Recent submissions

Comment · 3 years ago
Comment · 3 years ago
Comment · 3 years ago
From a philosophical perspective, if your goal in life is to be happy, you will find it to be temporary at best or illusory. Better to strive for a meaningful life, with all the highs and lows that come with it. You have 70-80 years on this planet, is dying with the most toys the most fulfilling life you can think of?
Comment · 3 years ago
Articulating why a certain function is bad design or is actively harmful is not the same as gatekeeping. I have lost opportunities because I chose to follow my ethics over my bank account. I do not regret those decisions.

Software developers should have a professional code of ethics. Other professions have them, why not computer scientists, computer engineers, and software developers? There is the ACM/IEEE-CS Software Engineering Code, but I don't know any professionals outside academia that remain ACM members, IEEE membership might remain relevant for computer engineers, so I may well be wrong in that regard.

Comment · 3 years ago
You would think the panic over TikTok spying would illuminate the problem with apps having carte-blanche access to your personal data 24/7. There is nothing that the TikTok app does that any other app cannot also do. It seems nobody wants to make that connection.

There should be real protections for consumers to prevent ANY application from slurping up this data, and I don't mean just a disclosure or system setting to hamstring the application into uselessness. I mean, there should be regulations preventing the collection of this data in the first place, with hefty fines and punitive damages.

Comment · 3 years ago
I can't think of anything more demoralizing than being hired simply to warehouse my talent to keep me out of competitors' shops while feeding me bullshit go-nowhere projects or leaving me to twiddle my thumbs.
Comment · 3 years ago
You are 100% spot on. States are weakening worker and child protection laws around the country. Destroying oversight of child protection: no need to check that kids are at least 16 before they are hired in Arkansas. Ohio Reps want to let 14 year olds work year round until 9pm each day. Iowa wants to let 14 year olds work in meatpacking plants AND indemnify companies from liability if the child is injured or killed at work, isn't that just grand?

Minnesota trails with a bill to let 16 year olds work on construction sites. Do I hear 14? 13? How much for 12? Why any age at all? If a baby can swing a hammer, then what right does the man in Washington have to stop him? Is that baby not entitled to the sweat of his brow? I say YES! And if that baby should fall off a ladder dragging a square of tiles behind him, should the company not be protected from liability for it was that baby's own fault? I say YES, most emphatically! /s

Comment · 3 years ago
It only makes medical error and accidents in US hospitals the 3rd leading cause of death, estimated at more than 250,000 deaths per year. But the hedge fund managing hospitals around the country save so much money by not having to hire sufficient staff and have reasonable shift turn-overs they all got bonuses, so it's all good.
Comment · 3 years ago
And it isn't for the peons doing all the work...
Comment · 3 years ago
Thanks, though there are Mexican militias in the US. The Brown Berets (Los Boinas Café) were not a gang, they were a militia.

On another note, if anyone could provide any hints as to why my comment made in good faith with an actual link to a reputable site that backs up a well-known phenomenon affecting police nationally was flagged, that'd be great. It's difficult to judge the group-think of ycombinator comment moderators.

Comment · 3 years ago
Is it lethal to cats though? https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/29430681/

I mean, better to be safe than sorry, but it doesn't seem to affect them in this study. Other non-scientific sources are all over the map on the question.

Comment · 3 years ago
It's hard to give up the black oil, er, soda. I don't really like plain water. I can't take anything with most artificial sweeteners, they are migraine triggers for me. I bought a SodaStream, a 10 lb. bottle of CO2 and a few BiB syrup cases of Barq's Root Beer and have been lowering the concentration of syrup the past few months. I'm down to 1/4 the normal concentration of syrup. Eventually, I should be acclimated to the taste of fizzy water by itself... still not much of a fan.
Comment · 3 years ago
Two different engineers, I am assuming Sandy Munro was disparaging Mr. Field. From your own Engadget link, you can clearly see that he had no vehicle manufacturing experience. Neither Apple, nor Segway produce automobiles, if that was unclear.

"Field, who previously worked at Apple and Segway, joined Tesla in 2013 to develop the company's next-generation EVs. In that sense, his mark on the company is hard to escape. However, there's a potential source of conflict. Elon Musk asked Field to handle both manufacturing and production in 2017, right as the Model 3 was becoming a practical reality. You may know what happened next. Tesla struggled to boost Model 3 production levels after relying too heavily on robots, and Musk took charge of manufacturing to be sure his company met its 5,000-a-week Model 3 production target. Field effectively lost a large part of his role."

Comment · 3 years ago
You're right, probably not harmful at all:

"The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said some or all of the emails deemed to implicate “special access programs” related to U.S. drone strikes. Those who sent the emails were not involved in directing or approving the strikes, but responded to the fallout from them, the official said.

The information in the emails “was not obtained through a classified product, but is considered ‘per se’ classified” because it pertains to drones, the official added. The U.S. treats drone operations conducted by the CIA as classified, even though in a 2012 internet chat Presidential Barack Obama acknowledged U.S.-directed drone strikes in Pakistan."

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