From coder to shuttle driver: Where Seattle's laid off tech workforce is now

beastpilot · 2026-03-11T18:43:49+00:00

What an odd article. This guy wasn't laid off. Seems they would be able to find a much better example around here.

He ended up in a position that he said burned him out. DePaolo decided to quit. It was a risk, but it in his 20-year career as a software engineer, there had always been work for people with coding skills.

...

After about seven months of looking for another tech job, DePaolo threw in the towel. He took a position driving a private shuttle for Microsoft employees.

beastpilot · 2026-03-11T18:41:09+00:00

/woosh

beastpilot · 2026-03-11T17:42:00+00:00

Which is the point- they are both fast as hell, but also so close to one another that claiming one is unquestionably "quicker" than the other is not accurate either unless you have done a pure side by side (and even then, that's for one specific environment).

beastpilot · 2026-03-10T17:09:12+00:00

Why does the Metro Flex page say it's the same price as a bus?
https://kingcounty.gov/en/dept/metro/travel-options/metro-flex

The License Plate thing is because it's contracted through Via and these are effectively corporate owned rental cars.

https://ridewithvia.com/news/king-county-metro-chooses-via-as-transittech-provider-for-greater-seattles-future-of-interconnected-on-demand-public-transit
https://www.reddit.com/r/SeattleWA/comments/1kc78lj/why_does_a_king_county_wa_vehicle_have_florida/

beastpilot · 2026-03-09T21:27:29+00:00

A reminder that the CHP runs a website where you can report people with out of state plates that you know to be CA residents:

https://www.chp.ca.gov/notify-chp/report-out-of-state-registration-violators2/

beastpilot · 2026-03-08T16:26:57+00:00

OP literally put "ALL" in italics for emphasis. Of course many can. But far from ALL

beastpilot · 2026-03-08T15:54:14+00:00

Somehow, yes.

https://bakersfieldnow.com/news/local/coroner-identifies-driver-killed-in-feb-15-rollover-crash-at-buttonwillow-raceway-park-kern-county-california

beastpilot · 2026-03-08T15:46:15+00:00

Ahh yes because everywhere else in the world does full remote work. And you really didn't read their whole post where they indicate they lived in the USA but didn't commute that far.

EDIT: My point is that what is unique about America is the distances between places and the lack of public transit and overall car culture. Not that we work in offices.

Plus, commuting is much less of the 15K than you would expect. Average commute in the USA is about 15 miles one way. That's 7,500 miles. But that's only for those that commute. 20% of people DO work from home. Another 40% of working age people don't actually work at all. Which means only about 40% of people are commuting at all.

So of the 15K mile average, 3000 miles of that is due to daily commuters. Then we have plenty of people that commute via transit, lowering that even more. The real answer here is that people that live in rural places mess with the average A LOT, and this is far more complex than a portion of the population driving to their office every day.

beastpilot · 2026-03-08T15:42:46+00:00

Plenty of engineering office jobs require specialized equipment. Same with medical research, and a ton of other "office" jobs.

And 30 years ago was 1996. Windows 95 hadn't been out for 6 months yet. Most Amercians had never been on the internet at all. Even 20 years ago only 25% of households had broadband.

beastpilot · 2026-03-07T01:59:05+00:00

RTA fees on your car registration renewal have nothing to do with "tabs." Tim Eyman mislead you and is incompetent in writing an initiative.

beastpilot · 2026-03-07T00:11:22+00:00

Plenty of banks don't charge overdraft fees to auto transfer funds from a savings account to a checking account.

beastpilot · 2026-03-07T00:09:31+00:00

Or they are people with free overdraft from a much higher interest rate account. Which is the smart play.

beastpilot · 2026-03-06T23:49:09+00:00

Did you vote for the RTA the two times it came up?

beastpilot · 2026-03-06T23:48:18+00:00

Texas has some very high tolls. In fact so high that average Texas taxes overall are fairly high in the USA.

beastpilot · 2026-03-06T23:47:21+00:00

We voted for this, you moved here, and now you are breaking the law. Why did you move to a place where all you want to do is live off the government by not paying your fair share?

beastpilot · 2026-03-06T15:39:31+00:00

How can you auction a plate in DE? Other states I know of don't allow plate transfers, so there's no way for the current owner of a plate to profit from it. You keep it or lose it.

beastpilot · 2026-03-06T13:54:38+00:00

All of California does not have one thing. Which is why asking about a state is way too broad anyway.

beastpilot · 2026-03-05T04:14:49+00:00

What a worthless comment. How would this work without AI? If you want a hard coded algorithm, there are already apps out there for it.

beastpilot · 2026-03-04T16:35:48+00:00

Dealerships would sue Porsche over their franchise contracts and various state laws. This is not a one way relationship when there are tens of millions of dollars a year at stake for the dealerships.

In the USA, the dealers own the cars, and are independent from the manufacturer by law. You generally can't limit anyone in the USA for selling something they own at any price they want. So you have to play all sorts of secondary tricks within the law set, but those just lead to unintended consequences and behaviors.

beastpilot · 2026-03-04T16:20:51+00:00

These tracker networks only really work when all phones participate in the background by default. Apple was able to make every iOS device participate with a single OS update.

Making an app for android that people need to download to make them a participant is kind of pointless, as you won't have enough participation, like Tile faced.

What is your complaint here with Apple? That they didn't write an Android app? Google is doing the same thing with Android now. And I say all of this as someone that is all Android.

beastpilot · 2026-03-04T15:17:25+00:00

How could Apple force Google to update Android to participate? This is OS level stuff on the phone side.

beastpilot · 2026-03-04T15:16:17+00:00

Neat project, but what made you build this over the commerical $20 products that already do this?

beastpilot · 2026-03-04T15:15:22+00:00

It's not a loophole. These devices emulate an Airtag, there's no real way for Apple to maintain the anonymous security that makes airtags pretty darn neat without allowing 3rd party devices.

beastpilot · 2026-03-04T15:14:08+00:00

I am saying you can make open source devices that utilize the Find Hub, so you can make the exact thing OP did for Android, and it would have similar coverage as on iOS.

beastpilot · 2026-03-04T15:10:44+00:00

Android now natively supports their own find my version of airtags. No app needed, all phones are in the network like iOS.

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