smithza

6 ms·

31.
by smithza 3y ago
Correct. I do not open amazon e-books in the Kindle app. I jailbroke my kindle to allow for OPDS connection to my calibre server, and put it in airplane mode when not copying books from the server.
32.
by smithza 3y ago
Firewall is used as a metaphor as it was in networking parlance. What is in the firewall I can trust. I do not trust pirated content. Period.
33.
by smithza 3y ago
I think C.S. Lewis is right in a lot of this. How much of ourselves do we give up in pursuit of being "in the circle", "in the know", "with those important folks"? He extends this philosophy in science-fiction&
34.
by smithza 3y ago
I have allowed amazon e-books into my firewall after I vet they are from a publisher I can trust... I do not have interest in allowing books from strangers into my firewall. Some authors on amazon have posted their books DRM-free (Brandon S
35.
by smithza 3y ago
I want to only comment that your level of knowledge and maturity at the age of 17 is very impressive. The topics being investigated and exploited are expected at an undergraduate level and even then, this project would be in the Graduate le
36.
by smithza 3y ago
We’ve heard that before. Rand Paul was trying to push it through Congress IIRC just last year. I’m not holding my breath for Congress to do anything of much use. For VA to do something… okay? So did Arizona and the rest of the country did n
37.
by smithza 3y ago
I came here looking for this. The write-up is interesting for a deep dive in Apple interfacing… obviously though is too involved for a simple library card. Thanks.
38.
by smithza 3y ago
I couldn't dream of using awk for json data (ubiquitous nowadays). Of course there is jq and others. It is as the Pragmatic Programmer puts it that we have to take care to curate and master our tools like a woodworker and their tools.
39.
by smithza 3y ago
k for konstant
40.
by smithza 3y ago
I am sorry that you feel this way. Software Engineering and Computer Science are thoroughly academic topics that every practicing IC and manager can greatly benefit from reading and digesting. Bill Gates put as an endorsement of TAOCP that
41.
by smithza 3y ago
ChatGPT could help this dev if they understood the problems they are trying to solve. That is such a fundamental flaw in this. They will be on a PIP and out of a job in any respectable workplace. That would be a mercy.
42.
by smithza 3y ago
I hold little hope that LLM's will help us to reason through "correctness." If these AI's scourge through the troves of idiocy on the internet believing what it will according to patterns and not applying critical reason
43.
by smithza 3y ago
“With more than $10 trillion of interest costs over the next decade, this compounding fiscal cycle will only continue to do damage to our kids and grandkids.” Quote from the article. Also from the article: But the debt is on tra
44.
by smithza 3y ago
Yet I think Amazon brands are setup to eliminate competition due to their insider information in the market place. I wouldn’t put my money in them because they aren’t playing fairly in the market.
45.
by smithza 3y ago
As an author better known for other genres, C.S. Lewis wrote an exceptional as Sci-Fi trilogy beginning in the 1930s. He would finish it in by the 1950s. Heavy in philosophy and combatting the currently popular ideas of eugenics and Wells’
46.
by smithza 3y ago
Asimov wrote too widely to recommend “all of him”. For an entrance into Asimov and his incredible Sci-Fi voice, check out “I, Robot” and the Robot detective series. He was really the originator of the term and popular idea “robot” and “robo
47.
by smithza 3y ago
I heartily second Ted Chiang. He is an expert at the craft of the short story despite it being his first whole compilation that was published. Short stories have historically been the way science fiction was popularized starting in the earl
48.
by smithza 4y ago
I was wondering where I got that copy. My old one had its binding failed and I purchased this Robert Laffont special edition (an email promo maybe?). Thanks for pointing it out for me.
49.
by smithza 4y ago
The "is-should" gap here is irrelevant. In our ideal worlds Apple "should" not hide the data and protect the audio files with DRM. Apple argues against this position with their business interest in mind.
50.
by smithza 4y ago
.docx files are a zip folder of plaintext XML files. Theoretically they could be tracked with git if you unzip/zip every commit/checkout.
51.
by smithza 4y ago
To say that "because consumer devices are already regulated" is not a defensive position to say that gov't "should regulate this new thing." That is merely an argument for precedent. In my view the gov't should
52.
by smithza 4y ago
What is the injury to the consumer they are really solving for? To buy a 3rd party USB-C or Lightning cable is comparable. They both charge your phone. They both allow for USB-A,B,C, MP3 adapters ad-infinitum. Is the injury that someone has
53.
by smithza 4y ago
Agreed. This is the better way to argue that we vote with our dollars. If iPhone had a monopoly (which they absolutely don't) intervention is welcome. There is no reason anyone is forced to use a Lightning cable and still enjoy the fai
54.
by smithza 4y ago
> benefit of the consumer Says who? USB type-XYZ will be even more beneficial to the consumer in 5 years and the EU governing body is going to what... ? update the books with that? Force all consumer electronics companies to switch? Will
55.
by smithza 4y ago
This does not even factor in the NIMBY-ism of many progressive cities. People argue that housing is a human right and time and time again refuse to allow permitting changes that build more affordable, multi-family homes in their backyard.
56.
by smithza 4y ago
This is very fun. I get tripped up where my "control" line is and often make mistakes because the "control" line is not moving with the direction. For example, a shift to the left leaves my mind assuming the y-control li
57.
by smithza 5y ago
As another comment said, this would be good for those with short attention spans or those with reading disabilities like dislexia to focus better. I would want to see an epub renderer so I can read ebooks with this method.
58.
by smithza 5y ago
Apple likes to validate hardware through serial numbers or other identifiers before connecting to apple services. I suspect this will be near impossible.
59.
by smithza 5y ago
It is a difficult technical problem for Apple to solve all of the corner-cases. The article shows the screenshot of seemingly 100 unique FindMy devices around this guy's personal residence... there may be some characterization work tha
60.
by smithza 5y ago
Fair critique, I don't mean anything personal. I was just so peeved about Apple's friendliness to China's communism that I haven't cooled down yet. I am far outside the field of discussion and am only looking in. My ques

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