edgefield

I think a fairer analogy is always expecting a Google search to return factual, objective, and high quality information. Similar to Chat GPT, the results are often mixed and depend on the way you structure your search, the content area, etc.

A new VR arcade opened up in my area and I visited with my son. They were using HTC Vive headsets, which retail for $1,000+. It’s the first time I really used VR, especially in a couch coop mode setup. The following struck me:

(1) There is no killer, must have game for VR. Beat Saber seems to be the most popular and mainstream game but not nearly engaging enough to convince the mass market to buy one or more VR headsets. Related, we cycled through about 5 games and none of graphics were particular realistic or immersive. I didn’t walk a way from the experience thinking wow! And note I’ve had this “wow” experience playing PS4 games on a higher end TV that supports HDR.

(2) We had a 1 hour session with the goggles and I felt quite sea sick during and after gameplay. The headset was also uncomfortable after 30 minutes or so. Playing games while sea sick is about as much fun as it sounds. It’s pretty awful.

(3) The arcade was expensive. I paid nearly $100 for 1 hour for 2 people in a MCOL area. One of the reasons for the high cost is the arcade required an employee to help us cycle through games and explain gameplay and controls. It dawned on me after the experience that my son and I would have to buy two headsets, not just one, for any couch coop play. Maybe we’d have to buy two copies of games as well? Gaming is really becoming a social experience, which is why Fortnight is such a big hit because it’s essentially free and cross platform.

VR is dead in the water unless they bring to market must-have games (or other apps and Beat Saber is nowhere close to this), solve the sea sickness problem, and somehow bring down the cost so two headsets cost about as much as a current generation console.

I think it’s also very premature for Meta to go after the business market. It first needs to convince geeks like me to buy and evangelize about VR. If anything, my experience at the VR arcade convinced me NOT to buy VR goggles. Good luck building out a new market if this is a typical reaction to the state of VR today.

Buying a Tesla has a direct impact on Musk’s wealth and ability to lobby and spread his values, which are diametrically opposed to mine. I’ll spend my money elsewhere.

Try Culturelle and dairy with probiotics like yogurt. This seemed to resolve my lactose intolerance and IBS type symptoms.

I think you just hit the nail on the head with this comment.

We’re in a similar boat and have never set limits. Our two kids have learned to self moderate. They both like technology but get bored after a period of time and move on to other activities. We also encourage other activities with cub scouts, play dates, gymnastics, swim lessons and of course occasionally have to be strict with prioritizing homework. I give my partner credit for facilitating most of this. Maybe we’re lucky or maybe setting limits oddly fosters addiction?

Website is down…

As an aside, what if the “administrative apparatus” is as important as the academics? In SaaS companies, are sys admins and security engineers less important than the product developers? How important are the networking staff or the staff that handle backups? In higher ed, the administrative apparatus includes a myriad of critical functions and basic infrastructure such as advising, career services, mental health counseling, the registrar (course registration, transcripts), food services, the dormitories, building maintenance, cleaning services, IT, campus police, and on and on. Large universities are basically small cities.

Good story, but why not just call it “aerial view”?

I’m betting they collateralize the debt, selling all or a portion it off to reduce exposure.

I don’t think you know what your talking about. For instance, Victoria BC, the capital of British Columbia, Canada, didn’t have a waste sewage plant for the city until 2021. I’m quite sure many rich countries are still significantly polluting the land, sea, and air.

I sleep well at night. How about you?

Perhaps not unusual, but ethical? That’s a different matter. A former US general working for a theocratic, monarchy with a deeply concerning history on human rights raises some serious red flags in my mind.

Yes, because Google’s advertising based revenue model provides the right incentive scheme to discourage use of personal data to increase revenue and profits?

Have you seen the news about Pakistan? A third of the country has turned into an ocean. 1,000+ have died. Millions have lost their homes. This sounds pretty hostile to human life. Don’t you think?

As an aside, it’s striking to me that Hacker News has a significant audience of flat earthers. Don’t look up, right? Let’s be clear, human caused climate change is very real. Rigorous science confirms this and CO2 + methane levels are now driving very visible and catastrophic weather all over the world. The only thing left to debate is how quickly the planet will become hostile to human life and whether some scientific discovery (magic at the moment) can head off the worst outcomes.

Edit: The responses and downvoting in this thread just prove my point. Debating human caused climate change is no different than debating that the earth is round or that Trump won in 2020. Incredible.

I’m not an expert but my understanding is that the answer is “No.” For a company to employ someone legally in a country on a salary basis, the company and employee need to follow local tax and employment law. As you can imagine, these vary significantly from country to country. The only way around this to my knowledge is if the company sets up a legal operation in the country or hires via a third party “professional employment organization” (PEO). The company contracts with the PEO and the PEO hires the individual. The primary function of the PEO is to follows all of the local tax and employment laws. From my experience, PEOs increase employment cost by ~50% or more.

Lol. Thanks for the laugh.

It’s striking to me that Hacker News has a significant audience of flat earthers. Don’t look up, right? Let’s be clear, human caused climate change is very real. Rigorous science confirms this and CO2 + methane levels are now driving very visible and catastrophic weather all over the world.

Or fill the oceans with oil and set it on fire!

Teams chat seems to work fine on my 2021 MacBook Pro with M1 processor. We typically use zoom for video calls. MS Outlook on the other hand frequently crashes. Maybe there’s a memory leak issue?

Yes, magic is indeed the best solution.

The big problem is that due to feedback effects, there is no stopping at 1.5C unless we engage in highly risky mitigation techniques such as blocking sunlight with aerosols. Once permafrost begins to melt, fire season expands, and the planet's albedo shrinks, then warming begets more warming. We are already well along this path, and the feedback effects are now accelerating.

Having lived in Canada and the US, with telecom plans with providers in both countries, I think Canada’s telecoms take it to a new level. To give you a sense of how distorted the market is, it was cheaper for me to keep my US Verizon wireless plan than to use Rogers, Fido, etc. when I lived in Canada!

$200K in a HCOL area with a family is middle income and you’d be hard stretched to save much if anything.

Indeed. /$

Let’s explore all options that generate $$$ so we can avoid real current solutions that lack the profit motive like planting and protecting trees, conserving energy, reducing consumption, etc.

Or instead of relying on essentially magic we could deploy current and known solutions that will solve the problem, but we will have to invest real $, conserve, and consume less. Sadly, there’s no chance practical solutions that require worldwide coordination will work as humans, especially those with money and power, are generally selfish.

Unless your team is made up of serial entrepreneurs with one or more successful exits, then the only thing that really matters is customer metrics: usage, revenue, and rate of growth.

What’s the setup for this? Sounds really interesting.