Customs can certainly approach you any time right up to the gate. In 2010, my wife and I were approached by an agent and asked very directly if we had more than $10,000 in USD cash with us as we waited at the gate to board a nonstop flight from the US to Moscow. We answered truthfully "no" in a brief conversation and he wished us well almost immediately.
I don't think he suspected we were money launderers. My guess is that upon hearing both of us speak, he easily determined that we were not natives of Russia and thus not, for example, carrying but not declaring a substantial amount of cash intended for family back home.
The HVAC industry in the US enjoys massive gross margins on this equipment. Prices are supported primarily by licensing laws.
You can't legally break into the business, but DIY on your own house is entirely possible: the equipment is available for 1/4 to 1/3 of the "installed" price and some of the more climate-friendly refrigerants do not require an EPA license to purchase.
Yes, the work involves electrical, light plumbing and welding, a specialized tool or two, attention to detail, and definitely physical labor, but for a lot of engineers that's just fun stuff to do on a weekend - really fun stuff when you save over $10K per installed system (at the 3-5 ton unit capacity level.)
The 240V electrical isn’t as scary as it sounds; individually, the hots are no more “hot” relative to ground than a 120V hot (still demands respect!)
Certainly it’s not for everyone or even every engineer but I guess my point was that if you’ve already done most of these things yourself it’s not a huge leap to DIY your own HVAC install compared to the financial incentive, especially if your house has more than one system.
Anyone else see the irony in all of this hacker-bashing on this site called "Hacker News?"
Not just in this particular discussion, but overall a shift away from talking about individual, inspired and sometimes entrepreneurial creativity toward how to pass a FAANG-style interview or have better standups and corporate culture.
Hacker news has grown in readership and I assume this explains the shift in tastes. I see it more as commentary than bashing, but I do think the stereotype doesn't mean much beyond valid points than that the traits outlined had negatives. Oh a Great Hacker is one that is productive but won't touch Java? I'm not one then, but what does that really mean
It's a 2004 article which really have to be read through the lenses of the time. Java in 2020 with Kotlin and Scala is pretty far removed from 2004 Java. Same goes for the Windows vs Linux part.
I'll admit during 2004 I indeed did not want to touch Java or Windows. However, I'd like to say if a project demanded 2004 Java I'd be up for the task now, if the business case was exciting
I have noticed this, too. The hacker and creativity bashing started in open source projects, which were taken over by corporations. Now that a sufficient number of "open" source developers are in the pockets of said entities, mailing lists are censored, conference speakers are censored and dissidents are silenced.
HN is one of the rare places where free thinking is still allowed (probably thanks to pg), but the new ideology is spreading fast.
On the bright side, this may be a good time to found a startup.
> Not just in this particular discussion, but overall a shift away from talking about individual, inspired and sometimes entrepreneurial creativity toward how to pass a FAANG-style interview or have better standups and corporate culture.
Comparing hackers in an individual context is apples and oranges to talking about them in a company context.
It's great when hackers use their knowledge and creative energy to create new things or startup new companies.
It's not great when super-hackers use their assumed intellectual superiority to make life miserable for their team members and managers. There are plenty of real "hackers" who have the right interpersonal skills and self-awareness to be lead teams in a business context and get work done. Unfortunately, there are plenty of self-described "hackers" who use think their intellectual superiority excuses a lot of bad behavior in the workplace, from stonewalling projects unless/until they get their way to railing against the corporation.
If these hackers want to go off and start their own companies then I'm all for it. As a coder-turned-manager, I don't want any self-absorbed hacker types on my team, though.
If you're not using a discrete GPU, that addition very possible will open up some more HiDPI resolutions for you. With a modest RX-460 (recognized in 10.13+) I get a variety of formats starting from a 2560x1440 layout over 3840x2160 pixels, and incrementally more spacious, all still over 3840x2160 on the wire, all with excellent HiDPI rendering. My intel graphics iGPU delivers just the limitations you described.
