Laundry to Mail
Laundry
If you get something that feels like an surprise debit card in the mail, open it. I got four unexpected checking accounts last year, twice from Cash App. Incredibly, Cash App customer support said they couldn’t stop opening accounts in my name because they couldn’t verify my identity.
Hiring
Schmidt & Hunter 1998 finds that “job tryout procedure” — a probationary period — is only a middling predictor of job performance. How is that possible? Isn’t it like saying that performance on the job is a poor predictor of performance on the job?
I suspect the data may contain systematic biases. For example, I read one of the source papers for the intelligence test findings, and it seems that much of the data may come from companies that sell the tests.
Monopoly
This should spark a land-grab for libraries that simplify payments on Android. Google’s Billing api is among the most painful-to-use sdk you’re likely to find anywhere.
… during the effective dates of the injunction… Google will not require the use of Google Play Billing in apps distributed on the Google Play Store, or prohibit the use of in-app payment methods other than Google Play Billing. Google will not prohibit a developer from communicating with users about the availability of a payment method other than Google Play Billing. Google will not require a developer to set a price based on whether Google Play Billing is used.
I’d like a similar ruling against Epic forcing them to allow people to bypass their marketplace and allow app stores inside their platform.
—TL
School
How much of what you learned in classes is useful as a working programmer? Looking back almost two decades now, the only really useful thing I got from my Computer Science coursework was having Big-O notation hammered into my head. A few other things were a little useful, but were also things that I could have easily learned on the job.
I think a lot of low level data structure and cpu architecture stuff was useful back when computers were a lot slower and languages much less automatic (eg manual memory allocation, function pointers). Likewise a rough understanding of how compilers work. (Remember the form paragraph compiler?) But while that’s still important if you’re hacking the kernel it’s of little interest to 99% of engineers.
—TL
The “form paragraph compiler” was part of a project TL and I did a long time ago, nice throwback.
How much fraud would be blocked if places sent you postal mail when somebody opened an account in your name? I’ve personally had identity theft go undetected because I didn’t receive notification of the account (unemployment office) and identity theft I did detect because I received physical mail (debit cards). How many accounts I’ll never find are open in my name?
I’m sad this one got no attention. When checking accounts no longer mail physical cards, money laundering through stolen identities, as above, will be invisible to the people whose identities were abused.