I don't question the need for an audit. I do question having a ketamine fueled oligarch and a rag-tag group of 20 year old software developers doing an audit, pretending audits take days, and somehow only finding things conservatives hate as waste/fraud.
EDIT - since apparently HN doesn't believe me, auditing the executive branch is one of the primary functions of the GAO. This started in 1997. And while DoD's finances are still extremely problematic, the government overall has made massive strides in making itself auditable and accountable. And there are very low levels of actual fraud being found. While statements like the "DoD failed it's audit" are technically true, it's not because fraud was uncovered - instead it's because of decades of poor accountability, a problem the government has been actively working on correctling for nearly 20 years.
Totally, the departmental audits happen yearly and are available to the public. It doesn't bother me if they want to do a separate audit but these aren't audits, aren't being performed by auditors, and are clearly just a partisan attack on our institutions.
This pops up again later when he says 81 is 10000001. Or that width 8 corresponds to 04. I don’t know enough about the gif format to know if I just misunderstood these parts or if they were written incorrectly, but it was a bit confusing.
As a counter to your first example, I once had software deployed in some U.S. embassies in some not so great parts of the world. The machines the software lived on were air-gapped and on computers built specifically not to allow external connections (different keyboard/mouse connectors, no USB, no CD).
To deploy an update required a human, some long flights, and replacement parts. While it's not common, I think it would still break that definition of what is/isn't an engineer.
For me, it comes down to the level of rigor required. I think developing avionics software is probably engineering whereas building an phone app to view/share pictures of cats likely isn't.
I think that there's probably a difference between "attacking a problem to achieve progress in the utility of something" and just slapping together an app that brings literally nothing new to the table.
Making a birdhouse isn't engineering, creating a new type of dwelling for birds might be.
Not sure if this will be considered off topic, my apologies if so.
The article says that octopi is the plural of octopus, but it's actually octopuses. Octopus is originally Greek, not Latin and thus does not get the Latin plural -i, but instead would get the Greek plural -odes. Since it ends in a way English can deal with, the commonly accepted usage is octopuses (English) over octopodes (Greek) with octopi being the least correct.
Oxford & Merriam-Webster list both plurals and the author calls out that octopi is "the quite beautiful plural form of 'octopus' " which could be interpreted as "while there are multiple correct plurals of octopus, octopi is the beautiful one."
While “octopi” has become popular in modern usage, it’s wrong.
I would argue that it used to be wrong, but language, unlike physics and code, is what the majority say it is.
The Oxford English Dictionary is not an arbiter of proper usage, despite its widespread reputation to the contrary. The Dictionary is intended to be descriptive, not prescriptive. In other words, its content should be viewed as an objective reflection of English language usage, not a subjective collection of usage ‘dos’ and ‘don'ts’. However, it does include information on which usages are, or have been, popularly regarded as ‘incorrect’. The Dictionary aims to cover the full spectrum of English language usage, from formal to slang, as it has evolved over time.
Now I think it's something that is just fun to argue about, but I don't take any of it seriously.
It's a loan word, there isn't any 'correct' or 'incorrect' answer. Language is always evolving, which is why dictionaries are often descriptive instead of prescriptive.
Somehow I recall being told that indexes is the correct plural of the section at the end of a book, and indices is correct for subscripted things in maths and therefore programming.
I don't think a particularly convincing reason was advanced other then "technical things are more Latin-adjacent".
Octopi is also THE epitome of the "i" pluralization. I see people using focuses more than foci, but it's a common callout that octopus plural is octopi
Not sure what the policy is on self-promotion but if you're using Rails, my company wrote https://github.com/CatchRelease/stenographer to keep our team up to date on changes. It works by detecting [changelog foo] in your commit message and detects deploys across environments.
For me it's still software, the hardware is definitely solid. My experience is from when Windows 10 first came out so maybe it's all fixed now. The process to upgrade involved waiting for the bubble to pop-up in the bottom right. It didn't after a week so I had to search out the command line incantation to make it show up. Once I got it to show up, it did nothing until the 5th or 6th restart. Once it started to install it took 3 days, running constantly, on a brand new Surface Book. After that I remained unsold on Windows yet again.
I feel like another step missing or at least not fully acknowledged is knowing your competition. I just did a quick check and both Angie's List (1995) and Yelp (2004) were around years before this idea (2010). While it's certainly possible to be late to the game and win there's no visible differentiator here.
Zappos Labs is looking for a Full-Stack Developer!
What is the job?
We are a small team of smart people looking to solve tough problems and brainstorm new ideas. Our projects focus on the future of Zappos and customer experiences using a combination of new technologies and new approaches to old technologies. As the Zappos Labs team, we have freedom to incubate new ideas with the backing of a large yet passionate-about-culture organization.
Some of our recent projects include researching new lines of business for Zappos, exploring the physical pop-up space, and creating the tools to support self-organization.
What skills do you need?
We are looking for an experienced full stack developer with a focus on front end development. Some of the technologies we use are Ruby on Rails, Javascript frameworks, Node, Mysql, Postgres, and R. We also have a mobile project or two going on at any point in time. Our general approach is language agnostic, choosing the best language for the job.
Being able to design applications from top to bottom, troubleshooting and fixing tough problems, hitting quick deadlines, knowing when to push back on requirements, and mentoring other developers will all be very important parts of this role. Knowing a programming language or two like the back of your hand will also come in very handy.
We are ideally looking for a "T-shaped developer"—someone who has a broad interest and understanding of technology and the web, but also has deep interest in a specialized area. However, being a Labs developer isn’t a full-time programming job. We want someone who has their own big ideas, loves brainstorming sessions, and will participate in user research.
What kind of people do we want?
Our team is always in search of people that are self-starters, visionary thinkers, and people who don’t mind a little bit of ambiguity.
There are many open ended problems that there are no solutions for...yet. Can you brainstorm and come up with innovative solutions to new problems? Are you willing to work closely in a small team and push everyone to be the best that they can be? Do you love learning new things, expanding your knowledge, and iterating quickly? If so, the Zappos Labs team might be for you.
Zappos IP, Inc. is an equal opportunity employer and a drug-free workplace
I would suggest walking through the list at https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9812245, finding things that interest you (more so than location, really like what the company does) and reach out to them. As one of the companies on that list that's hiring, having someone reach out that really wants the job helps quite a bit. It's a super long list with a lot of options.
In the meantime, since you don't have a ton of experience, i'd work on your Github. Right now it's a lot of small learning projects but nothing that shows how to build anything in particular. Personally, I was looking for some Ruby that wasn't boilerplate or some Javascript that wasn't other people's libraries.
Yeah I'll definitely work through the "Who is hiring" posts. I haven't had a lot of time recently to work on my Github, but I will focus all my time on that soon. The most mature OSS (+ hardware) project I have is Nebula Bio[1], which is what I usually share, but I think I'll put together a Rails or Django app or something like that for fun next week. Or maybe actually finish creating a library (I've started a few, never finished).
Zappos Labs is looking for a Full-Stack Developer!
What is the job?
We are a small team of smart people looking to solve tough problems and brainstorm new ideas. Our projects focus on the future of Zappos and customer experiences using a combination of new technologies and new approaches to old technologies. As the Zappos Labs team, we have freedom to incubate new ideas with the backing of a large yet passionate-about-culture organization.
Some of our recent projects include researching new lines of business for Zappos, exploring the physical pop-up space, and creating the tools to support self-organization.
What skills do you need?
We are looking for an experienced full stack developer with a focus on front end development. Some of the technologies we use are Ruby on Rails, Javascript frameworks, Node, Mysql, Postgres, and R. We also have a mobile project or two going on at any point in time. Our general approach is language agnostic, choosing the best language for the job.
Being able to design applications from top to bottom, troubleshooting and fixing tough problems, hitting quick deadlines, knowing when to push back on requirements, and mentoring other developers will all be very important parts of this role. Knowing a programming language or two like the back of your hand will also come in very handy.
We are ideally looking for a "T-shaped developer"—someone who has a broad interest and understanding of technology and the web, but also has deep interest in a specialized area. However, being a Labs developer isn’t a full-time programming job. We want someone who has their own big ideas, loves brainstorming sessions, and will participate in user research.
What kind of people do we want?
Our team is always in search of people that are self-starters, visionary thinkers, and people who don’t mind a little bit of ambiguity.
There are many open ended problems that there are no solutions for...yet. Can you brainstorm and come up with innovative solutions to new problems? Are you willing to work closely in a small team and push everyone to be the best that they can be? Do you love learning new things, expanding your knowledge, and iterating quickly? If so, the Zappos Labs team might be for you.
Zappos IP, Inc. is an equal opportunity employer and a drug-free workplace
