jackhack

The "try for free/generate" button didn't work for me. I uploaded a short video (15MB of White House press secretary) and tried to substitute various voices without success.

Yet, things could be worse. Back in the 80s & 90s it was possible to select a resolution/refresh frequency that would permanently damage (e.g. destroy) a CRT (cathode ray tube) monitor.

I ran a sample through my Apple Newton Messagepad: Iss Martha auf.

Following the "John Deere" style brand lock-in strategy: "Sure the Kubota is half the price and I can fix it myself, but all of my implements work with my Deere." And unless I switch over the tractor, the combine, the baler. I'll have to maintain both brands. I guess I'll just stick with JD one more season..."

How many times must we re-learn "Good. Fast. Cheap. Pick Two"?

What's gone wrong, is what goes wrong at most major corporations -- a focus more on "business" (which itself falls victim to fashion/fad such as image and perception of "fairness", KPIs, "mission statements", and other easy-to-measure-yet-made-up BS) rather than the main purpose : execution of engineering and ABSOLUTE INSISTENCE on quality. Boeing used to have an engineering-driven culture, but that has been destroyed. The CEO has deliberately driven the pendulum away from quality as #1 task to more concern over costs. Why is anyone surprised that they are now getting less quality?

It's not just Boeing, it's the buyers (the airlines). They are customers too. They want Good, Fast AND Cheap. But they can't get it. They're forgetting what the final consumers (the flying public, and the private airlines such as UPS & FedEx that fly packages) want -- a reliable aircraft that doesn't fall out of the sky. That decision to buy a crappier aircraft to save a few bucks is being made. By whom? Board of Directors? C-class decision makers whose bonuses are based on saving millions of dollars. Accountants? Middle management?

But the "savings" are a temporary sugar-high. Once the reputation is damaged, it will costs many times any savings to restore confidence, if ever.

No-one ever falls out of the sky in a shoddily designed/built aircraft coming apart mid-air and thinks "well at least they saved a few bucks on manufacturing." I just hope enough of the old-guard engineers are still around to try to restore the old culture and save this company from itself.

You could absolutely write professional software in BASIC.

As a kid I wrote my first "professional" product in Applesoft. My family used to rent videotapes (Betamax!) from a little video shop on the corner. They kept records of who rented what on paper cards -- they literally wrote in the customer name and phone # on a paper card and put it in a box. They would go through that box each day and see what was overdue, calling the customer to remind them to return. I was a curious kid so I asked the owner "how do you keep track of everything? Do you really go through all those cards every day to see what is due? Does anything get lost?" I told the owner "I can put all this on a computer and make it so you'll never lose track of who has what" and he said "tell you what, you create that and I'll buy it!"

I wrote a little program in Applesoft basic, using a light pen, that could keep track of the customers and video titles -- what was available, what was out, what was due, and what was overdue. The owner LOVED it! Customers had a "membership" card with a bar code on it.The clerk just had to scan the member card, a barcode for "checkout" (taped to the side of the screen) and then the bar code on the tape. No keyboard. Happy beep meant success. Check-in was the same process. And once a day they could check the "overdue" screen to see who to contact. The customer name, phone number, and name of movie was right there.

They weren't crazy about entering the names of all the tapes and sticking the bar code stickers on them, but once complete business was so much easier & faster.

It took me the better part of the summer to write this and I was paid $200 (a fortune for a 12 year old kid!) and given "free movie rentals for life." The owner was good to his word, and even after he bought a movie rental franchise many years later (maybe Blockbuster?) my family still enjoyed free rentals though the apple 2 was long since retired.

This is a very good description of precisely what happened. People forget that Pascal & C compilers were not only unusual/academic, they were also very expensive - $300-$500 or more, and C was not ubiquitous then, pascal was more common, and (like C) there were several incompatible variants competing for marketspace. For a young person who has (perhaps only barely) been able to afford a Commodore, Atari 400/800, TRS-80 or the more expensive Apple ][, and additional huge expense for a compiler was very likely out of the question.

I was in a computer club and I remember a big bearded guy from IBM (one of the club founders) introducing a new programming language called "C", and thinking "why bother, when you can just code in assembly?"

My experience was with the Apple ][.

Instead of Pascal or C, almost everyone went from Applesoft Basic straight to assembly, with LISA being the tool of choice. (Laser Systems Interactive Symbolic Assembler - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lazer%27s_Interactive_Symbolic... written by Randy Hide, a noted Apple 2 expert who also wrote this guide: http://www.appleoldies.ca/anix/Using-6502-Assembly-Language-...)

We had 1Mhz. One "core". 48kilobytes of addressable ram (actually less, once the buffers for video space were subtracted). That's an extremely limited space.

Of course the workflow was awful. boot up. Open your editor. Edit your source code. Save to disk. Quit your editor. Run the assembler. No errors? quit and exit to DOS. Reboot & run your new code. (If the program were large, boot to DOS tools disc and copy the code from one floppy to another, then boot that new floppy.) Lather, rinse, repeat.

Applesoft Basic and Assembly were enough for me, until I took my first professional programming job in the 80s and learned Pascal to code for the Lisa and then the Macintosh. I learned C in the late 80s for Windows 2.1, 3.0 and then C++ (beginning with the Microsoft C++ beta compiler distributed on something like 20 5.25" floppy disks. I moved to C# as soon as Microsoft introduced DotNet and others in the decades since, but I never had as much pure joy as the time I spent on my Apple ][. I still have it, and remarkably it still runs 100%, and most of my floppy discs (memorex! gorilla!) still work, even though I used a "nibbler" tool and used both sides. At $5 each (!!) for 80k of storage we had to stretch the budget.

Sadly this book makes me miss what I used to love about programming, and realize just how much programming has stratified into protected roles. The days of one person sitting down with customers, understanding what they need, and then building that solution, seem to be over. Now it's product owners, and business analysts, and testers and developers, and countless sprints and meetings and cargo cult nonsense to get in the way.

I had a discussion with a developer who cut his teeth on mainframes in the 70s. We had the same opinion about today's overly heavy process getting in the way of achievement and talented people. Scrum & Agile have become a quasi-religion and the idea of a programmer saying "leave me alone for a month and I'll give you some software that solves the problem" are long gone. For better or worse.

And before someone says "well, then you're doing Agile wrong." Yes. We are. As is damn near EVERY shop I've encountered in the past 10 years. That's the point. It's a mess and the culture is broken.

Wish we could just go back 20 years and Code at Work, build things that people want and need, and treat it as a craft again.

it's a fun article, but I would liked to have seen at least a brief mention of power consumption comparison among the four designs.

For anyone that enjoyed LoTR/The Hobbit and thinks this new story might be interesting or entertaining, allow me to assure you it is not. The writing is meandering, unclear, futile expository. In a word "amateurish". Being as generous as possible, it is a poor tribute. Less generously, one might call it a lazy attempt to cash in on the legacy of JRR's universe of Middle Earth.

The writing bears no resemblance whatsoever to the grand, Elizabethan style of Tolkien.

See for yourself: https://play.google.com/books/reader?id=iH6iEAAAQBAJ&source=...

Indeed! Daniel Lanois, musician and grammy award winning producer (U2, Neville Brothers, Emmylou Harris, etc.) uses the Omnichord extensively in his own music. He used it throughout the soundtrack for Slingblade. He even named one of the songs, Omni: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n7HME3-TROg

And it's a big part of his song, The Maker. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w-JtAcpKtYQ

(The rest of the soundtrack: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cw_cbSkhe5w&list=PLtDcokwpri...)

But consider that Sunnyvale, California has the benefit of a very upscale demographic, no gang activity, low organized crime, etc. What works for one place will likely not apply elsewhere (e.g. no one-size-fits-all solution).

Organized crime (especially drug crime) is a quasi-military force. The police are threatening billions of dollars in illicit profit, and that will not go unchallenged easily.

laughably, transparently poor implementation.

While using the gasoline engine, the power accessories (power steering, power brake assist, ABS!) are functional, but when the gas engine is powered off, you'll have none of them? That's going to get someone killed. And on top of that, the climate control issues -- A/C won't work, and the heat will only last so long as the gas engine is preheated and then only briefly as the coolant isn't being circulated.

The concept of hybrid is an invisible marriage of gas/electric propulsion brought to us by Toyota who perfected it in the Prius. This is just a hack as far as I am concerned. I would be more impressed if the engine were removed entirely, and this motor were bolted up to the transmission as a replacement flywheel.

OK, but there are a few questions first. Is this change desirable, or undesirable? What is the correct number of glaciers and are we moving toward that or away from that number? Why?

If we are expecting the world to stay the same and never change (homeostasis), then we expect what has never been before. Planetary history is one of heating-cooling cycles, occurring well before mankind existed.

History repeats itself. I'm old enough to remember when "Cable TV" meant "no advertisements." And then it was just a few between programs. Then during the program, which eventually made it indistinguishable from "over the air" (antenna/aerial) broadcasting. Now Netflix, and Amazon repeat the lesson for another generation of consumer.

That's a great idea to make the recruiter actually look at your profile and ensure it indeed matches the offer. Too many lazy recruiters do a simple linked-in search and bulk email everyone who matches.

I had a "great offer - perfect fit for your skillset" notice from a recruiter recently, describing me as a "standout candidate" and urging me to apply. I read the description and replied back "which part of the position makes me the "standout candidate?" is it the complete lack of alignment in skills? (they wanted a javascript dev, I'm a former C/C++/C# dev that transitioned to BA then Product Owner for the past decade.) Maybe it's the "easy commute" of only 9 hours 45 minutes each way? (the job is in northern Ohio, I'm in central North Carolina!) Sadly this recruiter never responded. Missed opportunity. If they came back with a humorous response (e.g. "oops! That's our mistake, but let us tell you about something else...") I might have continued to work with them. Instead, I just added to my block list.

The worst sort of "elephant in the room" journalism -- everything is to blame, but that obvious thing that everyone took leading to an enormous, never-seen-before statistical anomaly. But it's not that thing. We're sure.

J.F. Sebastian? He's suffering from a genetic condition that causes him to age prematurely (ironic, since he's a geneticist who designs replicants and simpler creatures). He failed the medical screening required for off-world living, and thus is confined to life on Earth.

I'm afraid I disagree with your claim that J.F. is "suffering serious cognitive decline" due to his life on Earth. To the contrary, his confinement on Earth is not the cause of his psysical decline, his physical condition (genetics) is the cause of his confinement.

more details: https://bladerunner.fandom.com/wiki/J.F._Sebastian

"a low-price tools brand"

Excuse me, but what? The Craftsman brand historically was a consumer premium brand, priced midway between tradesmen premium brands like Snap-On and consumer "hardware store cheap tools" -- Craftsman was never a low-price brand. Craftsman used to stand for quality, with a lifetime no-questions-asked guarantee wherein, if the tool fails for any reason, it will be replaced. Period. No questions asked, no receipt required. Quality. And men proudly used their father's or grandfather's tools.

I remember well when Craftsman moved hand tool manufacturing from USA to China. Clearly cost of production was lower, but prices didn't change. The company could pocket the difference... and that's just how it went, at least until the consumer wised up and realized what was happening : a quiet substitution of Chinese-made cheap products but keeping yesterday's premium price. Cheap tool at top-dollar price. Tradesmen are not fools -- they know when their tools are not holding up, and they're being cheated. So the consumer rightly felt cheated and abandoned the brand.

Sears broke the contract, and quickly lost the trust. In just a few years, they destroyed one of the most trusted brands which took 100 years to build. The brand was sold off, and now it's just another meaningless string of letters. Today, Sears is dead and gone, for many reasons just like this. Good riddance.

anyone who likes this will probably also enjoy Blinky - a retro-CRT text editor for osx. https://blinky.en.softonic.com/mac

My mother was a banker. She asked a hypothetical question of me, 30 years ago, that I've never been able to answer: "Name for me one company that was better, for the customer or the employees, after a merger."

> If the code you write is uncovering bugs in compiler, you literally are too smart for your own good.

Definitely not in my case -- sometimes we just stumble over these things. As an inexperienced programmer (around 1989 or 1990?) I found a bug in the beta of microsoft's first C++ compiler, shipped on a dozen 5.25" floppy discs. All the other developers around me said "Don't be stupid. It's your code, it's not the compiler!" but I distilled it down to a minimal test case and proved it. The bug?

i=i+i;

That's it. It would give random results based on prior instructions unrelated to i.

I reported it and got a nice note back from the MSFT engineering team. Something like "Wow! I've no idea how we missed this. Good catch!"

It's important to note that "North America" != "United States." It likely means a shift to production in low-cost Mexico, Costa Rica, Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, etc.

I'm in the USA. I've seen this subtle dishonesty in packaging "Made in North America" which most consumers equate with "made in Canada or USA". The joke's on us.

The best scifi alien short story, ever.

Meat

https://www.mit.edu/people/dpolicar/writing/prose/text/think...

Not just modified vehicles or hummers, but a road filled with SUVs, minivans, delivery trucks, crossovers. Even a "standard" Ford F150 is goliath, and an indestructable frame won't save you. To the contrary, a super-rigid frame translates into occupant injury. Crumple zones, energy absorbing materials, deformation of structures = survivability. A 20 mph head-on collision in a 1950s auto with a full frame design is often far more serious than a 40 mph collision in a modern auto. Head-to-head comparison: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fPF4fBGNK0U (likely death vs possible foot injury)

Now contemplate a 6' long vehicle with 1' or less of "crumple zone".

As much as I wanted to like it, I am still just seeing an $8000 upfitted golf cart. (spaceframe golf cart) I didn't dig too deeply, but there seems to be a lot of information missing that would be necessary for a purchase decision.

My initial criticisms: Air Conditioning is an upcharge -- how much? (It is essential in many regions). And how much does its use affect range? Similarly, how much does the heat affect range? (probably resistance heat- the least efficient type?) What is range in winter, or summer?

What about safety - crash tests and occupant injury - what is the result of a 20mph head-on collision? Side collision? Roll-over? Does the "savings" of a cheap car translate into life spent in a wheelchair as a result of a minor fender-bender?

The 25/40mph top speed is severely limiting in terms of usefulness. Perhaps city-only use is the only domain?

Each battery pack gives 25km range. 2 standard, 4 max. What is the cost of additional packs? What is charge time? How many cycles per pack?

Seat belts? Passive restraints? Is there even a spare tire in case of a flat?

Taxes and Insurance - what is the vehicle category and how does it compare?

Again, I hate to be a dark cloud over this project, but to me a $5000 used gasoline auto seems to be much more practical everyday transportation.

starting one's life with the (emotional/financial) weight of "just" $80,000 to $100,000 in debt is not a good strategy, in my opinion.

It looks like Duke University School Of Medicine figured it out. https://physicians.dukehealth.org/articles/dukes-augmented-i...

(after I posted this, the title of this story has changed to be EPIC-specific - it was "Why Can't AI Detect Sepsis?")

Did anyone else catch the hilarity of their animal choice on that fake book cover? A Lion! (Lyin') I guess a "Bull" relieving itself would have been too obvious?

the difference is that boomers have lived through more than one market cycle and we know an inevitable "correction/crash" is coming. The wise will take action in advance (e.g. move to cash positions) to lock in gains, then repurchase at what feels like the worst point of doom & gloom. A 50% loss needs a 100% gain to recover... Plus inflation. Factor in opportunity cost and it might be closer to 120%.

The first and last lesson in investing is DON'T LOSE MONEY.

Sadly, many have to learn firsthand that markets don't grow to the sky forever.