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spurcell93

139 karma · joined March 14, 2016

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spurcell93··on Meat and mental health: Meat eaters suffer less depression, anxiety
"People incapable of guilt usually do have a good time." - True Detective

Disclaimer: I eat meat, just less these days :).

spurcell93··on Sign In with Apple [video]
To me this suggests then that the absolute amount of data collected isn’t necessarily a useful metric
spurcell93··on Why Carbon Credits for Forest Preservation May Be Worse Than Nothing
That seems like a pretty solvable problem - even for daycares. First time you’re late, 5$, second time 20$, n + 1 time = (n+1)*10. The incentive is not to make a habit of it at the very least because the costs will add up.
spurcell93··on Undervalued Engineering Skills: Writing Well
This is one thing I love about stripe. There are a ton of resources to write, and every employee is encouraged to communicate at a very high level.
spurcell93··on Code Review from the Command Line (2018)
To your first point - how? I didn't know you could do this.
spurcell93··on Huntington's Disease gene is found (1993)
Does anyone know if CRISPR has been or even can be used as a treatment? If the gene could be identified prenatally?
spurcell93··on Handbrewing Coffee
IMO, $37 for what amounts to a flanged glass jar is ludicrous for many people. Even if it ends up cheaper in the long run. For what it's worth, I live with a couple roommates and they are on their third chemex, since glass breaks easily. Maybe our brand is bad. Maybe our coordination is worse.
spurcell93··on Mark Zuckerberg Promised a Clear History Tool Almost a Year Ago
Anyone with a background at Facebook definitely needs to be spoken with regarding their integrity. Obviously only a small subset of FB employees make the shitty decisions we see in the news, but it's very concerning to me that engineers still go to work there. There are at 2 or 3 other BigCos that pay comparably, and many others that pay a level down that don't require you to be complicit in unethical behavior of this scale.
spurcell93··on Facebook Decided Which Users Are Interested in Nazis – and Let Ads Target Them
Uhh, that's what we have been doing the whole time. That's the status quo. We're talking about changing it because it's caused massive societal problems.
spurcell93··on The Lonely Life of a Yacht Influencer
I'm not sure exactly what GP meant, but I took the spirit of the post as more "I wish there wasn't so much wealth inequality that ONE person could own a superyacht. I have no problem with yachts in and of themselves."

Edit: sibling since posted

spurcell93··on Scientists cut the tolerable intake of PFAs by 99.9%
I feel like you must cook a very narrow range of food and/or have very little space / money for more pans. Cast iron is lovely and versatile (see my sibling post) but there is a tool for every job and cast iron is not always that tool,
spurcell93··on Scientists cut the tolerable intake of PFAs by 99.9%
I will say, the only work my cast iron requires is cooking a really fatty food in it once a month.... my stainless pans require scouring if I do some searing (even with a good deglaze) which is a huge hassle. My cast iron, I just wipe out lightly and never scrub. I have never noticed adverse effects from this and it's well seasoned.

I do hear the weight complaint - I'm a big guy so it's not too bad but my girlfriend needs two hands.

spurcell93··on Apple blocks Google from running its internal iOS apps
IIRC dev certs expire quickly, by design
spurcell93··on FaceTime bug lets you hear audio of person you are calling before they pick up
Don't accuse people of lying when they are clearly not lying. You may dispute the details, but the OP did not lie.
spurcell93··on US shutdown: Flight delays caused by staff shortages
Right. It's the majority leader's decision to override a veto or keep putting bills on the floor. This is a multi-level catastrophe fabricated by disgusting people.
spurcell93··on At my 18th CES tech show, I felt unwelcome
I wasn't sure if this was satire or not. Still am not
spurcell93··on Sears has another chance to avoid closing down
Absolute numbers don't mean much in this context.
spurcell93··on Most lives are lived by default (2012)
I would argue that arrogance is the opposite quality that leads to the meaninglessness conclusion. It's a recognizance of your smallness in the universe, and that you will absolutely die and be forgotten in as little as a couple years. And so will almost everyone else. That doesn't strike me as arrogant - maybe a little nihilistic, but not arrogant.
spurcell93··on I Quit Google Over Its Censored Chinese Search Engine
Most of them don't operate at the scale that google does, or have the amount of stakeholders that google does (and therefore don't need to expand into the chinese market aggressively). And yes, an organization whos goal is to make boatloads of money _is_ fundamentally morally tainted when that goal directly conflicts with taking what we'd call ethical action.
spurcell93··on I Quit Google Over Its Censored Chinese Search Engine
No, but that system's intent was never to be horribly oppressive to minorities and so working within it was not contradictory to the system's values. Oppression was a byproduct of other factors (the racism and classism of individuals). Google's very existence relies on making profits, and its profits come from ads served in search (and adwords, mainly). Working to stop Google from expanding into as juicy a market as the chinese one is diametrically opposed to the goals of the system. That's why I don't find these things to be comparable.

Edit: though I do see how the "individuals" argument can be used in both directions - I'm essentially arguing that google and its ilk are fundamentally tainted by their business models, in a way that the US government never was.

spurcell93··on I Quit Google Over Its Censored Chinese Search Engine
The debate which you outline is not a new one. And while the two sides may seem to have comparable efficacy, it also seems that those who hold their principles strongly abhor even the thought of working on terrible products like this one. And it seems glaringly obvious that those on the "work within the system" side are rationalizing away their immoral behavior in favor of their perks, status, salary, etc, on the off chance that they "work within the system to change it".

If you're making a huge salary at Google, and you value that, and working there for x more years will net you an even huger salary, what are the chances that you start to work against it from the inside at that point, if you're not already doing it now? It ain't gonna get easier. You're not gonna become more of an outsider/breath of fresh air.

spurcell93··on The Insect Apocalypse Is Here
"Just"
spurcell93··on Suicide increasing among American workers
"(even areas where most effective practitioners tend to be women, like cooking.)"

Source?

spurcell93··on iPad Pro
I prefer it because it feels way better. The snap, and the way the plug feels secure in the socket.... I had a nexus 6p for a year and the plug was so damn unreliable and wiggly. Bought multiple different types but they were all bad. That said, I haven't used any Apple devices with USBC and I would not be surprised if they felt much better.
spurcell93··on Waking up early serves capitalism
This is really simple. If your life allows it, sleep as much as makes you feel rested. Go to bed when you need to sleep. I have been fortunate enough to do this for the last two years and I can't stress the impact it has had on my mood and my mental health. Obviously the "allows it" part is a large qualifier, but still. I think it probably applies to a large amount of HN readers.
spurcell93··on Chrome 69 will keep Google Cookies when you tell it to delete all cookies
This is one thing that I genuinely have never understood: if it's this challenging (and effectively impossible for non tech savvy users) to make android devices safe / private / secure and also feature-complete - why, oh why are so many people still using them? This is not me fanboying Apple, it's just sort of mind boggling to me.

This is from someone who used a nexus 6p for two years, and some older stuff before that - but who has recently switched back to iPhone for its ease of use and privacy stance.

spurcell93··on Meow Wolf’s Magic Kingdom
Meow Wolf in combination with George RR Martin's theater (cafe, bar, writing space, purveyor of miniatures and other goods) has made me seriously consider going to Santa Fe for a few weeks as a sabbatical... just a lovely town.
spurcell93··on EU approves internet copyright law, including ‘link tax’ and ‘upload filter’
Ditto. I was in Europe for a month this summer, and a disturbingly large amount of pages were unavailable to me.
spurcell93··on Scientists warn of potential serious health effects of 5G (2017) [pdf]
Actually, there are increasing rates of cancer diagnoses, and even population wide increases in cancer deaths. However, the individual likelihood of cancer death is lower than ever before.

https://ourworldindata.org/cancer https://www.medicaldaily.com/cancer-trends-2017-why-are-canc...

spurcell93··on The aesthetics of science fiction spaceship design
Additionally, the implications of non rotational artificial gravity are more significant in a science fiction context. In foundation, Asimov regards "gravitics" as the pinnacle technological achievement of man (psychohistory notwithstanding).
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