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arrowsmith

3,021 karma · joined August 29, 2022

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arrowsmith··on Retiring GPT-4o, GPT-4.1, GPT-4.1 mini, and OpenAI o4-mini in ChatGPT
What about 5.1 do you prefer over 5.2?
arrowsmith··on 25 Years of Wikipedia
I promise you that 99% of normal people have no idea what the Wikimedia foundation is and think that they're just donating to "fund Wikipedia".
arrowsmith··on A production bug that made me care about undefined behavior
How is this an "optimization" if the compiled result is incorrect? Why would you design a compiler that can produce errors?
arrowsmith··on Why I Chose Elixir Phoenix over Rails, Laravel, and Next.js
Not remotely. Maybe I'm just not working on big enough projects, but I've never experienced any frustration at all with Elixir compile times.
arrowsmith··on Why I Chose Elixir Phoenix over Rails, Laravel, and Next.js
Give your new hires my free course: https://liveviewcrashcourse.com
arrowsmith··on I built ChatGPT with Minecraft redstone [video]
Wow. Mind-blowing.

Bravo to you, sir.

arrowsmith··on Britain to introduce compulsory digital ID for workers
All the more reason for them to stay in France.

The humane option is still available. It’s not too late to take it. But if you keep refusing it, don’t complain when you get something else.

arrowsmith··on Britain to introduce compulsory digital ID for workers
It's a popular stereotype in the UK (although it only seems to have arisen in the last year or so) that "Turkish barbershops" are a front for money laundering.

They're certainly suspicious: all across the country, high street retailers are going bust, and yet somehow all these barbershops, nail salons, takeaway joints etc are staying in business, able to afford prime commercial real estate even though you never see anyone in there getting their hair cut or their nails done.

I don't know why the Turks in particular are being singled out, but that's the meme. The "American Candy Stores" in London are another famous example.

arrowsmith··on Britain to introduce compulsory digital ID for workers
> legally

They're the ones who make the laws?

arrowsmith··on Britain to introduce compulsory digital ID for workers
Digital IDs will be used to restrict your internet access.

They'll roll them out gradually. You won't need one at first. You'll still show your passport, driving license etc, until one day you give up because the digital version is convenient and you "might as well". What's your problem? Why do you care? Have you got something to hide?

Then they'll attack the easiest target: porn. We already have age-verification laws, implemented through dodgy third-party providers. But now everyone has digital government ID: we "might as well" unify things so all the porn sites check your age using the centralised government system. What's your problem? Why do you care? Won't you THINK OF THE CHILDREN??? You want to let CHILDREN watch PORN???

Then comes online retail. After all, the Southport killer bought his knife from Amazon — that was the front page headline on every paper, remember how organic and uncoordinated that was? It could all have been avoided with better age verification. And hey, we already have a way to verify age with our digital IDs. We "might as well". What's your problem? Why do you care? You want to let CHILDREN buy KNIVES?

And what about social media? Kids shouldn't use Facebook, it's bad for them. Australia already bans under 16s from social media. We already have age verification for other things. We "might as well". WHY DO YOU CARE????? THINK OF THE CHILDREN!!!

Oh, that's handy, everyone's social media accounts are now tied to their real identities. That'll come in handy when people say nasty things that the government doesn't like. After all, those riots only happened because of "misinformation". Why do you need to stay anonymous anyway? What's the problem? Why do you care? Got something to hide? You're in favour of HATE SPEECH??

The slippery slope has never been more lubricated.

arrowsmith··on Britain to introduce compulsory digital ID for workers
Stick them in processing centres until they can be deported. Send a clear message to anyone who might come that it won't work, you won't get in, we won't give you anything, don't risk your life or waste your money.

Australia did exactly this (in the face of howling opposition) and it worked: illegal boat arrivals dropped from ~20,000 per year to almost zero. Thousands of people used to drown attempting the crossing, now no-one drowns. There's your moral case.

Legally, Parliament is sovereign. If the current legal framework doesn't allow it, change the law. Except they won't, because they don't want to solve the problem and they use the law as an excuse as if they aren't the fucking government.

arrowsmith··on Britain to introduce compulsory digital ID for workers
On paper, the punishment for hiring illegal labour is £45k per worker for the first offence and up to £60k for repeat offences[0]. That's enough to ruin a small business.

Whether or not these laws are actually enforced is another matter. [Insert obligatory reference to Turkish barbershops]. But I've been asked to show ID at every job I've ever had, so companies obviously care about it even if the risk is low.

[0] source: https://www.irwinmitchell.com/news-and-insights/expert-comme...

arrowsmith··on Britain to introduce compulsory digital ID for workers
“Nothing much seems to be working” because the government is completely unserious about stopping the boats and is unwilling to do any of the things that might actually work.

They could stop them in a week if they actually wanted to.

arrowsmith··on Britain to introduce compulsory digital ID for workers
We have a “national insurance number” used for tax purposes but it’s just a number that you fill in in forms; no-one asks to see the cards. I’m not sure they even issue the physical cards anymore? I lost mine a long time ago.
arrowsmith··on Britain to introduce compulsory digital ID for workers
The UK used to be a high-trust society.
arrowsmith··on Britain to introduce compulsory digital ID for workers
You are describing the current system. Employers can receive business-ending fines (at least in theory) for hiring illegal labour. I’ve never worked a job in the UK that didn’t require me to prove my right to work here, eg by showing them my passport. Digitising the IDs will make no difference.

And frankly, if you believe this is actually about immigration then I’m embarrassed for you. Everyone can see that they’re just using the current crisis an excuse to ram through the unpopular thing that they've wanted for decades.

It won’t stop the boats.

arrowsmith··on An open letter calling for a hard fork of Rails to remove DHH's influence
> the idea that a country is primarily a country for X is hugely problematic and racist in many parts of the world

That’s true in some parts of the world. But the opposite idea — that the people who’ve lived somewhere for thousands of years have no moral claim to their inheritance over the people who just arrived — has been equally destructive in other parts.

> one of the legacies of colonialism is the Middle East and Africa being carved up in lines that didn’t match the underlying cultural groups.

That’s a bad thing, is it? Is diversity not their strength?

arrowsmith··on They Thought They Were Free (1955)
Will we ever get a second analogy?
arrowsmith··on They Thought They Were Free (1955)
I suppose it's easier to achieve "growth" in percentage terms when you're starting from a low baseline (because your entire country got flattened by invading armies.)
arrowsmith··on Microsoft has urged its employees on H-1B and H-4 visas to return immediately
Reiki healers and homeopaths are listed under code 3214, "Complementary health associate professionals".

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/skilled-worker-vi...

And I only picked those two because they were particularly egregious. The list is full of jobs for which it's absurd to suggest we need to fill from abroad: are we really suffering for a lack of recruitment consultants? Human resources officers? Can no-one can find a homegrown Brit who's able to work as a restaurant manager?

As for the salary threshold, you're right: the basic threshold is £41k, although it can be as low as £25k (not £33.4k) in some circumstances: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/skilled-worker-vi...

I'd argue that £41k is still too low. It's barely above the median UK salary - we can't find anyone in the top ~50% of people who can do these jobs? And it doesn't even make you a net contributor (from what I can tell that threshold is around £50-55k, although for many of these "skilled" workers it's much higher as they bring dependents.) Nevertheless I'll accept a partial L.

Regarding English, maybe I'm wrong about the precise requirements, but I've worked with software professionals in London, here on a skilled worker visa, with whom I was barely able to communicate, so clearly we're doing something wrong.

In any case, my thesis still stands: there have not been "very high" criteria to migrate to the UK recently, in fact quite the opposite, and if you don't believe this then I suggest you go outside and look around.

arrowsmith··on Microsoft has urged its employees on H-1B and H-4 visas to return immediately
What point do you think you’re responding to exactly?

GP mentioned “abandoning your parents” when you immigrate as if that’s absurd. In reality it’s the most normal thing imaginable.

I know hundreds of people who live outside their home country and I can’t thing of a single one of them who took their parents with them. When does that ever happen?

arrowsmith··on Microsoft has urged its employees on H-1B and H-4 visas to return immediately
Did they bring their parents with them?
arrowsmith··on Microsoft has urged its employees on H-1B and H-4 visas to return immediately
Hey, quick question: who founded America?
arrowsmith··on Microsoft has urged its employees on H-1B and H-4 visas to return immediately
And yet, insanely, the Tories still get called "anti-immigration".

They were the most pro-immigration government in British history, by far.

arrowsmith··on Microsoft has urged its employees on H-1B and H-4 visas to return immediately
There are not "high criteria" to immigrate to the UK post-Brexit. The minimum salary threshold is £26k, barely higher than minimum wage. The list of eligible occupations is a joke and includes such desperately understaffed occupations as "homeopaths" and "reiki healers". The skilled worker visa only requires B1 English, at which level you'll struggle to communicate in many professional settings. Net immigration (legal and illegal) exploded after Brexit and is still higher today than it was in 2016 when we had the vote.

You have no idea what you're talking about.

arrowsmith··on Show HN: WeUseElixir - Elixir project directory
Who?
arrowsmith··on DHH – As I Remember London
No he's not. He asked his employees to not discuss politics on the company's internal work channels. He didn't tell him to refrain from discussing politics outside of work (such as by posting to their personal blogs), in fact iirc he explicitly said that that was okay.
arrowsmith··on DHH – As I Remember London
Writing something on your personal blog isn't "discussing politics at work".
arrowsmith··on Charlie Kirk killed at event in Utah
Oooooh boy there are a lot of dead comments in this thread.
arrowsmith··on How can England possibly be running out of water?
I stand corrected.
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