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Keirmot

217 karma · joined August 7, 2019

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Keirmot··on Were software engineers blue-collar workers all along?
You think holding 200 shares out of 13 billion is being owner of capital? If you own your house, you can paint its walls black, put up a painting, or remove all the doors, can you do anything at all with the shares you hold on your little pension fund? Share's market is not owning capital, is creating a system where workers have interest in maintaining the status quo, even when it goes against their own self interest in the long term.
Keirmot··on iCloud+ Hide My Email addresses will remain on icloud.com
They do, but then your net can get false positives. Even if unlikely, someone can have the email potent-tomatoq4@icloud.com
Keirmot··on 500-year-old monasteries outperform at digital transformation (U. of Zurich)
That is not a new phenomenon, per se. The hospitality industry was shaped by monasteries, based on the Rule of St. Benedict.
Keirmot··on Things I've learned in my 10 years as an engineering manager
The way I read it is not to be needed for normal functionality of the team, not to "not be needed" at all. Akin to a ship's captain - for the most part a ship works without a captain just fine, but that doesn't make the captain's job redundant, it's just he's needed for specific occasions, otherwise, he's just making sure the crew works as a well oiled machine.
Keirmot··on Don't fall into the anti-AI hype
I 100% agree with the sentiment. To me, it feels like most bloggers nowadays think only in very superficial abstract idea, and then prompt ChatGPT for a blog post.
Keirmot··on Delete FROM users WHERE location = 'Iran';
This comment is disingenuous.

In everyday speech, people don’t carefully separate “the people” from “the state.” A French person talking about the U.S. usually says les Américains. A German talking about the French will just say die Franzosen — or, if they’re in the mood to tease, die Froschfresser. It’s only in news or diplomatic language that you see “the American government,” “the French government,” or “London” when referring to Britain.

The phrase “this administration” is mostly used domestically, by citizens talking about their own rulers. In Portugal you’d hear "este governo é uma merda", and in Spain the exact same sentiment — give or take a letter or two.

And “Nazi Germany” is only used when distinguishing regimes — Weimar vs. Federal Republic, Estado Novo vs. the Portuguese Republics, the French Fourth vs. the Fifth Republic, and so on.

Keirmot··on Delete FROM users WHERE location = 'Iran';
Sanctions have a theoretical basis behind them. In the Western Political Philosophical Canon, leaders and elites are expected to strive for the Common Good. From that perspective, sanctions aren’t meant as “torture for fun,” (as you put it) but as a way of creating pressure so governments change their behavior without having to resort to war. They’re basically a tool to raise the cost of bad actions and make it more attractive to adjust course.

At the same time, sanctions also work in other ways: they punish governments that break international norms, they send a signal to the world about what’s considered unacceptable, and they reaffirm shared values. That’s why they’re still used despite the harsh effects on ordinary people. They aren’t a perfect solution, but in Western thinking their role is to combine pressure, deterrence and symbolism, rather than just collective punishment for its own sake.

Keirmot··on Nine things I learned in ninety years
I don’t want to argue with you. I just want to say I understand the pain in what you wrote replying to other people. Life can make people hard, but that doesn’t make your hurt any less real. You don’t owe anyone optimism, but you also don’t have to carry all of what you're carrying alone.

I’m going to echo what others have said, and please, I ask you to read this with the most generous light possible. You deserve support, and it’s okay to reach for it when the weight feels too heavy, you ought to seek help, mate.

Keirmot··on Macrodata Refinement
The board will not participate in the meeting, vocally.
Keirmot··on Loop: Open-source macOS window manager
I too thrive in that chaos.
Keirmot··on I'm the hacker that brought down North Korea's Internet for over a week. AMA
Because one of the 3 basic principles of sovereignty (as is understood by western political philosophy, known as Westphalian sovereignty) is that there is no other authority inside a State’s borders except its own.

This means no other country has jurisdiction in North Korea, besides, there’s also no incentive to help in case DPRK asks for help.

France doesn’t investigante crimes that happen in Spain, Portugal doesn’t investigate crimes that haven in Canada, the USA doesn’t investigate crimes that happen in Germany, etc…

Keirmot··on Mitsubishi robot solves Rubik's Cube in 0.305s
I bought one when I lied to myself and said I'll learn to do this in less than a minute. After 3 weeks I just got an app and solved it. Now I use it as a motivation tool to force me to close all my rings on the Apple Watch - whenever I don't, I move one side per ring not closed, and when I close I can fix it my how many rings I did close.
Keirmot··on Mitsubishi robot solves Rubik's Cube in 0.305s
You must be fun at parties...

Some people do stuff just because it's fun, not to be the best of the best. If you only do something to be the best, why do anything at all?

Keirmot··on Tooling has improved for ambitious software developers
Some IDEs have gotten slightly less frustrating with better processors: e.g. Xcode, which in my opinion deserves the star rating it has in the mac App Store
Keirmot··on Hackers found a way to open any of 3M hotel keycard locks
I’m in Europe, but the first thing I said to the renters of my Grandmother’s house was “here’s the keys, these are all the copies, but feel free to change the lock if it makes you feel more comfortable”.

People need to feel safe in their own homes.

Keirmot··on Goodbye Auth0
Garden leave also happens in Portugal, but only when the relation between employer and employee deteriorated to the point of no return. As an example in the same company I had a co-worker layed off with 3 months notice, while in the previous year a different person in the same team was called to HR during the day, and let go - we all found out he was fired on the next daily stand up.
Keirmot··on McDonalds is giving free French fries in return for waiving the right to sue
Well, there’s hot coffee and there’s coffee that give you 3rd degree burns.
Keirmot··on It’s time to allow researchers to submit manuscripts to multiple journals
I don’t see a problem with someone publishing 5 great papers early in their career and nothing else. I mean what were the meaningful publications from Oppenheimer in his later years? Or Einstein? Publishing should be done when it matters, not when it’s needed for a salary increase.
Keirmot··on Teens inundated with phone prompts day and night, research finds
Well, Apple is trying a 'do as I say, not as I do' approach, which isn't exactly working.

For example I got an Apple Music notification the other day telling me how awesome the new Classic Music App is, or how the new season of whatever show is available in Apple TV+ is just fresh out of the oven.

I like their products, and even their services, but in this particular case, they're as bad as Uber, just at a different degree (I used to get an Uber Eats notification everyday until I uninstalled the app)

Keirmot··on How BlackBerry failed to respond to the iPhone
I’m positive GP doesn’t write in their phone in more than one language.
Keirmot··on The elderly are becoming homeless at a rate not seen since the Great Depression
Or that, thinking logically, if you pull yourself by your bootstraps, you either don’t move or fall down.
Keirmot··on Telemetry
Correct me if I’m wrong, but isn’t a double positive just a positive while a double negative is a positive?

Opt-in by default: you are in You can’t not select opt-in: you are in

Keirmot··on A basic guide to using Asian names
This is true even among western languages. For example, it’s basically impossible for any other western european speaker to say the Portuguese ão sound.

First thing I did in my company, which is mostly German, was to abbreviate my name, instead of having multiple people trying their hardest to call me singing I don’t care for, I chose his I’m called in that context.

Keirmot··on The trouble with supermarket self checkouts
I wonder if it’s different where you are (I assume US) compared to me (EU).

I’ve used McDonald’s self checkout in Portugal, Spain, Ireland, and Germany, and although they aren’t deserving of any awards they’re functional.

Keirmot··on How large is that number in the Law of Large Numbers?
I think both answers are referencing the Central Limit Theorem, that states [simplified] that once you get over 30 samples for each independent variable, you will get a normal distribution.
Keirmot··on iPhone 15 and iPhone 15 Plus
I fail to understand your point. What kind of feature do you to be excited to see in a product that is 16 years old?

Do you think the and thing when you buy a new dishwasher, a couch, a chair? That it’s mediocre?

Smartphones are not the future anymore, there’s people starting university soon that always had one, and never lived in a world without the iPhone.

Also, besides arguably the first few iPhones, Apple never distinguished itself from the competition with the technology it uses, but by the quality of its offering, which is why bending phones or poorly designed antennas are more important for them than having the newest tech available half a second after being commercially viable - that’s what Android OEMs do to differentiate.

I know that for me, personally, having a new iPhone with USB-C is a must have feature, which is why I have my iPhone 11 still chumming along.

Keirmot··on Apple vs. Meta: The Illusion of Privacy
If that’s the worst you think it can happen, you lack imagination.

I Myanmar fingerprinting helped the military find dissidents, the the US Cambridge Analytica managed to get enough data to influence an election, and there’s many more examples.

Besides, if a private company can sell access to you through ads, less benevolent actors can use that access for other more nefarious practices.

Keirmot··on China's ancient water pipe networks show no evidence of a centralized authority
'Absence of evidence is not evidence os absence' is a mantra that was instilled in me when I was trying to figure out my uni undergraduate and went with history for a year.

This was also a center point in Historiography, and how, when analysing old documents by historians, one needs to be aware of possible bias, not only of the writers, but also of one self.

Keirmot··on I don’t want to grow my freelance design studio into an agency
I think any kind of career move, be it freelance, corporate or anything in between, has risks. You shouldn’t regret the decision you made if when you made them you used the best information available to you - no one can predict the future.
Keirmot··on Has Google Translate been fixed yet?
The same reason no one talks Esperanto in their day to day. Just because it's easier doesn't make it the right thing to do.
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