wayne_skylar

SEEKING WORK | NYC | REMOTE

## Overview I am Generalist developer with 13 years experience seeking part-time or full-time contract and freelance opportunities.

I spent first half of career in finance-adjacent startup focused on big data. I primarily wrote low-latency multithreaded C++ / Python code for custom internal applications.

Currently I am a fully-remote full-stack web developer for a consultancy with experience on a wide variety of projects and tech stacks.

I pride myself on being able to come up to speed with a project quickly and also make an impact quickly. I also pride myself in my ability to communicate with non-technical stakeholders to discover requirements.

I also have a good deal of experience with working with and improving messy codebases.

## Technical Highlights

  *  Python, SqlAlchemy, Django, Express.js, Vue, React, Marionette, AngularJS
  *  Mysql, Postgres, Informix
  *  C++11x / boost::python / STL / multithreading / binary protocols / TCP/IP / distributed computing / POSIX. 
  *  AWS: / Cloud Formation / EC2 / S3 / SNS / IAM. 
  *  CI/CD with Jenkins
  *  Familiar with gitflow and best other development best practices.

jmallen@gmail.com

SEEKING WORK | NYC | REMOTE ## Overview I am Generalist developer with 13 years experience seeking part-time or full-time contract and freelance opportunities.

I spent first half of career in finance-adjacent startup focused on big data. I primarily wrote low-latency multithreaded C++ / Python code for custom internal applications.

Currently I am a fully-remote full-stack web developer for a consultancy with experience on a wide variety of projects and tech stacks.

I pride myself on being able to come up to speed with a project quickly and also make an impact quickly. I also pride myself in my ability to communicate with non-technical stakeholders to discover requirements.

I also have a good deal of experience with working with and improving messy codebases.

## Technical Highlights

  *  Python, SqlAlchemy, Django, Express.js, Vue, React, Marionette, AngularJS
  *  Mysql, Postgres, Informix
  *  C++11x / boost::python / STL / multithreading / binary protocols / TCP/IP / distributed computing / POSIX. 
  *  AWS: / Cloud Formation / EC2 / S3 / SNS / IAM. 
  *  CI/CD with Jenkins
  *  Familiar with gitflow and best other development best practices.

SEEKING WORK | NYC | REMOTE

## Overview I am Generalist developer with 13 years experience seeking part-time or full-time contract and freelance opportunities.

I spent first half of career in finance-adjacent startup focused on big data. I primarily wrote low-latency multithreaded C++ / Python code for custom internal applications.

Currently I am a fully-remote full-stack web developer for a consultancy with experience on a wide variety of projects and tech stacks.

I pride myself on being able to come up to speed with a project quickly and also make an impact quickly. I also pride myself in my ability to communicate with non-technical stakeholders to discover requirements.

I also have a good deal of experience with working with and improving messy codebases.

## Technical Highlights

  *  Python, SqlAlchemy, Django, Express.js, Vue, React, Marionette, AngularJS
  *  Mysql, Postgres, Informix
  *  C++11x / boost::python / STL / multithreading / binary protocols / TCP/IP / distributed computing / POSIX. 
  *  AWS: / Cloud Formation / EC2 / S3 / SNS / IAM. 
  *  CI/CD with Jenkins
  *  Familiar with gitflow and best other development best practices.

jmallen@gmail.com

Are you saying to look at NY state government job listings and find contracting roles that way? Or are you suggesting I make connections with state gov't to get work as a contractor?

The pandemic has really made me second guess my blind trust in the "trusted" sources. When the WHO released a statement saying that it hadn't been proven that antibodies prevent covid, the media ran with the sensationalist "antibodies are ineffective" slant. I simply can't believe that the news organizations that ran with that version didn't do it on purpose.

The same can be said for reinfections and perhaps even long-term effects. The narrative surrounding these concepts is so common that I hear it from friends as if it were common knowledge. I don't know about the long-term effects but I am pretty certain that reinfections are very rare. But the prevalence of either seems to be omitted from the story.

Of course we don't know because the news often reports anecdotes when there is no data or even when there is data. The news isn't held to the standard of giving a whole picture, just a glimpse of the current moment. In that they find a lot of wiggle room to publish things that are in the "public interest" while also benefiting from sensationalism.

I don't think it was deliberate. But after they realized it's a problem, they also realized that it's the best way to drive engagement so they do nothing.

What would be an example of a "contractor organization"? I am interested working on contract but I live in NYC and here it seems like it's always contract-to-hire situation where they want someone long-term but are using the contract as a way to limit the damage if the hire doesn't work out. I'd love to find a series of 3-6 month contracts like you mention but have had little success.

This is the way I see it. Ever since Facebook started "optimizing" the timeline order they have been showing you a distorted picture of the world. Honestly it would probably be enough to default everyone back to a world where nobody gets preferential treatment on your feed and everything is chronological.

We all walk around with our model of the world in our heads. When we see something that reinforces our model we get a dopamine hit. "I knew I was right!" Instead of Fox or MSNBC selecting stories for a target audience facebook uses machine learning to find the perfect selection of stories to keep you hooked.

Before Facebook had an algorithm you'd see peoples posts in chronological order. The moment they altered that was where they began to influence behavior.

I do think that facebook is in the position to do something about its negative influence. And taking no action or saying "it's too hard to fix" is basically being complicit. You don't get to profit off of this machine without being responsible for its negative externalities. At least from a moral standpoint.

The solution? Stop the manipulation of what users see based on machine learning. Users should see what their friends and groups post chronologically. What would be the downside of that? I'd spend less time on facebook (an upside if you ask me) and facebook would make less money.

I've always had a question about this. If more people are deciding to use the road afterwards surely it means that trips are being taken that weren't before? Wouldn't that be a good thing, economically speaking?

I find it so funny that Facebook hides behind "freedom of speech" when in fact what they do is the exact opposite.

When everything you saw was cronological, you could make that argument. I write a message on my wall and everyone who follows me can see it if they scroll down far enough. Most importantly, the only criteria used was the time it was submitted which I think everyone can agree is fair.

By prioritizing certain posts based on what the algorithm thinks will make you stay on the site longer, they are prioritizing, thus interfering with free speech. When I post something, my message will have a lower chance of reaching some of my followers. How can facebook justify tipping the scales for one type of message over another and call it free?

It's not strange that you weren't productive during one of the most disruptive periods of instability most of us will likely experience during our entire lives. Some people have made a positive out of this experience but you shouldn't feel like a failure if you couldn't.

You may badly want to be one of these people who emerges from lockdown in an amazing new body with all of these projects completed but you shouldn't feel like a failure if you couldn't. This was not a normal time and adding pressure to be productive is not the answer for everyone.

One thing that I feel has helped my anxiety a good deal is knowing that "It's OK to not feel OK." A large part of my anxiety is wondering about its source and if it's getting worse, etc.

Secondly, I've worked from home for 6 years now and the "turning off" thing is very important. Not only is it unrealistic to have those expectations of yourself, it's irresponsible to do so.

If you feel guilty about not working, just remember that often times the time you spend not working on a problem is just as important as the time you spend working on it. It's actually how you tend to come up with most creative solutions.

Not only that but you deserve time off.

I think the problem I have is that I don't understand how to get good at something that I have good taste in. Of everything that I've been able to learn I've always had some sort of pleasure in the doing. I enjoyed my C++ assignments in college. I've enjoyed learning the basics of woodworking.

I love art and would love to learn to paint or draw but I can't figure out how to enjoy the small victories there. It's not about being objectively good but about enjoying an "ah-ha" moment where you feel like you've gotten better. Any advice for me? I'm very open to anything but I just can't seem to enjoy learning a lot of the activities that I value more than anything.

More than anything right now people are going to have a very strong appetite for financial security. It's about time we reconsider 'working for 50 weeks to pay for 52' as a viable means to have that security.

Without knowing as much about the topic I really feel the same way too. This pandemic might take a "long" time but it will end and we will find ourselves with the same knowhow and infrastructure that we had going in. Surely things will get shaken up but there is a strong desire to go back to life as it was before. It's mostly a question of how that happens.

Wonderful. I'd rather have an unregulated ventilator and maybe live than no ventilator and die for sure.

Also live in NY and I bought a portable dishwasher 10 years ago and have brought it with me during every move. It's on casters and functions as a countertop (which I need anyway) when not in use.

I went for a few years without using it in my newest apartment because my adapter didn't fit my new faucet. For some reason it took me a few years to think to look for a different adapter.

Anyway I very much appreciate using my dishwasher. It feels like it makes an impact on my life in a way that most other tech doesn't. It feels like magic. You put in dirty dishes and out come clean ones. I liken it to having a washing machine that you put dirty clothes in and they come out clean, dry, and folded.

The Netflix UI is very abusive. They have no respect for the value of your time or your attention.

This is the right answer. You've got the web paradigm of the nav bar showing up when you scroll up (among other oddities). I think it would be very easy to have a mobile browser extension to show pages full screen in a special interactivity mode to make most mobile apps work on the web.

This is excellent! I was thinking of making something like this myself (before I knew it already existed) for the exact same reasons.

Is there no agreed upon way to write those letters with an English keyboard? I know for example in German

ä -> ae

ö -> oe

ü -> ue

At least that is what I was taught. When writing Spanish some of my friends have replaced ñ with gn as in Italian or ny as in Catalan.

Oh I think he does get it. Facebook is a tool uniquely designed to influence behavior. Before you had to advertise to a generic stereotype of a person whereas now -- thanks to facebook's treasure trove of user data -- you can target just the perfect audience to get your ideas spreading organically.

Facebook sells the ability to do this to anybody who will pay. This is the core of how they make money. After a period of pretending to search for a solution, Zuckerberg has finally ducked behind the notion of 'free speech' as his excuse for doing nothing. He knows that the only way to stop it would be to stop selling this ability to influence. And he's actually right that it shouldn't be him deciding what are the good and bad uses of this powerful tool.

The blind faith that increased connectivity is a net benefit is what got us here. Seeing how social media is actually increasing depression makes me think the opposite. The sad truth is that most people are too vulnerable to misinformation and the older centralized distribution of information is probably the best for stability.

Maybe this is a dumb question, but why can't nuclear waste be diluted? You get U-235 though enrichment of naturally occurring uranium. Why is there no way to reverse this process?

This kind of thinking is the problem though. Like YouTube they don't care about the quality of the experience you're having. Where Netflix might see a very satisfied customer others might see a depressed individual binging a show for the 10th time as a way to escape reality.

I'm currently uninsured and trying to deal with the healthcare system in the US is so annoying it makes me want to give up and move to Canada.

I went to an urgent care center and had a doctor perform a routine examination for a sinus infection. No special tools or materials were used. Before I went in I signed a form stating that I acknowledged that I was on the hook for whatever extra it cost if the situation required it. I was thinking along the lines of bloodwork, x-rays, etc. The doctor was very helpful in avoiding unnecessary expense as well.

A month after I paid and left I got a bill in the mail stating the that doctor had performed an 'extensive examination' and that cost an extra hundred dollars. They had all the information necessary to bill me this as I left the urgent care. Yet they chose to wait and send me a bill because it's a complete fraud.

I really wish I could find out the answer to how this works, but my guess is that there is some automated process that tacks on extra billing where possible as a way of boosting income. Ordinarily it's a 'victimless' crime in that it is paid for by an insurance company.

But ultimately we're fucked in this country with regards to healthcare. It is a disaster that keeps people sick, yet we need it because it's such a large part of our economy. Little by little this sector has inserted themselves into the literal lifeblood of the nation's finance and health and is holding everyone hostage.

You're ignoring the vast majority of people who aren't aware that it's possible yet would care a great deal if they knew about it. In fact, that's the whole premise behind tracking pixels. It's victim blaming.

Sorry but I've never felt that Amazon is completely operating in good faith with regards to allowing users to manage their costs. The proof of that is the fact that they still don't have a page where you can see the price of an ec2 instance alongside its stats. I've been wanting to see that for ten years and they still haven't added it.

I'm mainly frustrated by the lack of advancement in the Macbook Pro line. I have a 2014-ish MacBook Pro and accidentally got water on the keyboard. It works fine with an external keyboard. Instead of paying 400 dollars to get the keyboard working again I chose to buy a refurbished Macbook Pro from 2017.

What was super frustrating was that the specs are almost the same after a three year gap. I still have 8GB or RAM and still have a 128GB SDD. The processor and has double the cores, but overall it's not the kind of improvement you'd expect from a three year difference.

Instead it's thinner and only has USB-C inputs. I would have never chosen to buy this machine on the merits alone.

I'm in the same boat with the iPhone by the way. I have an iPhone 6 and really see no reason to upgrade. It works well enough for me and I have no appetite to spend 500 or 1000 dollars on a phone that will do the same things for me.

And yes iTunes is a disgrace. I've switched to Spotify for podcasts and most music and it's far better.

This is a great point. I think that on average you're unlikely to recoup the difference in wages in the event that the company is sold. I worked for a startup for four years and got nothing.