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blaser-waffle

2,049 karma · joined May 10, 2019

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blaser-waffle··on Coworkers are less ambitious; bosses adjust to the new order
What matters isn't the specific brand or even what they're selling, it's that it's The Cool New Thing.

The tech bro demo in SF loves high tech electrical stuff, and Lucid, Rivian, Taycan, etc. are, COOL and NEW and align to their political and social sensibilities, while also allowing them to flex the conspicuous consumption and signaling.

Mercedes is not new and does not align to obvious socio-political ideals outside of $$$$.

This is also mid-level bling in the grand scheme; the big money is still driving Lambos

blaser-waffle··on Coworkers are less ambitious; bosses adjust to the new order
Esp for a "property-and-casualty insurance agent" role, which presumably is high volume, high stress, and is about screwing people out of insurance payments.
blaser-waffle··on There has never been a better time to be short
Most of the OKCupid data is out there on archive.org or similar sites. It's out there if you're willing to do a little searching.

Match tried to squash it cuz it's unflattering and implies that different demographics probably aren't well served by dating apps, or else are hamstrung by the limitations of the platform. Either way it doesn't drive engagement so it got wiped.

blaser-waffle··on There has never been a better time to be short
They're not going to be able to guess that, or be especially concerned with the range -- if bullets are coming by they're getting down or hauling ass.

You aim for the center of mass -- roughly at the heart. A bullet, thusly aimed, that drops slightly short can still hit someone in the leg or lower abdomen. Or it'll hit the ground and kick up dirt, be more visible.

A fixed height for each tick mark also means you can use the enemy high to roughly calculate distance.

blaser-waffle··on Ask HN: Concepts that clicked only years after you first encountered them?
> no one is coming to save you

Thought that was about working extra hard to make money and CYA, but really it's about finding your own happiness, regardless of what it may be in a money / status / property sense.

> everything related to RSA & trapdoor algos

Like I go the rough idea and implications, but didn't "click" until I was trying to explain what the square root of 11 was to my nephew. Was helping him with homework and was doing everything in my head just fine until we hit that and I had to stop and think and it clicked.

blaser-waffle··on Tesla’s 2022 Collapse Hits 69% After Deepest Selloff Since April
aka "the online marketing bots are only picked up by the algorithm so often"
blaser-waffle··on Tesla’s 2022 Collapse Hits 69% After Deepest Selloff Since April
> At this point I don't believe it is present.

Why rob banks for $10k when you can whip up fervor on social media for millions?

Criminal activity is there, basically, cuz people want to get what they want, norms, morals, and the well-being of others be damned. Musk doesn't have to rob banks to get what he wants, and probably never would have since his family owned gemstone mines in S Africa.

If you want to judge the man, see how he treated his ex's, his children, etc. That paints a far less flattering picture.

blaser-waffle··on A simple guide on words to avoid in government
> Unless the hacker ethos has died, and we're back to the 1980 where middle managers in business suits are the cool guys.

Those hackers got cool and became the guys in the suits. Dollar Uber Alles

blaser-waffle··on Russia’s apparent resilience is being kept up by policy tricks and cash
See also: The Russian Firehose Model of Propaganda

https://www.rand.org/pubs/perspectives/PE198.html

blaser-waffle··on European countries begin taking down public company registers after ruling
is that the extend or extinguish part?
blaser-waffle··on Crypto dominoes fall in the wake of FTX's collapse
Arguably, that's Zelensky's main strength: he's a comedian and did tours; he's a showman, a diplomat, a talker.

His primary role viz-a-viz the war is going around talking, doing meetings, and drumming up support. Get him on a 12 city tour, except instead of cross-dressing and telling jokes he's cutting deals for aid.

He's no general, and it's likely he doesn't know jack about actually fighting a war. Nor does he need to: he's got actual generals for that, ones who have been fighting w/ the Russians on and off since 2014, on top of real-time intelligence and assistance from the 30 -- say it again, THIRTY -- countries of NATO.

blaser-waffle··on What to do if a nuclear disaster is imminent [pdf]
> Eh, this is good for crypto.

Only if you stockpile lots of GPUs and generators

blaser-waffle··on What if regular exercise is the best cognitive exercise?
I'll join the group of folks saying "same". 60 minutes at the gym, doing some light running, 3-5km, plus some weights isn't crazy.

More about change of scenery, getting out, and tearing myself away from social / personal / work entanglements. Just me vs the iron.

blaser-waffle··on Russia to Withdraw Troops from Kherson
An awful lot of oligarchs and other powerplayers, including a few who were affiliated with the Siloviki, have "committed suicide" or "had heart attacks" in recent months.

Honestly I think if Putin pulled out he'd be fine -- most of the opposition is dead, running scared, or on his team. A lot of Russian assets have been frozen, though, and if he wants to get those back he'd have to walk away from his 2014 gains, or else justify why all of that $$$ is gone.

blaser-waffle··on Russia to Withdraw Troops from Kherson
Cuz that worked so well in Kharkiv, right? By that logic Russia should be taking back that area any day now...
blaser-waffle··on Meta lays off 11,000 people
11000 people lose their jobs -- "let's make more shows about it!"

to quote an old guy: "first as tragedy, then as farce"

blaser-waffle··on Meta lays off 11,000 people
> because in truth those worker endured much more violent management, there is little space to spin it in a funny way.

what? no one got beat over flair, and having worked in a lot of serving jobs, the level of violence serving drinks was roughly on par with the number of fights I've seen in the data center.

blaser-waffle··on Theranos founder Elizabeth Holmes is denied a bid for new trial
I'm sure General Mattis and Kissinger being involved didn't hurt either.
blaser-waffle··on Twitter Blue for $8/Month
His publicist will care, and they probably charge him way, way more per month than $20.

SK will hem and haw but 6 months from now his team will quietly reinstate the account.

blaser-waffle··on The McMurdo Wastewater Treatment Plant
for the ships I'd imagine it's for obfuscating how much they're dumping for environmental regulation reasons. they leak shit and oil everywhere they go, basically.

probably true for mcmurdo, but it could also be that any/all real data about the place is banned for outside use. i wouldn't be surprised if you could predict number of people and other details by looking at sewage flows.

blaser-waffle··on The McMurdo Wastewater Treatment Plant
Treaties require that no waste can be dumped there by anyone.
blaser-waffle··on How we handled a recent phishing incident
My thought was more like gmail getting hit by (likely) the Chinese in an attempt to get David Petraeus' email accounts, esp. the emails where he was sharing things he shouldn't w/ his mistress.

Honestly if he kept it in his pants he probably could have been President.

blaser-waffle··on Ask HN: “Contact Us” Pricing
> Is there a website or service that lists cost ranges for enterprise SaaS products?

Probably not. Have had good success in the past posting random stuff on reddit, like "I'm paying 12000 / core for Oracle, am I high? Is this common?" in r/sysadmin, and then having people correct me.

But for the most part SaaS ain't offer those prices online. Contact someone, set up time for a call, and get prices. This is why vendor managers, sales engineers, solution architects, etc. are a thing.

blaser-waffle··on Twitter staff have been told to work 84-hour weeks
Still a lot of Musk fanboys.

And it's still a large, complex, big-name Tech company; experience with working on problems at that scale could open doors later, regardless of who is calling the shots at the top.

blaser-waffle··on Ask HN: Have you stopped reading most news?
Yes and no.

I choose a few sites, and check them periodically. BBC News, Drudge, Mother Jones, and occasionally the routing services like AP, Reuters, and AFP. Usually every other day or so, or when I'm bored, have downtime, etc. Occasionally pick up a copy of the Economist when I'm tired of looking at screens.

But on my terms, when I feel like it. No feed or regular updates, no trying to figure out if it's a clickbate headline.

But what about HN? Well, fair enough, though a lot news gets posted to the "active" URL here at HN and that serves as a "hey check AP" flag, so my approach more-or-less holds.

blaser-waffle··on Tesla engineers were on-site to evaluate the Twitter staff’s code, workers said
And then lost it!
blaser-waffle··on Tesla engineers were on-site to evaluate the Twitter staff’s code, workers said
He tweeted all sorts of ridiculous nonsense, to include talking about Tesla, long before he bought twitter
blaser-waffle··on Ask HN: Advice that changed your life?
Depends on who is telling the story; a eulogy could be a good story.
blaser-waffle··on Ask HN: Advice that changed your life?
> “If you’re explaining you’re losing.”

that was Reagan, IIRC

blaser-waffle··on Ask HN: Advice that changed your life?
the freakonomics podcast had a bit about this, "the wisdom of quitting".

and a follow up about coin flips for sufficiently abstract or complex decisions.

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