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wavesounds

1,446 karma · joined May 20, 2012

I'm a Software Engineer and Web Developer from California. I also enjoy surfing and creating music.
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wavesounds··on Why are so many young people getting cancer?
I'm sorry for your loss. Very similar story amongst my friend group as well. It's tragic
wavesounds··on Why are so many young people getting cancer?
This would be a great thing for all of the AI companies to devote some energy towards. Especially with their reputations in decline. Surely there must be some patterns the AIs could find if we had enough data about the people who died from cancer.
wavesounds··on Launch HN: Azalea Robotics (YC S24) – Baggage-handling robots for airports
Seems like someone needs to invent a rack that can easily change size based on the plane being loaded
wavesounds··on Netflix buffering issues: Boxing fans complain about Jake Paul vs. Mike Tyson
"The festivities were streamed live from the Peacock Theater in L.A. across more than 30 platforms including YouTube, Twitch, Facebook, TikTok Live, X (Twitter), Steam, WeChat, Bilibili, Huya, DouYu, Xiaohongshu and Instagram Live"
wavesounds··on OpenAI departures: Why can’t former employees talk?
Their head of alignment just resigned https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40391299
wavesounds··on Toyota cashes in on booming hybrid sales
Plugin hybrid is the best.
wavesounds··on Plastic bag bans work
The main goal isn't to reduce the amount of overall plastic created its to reduce the amount of plastic trash that ends up on the streets, beaches, rivers, etc.
wavesounds··on Microsoft was blindsided by OpenAI's ouster of CEO Sam Altman
Why doesn't Microsoft just hire Sam and Greg and put them in charge of AI?
wavesounds··on Show HN: OpenAI dev assistant GUI with local code interpreter
I wish there was a way to see exactly what its planning on doing before it does it when you say something like "save it to my desktop".
wavesounds··on Teaching with AI
The elephant in the room here is that these LLM's still have problems with hallucinations. Even its only 1% or even 0.1% of the time thats still a huge problem. You could have someone go their whole lives believing something they were confidently taught by an AI which is completely wrong.

Teachers should be very careful using a vanilla LLM for education without some kinds of extra guardrails or extra verification.

wavesounds··on Montana loses fight against youth climate activists in landmark ruling
The reason they're having success in Montana is because Montana's constitution says "The state and each person shall maintain and improve a clean and healthful environment in Montana for present and future generations"

It would be nice if we could amend the US constitution with something similar.

wavesounds··on Tell HN: "I don't care about cookies” extension bought by Avast, users jump ship
Well if "no" becomes the default then I'm sure engineers would switch over to testing that path more frequently instead
wavesounds··on Software firms across US facing tax bills that threaten survival
With help from gpt4:

"As a concerned citizen and advocate for the technology sector in our great nation, I am writing to express my strong support for S.866, the American Innovation and Jobs Act. I believe this legislation is crucial for fixing the unfair tax treatment faced by startups, technology companies, and software engineers, which together form the backbone of innovation and economic growth in the United States.

The bill will make it easier for startups and small businesses to thrive, create jobs, and compete in the global market. Additionally, the legislation will also make it more attractive for talented software engineers to choose careers in this vital industry.

Our nation's ability to maintain its competitive edge in the global market depends heavily on the health and vibrancy of our technology sector. By passing S.866, we can ensure that our startups and tech companies have the resources they need to innovate, create jobs, and contribute to the economy. Furthermore, this legislation will help attract and retain top-tier talent in software engineering, an essential component of our country's continued success in the tech industry.

As your constituent, I kindly urge you to support and vote in favor of the American Innovation and Jobs Act, S.866. This bill is a vital investment in our nation's future, and its passage will undoubtedly lead to continued growth and prosperity for the United States in the competitive global market.

Thank you for your attention to this important issue, and I appreciate your dedication to representing the best interests of our community and the nation as a whole."

wavesounds··on Bad News About Inflation
Because of the pandemic which caused people to desire more space. Maybe they were living with their parents or roommates and want their own place, maybe they had kids during the pandemic, maybe they need a home office.

Sure if you raise rates enough to cause a recession and massive job loss that would eventually push home prices down but it seems like building more housing would be a simpler, kinder solution.

wavesounds··on Bad News About Inflation
My understanding is that a large portion of this "CPI index that excludes food and energy" is housing. Which might explain the seasonality mentioned in this blog post (people tend to move more in the warmer months).

I don't see how raising interest rates will help when the core issue with housing is the lack of supply. If anything higher rates will make it harder to add more supply.

wavesounds··on Show HN: GPT-4-powered web searches for developers
I'm seeing similar stuff. Phind seems to be hallucinating more and coming up with stranger answers than ChatGPT Pro.
wavesounds··on U.S. Pushes for TikTok Sale to Resolve National Security Concerns
On top of the security concerns it's also not "fair trade" if US social media companies cannot operate in China while theirs are allowed to operate here. There are plenty of alternatives to TikTok now, banning them is a no brainer.
wavesounds··on Ask HN: What RSS Reader do you use in 2022?
Whats with all of these RSS stories suddenly on the front page today? Feels like exactly what PG was talking about in The Submarine[1] but who would be behind pushing RSS feeds all of a sudden? Is there a Big RSS lobby I don't know about?

1. http://www.paulgraham.com/submarine.html

wavesounds··on Bipartisan Legislation to Ban TikTok
Snapchat, YouTube and Instagram already provide alternatives that are nearly identical in functionality.
wavesounds··on Discriminatory attitudes against the unvaccinated during a global pandemic
Please don't spread misinformation. https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-021-02054-z
wavesounds··on FX swap debt a $80T 'blind spot', global regulator says
"their mere interest in something doesn’t disqualify it" - It certainly raises suspicions though. It really feels like certain groups have gotten good at turning particular news events or ideas into memes and sharing them as widely as possible in order to push a narrative that manipulates the markets. Which is probably why this story is now on the front page of HN. We certainly saw this with crypto and now it feels to me at least like those same tactics are being applied more and more to the larger stock market.
wavesounds··on Launch HN: Taro (YC S22): Private career growth community for software engineers
Maybe I'm being overly nostalgic but I miss the days when startups ruled and when it was all about building cool stuff. Nowadays tech feels so insanely corporate it's all about how to get a job at one of the biggest companies and how to play the corporate game to get more power and prestige.
wavesounds··on FCC commissioner wants TikTok removed from app stores over spying concerns
There's so many good alternatives now: YouTube's shorts, Instagram's Reels, Snapchat's Spotlight
wavesounds··on 10x (engineer, context) pairs
Why does this 10x meme exist about software engineers and no other profession? It's because the CEOs and VCs who spread this are preying on tech bro macho-ness so they can squeeze as much labor and "productivity" out of us as possible.

Let's stop with this juvenile dick measuring contest. We are not machines that have a speed that can be so easily measured like a new CPU in the bosses computer.

wavesounds··on Bolt announces layoffs
Why didn't they just give them RSUs instead of doing this super complicated risky thing?
wavesounds··on The Coming Food Catastrophe
We should stop growing corn for ethanol since it's worse for the climate than gasoline[1] and instead use all that land and machinery to grow wheat instead.

1. https://www.reuters.com/business/environment/us-corn-based-e...

wavesounds··on We analyzed 100K technical interviews to see where the best performers work
There's still the selection bias of who volunteers to do these mock interviews. Probably its the people who want practice interviewing and at dropbox those are the top performers who want to "move up" to a Google, while at Google it's the people who aren't cutting it and know they are going to have to find another job soon.
wavesounds··on California bill would let parents sue social media companies for addicting kids
There's too many lawyers, it wouldn't be a problem if law school was cheaper but the fact that so many of them have big student loan debts means they have to find reasons to sue people in order to pay of those bills.
wavesounds··on You can build a skyscraper anywhere in Davis, California
And Redondo Beach!? I feel like they buried the lead here. Davis is nice and all but Redondo Beach is nearly twice the price per square foot since it's close to LA and ... on the beach!
wavesounds··on Tesla shares surpass $1T in value
That's a P/E ratio of 533 for those interested https://www.gurufocus.com/term/pettm/TSLA/PE-Ratiottm/Tesla#....
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