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nouveaux

1,168 karma · joined February 25, 2008

[ my public key: https://keybase.io/deankao; my proof: https://keybase.io/deankao/sigs/n-nFGIORJdnUyp92sggjxbVYQZs3ZfOFy8WB5jPccMk ]
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nouveaux··on Show HN: PaperMono, e-ink fridge magnet shopping list with mobile web page
I think open source code would sit in the opposite end of the spectrum to Juicero.
nouveaux··on Pion, an agent designed to run any company autonomously
> Silly and pointless criticism. Why do the semantics of the word intelligence matter?

It matters because, we're still sorting out what intelligence means for an AI agent. As you pointed out, language evolves over time. The question remains whether or not attributing intelligence to the current iteration of models is correct. This is not settled and I don't see why it's wrong to bring it up.

nouveaux··on Google to pay SpaceX $920M a month for compute capacity at xAI data centers
They're buying compute for 11 billion and the 50 billion in stock growth is a bonus if it happens.
nouveaux··on The four-day workweek in Australia: insights from early adopters of 100:80:100
9a-9p 6 days a week
nouveaux··on The MacBook Neo
Why compare the M1 MBA discounted at Walmart but not give the same edu discount to the Neo? The target audience for Neo is likely people who would be able to use the edu discount.

I know many people who would not care about the differences you have outlined and gladly pay $499 for the Neo.

nouveaux··on How will OpenAI compete?
This is is no way dismissing your concern but I think this reinforces my point about branding. Whether or not Microsoft is handling AI in a responsible way, we don't trust them due to their poor practices on Window.
nouveaux··on How will OpenAI compete?
Coca Cola would like to have a word with you.

These models respond differently and have their own "personality". Even in coding, there are people who swear by one model over the other. I know engineers who just stick with Claude and could not care to try Codex. For them, if it's not broken, why fix it?

nouveaux··on Homeowners insurance is pricing people out in disaster-prone cities
> Some will be sad, sadness is unavoidable.

That's one way of putting it. The other way of putting it is that the affected are bearing the cost of climate change imposed on them by the rest of society, who are benefiting.

nouveaux··on An engineer's perspective on hiring
Overlapping expertise is another form of replacing someone. At a basic level, employees need to go on vacation, parental leave and all sorts of other personal leave. If you were irreplaceable, you couldn't go on leave.

Companies who develop these systems successfully are able to allow employees to go on leave for 4-6 months and have them easily come back. This is a good thing.

nouveaux··on An engineer's perspective on hiring
It sounds like what you're arguing for is that companies ought to have employees that are irreplaceable. Wouldn't that impose a huge risk to the company? If said employee gets hit by the proverbial bus or leaves, the company should just fold?

Companies need to build systems where everyone is replaceable to de-risk the business and not because they don't get programmers.

nouveaux··on Tesla deliveries down 43% in Europe while EVs are up 31%
The mistake here is equating Putin to Trump. One is a mastermind and the other is a puppet.
nouveaux··on Rust Is Eating JavaScript (2023)
Java was so bad that Android took a hard pivot to Kotlin. If anyone understands the importance of code maintenance, it's Google. They built a language for it (Go). I think it's ok to look at historical Java for what it is and learn from it's mistakes. Modern Java is better. Unfortunately, it's developed a bad rap, and it looks like it's in a decline. Fortunately we have Kotlin, Go, Typescript, etc.
nouveaux··on Ask HN: What is interviewing like now with everyone using AI?
And what is wrong with being a cog? Not everyone is going to invent the next ai innovation and not everyone is cut out to build the next hot programming language.

Bugs need to be fixed. Features need to be implemented. If it weren't for cogs, you'd have people just throwing new projects over the fence and dropped 6 months after release. Don't want to be another cog? Join a startup. Plenty of those hiring. The reality is that when you work at a large company, you're one of 50,000 people. By definition, only 1% are in the top 1%.

Someone has to wash the dishes and clear the tables. Let's stop looking down at jobs just because it's not hot and sexy. People who show up and provide value is great and should be appreciated.

nouveaux··on Ask HN: What is interviewing like now with everyone using AI?
Have you spent a lot of time trying to hire people? I guarantee you there is no shadow council trying to figure out how to hire "busywork" worker bees. This perspective smells completely like "If I were in charge, things would be so much better." Guess what? If you were to take your idea and try to lead this change across a 100 people engineering org, there would be "out of the box thinkers" who would go against your ideas and cause dissent. At that point, guess what? You're going to figure out how to hire compliant people who will execute on your strategy.

"talk about their past projects, their past teams, how they learn, how they collaborate"

You have now excluded amazing engineers who suck at talking about themselves in interviews. They may be great collaborators and communicators, but freeze up selling themselves in an interview.

nouveaux··on What Is Vim?
As a modern day tech person, you only spend 4 hours a week on your keyboard across browsers, email, messaging, command line, etc? What about your personal life?

Even then, learning Vim could improve your computer interactions easily by 10%. That's 40 min a week or ~34 hours in a year.

https://xkcd.com/1205/

nouveaux··on Americans React to UnitedHealthcare CEO's Murder: 'My Empathy Is Out of Network'
Wait so there was near universal outcry on the left about “Jan 6 insurrection” but assassination of public figures is actually fine if they have a low approval rating and allegedly negatively affect people’s lives?

It sounds like you're saying people should have the same attitude towards a mob storming the capital on the claim of a stolen election vs a man who systematically oppressed those who are ill, and arguably stole from them as well?

I don't wish harm on anyone but these are two very morally different situations, which require very different responses.

Also it is not clear to me that those who are outraged at the CEO is on the left. I'd imagine that the right is equally denied of health coverage while ill, and it seems plausible that they would be just as angry as those on the left.

nouveaux··on The six dumbest ideas in computer security (2005)
Most of us can't remember more than one password. This means that if one site is compromised, then the attacker now has access to multiple sites. A password manager mitigates this issue.
nouveaux··on Group of 17 London secondary schools join up to go smartphone-free
There are so many ways to teach kids to code and read that a smartphone/tablet is totally unnecessary. I refuse to believe for a second that my kids are at any disadvantage for not having screen time at home.
nouveaux··on Many FBI agents are struggling to make ends meet. Housing costs are to blame
Older people have more money because they 1) Lived longer to accumulate wealth. 2) Housing was cheaper relative their income 30 years ago.

It's also worth noting that 50% of homeless people are over 50 [1]

[1] https://www.governing.com/urban/the-nations-homeless-populat...

nouveaux··on Hawaii moves to ban short-term rentals to address housing crisis
"Ways that may negatively impact valuations"

The housing crisis is when the valuation of the home are too high. The goal is to negatgively impact the valuations so that the prices come down, so that the poor and middle class can afford to live somewhere.

nouveaux··on IRS to begin trial of its own free tax-filing system
I'll bite. In what ways are non west coast cities is more efficient than west coast cities?
nouveaux··on Before OpenAI, Sam Altman was fired from Y Combinator by his mentor
Did you read the article? Sam was fired by YCombinator.
nouveaux··on Tell HN: Enterprises spend 10x more to build no-code solutions than coded ones
My point isn't that Nasa should prioritize hiring good marketing over good engineering. Nasa has good engineers. My point is that their biggest challenge now is their public perception. The general public does not care about Nasa's mission.

SpaceX is far more popular than Nasa. If you stop to think about it, SpaceX is just making travel cheaper and it shouldn't be that interesting. If Nasa can make their mission more fun and interesting, they have a better shot at a larger budget.

nouveaux··on Tell HN: Enterprises spend 10x more to build no-code solutions than coded ones
Nasa's biggest challenge is marketing. Their funding is dependant on public perception. Nasa does not get more money by having better engineering. Nasa gets more money when congress thinks it will get them more votes with their constituents.
nouveaux··on EU tells Apple to open everything up to its rivals
Google obviously has the resources. The bean counters decided that they want profits instead of building up a loyal customer base.

My main point is that if Pixels sold as many phones as Samsung, it is very likely that Pixel would put in the resources to support older phones. Competition within the Android space does not equate to better long term service.

nouveaux··on EU tells Apple to open everything up to its rivals
I have a different take on the ad. The ad is saying that computer is the obsolete experience, not that the iPad can do everything a computer can do. If Apple truely believed that, they would not have a mac line up.

For a certain demographic of people, I would agree. I continue to push the iPad for my aging parents because it can do what they need to do without my tech support. They don't need all the flexibility of a computer as a general purpose computing device. They just need to browse the web, write emails and watch videos, and the iPad is perfect for them.

nouveaux··on EU tells Apple to open everything up to its rivals
Just spitballing here but it's possible that Android's openness is exactly why Google Pixel doesn't have better resources to have long term support. Some bean counters probably determined that Google doesn't make enough money to have teams supporting older Pixels. Samsung is taking a ton of profits from Pixel and the end result is piss poor Android support on Pixels.

Guess what? Samsung doesn't care about long term Android support. They're in it to sell phones. It's better for Samsung if Android's ecosystem continues to drop older phones.

At some point, Apple realized that long term support is a competitive advantage they can leverage. Due to their enormous profits, they can increase their support costs. With their closed ecosystem, Samsung can't come in and pull their shenanigans to undercut Apple.

IMO, Android’s openness is exactly why the Android experience on older phones suck.

nouveaux··on EU tells Apple to open everything up to its rivals
https://puri.sm/products/liberty-phone/
nouveaux··on Charlie Munger: Turning $2M Into $2T
The begger here is UCSB. They had to take Munger's money and his design to build more housing.
nouveaux··on The feds asked TikTok for lots of domestic spying features
I am against the US spying on its citizens. With that said, the US's ban on Tiktok is not a moral one. It's purely a competitive one. Why would we want our competitors to obtain more information on us?
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