eric_b

19 ms·

151.
by eric_b 6y ago
I've followed the virus from the very beginning. About six weeks ago the media decided blanket lockdowns were the only reasonable solution. Flatten the curve became the mantra, dozens of models showing millions of dead in every countr
152.
by eric_b 6y ago
It's remarkable that people are begging their governors to take away their civil liberties. Table 2 is all a rational person should need to see to realize the quarantine is the work of fear-mongering by politicians and the media: http
153.
by eric_b 6y ago
Eh, we'll see. I happen to think the economic consequences are far worse than the health ones. Time will tell which of us is right. I bet if you were a small business owner who was going to fold your life's work because of the
154.
by eric_b 6y ago
There used to be a high percentage of free and critical thinkers in tech (90's/early 2000's era). Those days are sadly gone and now it's same agenda driven groupthink we see everywhere else. Sheep bleating in response
155.
by eric_b 6y ago
Would be nice if Stripe decided to lower their processing fees a bit for small businesses getting crushed right now. Ours just went up in fact. A big slap in the face really.
156.
by eric_b 6y ago
I understand modern media is slinging fear and outrage because that's what gets clicks, but their whole business model is anachronistic. I've watched previously reasonable publications go from honest fact-based reporting to pure
157.
by eric_b 6y ago
Yep, so far this is on the order of a bad flu year in terms of excess mortality. Given that Sweden seems no worse yet than other countries it suggests that the lockdown may not be as effective as claimed.
158.
by eric_b 6y ago
I was a long time Bloomberg Businessweek subscriber until last year. Starting around 2017 China started taking out multi page ads at the beginning of each issue. (Or at least that's when I noticed). The editorial slant became predict
159.
by eric_b 7y ago
A similar title for this article could be: "How to bodysurf your way out of a tsunami" Good luck, you're screwed. If you're a cash flow negative startup even slightly tangentially related to an industry impacted severely
160.
by eric_b 7y ago
There is a hospital in France using the Hydroxychloroquine + Azithromycin treatment on patients and publishing the ongoing numbers: https://www.mediterranee-infection.com/covid-19/ They don't publish demographics
161.
by eric_b 7y ago
I'm glad there's starting to be some press about different groups for whom the shutdown has outsized negative impacts. Another such "forgotten" group is Alcoholics Anonymous. Their meetings are mostly canceled, and for a
162.
by eric_b 7y ago
AirBnB started out as a great service for travelers. The quality of the lodging and the prices were, in the beginning, lower than hotels, and had nicer amenities. Over the years it has gotten worse, to the point hotels are almost always a
163.
by eric_b 7y ago
This feels very ivory tower. It reminds me of the "You should never need to check user agent in JavaScript because you should just feature detect!!". Well in the real world that doesn't work every time. The same is true for
164.
by eric_b 7y ago
It's easy to say Trump is crazy when you're a privileged tech worker who can work from your nice home office and not worry about money running out or the unemployment line. Meanwhile, in the real world, we can't shut down the
165.
by eric_b 7y ago
Yep, absolutely. US response has been abysmal.
166.
by eric_b 7y ago
It is absolutely fair to single them out. This would not be happening if not for circumstances specific to their culture and industry. They had warning 20 years ago with SARS1, and they did nothing to prevent this, even though the soluti
167.
by eric_b 7y ago
The estimated IFR for this coronavirus is ~.05 to 0.1%. Even if it turns out to be something extreme, like 0.5%, it's not a big deal for the vast, vast majority of the population. But lockdowns and economic catastrophe are. They are
168.
by eric_b 7y ago
Let me make sure I have my timeline right. For years experts have warned that another SARS-like virus is going to come out of China, due to their animal husbandry practices and culture of eating certain animals. Then this disease appears, a
169.
by eric_b 7y ago
It is terrifying how fast reasonable people have jumped on board with China-level lockdown policies that will decimate life-as-we-know-it after they end. I've been reading every whitepaper and journal publication I can find on this dis
170.
by eric_b 7y ago
This is required reading for all software developers. Any successful software system will end up as a Big Ball of Mud or other anti-architecture eventually. It's just the nature of the beast. And while we should fight the entropy, i
171.
by eric_b 7y ago
It's already painful to get Let's Encrypt set up in a web farm scenario. This won't make it easier.
172.
by eric_b 7y ago
I agree the content is not terribly profound. > I say this as a moderate, of the accidental variety, myself! I had to laugh. As you are a reasonably prolific contributor here, I've seen dozens if not hundreds of your comments. It&
173.
by eric_b 7y ago
Obviously I was being rhetorical. I was speaking in strong certainties to elicit a response. Obviously in your case ICE is a concern. For 99% of the people who are paralyzed by thinking about it - they would be better served focusing on ge
174.
by eric_b 7y ago
I don't even know how to respond to this. Do you really believe "yelling at the fucked up shit" will do anything positive? There is no change without actual action. If anything whining in to the wind will just exhaust and a
175.
by eric_b 7y ago
> Blaming the media for accurately reporting on the state of the world is always the last refuge of the person who's run out of real arguments. If you really believe the media, any media, is reporting things accurately in 2019 you a
176.
by eric_b 7y ago
Oh please. You have an axe and you want to grind it. You can make professional level music with a few hundred dollars of software. Less than the cost of a smartphone, and everyone has one of those. The same can be said of visual arts.
177.
by eric_b 7y ago
Eh, the threat of global nuclear war annihilating humanity hung over everyone since the 50's, though it never came to pass, and worrying about it was useless.
178.
by eric_b 7y ago
Don't you see? This is what I'm talking about. What does China have to do with you? How does ICE affect your day to day? Sure there are bad things in the world, but unless you're willing to spend your time and resources f
179.
by eric_b 7y ago
Well, I did most of my "meeting people" before I turned 30, when you have school and work pools to pull from. Now that I'm in my 30s I mostly just communicate with people I already know (though that is not strictly true, as
180.
by eric_b 7y ago
Drug overdoses and suicides are probably two sides of the same coin. The feeling of "despair" and "hopelessness" that young people often speak of are surely exacerbating things and causing some of these deaths. And while

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