offbynull
Joined 7 years ago
Karma
72
Submissions
35
Member since
Jul 3
Recent submissions
Comment · 1 month ago
Location: Boston, Providence, New York
Remote: Yes (or Hybrid)
Willing to relocate: No
Technologies: Python, C++, Java, SQL, Docker, GitHub Actions
Résumé/CV: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1UFsjc2By8YOtufwH1_3hPKFu6jg...
Email: [email protected]
Software engineer and hands-on technical lead with 20 years of experience focused on data and backend engineering, with an emphasis on building dependable systems and improving how they’re developed and maintained. Recent efforts have included leading the development, launch, and ongoing ownership of a company-wide API; optimizing an insurance model to run over 20× faster through vectorization, algorithmic improvements, and moving performance-critical code to C++; and establishing engineering standards and practices such as CI/CD that meaningfully reduced the number of bugs reported.
Over the years, I’ve worked on data workflows, scientific automation and analytics, APIs and web applications, developer tooling, and software for resource-constrained devices. I’ve also built and contributed to open-source projects covering data exploration, bioinformatics, CAD, programming language extensions, and distributed peer networking.
Comment · 4 months ago
If you're an engineer and want to go deeper into the core algorithms behind genomics, there's a book / course called Bioinformatics Algorithms. It was a punishing read when I was going through it a few years ago (but rewarding). It's probably much better now given the state of AI.
Comment · 5 months ago
That hasn't been my experience. Bambu's documentation, including the guides and wiki, is disjointed and inconsistent. You'll often find contradictions between pages or information that isn't appropriately fleshed out. Sometimes bits and pieces on a topic are spread across several wiki pages and guides. You'll also find that there's now an increase in AI slop in some of the introductory guides (e.g., tons of emdashes and sentences that don't seem to make sense).
Having the printer give you reminders to do something doesn't mean that maintenance is minimal.
Comment · 5 months ago
> She had no desire to learn the ends and outs of 3d printers. She wanted something easy to use and reliable. The Bambu Labs printer I bought her has been just that.
Where is this coming from? You absolutely need to know the ins and outs of a 3D printer. Nozzles wear out, build plates wear out, components need to be regularly cleaned properly and lubricated, you have to keep filaments dry, certain filaments can only be used with certain components, you constantly tweak slicer and temperature settings, ... The list goes on.
3D printers, including Bambu Lab printers, are definitely not easy to use nor are they reliable. They're maintenance heavy. Sometimes you have to do a print multiple times because it'll fail for a myriad of reasons. Maybe you oriented it wrong, maybe your slicer settings are off, maybe it didn't have proper supports, maybe the filament is messed up, ...
Comment · 5 months ago
I'm also in the same boat of regret, but for other reasons. Their support team is beyond awful. I purchased an H2S AMS combo just shy of two months ago (mostly because I saw it being praised by HNers a while back) and found out recently that the AMS they've sent me is defective. It's been truly a bizarre experience trying to deal with customer support. They told me to disassemble the AMS and swap a couple of modules that they mailed me. I did, provided them evidence that I did, and provided evidence that it didn't fix the problem. Their response was to claim that I didn't actually swap the modules and that because of that my warranty no longer applies, and then they said they'd give me a free roll of filament for my troubles (lol). At that point I began the process of invoking the consumer protections afforded to me. Called my credit card company and opened a dispute, invoked Massachusetts law M.G.L. c. 93A, and I'm about to contact my AG.
It's a shame they're going in such an anti-consumer direction, both with their gaslighting customer support and the lawfare against Orca.
Comment · 8 months ago
This is such a strange take. Your words remind me of past crypto hype cycles, where people pushed web3.0 and NFT FOMO hysteria.
Engineering is the practical application of science and mathematics to solve problems. It sounds like you're maybe describing construction management instead. I'm not denying that there's value here, but what you're espousing seems divorced from reality. Good luck vibecoding a nontrivial actuarial model, then having it to pass the laundry list of reviews and having large firms actually pick it up.
Comment · 8 months ago
I wonder if we'll reach a breaking point with public forges, where they'll simply reject hosting a repo if it isn't from someone with a vetted background or if it detects hallmarks of LLM slop (e.g., many commits over a short period of time or other LLM tells).
Comment · 9 months ago
Comment · 2 years ago
Location: Boston, MA / Providence, RI.
Remote: Open to either remote or hybrid.
Willing to relocate: Yes, for the right role.
Technologies: Python, C++, Java, Typescript, SQL, Docker, K8s, AWS, Git, GitHub.
Résumé/CV: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1yHWoeeRSjT5OMD7ZmFwdr3bpfBz...
Email: Available in resume.
I've been a software engineer for over 15 years, working on everything from APIs and financial models to data pipelines and firmware. Beyond the technical stuff, I’ve led small, tightly-knit teams, managed projects, mentored and advocated for colleagues, and spent a lot of time communicating technical concepts to folks who aren't as tech-savvy.
Now that I'm authorized to work for any U.S. employer, I'm hoping to pivot to a smaller company where I can make a stronger impact. I'm open to any field, but particularly drawn to life sciences. It's been an area of interest for me ever since going through a bioinformatics algorithms textbook cover-to-cover, and the hope is that I can continue learning about the life sciences space while providing value with my existing skill set. Like many on HN, I have a heartfelt drive for learning, whether through books, courses, shadowing experts in the field, or jumping head-first into unfamiliar situations.
If you're doing anything in biopharma, computational biology, medical devices, synthetic biology, or anything along those lines, by all means please drop me an email. If you're working in some other unrelated field, still don't hesitate to reach out — I'm always interested to know what folks are working on and if I'd be able to help move things along in any way.
Comment · 2 years ago
I program in modern C++ as well (C++23). I disagree with both "very safe" and "fun". Even with 23 there are an innumerable number of footguns throughout both the language and the standard library. Debugging code is also a mess. Good luck getting anything done without paying for an IDE, and even then it can be a struggle.
Comment · 3 years ago
I took a crack at explaining the Viterbi algorithm after learning about HMMs from a bioinformatics book I was reading. You may find it helpful, but that's assuming my interpretation of it is correct.
https://offbynull.com/data/learn/Bioinformatics/output/outpu...
Comment · 3 years ago
I thought about this and we have a backup problems in place if they don't feel comfortable sharing. The context will be the same, both the candidate and the team member will be working as equals to address the problem. Although, in this case, the team member is already familiar with the problem.
http://github.com/offbynull