AskHN Digest

1. Ask HN: Physicists of HN, what are you working on these days?

Top comment by eightorbit

Just so you don't get the impression every physicist is having a fabulous time, here's me:

I have a bachelors in physics. I went for a phd in biology but had to bail to work to support family, plus I can't seem to come up with original ideas.

I now have a job with physicist as part of the title, but what I really do is try to read bad handwriting from records from nuclear weapons plants. It's a dull job a monkey could do but it pays the bills. For years I worked as a computer guy for an academic department and that was fun and I'm trying to get back into it but nothing yet. I teach math at a community college for fun too.

I have great kids, so all and all I'm happy about things, but I am sad the physics thing never panned out. As an undergrad I was excited about chaos and nonlinear dynamics. Still read math texts for fun and play with Haskell.

2. Ask HN: Best questions for an engineer to ask a CEO during a job interview?

Top comment by notjustanymike

What are the problems you are personally trying to solve?

How do you like to make decisions?

What do you believe is the purpose of a manager?

What do you believe motivates employees at your company?

From an employees perspective, what makes your company a unique place to work?

How do you recognize major achievements?

... basically I like to dig into culture (which is always top down), and empathy. I want to know whether the CEO considers employees people or a resource.

3. Ask HN: Those who moved careers from the West to China, what's your experience?

Top comment by yibg

I’ve sort of done the move. If you are not ethnically Chinese and speak the language, there will be a few things to get used to. The degree will depend a bit on where you end up.

For example:

- pollution can be a big problem.

- if Chinese company, work culture can be very different. More top down, longer hours etc.

- noisy. Most places you go in big cities you are surrounded by noise. Cars, people, construction. It doesn’t end.

- I find the general quality of things to be lower. Buildings are poor quality generally. Side walks aren’t as maintained. A lot of things look nice from a distance only.

- internet obviously. Things are blocked and vpn can be flaky.

- many every day things will be more difficult. Banking, medical care etc. On the other hand many things are also much more convenient. Food delivery, transportation (unless you want to drive yourself) etc

There are pros too of course. You get to learn about a different culture and language. You’ll be relatively wealthy compared to most people there. It’s really easy to meet new people.

In the end I’d say move there if there is a good reason: Higher salary, better opportunity you wouldn’t normally have or if you just want a change / adventure AND you can live with the cons, at least for a while.

4. Ask HN: Best way to test accessibility of a website?

Top comment by throwaway857384

Pay me to do it...

But in all seriousness, I use aXe-Coconut[1], headingsMaper[2]. Then tab through the page and make sure you can get from top left to bottom right. The cursor[focus state /ouline] should be visible the whole time and you should never lose your place.

When you are done that, if you have a Mac turn on voiceover with Command+F5 and use Safari or Chrome (more aria-support). On Windows, download NVDA[3] and FireFox. Again use the keyboard to go through the page, but listen to the screen reader and make sure everything is spoken like it looks. So a button should say, "Submit Form Button" etc. Anything that doesn't say anything, ie, " button" or say something different from what you see needs work.

The general consense of the community is that automated testing only finds 30% of issues, so you've got to test manually.

[1] https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/axe-coconut/iobddm... [2] https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/headingsmap/flbjom... [3] https://www.nvaccess.org/

5. Ask HN: What are your best learning methods/hacks/tips?

Top comment by otras

I just commented this in another thread, but I highly, highly recommend the free Coursera course Learning How To Learn.

In particular, I found that the following worked especially well for me:

* Emphasis on balance between focus and diffuse mode: taking a walk or exercising after a focused study session.

* Spaced repetition: Anki works wonders. Reviewing notes multiple times is also tremendous.

* Sleep: ignored the importance of this for so long, but it helps so much.

I made it through undergrad without these, but applying these and the other lessons from the course in my post-graduate classes felt like magic. The results (both in understanding gained and grades) were completely different.

6. Ask HN: What backpack are you using?

Top comment by infiniteseeker

Goruck GR-1. Benefits: - Padded laptop compartment helps keep laptop safe and easy access - Built like a tank, will last forever (made in USA!) - Outer and Inner organization pockets - Panel loading, can be fully opened by a side zip and easy to pack/unpack - Big enough for multi-day travel. I have used it as a carry on pack for upto 7 days (did laundry on the road). - Discreet enough (black) and fits into a corporate env without looking too tactical

Have no affiliation with GoRuck, am a happy customer

7. Ask HN: What are your favorite utility desktop apps?

Top comment by MiddleEndian

Ditto - Clipboard manager for Windows. The nicest I've used on any OS. Great for managing the last N items (set to remove items after a week for me) and it's easy to delete or modify entries.

Klipper - Clipboard manager for Linux. It's part of KDE so I'm not sure if it counts but it doesn't seem to be well known. Basically the same as Ditto for Linux but a bit clunkier.

7+ Taskbar Tweaker - Tool that modifies the Windows taskbar. My favorite two features: 1. Hiding the Windows logo/start button so Win+1 correlates with the first icon, Win+2 with the second, etc. 2. Making it such that if I click an application icon with multiple windows, the first window will just come to the front (and the second if the first is already at the front, etc.) instead of having to click from a list of windows.

SharpKeys - Windows tool to remap keyboard keys. Equivalent to using the Registry but more pleasant.

8. What are good Linux laptops for 2019?

Top comment by tristram_shandy

ThinkPad T480 (with a 1080ti in an external GPU enclosure for gaming at home / ML)

32 GB, 10+ hour battery life, 1Tb of flash storage with OPAL transparent self-encryption, WQHD main display, two USB C ports + two regular USB ports + an ethernet jack, automatic firmware updates through the package manager, and most importantly, no driver issues with the laptop and Linux whatsoever!

I replaced my workstation and gaming computer with this setup and am finally down to one-device nirvana.

Last month I knocked a full cup of coffee on the keyboard, and was relieved to discover the keyboard is completely separate and isolate from the rest of the device and is designed to be easily user replaceable -- I was able to replace the entire keyboard ($80 on Amazon) without even opening the case! The assembly is held in place by two screws on the bottom.

My previous laptop was a 2018 MBP, which I sold after two months due to my dislike (and distrust) of the keyboard. Couldn't be happier.

9. Ask HN: How to work with a developer who avoids reading?

Top comment by scarface74

What does such and such a library function return?" and they'll say "two strings" but don't know if it's a list or a tuple, of if it ever returns None, or whether it raises an Error etc.

I program in three languages in any given week, not to mention using CloudFormation where every resource type has its own configuration. Why would I try to remember what a function returns off the top of my head?

For instance, I do a lot of work with Python and Boto3 - the SDK for AWS (https://boto3.amazonaws.com/v1/documentation/api/latest/inde...). Why memorize what any of the literally hundreds of functions return when I can just call the function and inspect the response within the IDE?

10. Ask HN: Why does Paypal still exist?

Top comment by feistypharit

Because nobody else has a "buy now" button that is so simple to be plopped onto a static site and doesn't have a monthly fee. Stripe requires a back end and a fee. Shopify has a monthly fee. If you're doing low volume, that fee adds up.