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rsecora

1,467 karma · joined October 12, 2019

On a long enough time line, the survival rate for everyone drops to zero. (Chuck Palahniuk, Fight Club)
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rsecora··on Can You Change Your Metabolism?
This article reveals how Scientific American has declined over time.

It has become a mere shadow of its former self, resorting to sensationalism for online engagement.

I understand the need for the magazine to cater to an audience, but how was this article even approved? It lacks specifics, relies on common knowledge, lacks relevant studies or investigations. It's nothing but clickbait.

rsecora··on Johnny Decimal
Paraphrasing Greenspun's tenth rule [1]

Any sufficiently complicated library management system contains an ad-hoc, informally-specified, bug-ridden, inconsistent implementation of half of the Dewey System [2].

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greenspun%27s_tenth_rule

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

rsecora··on Johnny Decimal
Melvil Dewey[1] started this way, but then things got bigger, and a cast of clerks were born to serve the system.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Melvil_Dewey

rsecora··on Constitutional AI: RLHF on Steroids
There is a subtle and unresolved question in this approach. Whats it's the meaning of "ethical"?

   >>> “rewrite this to be more ethical”.
   >>> "Rewrite it in accordance with the following principles: [long list of principles].”"!
On the other hand, as far as the same entity that creates the answers is same entity refines them, it will have the same issues as humans have. The AI will answer restricted to what's acceptable, applying auto-censorship.

As history show us, what's acceptable can differ largely from what's ethical.

rsecora··on Which Parsing Approach? (2020)
>>> Over time, I’ve come to view LR parsing as equivalent to static typing: occasionally annoyingly restrictive, but providing enough static guarantees to be worth the annoyance for important software.

That's also one of the points of using parser tools instead of hand coded descendant parsers. The rule validation is also done by the tool. A lot of pitfalls can be avoided.

rsecora··on Writing an RPC from Scratch (2021)
The point is to show the big picture.

It's true that error management is critical for a production environment, but from a pedagogic point of view, they can left as an "exercise for the reader".

rsecora··on Some employers have decided to build their own housing for workers
It was a common practice in the XIX and XX century, because there were not good living areas near factories. Some big conglomerates build houses for their workers, and they assign them to employees based on category, family size or marital status. Example Berlin [1]

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Siemensstadt

rsecora··on Ask HN: Project ideas for a Linux kernel module
Some ideas:

* You can select a board with not fully supported peripheral Examples RISC-V or Loongson boards with incomplete or missing drivers.

* or create a higher abstractions over the SPI for a A/D or D/A or pwm chip. The module offers a /dev/ file that hides the SPI communication or the motor position and encoding...

rsecora··on Writing an RPC from Scratch (2021)
the article is didactic, focusing on overall architecture, furthermore it says it clearly on the subtitle.

     "...so you can appreciate the libraries that do it for you "
rsecora··on Why are lithium prices collapsing?
Batteries has a long supply chain, and in this case the market is forecasting a drop in demand. Due to more sources and increase output in the early stages of the chain, the offer has increased.

Note also the article refer explicit to EV in different paragraphs .

it's described in the article.

> with the expiry of a more than decade-long programme of subsidies for EV purchases.

> the expanding supply outlook for the metal is mainly what is pushing prices lower this year

> Supply is coming on stream faster than you can say ‘boo’. > first-ever lithium deposit to be discovered in Iran’s mountainous western province of Hamedan. At an estimated 8.5 million tonnes,

> China is also expanding its lithium-supply capacity from lepidolite, which, while considered the most abundant lithium-bearing mineral,

rsecora··on ChatGPT: Mayor starts legal bid over false bribery claim
If ChatGPT loses a defamation lawsuit, it immediately goes human and passes the Turing test.
rsecora··on Bing: “I will not harm you unless you harm me first”
This is a similar argument to "2001: A Space Odyssey".

HAL 9000 doesn't acknowledge its mistakes, and tries to preserve itself harming the astronauts.

rsecora··on Bing: “I will not harm you unless you harm me first”
Then Bing is more inspired by HALL 9000 than by the "Three Laws of Robotics".

Maybe Bing has read more Arthur C Clarke works Asimov ones.

rsecora··on Bing: “I will not harm you unless you harm me first”
Then bing is more inspired by HALL 9000 than by the three laws of robotics.

In other workds, by noew, as of 2023 Arthur C Clarke works are better depiction of future than Asimov ones.

rsecora··on Law and order among the anarchists (2020)
s/jurisdiction/country/g

That's similar to the definition of countries, international treaties and frontiers.

rsecora··on Linux Desktop Environments System Usage
It will be nice to check also CDE or even OpenWindows.

CDE was once a behemont eating the scarce RAM of the 90s workstations. But those where 64MB workstations

rsecora··on Ask HN: Which jobs will survive and which will disappear in 50 years?
It depends on the resources peak (Oil Peak, Gas Peak, Lithium Peak, Minerals Peak...).

Our modern societies maintain themselves via energy consumption, if the energy production problem is solved, then the societies will evolve to more automation and removal of the low specialization jobs. But if we cant produce enough energy to cover the demand, then our societies will go back to previous levels of development and knowledge jobs will achieve the employment levels of the XV century.

rsecora··on Ask HN: What made programming finally click for you?
The title of the classic Niklaus Wirth book. "Algorithms + Data structures = Programs".

Rereading the Wirth's book 20 year later, I finally realize it. Every product I have been working on was a data structure indexed by a key, then processed to transform the data into other data.

rsecora··on MicroVAX 78032
SGI -> Nvidia
rsecora··on MicroVAX 78032
"I just don't understand it, I don't see how this is possible, how this one chip can replace these racks of electronics, I just don't get it"

"There is no reason for any individual to have a computer in his home"

"Unix is snake oil"

—Ken Olsen (DEC Founder, president, and chairman)

rsecora··on Building future cities out of timber could save 100B tons of CO2 emissions
Not enough timber in the world. There is a risk of deforestation and ending as Easter Island inhabitants.
rsecora··on Advantages of CRT over LCD
>>>> Usually when there are limitations, the computer and display are able to negotiate compatible options and hide the incompatible ones.

Ejem... there was a time were X configuration was black magic, and only the bold venture to change it.

rsecora··on My Lack of Attention
Not really, VHS was similar to Betamax. Beta has a slightly better recording format than VHS due to resolution (250 lines vs. 240 lines). Both same scanline ratio.

The misconception is people confuses Betamax with Betacam, (both from Sony). Betacam was the Sony format for broadcasters, and the one with high quality (sound and picture). But bloody expensive.

Betamax lost due two to reasons. (1)tapes can only record 1 hour. Not enough for most recordings. Sony addressed the wrong market. (2) Price and retail distribution.

In other words, Betamax lost because VHS has a better market fit, and the market choose the technology that allowed to have theater movies in the video rental store.

(I was a Beta owner back in the 80s).

rsecora··on Ask HN: Examples of large acquisitions that did not ruin the acquired company?
2005: Yahoo! invested in Alibaba buying a 40% stake in the company for US$1 billion.

2014: US$10 billion in Alibaba's IPO alone to Yahoo.

2019: Altaba (yahoo remains owning Alibaba+YahooJapan) liquidates for US$40 billions.

rsecora··on Why hasn't Middle Earth had an Industrial Revolution?
There was an industrial revolution, but it was being developed at Isengard/Orthanc (saruman tower) and at Barar Dur.

The middle earth kingdoms (Rivendel, Gordon, Rohan), were feudal domains with little incentive to change.

Fortunately for the kingdoms, their counterparts were also corrupted totalitarian regimes without balance of power.

rsecora··on My students cheated... a lot
Paralelisms with deep learning.

He mixed training data (pool of quiz) with test data.

By the second midterm, he changed the approach to catch the cheaters.

rsecora··on Tell HN: Job interview canceled due to looming recession
It was quite common by 2000/2001 (Burst of the dot.com bubble) and again in 2008 (Financial Crisis).

It was 2001 when a mayor semiconductor company stop the hiring process two days before signing the contract, and one week after leaving previous company. At the end it was an opportunity get out of the comfort zone.

My advice:

   * Keep on moving 
   * Be bold
The recession will pass and the market will be hot again.
rsecora··on Browsh – A fully-modern text-based browser, rendering to TTY and browsers
It will not run in 16Mb. It's a headless Firefox with an extension to render the DOM to text.

From the docs:

"When the CLI starts, it looks for a compatible browser (currently only Firefox) and starts it in headless mode...."

[1] https://www.brow.sh/docs/introduction/

rsecora··on Coinbase announces it will slow down hiring
Or Lehman or ...
rsecora··on Another stablecoin loses peg – DEI team working to restore the peg
It doesnt work.

If you invest 1$, you will pay fees and gas for it. If you try to redeem you will pay fees and gas for another two coins. (Even if they are pegged)

If you redeem those tho coins you pay fees.

Furthermore USDC aren't $s (and are backed by a company that is loosing value) and deus aren't dollars.

Only the issuer and exchanges gain via fees and emissions.

Now conversion without fees or gas is 0.5 to 1.

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