justanotheratom

Actually, there is a partisan distinction that I am trying to make here, so I guess I can't not sound partisan. And the distinction is this:

The left gets too hung up on morality. So, they are prone to trusting slick talkers like SBF or Newsom, who say the right things and use the right language, with no actual substance.

Now, as to the DOGE folks, they have presumably given up their lucrative businesses/careers, and joined this effort to help the nation (according to them). Can you atleast give me a theorical story about how one of these individuals could have a sinister plan to defraud the american people?

If they are doing forensics on govt finances, I am not sure what is there to FOIA. Plus, they are publishing extensive data on doge.gov. Nevertheless, in principle, doge shouldn't be exempt from FOIA.

Hah, you do realize that joker was a product of the left, and he was spewing all the right words that the left likes to hear? He tried to invest in Elon's companies, and Elon refused because he could smell the fraud from a mile out.

Pick one of the DOGE employees and try to articulate what fraud they are trying to commit for themselves?

Sincerely, I think there is too much emphasis on "rich people bad", the assumption being it is a zero-sum game.

Instead, we should simply focus on making this more and more true:

"provide value to the world -> get rich."

Um, my Tesla today is cheaper than an Acura I bought 20 years ago. Tech has been deflationary. And overall, quality of life and life expectancy has improved over time under Capitalism.

Sure, if someone has a moat, they will try to maximize their profit. Assuming fair competition though, I would expect a competitor to emerge.

Stop fixating on the finance bros. I gave you two links to two long form talks by the current Secretary of Treasury and Secratary of Commerce. Listen to them and draw your own conclusions, so atleast we know you are aware what the adminstration is trying to do, even if you disagree.

in 2020, yes something bad happened, which negatively affected Trump's numbers. Read the report in the link.

I don't have as much of a problem with businessmen getting involved in politics full-time as I have with career politicians - they can't execute, and they all seem to somehow get a whole lot richer. Republican or Democrat.

well, here is some evidence that average person is worse off:

"economic conditions for the bottom 50% improved more clearly and consistently during Trump's administration (2017–2020) compared to Biden’s tenure (2021–2025)."

6% vs 2%

https://chatgpt.com/share/67e786c3-82c0-8008-8ca4-3dae5d3a53...

JEPA is presumably superior to Transformers. Can any expert enlighten us on the implications of this paper?

what makes you think it is a surveillance company?

"investments into significant infra programs might be another, even with long time horizons." - yes, really long horizons. case in point - https://youtu.be/NcZxaFfxloo?si=uRQ9gL6j7pRzyPhA

"it arguably did not take any actions that directly make life worse for the average person." - I don't think you've talked to an average person. They are quite upset.

"you are rooting for people who are directly working against your own economic interest" - No actually. They have a plan and they have articulated it. It may not work in the end, but it is not a forgone conclusion. And they are most definitely striving to help the average person. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lSma9suyp24, https://youtu.be/182ckTL2KBA?si=x6cRwNeMgAVFLTq0.

"better state of affairs for the world" would be hard to argue one way or the other, so I doubt you will need to eat your words.

any significant achievements of the previous administration in bringing about a "better state of affairs for the world"?

"threatening to de-fund universities" - you mean the multi-billion endowment private universities that charge 60 grand a year?

"Black-bagging students who write articles and take part in (and maybe even, shock-horror, organise) protests (in both these case: exercise their "right" to free speech)." - any citizens you can point to?

RE DOGE, can you point to any inaccuracies on doge.gov? literally everything is listed out, so should be easy to point out.

RE donors/puppet masters from getting richer at the expense of everyone else. - who are these donors and puppet masters? Elon's net worth has probably gone down. And for a guy who has created the most wealth in history arguably, doesn't need to get into government to secure a few lucrative contracts for himself. More likely that you are deranged sir.

HN is simply deranged about Trump and now Elon, and want to slap Fascism on everything.

"targeting political enemies and anything that hinders their donors/puppet masters from getting richer at the expense of everyone else"

Give some examples.

Atleast DOGE is trying to provide data (https://doge.gov/).

Give one example.

Hope you have the honesty to do the same.

Well, if you want to give your opinion in public, maybe you can give some explanation for your cynicism too.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l7kQNwJ4H_w

Well, that is your opinion. I am quite happy with what is going on.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l7kQNwJ4H_w

I do believe these these DOGErs are principled honest state servants, until proven otherwise.

xAI's mission is to "understand the universe". Not sure how that aligns with X.

Um, as someone who just released a product, and has no experience with marketing, I see marketing as "connecting people to solutions to their problems".

Note that the previous Whisper STT models were Open Source, and these new STT models are not, AFAICT.

there is a mob mentality on HN where a certain group of people go burying dissenting opinion, because they can just downvote without posting a thoughtful response.

This comment is an example why a reply should be required before allowing a downvote. HN members with the privilege to downvote seem to be simply burying anything that disagrees with their opinion bubble.

Here are the facts regarding the situation with Starlink, the FAA, and the Verizon contract as of February 28, 2025: The FAA awarded Verizon a $2.4 billion contract in 2023 to upgrade its air traffic control communication system, known as the FAA Enterprise Network Services (FENS) program.

As of February 27, 2025, reports indicate the FAA is considering canceling this contract and potentially shifting the work to Starlink, a SpaceX subsidiary owned by Elon Musk.

The FAA has not finalized this decision, stating "no decisions have been made" about the Verizon contract.

Currently, the FAA is testing three Starlink terminals: one in Atlantic City, New Jersey, and two at non-safety-critical sites in Alaska.

Elon Musk has claimed the existing Verizon system (though later corrected to an L3Harris system) is failing rapidly, posing risks to air travelers, and that Starlink is providing terminals "at no cost to the taxpayer on an emergency basis." The FAA has not publicly confirmed this risk assessment.

SpaceX employees are working within FAA facilities, assisting with technology upgrades, amid a broader Trump administration effort to modernize the agency.

The process to unwind a federal contract and reassign it typically requires a competitive bidding process or justification under specific legal exceptions (e.g., national security or urgent public interest), which has not been publicly detailed in this case.

I have a slightly different approach. Quoting my tweet:

"Once @cognition_labs AI Engineer Devin gets good enough, I will have it implement each feature as a series of Pull Requests: - One or more Refactoring PRs - modify structure of existing code but no behavioral change. - A final PR which is "append only" code - no structural change, only behavioral."

https://x.com/realsanketp/status/1879766736742092938

"Boomless" Supersonic Flights

https://x.com/bscholl/status/1888939430833975765

Another feature of a well-designed language is how well it is able to separate features for library writers vs application writers. I have seen way too many smart coders end up polluting application code with unnecessarily complex features of C++ meant for library writers.

RE: Why would a well designed language have only one or few ways to do the same thing?

So that you focus on solving the problem at hand, instead of endlessly arguing over decisions that are irrelevant to solving the said problem.