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labrador

7,933 karma · joined February 5, 2014

Retired Silicon Valley engineer Native of Santa Cruz, live in San Jose mikeburns656@gmail.com
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labrador··on Evidence of a spying operation by ICE against left-wing social movements
I'm having flashbacks to when I was in high school in the 1970's while Nixon was at the height of his powers.

The difference is Nixon had real domestic enemies to worry about: The Weather Underground were bombing buildings, heiress Patty Hearst was kidnapped by the "Symbionese Liberation Army", the Black Panthers were making demands which conservative America found frightening, mass protests were going on about the war in Vietnam on college campuses which resulted in the deaths at Kent State. Nixon believed these protests were driven by Chinese and Soviet influence to support North Vietnam in the war. The CIA’s Operation CHAOS spent years looking for foreign control of the antiwar movement and reported back that there wasn’t any.

What domestic enemies does Trump have? Antifa is a philosophy, not an organization. Black Lives Matter protests were his last administration. There have been a few lone wolf attacks like the Dallas ICE sniper, but the domestic threat is no here near what Nixon faced.

Under the Trump's White House directive NSPM-7, which defines a potential domestic terrorist as anyone expressing “anti-Christian, anti-capitalist, or anti-American” views, DHS launched an operation to find a “network of conspirators” against ICE.

The surveillance op in the Wired article targeted labor unions, a climate change group and socialist collectives — the SEIU had three years of wire transfers investigated, and the AFL-CIO, DSA and Showing Up for Racial Justice were also investigated. That’s the mismatch: a 1970s-scale dragnet for a threat that isn’t 1970s-scale.

Trump appears to be grabbing power for the sake of grabbing power.

labrador··on A 28-Year-Old DOGE Operative Gutted USAID. HR Had No Record of Him Working There
Are we going to prosecute these people or what?
labrador··on Mossad Has Devices Like the Exploding Pagers in "Every Country You Can Imagine" (2025)
Big deal. I could put bombs in things to kill people but I'm not a murderous person.
labrador··on Dolly Parton's Imagination Library
Dolly Parton was a beautiful spirit and my life was measurably improved by reading as a child so I donated $50 on her death. It's not much but I'm retired on a fixed income. I had to do something.
labrador··on The Elizabeth Holmes documentary “You Can See Everything” is deceiving
They usually steal the weed and shrooms out of your backpack because you weren't using them at the moment.
labrador··on The Elizabeth Holmes documentary “You Can See Everything” is deceiving
I learned of an interesting case of this in the film "The Sunshine Makers" about LSD production in California in the 1960's. Billy Hitchcock was a wealthy heir to the Gulf Oil fortune who financed the labs but eventually went back to being a protected rich guy by betraying his chemists.
labrador··on How the Elizabeth Holmes documentary “You Can See Everything” is deceiving
I agree. I should have said shrooms!
labrador··on The Elizabeth Holmes documentary “You Can See Everything” is deceiving
It's fascinating to me that the upper classes find Holmes interesting. In the working class world I grew up in, chicks like her are a dime a dozen and can usually be found at Grateful Dead tribute concerts espousing the benefits of crystals and channeling her alien guide who she discovered while chanting an invented baby talk language high on molly and nitrous oxide.
labrador··on Waymo in Toronto
A lot of women want it along with the ability to order Uber/Lyft from women drivers only.
labrador··on Suicide rates highest ever among middle-aged men
I was in a similar position as a highly successful programmer after the dotcom crash in the early 2000's. Like George Bailey in "It's a wonderful life" I stood on the bridge looking down.

I had $300,000 in the bank. The thought occurred to me "What kind of idiot kills himself with that much money in the bank? Thus I started adventuring around the country looking for something to do.

I ended up driving a city bus in Las Vegas, mostly the double decker bus on The Strip. It was the most fun I ever had on a job. No regrets.

labrador··on Someone has decompiled the Adobe suite, rebuilt in Rust and released it as OSS
We're about to revive the Apple vs Microsoft lawsuits of the 90's over "look and feel"
labrador··on Why Common Lisp is now the best programming language
Lispers never give up. I admire that.
labrador··on Meta’s Muse is an adorable privacy and security dumpster fire
I can finally relax and let a random number generator make my decisions for me
labrador··on What Sun got wrong
I sold my Sun stock at the internet bubble top for $70 a share. A few months later it was $7. I think of that when I see PE ratios in the hundreds for Tesla, SpaceX and other AI stocks.
labrador··on Houthis 'take control' of key island in global shipping route
Donald Trump hosted roughly 20 oil and gas executives from major companies including Chevron, ExxonMobil, and Occidental Petroleumat his Mar-a-Lago resort on April 11, 2024.

His message to the room was essentially that giving $1 billion to his campaign was a low-cost investment that would guarantee massive financial returns for their companies

Reflection Eternal | Ballad of the Black Gold https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ryFMKYNJeTM

    This is the ballad of the black gold
    They call it Texas tea
    But it's bigger than a cowboy with a lasso
    It's deeper than a black hole
    Create monopolies
    Except they collect your fee when you pass Go
    Crisis international
    The government de facto
    We got no control of this fiasco
    Darker than the back roads
    Bubble hotter than Tabasco
    More than what you bargained for or asked for
labrador··on Muse Spark 1.3
Of course it's real or 2 or 3 people wouldn't upvote my B2B SaaS posts
labrador··on Muse Spark 1.3
What does it mean for you, sex robot developer?
labrador··on Muse Spark 1.3
He did love to talk about B2B SaaS and could go on for hours. He is missed.
labrador··on Muse Spark 1.3
I interviewed as a software developer at LinkedIn. The interviewer asked me to demonstrate my prompting skills, so I had AI write an article about what the recent death of my father taught me about B2B SaaS. Reading it brought tears to his eyes so he hired me on the spot.
labrador··on Google has abandoned Google News?
better anyway: https://www.memeorandum.com/
labrador··on YC founder asks desperate job seekers to tattoo themselves for an interview

    "We need to find smart people who will work 100 hours a week like Musk"
    "How do we do that?"
    "Let's ask them to tattoo our logo before we'll consider interviewing them"
    "brilliant. That shows the kind of commitment we need"
    "The press will be fantastic as well"
    "lets do it"
labrador··on Astronauts describe persistent 'observer' sensation after 6 month missions
I think the article mixed the two and I focused on the negative. Dissociation is seeing the world in 2D like watching a movie and mindfulness is being fully present in 3D with all your senses. I've experienced both.
labrador··on Astronauts describe persistent 'observer' sensation after 6 month missions
I wish it was nothing
labrador··on Astronauts describe persistent 'observer' sensation after 6 month missions
I spent months underwater on a US submarine and felt the same thing. Later the Navy pdoc labelled it dissociation, which is in the DSM.

    Common Types and Symptoms

    Depersonalization: Feeling detached from your own body, mind, or actions, like watching yourself in a movie.

    Derealization: Feeling that the outside world is fake, dreamlike, or foggy.

    Dissociative Amnesia: Forgetting important personal information or blocks of time that go beyond normal memory loss.

    Identity Confusion or Alteration: Feeling unsure of who you are or experiencing shifts in your personality.

    Causes and Triggers

    Trauma and Stress: Acts as a defense mechanism against overwhelming stress, abuse, or frightening events.

    Everyday Triggers: Loud noises, strong emotions, or reminders of past trauma.

    Mild States: Getting lost in a book, daydreaming, or "highway hypnosis" while driving.
labrador··on Identity verification on Claude
ID verification might be a path to allow restricted access to Fable (doesn't mention nationality yet), but I concluded I don't need Fable, which excels more at technical work, because I do therapy/recovery/lifecoach work which Opus is good at. I'm retired and need personal "executive function" type assistance.
labrador··on AI is slowing down
Missing from Zitron's calculations is government ownership/bailout of American AI in national security interest and winning the race to AGI with China. Trump has been making noise lately of owning 50% of these companies. Taxpayers will prop them up in other words.
labrador··on Apple reveals new AI architecture built around Google Gemini models
I've been a paid subscriber to Claude for a couple of years, but lately I've been reaching for the free Gemini app on my Android Pixel 9 because it's so good at doing searches as part of its answers. The model feels fresh and up to date. Whether Apple can incorporate that search is an open question
labrador··on 'Big Short' investor Steve Eisman: I'm 'not a fan' of the upcoming SpaceX IPO
The SpaceX IPO will need a lot of true believers to launch successfully
labrador··on Jef Raskin, the Visionary Behind the Mac (2013)
He was dead set against the mouse as well, preferring dedicated meta-keys to do the pointing

That's what I was referring to

labrador··on Jef Raskin, the Visionary Behind the Mac (2013)
Jobs did the right thing, which was to make an affordable Lisa for home computing. The simplicity of the mouse was essential. It's sounds like Jef had other ideas.
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