rarrrrrr

Joined 18 years ago

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1,732

Submissions

320

Member since

Nov 22

I'm Alan Fairless

I'm a hacker, software engineer, and repeat-offender entrepreneur known for building security focused software systems.

I recently founded Transportant which helps K12 school systems keep students safe by making their school buses smarter (hardware & software.)

Previously I cofounded SpiderOak in 2006. The approach to "No Knowledge" end-to-end encrypted products and effective information security was endorsed by famous hacker Kevin Mitnick, NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden, and featured in the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, The Guardian, Wired, and many others. Our products have been used by millions of people, various governments and large corporations around the world.

You can reach me via yc at alanfairless dot com.

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Recent submissions

Comment · 1 year ago

Strangely enough, there's even some likelihood that killing off the passenger pigeon actually promoted Borrelia burgdorferi. The passenger pigeon's main food source was tree mast. Large flocks of pigeons would descend and clear the forest floor of food. After it went extinct, the population of small animals which also eat tree mast exploded, and these are reservoir species for Borrelia.

Comment · 1 year ago

If you're regularly syncing from an older version to a new version, you can likely optimize further using gzip with "--rsyncable" option. It will reduce the compression by ~1% but make it so differences from one version to the next are localized instead of cascading through the full length of the compression output.

Another alternative is to skip compression of the dump output, let rsync calculate the differences from an previous uncompressed dump to the current dump, then have rsync compress the change sets it sends over the network. (rsync -z)

Comment · 4 years ago

Transportant helps K12 school systems keep students safe by making their school buses smarter. This also reduces fossil fuel use and helps the environment.

There are 560k school buses in active use in North America. It's a larger industry than all other public transportation combined. Bus driver staff turnover approaches 160% annually. Technology helps new and substitute drivers learn routes and students and make sure students get off at the right stops.

Transportant builds modern hardware and software. Features include bus wifi for students, touch screen for drivers, a mobile app for parents, custom live streaming cameras, remote "speak into the bus" ability for administrators, ridership management, safety sensors, and improved routing.

Founded by veterans of the software security and mobile industry, Transportant is a small but senior team of Linux hackers, security engineers, database and systems builders, UX and industrial design. Our customers are school systems across the USA and Canada who are overjoyed with modern UX for transportation. We are seeking multiple backend software developers to join our team.

The backend tech stack is Linux, PostgreSQL, Go, and Python. Much functionality is implemented directly in the database. Frontend is supported through REST and GraphQL APIs. Other examples of technology we love: Wireguard, Single board computers, Linux, Ansible, Prometheus, Typescript, Javascript, React, and Open Street Maps. Not so much: XML, Java, ASN.1, Dual EC DRBG, Printers.

If working on any of the above sounds fun to you please email [email protected] to get started. Intro letter only is sufficient.

Comment · 4 years ago

Transportant provides hardware and software to make k12 student transportation transparent, safe, and efficient for students, parents, bus drivers, teachers and administrators. This includes providing high speed on bus wifi for students, bus status notifications to parents and students via mobile apps, cameras with live streaming audio and video, turn-by-turn directions for substitute drivers, ridership tracking and management, and added safety sensors.

Started by 20 year veterans of the software security, supply chain, and mobile industries, Transportant is a small but senior technical team. Our customers are school systems across USA and Canada and are overjoyed with modern UX for transportation.

We're hoping to meet an electrical engineer to review and help iterate our hardware. This role could be full time or contract.

Responsibilities:

- Assisting in physical product life cycle of our hardware (currently designing v4 hardware):

- Architecture & design (including component selection, board layout, enclosure, cabling, and connections)

- Testing & Manufacturing (working with partners to improve manufacturability, inspecting and critiquing test runs)

- Troubleshooting (identifying problems, down to the component level)

- Monitor, evaluate, and improve production & vehicle installation processes

Requirements:

- Have been involved with product development cycles of semi complex electronics with deployment at scale

- Proficient use of common electronics tools and diagnostic instrumentation

- Clear written documentation skills

- Non-required bonus: skill with embedded development

Application process is fast and simple: initial video conf with founders -> small work sample test or discussion of related previous projects -> offer/decline. No whiteboard tests! Please send an email to [email protected] to start the conversation.

Comment · 5 years ago

Transportant delivers modern hardware and software to help school districts, bus drivers, students, parents, and teachers optimize the school transportation experience. This includes providing high speed on bus wifi for students, bus status notifications to parents and students via mobile apps, cameras with live streaming audio and video, ridership tracking and management, and added safety sensors.

Founded by 20 year veterans of the software security and mobile industries, Transportant is a small but senior technical team. Our customers are school systems who are overjoyed with modern UX for transportation.

Hoping to meet a:

- Backend systems programmer comfortable with hardware and Linux sysadmin in an IoT context

- EE w/ automotive background to review and help iterate hardware

Hardware includes Raspberry Pi, custom accessory boards, cellular, IP cameras, cases, wiring, mounts, etc. Backend software stack is Linux, PostgreSQL, Go, and Python. Other tech we love: Wireguard, Ansible, Prometheus, Typescript, Javascript, React, and Open Street Maps. Not so much: XML, Java, ASN.1, Dual EC DRBG, Printers.

To start a conversation please just send a brief cover letter to [email protected]. No whiteboard coding required :-)

Comment · 6 years ago

psql also allows you to set local variables and interpolate them into SQL. Values can be assigned from query results or with shell style back ticks! Powerful and frightening!

From the manual:

  => SELECT 'hello' AS var1, 10 AS var2
  -> \gset
  => \echo :var1 :var2
  hello 10

  testdb=> \set content `cat my_file.txt`
  testdb=> INSERT INTO my_table VALUES (:'content');

Comment · 6 years ago

Is there a reason you don't wish to batch inserts into transaction(s)? Otherwise, you're asking the database to commit (fsync to disk) between each insert statement.

Other ideas:

- Have multiple processes inserting in parallel (this interacts with the commit_delay and commit_siblings settings in postgresql.conf)

- Use unlogged tables (but table is truncated on db startup)

- Put fsync=off and synchronous_commit=off in postgresql.conf (but db may be corrupted in a crash)

- switching to BRIN indexes might be an option, but depends on data

Comment · 6 years ago

I appreciate when technical writers use humor (those headlines!)

Comment · 6 years ago

I've been using B2 to disrupt a bunch of ugly & entrenched vendors in the price sensitive K12 market. Thanks for building it. :)

Comment · 6 years ago

Very interested in talking if you would like to help make it better! Email's in my profile. Cheers!

Comment · 6 years ago

Started in 2017, Transportant is a disruptive technology company building modern hardware and software to help school districts, bus drivers, students, parents, and teachers optimize the school transportation. This includes providing high speed on bus wifi for students, bus status mobile apps, cameras with live streaming audio and video, ridership tracking and management, turn by turn directions, and safety sensors. During COVID19 our tech has helped transportation departments pivot to their new mission of delivering free & reduced rate meals during school shutdowns, and providing outdoor Internet connectivity spots for underprivileged students.

The founders are 20+ year veterans of mobile and software security industries. Our customers are school systems across the USA and Canada, with the Superintendent or Director of Transportation as the champion/purchaser. We're seeking the first full time marketing role. This would involve working with founders and with support from our engineering team. Activities start with marketing basics and expand to experiments to find effective, measurable, and scalable traction channels.

Application process is fast and simple: email cover letter -> initial video conf with founders -> work sample test -> offer/decline. [email protected]

Comment · 7 years ago

RiskGenius | Kansas City Area | Full-time | Senior Python / SQL Backend Engineer | https://riskgenius.bamboohr.com/jobs/view.php?id=35

RiskGenius is solving the hardest problems in insurtech by employing artificial intelligence to transform a $7 trillion sector. We provide insurance carriers and brokers bleeding-edge policy language AI that can save them millions of hours and billions of dollars. And the industry is taking notice - we now serve some of the largest carriers and brokers in the world.

We are looking for a senior Python/PostgreSQL developer to help us combine the output of our data science team in Oklahoma City and the front end team here in KC. This job is more than coding, it's ownership of a very important part of our stack. This job is essential to the success of the RiskGenius platform.

This role is based out of our headquarters in beautiful Overland Park, Kansas (a suburb of Kansas City).

This is an architect-level role with substantial autonomy, discretion and responsibility. e.g.:

- Designing and implementing a web service layer in Python to supply all the data to our shiny new frontend

- Building the database to sit underneath this service layer

- Working with data science to agree to an interface between their work product and the service running above Packaging data science Python modules as web services

What We Offer

- Equity in RiskGenius

- Discretionary bonuses based on company performance

- Competitive salary

- Comprehensive health and dental insurance for you and your dependents

- Help in building up your retirement savings by happily matching your contributions each month

- Open vacation policy and flexible holidays so you can take time off when you need to

- Paid parental leave to let you spend valuable time with your loved ones

- Fun. We’re a close-knit company that actually likes doing things together (like drinking beer, playing pool and dressing up like storm troopers . . . or Jedi, although not necessarily all at the same time)

Comment · 7 years ago

Transportant is a new technology company building modern hardware and software to help school districts, bus drivers, students, parents, and teachers optimize the school transportation experience. This includes providing high speed on bus wifi for students, bus status notifications to parents and students via mobile apps, cameras with live streaming audio and video, ridership tracking and management, and added safety sensors.

Founded by 20 year veterans of the software security and mobile industry, Transportant is a small but very senior technical team of Linux hackers, security engineers, database and systems builders, great UX and industrial design. Our customers are school systems across the USA and Canada who are overjoyed with modern UX for transportation. We are seeking two backend software developers to join our team.

Our backend tech stack is Linux, PostgreSQL, Go, and Python. A non-trivial portion of functionality is implemented directly in the database as SQL data structures, queries, and stored procedures. Frontend is supported through REST and GraphQL APIs. Other examples of additional technology we love: Wireguard, Single board computers, Linux, Ansible, Prometheus, Typescript, Javascript, React, and Open Street Maps. Not so much: XML, Java, ASN.1, Dual EC DRBG, Printers.

More details here: https://transportant.com/jobs.html#backend-engineer

Comment · 9 years ago

My CIA cookbook begins potato recipes with first blanching them in water prior to roasting, sauté, etc, which is apparently an effective mitigation.

Comment · 9 years ago

Here's an example of doing that in PostgreSQL:

  create table user_email (
      email text not null 
  );
  -- create a index on the lowercase form 
  -- of the email 
  create unique index user_email_case_idx 
      on user_email (lower(email));
  -- select using the index, with the lowercase form.
  select 1 
    from user_email 
   where lower(email)=lower('[email protected]');