shafoshaf · HackerTrans

letzten Monatdiscuss

The problem I have with good faith debate is that it often falls into a fallacy of "fair-time" meaning we think we have to give the other side equal time. This because obvious with things like the Holocaust. Or when you have a legal person (e.g. RFK Jr.) asking to debate a scientist (e.g. Dr. Peter Hotez.)

shafoshaf

vor 2 Monatendiscuss

>At some point you have to hold adult Republicans accountable for their actions. They were warned repeatedly; they chose to ignore the warnings.

The challenge is that with a 2-party system it was take a chance Trump wouldn't be worse than he was the first time, or continue with the Democratic platform, which is not necessarily in alignment with a LOT of people. My personal feeling is that this administration has driven the country off a cliff in a spectacularly fast order. I also think the Democrats positions had us heading for a cliff, but it was at least further away.

Trump ran on solving SOME of the right problems. He and all the Republican leadership unfortunately have NONE of the right solutions. I fear the Democrats will think that a rebuke of Trump this election would be a mandate for many of their polices. It isn't, it is a rebuke of the horrible job Trump has done.

Tax the rich, solve healthcare, take note that our country is in an economic battle with other countries, and realize the best form of freedom is when everyone has economic opportunity and stability. Both parties "say" they want these things, the Republicans outright lie about it and the Dems do nothing.

shafoshaf

vor 2 Monatendiscuss

The physical keys, like Yubico, help with that. However, I have not been convinced that a password manager with unique, strong passwords on all my accounts shouldn't suffice. I don't know why I have to be penalized because other users don't use best practices.

shafoshaf

vor 2 Monatendiscuss

I don't know if that is sarcasm, but a chair I buy is mine to do whatever I want with it. Same goes for clothes, a mattress, paint, or any other non-software enabled physical item. Why does having software/hardware make a difference?

shafoshaf

vor 3 Monatendiscuss

I think this is a https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_man_theory fallacy. There is a correlation to Cook and the performance, but the idea that this was all because of one single guy at the top is survivor bias. For example, other companies didn't fail at outsourcing to China because their CEOs weren't as personally involved as Cook, it was because the team as a whole didn't perform.

Looking today, Trump is as much a symptom as the problem. He didn't get there just because of who he is, he rode on the backs of all the people who voted for him, the state legislators who gerrymandered for him, the Heritage Foundation's Project 2025, etc...

shafoshaf

vor 3 Monatendiscuss

Relational Databases Aren’t Dinosaurs, They’re Sharks. https://www.simplethread.com/relational-databases-arent-dino...

The very small bonus you get on small apps is hardly worth the time you spend redeveloping the wheel.

shafoshaf

vor 3 Monatendiscuss

It is not illegal to ask a user's age in the US online. Can you let us know what your source is?

shafoshaf

vor 3 Monatendiscuss

I don't think the point is that the transition isn't difficult. It is that there is an overall benefit that outweighs the challenges of the transition.

The sad part is that industrializing societies have not been very good at reconciling the benefits with the costs. The benefits first go to a select few and have seeped out to the masses slowly. Railroads in the US are a good example. The wealth accumulated by the Vanderbilts, Hills and Harrimans, did not get redistributed in any kind of equitable manner. However, everyday people did eventually gain a lot of benefit form of those railroads through economic expansion. (None of which address the loss of the native Americans, whose losses should also be part of the equation.)

shafoshaf

vor 5 Monatendiscuss

I can refuse a very specific email configuration, but there are so many simple variations, it isn't all that effective. Tons of cold email providers have you first buy 100 domain names, warm up the IP's with bots, and then send the same emails from a variety of email addresses/domains/servers. I think the question is does this low barrier to entry really outweigh the added challenge of allowing low volume actors host their own systems?

(steps on soapbox) And as long as we are talking about SPAM, why in God's name if I block a text message and then the phone number from ringing is there an additional block required to prevent voicemail? Oh, I see, it is so Verizon and others can charge me to block voicemails. Even on Google FI, if I block a number on Messages it doesn't carry over to calls which doesn't carry over to voicemail. Enshitification. (steps down)

shafoshaf

vor 5 Monatendiscuss

The motivation to advertise, track, remarket, and exploit is always there. If I started getting all my news via Bluesky, I would have to allow various businesses to reach out to me. Sure, I can have a separate account for that, but that just segments my comms.

Mind you, we are talking about using these protocols for the general public, not savvy hacker news readers.

shafoshaf

vor 5 Monatendiscuss

If you are trying to stop monopolization, then having a large organization/government swarm the protocol gives them an effective monopoly. Being able to put a drop of clean water into an ocean of corruption is not really a working system.

shafoshaf

vor 5 Monatendiscuss

Macy's has Santa clause since 1947 because that is when Miracle on 24th Street came out. And he even knows when you are sleeping.

shafoshaf

vor 5 Monatendiscuss

I was extending into the future a little bit. Think of it as playing with a cheat code that let's you have more health or power rather than God mode.

But God mode is on the way. ChatGPT mysteriously went from not understanding SAP ByDesign's WSDLs to having fantastic information over the course of a month. The amount of effort being put into AI isn't about the theoretical limitations of LLMs it is how many everyday problems will AI with all the workarounds and hacks ultimately be able to replace mid life career developers?

shafoshaf

vor 5 Monatendiscuss

I suppose I could just tell you what I'm feeling, not the op. The fun was bringing down the fire. That is INCREDIBLY fun! That feels valuable. That feels like you are helping others.

Now, the mountain is gone. All the skills I learned to navigate it are becoming obsolete. Sure, tools get better, new models are adopted, but it didn't wipe out the mountain. When the world move from the 90s to the Internet age, I took my pitons, backpack, and rope and started climbing higher. I felt like I was empowered to bring MORE fire down to MORE people.

With vibe coding getting better and better, I still have my leadership skills, my ability to understand navigation, and all those skills, but the value and joy of climbing isn't quite there. There is a road leading to the top of the mountain and cars go up there all the time.

That is more than just change. That is something the Luddites faced: it wasn't technology and mass production they decried, it was a loss of identity. Kirkpatrick Sale's "Rebels Against The Future" is an awesome history of the luddites and I think it is very relevant today.

shafoshaf

vor 5 Monatendiscuss

Yeah, but I used to be a wizard with arcane knowledge making computers do things others didn't even understand. I was casting fireballs, and now everyone has Find Greater Familiar right out of the gate who does all the heavy lifting. :(

shafoshaf

vor 5 Monatendiscuss

[55yo] My sense is that those problems we worked on in the 80s and 90s were like the perfectly balanced MMORPG. The challenges were tough, but with grit, could be overcome and you felt like you could build something amazing and unique. My voxel moment was passing parameters in my compilers class in college. I sat down to do it and about 12 hours later I got it working, not knowing if I could even do it.

With AI, it is like coding is on GOD mode and sure I can bang out anything I want, but so can anyone else and it just doesn't feel like an accomplishment.

shafoshaf

vor 5 Monatendiscuss

I don't know that people are really looking for things to justify their ageism, just like I don't feel that racists are actually trying to justify their view.

As a seasoned citizen myself (55), what I've experienced is that ageism seems to be more about having common points of view and cultural references. It is similar to how several studies show that people tend to hire others just like themselves despite actual credentials. This is the challenge with age, race, culture, and even sex.

I do like that this paper shows that I will be just coming off my peak of power at 65 and that all I need to know is what 6-7 means so I can talk to my younger colleagues. :)

shafoshaf

vor 6 Monatendiscuss

"it’s very important to be patient." I was a tow pilot in the Rockies for a ski season and got a whopping 3.5 hours of glider time. The spinning in circles to gain altitude was enough for me to stick with powered flight (patience indeed!) This is an amazing accomplishment, way to go!

shafoshaf

vor 6 Monatendiscuss

I think the point being made is that the challenge is when it comes to medicine, lay people can't even begin to understand the research and can't form their own opinion. So for those of us without MD's, we HAVE to trust someone to tell us what works and what doesn't. Giving mixed signals really screws that up as I can't personally assess what is good medicine and what isn't.

Regarding, smoking and bloodletting, the former was bought and paid for by industry, that is just fraud. For the latter, there are cases where bloodletting actually works. Medieval medicine isn't the backward thinking we often ascribe to it and many would argue that it wasn't a "Dark" ages at all. There are even modern instances where maggots are the best solution for cleaning wounds. Even given that history, the recent advances by people whose jobs I can't even begin to understand, can nuke my entire immune system to treat a cancer and bring me back to full health. That is not something an autodidactic can do.

shafoshaf

vor 7 Monatendiscuss

My takeaway is that jfindper is saying that seatbelt laws had a justification that does not have a parallel with this action regarding social media.

IDK if this is how they would say it, but I think argument for seatbelts is that there is minimum disruption to usage, there is limited revocation of other rights, and the societal benefit is large and pretty unambiguous.

The idea that I have to give up privacy, expose myself to additional risk (by having my identity logged), increase the chances that mentally susceptible people will have more exposure to fraud in order to get a solution that is not clear on how effective it will be makes the parallel a bit academic, if not an out right straw man.

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