This is AWESOME! I'm doing some volunteer work to make a map of cycling routes in my city, and using OSM data to annotate features. Having a SQLite db of all the Way tags would make my work a lot easier! Thanks!
Readit Newstjridesbikes commented on Pbf2sqlite: Reading OpenStreetMap into a SQLite Database github.com/osmzoso/pbf2sq... · Posted by u/amadeuspagel
Small homes just plain suck. No room to do anything, stuffy, cramped. GF and I moved, rented a house for a month. 1400 square feet. 700 up, 700 down. Tiny and cramped, and it only had one very small bathroom.
We had to sleep on different floors. Master bedroom was barely larger than the queen bed, and no way 2 people could sleep in there because it would get blazing hot in minutes.
Garage was similarly minuscule. GF had a tiny suv and still couldn't open both doors.
I figure 1000 square feet per adult is just about right.
What are you on about? My wife and I live in a total of 1000 square feet in a Boston triple-decker and get along totally fine. We have a basement for storage and a parking space for our car. Somehow, we're both able to work from home without getting in each other's way, have space to do our own things, and temperature regulation is a non-issue with mini-splits. We even have a shared yard!
Maybe the space wasn't laid out well. I would imagine, with only 700 sq ft per floor, a good portion of that is taken up by the stairs. My condo is a flat in a 100-year-old building, built before the "open concept" plans came into vogue. It means out rooms are separated and lets my wife and I do different things in different parts of the house.
People used to raise families in these old buildings with 1000 square feet. Their third-spaces weren't taken over by profit-seeking companies and their interests took them outside the home. 2000 square feet for 2 people seems utterly ridiculous!
tjridesbikes commented on Developing Developers (2015) felleisen.org/matthias/Th... · Posted by u/danielam
A sad development is that the current administration is attempting to strangle the curriculum Felleisen et al. have developed over the last 2+ decades in favor of returning to the "old way" of teaching he criticizes in this essay. Their motivation is in large part—though not exclusively; ideological elements also enter into the picture—a consequence of Northeastern recently snapping up various bankrupt colleges worldwide and wanting to homogenize the curriculum across these new satellite campuses. Sadly, this means homogenizing down. Apparently, training faculty in this curriculum is too much for them.
This is so sad. I got an incredible CS education at Northeastern. I’m very successful in my career, and for someone who didn’t know how to program before college, I found that the CS curriculum pioneered by Felleisen prepared me far better than graduates of other colleges. The curriculum was tough and I spent many nights banging my head against homework assignments. But, everything eventually “clicked” and I graduated feeling confident, empowered, and humbled.
Not a single CS major in my graduating class got a 4.0, and I refer to this with honor and respect. The curriculum taught us how to think, how to problem-solve, and how to design programs. It felt like the curriculum was created to foster _understanding_, not to crank out high GPAs.
I’m so disappointed that the Northeastern admin is trying to force such an excellent CS program into something more “accessible” a-la a boot camp. That’s not a knock against boot camps, which should be a low-cost way for people to get their foot in the door for this amazing profession! But, for a 4-5 year university costing $60k per year, I would expect to be challenged, learn theory, become versed in things I’ll never use on the job, and come out a well-rounded SE.
Felleisen may be a bit cantankerous, but he sure as hell knows how to approach CS education, and I can’t thank him enough for the opportunity I had to learn via his approach.
This piece is beautiful.
I hope it gives you the tingles, and color on the people doing the hard work. Michael Lewis knows how to spot colorful characters and frame a thesis of a bigger idea around them. But there's lots of people like this in government, finding ways to nudges to be a "more perfect" version of our country — often exhaustingly facing headwinds to do so.
I'm an acquired YC founder (S11 → Launchpad Toys → Google → Led early LLM efforts there), now serving in federal government at the U.S. Digital Service. It's the White House's technology arm where we bring people from technology and industry for 2 year "tours of duty" and help to modernize our systems and make our digital experiences better (Fixing Healthcare.gov, and recently shipping IRS Direct File are some of success stories).
Your country could use you.
We need experienced technologists across eng/product/design/business – people like YC founders and HN readers here.
Consider taking a look: USDS.gov
I've taken an honest look at USDS, but I decided I couldn't afford to work for them, even though I would love to. I live in one of the most expensive cities in the US, and salaries + total comp form USDS are far lower than what I'm earning now, even at a (well-funded, non-ai) non-profit. I'd have to start at salary grade 15, the highest one, to even begin approaching what I earn now.
I'm not even living a life of tech-bro luxury. I've got a mortgage, bills to pay, retirement to save for, groceries, transportation, etc that take a significant plurality of my take-home pay. Sure, my standard of living is a bit higher than average (I have a penchant for expensive bicycles...), but that doesn't add up to the pay cut I'd have to take to work at any salary grade besides the literal highest one.
I would adore working for the government on technology. I work at a non-profit for its social impact, and I can't see myself working in ads, ai, finance, or other place that doesn't contribute to the social good. I wouldn't expect to be paid at FAANG/MAMAA/whatever levels, but something competitive with what I see private companies offering would get me to sign up in (almost) an instant.
Maybe I'm missing something?
tjridesbikes commented on Quitting the rat race seanbarry.dev/posts/quitt... · Posted by u/seanbarry
Q for all who are expressing this. A lot of job descriptions today emphasize a passion for "making impact". What is lost on most of us is impact by numbers rather than impact by percentages. Eg being part of a 1000 person <insert branded platform team> your one line fix is experienced by a billion users for a minute a year. Billion sounds sexy doesn't it? Impact by numbers.
How does one frame the other way. Ie I don't care if only a 1000 users experience it, but I'd rather be part of a 10 person team pushing out while features used by 1000 users for hours each day.
I dunno if such roles exist and pay reasonably enough and are sustainable? And how does one politely disregard other kinds of impact in favor of this?
They definitely exist. I’m a fairly compensated developer at a biotech non-profit. We only have tens of thousands of users of the product I work on, but the value my changes and features make is impactful because researchers are using our platform for hours every day to do research towards curing genetic diseases.
I work 40-ish hours a week, have ample vacation, and am paid enough to own a fairly basic condo in Boston, all by my late 20s. It’s not glamorous, I don’t earn $300k+ a year, and it’s certainly not a prestigious resume entry, but hey, I like my life so far. It’s definitely sustainable. Enough so that my wife and I will probably start a family soon.
Anecdata, but I've been on methylphenidate (Concerta) since age 7, and holy cow has it impacted my life in an insanely positive way. 21 years later, I'm still on Concerta, but excelling in my career, spending meaningful time with friends, family, and hobbies, and generally pretty happy with myself. When I tried dropping the meds in college, my life basically fell apart in a matter of months. My then-girlfriend now-wife almost broke up with me, I started failing classes, I lost contact with friends, and really struggled to feel alive. The Concerta doesn't fix my ADHD, but wow does it make it manageable. Thankfully, I had a supportive and invested family, understanding friends, and support structures all around me. I'm so glad my parents put me on meds instead of making me struggle throughout my childhood due to an outdated believe that "drugging kids bad". I owe my life and success to this drug, and while it doesn't work perfectly for everyone diagnosed with ADHD, it works so well for me that you'd have to pry my prescription from my cold, dead hands.
Totally agree. My first job out of college, there was a range for the position of $75 - $105k. I got the offer, and the salary offer was for 75. I asked for $90 and we settled on 85, as the 105 range was for 2+ years of experience, and I was a new grad. I thought it was very fair.
Almost literally me. Before I graduated, I applied for a job, got offered $80k, negotiated up to $90k, and have seen significant increases in salary since then. I’m being paid area-average salary for interesting work, great work-life balance, and insanely great non-monetary benefits.
Another job I applied to before graduating offered me $60k and told me I couldn’t negotiate. Guess who didn’t even bother responding to them?
tjridesbikes commented on United Airlines will buy 15 planes from Boom Supersonic cnbc.com/2021/06/03/unite... · Posted by u/throw0101a
The intersection of "HN readers" and "Wendover youtube subscribers" is surprisingly large.
I also suspect we also all watch Technology Connections, Techmoan, LGR, Map Men, HAI, and Periscope Films...
Welp, you just listed pretty much all of my most-watched creators...
tjridesbikes commented on SARS-CoV-2 Sequencing Resources github.com/CDCgov/SARS-Co... · Posted by u/max_
My employer has been putting a lot of time into COVID-19 research and tools. It's great to see that work recognized here! We've all been working very hard to make tools and data related to this pandemic available to the public and researchers alike.
tjridesbikes commented on Zen and the Art of Software Maintenance sicpers.info/2019/10/zen-... · Posted by u/ingve
After I read Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, I went and bought myself a ‘71 Honda CB350, almost the exact bike Pirsig rode in his book. I found that fixing this motorcycle, taking it apart, fixing internal component, figuring out how everything ties together, and upgrading worn out or otherwise non-functional components, and putting it all back together, felt extraordinarily similar to my day job as a software engineer. There’s even the same “loop”: fix one thing, turn it on to test, then turn it off again and fix the next thing. The turnaround time is waaaaayy slower, and there’s a lot more opportunity to hurt yourself, but the skills as a programmer translate very well to motorcycle maintenance. Interesting to see that I’m not the only one who sees these similarities.