coryking

I'm looking to either switch back to writing code or continuing as a Technical Product Manager. What I'm really after is a cool problem space to fall in love with. I especially like exploring the boundaries between software and physical things.

- Location: Seattle, WA

- Remote: Onsite greatly preferred

- Willing to relocate: Maybe?

- Technologies: I've been in software for more than 20 years. I've touched countless languages, platforms, frameworks, operating systems, databases, you name it.

- Resume: https://www.linkedin.com/in/coryking/

- Email: me@coryk.ing

Keywords: python, product manager, opsec, security, identity platforms, software developer, full-stack, sql, operations, networks, contract work

Or there will be a ton of them on thingiverse to 3d print...

If they are part of your "family" in the apple ecosystem maybe it figures it out?

Dunno.

I’m guessing because the vast majority of the market with a 4K Apple TV is not watching in stereo, but in surround with something like Dolby Atmos

I bet a chunk of money it is the exact opposite. I bet for the majority of the market the fanciest thing they have is a soundbar and maybe a subwoofer.

I honestly think the "home theater" market is pretty niche. It requires living conditions that most people simply don't have. You gotta have the right room shape for starters. Virtually every house I visit doesn't have a room that is easy to set surround sound up in.

I mean for Atmos you specifically need speakers placed above the listener. Not to mention a bunch of other speakers everywhere.

I dunno... almost nobody is living an a place amenable to such things. And even if they are, they need to get consent from their significant other to pull it off.

So yeah. I bet maybe 5% of the market has Atmos or any kind of surround sound. 15% tops.

Prone to dust getting into the gap between the touchpad and the case so edge presses become even more inconsistent

Yup. All the time. Especially if you use those sleeves people talk about. And you have to use those sleeves because otherwise you don't know if you picked it up in the right direction.

Seriously. That remote is the worst pile of trash. I hate it every time I use it. Good riddance.

since I always just use my phone as the remote

Our family does this only because the actual remote is such a pile of crap.

That touch remote truly is the worst thing apple has made in a while (the round hockey puck mouse being the absolute worst).

In addition to all your points... it just isn't that durable. All our normal TV remotes made it through our daughters "stick everything in her mouth" phase completely unscathed. Both our "touch" remotes now constantly act weird and flakey. I refuse to spend money to replace them because they are so awful.

I'm very glad to see that these remotes are going away. Like you, that pile of shit remote is a deal breaker for any future AppleTV purchase.

I've done the 1099 thing before. I had an accountant and my own LLC. I made sure to have a separate bank account that I dumped 30% of my billable time into. Each tax season I'd cut a giant check to the IRS.

I mean no disrespect to the "gig economy" people, but 1099 requires a lot of discipline. Most of them probably don't need to pay estimated taxes and instead will be cutting giant checks to the IRS each year. It requires a hell of a lot of discipline to stare at thousands of dollars of money sitting in your own bank account knowing you cannot spend that no matter what--that is uncle sam's money.

I wonder how many gig economy people wind up owing the IRS a ton of money. Especially when they have to pay self-employment tax on top of normal tax.

Plus I bet very good money 99% of them aren't paying state or municipal taxes. As a 1099 I had to pay Washington State B&O tax every year as well as some token amount to Seattle.

The IRS has very clear guidelines on the difference between contractor and employee:

https://www.irs.gov/businesses/small-businesses-self-employe...

but why are they no allow to do the same job as a Google employee?

That is how it is if you are a contractor working for any tech company.

The actual shitty part about being a "contractor" is you are almost always a W2 for the contracting firm. Which means you get none of the benefits of actually being a real contractor. As a 1099 you can:

* Deduct (and potentially charge for) a ton of shit like travel expenses, hardware, software, internet, phones, home office, etc

* Set up a SEP IRA which lets you contribute 25% of your salary up to $58,000. This is far more than what you can contribute to an employer sponsored 401k (though as a W2 your employer can top your 401k to the same limit)

* Bill as high of a rate as you can get away with

* Easily work multiple gigs at once

* Use your own tools.

* It's your own business, literally. So act like it!

The drawbacks to a 1099 are:

* You are your own collection agency. Some clients are very slow to pay you.

* You have to pay your own social security and stuff

* You pay full freight for healthcare

* You are not entitled to unemployment

* Taxes get a little more complex

* You are a "flake" in the eyes of a bank... so getting loans for houses and stuff is a little harder.

As a W2 working through a bodyshop you get:

* Paid weekly no matter how slow their client is paying

* They provide you equipment... no matter how shitty it is

* Maybe some kind of shitty healthcare offering that disqualifies you from buying your own plan and deducting it on your taxes

* Maybe some kind of shitty retirement plan that disqualifies you from contributing pre-tax money to your own IRA

* You can collect unemployment. Helpful for that 6 month break.

* You get paid at a substantially lower rate than whatever they are billing the client.

* You are a cog in a machine.

health insurance and how it's tied to employment

Without getting too political, I really feel like untying health insurance from employment would transform the labor market and encourage far more entrepreneurial endeavors. People could take more risks if they didn't have to worry about losing healthcare coverage.

There are obvious tradeoffs involved, but I really never see this aspect considered in public debate. Making healthcare independent of employment really empowers people to do their own thing.

In my time at MSFT there was at least one staffing firm that was founded by a couple contractors who decided to just fuck it and make their own LLC so they didn't have to "pay the pimp" as some put it. If you went through them, you could do so as a 1099.

Given their "fuck it" roots, I'm not actually sure how much of a shield they provided between you and Microsoft's Accounts Payable. I bet they paid you every week like most of these staffing firms no matter how fast or slow Microsoft felt like paying its invoices. I'm also pretty sure they provided you with equipment (though how that works if you are also a 1099... I'm not sure).

What a lot of people who haven't done true 1099 work don't realize is... people and companies can be incredibly slow paying you. And as a 1099 you are your own collection agency so it's upon you to hassle them into paying you.

What I'm saying is... if there is a will there is a way. I bet there is more than a few Microsoft contractors who act like their own agency. It's probably a lot of paperwork, and I have no clue if it is worth it.

Dunno why the downvoted. Smart cars are objectively bad cars. For a similar price you can get much better cars like the Honda Fit.

However, they did have their charm when you were getting charged per minute driving them. Handled like a go cart. Gas is either 100% or 0% and you just modulate the brakes.

Let’s all be honest though. Those smart cars are total garbage. Horrible gearbox. Was like riding a go cart.

Which... while I say they are garbage in that I never would own one. They were actually kind of fun to drive for a 10 or 15 minute trip.

Also no annual fees. Just a setup fee... which if you waited for a sale or coupon was waved.

Bingo. Once Uber and lyft caught on it was only useful when there was surge pricing.

It was over when they dumped those crappy smart cars. Those cars were the worst but they were perfect for the service. Easy to park and easy to find. And driving them was like driving a go cart. You either had full gas or no gas.

I think what did them in was Uber and lyft. The cost for either is only slightly more and you don’t have to worry about parking or unlocking the car.

It sounds like you are try to build your own home-brew accounting system. That is absolutely insane. How do you ship this off to your accountant during tax season? How do you deal with accrual-based accounting concepts like invoices, accounts recevable, accounts payable, long term and short term debt, assets, etc?

Do you even know what accrual based accounting is and why you want to use it?

And who is really going to do that? Do I have time at my day job to port some network packet editor to the platform of my choice? Is management going to fund such an effort, or are they just gonna pay for the app?

There was actually several of them used by overclockers. I was always a fan of "waterfall". It made a huge difference in the CPU temperature!

http://estu.nit.ac.jp/~e982457/other/cpuidle/idle.htm

This is quite an inspiring article, thanks!

Your photography could be improved if you got a white sheet of paper or maybe some posterboard (eg: http://www.dickblick.com/products/blick-economy-white-poster...). Put that under and behind whatever you are taking a picture of and it will make a more neutral, less busy background. If you want to get more complicated, get a tripod.

A good guide for taking your kind of photos is here: https://www.ifixit.com/Guide/How+To+Take+Amazing+Photos/718

Lastly, make sure to have a link to higher resolution pictures :-)

Cheers!

Ever heard of Vimeo? They are great. Higher quality. Better content. More control over your video content. Less BS copyright crap to work through.

Why aren't these things somehow cryptographically signed like a lot of software? Seems like it would fix the problem. You could always do what Windows/OsX does when a USB device isn't signed and prompt the user with something like "warning, this USB device is not from a trusted manufacturer, continue?"

What you describe is basically:

Fiat -> Credit Card/ACH -> Bitcoin -> Fiat -> ACH (on supplier).

You are basically adding at least two extra steps in a transaction vs. what exists now. How is this better than what exists now?

This is really a spreadsheet problem. Figure out the expected value of those stock options. Consider:

1) The odds that you will work there long enough to fully vest. This depends on you, but there are a lot of factors outside your control such as layoffs/crappy management/etc.

2) The odds that the company will be sold at a high enough valuation to convert everybody to common stock. If it isn't (and it probably won't be), your exit money will be less (perhaps much less) that whatever it would have been on a fully-diluted basis. This would be explained in the term sheet the founders signed with the investors and really should be shown to you before you get hired.

3) The odds that the company will have any kind of exit.

Bottom line, unless google is the one who buys you out, you ain't gonna be driving a Porche after the startup you work for gets bought out. The odds of you even breaking even and getting anywhere close to "100% market" is pretty small. Either tell the startup you want market rate and no options or take the 130% company--stock options are a suckers bet.

The problem with waiting until later in your career before working for "three guys in a basement" is by the time you get to that stage you are wise enough to realize that:

1) They probably have no earthly clue what they are doing.

2) They won't/can't pay you close to what you're worth.

3) The equity they want to offer you has an expected value that is far, far lower what they think it is and is in no way going to make up for the paycut you will take.

4) They are no smarter and have no better ideas than you so why the heck not just start your own company instead?

I guess my point is, as you get older, you kinda come to the conclusion that working for other people's startups isn't all that it is cracked up to be.

You mean, "Wikimedia now uses Coinbase as another payment provider to collect US currency for donations"?

I guess I'm okay with this. It seems kind of silly to ship a liquid across half an ocean to the mainland...

Now if I were to discover that the Kona I purchased while in Hawaii was actually brewed on the mainland I'd feel a little miffed...

Cans of soup could also be shaped the way they are due to the fact that it might be easier to pasteurize a cylindrical can than a cube. The heat can be more evenly applied to a cylinder than a cube.

The two lanes in the picture merge into one "center" lane. I've never seen that here in the states. Typically it is one lane merging into another lane. I'd wager the "merge into the shared center lane" makes the zipper protocol more obvious.