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drewrv

3,467 karma · joined November 6, 2011

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drewrv··on How each pillar of the First Amendment is under attack
Every video that has been broadcast has been edited I'm not sure what your point is.
drewrv··on Annual 'winners' for most egregious US healthcare profiteering announced
Why would working in tech shield someone from our healthcare system?

“Most bankruptcies occurred in middle-class citizens with health insurance” https://www.amjmed.com/article/S0002-93430900525-7/fulltext

If you haven’t been harmed by our system, it’s not because you’re immune. It’s because you’re lucky.

drewrv··on Scientific American's departing editor and the politicization of science
There is a virus lab in Wuhan because a lot of coronaviruses originate in that region. Its existence/location is not evidence of a lab leak.

If anything, the lab leak “theory” has received too much media attention when the primary evidence (location of a lab) is easily explained by other factors.

Imagine a virus was spread from penguins to humans. It would not be surprising if research on the virus were conducted in Antarctica!

drewrv··on AWS CEO tells workers to quit if they don't want to come back to the office
Work from home is good for people who have to work in-person, because it lessens the spread.

Also, just because I have a job that has some level of risk does not mean I would expect others to have a similar level of risk. Especially if it can be easily mitigated.

drewrv··on Tesla Robotaxi
I actually think we’ll get break even fusion energy before mass adoption of robotaxis in a variety of locales.
drewrv··on Ask HN: What is happening in tech unrelated to AI?
AR/VR is in a hype superposition, large companies have made large investments yet the tech is arguably in the "trough of disillusionment". Few people think it will break into mainstream use anytime soon.

So far, 99% of sales are in the "expensive gaming accessory" category. There is fun and interesting UI and gameplay innovation happening here.

The one non-gaming thing everyone seems to want is just a large virtual desktop workspace. Apple has probably come closest here. It sounds like an easy problem but without a high resolution and a wide field of view, it's not a good experience.

drewrv··on Who is Marcellus Williams: Execution in Missouri despite evidence of innocence
Because their prophet was murdered by the state. It seems weird that a religion would be pro-execution when their founding was, in part, "innocent man was executed".

I'm sure believers have jumped through the hoops required to justify it but from the outside, one would expect a country that is majority christian to oppose executions.

drewrv··on Orion, our first true augmented reality glasses
That’s a great little keyboard, it reminds me of early smartphone keyboards in a good way.

I wonder if Apple decided against a controller in order to allow third party solutions to flourish . They can take their time and see what people gravitate towards.

drewrv··on Orion, our first true augmented reality glasses
From using various VR systems, a hololens, and reading reviews of the vision pro I really feel like hand gestures are a bad way to interact with AR systems. They might work in a pinch (heh) but some sort of small controller that can act as a pointer and has a button or two is superior in every way.

It's interesting that meta went through the effort of bundling an accessory but stuck with hand gestures anyway.

drewrv··on Amazon employees: 'I'd rather go back to school than work in an office again'
Are they? I don't know any factory workers but I have friends outside of tech and they can all relate to "arbitrary rules from management that make my job harder are frustrating".
drewrv··on Amazon tells employees to return to office five days a week
Startup market is fine, there are just fewer big companies than the bay.
drewrv··on France high-speed rail traffic disrupted by 'malicious acts' on Olympic ceremony
> We can be glad we have cars, trucks and roads that are a bit more resistant to attacks.

Cars/trucks/roads are so much more dangerous than train travel that it actually seems worth the tradeoff to me even if these sorts of attacks were a regular occurrence. Putin (or whoever did this) sucks but they have not killed 1,105 Americans in a single year. That's just the number of cyclists killed by cars in 2022. Deaths of pedestrians and drivers/passengers are significantly higher.

https://www.usnews.com/news/top-news/articles/2024-06-24/us-...

drewrv··on Anxious Generation – How Safetyism and Social Media Are Damaging the Kids
Even if colleges are more censorious these days (which I’m skeptical of), I struggle to think of any institution in American life more open minded than colleges.

Mainstream media acts as a hive mind. Businesses do not host speakers critical of their operations. Silicon Valley VCs are among the most fragile minds out there.

drewrv··on Anxious Generation – How Safetyism and Social Media Are Damaging the Kids
Heavily armed psychos have been charging into schools to slaughter innocents regularly, for decades now, and those in power have done nothing to stop it.

But the kids must be anxious because of phones.

drewrv··on Anxious Generation – How Safetyism and Social Media Are Damaging the Kids
This data does not indicate a “shift”, since it’s a point in time and we’d need historical data to claim there’s a shift. If the argument is about a “generational shift” then you’d need data going back decades at least.
drewrv··on SCOTUS Rules That US Government Can Continue Talking to Social Media Companies
If their analysis is inconsistent and arbitrary then it’s worse than useless, it’s harmful.

It’s not hard to do better. The legal analysis of “I’m just doing what I want based on vibes” would be better, because at least it would be honest!

drewrv··on SCOTUS Rules That US Government Can Continue Talking to Social Media Companies
303 Creative was not prosecuted under Colorado's law. They were not even asked to create a wedding website for a gay couple: https://newrepublic.com/article/173987/mysterious-case-fake-...

In fact, there is no evidence they had ever built a wedding website: https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2023/06/real-story-behin...

So, we have someone who has never suffered a harm from the law, was under no risk of prosecution, and who had never even had the opportunity to violate the law. If this person has standing, then standing is meaningless.

The fact that there's a blurb about it in a decision is irrelevant, does the court have a consistent philosophy on standing, or are they just winging it? It seems really obvious they're winging it.

drewrv··on SCOTUS Rules That US Government Can Continue Talking to Social Media Companies
Standing is just an excuse to punt. Lack of standing did not stop them in 303 Creative v Elenis, nor did it stop them in Biden v Nebraska.
drewrv··on Silicon Valley's best kept secret: Founder liquidity
> They created and secured a thing

They did not do that alone. If they had, there would be no employees to keep secrets from.

drewrv··on Hybrid working from home improves retention without damaging performance
My anecdotal experience regarding pay has been the opposite, at least here in Seattle. The employers who require people to come in a few days a week are all big corps who pay quite well.

I wonder if the relative pay depends on the cost of living. If you're in a small town with limited local opportunities then you can get a higher salary by searching for remote work. But if you're in a high cost of living city then the employers who require you to be there have to pay enough to make it worthwhile.

drewrv··on New telescope images of Jupiter's moon Io rival those from spacecraft
How does the "compensation for atmospheric turbulence" work? It honestly sounds impossible, like those tv shows where the detective "enhances" a blurry photo.
drewrv··on Social Security now expected to run short on funds in 2035, one year later
They tax people, especially high earners, at a higher rate than Americans. It’s not complicated. The US is the wealthiest country in the history of the planet. We could afford to fund social security if we wanted to but some people are opposed to it.
drewrv··on Read Google's memo warning employees to 'think again'
I suspect for many of the employees this was an intentional way of leaving. Personally I could never work for a company that profits from war like Lockheed or Raytheon. Few people think of Google in that light, so bringing attention to it on your way out seems reasonable. That's not how I'd handle it, but it seems understandable to me.
drewrv··on Read Google's memo warning employees to 'think again'
Is there any deeper reporting on this?

There seems like a big disconnect between Google's claims: "defaced our property, physically impeded the work of other Googlers... and made co-workers feel threatened" and the claims of the arrested employee: "The group of employees sat in the office and gave chants and speeches every 15 to 20 minutes until about 6 p.m."

drewrv··on NPR suspends veteran editor as it grapples with his public criticism
I agree, but the solution is to consume a variety of news sources rather than expecting some perfect formula from one.
drewrv··on NPR suspends veteran editor as it grapples with his public criticism
Probably. Every news organization gets stories wrong. That’s why reputable news sites issue corrections: https://www.npr.org/corrections/
drewrv··on NPR suspends veteran editor as it grapples with his public criticism
A news organization that chased “diversity of opinion” would not be a good news organization.

Some opinions are not worth entertaining. If NPR were broadcasting the rantings of flat earthers, Sasquatch hunters, and anti-vax weirdos, it may be entertaining but it wouldn’t be news.

Also: the reason DEI initiatives ignore “diversity of political views” is because that is not a trait you are born with.

drewrv··on NPR suspends veteran editor as it grapples with his public criticism
Do those charts actually show a shift in content, or is it merely a shift in terminology?
drewrv··on NPR suspends veteran editor as it grapples with his public criticism
I’m curious to hear about your media diet because that has not been the case for me.
drewrv··on Harvard will require test scores for admission again
The US has a notoriously terrible social safety net compared to peer countries. The "worst-performing public schools" are using their money to provide food, transportation, healthcare, and counseling services in addition to academics.
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