FrameworkFred

stories like this make think, if the metaverse is a thing, that guy lived to write that account in exactly one universe.

I could've written the first 4 lines of this comment myself :)

Love the points made in this article and the way it was presented with an inline emulator.

If it weren't for "War Games" and the vic-20 (and later the c64), I would've ended up on a very different path.

and what about mining crypto? I'd bet it's a worse offender by a mile (https://ccaf.io/cbeci/index).

why wouldn't the EPA fine the company behind this mining rig? https://www.amazon.com/SOONTECH-Complete-Motherboard-Includi...

I can see the tax charges and I get that the behavior and consequences his device and/or software enables is bad on a few levels, but it's not clear to me that it should be illegal to sell something that allows others to modify their equipment toward their own ends.

Or, rather, I think it's a pretty slippery slope. I can imagine wanting to buy an aftermarket controller for a tesla and I can see Elon Musk being upset enough about it to push the EPA to fine the company under the same set of laws, but I don't think it would be good for consumers if it happened that way.

Should Linus be fined for creating an operating system that gives me the ability to turn off energy-saving configurations on my laptop?

This is a great game. My wife's family plays it. It's funny to watch new players realize how cheat-y the game is.

I'm suggesting this may be a viable alternative given that this has been a known potential issue for quite some time now and the aviation industry appears to be dragging their feet on replacing the faulty gear. It seems to me premiums that approach or exceed the cost of an upgrade would encourage them to get moving on the fix.

On the other hand, maybe it makes more sense for insurance carriers to simply refuse to assume liability for flights on airplanes with altimeters that are known to have issues with 5G tech. That approach seems to work for discouraging new construction in floodplains.

I'm no expert, but why can't we just add some regulation that says the insurance carriers will be responsible for any liability beyond 2024 (or whatever) and that they're free to charge whatever they want based on the make and model of the altimeter in use on the plane?

You might be subconsciously picking up on the fact that it's actually really creepy to build an apartment in a building you don't own.

Well, I guess the question is what will happen when Not-Canada manages to achieve stable prices while Canada lets theirs "run hot." It seems to me the rest of the world would make sure to hang on to Not-Canadian currency while being very willing to swap Canadian currency for everything else, which would increase the supply of Canadian currency, causing further Canadian inflation.

Or is the author suggesting we should somehow convince the entire world to let their currencies "run hot"? What if a few holdouts went rogue and (gasp) maintained a relatively low rate of inflation for their currency?

I can reason out why a low and steady rate of inflation might cause folks to keep money moving around in an economy, but a do-nothing approach seems silly and unworkable over the long term on a global scale.

That's an excellent article that I think highlights a big chunk of the explanation for the recent labor shortage.

While I'll admit I experienced a quick mental blip on the notion that someone might expect me to tip an amount that's a function of movie tickets plus food and drinks in a counter-service situation, I think it's a spot-on observation that workers on the low end of the wage spectrum have a sea of options and won't be putting up with what amounts to abuse, even if it's not an entirely intentional act on the part of management.

The article tracks very well with what I've heard from employers and employees that it's not just about wages. The author was clearly happy with the gig when things were going well.

But when it's Christmas (or maybe when there's something fun happening this weekend that sounds better than cleaning feces from a movie theater seat) during a labor shortage and everyone is overworked, the low wages combine with literally every other damn downside about what can be a truly thankless job to form a crystal-clear and perfectly legitimate plan to achieve the perfect holiday schedule. A worker can simply quit, enjoy their holiday, and later go find a job that's probably going to pay more and/or offer better working conditions.

It'll be interesting to see how it all shakes out.

Sounds great to me. Why not manufacture plastics designed to degrade at increased rates in the presence of those enzymes? If turning plastics into compostables was easier, it might keep them out of the oceans.

...as if some sort of future rodent time travelers went back in earth's pre-history and tasked countless human-filled labs with unlocking the secrets of rodent medical science so they could, in their own time, mine the wisdom of the ancients and ensure their immortality.

Some of the author's complaints are legit, but they hardly constitute evidence of decline.

First, I figured out how to do Django+Tornado in a day 8 years ago and PyCharm pays for itself over and over, every day.

The rest of the arguments might deserve mention in a conversation about how the project could be improved, but it isn't clear to me that they presage Django following Visual Basic down the drain.

I'm sure the Django maintainers would entertain PRs for any clear improvements over what's in place and lacking.

Paypal actually did this to me for hiring an indonesian kid to sketch a t-shirt design for $50.

Before I clicked send, I verified that Paypal said they'd send the money without charging a fee. He received it, minus the fee they claimed they wouldn't charge. So, I tried to send another $10 to cover the difference and I got torpedoed into some black hole of no return.

Now I can't use paypal to buy anything without submitting a bunch of documentation, which is super weird considering I don't have to send anything like that to use their competitors' services, so it's never going to happen.

I assume it's some sort of regulation they're attempting to follow, but haven't thought through, but who knows? It's definitely costing them money, but maybe not enough to justify improving the UX.

and they appear to be down? (in a survey of two web browsers on very different networks) [ok, duh, I'm up to speed now]

I've tried VR with my phone and it looked promising to me WRT resolution and clarity. I like the idea of a camera to let me see my workspace and I suspect with a few iterations it'll be amazing.

Given what I do to my posture as a desk worker, I'm thinking a little extra weight on my head might do good things for my back tbh.

If the price is right, I'm down to try it anyway.

I suspect this is a trend that'll continue as market buyers and sellers realize Amazon is a poor fit for certain of their activities.

I already avoid Amazon as a consumer when the brand, quality, or delivery date really counts.

But I also avoid Lowes when I'm buying appliances for tenant properties because they can't be relied upon to call before they deliver. And I don't buy from Harbor Freight Tools when equipment failure might be fatal because some things I've bought there haven't survived their first use.

But those places have saved me a ton of money over the years when their model has worked to my benefit, just like Amazon has made a vast improvement in certain areas of my life.

I suspect companies like PNC are coming to similar realizations about Amazon as they see that their returns (or the implications on their reputations, or their confidence in continued sales) paint a picture that's less attractive than pursuing alternatives.

oh dang...good to know

Reading this makes me appreciate all the burglars out there helping us figure out how easy it is to break in to our houses and take all of our stuff, especially the ones who don't just take the TV and electronics, but who put out that extra bit of effort to rummage through our collectibles to see if they can steal something that's really hard to replace.

That essay completely misses the simple quantum truth of the matter which is that it's all of the above.

It's all clearly just the universe acknowledging that, with all of our ramped up observational capabilities and all of our beaming radio waves into space, it's becoming more and more likely that we should have had some encounters with advanced spacefaring civilizations by now.

The logical conclusion is that any given Schroedinger's Spock is more or less likely to be a mistake, some new government tech, a hoax, AND traveling aliens whose DNA both is and isn't a branch off some human ancestor's...until the autopsy.

'Cause when you reach over and put your hand into a pile of goo that was your best friend's face, you'll know what to do!

Forget it, Marge, it's Chinatown.

...to which the scorpion replies: "I couldn't help it. It's in my nature."

In a perfect world, I would agree that the work of a researcher who's not an established figure in the kernel community would be met with a relatively high level of scrutiny in review.

But realistically, when you find out a submitter had malicious intent, I think it's 100% correct to revisit any and all associated submissions since it's quite a different thing to inspect code for correctness, style, etc. as you would in a typical code review process versus trying to find some intentionally obfuscated security hole.

And, frankly, who has time to pick the good from the bad in a case like this? I don't think it's an overreaction at all. IMO, it's a simplification to assume that all associated contributions may be tainted.

You make a fair point. I'm just saying that, while it might ultimately be interesting and useful to someone or even lots of someones, it remains a crappy thing to do and the consequences that UMN is facing as a result is predictable and makes perfect sense to me, a guy who has had to rebuild a few servers and databases over the years because of intrusions and a couple of those have come with messages about how we should consult with the intruder who had less-than-helpfully found some security issue for us.

This feels like the kind of thing that "white hat" hackers have been doing forever. UMN may have introduced useful knowledge into the world in the same way some random hacker is potentially "helping" a company by pointing out that they've left a security hole exposed in their system.

With that said, kernel developers and companies with servers on the internet are busy doing work that's important to them. This sort of thing is always an unwelcome distraction.

And, if my neighbors walks in my door at 3 a.m. to let me know I left it unlocked, I'm going to treat them the same way UMN is getting treated in this situation. Or worse.

It may be years before it happens, but I think this sort of thing will end up being the reason these global companies ultimately won't be able to compete against the more focused online stores.

There are already categories of items I don't ever try to buy on Amazon: farm equipment, fencing supplies, pet food.

And I'm currently looking into email solutions that won't leave me completely screwed when Google arbitrarily decides it's time to delete my gmail account. There's just too much associated with my email address for it to be in the hands of someone who won't answer the phone.

IMO, these companies are winning because they're better than what came before them, but they're far from the perfect solution.

I'm not saying "go sign up with Revature" but I am saying that a whole lot of folks go to college and end up with a crap ton of debt which they end up working for years to pay off.

AND...a large chunk of those folks walk away with unmarketable skills.

AND...you can't declare bankruptcy to get out from under student loans.

...which IMO sounds kinda worse than indentured servitude in that, while you do still have to pay, the mechanism for payment is neither provided in the construct nor is it made possible by the training received.

steep, but not altogether unlike college. read your contracts folks.

That's not altogether true. They've been footnoting his posts where there's been a mismatch with reality.

I see the argument the commission is making, but when it comes to the question of inciting violence on privately owned systems, is it really the right idea to move it to some sort of public committee when the target is "too big to censor?"