souprock

Joined 9 years ago

Karma
1,518
Submissions
983
Member since
Apr 13
albert at users.sf.net
View on Hacker News

Recent submissions

Comment · 5 years ago
It doesn't help much to over engineer. Suppose we design the buildings to last 200 years. After 200 years, they start collapsing at the same rate as the rate of construction. If we built a new one every day, then after 200 years we'd have a new collapse every day.
Comment · 5 years ago
This is way off target: "the kinds of neighborhoods that permanently reduce total driving"

People change jobs without changing where they live. It won't matter what kind of neighborhood a person lives in if the person still commutes a long distance.

Transaction costs are high. For a dense city, moving to a different apartment means losing rent control. Elsewhere, the process of selling and buying a house will eat up about 10% the value of the house. Switching kids to different school districts is often unacceptable.

The typical modern two-income household makes this far worse. Moving close to one employer just means moving away from the other employer. Cutting one person's commute just lengthens the other person's commute. Why bother?

Comment · 5 years ago
My situation is far worse. The instructor assigns video that is on YouTube, but the kid would rather watch a different video. The assigned video is boring. It's more fun to watch a normal popular video.

So blocking YouTube won't work, yet most of YouTube needs to be blocked.

Comment · 5 years ago
So it blocks "Malware and Adult Content", but that has never caused trouble in my family. What about the online games that distract from schoolwork, chores, and sleep? YouTube is full of stupid videos. You can even find games on Khan Academy!
Comment · 5 years ago
It seems like you're not really starting adult life, and you're running out of years to do so. I started my 30's with 3 kids already, and ended my 30's with 9 kids. I bought a house. That house is my responsibility, without even an HOA. I don't have to ask mom for anything. I don't need parental permission. I got to pick the car I wanted to buy. If I feel like painting the house cyan or parking my car on the lawn, I can do so.
Comment · 5 years ago
I'm trying to stomp out my son's video game addiction right now. The trouble is that online classes require a web browser, and there are lots of web games.
Comment · 5 years ago
I knew a real dentist named Rex Pain. Rex means King. He was the king of pain.
Comment · 5 years ago
Comment · 5 years ago
I have those tools, and I rarely bother with the C they can generate. Plain disassembly isn't so great either. Usually IDA's graph view is the most productive. (it looks like a flow chart made from chunks of assembly code) I really wish Ghidra had a usable graph view; the graph view in Ghidra is just awful.

I know somebody else who sticks to the plain assembly listing view. People have their preferences.

Comment · 5 years ago
Places that provide childcare seem to have fewer children. There is a reasonable mechanism of action: without that childcare, families with children quickly give up on having two incomes, and thus the extra children are less of a burden. Once you entirely give up on a career, the problem of career impact for an additional child is gone.

It's not as expensive as you think. I'm no 1%er, yet I have a dozen kids. Dual enrollment provides a nearly-free AA degree, knocking 2 years of a BS degree and eliminating all the general education requirements. With a spacing of 2 years from kid to kid, it's usually only one kid in college at a time. That assumes no scholarships.

Comment · 5 years ago
You can find your own meaning, but you should be honest about the fact that it is your own meaning.

English teachers are demanding "correct" interpretation that has nothing to do with what the author intended. It's bullshit, and they need to admit that. It's also squeezing very important topics out of the schedule, such as the teaching of proper grammar and other things needed for non-literary writing in a professional career.

Comment · 5 years ago
Comment · 5 years ago
I bought a $40k Ascent with 8 seats. It's decent.

I'm not a fan of the driver assist nonsense. That stuff is dangerous. It actually yanks on the steering wheel, but of course it has no clue about the real world (no strong AI here) and obviously impedes safe control of the vehicle. Fortunately there is a way to turn that nonsense off. It probably still phones home with photos, GPS, and more.

It does have decent performance, particularly on slippery surfaces. To beat the Ascent you'd probably have to pay more or give up that 8th seat.

Comment · 5 years ago
We now have proof that it really is "going far beyond the author's intention". Texas licensed a poem for a standardized test. The poem's author was still alive, and was unable to "correctly" answer test questions about the meaning of the poem.

So yes, the English teachers really are spouting nonsense, and we have proof.

Comment · 5 years ago
It varies. I've seen software engineering with a security clearance that didn't require a drug test. Of course, all the friends of your friends were going to be interviewed in person, and they'd be asked about your behavior regarding drugs and more.

Live from the official Hacker News API

A modern reader for Hacker News · SvelteKit + Skeleton