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zaphod12

672 karma · joined November 21, 2016

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zaphod12··on The Email Caste's Last Stand
Lord what a fawning article. They laid off plenty of engineers, including folks that apparently were necessary. I'm sure they laid off some folks who were doing very little work, but seems pretty clear they also laid off plenty of contributors. Seems like the author started from two perspectives - Elon Musk is a genius and anyone who isn't an engineer doesn't add value to tech companies and just went from there. Neither point is supported.
zaphod12··on Rooftop wind energy innovation claims 50% more energy than solar at same cost
I can't speak to the technology, but their CEO and marketing staff have been aggressively crapping on other clean energy sources. They also repeated a lot of lies about solar. I hope the tech is real, the people behind it seem like jerks.
zaphod12··on The NYPD Tapes (2010)
This article is from 2010.
zaphod12··on What a Wedding Taught Me About Software Engineering
Well tailored, high quality dress pants can be tremendously comfortable. More so than most jeans.

Really the lesson here is people don't spend money on things they use twice a year. Also an important software engineering lesson!

(Though I'll bite on the ties...terribly uncomfortable)

zaphod12··on “Skimpflation” is hitting everything from food to hotels
Oh you think resort fees are optional? That would make sense. No no, they're tacked onto every bill.
zaphod12··on Over 50% of CEOs say they’re considering cutting jobs over the next 6 months
Fear, Uncertainty and Doubt. When you say statements like the one noted above which aren't true, but I mean..."hey, it sounds like it could be true and do you want to take that risk?"
zaphod12··on Tech salaries continue to increase as firms search for talent
Actually asked a recruiter about this because I'd noticed the same. More people staying put, so fewer replies, so they are blasting out to a wider audience and loosening search criteria. It's a numbers game even more so.
zaphod12··on Twitter’s child porn problem ruined its plans for an OnlyFans competitor
I agree with your statement. To elaborate, the appropriate, though somewhat recently coined term, is CSAM - child sexual abuse material. Other coinage normalizes it or minimizes the damage from it.
zaphod12··on The endless search for a crypto use case
in crypto land, you would never do that! You'd set up a smart contract to automatically move money from your wallet to his as milestones are hit in the project! It's beautiful! Maybe they could run off with your $1k upfront, but maybe your smart contract can even get that back if a milestone isn't hit in time.

Now all you need is connected oracle that can judge completion percentage of a bathroom and communicate with the blockchain! /s

zaphod12··on Deepest infrared image of universe
Thank you for this. It really is heartening to see amazing science done for its sake. Something not horrible for a change.
zaphod12··on An employee at EpicGames wants me to fill out this questionnaire to use my OSS
I've had my security team ask for this sort of thing before. I laughed at them and didn't send it because I understand the way this works, but they didn't and were following their new vendor requirements process. Get a swe in the middle who doesn't and voila
zaphod12··on Dentistry is less scientific and more gratuitous than people think (2019)
There is no reason to floss twice daily. This doesn't even really make sense - what would you be flossing out in the morning upon waking?

Flossing once per day is plenty.

You also need not use a 'rubber pointy thing' - proper flossing goes just below the gum line and will get everything you need removed.

Super agree that you should get an electric, though. Heck, I switched from an oral-b to a phillips sonicare and my staining improved enormously, but that's really just cosmetic. ymmv.

zaphod12··on The state finally letting teens sleep in
What on earth were you doing for an hour in the morning?! Even today I can be out the door in 20 minutes and forget it, as a teen I probably could do it in 7.

That is also, I think, an abnormally long bus trip, but maybe that's my bias.

zaphod12··on FBI seizes notorious marketplace for selling millions of stolen SSNs
Ok, but I got a replacement card several years ago and it was really not too hard. Took a few minutes at the SSA office with my passport (advice is to get their obscenely early to avoid waiting), and then waiting for the mail. Took a while to get in the mail, but wasn't hard, just slow.
zaphod12··on Musk SEC Filing
The real question is what will he do if the court orders a fine or specific performance! Can't you just see him ignoring it...and daring them to...what, hold him in contempt? He's completely ignored the SEC already.
zaphod12··on Sheryl Sandberg stepping down as Facebook COO
Check out kumospace. Start up with a really fun, functional solution to this problem. Maybe just a novelty generally but for a remote happy hour it was a game changer.
zaphod12··on My 12-year-old brother automated our garage
Strong suggestion for Tailwind. It's a smart garage door controller that was clearly built by engineers for engineers. Obviously myq was built by engineers, but clearly every aspect was designed by the marketing team.
zaphod12··on Pakistan hits 120°F as climate trends drive spring heatwave
Recommend Termination Shock by Neal Stephenson!
zaphod12··on Ask HN: Should I quit my job to sell my stock options?
C-Level executives and others regularly use these plans. They are designed for the use case of 'people who nearly always have MNPI'. The way it's done typically is 2-fold. 1) Immediately after a quarterly earnings release when the amount of MNPI is at it's lowest amount. 2) Far enough in the future that the value of your MNPI is minimized - ie, deals you know of could be public or even collapsed by the time you're selling.

You won't need a leave. But you will need a Lawyer, as noted in other comments. GET A LAWYER FOR THIS ASAP SERIOUSLY.

zaphod12··on Another stablecoin loses peg – DEI team working to restore the peg
So that's just 1 kind of stablecoin. The other is algorithmic - Terra was in that model. There are many excellent descriptions online, but essentially the backing entity buys and sells another coin (Luna in the case of Terra) whose value can fluctuate to maintain the price of their stablecoin. They are kinda genius in theory and so far rather messy in practice.
zaphod12··on Run your home on a Raspberry Pi
Tons of great general suggestions here. But I want to chime in for the Tailwind garage door opener. It's very obviously built by engineers and for engineers. Install is harder than other options, but rock solid, zero maintenance unlike others and it can do automatic garage door opening and closing totally self contained by detecting your phone + car Bluetooth. I was absolutely blown away by it compared to the MyQ which is usually touted as the best and is so locked down because they signed a deal with Amazon as to be totally useless.
zaphod12··on You’re muted – or are you? Videoconferencing apps may listen when mic is off
Google Meet certainly stays on, but does not try to pretend it doesn't. Feature, not a bug. And this is google, who you know has no compunctions about data collection. The microphone volume icon continues to show movement based on noise from your microphone and it will even prompt you if it thinks you're speaking to unmute yourself.
zaphod12··on Is It Time to Revisit the Keystone XL Pipeline?
Nah, there's a boom and bust cycle to these industries. Prices go up, everyone exploits new wells and pours in money. Prices go down and a ton of folks go broke because the new wells are too expensive. You don't need any sort of cartel arrangement - the large companies and investors just learned their lesson after being burned a bunch of times.
zaphod12··on Ask HN: What bits of fundamental knowledge are productivity multipliers?
I appreciate this concept, but I'll need someone to tell me what the baker/welder is producing. At this point I NEED TO KNOW
zaphod12··on Chrome 100
I think this may be a somewhat more specific to your environment...I'm running on a new generation macbook pro (so M1+) and haven't had any trouble screen sharing
zaphod12··on FTC sues Intuit for its deceptive TurboTax “free” filing campaign
Not sure why you're including the word 'technically,' in there - you are clearly and definitely committing tax fraud if you knowingly fail to include all of your financial information.
zaphod12··on The walk signs in Crystal City, VA are just repeating “Change Password”
If you're ever in the flatiron district of NYC, I adore the signals at 23rd street. "The walk sign is on across 23rd street," is a simple message, but the gentleman who recorded it sounds like they remembered at the last minute and pulled whoever from the install team wanted to do it (as opposed to some voice actor or something). The gravelly queens accent makes you feel right at home in the city.
zaphod12··on Lessons from a tech job search
Most of the time these companies do hire people...they just generally lose people at almost the same rate. It's usually a sign of something negative, though

(note - staying the same size is fine if that's your desire, but it's a problem when you're aiming for aggressive growth and can't)

zaphod12··on Car dealerships don’t want cash, they want to give loans
I'm not even sure this is the future - the new hotness is car subscriptions. (though some of these are cool in that you can swap out a sedan for an SUV or convertible).
zaphod12··on Trump's Truth Social tops downloads on Apple App Store; many waitlisted
Tag lines != Names
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