeed getting this level of support from the USA. As I wrote, speculation as this stuff would be top secret. Don't you think we have stealth (to radar) drones if we have F-22s and F-35s?
Not a German, but their official language on "turning point" is very precise. The close relationships between government and industry means everyone has accepted to take their medicine. Germans are better at doing this than others.
The speculation is that the CIA has stealth drones that are hitting key Russian targets at night. There is also incredible intel filtering down to Ukrainian command and control. Ukrainian special forces now behind enemy lines are likely doing severe damage to supply lines, guided with excellent instructions.
Supposed video of one:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tM1PlldjfHs
It's true that condos as a class don't appreciate but if you buy one in the right gentrifying area they can be a fantastic deal. Some condos in Austin Texas have increased 400% in price in the past 5-6 years. Particularly in zips 78741 and 78704.
Posted by
hungrygs on Friday February 11, 2022 @03:31PM
from the self-post dept.
If Russia invades Ukraine and "crippling" economic sanctions are put on Russia, the response may be the most intense cyber attacks the internet has ever seen.What is at risk? Are companies preparing more given circumstances? Such attacks could range the gamut from core banking and financial operations to power grids.
If Vancouver overall is as dense as SF then 4 plexes won't matter much. But there are many other cities - even LA - where I would think it would. Yet LA has vast amount of low rise commercial on 4 lane streets with bus lines that could support widespread 1+5 podium style designed buildings.
Come on, Ajit Pai was regulatory capture at its worst. Now, as he always planned, he gets to go somewhere and collect his millions per year already furtively promised, until the next Republican administration.
Will this type of move inevitably trickle down to the best public CS undergrad programs? Berkeley and UCLA CS are almost entirely Asian (east and south) with a sprinkling of mostly Jewish Americans who fill the "white" category. That reflects in part California's demographics but even less heavy Asian American places like UT Austin, UW Seattle, and UIUC are 50%+ Asian in undergrad CS.
Posted by
hungrygs on Monday May 04, 2020 @07:14AM
from the self-post dept.
If one is just beyond a beginner programmer with a proficient knowledge of basic data structures (think first year CS courses done) and one needed a job or contract work in 60 days, what should one immediately and totally focus on circa May 2020?Assume it's not about particular desires or interests, but a pure market-driven formulation of what can one can learn given this starting base and what...
I'm quite sure Taiwan will last longer than the CCP in Beijing. The end game is PRC becomes democratic eventually and then Taiwan can "unify" - meaning, China becomes a federal republic with Taiwan as one of the states/provinces.
People thought the Soviet Union would last forever and then, almost overnight, it was gone.
Posted by
hungrygs on Tuesday March 19, 2019 @06:34PM
from the youtube.com dept.
Fighting gentrification is stupid. Cities with growing populations need new housing supply and the market will put resources (to build) where it meets consumer demand. Unjustifiable barriers to new housing supply will only make prices go up even faster, and for crappier quality housing, too.
That's strange that new development wouldn't have commercial ground floor space, even more so if the torn down building had it. Everywhere in the USA that has urban gentrification strongly encourages retail on the first floor and apartments/condos on top. It's a huge attraction to residents above as well. Worse case, cities could mandate it.
It's going to take quite a wall to stop people from catapulting over it, onto an airbed-like structure.
Posted by
hungrygs on Friday February 03, 2017 @11:42AM
from the weforum.org dept.
The general direction of the Trump plan regarding H-1b is the way to go. The lottery needs to be replaced with a demand system where the highest salaries get slots. A floor of $100,000/yr should exist and adjust for inflation. Next, generously expand the green card fast track, as this category of employee, as an immigrant, is a free agent to move among companies or to start their own business.
To date, as we all know, the H-1b system has primarily been used to arbitrage for lower wage by Indian companies and mostly non-tech big corporates, where they bring in $60k/yr "systems analysts" who are in fact doing $100,000+/yr software engineering roles.
"Dude, give me a Kaypro 64 and a live dial tone and I can do anything!"
Yes, but if you hire software engineers and label them as computer programmers (see my post here), employers completely side step the "meet or exceed prevailing wages" requirement.
In fairness, blue chip US tech companies don't do that.