Recent submissions

Comment · 2 years ago
Which parts of their actions should be protected by law? They stopped doing their job, interrupted the work of others, and were in parts of the building that they did not leave when asked. These would normally be completely normal to treat with disciplinary actions and in the last case, they are trespassing.

Just adding in the 'but they were protesting something' doesn't change this by default. And even in Europe (where I'm from and still live) their actions would not be protected. They wouldn't get fired, but they would face some repercussions until they protest in a manner compatible with the law.

I cannot simply say "I'm not going to do any work, because I don't like that my company makes software used by the Metropolitan Police" and expect my company to say "fine by us, we'll keep paying you".

Comment · 2 years ago
Sounds like a meta Turing test... after conversing with an AI, how would you describe their personality and mental state?

Presumably we want to tune somewhere between "unimpeded ADHD monologue" and "crazy guy on the tube", leaning closer to "trusted family Doctor you've known for 20 years" over "sleazy politician".

But I suspect it's more likely that you're pattern-seeking than we've uncovered some deep truth about the human condition. GPTs are, after all, simply automata good at sounding good. They are NOT actual simulacra of human brains.

Comment · 3 years ago
I work on a project at a large (although not Google-scale) company building a collaborative RTE.

The short is answer is no, there are very few universal truths about how text editing works. You'll experience differences between combinations of operating systems, input modes (Japanese IME for example), software keyboards on Android, languages (RTL languages) and that's just for text itself.

Then when you are thinking about more complex features simple things like "what happens when I double or triple click on this" are a complete crapshoot.

Comment · 3 years ago
Keeping the metaphor, it's responding to the question of "Do you know Joe?" with "Yes, and that guy Bob over there says Joe is a pedophile" whenever asked.
Comment · 3 years ago
This is a completely circular argument which also happens to completely miss the point.

1. They want to show personalized adverts

2. So they collect and process the data to do so

3. And therefore because they've collected the data, they must be allowed to show personalized adverts.

Aside from it being complete nonsense, the contention is around the 2nd point. They should NOT be allowed to collect and process the data for that purpose without permission, which EU courts have repeatedly stated.

Comment · 3 years ago
If the breach of contract is by the seller, then how does that result in illegality on the part of the buyer?
Comment · 3 years ago
Chrome does give access to localStorage/sessionStorage in Incognito and this can be used to communicate between tabs on the same domain, but just like cookies and cache this data is wiped if you close the Incognito instance.

It's certainly a mystery, because you'd expect any capability fingerprinting (some combo of UA, extensions, CPU/GPU specs, IP etc) to give an identical result between profiles, so it does seem there's some per-profile difference. But I can't think of any browser API that exposes something like an ID...

Comment · 3 years ago
The CSS for HN is very terse, and aside from a mobile-specific set of rules it doesn't really do any variation.

Is it possible you had set the zoom level previously, which the browser remembers between sessions, and turning off the tracking reset the zoom to 100%? Do you have any extensions like Greasemonkey or Stylus for per-site customisation?

Comment · 3 years ago
I can imagine that works fine for fresh-out-of-university candidates but I can't imagine a time in my career where I could (and would want to) take 5 days PTO for a job interview.

FAANG-like hiring has the question "What info do you get from the 5th interview that you didn't already have after the 2nd?" - for the paid trial, what info do you get by Friday that you didn't have by the end of Monday?

Comment · 3 years ago
Often "impossible" is based on constraints like "0 downtime" "100% planned rollout, rollback scenarios" etc.

These constraints get thrown to the wind when the downtime is already happening.

Comment · 3 years ago
No true Pole?
Comment · 3 years ago
pożyczyć is both borrow and lend :) In English there's a difference of direction.

"Kuba pożyczył moj długopis" - Jakub borrowed my pen

"Kuba pożyczył mi jego długopos" - Jakub lent me his pen

I'm learning Polish slowly, living in Warsaw...

Comment · 4 years ago
Comment · 4 years ago
Microbes are actually around 1 micrometer!

Whilst I'd generally hate for a 1 meter bee to exist, it might be worth it just for the nerd joke.

So purely factually, a microbe is only 1/10000th of a bee

Comment · 4 years ago
That's what a linter is for!

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