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raincom

3,541 karma · joined September 16, 2014

glad.gift6991@fastmail.com
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raincom··on The era of jobs is ending
Whatever people make goes to rent/mortgage, health insurance, auto insurance, etc. The zoning rules and strict enforcement in the West make it hard to start shanty towns across countries. What is left?
raincom··on How elites could shape mass preferences as AI reduces persuasion costs
Most of the box springs sold today have the box shape, but don't contain springs. They just put slats on the two sides of the box, encased with a fabric. That's why it is better to go with a sturdy frame with slats less than 3 inches apart due to the geometry of the coils in mattresses.

As mattress companies want to cut down the costs, they find cute names to replace the real springs. Leggett & Platt's Weblok is the spring version of foundations: https://beddingcomponents.com/weblok Other foundations LP sell have 'torsion springs'; they are not springs at all. That's why mattress manufacturers just make boxes with slats; if the boxes are thinner, they are called "bunkie boards".

Only luxury mattress makers sell real box springs along with flippable two side mattresses. In the states, at least you see Shifman. Duxiana combines two layers of springs, the bottom layer acting as foundation, the top layer allows zoned flexible springs; a topper sits on the top of these two coil layers.

Even some European mattress makers follow another approach: 5 inch Bonnell/open coils + 5 inch pocket coils + 2 inches of comfort layer--all in a single mattress. Saatva Classic Mattress follows a similar pattern; however they use cheap coils in both layers.

Historically, springs started as box springs (a separate layer); on top of these boxes, one used cotton/wool mattresses. Remember rope beds (you can see them in the third world). Folks just use cotton/wool layers on such rope beds. Instead of rope beds, one uses box springs on a frame. That's an easy replacement. Over the time, spring layer and comfort layers are stitched together. Flippable mattresses need real box springs as well.

European slats (curved slats sold at IKEA for instance) also function as springs for all foam mattresses (latex or non-latex). This is why many local mattress manufacturers in the USA don't recommend European slats for their hybrid mattresses.

raincom··on How elites could shape mass preferences as AI reduces persuasion costs
Bed springs are alternative to the traditional mattresses that contain all kinds of fibers: cotton, wool, hair (horse hair, etc), feathers, hay, kapok, sea grass, etc. In fact, Bed springs are better than any natural fillings for support because these natural fillings compress quickly, some fillings shift. Tufting is a technique to fix the issue of shifting fibers. Pure wool/cotton mattresses need to be opened every year, and re-teased. Good springs (open coil or pocketed coils) are far better than any wool/cotton/hay support.

The modern mattress industry undermined this durability in pursuit of quick profit: springs became thinner and cheaper, and comfort layers were replaced with low-quality foams. That’s why today’s mattresses don’t last the way they used to.

raincom··on Why are 38 percent of Stanford students saying they're disabled?
30% of passengers ask for wheelchairs on long distance flights from India. That's how the system gets abused for priority boarding.
raincom··on Why High Food Prices Will Make Public Groceries Inevitable
Address the inflation in rents and mortgages, as it is the major factor that will undermine the economies of every developed nation in the West. When people with full-time jobs are queuing at food banks, it’s because their income is being swallowed by rent, utilities (for example, PG&E in California), and insurance.
raincom··on Trillions spent and big software projects are still failing
The land is worth more than the structure in these areas.
raincom··on Trillions spent and big software projects are still failing
Some consequences of NOT learning from prior successes and failures: (a) no more training for the next generation of developers/engineers (b) fighting for the best developers, and this manifests in leetcode grinding (c) decrease in cooperation among team mates, etc.
raincom··on Trillions spent and big software projects are still failing
When people live in multi million dollar homes, self-respect doesn't pay monthly mortgage.
raincom··on How long can it take to become a US citizen?
I have no problem with your notion of diversity. The whole EU population is 450 million, and there are 27 countries within the EU. So, the question: is China/India less diverse than the whole EU? Some say "yes"; others, "no". Both provide good reasons for their answers.

However, one can't deny the original immigration template with a variable. Original value for this variable: "national-origins". That value is replaced with "country wide quotas". The other value is f(diversity): another formula f based on the variable 'diversity'.

American citizens and their politicians have total freedom to replace the template, or change the current value for one of the variables, or replace with another variable.

raincom··on How long can it take to become a US citizen?
It is not a right, for sure. However, there are historical reasons why they are county wide quotas. Before the 1965 INA (Hart-Celler Act, which JFK wanted), they had a national-origins quota system: each country's quota was based on the existing immigrant population of that national origin already in the United States, using data from the 1890 census. Because the U.S. population in 1890 was overwhelmingly from Northern and Western Europe (especially Protestants), this formula strongly favored those groups. Immigration from Southern and Eastern Europe was heavily restricted because most of them are Catholics. Once Catholics got political power, thanks to JFK, this is reformed in favor of what we see country based caps.

The national-origins formula was explicitly designed to maintain the existing ethnic composition of the U.S.--in other words, preserve what policymakers at the time considered the “traditional” American demographic makeup.

raincom··on Norway's Wealth Tax Unchains a Capital Exodus
Best example: Oracle moved their HQ to Texas, then moved to Tennessee.
raincom··on Linear algebra explains why some words are effectively untranslatable
There is a better thesis coming from the late philosopher W.V.O Quine: indeterminacy of translation [1]

[1] https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/quine/#IndeTran

raincom··on A Plumber Will Earn More Than a Programmer in the Next Decade
When they are not many high paying job, more people are inclined to learn to fix the stuff: DIY HVAC, DIY Plumbing, etc. Private Equity purchased many trades and jacked up prices. This will force many non-trade folks to learn more of DIYing.
raincom··on Guests ejected mid-stay from bankrupt hotel chain Sonder
Hope he cashed out by dumping his shares in the private market.
raincom··on Bubble needs to be destroyed before it destroys the country
Food crisis because most of the money goes to rent and utilities.
raincom··on Zohran Mamdani wins the New York mayoral race
Democrats want higher wages for workers instead of reducing the cost of living (rent, insurance, etc).
raincom··on Families say cost of housing means they'll have fewer or no children
The developed world should solve the cost of living crisis, as the job market deteriorates forever. Demanding more wages forces companies to become efficient or offshore.
raincom··on Amazon targets as many as 30k corporate job cuts, sources say
Are warehouse workers considered as corporate?
raincom··on Thuma Hybrid Mattress Review: Firm but Favorable
All hybrid mattresses follow the same formula, with some differences: bottom panel + pocketed coils (support layer) + foams (transition layer) + foam/natural fibers (comfort layers) + top panel ( with tack and jump quilting). Then use a tape edge machine to sew the mattress. For edge support, two techniques are used: foam encasement or thicker gauge pocketed coils. Love to see who Thuma contracted out to make these mattresses.

There are too many bed in box marketing companies masquerading as mattress companies. It is a crowded field. Good to see Sketchers (shoe company) and Thuma (furniture company) start selling mattresses.

The cost of materials to make a mattress is just 25% of the retail price. Shipping costs and comfort exchanges, along with marketing, eat into the margins.

raincom··on The 1920s Immigration Mistake America May Repeat
Even after JFK's initiated reforms, quotas based on origins (birth county of future immigrants or birth country of existing immigrants in the US) is intact. If one sees this as a formula based on origins, some variables are changed after Immigration and Naturalization Act of 1965. So, it is very hard to get rid of origin and quota-based formulas. Now Trump wants to change some variables.
raincom··on A competitor crippled a $23.5M bootcamp by becoming a Reddit moderator
People offer money to buy your reddit handle, assuming you are a mod of a reddit they want to control.
raincom··on A competitor crippled a $23.5M bootcamp by becoming a Reddit moderator
That's common. A marketing company took over r/mattress in order to get rid of any unfavorable reviews and pump up any bed in box mattress company as long as these companies pay to that market company. For more, https://www.reddit.com/r/MattressMod/comments/1c28g7b/recent...
raincom··on New antibiotic targets IBD and AI predicted how it would work
AI just picked up these references and gave an answer. Scientists in this field should have read these papers instead of relying on AI.
raincom··on Don't avoid workplace politics
As long as more than two people (3+) are involved, it is politics.
raincom··on Must Rust
Rust "is the way, the truth, and the life".
raincom··on Amazon RTO policy is costing it top tech talent, according to internal document
If that's the case, why they PIP a certain percentage of people every year? Same applies to Meta, too.
raincom··on Nginx-CGI brings support for CGI to Nginx and angie
Just curious, who did they steal from? Or which code base it is stolen from?
raincom··on Google has eliminated 35% of managers overseeing small teams in past year
Just increase headcount under oneself in order to protect oneself. Isn't it what bureaucracy have been doing all along?
raincom··on Walmart Fires VP in Tech for Taking Daily Kickbacks Starting from $30K
Kickbacks in the IT subcontracting is per head per hour. 8 billable hours per day * 1000 contractors a day * 5 dollars per billable hour = 40,000 USD a day.
raincom··on Leaving Gmail for Mailbox.org
It is easier to change MX records for your personal domain.
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