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quxpar

133 karma · joined January 3, 2020

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quxpar··on Cruel optimism and lazy pessimism
To be fair, those directors were told it was their fiduciary duty to maximize profits, and the systems surrounding them clamor with nonstop praise. We allow these empires of selfishness to be amassed, we have chosen which wolf to feed ever since we stopped trust-busting.
quxpar··on Electric scooter ban increased congestion by 10% in Atlanta
Indeed, if self-driving cars killed 1,000 people a year they would immediately be banned, but 30x that in human-caused fatalities and nobody bats an eye. We have created a culture that idolizes the personal freedom of the automobile while ignoring every externalized cost it dumps onto the general population.
quxpar··on Electric scooter ban increased congestion by 10% in Atlanta
It isn't difficult math - selfish flow of traffic produces extremely un-optimal results, and congestion is simply a function of how much traffic chooses a certain path. I highly recommend Tim Roughgarten's work if you want an academic analysis: https://mitpress.mit.edu/9780262182430/selfish-routing-and-t...
quxpar··on Where the Sidewalk Ends: The Death of the Internet (2021)
The site in question has regularly been used as a place to coordinate doxxing and serious harassment. AFAIK no measures have been taken by the owners to remedy this, and thus they've forfeited their rights to run a website.
quxpar··on Ford F-150 Lightning: Fast Truck, Slow Computer
Kingwood is the closest thing, because you can at least go for a nice nature walk or have your kids safely bike to school, but there is zero 'walk to the corner store' infrastructure. It's a shame becausse my mother grew up in a much more walkable houston but now this was the best neighborhood she could retire in.
quxpar··on Good times create weak men
My counterargument: The real work is not increasing complexity, but boiling down complex concepts into ones that can be worked with and exchanged easily. This is why math is so vital, and why tools that 'hide' layers of abstraction so powerful.

A physical metaphor: Shipping containers don't make things harder to ship, even though untold millions of containers contain a lot of heavy things inside of them. It's not about the box full of stuff, it's the entire vastly more efficient global shipping industry! This is, I assume, why Docker uses the container metaphor.

quxpar··on Nelson testifies cost-plus contracts have been a “plague” on NASA
Yes, and the government learns a lesson.
quxpar··on Are the Great Lakes really inland seas?
We live in an age of profit pollution. Any farm doing this would be bought out by soy/corn growers, because the latter will be more profitable than the former. The same pollution is why your mailbox is full of wasteful garbage and your telephone line is harassed by scam calls until you stop picking up.
quxpar··on Increase in hepatitis of unknown origin in children
I found my favorite probiotic via offhand HN comment buried deep in a subthread.
quxpar··on A System-Witch’s Package Manager Murder Mystery
Delightful tone, something that feels both whimsical and approachable.
quxpar··on Crime scene investigators learn to dowse for the dead
Dogs smell in stereo with detailed temporal information. They know which way a deer passed and how many days ago.
quxpar··on TrueCaller built a billion-dollar caller ID data empire in India
Americans have avoided this problem by making the overwhelming majority of phone calls spam, so any call not from an existing contact is ignored.
quxpar··on Hooks Considered Harmful
I want people to be critical of the method du jour, but these 'production-like code examples' defy most of the modern conventions that a React dev would use. For example the fetch example seems to ignore its own prior destructuring assignment to make an awkward reference to an object property.
quxpar··on Amazon lied about using seller data, lawmakers say, urging DOJ investigation
Why would this case be the exception?
quxpar··on Apple turns monitor height adjustment into a $400 upsell
My kanto dms2000 is my favorite thing on my desk.
quxpar··on How to get the most out of your 1:1s
As a Doctor, giving my patient a placebo sugar pill once a month is primarily for you. Not the Doctor. I won't let my staff ditch them 100% as there's also a component where I use them to charge their insurance. But for the most part, I treat it as their time.
quxpar··on Russia to legalize software piracy
The collusion between massive companies to keep out smaller competitors is the thrust of the matter, not what levers they pulled.
quxpar··on Enthusiastically Rehiring
Exactly, every knows a company is run on good feelings from managers.
quxpar··on Big tech makes a big bet: Offices are still the future
Signing a lease or building a new office is always a project by some highly paid non-technical person with 'executive' skills. I wonder why?
quxpar··on Ask HN: Are CO salary disclosure laws affecting remote work opportunities?
Under-paid developers with decent skills are so rare and precious, I can get $30k a head poaching them. I'll split the fee two ways if you want to let me in on your secret stockpile ;)
quxpar··on I changed my mind about advertising
The problem with attention as a form of currency is that people are, almost definitionally, not aware when it is being taken from them.
quxpar··on Keeping the pirates at bay (2001)
These are a fascinating way to trace the evolution of games as a marketplace. The modern games storefront (pioneered by valve with steam) is far more Worth My Time than figuring out the latest torrent and cracking hokey-pokey. It feels rewarding to pay developers for games I like the concept of on a whim, even if I don't completely gel with the final product. However the real problem I see on the horizon is the massive walled gardens and subscription game passes eclipsing any form of software ownership, which in turn cripples the modding scene.
quxpar··on On Wordle, the NYT, and Antitrust
People are missing the point - NYT paid to have THE wordle of the day - talking to other people about your specific battle with that day's word was 99 percent of the fun.

The act of whipping up a quick clone, while a a balm to the ego and a fun exercise for junior devs, does not recreate the social phenomenon.

quxpar··on Wanna buy a radio station? (2015)
Pretty annoying twice a year during pledge drives, but that's a small price to pay ;)
quxpar··on The Great Resignation? More Like the Great Renegotiation
Worked great during the (surviving) workers during the bubonic plague. https://history.wustl.edu/news/how-black-death-made-life-bet...
quxpar··on I ruin developers’ lives with my code reviews and I'm sorry
Maybe the tone doesn't translate but this guy sounds insanely egotistical. I feel truly bad for his family and anyone he works with.
quxpar··on Ex-NSA cyberspies reveal how they helped hack foes of UAE (2019)
And I thought I was failing up!
quxpar··on The metaverse is a dystopian nightmare – let’s build a better reality
They bought out a couple companies who made major leaps, 6D.ai for example.
quxpar··on [dead]
Obligatory XKCD: https://xkcd.com/1357/
quxpar··on Robinhood sued by family of stock trader who killed himself
Came here to say this. I have no idea how an insane person with a gun is equivalent to voluntarily trading. Should I accept that gun-toting idiots are an inherent risk in my life, even if I never purchase a gun?
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