tolien
Joined 12 years ago
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2,475
Submissions
522
Member since
Jun 28
Recent submissions
Comment · 5 days ago
Roy Chadwick was responsible for designing the Avro Aldershot (massive biplane, first flew 1924), Lancaster (1941) and the initial stages of the Vulcan (1952, he never saw it fly). Then in 1947, barely two months after Chadwick was killed in an accident, Chuck Yeager goes through the sound barrier. That's a hell of a rate of change!
Comment · 15 days ago
> Stick to working on programming languages that nobody uses
This is why I always find it a bit funny when people start blowing smoke up his ass. He's just some old guy who spouts points at this thread as a perfect example ideological nonsense and when challenged on it digs in harder in the face of evidence to the contrary - just what you'd want to lead a project (/s).
Comment · 16 days ago
All of that is irrelevant when we’re talking about software distribution, which was the subject of your anecdote.
If you want to look at Amazon’s “referral fees” though:
> Computers 7%
Still significantly less than the 100% you’re claiming.
Edit: Christ, this could’ve actually been an interesting conversation about how the business of selling software has been utterly revolutionised by the internet, digital distribution and payment platforms like Stripe, none of which existed in any meaningful sense 40 years ago. Instead you seem to think we’re still ordering Visual Studio by posting off a coupon from last month’s PC Magazine and a money order for 1000 of your local currency and waiting weeks for it to arrive on enough cassette tapes to crush a person.
Comment · 17 days ago
43% is a hell of a difference from the 100% you were claiming it was impossible to beat!
I don’t deny that the app stores don’t have the same costs - sounds like you accept my central premise that software distribution has changed since the 80s? Glad we finally agree.
Comment · 17 days ago
How many of the major app stores make a 100% markup? Apple doesn’t, MS doesn’t, Steam doesn’t.
That’s before we get into the specific case you mentioned, where open source and the likes of intel/Sun/Oracle/MS have driven compiler prices to near-zero.
Comment · 17 days ago
Yeah, it shouldn't really be too surprising that software distribution, and indeed retail generally, have changed radically in the forty years since Walter's anecdote but here we are.
Comment · 1 month ago
Another echo of XKCD 2347 [0], except this time it's pretty much the entire live streaming ecosystem depending on a bunch of volunteers.
Comment · 1 month ago
> The really strange thing is that people also see the massive growth in student housing in Scotland. Again, very good for politicians: more conservative foreign students can't vote, domestic students will vote left-wing.
That's a conspiracy theory and a half!
A lot of the new student accommodation being built is privately owned. They're chasing the (pre-Brexit/pandemic) overheating market for student accommodation that resulted from the universities targeting international students for the inflated tuition fees they can charge, and in some cases have features explicitly advertised to international students as positives (e.g. some of the ones in Nottingham have built in rice cookers as standard).
However, some of the properties are at risk of becoming unviable (i.e., lying empty or having to be turned over to housing non students [0]) because of a combination of Brexit and tightened immigration rules reducing international student numbers.
If they're being built as some kind of social engineering it would be a really convoluted way of going about it.
Comment · 1 month ago
> I don't know if I'd say they have an even, predictable quality
Euphemistically at least, considering they're frequently known in car circles as "Found On Road, Dead" and "Fix Or Repair Daily". It used to be seen as an advantage that Ford spare parts were dirt cheap, although I don't know if that's still the case given the trend to have Chips With Everything.
Comment · 2 months ago
You didn't specify frozen - I'm looking at a meal taken out of the fridge, which still has a shelf time of ~a week. You're not comparing to a frozen steak either, which will also need an extended cooking time.
If you're concerned about cooking time then don't buy frozen, or let them defrost, and they take less time to cook. Since you're comparing to preparing a whole piece of steak and a potato, that shouldn't be too hard to do.
Also, your example is $3.34 [0] i.e. less than your $5 steak and 50 cent potato.
0: https://www.walmart.com/ip/Stouffer-s-Spaghetti-with-Meatbal...
Comment · 2 months ago
This canard again [0]? You're comparing one piece of beef with a massive bag of Doritos. The banana's irrelevant, but last time you compared it to an enormous block of chocolate [1].
From experience a microwave meal should take about 3 minutes to cook so I don't know how you're taking more than 10 minutes unless, like your food item comparisons, you're cooking enough of them to feed an entire town.
Comment · 2 months ago
A quick search has Walmart selling a 14.5 oz (411g) bag of Doritos for $5 [0], which according to the back of the packet is 15 servings. Obviously that's comparable to a single piece of beef and a potato (/s)
While we're at it, on the $5 Hershey's bar - Walmart has a 7.56 oz (214g) one for $4.52 [1] which claims to be eight servings so again obviously just like a single banana.
[0] https://www.walmart.com/ip/Doritos-Nacho-Cheese-Tortilla-Sna...
[1] https://www.walmart.com/ip/Hershey-s-Special-Dark-Mildly-Swe...
Comment · 2 months ago
It didn't help that there was a sense that it was a non-job compared to direct flying duties - "what do you mean PTSD, you spend all day playing DCS!" etc.
Comment · 3 months ago
Shaking it All About... no wait, that's probably taken by Shack Shack.