Recent submissions

Comment · 4 days ago
> Has there ever been a case where two self driving cars collide with each other?

I don't think that's relevant to trains. Cars can avoid a collision much more easily than trains can. Cars can swerve, and if they are at a distance at which line of sight tells them they will hit an obstacle, they are moving slow enough to stop before hitting that obstacle. Trains have to stay on tracks, and they need up to 4 kilometers to stop moving.

The constraints are very different, so the solutions and tradeoffs will be different too.

Comment · 15 days ago
> As for Kamala Harris and her sudden southern accent in front of certain audiences...

I grew up in one place with a very marked accent, and moved later in life to a place with another distinct, very different accent. My accent shifts within minutes of talking with people from either place. Sometimes I'm in a room with people from both places, and my accent changes depending on who's in my field of view. This doesn't take any effort; in fact, I need to make an effort to avoid it.

This is how accents work. Our brain adapts very quickly to try to fit in.

(I grew up in Buenos Aires and now I live in Madrid)

Comment · 19 days ago
Comment · 21 days ago
So there's already a viable alternative to the duopoly, but it's not necessarily Linux?
Comment · 1 month ago
It's certainly not possible to keep a Jenga Tower growing forever. For each floor you add you need to leave at least one piece in a lower floor. Eventually you run out of pieces. It's possible to "complete" a Jenga Tower, but at that point it has to stop growing.
Comment · 2 months ago
Let me restate what the OP said. (quotes used for paraphrasing, not for quoting)

"Restaurant owners set a price on their dishes, because if everyone payed at will, the owners know they would make less money. Therefore we can assume owners know that paying at-will does not optimize earnings. Therefore, it's insane that they make their staff work for pay that's at-will".

Comment · 2 months ago
If I need anything, I will call for the waiter. I do find it intrusive and patronizing if they come and check if I need anything. I'm not "upset" about it, but it does make my dining experience worse. It also gives me the impression they are trying to get me to free up the table as soon as possible.
Comment · 2 months ago
Comment · 3 months ago
USA is the exception here. In most countries, even people who are not football fans are pretty aware of how it works.

I don't often watch football outside the world cup. I don't support any teams. But I know how football is meant to be played, and I was definitely annoyed about the hydration breaks.

Does USA have people that don't follow american football but will watch the Superbowl? Would those people notice if there were three times as many breaks as usual?

Comment · 3 months ago
You can own and appartment and live in it. For some reason ownership every discussion with USAmericans seems to come with the premise that home ownership implies houses. The vast majority of home owners I know personally own a flat.
Comment · 3 months ago
Many (all?) EU countries have a national ID card, and most (all?) IDs has a chip that can be used for secure document signing. I don't know if it can be used by itself for age verification. Maybe it would need to contrast your signature with some sort of DB that can retrieve your age...
Comment · 4 months ago
Customer protection absolutely is regulation. Saying otherwise is a No True Scotsman.

Good regulation is good. Bad regulation is bad. Being anti-regulation is dogmatic.

Comment · 4 months ago
> Which raises the question, why would you work hard to create value for others in a system like that?

Because creating things for others is a fulfilling way to live your life, and creates a richer society.

Valve does not want to maximize revenue from the controller sales. If they did, they would auction the controllers. That would get rid of scalpers, and ensure each controllers is sold at the highest number the market would bear. They are not doing that, which implies revenue-maximization is not their goal.

My intuition is that they are trying to improve the health of the gaming ecosystem because that benefits their core business which is selling games. For them it's important that some people who are more price-sensitive get this controller. Because those customers buy different games than those who would pay top dollar, and those games are important to Valve. And because they promote gaming in ways that don't bring revenue directly but do create harder to measure value.

Comment · 4 months ago
> I read on HN that AI's can just interpolate the data they have seen in training

No. That can be said about LLMs, but not about all forms of AI. The technique used is not a LLM.

Sadly we've bastardized the term AI that, if it ever meant anything, it's meaningless now. The currently most voted thread in this post discuses the topic.

Comment · 4 months ago
Because you can inherit capital.

You can also inherit talent, but "the descendants of those worthy are worthy" is a belief humanity spilled a lot of blood to get away from.

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