mmglr

> It tracks what you watch and superimposes ads.

Tracking can be turned off in the settings. I have several Roku TVs and Roku boxes and don't see any ads "superimposed". The only ad (singular) I see is on the home screen.

> Roku hardware and UI is superior to anything on the market.

I have to agree. I've used Apple TV, and while its UI is fancier, it lags, crashes and just doesn't have the same "ergonomics". Something as simple as toggling captions and changing picture modes while paying a video is so much easier on Roku. And, all the menus provide by the Roku OS just feel snappier.

The 1st edition is already "sold out". Reserving the AWD Pro S Gradient, a $49,675 car, is $100. So I suspect the 1st edition was around that same reservation cost. Too low. Everyone has $100 laying around. IMO reservations should be 10% msrp so that only serious buyers can make reservations.

> Cover art is no longer useful for music discovery or intriguing fans when an album "drops". Those were UX/UI things last ... century. Now they aren't. They're vestigial embellishments at best.

Unless you have proof this is moot.

In the 2012 version of iTunes for iOS a user can flip the iPod Touch/iPhone horizontally to view cover flow. So I would I consider that a user choice. For everyone else, where album art did not matter, one could keep the device in vertical orientation.

> So they're aware that really most people don't really care any more.

Unless you are on the Apple Music team and have access to some study how would you know that?

> Maybe album cover art is just less meaningful in the year 2021.

Maybe cover art is less meaningful *to you*. FTFY. To the author it is meaningful.

Today UX/UI teams are making decisions for everyone and not allowing anyone to deviate from those decisions. Less and less apps offer users a choice via a settings UI. To me the fix is simple allow users to customize their UI.

> I always wonder whether contributor names to closed sourced software should always be transparent.

Are you implying that the developers that created this back office tool should be liable for the false police reports?

If so then then counterpoint based on having made back office apps: the individual contributor (i.e. developer) may either (1) have little to no say in what the app is doing as they are simply implementing the requirements as provided and/or (2) have no knowledge of how it might fail (e.g. when the app is integrated as part of larger business processes)

What is unclear from this article, and perhaps manufacturer specific, is if a vehicle has a telematics system but the owner does not have an active subscription is vehicle data still being collected?

> Well, dogs theoretically don't need meat, so if we can feed them impossible burgers, they'd be fine.

Just by doing some cursory reading on the topic I came across [1] which suggests this isn't entirely true.

[1] https://www.akc.org/expert-advice/nutrition/dogs-can-adapt-t...

But you do make an interesting point about younger people replacing pets with children.

> Texas is unusual in that almost the entire state is part of a single grid that lacks extensive integration with those of the surrounding states.

PNM in NM already has problems keeping the power running in that state. So I don't think peering with them will be of any help. I can't speak to OK, LA and AR.

It's a shame that nuclear has become a political football. As a Texan I would like to see more investment in Nuclear.

Is the device running Android or something else?

I understand this is marketed as a "dev kit". And I understand the cost benefit for shipping a COTS OnePlus phone to provide the camera and UI. But I wouldn't buy one of these due to how much windshield visibility is blocked by the device and the wire dangling from the headliner.

It would be better to have the camera and wiring hidden away next to the rear view mirror similar to how other driver assist cameras are packaged, with a CAN connected processing box in the glovebox (so audible chimes can be made), and infotainment screen integration for the UI (perhaps as an Android or CarPlay app).

If anything it sounds to me as if the comma provided a false sense of security. Drawing from experience driving 9 hours is already grueling. At hour 10, 11 or 12 would you have been able to take control during a failure of the system?

in these conditions would it make a difference?

Very little truth to what you wrote here. You can get into great universities with solid A’s. And you can certainly graduate from a state school with minimal to no debt.

There is certainly a problem with how teenagers are misinformed about college, and that education debit is difficult to discharge.

However, I do agree that one should have little to no student loan debt. I am a millennial and was able to graduate without student loan debt. I went to community college then transferred to a state school. I earned a scholarship to do a masters in computer science. Then I found a six figure income job at a medium sized company not FAANG or some startup. All I did was found a degree that had a high ROI by googling which was at the time CS.

> His official FCC Twitter account, where he antagonized people who criticized him, has been deleted.

Are gov't officials allowed to delete their official use Twitter (and any social media) accounts just like that? I would think posts should be archived or put in read only mode for posterity?

Agreed. My comment was poorly worded as I did not intend to give advice.

> Just one hour of videoconferencing or streaming, for example, emits 150-1,000 grams of carbon dioxide (a gallon of gasoline burned from a car emits about 8,887 grams), requires 2-12 liters of water and demands a land area adding up to about the size of an iPad Mini.

Out of curiosity what is the water used for? Is it from hydroelectric power? Also, what is "land area adding up to the size of iPad Mini" referring to?

Some articles found by googling [1] [2] from two years ago describe this capability as "ultrasonic watermark" so it is not new. I think this is coming to light as Zoom has become popular with the pandemic. For a journalist wanting to sanitize audio I would think they need to remove anything higher than 15kHz.

[1] https://www.nojitter.com/video-collaboration-av/zoom-takes-v...

[2] https://venturebeat.com/2019/01/22/zoom-is-bringing-ultrason...

I remember when Apple introduced MagSafe in 200. Personally I never had an issue with tripping over the power cable. I think USB-C w/ PD is better. I can connect one cable for power and data and on any side of the laptop. If Apple did reintroduce MagSafe we would be back to a minimum of 2 cables: a dedicated power port on one side and docking station/display USB-C. Perhaps Apple could come up with a MagSafe USB-C design.

What are some good tips to minimize the attack surface of my CI/CD tool?

What a laughable opinion. Who would break up Apple? The U.S. gov't? Assume they do, what is to stop Apple from moving operations overseas to evade the breakup. That would be a huge loss to the engineering talent in Cupertino.

Also I have noticed this narrative increasing online. A size-able company/mega corp does something the public assumes is done with malice and the ONLY solution is to "break up" the company. I think this narrative is misguided.

My house has a Carrier Infinity system where the compressor and air handler is fully variable. It can retrieve weather data over the net and adjust heating/cooling. The compressor and air handler are "connected" which is HVAC lingo for a proprietary protocol. The brains are in a $700 thermostat with a buggy touch screen that has the resolution of a lite-brite and it cannot work with virtual assistants.

One benefit I did see in the manual, is that if the air handler was gas combined with a heat pump you can enter the price of electricity and the price of gas and it can compute which heating method is best: gas/heat pump/resistive (usually when heat pump cannot provide requested temperature). But I don't have gas.

ROMs are available for these systems distributed as hex files on Carriers website. So its been on my todo list to reverse engineer the software.

Someone with time combined with a Raspberry Pi + Raspberry Pi Display (around $80 USD) could build a much better thermostat than what Carrier has done.

> If you want to sit on an acre of land in a dense area, you should be taxed at the highest and best value of that land.

Isn't that what property tax already codifies?

Also aren't market forces already essentially doing this? If I sit on an acre of land in a dense area I will have developers knocking at my door and everyone has a price.

If I understand correctly using "Nat Rule 1" a network can be configured to ignore my choice of dns server while my device is on their network? What is the mitigation of this? DNSSEC or DNS over HTTPS or DNS over TLS?

> Dogs are out there spreading covid right now but I can't go to the gym.

Where is this data? [1] says "Currently, there is no evidence that animals play a significant role in the spread of SARS-CoV-2 to people"

[1] https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/daily-life-coping/...

> I don't understand the pet owners' sense of entitlement.

I don't know if this is directed at me? I don't have a pet. I'm just advocating for pet owners here.

And if you can't understand how shortsighted your view of "anything that inconveniences me is bad" then nothing I can write will change your mind.

Certainly you could go on netjets.com and fly private if "enclosed-air spaces" are such an issue.

Ridiculous right? The way I understand the argument so far is:

Pets should be allowed on planes and everyone else must deal with that.

Pets should not be allowed so pet owners must deal with that.

Neither option sounds reasonable to me.

Really it looks to me like there is a market for safe and reliable pet air transport. Why have carriers not addressed this?

> Source: My partner is Kazakh.

This isn't reddit. You don't need to defend your opinion.

> Teachers become well paid on a performance basis. Independent, local, citizen committees are in charge of evaluating curriculum and ensuring teachers are not incompetent or activists.

I've had the opportunity to lend my software/IT skills to my local school district during COVID for the past 6 months to help with virtual learning.

What I have learned is:

1. Lesson planning to meet the various requirements from the local district, the government (like a state-level education agency) and any other pertinent requirements from various disability related laws is difficult. I doubt as you say "local, citizen committees" being in charge would have any benefit. Many parents I have observed over Zoom are clueless about subject matter we are teaching. So no I would not have citizen committees evaluating curriculum. That is not something the public can do.

2. Curriculum is often developed by teachers in a collaborative manner (within the school, cross grade level, within the school system/district, and across the state), and consultants are paid to help design curriculum. While I have seen some consultants more akin to snake oil salesmen many have PhD's and >30 years of experience teaching. They know the pitfalls involved in curriculum design.

3. Teachers are put under a lot of stress- again from regulatory/compliance within the public school system, their state and federal requirements, along with teaching, lesson planning, dealing with parents. They are already severely underpaid. Many teachers I know in my district are working >80 hours week and making around 50-60k. So you should be careful what you say.

4. "Well paid on performance basis" With what money? Performance currently (right or wrong) is defined as growth in test scores on the same subject matter over time usually as checkpoints throughout the year with state-level testing at the end. I don't think this is an accurate method of determining a teachers worth. I've observed really good teachers (give clear engaging lessons) but student performance on quizzes/homework is bad- simply because the support structure at home is not there. So tying an already underpaid teacher to "performance" reviews is an antipattern. Teachers are already stressed- and I know- they stress on these checkpoint growth tests- and while they are stressing they are not able to do good work in terms of teaching and lesson planning.

5. Teaching is very difficult- you need to be able to manage students behavioral issues, be knowledgeable on the subject and able to present the subject in a digestible manner that keeps students engaged.

6. "ensuring teachers are not incompetent or activists." This is an HR problem, that can be solved with good hiring practices. Perhaps whiteboarding teacher interviews? Just kidding. Many schools recruit graduates as "student teachers" where teaching ability can be judged but also taught. Student teachers have an opportunity to learn what the job really entails and can be mentored. Kind of like residency for nurses/doctors. I don't think the public is educated enough to be a good judge of that. I think you live (Palo Alto?) in a bubble of other highly educated people so your definition of the "public" is just that, but in many other places this is not the case. Now I do agree there are internal politics (I've witnessed a lot of this good and bad), but again the public is not equipped to handle that.

> In essence, largely remove government oversight from schools.

I do agree somewhat with this. I have observed teachers to spend 5-10h/week on government imposed regulatory activities such as moving paperwork around on arcane poorly built state-purchased or internally developed IT tools. Other than paperwork I don't think there is a lot of government oversight on schools as you seem to think there is.