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softsound

267 karma · joined June 18, 2020

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softsound··on New health insurance “transparency data” looks suspiciously wrong
Companies are considered a person and legally have rights such as freedom of speech, can own property and enter contracts.

They are allowed to spend as much as they want for votes due to their freedom of speech. Sure they can't directly vote but ever since like 2010 have a lot of human rights and I'm sure would love more. I would not be surprised if one day they could directly vote considering due to their rights. I hope though we can push back before then and change things.

https://www.brennancenter.org/our-work/research-reports/citi...

softsound··on New health insurance “transparency data” looks suspiciously wrong
ER visits really vary. In Austin, Texas you may be able to get in a few minutes to a few hours. Just really depends, when my mom when to the ER last year for extremely high blood pressure she had to wait half a day before she could she see anyone and they thought she might have a stroke. She was fine in the end, but if there was a real emergency I can't imagine what we'd do. I remember we went to the ER at like 4pm but it took until like 2am before she was able to get in and they decided to have her stay the day. I stayed up all night waiting for her to get help it was very stressful. Also what a joy of getting that bill literally a year later, you'd think they would have due dates of when they have to send these out!
softsound··on New health insurance “transparency data” looks suspiciously wrong
It's not the same... But what about emergency clinics or walk-in clinics? My brother had a chainsaw accident and they were able to treat him in a few minutes. I kinda hope we get more clinics like this over ER options, I used to go to the ER for a lot of issues until I found these clinics available, now whatever country I'm in America or in Europe I look for them over ER options when available. Good for fevers, fixing injuries, most of the more minor things... I'm not sure about the 8 hour wait but if you already exhausted other options I understand.
softsound··on After a decade, South Dakota's Amish are moving on
I think any extremist and isolating culture will bring with it extremist behavior and thinking. People want to believe they have the right answer. Often this leads them to becoming very self-righteous and prideful and also very shame focused. I don't think this is something one would just limit to just this culture or belief system. And as that guy states, that is this just his own personal experience. I too dealt with someone ruining my father's funeral and would probably their grave if he had one and let me tell you, they weren't amish but they were self righteous and crazy. That said, I think the Amish can have quality work, are useful in preserving history but I personally would not want that life. I remember reading Running Out of Time as a child and always somehow associated it with life like the Amish. I know things are different of course but that's what I think of first. A bad association.
softsound··on The Missing Semester of Your CS Education
Most of what I worked with code wise growing up was either very niche or setup in such a way that debuggers weren't an option so I never really used them much either. I don't understand their appeal when print statements can give you more context to debug with anyway. I'm definitely no senior but I'm used to solving things the "hard way" as one developer told me. He wondered how I could even work because of how "bad" my tools were but I didn't know any better being self taught and with certain software it's just not compatible with the tools he mentioned.
softsound··on The case for hanging out
Why is loneliness more common? Look at the work week. Everyone is working long hours, doesn't get time off, or is too broke to spend it doing social stuff in America or other countries. Lots of fear increases this too, with people working too much social skills go down and mental health issues become an issue. And lack of interactions with others increases fear in general.

Now if you are lucky enough to be well off enough not to have that issue then the second thing is tech replaces people in a lot of areas - food, entertainment, health, ways we connect with others etc. If you had to rely on others more I bet most people would be less lonely in general. Isolation becomes easier the more tech you have available - be it cars or computers it can easily isolate you if you don't purposely avoid isolation. Now tech can bring people together, I'm in a long distance relationship and tech makes it very easy nowadays but it's still not the same, as in person face to face experiences.

But I also think people will always face loneliness in every generation, it just might go by other names.

softsound··on Ask HN: Whatever Happened To Freelancing?
The most likely scenario is all three, government Id, in person and really bad ai. I highly doubt we will truly ever lose one of these options between humans, government paperwork and automation that likely sucks.
softsound··on The teen mental illness epidemic began around 2012
I'm honestly a little surprised it didn't start before then. With the 2008 "Great Recession" I remember quite a few people and teenagers struggling back in my high school. I knew a lot of teens/families who lost their homes, or had to get jobs to support their families etc and drop out of school. I remember that having a big impact in my life, so I get I would have expected that to have had a greater influence.
softsound··on ‘Confirming we are cleared to land?’ Who said what at Austin
As someone who lives in Austin and recalls a fair amount of other issues with the airport I didn't realize I had yet another concern to worry about... Good thing we had someone paying attention but it seems like we should add more buffer time between these comings and goings. Though I know a lot of the airport has been overwhelmed with plenty of other issues.
softsound··on Stride – Open-source C# Game Engine
It looks like a cool project very early in development, I'd almost consider using it over Unity but it seems like too much work and too buggy right now but I hope the main dev's are able to get together and figure out the rough points. I know it's a community project but there are always some champions helping direct everything.
softsound··on Engagement with fact-checked posts on Reddit
The problem with people psychology wise is arguments tend to reinforce their own beliefs of being right. Arguing can get to the emotional core of people and logic and emotion don't often play well together being on opposite sides of the brain. Dominance and the desire to be right can make people feel more correct in their own head even if it's illogical, because it's safe and feels good being a winner. Unlike regular open discussion where both parties are more flexible and winning to change sides, arguments rarely will change sides as few people are willing to put in the effort to look at their "enemies" perspective.

The best way to counter any claim is with openness, empathy and the ability to be wrong. That is how you change minds, don't let emotions separate you. Granted that is far easier said then done as I may disagree with someone then they often turn to insults if they think "I've turned against them" because I may have a different opinion. Some people have such high defense you really can't get through to them.

softsound··on Builder's Remedy goes into effect in many California cities tomorrow
Looking at other countries like Japan with like barely any zoning laws, this looks great, I hope it leads to more mixed cities again and more walkable/liveable areas like before WW2. It is funny that America land of the free had so many restrictions, building up hundreds of zoning laws across the country did a lot of bad and led to a lot of urban sprawl leading to very poor cities and towns that literally cannot pay for themselves. I think we need some zoning laws though, and I'm sure these laws will come back faster then people expect mostly from bad planning or large bribes whichever. But hopefully some good helpful zoning laws will stick.
softsound··on Will Wright on designing user interfaces to simulation games (1996)
Reading this above made me think of song lyrics from the 60's

"And the people bowed and prayed To the neon god they made And sign flashed out it's warning In the words it was forming Then the sign said, "The words of the prophets are written on the subway walls and in tenement halls" And whispered in the sound of silence"

Honestly I think a lot of these tools are hit and miss right now. Some are pretty cool, super easy to steal stuff (art for example), and have it look mostly good to an untrained eye, or in the case of chat return reasonable good answers but often they still can't compare to a professional with the insight and history of understanding principals that are just not there yet in these tools. Will they ever be? I'm not sure. Some of these tools may survive but a lot will be hit with copyright, plagiarism, restricted use, and probably mainstream use with the understanding quality will go down but stuff will get cheaper... Like auto generated captions, most of the time it kinda sucks and I always have to go back and fix a bunch of stuff. It's sort of like CGI, if know what you are looking for it's pretty clear, but sometimes it can fool people. Considering people were being fooled in the 60's with chat bots (Eliza is well known), it will be interesting to see where this goes. Considering all this was stuff even before my parents time, I expect the younger generation to catch on to it too and to have some small counter movements too.

softsound··on Best and worst decisions I’ve made
Decades? Nah just a few years is all you need, a lot of it is more apparent from eating disorders. Even with flossing + brushing daily it can be hard to overcome for some people once you have it.

Sadly can confirm as I had no cavities in high school, did terrible in my 20's especially around 20-27 went through a lot of depression, lack of money/medical care/ in and out of work a lot and I'm trying to fix what I can just starting my 30's after losing 2 teeth It can be hard to overcome shame when already depressed so it's hard to visit a dentist moreso if you have no money to do anything.

It's easy to screw up even more so if you have bad genes on top of it, a lot of my family has issues with teeth.

At least stem cells can be found within your teeth and there is a process now to regrow some of your teeth with your own stem cells, doesn't replace implants though but helps. This process isn't popular yet but at least it's possible in a few areas in the states.

softsound··on An unorthodox scholar uses technology to expose Biblical forgeries
Well... I mean science did make books and science can be quite inspiring. Literally inspired books seem possible if you get the right combination to write and I'm sure there could be a study on how to literally inspire someone to write... Perhaps add too much DMT to the brain.

That said, without being silly about words the bible could be full of science but their concept of science is very different from our own, how they view the world is quite different... But we sometimes are blind and make assumptions about their views. Often people discredit those in the past with assuming they know better. Like the mystery of how we lost concrete and why bricks were so popular.

And for some silly reason people often say "Science" as if it disproves things. As if a mere word could really be an argument. Science in fact can prove lots things and yes, a fair amount of the Bible is already proven and can make one curious about what is possible.

Stuff changes but some things remain the same - we still have modern day immortal jellyfish, what other creatures could have lived back then? If the live span of a mammal like a whale is so long imagine other creatures of the past. More ancient, and older than the Greenland shark. How could other animals be if they used a similar technique to the jellyfish?

Snakes with tiny legs still exist though the amount of legs very, and no I was not referencing Tetrapodophis amplectus, nor lizards but actually snakes forced to crawl (because their tiny legs are useless) so you can look that one up. Look up python legs.

Animals can talk and use tool (Well trained birds come to mind, but many birds are able to do this, and some mammals easily mimic humans like many dog species rather it be a laugh or scream of a fox. Whales have speech patterns like humans, perhaps the giant beasts of the past could be similar to whales with speech? Kind of a scary idea of a smart land whale with human like whale speech patterns) who is to say what the world was like? What it sounded and acted like? How intelligent it could have been. So many curiosity's. Very scary ideas too. Land killer whales could be very frightful as they are very good at finding human weaknesses if they get angry enough...

The idea of the Pharaoh's snake a popular chemical used by magician's back then would be quite magical and still is today. If you want to feel like summoning a monster try those chemicals. It got it's name for a good reason.

Now can I explain everything in the Bible? Well no of course not, nor do I think everything is literal and even the Bible itself says this in multiple places. But to say "science" is quite silly. It's like saying man can never fly nor sail because of science. Depending on your point of time well science would say you are correct, but that does not mean it is impossible. Science leaves room for all sorts of discovery if you are willing to look with a bit of faith and be willing to see the impossible.

We use our grand imagination to examine the past but it's fragmented at best. Science is good at making predictions but not everything can be predictable from unknown factors and ever changing variables. It's a helpful tool though to bring a sense of order and control until you dig too deep or your assumptions last too long, like the lack of fat dinos compared to how we view whales with similar bones. Etc etc.

softsound··on Tell HN: Google Cloud lets anyone add you to a project without your permission
Google in general has become far more loose on spam, from spam emails now showing on my Google calendar, to being added to projects where I cannot remove myself. They open up quite a lot of security holes and seem not be taking it seriously at all. I feel like this year for me has been some of the worst in a while. The amount of stuff I report everyday is considerable. I've been added to other drives in the past just you and I'm trying to find out how to move away from Google because of this issue. They are too big to care, but I've seen other platforms open up unfortunately it's hard to get away from the convenience of Google. Personally I think if you can move your stuff and create a backup account somewhere else it's probably a good idea too.
softsound··on Why are American teenagers so sad and anxious?
I would say society doesn't paint a happy picture of the future. It's hard to find positive stories of things working out well where we win against climate change, and we stop shootings in school etc. I also feel it's very hard to have real connection in a lot of modern culture, with phones and internet and tech sometimes just talking to your neighbor seems strange. I think society itself doesn't really really feel that healthy so I can imagine a lot of teenagers with mood swings and anxiety/ depression and facing sad news feel like they don't have much to look forward to. Especially if they can't be as perfect as their peers can come across. It was way easier to not compare your life pre-internet. Also health is generally lower, and that will affect your mood too.
softsound··on How to Be Useless
Used to be scheduled 38 hours a week as a part timer but at least I sometimes got overtime pay for special occasions. I'm not sure if an entire generation was sold a dream, a lot didn't dream to begin with. As someone at the edge of being of being a millennial nearly gen z. I think a lot of folks never expected anything good per say, but perhaps many starting poorer made us have much worse mental health to begin with. I'm in a good spot now and worked into STEM with little education but I know many who will likely never get better. There is a lot of problems with the workforce that lower end people have so little power over. Requiring more of companies is a good place to start.
softsound··on More than 1M fewer students are in college, the lowest numbers in 50 years
Why go to college when bootcamps can be faster and less risky? They can have better terms then a lot of college debt with set time limits and payment amounts for debt. Colleges are so behind the times... I'd recommend them more for social skills and networking then anything though. I'm not against colleges just think a lot of them are out of touch and not worth it. I make a good salary now in STEM but never got around to a 4 year degree. I'm not against it but certainly understand why people don't go, it just takes a while and can be hard to tell if it's worth it. If it's affordable and you have don't have much else to do I'd recommend it, moreso if you come from a well off background. If you don't have a lot going for you though, take a trade school route or find a bootcamps with terms you think are agreeable and do a lot of side projects. Then decide if college is worth it. The eariler you make money the less stress you'll have long term.
softsound··on Google hired union-busting consultants to convince employees “unions suck”
The US once had a rich history of unions for 100's of years since the 17th century, and plenty of wars over them where the US government literally attacked union workers in wars like Battle of Blair Mountain.

The US seems to have almost wiped out this history and few people know who died for these movements and few people realize we have had bloody battles, I never really learned it in school but it's pretty darn American to have unions and die for your rights.

Sure there is corruption but literally every system does, that doesn't make people stop using it. If we had better union power we would not see the poor treatment of Amazon workers, or game testers, or retail works. Heck, one day we may make a requirement to have a vacation day, imagine how crazy that would be if vacation time was written into a work law! Almost imagine that Russia, South Africa and many other countries have literally better labor laws then America not to mention the EU. I was quite shocked how bad our labor laws were when I looked into it further because I assumed a lot, makes it hard to be human in the US. At will employee with literally no time off is perfectly legal here, but I hope one day paid vacations (even just a few days) are requirement for all full time employees at least.

softsound··on Overcoming Tab Overload
There is a browser I use for a lot of this called Sidekick https://www.meetsidekick.com/

I found it's good for organizing tabs and creating different sessions for different tasks. It works on most pages pretty well but every once and a while I still have to go into a standard chrome browser to make sure I'm still seeing the same page as other folks. Still pretty great overall. I save multiple different session types easily and don't have to worry about losing where I'm at.

softsound··on Any claim without a URI should be treated as suspicious
Now if only my family could believe Snopes. They are too set in their thoughts to believe not everything is some conspiracy theory.

Now when I debunk stuff off Facebook they continue to disagree with me because I don't have "all the facts", not like they do either.

Sometimes a simple thing is just too simple for them, those coin shortages really are some sort of mass government takeover and not just caused by people not paying with coins as much & places being shutdown and less likely to redistribute coins back into the economy. sigh

... Now for my actual rant.. While I feel pointless I like to show for contrast.

Now if I actually bring up the attorney general for the US state of Oregon suing the Feds for actually kidnapping people eh... That's apparently not an interesting story and protesters or rioters in their eyes deserve it. I understand I don't know the whole story, but I think there is something there to follow.

As someone said to me recently, this is basically Vietnam story wise. Extremes on both sides.

Lol, my URL links, despite not thinking it helps much because I start off with the bias thinking this is wrong, because of the many different videos across the country showing protesters are not all rioters. And the freedom to protest is a right in my eyes. Violence begets violence begets violence begets violence.

And yes, I know Obama signed this into law so legally the Feds have the right to randomly nap you but I still think it's a very questionable law.

https://www.aclu.org/press-releases/president-obama-signs-in...

https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/6997452-Markpettibon...

https://twitter.com/stoggrd/status/1282432033533210625?s=20

https://twitter.com/TrumpIsApandemc/status/12847377794239037...

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-53460495

softsound··on The end of the Arab world’s oil age is nigh
*human population continue to explode.

I think you need to look at the data on that one.

No one wants kids anymore, and the data is showing world wide. Japan is panicking quite a bit over it and the US should be but our immigrants have always helped keep the numbers up.

I think we will at some point move away from toxic metals and more into a plant based tech at some point.

Some commercial uses in the works: https://www.plant-e.com/en/

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Artificial_photosynthesis

softsound··on Kongregate closed to new games, shutting down forums and chat
I think forums still exist but are just different, look at Discord.
softsound··on Tesla gave workers permission to stay home, then sent termination notices
Considering their past, I'm not that surprised to be honest.
softsound··on Ask HN: Is remote work here forever?
As someone who works remote, I bet a lot of companies will see the benefits of it moreso this year then any other, they will also see all of the drawbacks. I think it will become more common in some areas that are fine with drawbacks though (generally companies that pay well anyway).
softsound··on LibriVox: Free Public Domain Audiobooks
I love librivox. Perfect for drawing too. I find the phone app easier to use then the website though. Perhaps I might help out when I get some freetime later.
softsound··on The Intelligence of Earthworms
Yeah I agree with you. There is a lot of interesting stuff the more you study it. Like Physarum polycephalum, a slime that solves mazes despite not having a nervous system and is used to create better road networks. I really hope in the future we combine bio-tech as things like this already use their form of A* and pathing system. Once plants & slime are used to create logic gates and truth tables start to take off I see that as being the cleanest tech around.

Then you have things like the Turritopsis dohrnii a jellyfish. They are immortal beings that decide to change between child and adult forever... or just basically once they start starving or get too old they reboot their cells and turn back into a baby jelly. It's a pretty fast process I've read. Although apparently it's really hard to rise them in captivity so studies are somewhat limited.

Then you have planarian flatworms that store their memories outside their brain... I think is similar to how plants function in many regards...

Although plant gnosophysiology is a bit different, their "screams" are a bit too ultrasonic for us, but other animals like mice and stuff can hear them. But yes, look up how plants respond to danger and react or warn other plants. It's really cool stuff.

Heck going even smaller and just imaging cells hunting down food or working together to create an organ, or nerve or something is amazing. It's a bit mind boggling to think of all the tiny things going on in just your fingertip.

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