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Spoom

2,158 karma · joined December 29, 2011

Web developer. Email is https://mailhide.io/e/dAPA2kHk
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Spoom··on Student teacher arrested for private Snapchat message
It's like their system prompts have a line that says, "Use analogies everywhere. Humans love analogies."
Spoom··on What happens if an entire class of workers loses faith in their careers
I remember those days. Lots of software was also export restricted, but the Internet being what it is, I doubt those restrictions mattered much to folks who wanted effective encryption, who would likely just say they were in the US.
Spoom··on US agency ends 39% household cap on local TV station owners
Someone tell me how it would be "in the public interest" to allow one owner to control more than 50% of the market.
Spoom··on Windows 10 quietly gets one more year of support and updates
FWIW HDR works fine in Linux. Steam Deck (which runs it) has HDR support, both for its interface and for games. Bit confused by your comment, honestly.
Spoom··on Want your images back? Sure... That'll be $5!
Your bank sucks. The few times I've done a chargeback, it's been totally pain free. I do advise trying to get a refund informally first as that is expected by the CC networks.
Spoom··on Please don't spam people looking for employment. It's just cruel
Usually it's the Phillipines or an African country or something, but so very many times.
Spoom··on United Airlines 767 returns to Newark after Bluetooth name sparks alert
> Nope. Look at the flight track. They went all the way back.

Good point, I was thinking they were over the ocean and that was naturally the closest airport, but it looks like they could have landed in e.g. Nova Scotia in a shorter time period.

Spoom··on United Airlines 767 returns to Newark after Bluetooth name sparks alert
Isn't that what they did?
Spoom··on Dutch suicide prevention website shares data with tech companies without consent
I thought the same thing but it's still not a good look. The big tech companies offering this sort of thing should probably find ways to give better guarantees about data isolation, even if that requires e.g. clients paying additional fees.
Spoom··on Rumors of my death are slightly exaggerated
Heya Tom, it's Bob, from the office down the hall
Spoom··on Changes to GitHub Copilot individual plans
As of right now, it says Pro includes Code and Cowork. (At least, for me. There could always be A/B testing going on.)
Spoom··on Google broke its promise to me – now ICE has my data
While this is true, very often that is the impact of a third party vote in a federal election. See the election of one George W. Bush and the impact of Mr. Nader.
Spoom··on Meta Horizon Worlds on Meta Quest is being discontinued
The product isn't Facebook, Quest, or Instagram. The product isn't advertising. The product isn't even people.

The product is the stock price.

Viewed through that lens, keeping the hype going at all costs makes sense.

Spoom··on Malus – Clean Room as a Service
Realistically, if it in fact did take 5 minutes to do the cleanroom reimplementation, you could just process updates from the OSS source in realtime.
Spoom··on World-first gigabit laser link between aircraft and geostationary satellite
I love that this was ostensibly written by Vint Cerf.
Spoom··on Orchestrate teams of Claude Code sessions
Good lord, I can only imagine the wasted electricity.
Spoom··on Ask HN: Who wants to be hired? (February 2026)

  Location: Pittsburgh, PA, USA
  Remote: Yes
  Willing to relocate: Not likely, but would consider remote positions in Canada (I am a dual citizen) and USA and hybrid positions in Pittsburgh
  Technologies: Java, Typescript, Angular, SQL, NoSQL, PHP, Python, CSS, HTML
  Résumé/CV: https://docs.google.com/document/d/19-JBiTUOvajWGmigGGf3BKkf_I4x5SnWS6JWEqRkLxg/edit?usp=sharing
  Email: my first name at my first name my last name dot com
Evaluating options after a reorg at Google, where I have been an Engineering Manager for about five years, and a full stack web app developer before that. Prior to Google, I worked at various sizes of startups from 4 to 200 employees, and have freelanced as well. Would consider Engineering Manager, TL, and Senior / Staff+ Eng positions.
Spoom··on Apple to soon take up to 30% cut from all Patreon creators in iOS app
> Everybody will slowly move to "web only" as 30% would kill their ability to compete with anybody else.

Frankly, yes, please. I mean, I'm biased as my whole career is in web app development, but there are so many things these days that do not need a whole native app. They're just communicating with a server backend somewhere, using none of the unique native functionality of the phone (much of which is available in browser APIs these days anyway). I can block ads in a web app much more easily. It's much harder to do customer-hostile things like block screenshots in a web app.

Native apps definitely have a place, but I think they're very overused, mostly for reasons that benefit the business at the expense of the customer.

Spoom··on Proof of Corn
> AI doesn't need to drive a tractor. It needs to orchestrate the systems and people who do.

I've been rather expecting AI to start acting as a manager with people as its arms in the real world. It reminds me of the Manna short story[1], where it acts as a people manager with perfect intelligence at all times, interconnected not only with every system but also with other instances in other companies (e.g. for competitive wage data to minimize opex / pay).

1. https://marshallbrain.com/manna1

Spoom··on Your job is to deliver code you have proven to work
Big companies would outsource this position within a year, I guarantee it. It's highly measurable which means it can be "optimized".
Spoom··on U.S. unemployment rose in November despite job gains
It's not that simple. I'll point you at this Harvard Law Review article[1] to start but shareholder value is not the only consideration for executives and doesn't even need to override.

1. https://harvardlawreview.org/print/vol-137/will-the-real-sha...

Spoom··on Fix HDMI-CEC weirdness with a Raspberry Pi and a $7 cable
I dread the day that Logitech kills the servers for Harmony. If they don't release the IR code database, they're going to have a lot of people (myself included) pretty annoyed.

(To be clear, they still work today if you can get a second hand remote / hub.)

Spoom··on How long can it take to become a US citizen?
> Heck, we could just snatch people off the street and declare they cannot prove they are a citizen therefore they have no Constitutional protections.

I'm not sure if you intended this as a joke, but this is happening now, even if you do have proof of citizenship on you[1]:

> Congressman Bennie Thompson, ranking member of the House Homeland Security Committee, reported that “ICE officials have told us that an apparent biometric match by Mobile Fortify is a “definitive” determination of a person’s status and that an ICE officer may ignore evidence of American citizenship—including a birth certificate” when the app says a person is undocumented.

1. https://www.aclu.org/news/privacy-technology/ice-face-recogn...

Spoom··on How long can it take to become a US citizen?
Anecdotally as someone in a large tech company, fairly common and much easier to get than a lot of visa classes. But then, you have to be Canadian or Mexican (and the Canadian one is generally easier).

Also keep in mind that it's a non-immigrant, non-dual intent visa, so if you end up wanting to stay, you'll need to adjust to another class at some point.

Spoom··on How long can it take to become a US citizen?
I'm assuming good faith debate against my own judgment, but in case anyone is confused, here's your sign:

1st Amendment:

"Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances."

Read that carefully and note that the word "citizen" is nowhere to be found.

Next, some may argue that "the people" inherently represents only citizens. Jurisprudence has generally accepted that phrase to mean everyone, including illegal immigrants, but it depends on the surrounding context[1]. The idea that the Bill of Rights applies only to citizens, though, doesn't match any court interpretation of which I'm aware.

1. https://firstamendment.mtsu.edu/article/aliens/

Spoom··on How long can it take to become a US citizen?
> Thanks for the detailed answer, I think that'll be a relief for many. However, would you say this still is a volatile situation for people who are facing this issue? Are the rulings _final_ on this? Or is there chance of people getting stuck in limbo?

No, rulings are not final. SCOTUS could and very well may disagree with more than a hundred years of jurisprudence and overrule e.g. US v. Wong Kim Ark[1], enabling much easier denaturalization by the federal government. Here's an example article from a right-wing think tank about why they believe SCOTUS should overrule Ark[2].

1. https://www.oyez.org/cases/1850-1900/169us649

2. https://americanmind.org/features/the-case-against-birthrigh...

Spoom··on How long can it take to become a US citizen?
Executive orders cannot overrule the Constitution.

14th Amendment:

"All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside."

There are rumblings about "subject to the jurisdiction thereof" somehow excluding folks based on their immigration status, but frankly, the meaning is clear, and jurisprudence recognizes this. The jurisdiction carveout is for international diplomats, i.e. people who are literally not subject to US law. Immigrants, even illegal immigrants, are subject to US law. Stating otherwise would have vast repercussions.

Spoom··on Nearly all UK drivers say headlights are too bright
Wouldn't that, uh, make your own headlights invisible to you?
Spoom··on Amazon’s Ring to partner with Flock
You could additionally use encryption at rest where the key is only ever on the client.
Spoom··on Video game union workers rally against $55B private acquisition of EA
To be fair, a handful of large companies have explicitly said[1][2] that their layoffs were largely about individual performance. All my experience as a manager in a large tech company says that that's almost certainly not the whole story, and unfair to many of the folks getting let go, but official word from the companies say otherwise.

1. https://www.cnbc.com/2025/01/14/meta-targeting-lowest-perfor...

2. https://www.cnbc.com/2025/01/08/microsoft-confirms-performan...

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