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dsaavy

846 karma · joined July 5, 2018

I run a company that provides data capabilities for understaffed marketing teams - MergeYourData.com

Reach me via email: dan@ the above website name

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dsaavy··on Type 1 diabetes reversed by new cell transplantation technique
A little of both. Intermittent fasting didn't seem to have an impact. Longer fasts (longest I've done is 3 days) definitely do, I seem to have better control for the days following it.
dsaavy··on Type 1 diabetes reversed by new cell transplantation technique
I've been Type 1 for 20+ years and have measurable remissions based on blood tests. Low level functioning of pancreas again.

The thing that moved the needle for me was fasting + ultra running (which from my understanding implements a fasting-like response by the body in some ways).

Interesting that not eating for a while correlated with what seems like increased pancreatic activity...

dsaavy··on Is Tableau Dead?
Haha this is spot on.
dsaavy··on Americans don't believe middle class can afford homes
"believe" is a funny word to use for a mathematical equation
dsaavy··on Tesla claims California false-advertising law violates First Amendment
Like with the Pepsi jet commercial?
dsaavy··on Spotify will reduce total headcount by approximately 17%
A business by definition is not a valuable and transferrable business if every single person (including the C-suite) cannot be replaced without the business collapsing.

No one is immune to this or an exception. Top to bottom.

dsaavy··on 'AI' Is Supercharging Our Broken Healthcare System's Worst Tendencies
I agree, sounds like their systems are optimizing based on the roll-over limit.

Basically I'm just going back to cash pay and negotiation for everything either before the visit, or at the facility. Then using alternatives to health insurance for the original purpose of insurance (lol), to cover unexpected events.

dsaavy··on 'AI' Is Supercharging Our Broken Healthcare System's Worst Tendencies
Yep, and ever since a certain insurance provider has switched to an AI system, I've had nearly all my Type 1 Diabetic prescriptions rejected (that I've had no problem getting for over a decade).

Then it takes hours on the phone for every prescription to finally get one approved. Rinse and repeat every 3 months.

dsaavy··on Uses and abuses of cloud data warehouses
There are some ways around the heavy user issues that aren't ideal but will work for BI-oriented heavy users.
dsaavy··on Microsoft, OpenAI sued for ChatGPT 'privacy violations'
We're already on the way: https://www.rewind.ai/

Not on the phone yet, but on a Mac which could include iMessages.

dsaavy··on The impact of the ‘long peace’ on modern military capabilities
Agreed. Most modern forms of Western warfare are non-violent with occasional violent repercussions. It's not lining up troops and sending them places in uniforms, although that does happen.

It's economic, cyber, covert, cultural and other less noticeable sieges that cause collapse from the inside.

dsaavy··on More startups throw in the towel, unable to raise money for their ideas
Absolutely - when me and my team spend $50k to experiment (which is chump change for a funded company) and it fails, that hurts. It's coming out of my pockets. And because of that, I remember it and my team remembers it.

But it's also allowed us to focus solely on the problems our customers actually have and will spend money for. It forces service/product-market fit before attempts to scale.

We are a services business so it is different than SaaS, but same principles apply.

There are benefits to bootstrap and benefits to funded. I feel as if bootstrapping first is a great way to learn the lessons needed to be successful when you do something funded later on.

dsaavy··on Ask HN: Who is hiring? (June 2023)
MergeYourData.com | Data Engineer | Contract | Remote

We're looking to bring on a contractor for several projects that need assistance with data engineering and data architecture. You'll be working on GCP and AWS, and the architecture components will be determined by you and the team depending on the needs of the client.

Feel free to send an application to dan @ company name. Would be happy to share more about the specific projects, how we work, etc.

dsaavy··on Apple Vision Pro Is Apple's New VR Headset
Wondering how this is going to change the remote working experience. If the price point starts coming down, I can see this as really useful for digital "in-person" meetings that keep people more engaged than a Zoom call.

Intrigued to test this device out to see if it's really much different from the typical VR experiences.

dsaavy··on WFH – Watched from Home: Office 365 and workplace surveillance creep (2022)
I run a small consultancy and from employee one we've always purchased devices for our employees to work from. No excuse for a company not to do this.
dsaavy··on Yes, it's OK to be mad about crime in San Francisco
Kinda silly to assume that the data is an exact reflection of reality when that link is reporting on "incidents". Especially when you can visit the city and witness stark difference compared to walking around somewhere like Miami, Houston, or New York.

Incidents are actual reports to police, not a log of all activities happening in the city. Several factors can influence reporting rates in a city, causing over or underreporting. Especially if you doubt the effectiveness and corruptibility of the police. Homicides are direct reports of victims and more accurate.

Plus, the linked article is based on the San Francisco Police Department website's crime data. Not saying that nefarious activity is the case, but has this data been audited by a 3rd party? There's definitely an incentive to show that things are better than they are if funding, elections, etc. depend on it.

dsaavy··on Europe drastically cut its energy consumption this winter
Welcome to the majority of "journalism". All it takes is a look one or two levels down into the "facts" presented to realize they're wildly and poorly extrapolated to fit a narrative by whoever is paying the bills.
dsaavy··on Salesforce will lay off 10% of staff as part of restructuring
While the lock-in is real, there are other platforms that are catching up fast. My firm does Salesforce to HubSpot migrations as part of our services, and it's getting easier and easier to switch. Still takes time to retrain and shift business processes to a different philosophy, but we almost always see better usage of the platform, better data, and happier users.

HubSpot is not a replacement for hugely complex organizations that needs to dump tens of millions or more into a Salesforce instance (software + labor), but for mid-size and below it's great.

dsaavy··on You don't need live chat on your website
We have a simple chat window that only shows on exit on specific pages of our website (consulting firm). It's been a really efficient way to potential clients to start conversations with us and for us to get them quick and helpful answers. Saves both parties a lot of time and helps both qualify/disqualify each other a lot faster.
dsaavy··on Medtronic's MiniMed 600 insulin pumps potentially at risk of compromise
There was an entire data set released that had all the medical device injuries and malfunctions listed. Pretty interesting to dive into considering it wasn't previously public.

Article mentioning the previously non-public database: https://khn.org/news/hidden-fda-database-medical-device-inju...

FDA database that was eventually released: https://www.fda.gov/medical-devices/mandatory-reporting-requ...

As a Type 1 diabetic, insulin pumps are a game changer for the entire population that needs to use them. But I think it's understated the risks that come with the devices. In my opinion the benefits outweigh the risks but that is still something you should be able to determine on your own as a user.

Side note: One of the things I see a lot of diabetics miss with insulin pumps is how changes in altitude and air pressure can cause unintended delivery of insulin if you have air bubbles in the cartridge. For those who travel with insulin pumps, make sure to disconnect during changes in altitude (take-off and landing).

dsaavy··on The Economics of the Tesla Semi
If EVs became the primary automobile of drivers, and also became the primary semi-truck form on the road, the economics change significantly. When there's demand for charging from an additional tens of millions or hundreds of millions of vehicles in the US alone, my guess is that prices for electricity are going to increase significantly. Especially prices for any type of fast-charging capability while on the road.

Curious to see what this means in 10-20 years when comparing costs between EVs and ICEs.

That being said, long-term maintenance costs, reduction in road noise, etc. are all a win for EVs.

dsaavy··on Ask HN: Examples of large acquisitions that did not ruin the acquired company?
I've been working with Tableau for around 10 years and the most noticeable thing was making it easier for both developers and end-users to use the platform. Everything from mobile, to toolbar improvements, alerts, the API, etc. seem to have really come together.

Now, these could all have very well been in development before the acquisition, but as a whole, the capabilities have grown tremendously since that time.

Also, it seems like the licensing options for smaller businesses has really been focused on since the acquisition. It's become much more affordable for a small business to get and use Tableau compared to 4-5 years ago.

dsaavy··on Giving a shit as a service
There are a lot of people who already do this. Take a look at the MicroConf community started by Rob Walling. The middle class is growing in software, you just won't read about it (usually) on most of the social media platforms or news outlets because it's usually not a flashy story.
dsaavy··on Former U.S. congressman, operative pleads guilty to election fraud charges
Wonder what that small of a change would do for the right location in a Presidential election... Maybe like the year 2000 for Florida where Bush won by just over 500 votes lol.
dsaavy··on Ask HN: 6-hour workdays more important than 4-day workweeks IMO
Absolutely. I never understood why taking mid-day breaks and relaxing wasn't encouraged when I was a full-time employee. Coworkers even mentioned it regularly during conversations that their problems always seemed to be solved while on a walk, in the shower, etc.

When I started my own business I made it absolutely clear to the people I hired that the workday is just when you start and when you finish, but everything in between (including breaks, walks, lunch, etc.) are all part of "work". It's not like when you go to lunch you just stop thinking about the hard problem you were working on, and even if you do stop thinking about it, that's an important part of the mental digestion process.

dsaavy··on Twitter Terms of Service Diff
I've had an idea written down for a while about how it would be cool to have a tool like this but as a browser extension. It would show you exactly what on the page has been changed and also notify you when changes occur to pages or articles you "subscribe" to.

The idea would be that you can "subscribe" to news articles that are often updated, redacted, changed etc. with information that completely changes the entire story. Think about a major national event where the first reports were completely wrong, it's updated 3 days later with correct information, but the public still primarily believes the first version of the story.

Anyways, figured I'd share this idea (since ideas are worth $0 without execution). Hoping diffchecker or someone else could tackle a project like this!

dsaavy··on Tech Salaries in 2022: Why the Six Figure Pay Makes Techies Feel Underpaid
I like this analogy. Going to start using it as a metric in conversation.
dsaavy··on Ask HN: Who is hiring? (May 2022)
MergeYourData.com | Remote (US Only) | Orlando, FL | Full-time https://www.mergeyourdata.com/careers

Roles: Senior Data Engineer, Senior Tableau Developer, Junior and Mid-Level Automation Developer

MergeYourData.com provides Analytics and Automation as a Service. We look to guide and solve data and systems problems for businesses who don't have the budget or capabilities to build an in-house team of experts.

For all the listed positions, you'll be:

- Gathering requirements, planning, and building solutions with clients

- Working on a variety of problems using a variety of tools

- Delivering solutions utilizing cloud platforms

- Communicating and documenting your work both internally and with clients

Check out our careers page to see what we offer full-time employees and to apply for positions.

dsaavy··on Zapier: A $5B Unbundling Opportunity
For more complex things Zapier falls flat IMO. I've been using Make.com (formerly Integromat) and it offers way more flexibility and it's easier to configure for more complex automations.
dsaavy··on Apple Business Essentials now available for small businesses
When I called them about this exact issue what they told me is to register the second contact with your name reversed (last name as the first name and first name as the last name). Also use a different business email with the same domain for the second contact.

That seemed to do the trick.

One thing to take note of though is be very careful if you set up managed IDs and a verified domain through Apple Business Essentials. It locks devices down pretty heavily. I'm not familiar with this area of IT and didn't know that, although it might be pretty obvious to those who work in the space.

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