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bickfordb

721 karma · joined May 24, 2009

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bickfordb··on Topcoat is pushing the boundary of server applications with Rust
I haven't tried to the web app part but I've tried Toasty. The API seemed to be a little simpler and nicer to use than SeaORM for me. Here are a few things I liked in Toasty:

- In SQLite UUIDs are default stored as compact blobs instead of inefficient varchar/text (SeaORM)

- Timestamps were easier via jiff instead of chrono (SeaORM)

- Model structs use the actual name of the $table instead of being named like $tablemodule.(Model|ActiveModel) (SeaORM) they are just $Table. This makes writing libraries a little simpler that need to use entity struct's from two separate modules/crates otherwise you get a name collision on Model/ActiveModel and need to do alias imports.

- There's an API to fetch related data to a query similar to Django ORM. IIRC this is missing from SeaORM

- The query expression language doesn't cover as much of SQL as SeaORM but seems to be enough for most web apps.

- I didn't like how the migration system works. I would skip that part of the library

bickfordb··on Unknown number of Texas voter registrations went unprocessed due to DPS error
It's a distinct blue/red state issue. Blue states go out of their way to register as many of their residents as possible and allow same day registration.

The red states, Republicans use it as a tool to reduce participation of urban, non-white voters and reduce overall participation. They don't consider systematic, passive voter suppression techniques to be voter fraud.

bickfordb··on Uber arbitration award over Emily Normandin-Parker’s death
Arbitration can be more efficient, but both parties should have an option to choose it, a direct settlement or public court. The average consumer is denied the choice by using these everyday services that have non-negotiable contracts.
bickfordb··on German Rheinmetall open-sources its Battlesuite connected weapon system protcol
It will be exhilarating when their robots are pointing guns at us
bickfordb··on Most people prefer traditional architecture
Everyone loves the SF painted ladies but no one seems to build new ones.
bickfordb··on New $100k H-1B visa fee pushes tech jobs offshore
I don't believe it is (someone who knows two languages isn't remarkable, someone who can teach others isn't remarkable), but there should probably be a visa for that if we need it. I personally don't believe even a lot of the software/IT industry jobs merit H1Bs.

They work abroad under the respective country's work visa. H1B is US specific, specific visa. The US has plenty of other work visas.

bickfordb··on New $100k H-1B visa fee pushes tech jobs offshore
The H1B was intended for highly specialized skills that where there is no local talent available.
bickfordb··on Taylor Farms: How One Company's Reach Became a National Risk
Consolidation seems to have lead to massive price leverage for the winners and fewer choices for consumers, huge barriers to entry for small grocers and manufacturers
bickfordb··on Remote workers report the highest well-being in study of 7,700 employees
Seems like a good case for unions if workers prefer remote, but can't get it through typical one on one negotiation.
bickfordb··on PM Carney announces largest clean energy investment in North American history
And they fill up with silt and generate less power over time.
bickfordb··on Apple says more ex-employees may have taken confidential data to OpenAI
I think it's notable that Apple is vague about what was actually stolen and what OpenAI has actually received.

I read into these PR blasts, lawsuits that Apple is sour about losing employees to higher salary opportunities, and is likely using lawsuits instead of higher salaries to retain them.

bickfordb··on Anti-fraud tools can't keep pace with robocall scammers
Maybe this is a pipe dream, but wouldn't it be better to retire the legacy phone voice and messaging system altogether.

If 99.9% of us have internet phones, why aren't we using PKI, decentralized protocols, crowd sourced reputation to communicate instead of POTS phone numbers, SMS/iChat and relying on the carriers to police spam.

bickfordb··on GM Backs Sodium Ion Batteries for U.S. Grid Storage
For something like a battery backup that last decades that doesn't need maintenance, maybe you could bury it out of the way (like under a deck or lawn?), maybe even under the frost line.
bickfordb··on FDA advisors unanimously vote to approve Moderna's mRNA after agency drama
Results are fuzzy. He has a nice Malibu compound to go to after this lived experience
bickfordb··on Is Meta destroying its engineering organization?
Then all the engineers will get to rejoin their outies.
bickfordb··on New U.S. college grads now have higher unemployment than the average worker
I believe we have a competitive construction market, but anti-urbanization zoning regulations, overzealous bespoke building codes and inflation in construction material prices has made construction relatively more expensive than in previous eras in the US.

Aside from housing, every professional sector has been taken over and hollowed out by private equity or big tech. My grocery store, vet, plumber and doctors are all PE.

bickfordb··on Can the stockmarket swallow Anthropic, SpaceX and OpenAI?
The only reason I can think of for the accelerated S&P 500 inclusion of SpaceX is a pump and dump
bickfordb··on US healthcare still stupidly expensive, with pathetic outcomes, study finds
If it's expensive and in a for profit system, why aren't competitors on the supply side undercutting each other to increase sales?
bickfordb··on Greg Brockman interview [video]
One reform I would make would be to limit tax breaks to actual charitable activity within an organization, instead of a blanket tax break to the whole organization. For example if a Church/Hospital runs a soup kitchen and homeless shelter, those resources should be tax free, but maybe the rest of their activities shouldn't be by default.

Another reform I would make would be around independent governance and removing donor control of charities to reduce the number of sham Rich Guy foundations.

bickfordb··on Colombia hosts talks on exiting fossil fuels as global energy crisis deepens
FWIW, a number of the panels I've looked at are rated for 50 years
bickfordb··on SpaceX says it has agreement to acquire Cursor for $60B
Maybe this already exists, but it would be great if one of the major index ETFs omitted all the firms with problematic board governance like there is at Tesla, SpaceX.
bickfordb··on All phones sold in the EU to have replaceable batteries from 2027
Aside from an easily swap-able battery I would love for an iPhone with a double thickness screen that was less susceptible to cracking and built-in rubber bumpers so I wouldn't need a case.
bickfordb··on OpenAI's $852B valuation faces investor scrutiny amid strategy shift, FT reports
What evidence is there that he knows how to build an empire outside of fundraising?
bickfordb··on Show HN: Sycamore – next gen Rust web UI library using fine-grained reactivity
The Dioxus library seems really similar to me. How is Sycamores model different?
bickfordb··on New Washington state law bans noncompete agreements
I also see these as reasonable since they are part of the negotiation of selling the business. Non-competes as it relates to most ordinary employees in the US is typically a contract of adhesion: a surprise take it or leave it clause while signing an employment agreement, well after a job offer and salary negotiation.
bickfordb··on Supreme Court Sides with Cox in Copyright Fight over Pirated Music
I wonder what effect this will have on file sharing services like Megaupload?
bickfordb··on John Carmack about open source and anti-AI activists
Carmack was a shareware/proprietary software guy way before he was a open source person if ever.
bickfordb··on Judge orders government to begin refunding more than $130B in tariffs
Section 122 has rarely been used. State AGs announced lawsuits today: https://www.cnbc.com/2026/03/05/trump-tariffs-state-ags-sue-...
bickfordb··on Judge orders government to begin refunding more than $130B in tariffs
The latest temporary tariffs are also likely illegal.
bickfordb··on President Trump bans Anthropic from use in government systems
This shouldn't be understated.

Also, implicit in the government's requirements is that they require mass domestic surveillance capabilities. Imagine a large government tool that for each citizen there is an antagonist OpenClaw-like set of agents surveilling and potentially acting against every public interaction and occasionally hallucinating.

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