IBM PCjr. Not exactly a regret. It was a family computer when I was a tween. They made the best decision they could based on the information available at the time. But it was not a great product.
Readit Newsironlake commented on Ask HN: What are your most regretted tech purchases? · Posted by u/sys_64738
ironlake commented on California's most neglected group of students: the gifted ones latimes.com/opinion/story... · Posted by u/tafda
> There’s little doubt that racism played a role in identifying children as gifted even though the label was based on supposedly objective criteria.
Why has the LA Times settled on racist teachers as the only reason for the skew in enrollment numbers, and why aren’t teachers upset the LA Times are calling them racists?
I’m constantly surprised how often accusations like this are thrown around and how little pushback there is by those accused of it.
> settled on racist teachers
If the population of gifted kids is statistically over-represented by white kids, then one of these must be true:
• The test doesn't measure giftedness, but rather level of education. So we would expect kids from worse schools to perform worse. This is institutional racism. The opportunity is not equal. • Gifted kids from minority communities don't have equal access to the test or the classes. This is institutional racism. The opportunity is not equal. • White kids are smarter. They all took the same test, white kids came out on top. This is a racist belief with a millennia of discredited science to back it up.
No racist teacher required.
ironlake commented on Pushing the frontiers of audio generation deepmind.google/discover/... · Posted by u/meetpateltech
Is this another fake like the Google bot that made reservations at a restaurant?
ironlake commented on Ask HN: What is a programming language that you don't use at work but enjoy? · Posted by u/dondraper36
Forth. I learned it very late in my programming career which started with Java. It just feels like home in a way that no other language ever has.
Mostly useless tho
ironlake commented on Ask HN: What's a "normal" amount of Layoffs to occur in one's career? · Posted by u/cgb223
I worked for an international company with more than 100,000 employees. They basically never stopped doing layoffs. It was just background noise all the time. I got laid off after 5+ years, but I was ready to go.
Before that, I was laid off from a company that was rapidly going out of business, no surprise and I was ready to go.
As a data point, I've had 5 software development jobs in 25 years and have been laid off twice.
Sounds like you've had some bad luck, but I suspect things are getting worse.
ironlake commented on Ask HN: Did you regret staying at a job for too long? · Posted by u/hellohihello135
> Did you regret staying at a job for too long?
My experience with over 25 years as a software developer is that the best way to optimize for salary is to switch companies every 3-7 years. There are risks. You either accept the risks or accept that you're not making as much as you could be.
I once worked for a company that had hired mostly people straight out of college. When the company faltered, they started looking for new jobs and were shocked at how much they were underpaid for their positions. But the company had a cool culture so it never occurred to them to test the market.
I almost never switch jobs for money, and for much of my career I've been underpaid. Which is OK. I have other priorities and accept it.
Even so, I'm on my 5th job in 25 years and my current position is the one I've held for the longest.
Both of my adult children have foregone career paths for menial jobs (retail worker and admin stuff). So far, they are both really happy. Living their lives without stress or overtime.
Blue collar work wears out the body. Are you going to be welding at 50? Working as a guide at 60? Tile workers in my family all stopped in their 40s because they could no longer do it.
I could quit my programming job and live on a lot less, as I have savings and already own most of the stuff I need, but health insurance is a problem. (And I like having money).
Didn’t they just announce they were working on affordable cars. Seeing as their current line is not affordable by any reasonable standard, surely firing people working on new cars is a shitty message to investors? Also to existing staff!
Bang goes TSLA gains this week.
They did not announce they were working on affordable cars, or at least not a new model that would be more affordable than the models they have now.
Musk pushed all questions about new models to the Robotaxi event in August and the media filled in the blanks and ran with "new, cheaper model" putting words into Musk's mouth.
He did say they weren't going to build a new production line.
ironlake commented on Ask HN: How many of you Apple developers still use Objective C? · Posted by u/TylerJaacks
> There probably isn't any reason to start a new app or library with anything other than Swift.
Unless you do anything for MacOS and care about MacOS. Most Swift UI apps I've seen feel foreign on MacOS in innumerable ways.
Thanks for that perspective. I haven't done any MacOS development.