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guywithahat

1,078 karma · joined December 13, 2017

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guywithahat··on Jailbreaking my car's navigation system just so I can change the time
The counter argument to that is well designed modern cars have great info-tainment systems which get regular updates. My Tesla gets regular software updates, has upgradable hardware, and won't be subject to these kinds of issues for decades. Old cars encouraged exchanging and needed aftermarket parts because they didn't care or try, so the products were low-quality and often failed.
guywithahat··on Proton's CEO Cancels AI 'Re-Interviews'
Is he not right though? Have you not interacted with a once star senior engineer who now operates at the level of a low-quality junior because they refuse to use AI?

There was a point a few decades ago with architecture where people moved off blueprints to CAD files, and everyone had to learn CAD or be pushed out, which lead to terrible churn and people I know got kicked out of architecture for good. This is a similar situation; they're not kicking out engineers for being 5% less productive, they're re-interviewing to find engineers who are 1/10th or 1/100th as productive as their peers. It sucks, and I feel bad for people who have to fear for their job, but it's a necessary action

guywithahat··on US Reps Lead Democratic Resolution Opposing A.I. Bubble Bailout for Big Tech
This was my thought. The last recession bailout was by democrats (in 2008), and they did so to influence the industry in their direction. I have a hard time imaging republicans would do a bailout, because they have no interest in creating new regulations even in their benefit.
guywithahat··on The Grid, a factory-scale robot in Massachusetts that builds PCBs on demand
While I agree in principle that most chips aren't made in the US, tons of 0805 capacitors and resistors are made in the US. Vishay does a lot of that here, as well as a few other manufacturers. Mouser lists country of origin and you can search that way.
guywithahat··on The Grid, a factory-scale robot in Massachusetts that builds PCBs on demand
This is great, especially as easypcbusa is being absorbed into a much more expensive conglomerate. Looking forward to seeing if they do just-pcb pricing as well
guywithahat··on Brazil's Flavio Bolsonaro headed to US, sources say
He's been in politics since the late 60's, so interpret that how you will. Lula also broke tradition and appointed ridiculously loyal justices to the STF, including his personal attorney and minister. Lula is a well-known corrupt politician who takes bribes, arrests his opponents on nonsense charges, bans or otherwise attacks companies not loyal to him, and now seems to rig elections. He's opposed to basic human rights like free speech and is threatening democracy in Brazil.

How could you support Lula when Moraes ordered Flávio's arrest within 7 minutes of "winning"? The best chance Brazil has of maintaining a functioning democracy at this point is if the US invades or otherwise forces them to resume fair elections.

guywithahat··on Brazil's Flavio Bolsonaro headed to US, sources say
Yeah but he’s actually a refugee fleeing political persecution, not an economic refugee. The US has and continues to support legitimate refugees
guywithahat··on Meta Employees Denounce Interference in Brazilian Elections
https://x.com/leadingreport/status/2114738539204100415?s=46

Sore winner too I suppose

guywithahat··on Microsoft offers mass buyouts for roughly a quarter of its workforce
You say that but the economy seems pretty strong to me, we have lower than average unemployment with above average job listings. It's harder if you're on visa otherwise it's pretty competitive
guywithahat··on Tesla cancels Cybertruck in Australia and NZ after 7 years of deposits
As far as I'm aware Tesla has always been very generous with refunds for deposits, even for cars that were produced. For the model 3/y/etc they would let you cancel the deposit if you pre-ordered and just no longer felt like buying it, as long as it didn't enter production yet.
guywithahat··on Anthropic S-1
It wasn't pulled out of a hat, it was the total addressable market for a space, internet, and AI company, excluding markets like Russia and China. All TAM refers to is the total market size, not their market share.

For context SpaceX's TAM is lower than Anthropic's expected TAM

guywithahat··on Whoops: Grok Bot Spills Tech CEO's Bank Data in Public Slack
That's fair, although the evidence is pretty solid
guywithahat··on Tesla Roadster
The business is doing fine, they’re profitable and regularly beating various targets. Honestly I think Elon is more level headed than people give him credit for, his companies are consistently profitable and generally produce competitive products.

https://companiesmarketcap.com/tesla/earnings/

guywithahat··on The Death of Amazon's Writing Culture
I ran into this trying to find a good book on modern python. There are tons of releases on very specific python versions, and when I dug into it they were all written by AI and reviewed poorly. It's honestly just getting hard to find good technical books in certain areas because there's so much nonsense going on in the space.
guywithahat··on Ukraine says new Starlink restrictions disrupt their military
It's possible, I don't know for sure, but just the way the article described it this sounds like a quality of service issue, which would suggest technical difficulties. Starlink has a button to turn off service, but they probably don't have a button to indeterminately flicker internet speeds down and up with randomly high latency.
guywithahat··on Ukraine says new Starlink restrictions disrupt their military
Shame on Elon for saving the world from nuclear holocaust.

For what its worth though he denied extending their network into Russian territory due to a threat of a nuclear attack. Not only did Ukraine know about it, but it was a stop on internet service. The disruption described in the article sounds more like the quality of service issues the way they continued to operate on reduced speeds and flaky service.

guywithahat··on ASML's strong orders ease fears AI spending boom is running out of steam
People forget the fact there may not be enough capital in the world to invest in AI, and so while some companies will go under the market could grow for literal decades. I don't know the future, but this is not a guaranteed bubble.
guywithahat··on Ukraine says new Starlink restrictions disrupt their military
As the article states there's no reason to think Starlink temporarily slowed down their internet service deliberately. Elon has been a strong supporter of the Ukrainian side, donating hundreds of millions to them and risking retaliation from Russia against their satellites. I understand why they're upset, people can die when their internet is disrupted, but the article seems especially hostile for what is likely a bugged update or Russian interference on their military-grade service.
guywithahat··on Ideas aren't getting harder to find (2022)
What would be nice too is if it lowers the bar for entry, then people closer to the real problem can work on it. There are a lot of mediocre or overpriced products due to the fact a team of software engineers don't understand the problem well
guywithahat··on Tesla Rebrands Full Self-Driving as Tesla Assisted Driving in Europe
I wonder if we’ll see a reduced feature set in Europe as well, especially when it’s first released. Honestly it’s incredible it’s taken this long for it to come out
guywithahat··on Imposing Sanctions on the International Criminal Court
That's neat but it's clearly not why the US imposed sanctions against the ICC, why would the US care? It's because they put out an arrest warrant for Netanyahu and some other high-ranking government officials. Neither the US or Israel is part of the ICC and yet they're attempting to threaten them with arrest/capture
guywithahat··on Imposing Sanctions on the International Criminal Court
I think those are the sactions; the US is upset the ICC put out arrest warrants for Benjamin Netanyahu and his Defense Minister Yoav Gallant. Regardless of what you think about Israel, it's easy to see how they might interpret the ICC's actions as a threat.
guywithahat··on Imposing Sanctions on the International Criminal Court
> For decades, Republicans and Democrats alike rejected the idea that the International Criminal Court had the power to prosecute American citizens, military servicemembers, or political leaders. America never joined the court. We don’t need it. And we don’t want it.

I mean this is your answer. Regardless of what you think about Israel and their actions, the ICC has no real authority, and there is no government authority above the US that can criminally charge people. Creating fake arrest warrants for people who aren't in your organization is easily interpreted as a threat, and it would be silly to think the US and/or Israel would want to retaliate to the ICC's threats.

Really the moral thing to do would be for the ICC to not try and charge or convict people who aren't part of their organization, since they don't have fair trials, but I suppose that's never how these international organizations work.

guywithahat··on Our $445M Series D
One has to hope they're not actually burning through their money every 6 months, but I've been disappointed before
guywithahat··on Trump administration is suspending Microsoft from a green card program
When they were first created they were very explicitly temporary. It's dual-intent in the sense that in the 90's they updated it so you could pursue citizenship while on an H1B, but the visa is really designed for temporary work. When you apply for an H1B they ask questions making sure you have ties to your home country, and there are time limits to send people back if you're on one for too long.
guywithahat··on Trump administration is suspending Microsoft from a green card program
H1B's are temporary visas and they make it very clear in the application process; there shouldn't be a path to citizenship through an H1B. I like the tax idea though
guywithahat··on Trump administration is suspending Microsoft from a green card program
> “They’ll put an advertisement in a small-town newspaper. They’ll go out there and say that ‘We have advertised for a position with our company, and nobody is responding to it.’ And they will use that lack of response to then go and replace American workers with what is effectively foreign indentured servants,” Vance said. “There has been no company in the United States, unfortunately, that has used this system more than Microsoft.”

> ... Microsoft last year laid off 6,000 American workers but also obtained 6,300 H-1B visas and almost 3,000 green cards.

I'm glad someone is finally taking this more seriously. There are a lot of big tech teams where you can't even get a job there unless you're Indian. H1B's should be for unique, foreign talent, not senior software engineers.

guywithahat··on California closed the Montana license plate loophole
Neither of us fully understand the entire context of the legal battle, since there is a gag order and neither of us are Cody Detwiler. Certainly though registering luxury vehicles like this under an LLC is common thing to do, and the Cody case is particularly silly because the vehicles were for his company.
guywithahat··on California closed the Montana license plate loophole
He didn't break the law. The company was registered in Montana, and he bought the Ferrari in Texas where it was also destroyed in his "durability" test. Why should he pay taxes there? It's not a loophole it's just the law
guywithahat··on California closed the Montana license plate loophole
It's really not a loophole, it's just how vehicle registration is done. That vehicle never drove into the state of Tennessee and was used for his business, why should it be registered where he lived and not where the company is set up?
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