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fsckboy

8,216 karma · joined November 7, 2019

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fsckboy··on A missing underscore sent innocent man to prison for 18 months
technical people developed the systems that print out confusing glyphs. it's certainly nobody else's fault.
fsckboy··on A missing underscore sent innocent man to prison for 18 months
>Theres no one technical in a court room.

oh c'mon, if a technical person receives a piece of paper with a printed out user__name on it with the wrong number of underscores they'd just as likely make the same mistake. Rather than ban the use of paper, how about technical people ban fonts (designed by clueless font designers) that blend multiple underscores together?

fsckboy··on Exercise works for depression. So why isn't it treated like real medicine?
>Exercise works for depression. So why isn't it treated like real medicine?

Clinical depression is a serious mental illness, it causes great suffering, broken relationships, and far too frequently, death by suicide.

A person suffering to such an extent frequently will seek treatment (if they don't, well we don't generally pursue people with medical conditions) from a trained, licensed professional for evaluation, and the extent to which the patient gets out of the house and interacts with people is part of the assessment. Exercise will be among the suggestions that will be encouraged.

However, you don't need a prescription to exercise, so it's not treated like medicine, but it is recommended. If you are prescribed medication or exercise, if you don't take it or do it, there generally isn't a compliance system that kicks in (unless the courts have become involved)

fsckboy··on Show HN: I mapped every US golf course – 16k+ courses, free, no signup
that's the University of Minnesota Les Bolstad golf course

https://www.uofmgolf.com/teetime

fsckboy··on Be skeptical of OpenAI's rogue hacker agent story
you are dodging the "regulatory competitive moat" angle and constantly reinforcing the marketing angle. they are different.
fsckboy··on OpenAI’s accidental attack against Hugging Face is science fiction that happened
The All-in podcast discussed an adjacent topic this past week, and I found what they suggested pretty interesting:

the big AI players, the first movers, are trying to scare the bejeezus out of everybody on purpose, to cause the government to step in with regulations. Even though the regulations will somewhat stifle/slow down the industry, it will also lock in the current leaders because they will be at the table when the regulations are formulated, and they believe they will be able to keep the smaller players down.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9IMwRIei-Xc

fsckboy··on AI Companies Are Trying to Hide a Staggering Amount of Debt
>How would it affect retirees if they dropped 40-50%, likely taking the market with them?

a drop of 40-50% in the S&P 500!? That didn't even happen in the market crash of 1929. It would lead to unemployment and breadlines for the majority of the population, and retirees would get in line like everybody else. Making income from your savings requires a productive economy; bonds are not the answer because bonds also stop getting paid, and even govt bonds would be erased by inflation.

it's just not a scenario that should be on your radar, the chance is tiny, and the result would be completely non-linear. if you tried to hedge yourself against that, not only would you fail (it's simply out of your control, like an earthquake or tornado), you also wouldn't make any income in good times, and most times are good and it's sensible to plan for that retirement.

fsckboy··on Book prizes don't work how you think
from Le Guin and then Stanisław Lem's wiki pages:

Le Guin refused a Nebula Award for "The Diary of the Rose" by withdrawing the nomination in protest of the Science Fiction Writers of America's revocation of Stanisław Lem's membership. Le Guin attributed the revocation to Lem's criticism of American science fiction and willingness to live in the Eastern Bloc, and said she felt reluctant to receive an award "for a story about political intolerance from a group that had just displayed political intolerance" toward communism.[11][12] She withdrew the novelette shortly before the announcement of the winners. The SFWA pleaded her not to do that since she had in fact won, but Le Guin insisted on the withdrawal.

Lem was awarded an honorary membership in the Science Fiction Writers of America (SFWA) in 1973. SFWA honorary membership is given to people who do not meet the publishing criteria for joining the regular membership, but who would be welcomed as members had their work appeared in the qualifying English-language publications. Lem never had a high opinion of American science fiction, describing it as ill-thought-out, poorly written, and interested more in making money than in ideas or new literary forms.[42] After his eventual American publication, when he became eligible for regular membership, his honorary membership was rescinded. This formal action was interpreted by some SFWA members as a rebuke for his stance,[43] and it seems that Lem interpreted it as such. Lem was invited to stay on with the organization with a regular membership, but he declined.[44] After many members (including Ursula K. Le Guin, who quit her membership and then refused the Nebula Award for Best Novelette for The Diary of the Rose)[45][46] protested against Lem's treatment by the SFWA, a member offered to pay his dues. Lem never accepted the offer.[42][44]

further interesting tidbits from Lem's page:

Lem singled out only one[47] American science fiction writer for praise, Philip K. Dick, in a 1984 English-language anthology of his critical essays, Microworlds: Writings on Science Fiction and Fantasy. Lem had initially held a low opinion of Philip K. Dick (as he did for the bulk of American science fiction) and would later say that this was due to a limited familiarity with Dick's work, since Western literature was hard to come by in the Polish People's Republic.

Dick alleged that Stanisław Lem was probably a false name used by a composite committee operating on orders of the Communist party to gain control over public opinion, and wrote a letter to the FBI to that effect.[48] There were several attempts to explain Dick's act. Lem was responsible for the Polish translation of Dick's work Ubik in 1972, and when Dick felt monetarily short-changed by the publisher, he held Lem personally responsible (see Microworlds).[49][48] Also it was suggested that Dick was under the influence of strong medications, including opioids, and may have experienced a "slight disconnect from reality" some time before writing the letter.[48] A "defensive patriotism" of Dick against Lem's attacks on American science fiction may have played some role as well.[48] Lem would later mention Dick in his monograph Science Fiction and Futurology.

fsckboy··on Writing by hand is good for your brain
>But that's not a reason to blanket-discourage expression

nor was there a reason to blanket discourage treating books as precious and worth preserving. i'm interested in the part where you note what you noted and let the other glaring transgression pass. That was a choice.

fsckboy··on Goodbye, and Thanks for All the Bikesheds
are you referring to GP or OP or both?
fsckboy··on How Has Roman Concrete Lasted for Millennia? 1,900-Year-Old Latrine Offers Clues
does "mold proof" mean mold won't grow on the surface, or that mold will not affect the silicone?
fsckboy··on A Beautiful Theory Falls to Ugly Data
bitcoins are sold at marginal cost, that's how much miners are willing to spend to mine them.
fsckboy··on A Beautiful Theory Falls to Ugly Data
the durable goods in question are not produced in advance, they are sold as they are produced, possibly manufactured in limited quantities to create artificial shortages; so there is nothing to discount. The question is, what pricing pattern is in the seller's interest going forward.

Generally, the assumption is that everybody in the market is aware of what's going on, and can adjust their spending accordingly.

Unless you mean discounted future cashflows of purchases, but that would imply by charging a low enough price all future purchases would move to the present.

I'd consider the case of laundry machines. People buy them every so often and then don't need a new one for awhile. Since they didn't buy them all at the same time in the past, one should not expect they will buy them all at once in the future. It seems profit maximizing to behave like traditional monopoly theory, to keep the price high. Is there an economic pressure that would push a monopolist's prices down?

fsckboy··on A Beautiful Theory Falls to Ugly Data
the theory is about the asking prices charged by the producer, not the purchases made by consumers. After the people you are talking about buy, for whatever reason, what does the price do in the following months.
fsckboy··on 'Likweli': A new monkey species discovered in the Congo Basin
I assume there are local people living in the jungle there? did the researchers ask them what they think? perhaps Likweli looks, well, like other monkeys around there, and in the pre-Darwin West people were probably not super clear about about small differences between species. I'm just curious, usually for monkeys there are some humans around who've been eating them.

this paragraph mentions it but doesn't clear much up:

>Residents in only eight villages reported knowledge of the species and could accurately describe it. Since people in the region typically have detailed knowledge of local flora and fauna, this supports the notion that Likweli is a cryptic species, the researchers said.

fsckboy··on Sleep regularity is a stronger predictor of mortality risk than sleep duration (2023)
>rather than the recommended 8 hours of sleep

for people getting 7 hours of sleep you're good. Improve your sleep hygiene, ok, but artificial interventions to get 8 may not be worth it for you.

fsckboy··on Sleep regularity is a stronger predictor of mortality risk than sleep duration (2023)
"and don't do screens for the last few hours before bed" because that will help you fall asleep more quickly? or because that will help you sleep later in the morning 6 or 7 hours later? People never seem to mention that key aspect.
fsckboy··on Data centers have hiked electricity prices on the public by $23B
supply and demand. there is more demand, prices go up, the market allocates, it's the best way, no other way comes close to making the overall price level to be as cheap as possible.
fsckboy··on Wikipedia escapes Category 1 designation under the UK Online Safety Act for now
>Just because there's a video of sexual acts doesn't mean Wikimedia exists for the prurient interest.

nice goalpost move. just because wikimedia doesn't exist solely for the prurient interest doesn't mean that it should therefore provide pornography to children in places that have made that illegal.

And just because you tilt the table toward providing pornography to children doesn't mean I should be downvoted for honest debate.

fsckboy··on Wikipedia escapes Category 1 designation under the UK Online Safety Act for now
and if it is a popularity contest, mystifying that wikpedia would qualify, it has many serious flaws (generally of the form that a small number of zealots can control the messaging on topics they are obsessed with where most people just want information and are unaware that there are people who don't share their enthusiasm for truth)
fsckboy··on Wikipedia escapes Category 1 designation under the UK Online Safety Act for now
"Toll House cookies" (chocolate chip cookies) are named after an inn that was named for a tollhouse on an old Massachusetts toll road.
fsckboy··on Linux 0.11 rewritten in idiomatic Rust, boots in QEMU
People are having fun with AI coding, and I have no problem with that, but I am sick of hearing about it.
fsckboy··on LAPD lets contract with surveillance giant Flock expire
>The best part is that flock owns the cameras and the poles so even when the contract expires the cameras keep running and recording data that flock can sell

if the cameras continue recording, LA can subpoena those recordings on an as needed basis.

fsckboy··on Why are US consumers so angry? It's not just high prices
buyer's remorse is not "paid too much"
fsckboy··on Why are US consumers so angry? It's not just high prices
>If something that costs $20 and shouldn’t break for 4 years, breaks in 2 weeks, you effectively paid a high price for a $2 product.

not true if all the other knives on the market at that price have the same performance, in which case that's just "the price of such a knife." in order to have paid too much there needs to be cheaper options with the same or better performance.

fsckboy··on Vagal cholinergic denervation of the gastric mucosa in Long-COVID-19
wikipedia:

Reactive arthritis, previously known as Reiter's syndrome,[1] is a form of inflammatory arthritis[2] that develops in response to an infection in another part of the body (cross-reactivity). Coming into contact with bacteria and developing an infection can trigger the disease.[3] By the time a person presents with symptoms, the "trigger" infection has often been cured or is in remission in chronic cases, thus making determination of the initial cause difficult.

The most common triggers are intestinal infections (with Salmonella, Shigella or Campylobacter) and sexually transmitted infections (with Chlamydia trachomatis);[8] however, it also can happen after group A streptococcal infections.[9][10]

fsckboy··on Show HN: 18 Words
how about a version that shows all the words at once and you can work on them in the order you want, skip and go back. (for a phone show one and a person can click "later" to move a difficult word to the end of the queue)

and the whole thing is timed counting up, and how long it took is the score.

the way it is now with a countdown timer for each word, the player doesn't get a reward for solving something quickly

fsckboy··on OpenBSD has a use-after-free allowing local privilege escalation to root
>That's not a knock, it's a design philosophy of OpenBSD (which is to do the minimal needed, and no more, in the most simplistic way)

you mean the most simple way. "simplistic" would mean they went too far.

https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/simplistic

simplistic

1. Overly simple.

2. In a manner that simplifies a concept or issue so that its nuances and complexities are lost or important details are overlooked.

fsckboy··on OpenBSD has a use-after-free allowing local privilege escalation to root
>That's not a knock, it's a design philosophy of OpenBSD (which is to do the minimal needed, and no more, in the most simplistic way)

you mean the most simple way. "simplistic" would mean they went too far.

fsckboy··on Show HN: 18 Words
Did you find a word that wasn't accepted you thought should be?

EARLS was not accepted, and I had already decided not to try REALS. (is there a rule against plurals?) what it was looking for was LASER which has a more tenuous claim on being a word than those two.

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