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Comment who's fault, exactly? (Score 1) 187

I'm aware what sh*tstorm this may bring, but I have to say, this is your/our fault. The US has basically no data and user privacy protection laws whatsoever, companies allowed to essentially do as they see fit with the data they gather. Why some get suddenly surprised that the companies actually do what they are allowed to do? Yes, you can get enraged, but unless you actually do something, it's really your fault this has been allowed to get this far. It's been already time - and time, and time - that people learn.

Comment chip w/o pin is still crap (Score 1) 186

I can't seem to understand how the US can be so behind the curve on some really important issues. One of them regarding financial/banking issues is the matter of the freaking chip&pin cards (or more the lack of proper use of them). Never ever have I seen any US store require chip&pin authentication, they always just read the chip and make you sign, which is crazy a**stupid. I thought they saw finally the light when chip cards were getting introduced - very, very, really late vs. everyone else -, but introducing such a half a**ed solution is idiotic, and nothing seems to change.

Comment explain your work (Score 1) 340

I've been asked this question before, and I'll tell you what I told then: don't try to explain what you do in technical terms, it's no use. Try to describe the applicability and usefulness aspects of what you do, and its effects. In essence, don't try to describe the invisible, instead describe it's effects on its surroundings. Obviously, it's the easiest when you do something connected to something they know about. If what you do has no applicability, it's not useful to anyone or for anything, or it has no effects on anything, then well, make something up, then find a new job.

Comment work surveillance (Score 1) 187

Most good creative people will not continuously hit their keyboards, read only task-related contents, or only talk about task-related issues. There are some, sure, but most of them are not work drones. Analyzing their work behavior with such mentioned surveillance sounds simply too much, and smells like an enourmous source of frustration. There's no way frustration can produce good results. I wouldn't ever tolerate it. There's one simple issue you have to keep in mind: working for someone is a two way street - one gives talent and time, and should expect support, respect and a tolerable - physically and psychologically - work enviroment in return. Otherwise what's the point? I wouldn't enjoy such a work environment, I'd rather be a shepherd in the Himalayas.

Comment avoid python? (Score 1) 456

"Does this make you want to avoid Python?"

No, not just this. If I ever loved it, this wouldn't matter. Since I never loved it, this still doesn't matter. If I have to use python, regardless of love or hate, this still doesn't matter. Overall, this just doesn't matter, at all.

Comment python and fashion (Score 1) 254

"Python has a solid claim to being the fastest-growing major programming language... June 2017 was the first month that Python was the most visited [programming language] tag on Stack Overflow within high-income nations. This included being the most visited tag"

So, nothing to see here, really. It's all fashion. DL and ConvNet frameworks are in the mainstream now, and yay, how many of those favour python? Right. So, why are so many people looking for solutions? Well, because they need informaton on python issues and are looking for howtos and answers. Why? Well, because usually they don't use it that much so now they need answers, and fast. All these statistics show nothing more than current trends, which, by itself might be interesting, but don't say much more than that. Also, some might also bring into the picture that the relation between higher python use in higher income countries just might have some distant relation with deep learning having a higher financial threshold to enter than pretty mugh everything else.

Comment well, thank you ... not (Score 1) 179

"can learn how to code in a few months and join the high-paying digital economy"

And some still wonder why overall code quality and programming skill level dives like a drunken mallad.

Coding doesn't mean anything. When I started highschool I could code in 4 languages. They kept teaching us algorithms and math for 12 hours a week (4 hrs theory&algorithms, 4 hrs math, 4 hrs coding labs) for 4 years, followed by my university years, followed by many years of practive and still I'd need to learn more than I have time to spend.

No wonder companies test the sh*t out of everyone wanting a sw.eng. job (not me, oh no), it's the easiest approach for trying to filter out the crappiest.

Comment fat apps (Score 2) 386

This is not a new phenomenon, it's been going on in the desktop PC world since the beginnings, and it's been going on in the mobile world since day one. I absolutely hate the trend but there's not much one person can do about it. As I see it, especially in the mobile world, there are lots of coders who use and link large libraries even for small tasks, usually don't even try to implement it themselves, and usually don't even search for other solutions or smaller libs providing the same functionality, they just stick with the first they find, and never care for the size of the apps. This applies for average junk apps as well as for large company apps like linkedin or spotify or here maps, and I could just go on. Gone are the days when efficient and small coding was the norm. And most of young coders don't even, or can't even think about writing small and efficient code. Just a couple of months ago I was given a code to use for some task, handling images, at a speed of ~14s/image, which was unacceptable for the specific task. After a complete rewrite in about two weeks I got it to run at ~1s/image, which was still slow, but at least was good enough for a proof-of-concept. And everyone was looking at me like I was some alien.

Lots of coders prefer fast prototyping and quickly throwing together some app and spending very little time on making it small or as efficient as possible - upgrade your device/hw/PC is their mantra. Well, f*k that.

Comment long hours... (Score 1) 253

My point of view regarding long hours has always been that I'm not against it, when absolutely necessary, but I think it's something that should be avoided at all costs. I've worked my share of 14-16 hour days, 6 and 7 day workweeks, but it's not something I'm proud of, or something I like to brag about. Always keep in mind, that you work to live, and not live to work - well, some people might be against me regarding that, but I don't much care about them :P

On my first US interview, of course it came up. They asked it in a way like, would I have something against the occasional longer days or something like that. When I told them that 80 hour weeks are not that unusual for me, but that I absolutely hate those, they first smiled then looked a bit confused :) Thing is, I don't like to get things unfinished, and I put in the work when it's required. But I sooo really like it when I don't have to :)

I think that when some people burn out it's not so much because of long hours, but mainly because they lose control. No work, no project, no professional commitment can be more important than one's life, family or health. Not every job is for everyone, but sometimes conditions or the economy doesn't let you move around enough, and some are not strong or brave enough to keep trying even when it'd be possible. But thing is, life is really short to be stuck in a crap job.

Comment idiots (Score 2) 184

I just don't understand these guys. I'm a guy, I've been working in IT/CS-related positions all my adult life, mostly around and with guys, no surprise there. However, every professional experience I had with female co-workers and external project partners has been very positive, successful, and exceptionally smooth. As in all aspects of life, probably not all people are exceptionally talented and I might have been very lucky to work with such women. However, I have to say, everyone willing to gamble with their professional relationships for, how to put it, non-professional reasons, is simply an idiot and not worth having contact with.

Comment stupid (Score 1) 325

I only can deem such research results as irrelevant, and a waste of resources and time. If you only take into consideration one aspect of these people's lives, then you can't draw any definitive conclusion. They most certainly had very different diets, very different lifestyles, very different life conditions, work conditions, stress, illnesses short or long term serious or not so much, travel habits, sport and workout habits, and a million other factors that could cause any kinds of differences in the long term MRI scans.

Comment holy crap (Score 4, Interesting) 270

"Have you travelled to any country (otherthan your country of residence) in the last 15 years? Ifyes, provide details for each trip, including locations visited, date visited, source of funds, and length of stay."

Now, I do realize there are lots of people on this planet that do not travel much, some never even leave their country. My question is, realistically speaking, who in the US govt. thinks many of such people will apply for a US visa? Since even when talking about regular people, 15 years is a long time during which very very many travels can be done. And then there are some people, who the US probably wants - or should want - like scientists, researchers, engineers, etc. some or most of which might travel dozens (or even more) times PER YEAR. Now, just for a moment think about gathering information for 100+ travels for a visa application... Geez, I mean: GEEZ! :)

"Have you ever held a passport other than the passport listed in your visa application? If yes, provide the following information"

Well, I don't know how many passports people usually have during their life. Up to now, I have had a total of 3, from 2 separate countries (they do expire you know). Personally, I don't know the details of one from those three (I don't have it anymore, not even a copy) and it would be practically impossible to find out that data. Thankfully I don't need a US visa - well, not yet... this administration can seemingly have some fun with regulations :)

Another favorite :) 15 years worth of employment history? :) Really :) Nice. I'd like to see a 30-40 years old senior tech worker fill out such an application :)

Comment spending (Score 0) 431

"Google would be able to absorb the cost as easy as a dry kitchen sponge could absorb a single drop of water."

Well, maybe Google is paying different wages to women, maybe they don't, but one thing is still very much constant in this universe: leave it to a government to spend your money as it were theirs and on top of that talk about it as it was nothing.

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