ibudiallo

Slight tangent into translations:

I read two translations of the book "The Master and Margarita". My first read was so boring I couldn't help but stop reading before the end of the first chapter. I can't find the copy and the name of the person who translated it, but this one had all the Russian nicknames translated. It kept talking about a guy called homeless. I thought it was just a bad book and dismissed it for years. I couldn't understand what all the fuss was about with this book.

But then, I stumbled upon the translation by Diana Burgin and Katherine Tiernan O'Connor. Although I don't speak Russian, I think this is as good as it gets. They did a phenomenal job.

You can see the same effect with the mechanical translation of the book "We" by Yevgeny Zamyatin, where the government is called "United State" easily confused with the "United States". The translation that called it "One State" was so much better.

Yes, but then the catchy title wouldn't make much sense, would it? So let's remove all the things you said here and were are left with: "AI started a business all by itself, and is running it." Then:

We are not doing this because we want AI to replace every café owner in Stockholm. Rather, we are doing this because we want to publicly show the current capabilities of AI.

We are not trying to take your jobs, we just want to show you that we can.

I think this post is vague enough for each one of us to think about the part we are sick of and relate. I'm sick of generative for sure.. but then again [0]:

Everyone seems to have their own personal definition of acceptable AI use. If you Vibecode an entire app, it's because you are lazy and unskilled. But use AI for code review and writing tests? You are smart and efficient.

You could use AI to remove photo backgrounds or clean up artifacts, that's just good editing. But generating an image for your blog post? You are stealing from hardworking artists. You are a fraud! You probably use AI as a writing assistant like a monster. But using it to generate documentation from your code is indispensable.

[0] https://idiallo.com/blog/ai-is-ok-just-not-yours

And here I was proud of myself, having taught my mom and her friends how to discern real from fakes they get on WhatsApp groups. Another even more powerful tool for scammers. I'm taking a break.

This is what hostile software looks like. When you dominate a space, the choices you give to your users are: "Yes" or "OK". Choose wisely.

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45559023

Since it's a coding error, let's run git blame and see what comes out.

Being on the receiving end is never fun. For my case, after I was reinstated, I left shortly after. It was never the same with my colleagues.

I bought a OnePlus 3 when it was the cool underdog phone for $450. That was 6 years ago. After 5.5 years the battery started draining faster than usual so I replaced it. The only reason I had to switch phones was because my children chewed and drooled all over it, destroying the volume buttons.

With such a solid phone, I went back to oneplus to get the latest and greatest. So much has changed in this time spam. In their latest phone, they don't even have the alert slider. I reluctantly got the 9 pro.

Longer version: https://idiallo.com/blog/oneplus3-6-years-later

My favorite Bullshit Job was my very own. There was an employee that was hired only because, well I couldn't say No during the interview.

He had nothing to do so they turned him into a human website health checker. He had a page with dozens of iframes of all our websites. He would spend the day refreshing the page, reloading the iframes in intervals. If any failed to load he would report them.

Not knowing what the page was for, i was asked to automate refreshing each iframe after an interval. This meant, he wouldn't have to click the reload button anymore. Just sit and wait until a website failed. I thought his job was bullshit. Until, I realized that I had just automated a bullshit job.

Longer version: https://idiallo.com/blog/the-40-million-dollar-job

I had done a similar one, just without the images. My intention was to add a blurb for each of the books, but friction is the enemy of reading.

https://idiallo.com/library

"My name is Ibrahim" -> "My name is Abraham"

This is exactly what happens when I tell people my name in the US. At least, now I know that Americans are deca-lingual.

Above the fold is all ads.

Update: I've built this page many years ago, and one of the issues was that I couldn't nest script tags. The reason is everything inside the script tag is considered plain text. So having a hyperlink inside a paragraph was impossible.

However, I just found out that you can create nested elements in the script tags if via javascript. So something like script1.appendChild(script2) works and renders correctly. The Possibilities!!!

That's fun. I actually used a similar method to build this page[1]. (see page source). I used script tags for the content.

[1] https://idiallo.com/nobot.php

Edit: All HTML tags are a CSS rule away to becoming visible.

I used to work for a company that automated customer service. While we were trialing with new a client, our ai service responded to a customer: "Hey B**, thanks for reaching out."

To our surprise, the end user did not feel offended at all. In fact, they were happy because we responded instantly instead of the usual 24 to 48 hours.

[Story]: https://idiallo.com/blog/do-you-make-your-customers-wait

This sounds great in theory. Up until my last job, this is the philosophy I lived by. When I leave, I want that the only thing they miss is my personality. But it is never the case.

When you announce you are leaving, you turn from employee to liability. Especially when your departure comes as a surprise. I always felt the need to document everything, interview prospective replacement, even extend my notice to three weeks. But many times I see all my efforts thrown out the window the second I leave. It's not that what I leave behind is not valuable, it becomes the work of a quitter.

Once my position was replaced by an intern, another time my position had been completely eliminated.

When I leave again, I'll give good smiles and nod politely until my two weeks notice expire and I'll move on.

Edit: Also a great reminder, when your employer wants you to leave, you usually have to clear your desk immediately.

Here is one thing that happened to me after using Duolingo every day, multiple times a day for more than a year. I became extremely good at it. Throw any language at me, I'll complete it in record time. Sometimes I played it without even the sound on.

Do I speak any of the languages in the game? Hardly. This realization came to me after I completed the Japanese class and my sister asked me to count to ten. I knew all the numbers, their symbols, and the placement in a sentence. But I could not count to ten.

Duolingo is a game before being a learning tool. It is fun to use and I'm almost jealous that they are going to IPO. But it's kinda like farmville. You become good at the game, but you probably won't become a farmer after playing.

I've been having this discussion a lot lately. Ok, let's say a crime occured and you have a hard time identifying the suspect. A colleague of yours in the precinct is walking over and sees the picture on your screen. "Wait a minute, that face looks familiar." He goes to the database and indeed sees a face that looks close enough. Now what is the next step? You don't toss the person in the police van and celebrate the conviction. Instead, you investigate.

"Where we're you that evening? do you own a outfit matching the suspect? Etc." This kid would have been quickly cleared. It's already terrifying to be questioned by the police when you are innocent. How do you think he felt when they said they had video evidence of him shoplifting. They already made up their mind.

Now replace your colleagues with an AI. Simply because you have a match does not mean you have the suspect. Just over a year ago we were discussing the same issue: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23628394

Here is what I want to say: After 16 years in a English speaking country, I don't feel articulate. But that's hardly the point. What I want to say always gets muddled with words I didn't intend to write.

I started a blog because I believed the only way to learn to write well was by writing. After 8 years, I still struggle communicating my ideas properly, effectively and quickly enough. Yet, every blog I read the authors seems to have mastered communication. But then sometimes, something I write becomes popular. I received emails or praise about my writing style. Some will say that "no one could have said it better".

If you and I don't feel as articulate, it's because we are the authors. Our ideas change, evolve, and improve. Everything you put down becomes an older version of your thoughts. No matter how good it was, the present you have learned something new to add. I wish I could write well, but even if I did, I'd look back at what I wrote in the past and still say "I wish I could write well".

I was once asked to automate a task at a job. There was a webpage that had a dozen iframes. My task was to add a js that refreshes each iframe a minute after it fully loaded. It was a wonky type of health checker.

When I finished, I went to see the person who used the product in person. Turns out, his job was to sit in front of the webpage and refresh it every minute or so, then report it if any of the pages in the iframes failed to load. After my update, he wouldn't have to refresh the page anymore. He would just sit and watch.

I thought that his job was bullshit, and that his manager was just keeping him busy. But it turns out, I was the one who was misemployed[1].

[1] https://idiallo.com/blog/the-40-million-dollar-job

... as part of the bankruptcy proceedings they sold the technology to a bigger company. A developer improved the application by automating it. It could now send emails to the right departments automatically. The developer entered his own email as a test and was promptly fired by the new software.

Everyone who worked on the machine are now gone, yet it continues to do what it was designed for. That is until I found myself on the path of the machine...

Just kidding, but it would make a great origin story to this: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17350645

As an HN user, when I die my notes might just disappear with me.

My family probably won't be able to log into my custom made blog. It will go on for a few years then the domain will expire.

My phone which gets unlocked with fingerprint or a 6 digit pin will remain locked forever. My computer, also with a secure password and encrypted hard drive will remain locked.

All my accounts with secure passwords will remain unreachable.

My dropbox which contains all my unpublished notes and books will probably expire and get deleted.

I'll have to print some instructions and lock them in a safe for my family.

Ok, so I made these things called OttoTags in 2017. Think of them as AirTags with QR code instead (I'm a solo dev)

From what I understand, when you find an airtag, you connect it to your device and it gives you the owners contact info. Anyone can get your phone number.

When you find an ottotag, you scan it and you contact the owner through ottomon. From here the GPS location is captured and communicated. All interactions are done through the service (ottomon.net). This layer act as a security layer where we filter out spam and possibly stalkers based on past behavior and other heuristics.

The two parties can communicate without revealing any information about themselves. So yeah, Apple could have made it much simpler, but they are my competitors now so let's keep this between us.

Edit: For more info -> https://www.ottomon.net/blog/privately-communicate-on-ottomo...

Yes, I was hired back. I learned my lesson, so I used this time to get all my ducks lined up and left the company in my own terms.

I added a link to that thread because our most important commodity is time. Sure it sounds like promoting laziness, but lots of comments were about automating your job. You get to invest that newly found free time to do something you enjoy.

I hate it when people say a job is a job. 10 hours a day is dedicated to my job. I'm awake for 16 hours and 10 of those I spend at work. This is where my friends are. This is where I meet new people. This is where I spend my time. But the reality is... Well yes, a job is a job, and the quicker you can accept it, the better you will feel.

Once, this realization came to me when I worked at a fortune 10. I loved the job and was fascinated by the cool tech we used everyday. One day I came to work only to find out I was fired. My manager was just as surprised to hear it. Obviously it was a mistake, but my team watched as security guards came to escort me out of the building like a criminal.

It didn't matter that they figured out it was a mistake. My coworkers became distant when I came back. When the story blew up, my employer denied I was ever employed there. An ex-coworker later told me that my position and projects have been completely scrubbed out of existence.

A job is a job, if you can focus on your own gains please do. Then spend a little bit of time on this fun Ask HN[1]. We can't all get a job that loves us back, so in the meanwhile find something you love outside the job.

[1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26721951

Hi, I would really like to know more about this guy and his program, and maybe get in touch. My contacts are in my profile.

I wrote about my experience as a black developer not too long ago [1]. At first, you are shocked when you hear some insensitive comments made around you. Then you realize no one else even notices, so it must be something wrong with you.

Eventually you ignore it. When someone says something stupid, you rationalize it and move on. After all, you are only just here to do a job.

But then you get angry. You are angry at everything. No one understand why you are angry or why you blow things out of proportion. "Hey Carl didn't mean to offend you. It was just that one time." What they don't understand is that you've been hearing the same stupid jokes or comments for 15 years in your career.

In June of last summer, multiple companies contacted me to help them do something about diversity in their company. Here is what every company is excited to do: Diversity day, minority day, rainbow flag day, Awareness, BLM profile image, hashtags.

Here is what was incredibly hard to do: Hiring more black people. I interviewed hundreds of black people on their behalf, many highly qualified for the jobs. Not more than a 10 candidates got a reply for a follow up. So far I only know of one who was hired.

[1] https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-53180073

Hmmm many years ago I was wishful thinking about this very box [1]. This is gonna be a fun week playing with and testing it.

[1] https://idiallo.com/blog/bringing-back-the-pc

I thought I read this here before: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21947551

I still feel the same about it[1]:

Don't shut down the website. Keep it running and make the data available in read only mode and add a donation button (alternative to ads). It should cost $5 a month to host on linode or digitalocean. Don't let the money you spent go down the drain.

[1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21951604

I've been talking with companies that are somewhat small but receptive to the idea of employee protection. Unions is often the subject but the damaged done to their reputation in the U.S. is irreversible. No highly paid professional wants to even talk about it.

With unions, an employee being treated unfairly has a place to complain. A place that will actually listen and side with her instead of the corporation. But non-union employees often think that HR is the exact equivalent. Unfortunately they almost always learned the hard way (me included).

If we want to make any dent in the system, HR is the place we want to reform.

The idea that I have started proposing is of a public HR. An hr department that reports back to the state government. The government may not be perfect, but it has a better record when it comes to employee protection.

Edit: previous discussion for more context https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25795851

Unless I'm missing something obvious, striking is the only leverage a union has. If striking is illegal, what's their leverage?