anonmeow
Joined 11 years ago
Karma
25
Submissions
35
Member since
May 21
Recent submissions
Comment · 11 years ago
It's more straightforward to tax snapchats and facebooks some more and put the money into cancer research.
Comment · 11 years ago
Looks like I hit a nerve here, haven't I?
Note that my advice is rational and completely unironic. It is rational to follow the clique if you want to succeed in tech.
I act like that too.
Comment · 11 years ago
>Just having a 'compiler' will not change much about that understanding
The compiler is called "genetic engineering" and it's a 30 years old field. In particular genetic engineering allows you to knockout specific genes and observe the phenotype. This technique is commonly used on bacteria, plants and animals. There is an ongoing mouse knockout project, an attempt to study every mouse gene by turning it off. It is 50% complete so far. By the way, the experiments are performed mostly by hand.
>We're very far away from understanding how a particular DNA string relates to phenotypes.
This problem can be solved much faster with a large scale effort. Thousands of automated experiments can run in parallel while recording the phenotype of the animals (including results of behavioral tests) and storing it for later analysis. On this genotype->phenotype dataset one can train an ML model. Actually there is a company that is trying this approach (just ML part, without automated experiments) http://www.deepgenomics.com/
I doubt that one company will be enough, though. With serious funding there could be much more progress in this area. We could have a full knockout map of mouse genome in less than a decade if we really wanted.
Comment · 11 years ago
It may not be the solution you expected, but you could try upwork. Pay can be decent and it allows you to live while traveling across exotic countries.
I know a programmer that lives this digital nomad lifestyle.
Comment · 11 years ago
To use the YC/dev culture to your advantage you have to play your cards in a smart way. Make yourself a name (make a cool html5 website promoting yourself as a professional). Make trendy silly things in javascript, post 'em to github, to show HN. Get upvoted. Comment, gather karma. Don't show your depressive attitude to people, it turns them off (because it reminds them about their privilege of being born into a wealthy country).
Basically read this guy http://www.kalzumeus.com/2011/10/28/dont-call-yourself-a-pro... and follow the clique.
You can make it if you try hard enough.
Comment · 11 years ago
Sadly, skills won't make any difference if you don't meet requirements for visa. You could take your time and get relevant degree though (anything CS related should work).
Also you can play DV lottery. It's a small chance (1.5%) but still larger than zero.
Comment · 11 years ago
Start with researching visa laws. H1B is a very common way to come into US for work. EU has alternatives. Note that these visa require BS degree.
As to what to write in your resume there are much better guides online than anything I'd say.
Comment · 11 years ago
The Moore's law has ended (doubling time has become longer than 2 years, and looks like 10nm-7nm will be the last manufacturing process for a long time). From now on we will see more special-purpose hardware.
Comment · 11 years ago
The same could be said about startups.
Comment · 11 years ago
When the civilization is confined to one small planet while hitting the physical limits to growth, the fixed pie is a good analogy.
There is fixed and diminishing amount of arable land to grow the wheat and apples. You can make only so many pies.
Comment · 11 years ago
Server CPUs have >2x memory channels when compared to consumer CPUs. IBM Power CPUs show that it's possible to get even more memory bandwidth than in mainstream Xeons.
Looks like low RAM bandwidth in consumer CPUs is a mostly artificial differentiator to discourage use of these parts in servers.
On the other hand there are HMC and HBM technologies that offer order of magnitude more bandwidth and several times less latency. They are already used in AMD gpus as well as in prototypes of Nvidia's pascal gpu and Intel's Knight's corner 60-core cpu http://www.theplatform.net/2015/03/25/more-knights-landing-x...
I hope HBM comes to consumer CPUs too, but with current lack of competition in the market it can take a long time.
Comment · 11 years ago
If the PR is good this could create a positive public attitude towards life extension. You'd get more funding in the end.
Comment · 11 years ago
If governments and FDAs of the developed world were more cooperative it wouldn't happen this way.
Startups don't have a billion dollars for FDA trials.
Comment · 11 years ago
There is a quite large database of genes that affect aging in model organisms: http://genomics.senescence.info/genes/stats.php
In this database there are 126 mouse genes.
It looks like (science funding) politics is the only reason we are not testing how these genes work in large mammals and primates. The public is scared of genetic engineering.