Strolling through #fremont, supposedly the Center of the Universe... #seattle #streetphotography

#buses of Capitol Hill... (I came from LFS territory but I do find Xcelsiors having a pretty exterior too. Not the Gilligs though...) #seattle #streetphotography #publictransportation

Gas Works Park. (This was not during Fourth of July, but rather during the r/seattle summer meetup back in mid-June.) #seattle #photography

Exactly two weeks ago I hiked Naches Peak Loop at the Mount Rainier National Park with a few online friends. (We then actually had nachos.) This was said to be a mild trail but the ice on the way made it a lot more challenging. Yes, there's still ice in mid June! #silentsunday #photography #hiking

U District light rail station, with its station art Fragment Brooklyn. #seattle #publictransport #photography

Got myself a (rental) #bike, specifically a Momentum Voya E+, which is an e-bike, although not very much so (the maximum range, which might even be inflated, seems to be based on eco mode which doesn't give a lot of assist). And yes, I've been biking to work (as […] [Original post on mstdn.party]

Now that I've worked 2 months at Google (reminder: first job), and without breaking the rules, some thoughts: * What you work on can be blocked by others, so context-switching is important. * Context-switching is hard. * There are so many tools and they constantly change (especially with AI). * […]

You know what natural language search could be useful for? Finding memes based on description. Like, I want a specific rendering of a meme that I've seen before (so to, y'know, respond to relatable messages...), but Google's AI mode insists on drawing one itself...

Mount Rainier, from Seward Park, #seattle. #photography #silentsunday

Back on Memorial Day I met up with another Googler from the Bay Area and, y'know, ended up doing touristy things in #seattle. And yes, that means going to the #spaceneedle...

You ever screw up so bad at a crime that your name becomes grammar?

There's a small #fish tank right above the entrance of the #seattle #aquarium. #silentsunday #photography

Happy #sixseven (This post should be scheduled at 2026-06-07T06:07:06.767Z)

no u at South Lake Union, #seattle #uno

Bus passenger to driver: "we got a runner." ominously, in reference to someone running for the bus...

It says "everyone belongs at the #library" but the Traditional Chinese text says "everyone belongs *to* the library" which is quite funny in a "all your base are belong to us" way... (The Simplified Chinese text says "everyone can use the library" which is a bit […] [Original post on mstdn.party]

#flowers at #bellevue Downtown Park. #silentsunday #photography

So I suppose a new #introduction is in order. Hello! New #software engineer at #google (first job!) in the #seattle area. Canadian; moved from Montréal. Once infamous for making Barinsta, then promoted open source and federated platforms, now back to coding a lot. Public transport fan and avid […]

"YO"

And yes, I visited udub (ironically with someone not actually from UW). The roads within the campus are quite wide though (car-brained?). The reading room is nice as an attraction (someone was taking wedding photos inside though). #seattle

Anyways, now that I've settled in #Seattle (pun not intended) I must try the #transit. And yeah, I've taken the Crosslake a few times now... It's hard to get a good picture on the bridge itself though, so here's the newer train (which I like more than the older […] [Original post on mstdn.party]

Green Lake, #seattle. #silentsunday #photography

Note to self: in #icloud Drive, folders can be considered app data merely by name, even if one never downloaded that exact app anywhere... (I had a Cryptomator vault created on computer in my iCloud Drive but it was wrongly associated with "Cryptomater 1: Legacy" app which was paid, no longer […]

Got my first #job, finally, at #google no less. https://austinhuang.me/got-into-google.html #blog

I am never getting out of #seattle (and this #scp3008)... #ikea #scp

How did this #hotel arrive at the choice of a picture of braille & morse code alphabets as room & corridor decorations, respectively?

The #airport just has to #ragebait me... #montreal

Have apartment leasing offices considered that the average renter would've studied all the public information on their websites, and directing inquiries to EliseAI, which knows nothing more than that same public information (plus some generic assumptions that we all know anyway), is not gonna […]

Webrings Galore! https://austinhuang.me/webrings-galore.html #blogpost #webring

Since I'd be leaving #Montreal in a few weeks I thought I'd have some #poutine before going to somewhere without that authentic Quebecois #food. So, got the Poutine St-Henri (large), plus a milkshake, at Green Spot. In hindsight I might've eaten too much for a […] [Original post on mstdn.party]

@jessienab's #mastoplush at Fediverse Night at @foulab#mastoplush #montreal #plushtodon

Out of curiosity, and since not so many people tried to use #kagi to #translate *from* #LinkedIn speak to English, I decided to test it on an actual LinkedIn post on my feed (happens to be one using "AI" to replace interns) […] [Original post on mstdn.party]

RE: https://mstdn.party/@austin/111603979705045480 Hello #mstdnca users! As a former user there I want to let you know that your admin did this to your data before (and tried to skirt anti-spam laws). We don't use your data for fundraising here (though we still encourage you to donate!). And if […]

Recently obsessed with an ATC simulator game... (Just tower & ground, no approach.) I'm kinda averse to tell a plane to go around so I really try to do simultaneous operations (like takeoff when the landed plane hasn't cleared the runway) on the single runway I have, which I'm sure is not OK in […]

holy fuck they are putting chromium everywhere

Memories of the midnight #subway... #newyorkcity #nyc #publictransport #photography

Memories of Union Square... #newyorkcity #nyc #manhattan #photography #streetphotography

Why has a very large part of the very limited selection of palatable restaurants around McGill all enshittified while I was away from the city... Someone please give me suggestions on some good choices around that part of the town... #montreal (Other than Japote the MVP of course)

You know you're in a jurisdiction with some sort of #privacy law when #cookie banners start popping up on sites that usually don't do so... (I realized that Law 25 is fully in force since 2024 but I could not recall the increased cookie banners when I was back in Montreal last year...)

Stumbled upon https://base64.guru (because I needed a quick conversion) and it's kinda funny to see all those comments asking to decrypt some text they have under the converter pages...

New blog post: https://austinhuang.me/linknyc.html Yes, it talks about LinkNYC, and since it contains two questions on #wifi networking stuff (one #cybersecurity and the other just Wi-Fi configuration) I should also mention #askfedi, though it's probably a long stretch. #nyc #newyorkcity

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Due to the ongoing thing I've been getting a lot more visits to https://joinmatrix.org, so thank you for considering #matrix! Feel free to use my guide to onboard your #discord friends, and let me know if you got any questions or advice on improving the guide!

In this house, we believe CUSTOM CUSTOM CUSTOM MESSAGE CUSTOM CUSTOM CUSTOM MESSAGE CUSTOM CUSTOM CUSTOM CUSTOM MESSAGE CUSTOM CUSTOM CUSTOM CUSTOM

Frankfurt(Main) implies the existence of Frankfurt(Lewd)

Did two mock interviews for two kids preparing for Google round 2 (while I'm yet to hear back from mine - certainly hope I pass!). It is a bit draining to listen through (while keeping track of) one's approach but I think I ask good questions after that. More importantly, I guess I still have a […]

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What should I do for my #birthday?

Not to brag, but helped a random stranger online move their GitHub Actions pipeline to Codeberg yesterday (did involve some debugging and docs-searching...), which provided a slight distraction out of the job hunting doom...

I'll try #getfedihired : Looking for new grad / entry-level full-stack software engineer positions in Canada or US. See https://austinhuang.me/hire-me.html for details. Various open source and on-campus web/backend projects under the belt, but no formal YoE (and it's real difficult to get a […]