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jmoak3

936 karma · joined April 26, 2015

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jmoak3··on Toyota to invest $1.3B in Kentucky factory to build battery packs and new EV
Louisville checking in, spent a lot of time in Georgetown and can confirm this is likely just more work on the Camry plant.

Toyota has been good to the area.

Off topic, but is there a popular tech meetup in the state? Moved back a year and some change ago and would love to get more involved.

jmoak3··on 23andMe tells victims it's their fault that their data was breached
Just a reminder that you can (...and should?) request to delete your account and associated data [0][1].

[0] https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2023/10/12/23andme...

[1] https://customercare.23andme.com/hc/en-us/articles/212170688...

jmoak3··on Will we be addicted to our phones forever? An optimistic outlook
I swapped to https://www.thelightphone.com/ as my phone. According to my iPhone, my daily usage hovered around 7 hours.

It's relatively expensive and a little janky but it's insane how much more time I feel I have in my day. My work has improved (if my commit-calendars are any indication), and I no longer spend time in bed scrolling when I sleep / wake up.

Many people try "Sober October" - I've just completed "Dumbphone December" and I don't think I'll be going back.

jmoak3··on Social media companies made $11B in US ad revenue from minors, study finds
The badness is up for debate (thankfully for my sake) but the addiction is not
jmoak3··on The rise of the forever renters
You don't need to wonder. Look to Japan for the broad strokes: property in cities will still have value while rural areas fall into decay.

In more words: young people will crowd into cities in order to meet other young people and find work, while aged areas descend into irrelevance and whatever this is: [1]

Due to this, Greater Tokyo now contains 1/3rd the population of Japan[2]. While you can find a number of articles claiming it's cheap compared to metros in other countries, or horrifically expensive[3][4], whichever it may be it is certainly better than what's in [1].

[1] https://unusualplaces.org/nagoro-a-creepy-japanese-village-w...

[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greater_Tokyo_Area

[3] https://www.reuters.com/markets/asia/surging-tokyo-property-...

[4] https://www.businessinsider.com/america-build-like-tokyo-hou...

jmoak3··on Hasbro laying off Wizards of the Coast staff is baffling
The lawnmower has arrived, adjust behavior accordingly. You can't reason with it, it only knows: "cut grass"!
jmoak3··on Rising Temperatures in the Netherlands
+1, yup

With measured change in C02 the past 60 years[0], how can we expect the system to behave the same? In my lifetime I will breathe air with C02 levels of 480ppm. Throw in the high sea temperatures [1][2] if you would like some bonus content.

Idk what it means for us on the ground. 90% of the doomerisms haven't gone anywhere - but this is worth keeping an eye on. Who knows, maybe in 3 more generations we'll hit 800ppm C02 and experience cognitive decline[3] before we have to worry about the climate system getting funky :)

[0] https://www.climate.gov/media/15554

[1] https://climatereanalyzer.org/clim/sst_daily

[2] https://climate.copernicus.eu/sites/default/files/custom-upl...

[3] https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S016041201...

jmoak3··on AI’s big rift is like a religious schism
I've recently switched to a dumb phone. Why keep an internet browsing device in my pocket if the internet's largest players are designing services that will turn a lot of its output into noise?

I don't know if I'll stick with the change, but so far I'm having fun with the experience.

The Israel/Gaza war is a large factor - I don't know what to believe when I read about it online. I can be more slow and careful about what I read and consume from my desktop, from trusted sources. I'm insulated from viral images sent hastily to me via social media, from thumbnails of twitter threads of people with no care if they're right or wrong, from texts containing links with juicy headlines that I have no hope of critically examining while briefly checking my phone in traffic.

This is all infinitely worse in a world where content can be generated by multi-modal LLMs.

I have no way to know if any of the horrific images/videos I've already seen thru the outlets I've identified were real or AI generated. I'll never know, but it's too important to leave to chance. For that reason I'm trying something new to set myself up for success. I'm still informed, but my information intake is deliberately slowed. I think that others may follow in time, in various ways.

jmoak3··on AI’s big rift is like a religious schism
With respect to communication innovation, I think AI Hitler put it best: "we can't rewind we've gone too far."

Here's a link to the relevant historical record: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=25GjijODWoI&t=93s

I don't think existing media channels will continue to be an effective way to disseminate information. The noise destroys the usefulness of it. I think people will stop coming to platforms for news and entertainment as they begin to distrust them.

The surveillance prospect however, is frightening.

jmoak3··on Epic vs. Google: Google Loses
Thank you for the explanation. I'm also an Apple fan and would not leave the App Store easily, however I am unhappy that I am forever unable to do so.

I think rulings against these companies are warranted, but I want an end game where iPhone is closer to Android's best aspects, not where Android drops them to mimic iPhone's. Google could easily stop being as "anti-competitive" by not releasing another public update of Android again, launching a new "Pixel Play Store" available on Pixel, and putting all of their effort into this platform going forward. The world would be a worse place for this, and Google would likely make more services revenue. I have a feeling developers would abandon the other manufacturer's platforms in a microsecond. If Google's not allowed to have influence over the default search/apps installed on 3rd party android phones made by Samsung/HTC, why would Google even bother with the business? They only ran it to get more mobile search users into Google Search IMO.

I'm sure Google deserves to get smacked for the worst of their behavior but Apple walking away (for now) without a scratch is sending a stark message, at least to my eyes. You say Apple's time with this behavior is limited, and I can only hope you're right. Being positive, hopefully down the line, this case can be used as a wedge to peel Apple's grip open.

jmoak3··on Epic vs. Google: Google Loses
Like I've been saying. We're not incentivizing the stewardship of open platforms. Apple will die before they open their garden.

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37731541#37732596

I don't want to be pithy and low-effort here. I'm confused on why Google lost while Apple won.

jmoak3··on Google created hurdles to protect smartphone foothold, small search firm says
Sounds like Google is getting punished for being a more open ecosystem than Apple.

I'm sure if this leads to any action, Apple will feel like opening up further. /s

jmoak3··on Ray-Ban Meta Smart Glasses
Relevant: https://www.socialcooling.com/
jmoak3··on U.S. national debt hits $33T for the first time
Can't outrun gross overeating, can't tax your way out of gross over spending.
jmoak3··on “Autobesity”: More than 150 car models too big for regular UK parking spaces
I'm not a member of your imagined urban-illuminati (I live in suburban ky) and I think you're off base here. The majority of cars on our roads are huge and it's annoying. Forget emissions, waiting for some dork to 14 point park a bonafide land whale into a parking spot from the 1980's is enough to convert me. Living amongst these things is a pain and it's not like you're gonna wanna walk or bike anywhere with people going beast mode in these.

Would it kill these safety ratings agencies to add a new metric that's an inverted star-rating for how much a vehicle can flatten a Honda Civic? Start slapping Kill-Death ratios onto cars and I bet we'd see consumer preferences change fairly quickly. While we're at it we could roll back some of the MPG laws that heavily favor "light trucks" (big cars) over small ones too. No heavy handed bans necessary - give more information to consumers on how their cars are literally pancaking their neighbors and more choice in what kind of cars are profitable to make.

I'm a practical guy and I often eye picking up a truck just so I can be the bigger car when some idiot driving a tank inevitably hits me, and that sucks - those things are expensive. I want to buy a smaller car, a cheaper car, and I can't do that while most of the cars on the road are capable of projecting of anything under 3000lbs onto graph paper.

Median weight of USA cars: 4,094lbs.

https://www.jdpower.com/cars/shopping-guides/average-weight-...

jmoak3··on Google Maps is a critical dependency for nutrition facts on mcdonalds.com
Sounds plausible, also they may use it to decide the units (cals/joules) of the viewer
jmoak3··on Fewer university students are studying Mandarin
Yup. From a youth spent watching anime I can read katakana and hiragana, despite Japan’s economic and demographic woes their culture is very impactful
jmoak3··on America is building chip factories. Now to find the workers
It’ll rise when there are more employers competing for the workers.

Until then they don’t have to try so hard to find people, students can see the bad salaries ahead of time yet they study for a decade for these roles regardless.

jmoak3··on Mortgage demand drops to a 28-year low as interest rates soar to 7.31%
I think you have it backwards since prices really haven’t moved enough to counter the rate hikes. Monthly payments are still up 50-75% depending on the home and area compared to Q1 2022 while prices are mostly flat. This means that homes are currently priced at 3-5% rates but currently feature 7% rates.

Today’s buyers implicitly expect to be able to refinance sometime soon - without that expectation prices would be far lower.

If rates at 7% is our new normal then people buying homes today are far overpaying and they will be disappointed in a year’s time.

jmoak3··on Fred Fish
Any relation in the name of this early children's computer game?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freddi_Fish

jmoak3··on China's fertility rate drops to record low 1.09 in 2022- state media
Is South Korea Marxist too? How about Japan? What about the state of New York? Something else is happening. Some blame chemicals or the economy. Before you say they just want to hook up now, younger generations are having less sex than ever.

I believe it’s communal ties and space per person in a given region (including outdoor space to freely roam). The Amish make 40k a year household income and clear 5-8 kids per family for example. We’re animals meant for friends, hard work, and open spaces.

jmoak3··on Energy Jobs Have Increased in Nearly Every County in America
I wonder what he would have to say on our current world. Here are some stats I find interesting from America in particular.

Federal Government Current Receipts

https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/FGRECPT

Personal current transfer receipts: Government social benefits to persons: Medicare

https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/W824RC1

Personal current transfer receipts: Government social benefits to persons: Social security

https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/W823RC1

It appears at the moment that more spending on everything is bipartisan, and universally loved. Until it breaks:

Federal government current expenditures: Interest payments/Federal government current tax receipts

https://fred.stlouisfed.org/graph/?g=sOG

Some food for thought:

https://www.americas-capital.com/blog/we-will-see-the-return...

jmoak3··on California PG&E joins proposal to set utility rates based on income
That’s why they did it. If too many people cut down usage thru solar then everyone else has to pay more per kWh of usage.

The usage is a big cost for any utility provider, but another huge part is keeping everything maintained and connected across the entire grid. That costs man hours, materials, you name it.

If you swap to solar and pay 0$ per month, yet you still incur costs to your utility to keep lines running to your home and your county, then a flat monthly fee to charge for that unused connection to cover your capacity to use it when needed makes sense.

Something had to give, idk if the path they’ve chosen is the right path however

jmoak3··on Harvard University encourages grad students to go on food stamps
The gov subsidizing rentee's housing payments to existing landlords en masse is the landlords' wet dreams. Not only do they get to capture the income of the rentee's, but also their tax dollars! The fundamental bargaining position will remain unchanged!

Before you say "that's why the gov should build the housing", it's important to remember that centrally planned things are generally worse than market planned ones, it's a bitter lesson but history shows it time and time again. Instead of rentees choosing how to spend their money the gov, who only cares in an indirect way, will be making that decision for them. Inevitably someone in this compulsory taxation-gov-built-housing loop will realize their bargaining position and create insurmountable corruption. What would a rentee do, swap local govs to pay taxes to in their city?

If you want your gov to help your situation, use the gov to allow people to build more housing. If that's not an option, you gotta start new somewhere else.

jmoak3··on Ask HN: Share one man boring internet businesses
I think http://projectionlab.com/ is a one man show, love this for my finances.

Even supports self hosting and data exfiltration, so if he ever gets bored I can use it where he left off

jmoak3··on Japan’s population fell by 800k last year as demographic crisis accelerates
He’s incredibly smart and on the whole on the right track.

He gets too excited sometimes, like when I saw him give a lecture and seriously say we’d have 9-10% inflation YoY last year and just as much this year IIRC.

I recommend his book to anyone who is interested, he’s not a pundit or anything and has lots to chew on!

jmoak3··on Seattle in Progress
>I'm open to any theory of change - I've been trying to come up with one for a decade, and I've had thousands of conversations about it.

Same, and I've only found one which works.

Move.

jmoak3··on In 1961 a Gallup poll showed only 33% of Americans in favor of moon landing
“As for the Pyramids, there is nothing to wonder at in them so much as the fact that so many men could be found degraded enough to spend their lives constructing a tomb for some ambitious booby, whom it would have been wiser and manlier to have drowned in the Nile, and then given his body to the dogs.”

- Henry David Thoreau

jmoak3··on A stationary jet stream is fueling intense heat worldwide
We radiate heat into space at all times
jmoak3··on A Vast Demographic Shift Will Reshape the World
Expect to see attempts to reverse this in the affected countries thru measures such as this:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Decree_770

However as Romania found, it does not work.

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