ptero

41 ms·

571.
by ptero 4y ago
I do. Before (in PG's times) one could express an unpopular view and folks would jump in en masse to refute it on merits . Posts in a lively discussion would not get downvoted for content that doesn't fit a narrative. Now minorit
572.
by ptero 4y ago
HN is still the best tech news site for me and discussions on what I consider general topics on HN are better than on any social media site. Unfortunately it is consistently getting worse. 10 years ago a message would only be mass-downvoted
573.
by ptero 4y ago
According to an earlier post, the cap is 40% of both bike and car price. If you trade in a car for 200, your max ebike refund is 80.
574.
by ptero 4y ago
Treating email or slack or any other not explicitly sync channel as sync is often a self-inflicted wound. I think management is sometimes guilty of pushing this, but it is usually an employee who runs with some self-imposed requirement of
575.
by ptero 4y ago
Why should he care to provide one? Honest question.
576.
by ptero 4y ago
> Gas and food prices would likely drop like a stone if we are facing another 2008-like crisis. Not necessarily. For deflation to occur, especially in staple goods (for which demand is sticky) in addition to stable or contracting money s
577.
by ptero 4y ago
"6 figures" starts from 100000. In almost any US metro area this is not a lot of money. For example in Boston $100k means a frugal lifestyle. Not poverty, but very far from luxury either. Bay area on $100k? Ouch! I am not dismis
578.
by ptero 4y ago
It would be useful to narrow down this question. Along one dimension, what do you want to meet with interesting tech people for: find a life partner, trade stories in a bar, shared travel or other recreation, something else? On the other di
579.
by ptero 4y ago
> Even if China completely wipes out Taiwans 1% share of GDP that impact is miniscule compared falling 10 years behing on Moore's Law. I could not tell if it was a tongue in cheek statement, but if not, can you explain why falling 1
580.
by ptero 4y ago
Intuitive might not be the perfect term; clear, unambiguous, predictable behavior might describe it better. There was a lot of research into such interfaces and improving functionality decades ago. But when users stopped being the customers
581.
by ptero 4y ago
I never worked at Google, but based on my experience elsewhere it is partly security and partly standardization of guaranteed minimum functionality. For example, security aside, as an engineer working on X that depends on internal tools Y,
582.
by ptero 4y ago
In Volker time, federal debt (as a fraction of the GDP) was low, he could raise rates without crippling the budget with interest payments. With today's federal debt level the fed is screwed: it cannot raise rates even close to inflatio
583.
by ptero 4y ago
What region is this, if I may ask. I have (as a full time engineer; large engineering org; Boston area) worked alongside a few folks on contract and my impression was that almost all of the contract folks were scalped . A few exceptions we
584.
by ptero 4y ago
I think the applications could be protectable, not the pure academic research. If there is no clear practical benefit in 10 years, do not prevent others from working on those findings to try for something more practical. To me, 5-7 years se
585.
by ptero 4y ago
Originally. But then publishers got greedy ("greed is forever") and instead of a relatively short term of protection before becoming public domain we now have stupid multi-decade restrictions. Those prevent us from printing good o
586.
by ptero 4y ago
I am not saying that the terrorism (covid, child abuse, etc.) is not a big problem. It must be a big, highly visible problem to be used by politicians to justify their policies. But that justification is often lacking, as claiming that this
587.
by ptero 4y ago
The problem with this approach is that a vague "because terrorism" can justify a heavy handed approach to a very large set of policies which have nothing to do with terrorism. And "because terrorism", "because covid
588.
by ptero 4y ago
Not necessarily. Those poor people, today, are malnourished and lack access to the many benefits that higher energy use brings. And some of the same things that the top billion of the population has been enjoying for decades. Telling them t
589.
by ptero 4y ago
This. I cannot upvote this enough. Many people advocating for drastic measures (which may be necessary) are in a war. Casualties to be expected, those who are not on our side are enemies to be dealt with as the war times require (this is
590.
by ptero 4y ago
I think the point is that not all cases are cut and dry. There are many for which evidence is inconclusive; and for those having a blanket regulation is worse than letting the patient and the doctor select a choice that the patient prefers.
591.
by ptero 4y ago
I think the thesis being debated in this thread is the possibility of learning based on observation. No one was claiming that all discoveries were actually made this way.
592.
by ptero 4y ago
> I get the birds and electricity reference, but nuclear fission? That was fusion, but you can look into natural nuclear reactors (I think first discovered in Gabon) for the fission. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/N
593.
by ptero 4y ago
I do not see comparisons of today with 2001 or 2008 as hyperbolic. I was working during both of those and remember them as fairly localized. Large areas were demolished, but there were plenty of other areas to move into for sharp, technical
594.
by ptero 4y ago
> The US has one of the most tightly regulated securities markets in the world. But it also has one of the most innovative economies. I agree with this. However I wonder if this is driven by the setup of the 30+ years ago, when US was ef
595.
by ptero 4y ago
OK, I should have been clearer on what I have been arguing with. Specifically, you expressed this sentiment a few times: > Even if you don't care at all about individuals getting fleeced by scammers, there's a societal reason.
596.
by ptero 4y ago
For tax or other community money pots, sure. For my own -- thanks, but no thanks. I will spend it however I like.
597.
by ptero 4y ago
> There is simply no underlying value within any of these coins. Why would a sane person invest in them? I remember hearing the same arguments against Ebay and other e-commerce companies: this is all vaporware, there is no physical value
598.
by ptero 4y ago
Facilitating access to various investment options, including direct speculation, is what stockbrokers do. Why is your grief falling specifically on the Coinbase? For example, in my Fidelity account I can, if I am so inclined, day trade GBTC
599.
by ptero 4y ago
I am not sure that online collaboration is such a killer feature. Most of the time I would take a good offline office app over the application that requires an internet connection, stores my data in the cloud and forces its design choices,
600.
by ptero 4y ago
> You end up having to go to events and things you don’t normally do just to gain exposure to women. That's how it was for a long time. And, IMHO, it was not a bad setup. I certainly would not call it a miserable reason to participa

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