silvajoao · HackerTrans

silvajoao

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Berlin Start-Ups: Chasing the Distant Dream of a German Google

spiegel.de

2 pointsby silvajoaovor 13 Jahren0 comments

Ask HN/PG: How about having comment scores back

6 pointsby silvajoaovor 14 Jahren0 comments

Generating and executing x86 code at runtime

androidbutnotparanoid.blogspot.com

26 pointsby silvajoaovor 17 Jahren3 comments

Ask HK: Understanding money

1 pointsby silvajoaovor 17 Jahren3 comments

Better contrast in HN articles

3 pointsby silvajoaovor 18 Jahren1 comments

comments

letztes Jahrdiscuss

Try out the new models at https://aistudio.google.com.

It's a great way to experiment with all the Gemini models that are also available via the API.

If you haven't yet, try also Live mode at https://aistudio.google.com/live.

You can have a live conversation with Gemini and have the model see the world via your phone camera (or see your desktop via screenshare on the web), and talk about it. It's quite a cool experience! It made me feel the joy of programming and using computers that I had had so many times before.

letztes Jahrdiscuss

The standalone app is at https://gemini.google.com/app, and is similar to ChatGPT.

You can also use https://aistudio.google.com to use base models directly.

vor 2 Jahrendiscuss

That makes total sense in many applications, including games.

The idea was to have TCP sockets and Websockets to enable that.

Basically, have the same APIs you're familiar with in a Browser, but in a much smaller package that you can ship independently of the Browser.

(this is very similar to Electron)

vor 2 Jahrendiscuss

See the binary sizes in the (obsolete) releases page:

https://github.com/windowjs/windowjs/releases

About 8 MiB in the end. Note that these builds have a binary trimmed by UPX.

vor 2 Jahrendiscuss

https://windowjs.org is a very similar concept -- it wraps Skia and exposes it as the Canvas API, but also embeds v8 for a very small runtime instead of using Node.

It was my first open-source project, released about 3 years ago.

I had plans to also expose WebGL, audio, etc and make it a viable platform for Javascript-based games on desktop.

Life and other projects happened instead, and development was discontinued. Happy to see this project also making Canvas accessible outside the browser!

vor 15 Jahrendiscuss

The Last Question is perhaps the short story with the most mind-bending finale. Highly recommended.

http://www.multivax.com/last_question.html

vor 15 Jahrendiscuss

Google:

UK: http://www.google.co.uk/intl/en/jobs/uk/swe/

Paris: http://www.google.fr/intl/fr/jobs/paris/

Munich: http://www.google.de/intl/en/jobs/germanylocations/munich/sw...

Other offices are hiring too, see http://www.google.de/intl/en/jobs/locations/index.html.

vor 15 Jahrendiscuss

  #include <stdio.h>
  #define print printf("%d\n", n++);
  #define times2(x) x x
  #define times5(x) x x x x x
  #define pow3(x,f) x(x(x(f)))
  
  int main() {
    int n = 1;
  
    pow3(times2, pow3(times5, print));
    
    return 0;
  }

vor 15 Jahrendiscuss

It's even more disappointing for open source projects.

vor 16 Jahrendiscuss

Spot on. I actually know a couple of people who have been rejected and they don't have a very clear reason for the rejection.

However, I could tell during the conversation on the interviews whether I was doing well on a particular topic or not so well. I got the impression the questions just keep coming while you keep answering; when you say "I don't know this, I actually never saw similar problems before", I guess this is when the interview begins: how do you solve new problems and try to tackle them? This is also the feedback you can take away: where did you stop, and what would it take to go on?

vor 16 Jahrendiscuss

Yet another unrelated-but-related reply: I actually feel a fear of rejection when posting on HN. I know I usually don't have much to add, so I don't post often; but it has happened a lot of times to start writing a reply, and then just discard it for fear of being harshly downvoted/getting snark replies.

vor 16 Jahrendiscuss

You can see a description of what Google does in Munich here: http://www.google.de/intl/en/jobs/germanylocations/munich/. Have a look at the Software Engineer openings.

The Munich office is also growing, so if you'd like to work for Google in Germany, now is the time to apply :-)

vor 16 Jahrendiscuss

I'll mention a related question I've been pondering on lately: how does one assess his own skill level?

When one has people around who are clearly more able programmers, one can take the chance to learn from them and try to achieve their skill. But when you believe you might be the top programmer around your office, how do you determine whether you're really good, or you're just in a not-so-great environment?

A lot of entrepreneurial advice mentions trying harder: if you aren't failing, you aren't trying hard enough. Applying at a very competitive company like Google, Facebook or Apple is, IMO, a good way to assess how you "rank" next to very talented peers. Failure there is failing at a very competitive level, and the interviews will give you a sense of how far you might be from them, and perhaps energize you to try harder.

I guess a method to determine your current "level" could be to keep trying to be hired by harder- and harder- to get-into companies, until you fail; that's the level you should strive to get to in the future. If you were never rejected, how do you know whether your current "level" is your highest?

Another common advice for entrepreneurs: "you only fail if you fail to learn the lesson." The reason for failing to be hired is invaluable feedback on your shortcomings, which are much harder to self-assess.

In short: don't self-reject yourself.

(note: I don't have any startup experience, and just 4 years of professional experience as an employee. I guess the more entrepreneurial people around here would propose shipping something and see what happens to make your self-assessment :-)

(2nd note: I was recently hired by Google in Munich, and can't wait to start! :-)

EDIT: this was longer than expected. I totally forgot to address your question: I was afraid of rejection, but I also thought I could do it. I never thought of it as trying my luck in a lottery, and wouldn't apply if I didn't believe I could deliver once on the job.

vor 16 Jahrendiscuss

Munich is hiring, have a look at the cool possibilities: http://www.google.de/intl/en/jobs/germanylocations/munich/sw...

vor 16 Jahrendiscuss

A little meta, but how did you find you were misquoted in this particular article?

1. You read it by chance and found it?

2. Someone notified you?

3. Some software scans every article/comment submitted searching for "Paul" and you review it later? :)

I certainly don't have the time to read every semi-interesting article, and I suspect you don't either, so I'm curious about this finding.

vor 16 Jahrendiscuss

This reminded me of the Lost Symbol book (which is also mentioned in the article. For reference, it's from the same author of The Da Vinci Code).

I recall reading this in the book and regarding it as junk science, but it really exists after all. The other "science" mentioned in the book though...

I never imagined my "bogus science" detector to fail me in this unexpected way. I guess I have to check not only for "bogus" science, but also for fantastic yet real science!

vor 16 Jahrendiscuss

Why I would take vim or emacs any day:

- versions available for many platforms. Your editing skills on Linux are easily transferrable to Windows or Mac, and others.

- Free, and Open Source.

- Insanely extensible, with a rich collection of extensions and plugins already available.

- Large user base, that keeps improving the editor to support new languages (most times before you know about it!), port it to new platforms, and provide more plugins.

I guess there is a market for "easier" and more intuitive editors, but anyone who seriously plans a career in software/web development (or anything else that involves heavy text editing) will profit greatly (on the long term) from learning well one of these editors.

Vim never lets me down :)

vor 16 Jahrendiscuss

Hi Patrick! You mention several times your past as a salaryman, and from your posts I get the feeling you're very happy about not being one anymore :) Besides the "pull" factors (such as loving to develop your own product, manage your own time, etc), could you mention some of the "push" factors that made you want to leave the salaryman existence?

I guess most people on HN could elaborate a lot on why working for a salary is not among their first options, but now I'm particularly interested in your story, if you don't mind :)

(For reference, here are some quotes from your blog:)

My name is Patrick McKenzie. I’m an ex-Japanese salaryman

reacclimating myself to a human existence after years of salarymanhood

After several years working as a Japanese salaryman, I quit my day job and went full time on my business as of April 1st of this year. This was the best decision I have ever made.

vor 16 Jahrendiscuss

On the other hand, Apple didn't have a cash-cow before the iPod, if you regard it as their first cash-cow after Jobs' return.

And going from there to iTunes, to merging the iPod and mobile phone everyone carries around, to arriving at the iPhone and iOS, and then to expand the screen size to build the iPad doesn't represent huge deviations from their core business.

Ping might fit within what the OP describes though.

vor 16 Jahrendiscuss

Before Big Bang there was no movement

How was the Big Bang triggered then?