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LatteLazy

5,828 karma · joined September 16, 2019

Started in tech, then went to the business end for the money, now I regret it...
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LatteLazy··on CDs vs. NIMBY
BANANAs

Build Absolutely Nothing Anywhere Near Anything

LatteLazy··on More than half of adults in U.S. say they lack basic statistical understanding
I actually think this is very good. People thinking they understand statistics is far more dangerous and causes far more issues that people honestly saying they don’t…
LatteLazy··on Iranian hackers shut down UK power plant for 4 days
The BBC’s just reported that the telegraph reported it was Iranians. Not that it actually was…
LatteLazy··on US Supreme Court rules geofence warrants require constitutional protections
Obviously there should be limits but what should they be?

I actually don’t think asking for phone ids for 30min before and after an event within a limited distance IS overly broad. The fact it only returned 19 initial IDs kind of shows that no?

Equally, knowing someone has been in or near a bank is not particularly intrusive. It’s not like searching who visited a lawyers office or a sexual health clinic etc.

So would a 5 min window have been ok? Or a 10minute window?

When does a warrant become “sprawling”?

LatteLazy··on Why the US Navy won't blast the Iranians and 'open' Strait of Hormuz
What would you manufacture at scale that would open the straits?

If you had an interceptor with a 99% rate of interception (even in such a tight space, and assuming it could intercept underwater as effectively as in air) then if the Iranians fired 50 drones at a ship, they’d have a about a 40% chance of getting at least 1 through (1 - 0.99^50).

So they would likely sink 4 in every 10. No sane insurer let alone captain or crew would take such a risk I think.

This is the issue with interceptors, you need phenomenally high reliability AND very large numbers AND very cheap prices per unit to make them workable.

As it is, I would argue this is a classic example of America trying to solve a POLITICAL problem with MILITARY force. This has never actually succeeded as far as I know. Certainly not on the last few decades.

LatteLazy··on Anthropic taps IPO lawyers as it races OpenAI to go public
1. Sounds like exactly when early investors and insiders would want to cash in and when retail investors who “have heard of the company and like the product” will buy without a lot of financial analysis.

2. A 300bn IPO can mean actually raising n 300bn by selling 100% of the company. But it could also mean seeing 1% for 3bn right? Which seems like a trivial amount for the market to absorb no?

LatteLazy··on I have recordings proving Coinbase knew about breach months before disclosure
I have a tradfi background but work in crypto with trading software.

The whole industry (except deribit) is a shit show of barely working apis that aren’t reliable or accurate in any way. It’s completely routine to not be able to get an order status for minutes at a time. Or to get fills after an order has been rejected. Or a week after a cancel confirmation message.

Coinbase is actually one of the worst offenders for this. Coinbase Prime, their supposed institutional grade offering especially so.

So it doesn’t surprise me at all that the same issues are happening more widely.

To be clear: deribit have always been efficient, accurate, reliable and generally excellent. If you must trade crypto, do it there so you’re Ops and Support people don’t have to suffer.

LatteLazy··on Anxiety disorders tied to low levels of choline in the brain
The most annoying thing about pieces like this is how easy it would be to actually test the hypothesis. They could just give people choline (double blind placebo including some participants who are not anxious). And test the effect on both choline levels and anxiety.

It’s also ready sold OTC.

Instead people just sit around and do meta studies on meta studies on correlation and publishing whatever statistical anomalies they can find.

LatteLazy··on How cops can get your private online data
Broadly speaking if the data is on someone else’s computer, it’s in their “house” for the purpose of the search.

Cracking open your phone might require a warrant. But basically every byte of data on it has come from your ISP and is backed up to Apple\Google etc. and those companies will let me search their computers for your data no questions asked (or for a nominal fee).

That’s how you sidestep the 4th amendment when it comes to tech in the modern age.

LatteLazy··on Studio Ghibli, Bandai Namco, Square Enix Demand OpenAI to Stop Using Their IP
Counter point from the wider creative industry:

https://youtu.be/X9RYuvPCQUA?si=XXJ9l7O4Y3lxfEci

[video]

LatteLazy··on Trump pardons convicted Binance founder
Unpopular opinion: the case against him/binance was always that as a non us citizen, outside the us, he failed to obey US law and in a paperwork and licensing sense not a violent or otherwise serious manner.

I don’t like trump. But “CZ” basically paid a ransom to let Binance come in from the cold. Why shouldn’t he pay another to get a clean slate and maybe go back to being CEO?

LatteLazy··on The game theory of how algorithms can drive up prices
I never understand why people don’t pay more attention to “n” in these cases: number of other players.

If there are 2 suppliers in a market, they will collude without algos or private meetings: I can be pretty sure you will not cut your price if I don’t cut mine. The issue there is that there are only 2 suppliers, so trust is very easy.

If there are 100 other suppliers, I know ONE of them will cut their price. So I best cut mine first.

What I am trying to say here is that, algos or not, n is the major driver here imho.

That’s kind of interesting since the US has been very relaxed about falling values of n as long as prices seem ok.

LatteLazy··on Some graphene firms have reaped its potential but others are struggling
The first trillionaire will be whoever owns the patent on mass producing graphene with controlled properties. I worked on that back in 2006. As far as I can tell no progress has been made.
LatteLazy··on Economics of sportsbooks and why they ban the best bettors
Gamblers anonymous should offer a service where if you are struggling with betting addiction you give them your account and they sell it to a “sharp” who profits until you are banned.

That’s good for everyone right?

LatteLazy··on Economics of sportsbooks and why they ban the best bettors
https://www.betfair.com/

Does exactly this.

Odds are just set by supply and demand and you pay a small fee per bet.

LatteLazy··on Rights groups urge UK PM Starmer to abandon plans for mandatory digital ID
The UK has a bunch of deeply divided issues: 40% want lower house prices and rents (tenants and would be buyers) and 40% want higher house prices and rents (landlords and owners). The same is true for taxes and immigration and crime/justice and welfare etc.

So governments are desperate NOT to do anything on most issues. And they are desperate to do SOMETHING (as a distraction) on issues seen as more neutral and less likely to offend vast numbers of people.

LatteLazy··on Rights groups urge UK PM Starmer to abandon plans for mandatory digital ID
Chiming in as a Brit: I m generally opposed to this.

I already have a passport and that is digitalised and universal. Why not just use that?

The UK has a bad habit of launching these programs and not being able to deliver on them.

We have had National Insurance numbers for a long time, these are used to track income tax payments and benefits. But that doesn’t work apparently. So I had to set up a Unique Tax Reference number. Just to do my tax return. This involved several letters back and forth. Actual paper sent in the post over several weeks. The government already have all the tax information they just need me to do 20h of work because they can’t keep their files straight.

They made a mess of that. So I now have an additional Unique Tax Reference number. 2 unique IDs…

And they are still getting my taxes wrong. And writing to me about other peoples taxes/benefits payments because they have similar names and live in the same municipality.

Also, I’ve never had any difficulty proving who I am online when I want to. And I should not need to do so anymore than I already chose to.

LatteLazy··on Microsoft doubles down on small modular reactors and fusion energy
Um…

This seems like a nothing burger.

Microsoft jointed an NGO that pushes nuclear that most people have never heard of.

If they were investing a 100bn in nuclear that would be interesting. Paying a small, cancellable membership fee is the opposite of “doubling down”

LatteLazy··on Service members deserve the right to repair
Would you rather pay up front and get a warranty or sign a long service contract with high bills?

The answer is the latter because paying more later is a form of borrowing, but not one you have to declare as debt. So you can announce a tax cut now and voters will love it despite paying twice as much next year.

LatteLazy··on Denmark summons top US diplomat over alleged Greenland influence operation
I broadly agree.

Since us brits left I wondered if there would be a big move to more effective government. But apparently not?

I think the most interesting thing about the EU is we’re watching the formation of a country but over ~100 years. The US had a few milestones (war of independence, civil war, ww2) where it got things together and centralised etc. the EU has not had (yet) crises of that scale.

It took the euro debt crisis to get fiscal stuff moving. Maybe Ukraine/Trump is what is needed to do the same for armed forces?

LatteLazy··on Denmark summons top US diplomat over alleged Greenland influence operation
Before trump the us was stopping it

Trump is encouraging it.

And specifically in the area of defence.

Source: https://www.csis.org/analysis/why-its-time-reconsider-europe...

It’s quiet widely discussed here (UK, we’re kind of on the edge but want in, but maybe not too in for obvious reasons)

LatteLazy··on Scientist exposes anti-wind groups as oil-funded, now they want to silence him
Weird: My YouTube feed is suddenly (as of last night) full of “Landman” shorts and I was trying to work out wtf it even is? This makes a lot more sense now, thanks.
LatteLazy··on Denmark summons top US diplomat over alleged Greenland influence operation
I think we’re at risk of confusing 2 issues here

1. Has the pressure for more intervention and an EU armed forces gone up?

2. What will that look like, who will pay for it, who will control it, will Germany dominate it etc

I am just saying trump is driving point (1). How or whether (2) is solved is another matter and a more complex thing.

I personally think as need goes up, ways are found. So far people have been unwilling because the points above (2) outweigh the need (1). If trump invaded Greenland then I imagine people would be much more willing to engage even if it meant paying, accepting German leadership (or Germany accepting less oversight despite paying?) etc.

We have already seen France unilaterally extend its nuclear umbrella.

That is what happened with finances: Germany wouldn’t accept EU wide debt, and many countries wouldn’t accept German style fiscal constraints. Then the euro crisis forced both sides to compromise and here we are with both.

I hope it doesn’t take an actual military crisis to force the matter here. But one (two actually, trump on one side, Russia on the other) is looking available…

LatteLazy··on Denmark summons top US diplomat over alleged Greenland influence operation
The US has spent decades preventing and delaying the EU becoming a defacto state with a single army and significant foreign policy.

Now trump is driving its creation in a single term.

LatteLazy··on Prison isn’t set up for today’s tech so we have to do legal work the old way
This is true in an ideal world where we have unlimited resources and all other services are already fully funded. But that is not the world we live in.

How many laptops will you remove from schools to provide to prisons? How many people should lose Medicare coverage to pay to have someone manually check the gbs of material a flash drive sent to or from a prisoner contains?

And all this because lawyers don’t want to just hit print?

LatteLazy··on How well does the money laundering control system work?
That’s tax evasion.

Money laundering is disguising the source or use of funds (making illegally sourced cash look legally sourced).

Plenty of people would (do) happily pay some tax on cash as part of avoiding difficult questions about the source.

LatteLazy··on Staff disquiet as Alan Turing Institute faces identity crisis
The UK has a bunch of serious issues.

But actually fixing them would require hard decisions.

So our government wants to look like it is frantically working to achieve these things (fix our housing crisis etc). But absolutely not making the changes needed.

So they announce things like the Turing institute to look busy. Then dump weird requirements on it to look like they’re doing things. Then defund it (because it was never meant to be a real thing, just a donkey to pin press releases on).

See also the “Spaceports” we built, our “massive breakthroughs” in fusion energy and SMRs, Heathrow extension etc…

LatteLazy··on Trump Orders National Guard to Washington and Takeover of Capital’s Police
Ummm, the law cited by the Chief clearly states the guard can be called to assist by the senate sergeant at arms OR the house sergeant at arms OR the Capitol Police board.

Pelosi didn’t do it. But she wasn’t responsible for doing it, and the board Mr Sund chaired could have done it themselves much faster.

And all of this is just what they are allowed. It did not stop trump from doing his job. Which he didn’t…

https://policy.defense.gov/portals/11/Documents/hdasa/refere...

Provision of assistance Assistance under this section shall be provided -

(A) consistent with the authority of the Capitol Police under sections 1961 and 1966 of this title;

(B) upon the advance written request of -

(i) the Capitol Police Board; or

(ii) in an emergency -

(I) the Sergeant at Arms and Doorkeeper of the Senate in any matter relating to the Senate; or

(II) the Sergeant at Arms of the House of Representatives in any matter relating to the House of Representatives; and

(C)(i) on a temporary and reimbursable basis;

(ii) on a permanent reimbursable basis upon advance written request of the Capitol Police Board; or

(iii) on a temporary basis without reimbursement by the Department of Defense and the Coast Guard as described under paragraph (1)

LatteLazy··on Apple announces American Manufacturing Program
I feel like this is just harmless PR no?

People have pointed out that brands all put rainbows on their public docs for pride month. But not in Islamic countries and much less with Trump in power etc.

This is just the same effect but for US nationalists no?

Actual decisions and spending/investment etc will continue to be driven by economics. But PR is about who you want to reassure/appease/curry favour with. And the two are basically independent.

LatteLazy··on Kaleidos – A portable nuclear microreactor that replaces diesel generators
Lookslike more vapourware:

* no prices

* no dates, just "2026" (elsewhere 2028).

* no pictures even of prototypes just computer graphics.

* helium is notoriously hard to keep from leaking

* it's all just way too promising and convenient and appealing. Who doesn't want a reactor that fits in a shipping container? Who doesn't want reliable, clean energy? Who doesn't like hospitals and the military? Does it also release puppies and cure cancer?

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