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textech

162 karma · joined August 23, 2010

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textech··on GitHub Copilot is moving to usage-based billing
I'd be fine with it if they can make Sonnet 4.5 unlimited. I haven't personally seen any major differences between 4.6 or any of the other newer models. Claude 4.5 seems to be the right balance and works great for me.
textech··on Iran War Cost Tracker
The cost doesn't really matter. The US led financial system (which is a glorified Ponzi scheme) is on an unsustainable path. The war in Iran is about resources (force Iran to use US dollars to trade oil, give US more leverage in dealing with China...etc.) and to delay the collapse. You build "digital pyramids" like AI data centers and consolidate power/resources while you still can. Financial cost of the war is largely irrelevant. Whether the outcome will be to your advantage is a different issue but pattern is predictable with historical precedence (Romans...etc.). Unfortunately innocent people pay the price.
textech··on Google banned me from Google Voice
Welcome to the club! My Adsense account was banned years ago with no explanation or anything. They even stole my balance. I've heard of similar horror stories of people losing years worth of email and other data with no recourse. As machine learning algorithms become more widespread, expect this to become even more common with a lot of services. Whether paid or free, you're just a number and can be disabled at anytime whenever their flawed algorithms flag you for any reason. I've been actively switching away from Google as much as possible and encourage others to do the same. For email, I use custom domain (still hosted on old Google Apps) so I can switch whenever needed.
textech··on Tech CEOs Should Be Held Accountable, or Even Fired, Amid Layoffs
I'm always surprised to see how many CEOs walk away with millions while running their companies to the ground. The vast majority of the S&P 500 corps are mostly monopolies (Telecommunication, Airlines, Insurance...etc.) and for the most part run themselves yet the CEOs are paid exorbitantly.

How much did the CEOs of Circuit City, Blockbuster and so many others made while being completely oblivious to what was happening around them? Even low-level employees probably saw the shift to online/Amazon yet CEOs still walked away with millions. The Corp structure/model seems to be completely broken and most of them can only survive as monopolies.

textech··on Association between influenza vaccination and risk of stroke in Alberta, Canada
Perhaps people who get the flu shot are generally in better health or exercise more?
textech··on Sam Bankman-Fried vs. the Match King
So-called smart money strikes again. Thernaos, Nikola, WeWork and now FTX (I'm sure I'm missing many and there are some other less obvious ones like Carvana and Opendoor). Billions and billions of dollars were funneled into these obvious scams all while being cheered on by celebrity hedge funders (likes of Cramer, Mr. Clown...etc.) and yet there are zero consequences for anyone involved.
textech··on Made in America is back, leaving US factories scrambling to find workers
Are they assembling or manufacturing? If you need to import all your raw materials then you're not really manufacturing anything and I seriously doubt that anyone in this country is willing to do the dirty bad breaking work for low wages with no prospect of ever owning your home.
textech··on MasterCard suspends all services in Russia
I guess this will just accelerate adoption of China's UnionPay or their homegrown MIR.
textech··on Why are used cars so expensive right now?
How were rental car companies able to sell 770k+ cars last year? Where did that demand come from and who bought those cars?
textech··on Carbon dioxide peaks near 420 parts per million at Mauna Loa observatory
This is serious. I'm sure that this will have and is likely already having some serious impact on humans that we don't know much about despite what the studies claim.
textech··on A former CIA chief of disguise shows off a five-second mask (2020) [video]
Reminded me of the line from one of the MI movies. "CIA is like Halloween, a bunch of grown men in rubber masks playing trick or treat".
textech··on Violence in the Capitol, Dangers in the Aftermath
Greenwald is absolutely spot on here. Also, I didn't know about Rep. Barbara Lee before, what an incredibly smart lady.
textech··on Facebook Indefinitely Suspends Trump
Network effect is pretty strong and although these platforms can easily be replicated, it's just not easy to get masses to adopt a new platform. I'm afraid that just like the traditional news media this could lead to a society where these companies could decide what people get to see and read.
textech··on Facebook Indefinitely Suspends Trump
not just "don't have to" but I'd say that they have a responsibility to make sure that their platforms aren't used to incite violence against anyone but there are better ways to handle an outgoing but still an elected President and it's not clear if that's what really happened. I thought people had the right to protest in this country?

If an elected President of the country is acting deranged then that's the responsibility of congress to do something about and not of glorified CRUD app creators.

textech··on Facebook Indefinitely Suspends Trump
Facebook, Twitter and the rest shouldn't act like arbiters of truth. I think this is just plain wrong and a slippery slope for the entire industry.
textech··on Microsoft says it found malicious software in its systems
If they really had access to everything for the past several months then that doesn't say much for their competency.
textech··on Microsoft says it found malicious software in its systems
This is precisely the reason why I'm against moving everything to the cloud. Find your way into AWS or Azure and you will have everything on a silver platter.
textech··on Experiments on a $50 DIY air purifier that takes 30s to assemble
Without an activated carbon filter on the outside to collect dust and other bigger particles your HEPA filters will be utterly useless in only a few weeks. If you keep your windows closed then I guess it could last longer but then you may have CO2 issues.
textech··on Estimated 1.56B face masks will have entered oceans in 2020
Apparently surgical masks are better than the cloth masks. https://healthnewshub.org/cloth-mask-vs-surgical-mask-vs-n95...
textech··on U.S. Treasury, Commerce Depts. Hacked Through SolarWinds Compromise
you mean professionally run corporations like Equifax, Target or SolarWinds (published ftp password to github)?
textech··on U.S. Treasury, Commerce Depts. Hacked Through SolarWinds Compromise
Incompetence runs through every facet of American government, corporations and even private businesses. There's an insane amount of bureaucracy and people doing IT who have no business doing IT. As for the corporations, the established ones get taken over by the MBA types who have no clue about software or security nor do they care as long as the numbers look good for the next quarter.
textech··on San Francisco voters approve taxes on highly paid CEOs, big businesses
San Francisco is the 16th largest city by population and has a budget of around 14 billion which is like 6 or 7 times larger than many cities with much bigger population. This is just a badly run city and throwing more money at their problems isn't going to help them.
textech··on Strong humming for one hour daily to terminate chronic rhinosinusitis (2006)
I learned about this and many other techniques from the book "The Oxygen Advantage". It definitely makes a big difference but I wouldn't say that it completely resolved it but then I haven't been practicing consistently.
textech··on Billionaire Jeffrey Gundlach slams California over taxes, may leave state
Not from California but I don't blame him. Instead of controlling waste, the usual answer from state and local governments (particularly in California) seems to be raise the taxes. When you have janitors making making 250k+ you have some serious issues and that's just the tip of the iceberg. The sheer number of administrative positions, departments and salaries just boggle my mind.

https://time.com/4555692/san-francisco-bart-janitor-salary/

https://www.openthebooks.com/forbes-why-california-is-in-tro...

textech··on Nikola’s founder steps down from board as company faces fraud allegations
SEC is nowhere to be seen. What I'm interested in is to see who actually bought into this scam? Is there a list of all the (smart money...cough) hedge funds, retirement funds and others who invested significantly in this scam? A clown basically masquerading as a visionary founder/tech with everything outsourced to other companies is literally walking away with billions by scamming the so-called "smart money".
textech··on We View Nikola’s Response as a Tacit Admission of Securities Fraud
Looks like next Theranos to me. You have to give credit to the guy though since he is showing how easy it is to fool the so-called "smart money".
textech··on U.S. arrests former Green Beret, son, in connection with Ghosn escape from Japan
https://github.com/iamadamdev/bypass-paywalls-chrome/blob/ma...
textech··on Cameras Could Replace Car Mirrors?
Love the side mirror camera on my Honda Civic (It's only on the right side but incredibly useful when changing lanes). I probably wouldn't completely replace the side mirrors with cameras yet though.
textech··on $11M settlement reached with Google regarding terminated AdSense accounts
Why just 2010 to 2018? Mine was terminated back in 2008 with about $500 in it.
textech··on How Instagram uses your mobile microphone to spy on you (and serve ads)
It has happened to me too and far too many times to be just a coincidence. I don't even have Instagram or Facebook on my mobile so won't be surprised if Google is involved too as I have an android phone.
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