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You may recognize the author of this blog, he created and illustrated the Dinotopia series of books in the 90s.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dinotopia

LynxInLAon Florida House of Representatives approves bill to ban social media for kids < 16

I agree it is different, but the jury is out on whether it is better. Banning "social media" is likely to push users to a "lite" version of it. I'm not convinced that will be better.

LynxInLAon Florida House of Representatives approves bill to ban social media for kids < 16

Have you not seen people vaping at a young age now?

LynxInLAon Computer Engineering for Babies (2021)

Did you reach out to the creator? They know there are some QA issues and claim to be good at sending replacements or fixes.

LynxInLAon West Point discovers time capsule from 1828

based on what was inside, you weren't far off

LynxInLAon Show HN: I made a customizable iOS browser for minimalists and myself

Does the reader have dark mode? Or does that depend on the website’s implementation?

LynxInLAon Show HN: I made a customizable iOS browser for minimalists and myself

Does it re-request contents when it reload tabs after the app is suspended? Safari makes it very difficult to read content later if you don’t have service.

LynxInLAon Mark Zuckerberg on Apple’s Vision Pro headset

They seem to have used them on the Steam Deck, so maybe they'll use them again in future projects.

LynxInLAon Lyft’s plan to take control of its maps and its future

I am talking about the walk from LAXit. This is the parking lot where Uber/Lyft/Taxi pickups are, and you generally have to take a shuttle to get there to begin with.

LAXit is on Sepulveda, but it is safer to cross the street to a parking lot. I'll admit I underestimated the distance. It is closer to 300 yards:

https://goo.gl/maps/DWsk4MSx9HuDJAJz5

LynxInLAon Lyft’s plan to take control of its maps and its future

It is very easy at LAX. You walk about 100 yards across one (admittedly very busy) intersection and get picked up for 1/3 the price. You already have to take a shuttle to even get picked up unless you have a black car, so this adds 5 minutes. It is still annoying if you have luggage.

You could also take a shuttle to a local hotel or car rental, but that is breaking some rules.

LynxInLAon Adult-use cannabis delivers $15B in tax revenues

Typically, tax rates are much higher on cannabis than regular sales tax. In many states, it is even taxed twice; once when the retailer purchases it from a distributor, and again when the consumer purchases it from the retailer. Some laws have changed, but, in prior years, this could lead to an effective tax rate of around 40% in states like California.

LynxInLAon NPR quits Twitter after being labeled as 'state-affiliated media'

Take it as you will, but the example they give is:

> For example, NPR joined with other media organizations to press the Obama administration for access to closed hearings involving detainees held by U.S. authorities at Guantanamo Bay

LynxInLAon 60M Americans have taxes so simple the IRS could do them automatically

Ok, but this thread isn't about the actual value of the taxes. This is just about the waste of time that is filing taxes.

LynxInLAon 60M Americans have taxes so simple the IRS could do them automatically

Okay, did they change their attitudes because they owed money or because they spent 20 hours filing their taxes?

LynxInLAon 60M Americans have taxes so simple the IRS could do them automatically

You still have to pay your taxes, including writing a check or getting a return at the end of the process. This just cuts out the billions of wasted hours of busywork along with the billions of dollars spent on unnecessary tax prep.

Plus, most people end up with a return, and many think they are getting money back from the government. Doesn't that counter your reminder/pain of actually filling out the forms?

LynxInLAon Master Plan Part 3

I completely agree. I also don't think it is hypocritical to take advantage of tax "loopholes" at the same time as arguing they should be closed. That is just good financial practice.

LynxInLAon I don't want streaming music, I just want to stream my music

Yes, they have a web client, but their audiobook support is not great. Plex is primarily geared towards music (albums/tracks), and the podcast support is built on top of it by independent clients. I recommend Prologue for iOS and Chronicle for Android.

I've heard good things about audiobookshelf [1] as a cross-platform alternative, but it is pretty early in development.

[1] https://www.audiobookshelf.org/

LynxInLAon Master Plan Part 3

I doubt it, but why wouldn't it be close to market value for public companies?

I don't know how it works for the ultra-wealthy, but regular investors can draw a loan against their deposits with securities-based lines of credit (SBLOCs). SBLOCs have a limit smaller than the total value of your portfolio, but your collateral is still the current securities.

I'm mainly spitballing here, but I agree it would be extremely difficult to implement fairly. I just think it is worth investigating.

LynxInLAon Master Plan Part 3

In your mind, would it be "truly absurd" to redefine what counts as a realized capital gain? [1]

In my mind, if you take a loan against your equity, you are realizing the current market value. This would be difficult to implement (especially with private companies and options), but it would close a big gap in the tax system that is primarily used for tax avoidance. [2]

---

[1] I completely agree that taxing unrealized gains in the current system would be a terrible idea.

[2] The main non-tax reasons I can think of are retaining voting power and cashing out on pre-ipo stock.

LynxInLAon Tesla tells investors it’s being investigated by the Justice Department

I rented one for a few weeks in late 2021, and the experience completely turned me off of Tesla's FSD.

During a 2 hour drive on an interstate on a clear, sunny day, FSD started steering into another vehicle 3 different times. One was a truck, and another was a wide load house being transported. I'll admit that is an odd case, but "don't accelerate straight into a house that is at windshield level" seems like a pretty simple ask. It did this multiple times and I had to temporarily disable the cruise control.

It also failed miserably on curving state highways, to the point that I turned it off after about 20 minutes.

LynxInLAon Builder's Remedy goes into effect in many California cities tomorrow

I'm not an expert, but I lean towards relaxing zoning laws but not getting rid of them completely. Look to Houston to see what happens when there are no zoning laws at all.

LynxInLAon Apartment rent growth set to keep slowing this year

I may be misunderstanding the chart, but it says it misses cash offers on second home purchases. All-cash purchases are on the rise since 2008, so that seems like a pretty large segment that isn't represented.

LynxInLAon OCaml at First Glance

Which version of that are you talking about in Python? The biggest related gotcha I've seen in Python is when you have a trailing comma `x = 1,` and accidentally create a tuple.

LynxInLAon The unreasonable effectiveness of f-strings and re.verbose

“Here's the plan: When someone uses a feature you don't understand, simply shoot them. This is easier than learning something new, and before too long the only living coders will be writing in an easily understood, tiny subset of Python 0.9.6 <wink>.”

― Tim Peters

LynxInLAon Logitech MX Mechanical Keyboard

Matias Quiet Click are very prone to this. I've had 3 fail on one board and 2 on another.

LynxInLAon Can you warm yourself with your mind?

"the dog has to be pushed outside" What? No, if it's that cold, you keep the dog against your body, and you both benefit.

I'm pretty sure they are saying they need to convince the dog to go outside to urinate. I don't think you really want that on your body when it is cold outside...

LynxInLAon Ask HN: How does TurboTax get away with dark patterns?

Also if you aren't filing your state taxes.

LynxInLAon Regarding the Neil Young–Joe Rogan Spotify Saga

I don’t care for Neil Young, but did you read to the end of that article or just the first few paragraphs?

In his 2002 biography of Neil Young, Shakey, Jimmy McDonough writes “I had found out that Young was planning on donating the proceeds from the ‘Philadelphia’ track to the Gay Men’s Health Crisis center. He acknowledged it was true but didn’t seem anxious to publicize the fact. I got the feeling there were other chartable acts I didn’t know about

LynxInLAon Microsoft to Acquire Activision Blizzard

Microsoft seems likely to support at least Nintendo. With Game Pass and Minecraft, they've leaned more towards gaming as a platform. Some Switch games have full MS support including Achievements, which was surprising.

LynxInLAon Brain implant translates paralyzed man's thoughts into text with 94% accuracy

I think the next step would be predictive text. Have 3+ symbols that correspond to a screen that is in the subject's eye line. Basically just leverage the current tech to streamline this.