the_af

7 ms·

121.
by the_af 3mo ago
True in principle, but I find in practice the Hugo and Nebula seldom disappoint me (in the sense of having wasted my time, not that every winner is a masterpiece). And these are not the only prizes (or genres), I just mentioned two. There a
122.
by the_af 3mo ago
No. You claimed I said it was "trivial" which I didn't, I said it was "relatively easy". Then you went into that nonsense of if it's so easy then why don't you do it and become a millionaire yadda yadda, w
123.
by the_af 3mo ago
I agree it's a difficult problem. For scifi, I usually look for Hugo or Nebula winners, but also word of mouth and recommendations. Never Amazon! I also don't know anyone who goes to Amazon to look for book recommendations, but th
124.
by the_af 3mo ago
A snarky reply. I never said "trivial", and I didn't mean it's easy in absolute terms, just that this seems relatively easy to disrupt compared to other endeavors. I have no desire to become a millionaire and I already h
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by the_af 3mo ago
This should be relatively easy to disrupt for ebooks. It doesn't seem necessary to have the infrastructure and pockets of Amazon to sell ebooks (and be fairer to authors and readers). I'm not convinced about discoverability, I don
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by the_af 3mo ago
Agreed that the comparison is extreme; I wouldn't have made it myself. But it's also not harmless to work at a company which makes tools/components/software for killing people. It wouldn't be "just an office
127.
by the_af 3mo ago
> We are talking about ads on the computer. Not just ads on the computer. TFA also discusses AI for surveillance, weapons, etc.
128.
by the_af 3mo ago
The criticism of Google and their abandoning of their "Don't Be Evil" motto has been a constant here since before Trump's first term. There's no correlation with Dems being in government. If anything, what Google (a
129.
by the_af 3mo ago
> The problem is that the author may have been right Even worse, it's very likely the author wasn't even right most of the time. They claim a frequent occurrence is that "the room" turns against them. Now, their rat
130.
by the_af 3mo ago
I've done this, and even more: very often lately I've written a response on HN, let it sit for a few minutes, then delete it. Not because I think I'm right (I think I'm aware of my flaws), but because I realize I don&#x2
131.
by the_af 3mo ago
I am, too, like the author, very rational and almost always correct, and like the author, I find it hard to understand why irrational ego-driven people who are clearly wrong cannot take my wisdom in stride, or why the room often sides with
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by the_af 3mo ago
Wow, it's been a while since I heard that name. Knoppix saved my bacon a couple of times, I remember using their live CD.
133.
by the_af 3mo ago
Agreed, I think it's unrelated to nuclear winter, that bit seems like a red herring. But Cold War perceptions definitely permeate our perception of Chernobyl.
134.
by the_af 3mo ago
Surely that the West's perception (especially the popular narrative) of Chernobyl is tinted with Cold War logic is self-evident?
135.
by the_af 3mo ago
> As I said, I may be overreacting, by I'd like to err on the side of caution when it comes to my kids' and family's long-term health. But isn't it a trade off, like many things in life? I don't think refusing
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by the_af 3mo ago
At the very least the cow-equations are made simpler!
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by the_af 3mo ago
> I'd rather not drink radioactive milk, eat radioactive mushrooms and pork [...] Boy (or gal), do I have news for you... More seriously, whether the author is right or wrong (I cannot judge), assessing these things scientifically
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by the_af 4mo ago
> The latter is the jokes about the physicists "assuming a perfectly spherical cow." Not to detract from your point at all, but I only ever heard this joke about mathematicians !
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by the_af 4mo ago
10 years? An optimist, I see.
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by the_af 4mo ago
I'm sorry, communicating with ghosts is against Springer Nature policy. This isn't a disreputable publication like Séance Monthly!
141.
by the_af 4mo ago
Interesting! It makes sense, yes, that there are two kinds of philosophers, one more business-savvy than the other. I still think it's wrong-headed to "buy" philosophy in this way, with a business goal, especially of the Sili
142.
by the_af 4mo ago
I think that's a business question rather than philosophical one. It's not the kind of philosophy discussed in TFA.
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by the_af 4mo ago
What strikes me as funny is this notion of hiring academic philosophers to work in the machinery of startups and businesses, "money (and coffee, presumably) in, philosophy out". The kind of "philosophy" the article menti
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by the_af 4mo ago
Kevin's security company is also a mess, and the training videos they produce are embarrassing at best. I understand he probably just lent his name to the company (though he did show up in some of the videos), but still...
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by the_af 4mo ago
Gaming just works for me with Steam and Ubuntu. Steam no longer filters out Linux games to its own category, it simply assumes most games work now (and they do!).
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by the_af 4mo ago
I think it's more complex than just about getting the domain model wrong. ORMs introduce tradeoffs and are inherently complex and full of caveats (both when deciding to use one or not), as amusingly pointed out in the much-discussed ar
147.
by the_af 4mo ago
Are ORMs still a thing? I've been away from OOP for some years now, but just when I was leaving it, there was a trend firmly against ORMs... my guess was that they were on their way out, replaced by more lightweight libs and framewor
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by the_af 4mo ago
Absolutely. I made all the usual mistakes, and had to be mentored and learn from more experienced programmers. (Alas! Sometimes you pick up bad habits from experienced people, and being a junior, you don't know better)
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by the_af 4mo ago
I was working at that time and never saw this from juniors. Overeager seniors and architecture astronauts, sure. But juniors? They mostly copy pasted code without even taking a second look at the codebase, and without bothering to break fun
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by the_af 4mo ago
I do agree this happens with the senior overengineering phase, but the comment I replied to mentioned "especially juniors" and I've heard this trope specifically about juniors, with the implication they want to apply what the

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