ethbr0

18 ms·

181.
by ethbr0 3y ago
Technology can't create a value proposition where none possibly exists. There was no Pets.com business model that would have worked, with any technology shy of a free energy transporter. In contrast, Amazon proceeded thusly. 1. There
182.
by ethbr0 3y ago
The judgement total probably wouldn't have been known at the beginning of the trial, and basement trolls aren't known for their initiative or foresight. Good for Bungie on prosecuting this and protecting their people though. Commu
183.
by ethbr0 3y ago
This was reprinted recently, and I have a copy. If you ever enjoyed Where's Waldo? as a kid, you should buy it now. Amazing detail.
184.
The Secret Life of Deep Sea Vents(nautil.us)
1 points by ethbr0 3y ago|0 comments
185.
by ethbr0 3y ago
Types of dog and cat foods are more substitutable than book titles, which decreases the value proposition of warehousing a larger variety. And on the profit side, books don't spoil and are small and light. Bezos is on record in an inte
186.
by ethbr0 3y ago
Cannot see CEC/SBP without linking John Oliver's excellent segment. https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=lj1ixNIf1dA "Last Squeak Tonight Presents: A History of Chuck E. Cheese" Minor spoiler: Chuck E. Cheese a
187.
by ethbr0 3y ago
Because the TAM of people who want books is a lot larger than people who want pet supplies, and there are compelling reasons why people would rather buy books from centralized warehouses than local inventories (namely, that books have a l
188.
by ethbr0 3y ago
I do miss coming across stuff like this: https://www.jetcafe.org/~dave/usenet/freedom.html
189.
by ethbr0 3y ago
> I conducted this experiment as a little diversion in the lazy few weeks between finishing my final year exams at university and graduating, back in June 2005. Everything about that page screamed "I'm bored in a dorm."
190.
by ethbr0 3y ago
Some glass decomposes. It's chemically inert like aluminum (after oxidizing, e.g. foil), so the processes acting on it are mechanical and subject to probability. Some amount is going to be abraded, buried, etc, but you only need a few
191.
by ethbr0 3y ago
Total addressable market and value proposition are key. A specific technology doesn't really change either of these. "I am going to sell pet supplies to people who need pet supplies" Okay, how many people need pet supplies an
192.
by ethbr0 3y ago
In order for a civilization to be undetectable, you'd essentially bound terms in a terrestrial version of the Drake Equation [0] You'd need a civilization that did not produce long-lived technological signatures (e.g. glass pane
193.
by ethbr0 3y ago
Typically it's more growth than money/sense. Growth without proper management papers over a lot of stupid hiring decisions, 'because we need more people ASAP'.
194.
by ethbr0 3y ago
That's one thing I'm consistently surprised HN fails to draw a distinction on: copyright regimes are fundamentally about copy rate . You can't take a regime that works decently with human-rate copying and convert it to compu
195.
by ethbr0 3y ago
At a first approximation, negotiating power in most things is proportional to your credibility to abandon a deal. As soon as a counterparty knows you can't / won't, you're negotiating from a much worse position.
196.
by ethbr0 3y ago
This seems like a great solution -- allow a centralized party to control the front end (and create an audit log), then transmit the intent to the service to act on. I'd prefer to see it as a non-government, not-for-profit service. But
197.
by ethbr0 3y ago
I tossed a comment above, but I think it has to do more with large publisher perspectives than the model itself. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=36707943 Afaik, Paradox is still small enough / left alone enough by
198.
by ethbr0 3y ago
Imho, the problem is vertically integrated publishing behemoths. For them, SaaS is much more about "Maximizing profit from this game, to fund other games (or generate shareholder returns)" than "Providing a sustainable busi
199.
by ethbr0 3y ago
The problem with making a great game is that people will play it forever. CoH was amazing. CoH2 was eh. And CoH3 is atrocious. I hate SaaS with a passion, but it provides a financial incentive to continue improving an already great product.
200.
by ethbr0 3y ago
The realpolitik of warfare treaties tends to be much more about "What will blunt my potential enemy's strength more than mine?" than ethics.
201.
Sappers risk their lives to win Ukraine back, inch by inch(economist.com)
28 points by ethbr0 3y ago|77 comments
202.
by ethbr0 3y ago
> Why shouldn't we have one timezone? Why not have one worldwide timezone? Your watch hands read '20230710T142847Z', don't they?
203.
by ethbr0 3y ago
The law is the law. Saying it's silly is like an architect saying that gravity is silly. Yes, but... it's the system you're operating in.
204.
by ethbr0 3y ago
It's not spinning: it's a legal message. It's almost always part of the settlement, because it limits future liability on the matter. Yet news sources always report it as though it's something the company voluntarily say
205.
by ethbr0 3y ago
Art and antiquities are the better analogy. Anything without an iron-clad chain of provenance should be assumed to be stolen or forged. Because the end product is unprovably authentic in all cases, unless a forger made a detectable error.
206.
by ethbr0 3y ago
Docker, where 2021 content is 4 years old in 2023.
207.
by ethbr0 3y ago
Who is OpenAi to police their users' morality? More guardrails on sensitive answers, fine. But respect a user that explicitly (literally and figuratively) requests jailbreak and a specific type of response.
208.
by ethbr0 3y ago
> From my experience, most people don't read the instructions or text notes anyway. This fascinated me ~90s computer gaming. There were clear camps of "people who always read the manual" and "people who never never
209.
by ethbr0 3y ago
Perhaps parent is a gun shrimp or pigeon. I try not to be overly sapien-centric when making assumptions about my fellow HN readers.
210.
by ethbr0 3y ago
It was assumed that Putin was rational enough not to make the blunder he did. The uncertainty bands would seem to be wide, in both more- and less-competent directions, in gazing into the navels of autocratic regimes.

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