Hasnain says:

I am glad the people of Syria are free. This is too nice of an ending for Assad - no place in hell is hot enough for him - but the people are free. Now the work to recover begins

“AMMAN/BEIRUT, Dec 8 (Reuters) - Syria's army command has notified officers that President
Bashar al-Assad's rule has ended following a lightning rebel offensive, a Syrian officer who was informed of the move told Reuters.

Syrian rebels said Damascus was "now free of Assad".
Earlier Assad flew out of Damascus for an unknown destination on Sunday, two senior army officers told Reuters, as rebels said they had entered the capital with no sign of army deployments.”

Hasnain says:

This is a 296 (!) page report. I’ve only read the summary page so far and need to read the full report. As the Zeteo summary calls out, Amnesty International will now join a wide range of organizations, like the UN, which are now part of Hamas, for calling the genocide a genocide (sarcasm)

“Our findings must serve as a wake-up call to the international community: this is genocide, and it must stop now. By publishing this report now, Amnesty International’s goal is to help stop the on-going genocide in Gaza and prevent further acts of genocide against Palestinians and reiterate the urgency of the need for a ceasefire. In the longer term, its aim is to support measures aimed at accountability for crimes under international law, including genocide, and other serious human rights violations, and justice and reparation for victims and survivors.

States that continue to transfer arms to the government of Israel, particularly the U.S., must know they are violating their obligation to prevent genocide and are at risk of becoming complicit in genocide. Amnesty International has documented the Israeli military’s use of US-made weapons in attacks on Gaza during this conflict that have unlawfully killed and injured civilians. “

Hasnain says:

This is the first time in recent memory I have seen people across the political spectrum *celebrate* a murder. I don’t know how I feel about this (well, I do - disgust). There is a lot of rightful frustration and anger at the healthcare system in America, and I have my reservations about a lot of CEOs, but glorifying murder seems overboard.

As someone did point out though, the fact that this is being celebrated says a lot about the undercurrents and desperations in society at a system that is harming the average person, and this needs to be rectified or we will go down a dark path.

“A gunman, masked in the freezing temperatures, waited for about 10 minutes before Thompson’s arrival before opening fire multiple times, striking Thompson from about 20 feet away, investigators tell CNN.”

Hasnain says:

Supply chain security takes a new turn here. I don’t see this ending well for anyone. Especially not the computer industry

“The Chinese ban on superhard mineral exports could provoke particular unhappiness in America’s national security community. That ban appeared to be aimed at Chinese exports of tungsten, which is vital for making armor-piercing bullets and shells, said Oliver Friesen, the chief executive of Guardian Metal Resources, a London company that is planning to mine tungsten in Nevada.

It will take close to three years to establish a new tungsten mine in Nevada, he said, adding: “We’re moving things along quite quickly.””

Hasnain says:

Great read on burnout in the tech industry. I’m a few years late to this post but man did it resonate hard.

“Looking back, the best moment I had in 2020 was over Christmas break, sitting on the couch with my laptop. I spent all day, maybe 8 hours, reading about SolarWinds. My boyfriend told me to stop working. It wasn’t work, and it was great. I was learning something. Completing something. Doing something because I wanted to do it, not because it was the next urgent thing that needed to happen. It felt like work used to feel like. That’s what I’m looking forward to again.”

Hasnain says:

Great read on how hiring is now impacted by LLMs

“The tech interview process needs to catch up because LLM tools are changing the definition of a “great programmer”. Being a standout software engineer today includes proficiency with LLM tools, and knowing when to utilize them. An engineer who was standout in 2021 and refuses to use LLM tools today, will struggle to remain standout in many workplaces.”

Hasnain says:

“I think this is the point of middle management! Like, the good stuff that it can do when not squashed into number-crunching and goal-checkbox-filling. At each level of the system, people have the context to understand what they’re talking about, and the relationships to say what they mean. Alignment is not bestowed; it is negotiated.”

Hasnain says:

Learnt a lot of math and systems stuff here.

“It is entirely acceptable and workable to treat erasure codes as a magic function that turns 1 file into chunks and back. You can stop reading here, and not knowing the details of what math is being performed will not hinder your ability to leverage erasure codes to great effect in distributed systems or databases. (And if you continue, take what follows with a large grain of salt, as efficient erasure coding is a subject folk have spent years on, and the below is what I’ve collected from a couple of days of reading through papers I only half understand.)”

Hasnain says:

Finally got around to reading this which was published in April. Great read

“It’s impressive what a tiny team of experienced engineers can build. I had to triple-check that Bluesky’s core team was only two engineers for almost nine months, during which time they built the basics of the protocol, and made progress with the iOS and Android apps. Even now, Bluesky is a very lean team of around 12 engineers for the complexity they build with and the company’s growth. “

Hasnain says:

“We’ve explored a bunch of different databases, all used in production by some of the largest companies on the planet, and hopefully this will have exposed you to some technologies you weren’t familiar with before. Take this knowledge with you as you look to solve interesting problems.”