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IG_Semmelweiss

3,569 karma · joined June 22, 2019

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IG_Semmelweiss··on A Farmer Donated Land to Turn into a Park. The City Is Building a Data Center
(a) has to sue and they will prevail.

(b) does not have standing.

IG_Semmelweiss··on Samurai City
The theme of this article is seen directly as a major plot point in the series Shogun.

Its quite a good show!

IG_Semmelweiss··on The death of the brick and mortar toy store
this article feels 10 years late. Toys R us marked the end of the toy store.

Its just a matter of time before other stores follow, except for the Lego flagship stores , or the ocassional anime store in a bigger city.

Its sad.

IG_Semmelweiss··on The quiet renovation at Bitwarden
>>> by just having a copy of the encrypted data sent to some cloud service, e.g. iCloud/OneDrive/Google Drive, but decided you couldn't trust any?

False sense of security. As proven countless times in these forums, a ban on 1 product or 1 account on Google, is a ban on all of Google for that device and linked devices. I dont think you have factored in this risk. Or that commercial products get discontinued all the time. Open source (syncthing) doesn't have that issue. And we haven' touched billing yet.

>>> There's no one you would trust with an encrypted copy?

Doing password backups is particularly tricky. Commercial vendors are robust and depend on local circunstances. They do have changes in ownership which do change security priorities. Its a bit of a moving target whether they can be trusted or not. For non password needs, the answer is much simpler:No. They will sell data, at a minimum.

>>> o you have any automated backup of your phone to a cloud service, or only local?

Only local. I have 1 device parked in a relative's house that gets updated everytime i am there. That's my remote backup. But its not a daily backup, but i can live with that.

>>> I am overseas holding a new replacement for a lost phone, looking at the text "Enter the 6‑digit verification code", I will wish I'd thought about more carefully.

This is, indeed, the most important thing you must resolve. How urgent you need access to X ? Maybe you should solve for that separately. Everything else is much simpler and done.

IG_Semmelweiss··on The quiet renovation at Bitwarden
same. Recommend

as long as the house doesn't catch fire, or as long i run outside with 1 of my syncthing devices (have several), local cloud is the best.

IG_Semmelweiss··on The Quiet Renovation at Bitwarden
in my humble opinion, Dominos ?
IG_Semmelweiss··on How diamonds are made
I wish articles/domains like this one, which are accessible, playful, informative, short, and with images would be easy to identify in HN.

That would be something worthwhile to share with children aged 8-12 who love learning new things.

IG_Semmelweiss··on A Meta employee gets real about the horror of working there
A few thoughts on the layoffs:

1) I know from an internal source that impact is known by now (this week) by the local leaders. There's a very specific criteria. This has been "socialized" with some survivors, but not all.

2) The Capex in building AI is what's causing this wave. That's not surprising.

3) The AI buildout caught a lot of companies with their pants down without financial firepower to make investments. People are surprised by new tech paradigms all the time, it's a permissible mistake. What's crazy is, why were these people hired in the 1st place. There would have been no bloodbath if that salary money was sitting in the balance sheet, as a muscle ready to be flexed. Instead, they just ate fat and now it needs to be trimmed.

4) >>> personal sacrifices you are willing to make

This strikes as very hollow. The very last thing anyone thinks about is personal sacrifices, when thinking about working at meta. Unless you are a paladin and you think selling people ads or getting them addicted to apps is some sort of an unholy dark spell, what's there not to like?

5) >>> fresh out of college came to expect six figures, free food, gym memberships, laundry services, and company stock that only went up. It seemed less like a job market and more like winning a particularly nerdy and privileged lottery. That’s not what it feels like anymore.

None of those things actually changed, except of course they expect you to do the work 24/7. Before it may have been 25/4. So the bar has been raised a little, yes, but the people working there still winners of "the nerdy and privileged lottery"

IG_Semmelweiss··on Bill to block publishers from killing online games advances in California
> open source server code if you are going to cease support

> Legal had to verify that there was no licensed library code used and that we had clear, valid copyright to everything there.

I can tell you the other side of that equation. There's no poison pill -short of outright fraud- that will kill an acquisition of a software company, than open source code embedded deep in the product.

I've been in both sides of the table of M&A activity, and in the due dilligence, smart acquirers will always look at the code and libraries in use. If there's anything that even has the hint of open source, that is heavily scrutinized: what is open source by default can't be owned by anyone and if it cannot be owned, it doesn't have IP value.

Most deals that ran into this issue would stop dead in their tracks, and it would take a while to spin back up, that is if the deal went thru at all

IG_Semmelweiss··on Sam Altman's Business Dealings Under GOP Scrutiny Ahead of OpenAI's IPO
The thesis is as follows:

OpenAI receives funds as a non-profit.

Some of those funds are redirected to for profit ventures.

Critically, the GM (Altman) of the nonprofit owns shares of the for-profit ventures, that OpenAI funds were redirected into.

A regular company could and does invest in any company even when there's a conflict, as long as the conflict is disclosed and the Board votes in favor of it. There's no criminal element there.

The problem is introduced in Altman's case if

(a) there was no disclosure (red flag) and/or

(b) nonprofit that received the funds, is putting money into things not aligned with the 501(c)(3) mission.

I'm not sure if either (a) or (b) are criminal, but they don't pass the smell test, which is why Altman is being sued in civil court, unrelated to the congressional investigation talked about in the article

IG_Semmelweiss··on Temu is advertising filet mignon on X
what a well written article. Very human. Refreshing to read in the era of AI. Witty without trying too hard, genuinely funny, yet informative, and succinct.

I'm going to have to read more from Steven Morea!

IG_Semmelweiss··on Reimagining the mouse pointer for the AI era
50yr old tech (mouse) still hangs around because it is effective. Whatever this Google slop is, will likely not replace mice. The mouse has been successful at passing the test of time. Most of Google's own hardware products don't last 1/20th of that time.

There's a reason chairs are still around. They are +2000 years old. Its still waiting to be replaced.

One should be extremely skeptical of claims of replacing tech that has been around for a very long time.

IG_Semmelweiss··on Brazil's Pix payment system faces pressure from Visa and Mastercard
I actually see it as quite worrysome. This would crowd out competition, but then gives full monopoly of payments to the local government.

If you are say a political outcast, there's a single point of failure in getting debanked. Not good.

I do like processing fees down, but definitely not at the cost of creating a single point of failure with power over the entire population.

IG_Semmelweiss··on Cloudflare to cut about 20% of its workforce
Yet people risk their lives to go in illegally. Something doesn't track.

Its because, inequality is not the problem.

The problem is the ability to move between income levels. That coefficient used to the highest in the US. Rich people could and did go poor. Poor people could be rich.

That index was always the highest by far in the US, but now its decreasing. That's the real issue.

IG_Semmelweiss··on Cloudflare to cut about 20% of its workforce
Here you go:

The WARN Act is triggered if there is a mass layoff of at least 50 employees (excluding PT) and that number represents at least 33% of the active employees at a single employment site

OR, if RIFF means closes location (with 50+ employees affected).

IG_Semmelweiss··on Cloudflare to cut about 20% of its workforce
META is doing* it . The main RIFF has yet to happen.
IG_Semmelweiss··on Cloudflare to cut about 20% of its workforce
This has a name, and also a poster boy.

Amazon's well known "hire-to-fire" [1]

https://www.inc.com/jason-aten/amazons-controversial-hire-to...

IG_Semmelweiss··on How Mark Klein told the EFF about Room 641A [book excerpt]
You are overdue to speak with Cindy Cohn, then
IG_Semmelweiss··on California farmers to destroy 420k peach trees following Del Monte bankruptcy
Better idea:

1. Find a random large, barren public land nearby

2. Dump all fruit there.

3. Wait 15 years

4. New enchanted forest available for public use [1]

[1] https://www.smithsonianmag.com/innovation/costa-rica-let-jui...

IG_Semmelweiss··on Reverse-engineering the 1998 Ultima Online demo server
I've been looking for a localized (Spanish or French), mobile version of Ultima 4 (NES). Others too. Something similar to what was done with FF series by Pixel Remaster.

The game is currently only available via emulator.

Localized, text-heavy RPGs are a very easy way to "learn-while-playing" a foreign language, and reading as well.

Would love to see this built !

IG_Semmelweiss··on Google Chrome silently installs a 4 GB AI model on your device without consent
Gmaps WV while using VPN. Download from Fdroid.

Its miles ahead of something like Osmand , which i really, really, tried to like for a year, but its a UX disaster (i could never ever figure it out)

IG_Semmelweiss··on Today I've made the difficult decision to reduce the size of Coinbase by ~14%
Not true. You often see it semi-pro soccer. Previously, you could see player coaches even in top-flight elite soccer.

There's a reason for this change. As players became elite and specialized by position, the budget for specialization expanded. At the top, teams could afford a distinct role for coaching focus. Since the stakes are really high (the difference between 1-3 points is measured in dozens of millions of dollars of impact due to relegation - a concept that is missing on most US elite sports) it follows specialization drive is sky-high at elite levels.

Thus, soccer player coaches have mostly dissappeared at elite level. But the role is alive and well in the semipro tier.

In roles where there's no binary, extreme outcome from specialization, like in semi pro soccer, or at an ENG role at a random company , it is only natural to have someone wear multiple hats and not specialize.

IG_Semmelweiss··on Google Chrome silently installs a 4 GB AI model on your device without consent
I stopped using chrome 15 years ago and de-googled my life 5 years ago. The hardest thing to let go in fact was Gmaps (most alternatives, until recently, were not great) and I'm still captured by android, but rome was not built in a day.

Quitting chrome these days is the easiest thing to do. The writing is on the way. You don't control the browser on your network, google does. ANd for better or worse, google's priority is AI at this time.

Sysadmins should take notice.

If the network is ~65% chrome and thus deemed painful, take the gradual approach. Do not push chrome on new devices or users. Watch that problem slowly go away.

IG_Semmelweiss··on Ask.com has closed
i believe they also bought vimeo and livestream.com, and proceeded to miss the boat where Youtube took off.
IG_Semmelweiss··on Kyoto cherry blossoms now bloom earlier than at any point in 1,200 years
Could it be the incoming "strongest of all time" [1] el nino weather pattern that is expected this year with high probability ? Usually it is only the eastern pacific is mostly severely impacted, but maybe there's a correlation

[1] https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2026/apr/23/down-to-...

IG_Semmelweiss··on European civil servants are being forced off WhatsApp
most of the world is using WA for biz. US is an outlier

Most biz dont have the kind of money to hand over to Goog workspace or M$. therefore, you get what its free, and thats WA biz

IG_Semmelweiss··on Google broke its promise to me – now ICE has my data
The Swiss have birthright citizenship. What's so odd about it ?
IG_Semmelweiss··on EFF is leaving X
The freedom index is a good start.

https://freedomindex.us/us/

Massie has 99% And Paul was at 96 % in the 117th congress

https://freedomindex.us/us/legislators/session/11/sort/sd/

IG_Semmelweiss··on 12k Tons of Dumped Orange Peel Grew into a Landscape Nobody Expected (2017)
Please elaborate. From what i know based on prior research, most metro (including NYC) recycling is effectively a scam. How do you mandate composting in NYC ? Are you implying that all buildings have now must build a 3rd chute specifically for compost ? And who's picking up that compost ? NYC Trash collection ?

I've seen compost vending machines in my visits to NYC and a few other places, but i've yet anyone using them

IG_Semmelweiss··on Employers use your personal data to figure out the lowest salary you'll accept
That's no longer true. You can have ICRA etc plans, for the tax benefits.

The truth of the matter is that employers pay a humongous share of the health insurance bill, and if you shop directly, you will pay that 100% on your own.

You do have to put in a little more effort, but as an employer you can build a hybrid plan and contract with certain networks, and lower your bill tremendously.

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