D_E_Solomon's recent activity
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Comment on Are we burning it down by proxy? in ~talk
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Comment on There is no reason to buy another PlayStation or Xbox in ~games
D_E_Solomon Link ParentSupplier marginal cost doesn't have anything to do with the price and the value of the good to the consumer. Unless you're trying to argue that the cost of stamping out the cdrom or the cost of...Supplier marginal cost doesn't have anything to do with the price and the value of the good to the consumer. Unless you're trying to argue that the cost of stamping out the cdrom or the cost of the transmission of the game are the only 'real' thing that price should be based upon in some platonic idealized truth.
Consumers will buy the game if the utility they get from it exceeds the price that they have to pay subject to their budget. It doesn't matter if the game is delivered on cdrom, 1000 floppy disks, a USB thumb drive, or via the internet.
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Comment on Memory is too expensive so I made my own (DIY Core Memory) in ~comp
D_E_Solomon Link ParentThis is a really deep rabbit hole that I started going down and don't have enough time to finish this morning. The original requirements from the original release were 4mb of RAM. Once you get to...This is a really deep rabbit hole that I started going down and don't have enough time to finish this morning.
The original requirements from the original release were 4mb of RAM. Once you get to the ports, it's a lot more exciting. The SNES version had fewer features but ran in a constrained environment with around 256k of memory. I think that's the smallest official port - en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Doom_ports
On third party versions, there is a port for the Raspberry Pi Pico that is a technical marvel and fits in 264k of memory - https://kilograham.github.io/rp2040-doom/ There are a few in this size category - some sacrifice features, but I don't think any of the others get much smaller for memory.
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Comment on Give me your culture clash stories in ~travel
D_E_Solomon Link ParentWow, that's fascinating!Wow, that's fascinating!
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Comment on Give me your culture clash stories in ~travel
D_E_Solomon LinkI'm a lifelong vegetarian, but I'm pretty flexible if someone accidentally serves me meat or it would cause trouble. When I was traveling to Shanghai for work, we had a person who would take us...I'm a lifelong vegetarian, but I'm pretty flexible if someone accidentally serves me meat or it would cause trouble.
When I was traveling to Shanghai for work, we had a person who would take us out and navigate food and what not. My boss had given them a heads up that I was vegetarian, but at the time at least, vegetarian really hadn't entered into the popular conscious in China. So what this turned into, is that our guide would order a small bowl of leafy greens for me at each meal and then I would just break vegetarian and eat with everyone else so I got enough to eat. That enabled him to save face that he was taking care of my vegetarian sensibilities but still allowed me to eat enough to survive.
In Montreal also for work, we had a situation where my French speaking boss ordered a vegetarian omelette for me. When it came out, it had ham in it. That turned into my manager and another consultant arguing very loudly in French with the owner on the definition of vegetarian (in French) and whether it means "has vegetables" or "does not have meat". Given that we had a Parisian, a German who spoke French fluently, and multiple Quebecois, there were a lot of fun conversations about the proper way to speak French.
Last story is that I had a client in Kentucky who I was visiting. The situation was pretty perilous and I was trying to defuse tensions. At the end of the meeting, I suggested we go and have a nice lunch. I had picked out a few nice looking restaurants that had something vegetarian. Instead, the client's manager said very directly that they wanted Mama's BBQ. So I went and had BBQ with them. One of my legends in that job, is that I (the semi-strict vegetarian) went so far as to eat BBQ with the grouchy client.
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Comment on Modern, abstract art makes me angry in ~arts
D_E_Solomon LinkMy wife is an artist - went to fancy art school, works as a graphic designer, etc - and I'm about as opposite of that as you can get. We've gone to a lot of art museums through our travels. I try...My wife is an artist - went to fancy art school, works as a graphic designer, etc - and I'm about as opposite of that as you can get.
We've gone to a lot of art museums through our travels. I try to think about modern/postmodern art is that it's a conversation that artists were having with themselves about the form, color, shape, etc. It can be a bit frustrating if you're seeing it for the first time and not following the conversation from the early threads.
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Comment on Did Kamala Harris's silence on Gaza cost her the White House? in ~society
D_E_Solomon Link ParentI looked at the polling data a bit. In the voting base of America, 37% of Americans identify as conservative, 34% as moderate, and 26% as liberal according to Gallup. That means that a Democrat...I looked at the polling data a bit.
In the voting base of America, 37% of Americans identify as conservative, 34% as moderate, and 26% as liberal according to Gallup. That means that a Democrat has to get part of the independent vote to get elected and independents lean more conservative. Obviously those breakdowns change over time, but they're broadly right for the past 20+ years.
In 2023, Gallup polling showed that independents were at +30 favorability for Israel while democrats were +11 for Palestine.
That suggests the core problem - the core of the democratic party favored Palestine while the independents that the democrats need to win a significant portion of did not.
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Comment on Did Kamala Harris's silence on Gaza cost her the White House? in ~society
D_E_Solomon Link ParentTrump had enough support to win and so he didn't need to moderate to the center. Other further right republicans have had that problem where they went to extremist to win their primary - Dan Cox,...Trump had enough support to win and so he didn't need to moderate to the center. Other further right republicans have had that problem where they went to extremist to win their primary - Dan Cox, Kari Lake, Doug Mastriano, etc.
I agree that people have to have trust - but, the counter is that would you vote for someone who supports Israel full throated and says, "Too fucking bad, I have principles. Israel is the only real democracy in the middle east, it has support for LGBT rights, and it has to go all out to protect it's existence" Does that candidate get your vote?
I see it a lot in online discourse where only the more extreme position is considered trustworthy. If someone takes a moderate position and they come to it honestly, through careful thought, and hold it deeply, lots of people still discount it as pandering or being cynical.
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Comment on AI job grief in ~tech
D_E_Solomon LinkCommenting on one small part of the article. Solow's paradox is a thing - but there's a couple reasons for it. One is that large firms will lay people off in order to drive the organization to...Commenting on one small part of the article. Solow's paradox is a thing - but there's a couple reasons for it.
One is that large firms will lay people off in order to drive the organization to adopt technology. Organizational change is really hard and especially hard in large organizations. Executives will preemptively do lay offs if they think the technology is there in order to force the organization to start changing.
Second, it takes time for firms to adapt to new technology in terms of sorting out the ecosystem of capital, labor, and system change to occur. Part of the 90s tech bubble was due to not having the iterative startup processes and venture capital model that we take for granted. The same is showing to be true for AI - it's taking time for capital - VCs aren't used to hard assets - labor - it's taking a long time for workers to adapt - and technology - it's taking time for the technology to be actually useful for enterprises.
Third, it takes time for new firms to replace older, slower firms. Some firms will utterly fail to adapt - see Toys-R-Us, others end up in stagnant zombie state. New firms take time to develop and to replace the larger firms that don't navigate the transition.
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Comment on Did Kamala Harris's silence on Gaza cost her the White House? in ~society
D_E_Solomon LinkThe problem I have with the argument that Gaza cost Harris the election is that the analysis only considers how many votes or money not supporting Gaza cost Harris. But they also fail to consider...The problem I have with the argument that Gaza cost Harris the election is that the analysis only considers how many votes or money not supporting Gaza cost Harris. But they also fail to consider how many votes or dollars would have been lost if she did. There was still a lot of sympathy for Israel post 10/8 by the US presidential election nevermind the general support that they enjoyed prior.
The lens I always come back to is that there are a lot more voters more conservative then Biden. If you're pushing for a position that is further left then he was, your candidate is probably going to have a bad time.
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Comment on These tacky men with ridiculous glasses want you to wear them too in ~life.style
D_E_Solomon LinkMost of the discourse around smart glasses is missing the mark. I don't think having FaceBook notifications about your uncle's most recent racist rant is particularly valuable or will make anyone...Most of the discourse around smart glasses is missing the mark. I don't think having FaceBook notifications about your uncle's most recent racist rant is particularly valuable or will make anyone a lot of money. On the other hand, there are a lot of use cases that are interesting or plausible for smart glasses. I would be interested in having sunglasses that had running information, directions, and traffic monitoring for instance. Or in a in industrial context, it might be useful to have directions for replacing a piece of equipment displayed. There's a bunch of use cases that are valuable and this article and Meta's approach both got stuck on FaceBook notifications instead of thinking about the real value of the technology.
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Comment on SpaceX stock tumbles 23% from its high as average investor sees gains wiped out in ~finance
D_E_Solomon Link ParentTheir largest debt is a 20B bridge loan graded at SOFR + 1.75% - so the interest rate is going to fluctuate which will broadly follow inflation. Think of an adjustable rate mortgage and not a...Their largest debt is a 20B bridge loan graded at SOFR + 1.75% - so the interest rate is going to fluctuate which will broadly follow inflation. Think of an adjustable rate mortgage and not a fixed rate mortgage as your point of comparison.
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Comment on SpaceX stock tumbles 23% from its high as average investor sees gains wiped out in ~finance
D_E_Solomon LinkIPOs are always dangerous to invest in if you're not an institutional investor. IPOs are usually going to be done in a firm's strongest year in order to juice as much return for the managers and...IPOs are always dangerous to invest in if you're not an institutional investor. IPOs are usually going to be done in a firm's strongest year in order to juice as much return for the managers and investors who own the firm pre-IPO. If you don't have the sophistication to model out the financials and long term value or you're not an institution, don't do invest in them.
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Comment on The global fertility crisis is worse than you think in ~society
D_E_Solomon Link ParentNot the op, but social security and medicare's financial arrangement only works because there are more younger workers who are paying into those systems then there are retired people drawing...Not the op, but social security and medicare's financial arrangement only works because there are more younger workers who are paying into those systems then there are retired people drawing benefits. Other countries have similar challenges with assorted government social schemes as well. Some of this could have been alleviated by lower government spending in years because at least in the US. Data from the last Social Security Trustees report is here: https://www.ssa.gov/oact/trsum/
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Comment on What are you reading these days? in ~books
D_E_Solomon LinkI was on vacation so had a little more reading time than usual. I'm currently reading Hawkes & Minford's translation of Cao Xueqin's Dream of the Red Chamber. It's one of the so called four great...I was on vacation so had a little more reading time than usual.
I'm currently reading Hawkes & Minford's translation of Cao Xueqin's Dream of the Red Chamber. It's one of the so called four great works of classic Chinese literature. I'm enjoying it once I got the people mapped out, but there are a bazillion characters. I don't think I'll read the whole thing, but I'll try and get at least 500-1000 pages of it. The book traces the social life of a great Chinese family through their ups and downs. It's very much social melodrama at it's best.
I finished Shen Tao's The Poet Empress which was really good. I liked the classical Chinese influence, the palace drama, and the twists and turns in it. I would put a content warning on it for domestic violence and cruelty in general.
Finally, I'm half way through Ezra Klein and Derek Thompson's Abundance. I really like their framing and they make a strong vision of an America that creates growth and more equality through better policy approaches. I found it a good antidote to what today's populist movements are missing.
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Comment on What are you reading these days? in ~books
D_E_Solomon Link ParentI love the Children of Time series - but I have to make sure I'm in a positive head space because of all the spiders. I don't mind spiders... but giant ones make me a bit nervous!I love the Children of Time series - but I have to make sure I'm in a positive head space because of all the spiders. I don't mind spiders... but giant ones make me a bit nervous!
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Comment on Who’s buying SpaceX and Anthropic? in ~finance
D_E_Solomon LinkSpaceX is a bit challenging from an investment thesis. They have a conglomerate problem where you have to really be buying into all of the parts of the conglomerate - if you think space is great,...SpaceX is a bit challenging from an investment thesis.
They have a conglomerate problem where you have to really be buying into all of the parts of the conglomerate - if you think space is great, but ai underperforms, you might be better being in a pure play space company. Modern finance has been moving away from conglomerates for a long time because of this issue.
There is also a governance issue there as well that investors have no ability to reign in Elon Musk if there is an issue there besides to sell their stock. SpaceX has supervoting shares, forced arbitration, and tight rules on shareholder proposals. So, you're really betting long that Elon Musk will continue to be a massive force for innovation - which is an iffy proposal based on recent track record.
Finally, there is a bunch of debt from the Twitter acquisition that is rolled up in there. That has to hurt any prospective valuations.
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Comment on What are your personal crackpot conspiracy theories about the world right now? in ~talk
D_E_Solomon Link Parent:'D Oh my gosh, I'm dying laughing. As far as I know, no. But when his family would use bar soap, he would save the little slivers at the very end of the bar, collect them, and then make a new bar...:'D Oh my gosh, I'm dying laughing. As far as I know, no. But when his family would use bar soap, he would save the little slivers at the very end of the bar, collect them, and then make a new bar out of the slivers.
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Comment on What are your personal crackpot conspiracy theories about the world right now? in ~talk
D_E_Solomon Link ParentMy uncle was a paper and pulp engineer for the first half of his career. He would always get very angry about the price of toilet paper. Of course, this man is incredibly thrifty - he would iron...My uncle was a paper and pulp engineer for the first half of his career. He would always get very angry about the price of toilet paper. Of course, this man is incredibly thrifty - he would iron used wrapping paper to smooth it out and reuse it.
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Comment on US FBI says Google engineer used internal search data to win $1.2M on Polymarket in ~tech
D_E_Solomon Link ParentWe can build a balanced case that we want to ban insider trading while still retaining the other upsides of prediction markets. Well informed analysts can still drive much of the trading and have...We can build a balanced case that we want to ban insider trading while still retaining the other upsides of prediction markets. Well informed analysts can still drive much of the trading and have better insight into a prediction then the average person. That we have to either have full unfettered insider trading or no markets seems like too much black/white thinking.
We had less fireworks this year - but it rained pretty hard on the 4th and the 5th. Also, the neighbor that used to set off a shit ton moved away. I got more sleep than normal this year and I can't complain.
I don't usually mind them, but we live in a pretty dense neighborhood with most people having only a small or no yard. So I've become a hater over the years because of the fire risk and that they're so loud in such a confined area.