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akira2501

11,987 karma · joined June 10, 2010

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akira2501··on DNA testing company vanishes along with its customers' genetic data
> This sort of thing was only a matter of time.

In the current single vendor model. An intermediary could accept the samples, blind identities, then provide a "one time" mechanism for retrieving results.

Bill Burr's take was pretty good. "What.. I'm going to spit in a tube and mail it into the internet?"

akira2501··on It's time to replace TCP in the datacenter (2023)
> If Homa becomes widely deployed, I hypothesize that core congestion will cease to exist as a significant networking problem, as long as the core is not systemically overloaded.

Yep. Sure; but, what happens when it becomes overloaded?

> Homa manages congestion from the receiver, not the sender. [...] but the remaining scheduled packets may only be sent in response to grants from the receiver

I hypothesize it will not be a great day when you do become "systemically" overloaded.

akira2501··on Voyager 1 breaks its silence with NASA via radio transmitter not used since 1981
I think fascination with apocalypse is the fear of our individual mortality combined with the fear of missing out.
akira2501··on Everything Is Just Functions: Insights from SICP and David Beazley
It may be elegant mathematically, but then conveyed through a language that is strictly in the ASCII character set without any alignment or internal justification, they're really just painful to look at.
akira2501··on Apple's mouse is so bad that Tim Cook prefers using a different brand for work
> People are just using it wrong

Oh. I broke my arm 5 years ago. I use everything "wrong" now. I have no other choice.

I've come to absolutely hate products and designers that can't grok this basic fact of life.

akira2501··on Two Nobel Prize winners want to cancel their own CRISPR patents in Europe
> In the US, the Broad Institute has also been selling licenses to use CRISPR.

Including patents owned by MIT, no? It feels like this could use a disclosure and some additional context to understand where the incentives here are. I've walked away feeling like I know less after having read this.

akira2501··on Could DOGE cut $2T? The legal and practical reality of government reform
The Administration creates the budget and submits it to congress. This is why the Administrative office of "Management and Budget" exists. This happens every year and has for as long as I've been alive.

I believe you're referencing "budget resolutions" which are not law and have a more complicated relationship to the process.

https://www.usa.gov/federal-budget-process

akira2501··on Military's UFO-hunting aerial surveillance system detailed in report
> Yes, in a way I'm acting deliberately obtuse about the proverb

I would call it intentionally ignorant. Please try googling for "best book for learning polish" then flip to the image search. Which one is actually the best? Can you tell from here?

> It is not hard to find proverbs that assert falsehoods.

Yet it is easy to find organizations with terrible logos that still do good work.

akira2501··on Could DOGE cut $2T? The legal and practical reality of government reform
The executive requests the budget. Congress approves it.

The key thing here is the "Due Care Clause." The administration is required to implement our laws with "due care." If there's a law on the books the administration is required to enforce it. The means and expected effectiveness of that enforcement are often not specified.

akira2501··on Stop making me memorize the borrow checker
> This is why I call C a minefield.

Computing is a series of "minefields." At least you get a map of this particular one.

I'm far more confronted by public facing APIs that involve user authentication than I am of any particular documented set of language facts.

akira2501··on Military's UFO-hunting aerial surveillance system detailed in report
> does not inspire confidence in the programme or its mission

Literally judging an entire book by it's cover.

This is the DoD. There is absolutely guidance and rules already in place for creating, developing and approving new insignia. It's highly likely the people involved in the program had the least to do with it, and it's terribly unreasonable to judge the entire group by it.

akira2501··on We’re receiving about 3,000 reports/hour
> involves like-minded people identifying into a group and having their access to conversation enabled by that identification.

I don't think it has anything to do with "identification." It has to do with interest. If your groups are centered around identity then that will be prioritized over content.

Content needs little moderation. Identity needs constant moderation.

akira2501··on Treating bullying as everyone's problem reduces incidence in primary schools
A social body relies on signals. If the signals are not predictable then you're facing the exact same problem. You've also opened the door on a single bad signal infecting the social body and pushing towards outcomes that would not occur if that single influence was not otherwise present.

If you're going to rely on this dynamic, then you're going to have this consideration.

akira2501··on Netflix buffering issues: Boxing fans complain about Jake Paul vs. Mike Tyson
> Their combined institutional knowledge about live events and streaming distribution

Now if they could just get audio levels and compression figured out.

akira2501··on Netflix buffering issues: Boxing fans complain about Jake Paul vs. Mike Tyson
> If you watch it over cable, you're live streaming it.

Those are multicast feeds.

> Trying to push a live IP stream directly from the remote live venue rarely works as expected.

In my experience it almost always works as expected. We have highly specialized codecs and equipment for this. The stream is actively managed with feedback from the receiver so parameters can be adjusted for best performance on the fly. Redundant connections and multiple backhauls are all handled automatically.

> That's precisely why the broadcasters/networks do not do it that way

We use fixed point links and satellite where possible because we own the whole pipe. It's less coordination and effort to setup and you can hit venues and remotes where fixed infrastructure is difficult or impossible to install.

akira2501··on Treating bullying as everyone's problem reduces incidence in primary schools
Game theory of bullying. Which works right up until you realize a lot of bullies have mental health issues and are probably not going to produce identical "rationalized" results to someone who isn't.
akira2501··on Treating bullying as everyone's problem reduces incidence in primary schools
> we were all afraid of him but now we're all best friends

All without addressing the underlying problem that made people afraid of Tom in the first place?

> with excellent outcomes.

Apparently excellent short term outcomes. The real question is does this actually solve the long term problem and is it possible that the strategies used to create this outcome actually aggravate long term outcomes?

akira2501··on Chimpanzees' performance on computer tasks changes when people watching them
> The significance of witnesses to humans under various contexts could be explained by the importance of reputation management to our species.

It could also be explained as the researches accidentally recreating "Clever Hans."

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clever_Hans

akira2501··on FTC to launch investigation into Microsoft's cloud business
Bankruptcy is a part of law for a reason. They can choose to restructure or to sell off. This is healthy turnover.

And how you are disadvantaged by two robot vacuum cleaner manufacturers not merging? Would you feel differently if you worked for one of them?

You've cherry picked two examples. This is mud slinging and not genuine analysis.

akira2501··on FTC to launch investigation into Microsoft's cloud business
Okay. I relied on this wikipedia entry. [0]

Which states "As of April 2021, of the total fifty U.S. states, approximately thirty have an age of consent of 16 (with this being the most common age of consent in the country), a handful set the age of consent at 17, and in about eleven states the age is 18."

Which clearly seems like a majority to me.

I think you're confusing "Unrestricted" with "Restricted by Authority." You'll note that the "Restricted by Authority" age is often younger than the "Unrestricted" age. Which accounts for our different tallies. [1]

[0]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Age_of_consent_in_North_Americ...

[1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Age_of_consent_in_the_United_S...

akira2501··on Costco’s butter recall, explained
> should probably be probably labeled contains no milk.

What about other products that contain no milk? Shouldn't they do this as well? Should every package list what it doesn't have?

> that one standard line of text

This is the point. The packaging is entirely up to the manufacturer. Should the FDA approve every food package before it's used? We obviously can't do that. What we can do is mandate a few "standard lines of text." So that regardless of the packaging decisions consumers can still determine the facts quickly and _reliably_.

Think of people with allergies that have low vision or any other handicap which would make all these "good enough" ideas become dangerous.

akira2501··on Costco’s butter recall, explained
> FDA is recommending throwing out the butter

It's a recall. You want to avoid any further confusion. You go with the simplest instructions possible. Just because they recommend you throw it away doesn't mean you actually _have_ to.

> "return it because it was not clear this was a dairy based butter"

What value does returned butter have? It's not something we can refurbish. It would be ultimately be thrown away anyways.

akira2501··on FTC to launch investigation into Microsoft's cloud business
I'm going to miss Lina Khan. It is unfortunate that a government contractor with a dumb grudge is going to be allowed to decide her fate. As far as I can tell she's been doing great work over there.
akira2501··on Tesla has the highest fatal accident rate of all auto brands, study finds
Actually that would be Texas. Texas has more road fatalities than California. This is _not_ per capita, but in total, which is an interesting statistical point in and of itself.

The data is really easy to get. I wish more people would avail themselves of it.

akira2501··on Tesla has the highest fatal accident rate of all auto brands, study finds
> 99.9% of drivers

I think you've just made that up; however, I am willing to stipulate that 99.9% of Hacker News posters will never tow anything. I always forget how out of touch the audience here is.

akira2501··on Tesla has the highest fatal accident rate of all auto brands, study finds
> every ICE vehicle feels painfully sluggish and slow.

You don't do much towing, do you?

akira2501··on Tesla has the highest fatal accident rate of all auto brands, study finds
> and loaded with features

"Ludicrous mode."

> the top killer of drivers are trees on the side of the road.

It's actually alcohol and drugs. Which is the reason those drivers find themselves in the trees.

akira2501··on Tesla has the highest fatal accident rate of all auto brands, study finds
The authority and requirement to operate FARS extends from US Title Code.

Aside from that misuse and intentional misunderstanding of the FARS statistics is readily used by Tesla as a justification for their FSD system.

akira2501··on Something weird is happening with LLMs and chess
There are some who suggest that modern chess is mostly a game of memorization and not one particularly of strategy or skill. I assume this is why variants like speed chess exist.

In this scope, my mental model is that LLMs would be good at modern style long form chess, but would likely be easy to trip up with certain types of move combinations that most humans would not normally use. My prediction is that once found they would be comically susceptible to these patterns.

Clearly, we have no real basis for saying it is "good" or "bad" at chess, and even using chess performance as an measurement sample is a highly biased decision, likely born out of marketing rather than principle.

akira2501··on The Internet Gopher from Minnesota
Or if you're interested in the old school mainframe equivalent.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ISPF

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