burkaman's recent activity

  1. Comment on Anyone interested in trying out Kagi? in ~tech

  2. Comment on Disney’s Snow White | Official trailer in ~movies

    burkaman
    (edited )
    Link Parent
    Not very. In the original story (https://sites.pitt.edu/~dash/type0709.html#snowwhite) being beautiful and gullible are literally her only character traits, but her skin is only explicitly...

    how heavily did it actually lean into the “lighter skin == more beautiful” trope

    Not very. In the original story (https://sites.pitt.edu/~dash/type0709.html#snowwhite) being beautiful and gullible are literally her only character traits, but her skin is only explicitly mentioned once. Obviously it is implied that white skin is beautiful, but I think the original German did not have the same "fair=white" connotation that the English has.

    I do think Disney should use the end of the story, where Snow White and the prince murder the queen by forcing her to dance in shoes of molten iron. I also like that the prince doesn't kiss her to bring her back to life. Instead he brings her corpse home and becomes obsessed with it, and eventually one of his servants gets annoyed and manhandles her dead body a bit until she spits out the poison apple and comes back to life.

    3 votes

  3. Comment on Disney’s Snow White | Official trailer in ~movies

    burkaman
    Link Parent
    Yes, but the way she's described in the original story would be kind of horrifying on screen, and changing her skin color a bit so she looks human isn't a big deal since it has no impact on the...

    Yes, but the way she's described in the original story would be kind of horrifying on screen, and changing her skin color a bit so she looks human isn't a big deal since it has no impact on the plot. The animated movie did this too, she did not have skin "as white as snow". In the Shawshank Redemption, Red's name is based on his "carroty red hair" (he's Irish), but they ignored that in the movie since it's unimportant and they just wanted to cast a good actor who could play the character.

    I also don't think it makes sense to describe an individual actress as "diverse". The whole cast might be diverse, but one person can't be.

    5 votes

  4. Comment on Reusing plastic water bottles, to-go containers? Scientists say that’s a bad idea. in ~health

    burkaman
    (edited )
    Link
    Fantastic. I wash takeout containers and reuse them for months (maybe years?) until they break. I do the same thing with ziplock bags.

    Fantastic. I wash takeout containers and reuse them for months (maybe years?) until they break. I do the same thing with ziplock bags.

    7 votes

  5. Comment on In Northeast D.C., a rancorous post-election fight erupts — over bike lanes in ~transport

    burkaman
    Link Parent
    Yes but isn't that partly because the infrastructure is so bad right now? Open Google maps and turn on the biking layer - NE and over the Anacostis are deserts compared to the rest of the city....

    Yes but isn't that partly because the infrastructure is so bad right now? Open Google maps and turn on the biking layer - NE and over the Anacostis are deserts compared to the rest of the city. Obviously if we only support this stuff in rich neighborhoods and tourist areas then it's going to feel like a wealthy amenity, but it doesn't have to be that way.

    Also it's not just bikes, I see a decent number of people commuting on electric scooters. That's also much safer and more practical with good bike lanes.

    4 votes

  6. Comment on In Northeast D.C., a rancorous post-election fight erupts — over bike lanes in ~transport

    burkaman
    Link Parent
    Where have you seen this happen? I've never heard of this happening, and I can't find any evidence that bike lanes cause displacement/gentrification or any instances of rich people removing bike...

    Where have you seen this happen? I've never heard of this happening, and I can't find any evidence that bike lanes cause displacement/gentrification or any instances of rich people removing bike lanes.

    2 votes

  7. Comment on In Northeast D.C., a rancorous post-election fight erupts — over bike lanes in ~transport

    burkaman
    (edited )
    Link Parent
    I honestly don't think the "amenities for rich people" thing is legitimate. Biking is far cheaper than owning a car, and is still very practical if you live in Northeast DC and work in a different...

    I honestly don't think the "amenities for rich people" thing is legitimate. Biking is far cheaper than owning a car, and is still very practical if you live in Northeast DC and work in a different part of the city. I live in DC and I regularly bike from NE to NW or NE to downtown, and of course you can also combine biking with DC's very solid subway and bus network. If you don't have a bike and can't afford one, DC has a very good bikeshare program that low-income residents can use for $5/year (https://capitalbikeshare.com/pricing/for-all).

    DC has a major, worsening problem with drivers killing people (https://archive.is/Onqh4), and for the most part that isn't concentrated where the "wealthier transplants" live.

    11 votes

  8. Comment on Had an amazing trip to New Mexico. Has anyone else been? What would you suggest for a return trip? in ~travel

    burkaman
    Link Parent
    If you're going to the Gila Cliff Dwellings (which you should), stop by the Very Large Array on the way. It's not really on the way but you should still do it. If you're going to White Sands, why...

    If you're going to the Gila Cliff Dwellings (which you should), stop by the Very Large Array on the way. It's not really on the way but you should still do it.

    If you're going to White Sands, why not double your drive and go to Carlsbad Caverns, which in my opinion is the superior national park.

    I also want to second Meow Wolf, which far surpassed my expectations. If you've heard about it and you're worried it will be lame and gimmicky, I promise it is not. It's incredible.

    7 votes

  9. Comment on Autopsy report as novel intro? How? in ~creative

    burkaman
    Link Parent
    House of leaves?

    a creepy ol' book made shortly after the cusp of the new millennium

    House of leaves?

    1 vote

  10. Comment on Donald Trump nominates Fox News host and Army National Guard Major Pete Hegseth for US defense secretary in ~society

    burkaman
    (edited )
    Link Parent
    It is explicitly supposed to be a civilian. Arguably Hegseth is actually too connected to the military. Congress said soon after the office was established: They should have experience running a...

    It is explicitly supposed to be a civilian. Arguably Hegseth is actually too connected to the military. Congress said soon after the office was established:

    It is hereby expressed as the intent of the Congress that the authority granted by this Act is not to be construed as approval by the Congress of continuing appointments of military men to the office of Secretary of Defense in the future. It is hereby expressed as the sense of the Congress that after General Marshall leaves the office of Secretary of Defense, no additional appointments of military men to that office shall be approved.

    They should have experience running a large organization though. Most of Hegseth's professional experience seems to be getting paid to tell people his opinions, which I consider to be the easiest job on the planet.

    8 votes

  11. Comment on What is happening outside the US? in ~talk

    burkaman
    Link
    An interesting stat from https://www.ft.com/content/e8ac09ea-c300-4249-af7d-109003afb893: There's a chart with the last 80 years of global elections, and most years have a roughly even mix of...

    An interesting stat from https://www.ft.com/content/e8ac09ea-c300-4249-af7d-109003afb893:

    Every governing party facing election in a developed country this year lost vote share, the first time this has ever happened

    There's a chart with the last 80 years of global elections, and most years have a roughly even mix of incumbents winning and losing. The general theory of this article is that the entire world is unhappy because of inflation and immigration and conflict, and when people are unhappy they vote out whoever is in power.

    14 votes

  12. Comment on The Brutalist | Official trailer in ~movies

  13. Comment on The lunar Olympic games in ~space

  14. Comment on <deleted topic> in ~tech

    burkaman
    (edited )
    Link Parent
    I think it is still a mistake to post this, because it is wrong in subtle ways that you can't discover without reading all the sources, which defeats the point of reading the AI summary in the...
    • Exemplary

    I think it is still a mistake to post this, because it is wrong in subtle ways that you can't discover without reading all the sources, which defeats the point of reading the AI summary in the first place.

    For example, look at the "Organizational Culture Overhaul" section. This section is in the present tense, communicating the idea that Samsung is currently undergoing this overhaul, and heavily implying that it's at least partly in response to their failure to capitalize on the AI boom. It cites 5 sources, but all the content really comes from this one, an article from 2021: https://www.koreatimes.co.kr/www/tech/2024/09/129_318975.html. I think it may have been fooled by the URL, which says 2024, but it seems that the site just re-uploaded it for some reason. The original is https://www.koreatimes.co.kr/www/tech/2021/11/129_318975.html. Perplexity says:

    The company is moving away from its traditional hierarchical system towards a more agile and innovation-centered approach. Key changes include:

    • Simplifying job rankings from seven to four career levels

    But that's a bad interpretation of the source article. It actually says:

    In Korea, not only Samsung but also many other companies had maintained a seniority and rank-based hierarchy, but they are focusing on establishing a horizontal organizational culture that evaluates individual employees' abilities and rewards them accordingly. Samsung fine-tuned its HR system once before in 2016, simplifying its job ranking from seven notches to four notches ― career level 1 through career level 4.

    So they are augmenting the hierarchical system, not necessarily moving away from it, and the job ranking change happened in 2016. Perplexity's present-tense framing of that point is wrong.

    Perplexity also often copy-pastes a fragment of a sentence from a source article, but cuts out useful information that a competent human author would have included. For example: "with SK Hynix already supplying HBM3E 8-layer products to Nvidia and planning to mass-produce HBM3E 12-layer products." The source says "SK Hynix is already supplying HBM3E 8-layer products to Nvidia and plans to mass-produce HBM3E 12-layer products in the third quarter for shipment in the fourth quarter." So when Perplexity says they are "planning to mass-produce", that actually was supposed to happen in the third quarter, so it should have already happened and they should be shipping by now. A correct summary would include the dates and/or rephrase the sentence to not say "planning".

    One more example of this - Perplexity says: "This advancement has narrowed the operating profit gap between SK Hynix and Samsung to a mere 5.5 billion won in the first half of 2024." Source says: "The operating profit gap between Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix has narrowed to a mere 5.5 billion won (approximately $4.0 million) for the first half of the year." Why cut out the currency conversion? That's useful.

    Two more and then I'm done.

    Perplexity: "However, Samsung still faces challenges in obtaining approvals for its latest advanced HBM chips".
    Source: "The first challenge for Samsung is to get its HBM chips approved by Nvidia"

    That is not the same usage of "challenge", Perplexity's usage implies they are already trying and it isn't going well. The source just says it's a difficult thing they'll need to do.

    Perplexity: "The intensifying competition has led both companies to aggressively pursue talent acquisition and technological advancements in the HBM sector."

    Source: "Samsung must now review its organizational culture and processes, Jun said — echoing previous comments about the need for fundamental change at one of Korea’s oldest companies. It’s begun laying off workers in Southeast Asia, Australia and New Zealand as part of a plan to reduce global headcount by thousands of jobs, Bloomberg News reported last week."

    Not sure where it got the "talent acquisition" idea, it's not present in either of the cited sources and one of them directly contradicts it.

    Maybe these points all seem minor, but if you are consistently reading AI news this stuff will really add up, and you will be misinformed. Also, all the quality news sources that Perplexity is relying on will either go out of business or start blocking Perplexity, so the AI summaries will gradually get worse.

    41 votes

  15. Comment on Data security help - SOC2ish in ~tech

    burkaman
    Link
    Vanta and Drata are useful for preparation, but you still need an actual auditor to do the SOC2 audit. Have them bid against each other and then pick the cheaper one, as they are both good enough,...

    Vanta and Drata are useful for preparation, but you still need an actual auditor to do the SOC2 audit. Have them bid against each other and then pick the cheaper one, as they are both good enough, and then pick one of their partner auditors to work with. You can ask them for recommendations and they will point you towards a cheap auditor that knows how to work with their platform.

    $80-100k is way too much for a small startup, you should be able to get everything done for under $40k.

    Note that you'll only be able to do a Type 1 audit right away, that's a snapshot point-in-time audit. After 6 months or a year you can do a Type 2 audit where the auditor reviews your practices over that whole time period.

    So you'll sign up for Vanta/Drata, probably spend a couple months getting your infrastructure in order, then you'll do a Type 1 audit. Then you maintain everything for a year and do a Type 2 audit, and then keep doing a new one of those once a year.

    3 votes

  16. Comment on JD Vance’s wife: My husband only meant to insult people who actively choose not to have kids, not people who are trying but are unsuccessful in ~society

    burkaman
    Link Parent
    They are not progressive in any meaningful way, that idea came from this article that just says they have some good benefits and don't only hire white people:...

    His wife supposedly also worked at a very progressive law firm until she quite just for the campaign.

    They are not progressive in any meaningful way, that idea came from this article that just says they have some good benefits and don't only hire white people: https://www.mto.com/Templates/media/files/Reprints/AmLaw/Munger%20Tolles%20Did%20It%20Why%20Cant%20You.pdf. In practice though they are a normal corporate law firm who will defend anyone that pays. See their website for the cases they're most proud of : https://www.mto.com/practices-industries/practices/labor-and-employment/

    Activision Blizzard in aggressively litigating California Civil Rights Department (CRD) claims of systemic sexual harassment and gender discrimination. We persuaded CRD to drop its pattern-and-practice claims of harassment, limit the period for individual claims and settle for approximately half of what comparable companies facing similar claims had paid.

    Instacart in using strategic enforcement of the company’s arbitration agreement, and an anticipated change of venue motion, to obtain dismissal of a proposed class action based on misclassification claims.

    Chevron, in obtaining dismissal of a suit alleging it conspired with other oil companies to raise gasoline prices.

    etc.

    11 votes

  17. Comment on Kamala Harris names Tim Walz, the Minnesota governor, as running mate in ~society

    burkaman
    Link Parent
    I think the party felt like they'd be forfeiting a Senate seat if they picked Kelly.

    I think the party felt like they'd be forfeiting a Senate seat if they picked Kelly.

    19 votes

  18. Comment on Olympic records in cost overruns in ~sports

  19. Comment on San Francisco becomes first US city to ban automated rent-fixing technology in ~society

    burkaman
    Link Parent
    FYI DC has sued RealPage pretty recently: https://oag.dc.gov/release/attorney-general-schwalb-sues-realpage-residential. Maybe you can bring that up when negotiating the rent and try to get some...

    FYI DC has sued RealPage pretty recently: https://oag.dc.gov/release/attorney-general-schwalb-sues-realpage-residential. Maybe you can bring that up when negotiating the rent and try to get some leverage. DC also has a pretty decent rent control program, so I'd look for a controlled building if possible. It doesn't really help you when moving in for the first time but it stops them from jacking up the rent too much once you're already in.

    10 votes

  20. Comment on Washington, DC attorney general sues StubHub, alleging deceptive pricing in ~music

    burkaman
    Link
    This is the attorney general of DC, not the whole country.

    This is the attorney general of DC, not the whole country.

    8 votes