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I would assume the competency of a CEO is in knowing who to trust and what tasks to delegate to whom. They appear to have failed in this regard.

I'm sceptical that more gas turbines doesn't create a more vulnerable grid. The possibility of gas shortages this winter is on the horizon and if the UK were to cease exports for whatever reason it would be a disaster for the rest of Europe.

Ed Conway released a video on the UK's gas network and disaster planning[0].

As shown in their documentary, a shutdown of exports to Europe would only require 2 or 3 failure events (low production from wind/solar, high-usage of gas for power/heating, disruption or cessation of imports via gas-tankers, well-placed damage to the gas network, extreme weather in the north sea). To maintain pressure in the gas network, they would begin shedding the largest loads first, exports to mainland Europe is #1 on that list.

Let's also not forget Nordstream and the disaster that caused when it mysteriously blew up. Before those pipelines exploded, there were protests in Germany because people were struggling to heat their homes.

Nuclear isn't vulnerable to any of these issues, we're very lucky that construction and investment has continued these past decades. /s

[0]: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sKDnZz4wypI

> Which is why the Matrix was redesigned to this: the peak of your civilization. I say your civilization, because as soon as we started thinking for you it really became our civilization, which is of course what this is all about.

- Agent Smith

47% of individuals live in households that are net contributors.

https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/personal...

> Across the UK, 53.3% of people lived in households that were net recipients in FYE 2024. This means that they lived in households that received more in benefits (cash and benefits in kind) than they paid in taxes (direct and indirect).

> requiring everyone to be richer than the average member of the population

In the UK, only 47% are net tax contributors. I can't find what the same statistic is for Japan. I don't believe it's wrong for there to be an expectation that they be a net contributor.

> buying something more expensive really helped with expanding its lifespan

Expensive consumer appliances aren't always the same quality as expensive professional appliances.

> Go makes you web search and poke around github looking for something.

I'm not sure that's a bad thing. I suspect with increased friction, users are more likely to scrutinise dependencies before importing them.

Isn't it a bit disingenuous to refer to them as merely license plate readers?

How do you know they weren't faulty? Blip flips are usually silent unless you have ECC memory or are actively testing for faulty cells.

Somewhat recently, Firefox implemented memory testing in their crash reporter and found 10% of reports were due to bit-flips[0].

If it weren't for reading that HN thread, I would never have being prompted to check and find the faulty memory in my laptop. It would have gone undetected and continued to corrupt whatever was stored in the affected cells. I did run memtest86 not long after I bought the laptop, so sometime between running that first memtest86 and the 12 months after, it developed the fault.

Non-ECC memory sometimes fails and there's a good chance you'll never know.

[0]: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47252971

Sqlite3 is present in the default installation of most Linux distributions. It has proven itself from years of battle testing in many different environments. To use DuckDB or LevelDB would probably require pulling in an additional dependency.

I would much rather that they had used an existing database file format. Sqlite3 is robust and already present in the default installation of most Linux distributions. Querying system logs with SQL would be cool and likely faster than using the sd_journal API with all it's weird quirks.

> You are probably imagining that it would be expert developers with a track record of success.

I'll admit I am unsure how such individuals would be chosen. I imagine it would be prudent to learn what processes are used by other licensed professions when choosing such individuals.

> who write lots of blog posts and books about programming and give lots of conference keynotes

I do not think people who write blog posts and give conference keynotes should be awarded with roles that regulate the profession because they write blog posts and give keynotes. I would hope that any regulation is evidence driven.

> Call me a gatekeeper if you want but, we ended up with a lot of people that just can't do the job.

Increasingly I am of the opinion that software engineering aught to be a licensed profession, similar to civil engineers, medical professionals, or lawyers. A board of peers to hold you accountable and a licence that can be revoked at any time. Additionally, legislation could be written to require such licensed individuals in safety critical roles.

I suspect the debate around AI assistance tools would be quite different if there was greater accountability for programmers and a constant threat of losing a licence.

If you brick millions of machines impacting hospitals and airports, you should probably never be trusted to write code again.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2024_CrowdStrike-related_IT_ou...

What is the weather app doing that it requires 100MB? For such a simple application, that seems excessive.

> easier than ever to just maintain and keep your fork of software with the changes you want or need

I don't imagine this is practical or desirable for all situations. Good software is built from being battle tested by many users in many environments. Even with the advancements in AI tools, I don't imagine they'll become omnipotent anytime soon.

> No more approval, bureaucracy, or arguing

For software that can kill people or substantively affect someone’s life in a negative way, the bureaucracy is there for good reason. I don't think anyone should want someone at Phillips to vibe code the control software for an X-Ray machine or an employee at CrowdStrike vibe coding the next update before pushing it out to millions of machines.

We are forced to endure low-quality software because there is little or no accountability. I can only imagine what you propose would make an already poor situation worse.

Unfortunately Americans remain too comfortable to bother with any serious push back. The destruction of democratic traditions in America will continue and the president will keep using the office to legitimise his scams.

I was shocked to learn that around 10% of Firefox crashes are caused by bit flips.

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47252971

Defective memory is another issue to be aware of and somewhat common. Around 10% of Firefox crash reports are due to bit flips.

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47252971

A hub of mostly human written software would be enough. It remains to be seen whether that results in measurably better quality code over the long term.

> The downside of strict tables is that some data types are not available, such as Date.

There are only 5 datatypes in sqlite. INTEGER, TEXT, BLOB, REAL, and NUMERIC.

https://sqlite.org/datatype3.html

> choice between addictive and "ethical" algorithms

A few years ago I would have agreed with this sentiment however after watching many adults (and children) fall into addictive AI slop alternate reality hell holes, I just want it to stop. Likewise, I prefer not to live in a society that enables drug addicts to walk the streets and used needles to litter the pavements every 10cm like empty Coke bottles.

We regulate things we know will be abused, and we are often the better for it. Social media is no different.

I might be preaching to the choir however it being background noise doesn't mean your brain isn't processing that stimuli. In a way, you are what you consume.

It's unfortunate but personal general-purpose computing has being under attack for a long time, this is only another nail in the coffin.

In such a scenario, people shouldn't acquiesce. Be creative and find ways of bringing hurt to those in this administration who feel they can dodge consequences. If no example is made of them, it will happen again.

Despite the apathy of Americans, I continue to have hope that there will be consequences for all recent and past actions. It's unfortunate that recent events are only the tip of the iceberg, too many to even remember.

> Astroturfing around this is getting suspicious.

It's perfectly possible for people to be passionate about the subject.

For those unfamiliar, you can read more about the flock safety cameras themselves here:

https://consumerrights.wiki/w/Flock_license_plate_readers

And more about the company behind the cameras:

https://consumerrights.wiki/w/Flock_Safety

We are 1 Year and 3 months into this current administration, 2 years and 9 months remain. Despite the short period in office, so much damage and chaos has being caused by one individual and the sycophants who surround him.

It is a fact that the reputation of the USA has being damaged, perhaps not repairable for decades or more. This will have consequences.

Perhaps, I hope, Americans will take action to save the democratic norms and institutions that so many of them have claimed to cherish. Before he has dismantled and replaced too many to salvage. Or perhaps they have work tomorrow.

> which never accounts for the very bulk of what US really exports: IT and financial services

Given the growing demand to move away from US services and towards European alternatives, I wonder what the US will look like in 10 years if this move gains significant momentum.

For those who decried Hillary's E-Mail server but fail to apply the same standards to the current administration, it was never a real issue to begin with. Just performative nonsense.