stu2b50's recent activity
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Comment on US President Donald Trump signs order to remove tariffs from Brazilian beef, coffee other food items in ~society
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Comment on US President Donald Trump signs order to remove tariffs from Brazilian beef, coffee other food items in ~society
stu2b50 Link ParentAnd if that is the profit optimal price for beef, they should continue charging the higher price! That’s how a market economy functions.And if that is the profit optimal price for beef, they should continue charging the higher price! That’s how a market economy functions.
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Comment on By administratively redefining 'who is a foreigner,' the Lai government is turning the constitutional 'One China' framework into a dead letter in ~society
stu2b50 Link ParentIt’s important to remember the political background. People often think of Taiwan solely as the post-KMT controlled entity - the last remnants of the US supported white army - but that covers up...It’s important to remember the political background. People often think of Taiwan solely as the post-KMT controlled entity - the last remnants of the US supported white army - but that covers up Taiwans history.
Taiwan has had several waves of migration. There’s a native peoples to the island, then several waves of Han migration from southern China due to political repression usually, then finally the retreating KMT army. It’s the KMT who pretty much solely pushed for the “actual legitimate government of China” thing - the earlier immigrants already fled and cut ties with what would be the various ruling dynasties millennia ago.
Ironically, the KMT has been more pro-China, as generally those peoples have a closer tie with the mainland, often having many recent family members. That migration was more recent, after all.
To put another twist in it, the native peoples of Taiwan actually typically vote for the KMT, as the earlier Han migrants have a history of mistreating them, genocide, y’know, the works. They were also horribly mistreated during the Japanese occupation, which is generally seen, if not positively, but “ok” by Hokkien residents, who often see the “white terror” period of KMT rule as even worse than the Japanese occupation. But they were liberators for the native peoples.
All that is to say, it’s complicated. The KMT has been losing power as a political party and that’s why Taiwan has both become more anti-mainland and no longer maintaining the position of “one China”.
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Comment on McDonald’s is losing its low-income customers in ~food
stu2b50 Link ParentYou’re the one who implied that when you said “the middle class is hollowing out”. The number of customers strictly goes down the more prices increases. It’s not like rich people will only buy...But this, imo, is where you're assumption breaks down. The materials and minimum cost of burgers is no where near the level of not making a profit, not even fucking close.
You’re the one who implied that when you said “the middle class is hollowing out”. The number of customers strictly goes down the more prices increases. It’s not like rich people will only buy McDonald’s if it’s more expensive.
McDonalds can't lower prices because 1, there isn't the customer base, and 2, the customer base that now exists is not large enough to fill all of the mcdonalds that are still in town.
The other scenarios where this makes sense if costs rise such that you can no longer offer a competitive price to lower end customers.
Moreover, again, this scenario you put forth is one where McDonalds is not only smart for moving upmarket, but doing so out of necessity to survive as a business. It’s the opposite of what you said in the original post.
They did this to themselves by raising prices through the roof when they didn't need to.
Sounds like the market is doing it to them in your own hypothetical
McDonalds can't lower prices because 1, there isn't the customer base, and 2, the customer base that now exists is not large enough to fill all of the mcdonalds that are still in town
My overall point is that this isn’t a logically consistent position.
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Comment on Some people can't see mental images. The consequences are profound. in ~health.mental
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Comment on A new era of intelligence with Gemini 3 in ~tech
stu2b50 Link ParentI’m not trying to argue it was hunky dory for everyone, I brought it up because the OP brought it up with the idea that if you had stocks they all went to 0 and so only sophisticated investors who...I’m not trying to argue it was hunky dory for everyone, I brought it up because the OP brought it up with the idea that if you had stocks they all went to 0 and so only sophisticated investors who knew when to sell or buy survived. Which isn’t how it works.
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Comment on How to brew solar powered coffee in ~food
stu2b50 LinkAn… interesting? idea. I do feel like it would produce coffee that does not taste very good. Mokapots are infamous finicky and this seems like it would not produce a heat profile that would lead...An… interesting? idea.
I do feel like it would produce coffee that does not taste very good. Mokapots are infamous finicky and this seems like it would not produce a heat profile that would lead to good coffee.
I feel like you could just make a “solar kettle” and then just use a French press or a v60 or something instead.
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Comment on The Game Awards 2025 nominations in ~games
stu2b50 LinkProbably voting for silksong. I liked E33 overall, but didn’t particularly enjoy the combat (although I think the pictos worked well for allowing for a variety of different builds). The story was...Probably voting for silksong. I liked E33 overall, but didn’t particularly enjoy the combat (although I think the pictos worked well for allowing for a variety of different builds).
The story was good in the first act and most of the second, but I felt like it didn’t live up to the tension. I suppose that is just part of the mystery box narrative.
Overall it’s a solid 8/10 title for my subjective view, but silksong was more of a 9/10.
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Comment on A new era of intelligence with Gemini 3 in ~tech
stu2b50 Link ParentThat’s not really how it worked. In both the tech bubble and 2008, if you held well diversified market funds and just… did nothing, you would have more than recovered. It’s more optimal than...That’s not really how it worked. In both the tech bubble and 2008, if you held well diversified market funds and just… did nothing, you would have more than recovered. It’s more optimal than trying to buy low sell high, esp given tax implications, unless you’re omniscient.
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Comment on McDonald’s is losing its low-income customers in ~food
stu2b50 Link ParentIf they “can’t not raise the prices” then the premise of “they’d make more money if they didn’t raise prices” is fundamentally wrong. If that scenario is the case, then McDonalds is both correct...If they “can’t not raise the prices” then the premise of “they’d make more money if they didn’t raise prices” is fundamentally wrong.
If that scenario is the case, then McDonalds is both correct and doing the logical thing? If the lower end of the market has dropping demand out, but base materials causes the minimum cost of burgers to be above what can be dropped, then yes, the only way to move forward is to move up market. Is what it is, in that case.
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Comment on A Cloudflare outage is taking down large parts of the internet - X, ChatGPT and more affected in ~tech
stu2b50 Link ParentI feel like that isn’t really true, though? We’ve seen both have outages, and it’s far from everything that’s gone down. Just some services in many areas. For example, pocketcasts was down. But...I feel like that isn’t really true, though? We’ve seen both have outages, and it’s far from everything that’s gone down. Just some services in many areas.
For example, pocketcasts was down. But overcast wasn’t. Twitter was down. Bluesky wasn’t.
It went down, it was a minor annoyance on my way to work, oh well.
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Comment on A Cloudflare outage is taking down large parts of the internet - X, ChatGPT and more affected in ~tech
stu2b50 Link ParentIn what sense? They’re not even in the same market, really. Cloudflares competitors are more like Akamai. It’s not a cloud provider, despite the name.but by market share we basically have two players: AWS and Cloudflare.
In what sense? They’re not even in the same market, really. Cloudflares competitors are more like Akamai. It’s not a cloud provider, despite the name.
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Comment on A Cloudflare outage is taking down large parts of the internet - X, ChatGPT and more affected in ~tech
stu2b50 Link ParentNo, that’s different. I mean if every parallel services service was down, so every possible service you could use to place orders. If you rely on one service, and it has an outage because of...I have. At least 3 people I know had no job today because the service their businesses use to place orders was down due to cloudflare. Similar things happened when AWS went down a while back.
No, that’s different. I mean if every parallel services service was down, so every possible service you could use to place orders.
If you rely on one service, and it has an outage because of Cloudflare, is what it is. Everything has outages, big basket or not. The size of the basket only matters when every alternative is in the basket.
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Comment on A Cloudflare outage is taking down large parts of the internet - X, ChatGPT and more affected in ~tech
stu2b50 Link ParentI don’t really think just affecting many people in small ways matters all that much. It matters if every parallel services in a vertical is down, because then you’re just blocked from doing...This means that, when one of those goes down, one single company's downtime affects everyone, and I really don't think that's a good trajectory for the internet.
I don’t really think just affecting many people in small ways matters all that much. It matters if every parallel services in a vertical is down, because then you’re just blocked from doing something, but so far I haven’t really seen any examples of that.
In terms of national security, that’s a fair point, but it also is out of scope of
cost of a temporary outage once every blue moon is worth the long term savings for most businesses.
On an individual company level, weighing cost and benefit, national security isn’t in their purview. That’s the country in questions problem, not Microsoft or Cloudflare and their users.
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Comment on A Cloudflare outage is taking down large parts of the internet - X, ChatGPT and more affected in ~tech
stu2b50 Link ParentWe have quite a few baskets (AWS, Azure, Oracle, GCP, and Alibaba outside of the US), and from the last few outages, seems fine? An “all your eggs in the same basket” problem would really be a...We have quite a few baskets (AWS, Azure, Oracle, GCP, and Alibaba outside of the US), and from the last few outages, seems fine? An “all your eggs in the same basket” problem would really be a scenario, where, say, Uber and Lyft and your local taxi company all had an outage when you had to get the airport. Where all parallel services have outages at the same time. That hasn’t really happened, though.
Cloudflares having issues now, but I haven’t seen any scenarios where all alternatives for a single vertical are down, and it’ll be resolved in a few hours, and that’ll be it.
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Comment on A Cloudflare outage is taking down large parts of the internet - X, ChatGPT and more affected in ~tech
stu2b50 Link ParentJust seems like bad luck. There doesn’t seem to be any connecting factors between the different outages. They’ve been operating for a long time, the outages are not usually correlated in time. Is...Just seems like bad luck. There doesn’t seem to be any connecting factors between the different outages. They’ve been operating for a long time, the outages are not usually correlated in time.
Is what it is.
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Comment on A Cloudflare outage is taking down large parts of the internet - X, ChatGPT and more affected in ~tech
stu2b50 Link ParentTo some extent, it’s just not a problem? All services have downtime. It’s just entropy and human error. It’s not like you’d magically have no downtime if you did things on prem. Cloudflare has...To some extent, it’s just not a problem? All services have downtime. It’s just entropy and human error. It’s not like you’d magically have no downtime if you did things on prem.
Cloudflare has uptime metrics, and they’re extremely good. It’s better than what most companies could do on their own. That doesn’t mean no downtime, it just means less downtime.
Sometimes they have downtime, is what it is. If it’s bad enough, as a client you know they’ll give you a big discount on the next bill and that they’re hauling ass to fix it.
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Comment on McDonald’s is losing its low-income customers in ~food
stu2b50 Link ParentThis doesn’t seem logically consistent. So investors are greedy but are choosing not to make money “hand over fist”? McDonald’s has more data analysts than some universities have students. It’s a...This doesn’t seem logically consistent. So investors are greedy but are choosing not to make money “hand over fist”?
McDonald’s has more data analysts than some universities have students. It’s a behemoth of a data and committees. It’s not run personally by “investors”. As a public company it’s mostly owned by pension funds, index funds, and other passive long term investors.
Sure it makes no sense whatsoever but just look at how major corporations operate and the policy decisions they make on a daily basis.
We’ve seen plenty of companies employ plenty of strategies. I mean, the last batch of tech companies was really earmarked by all of them running a net loss for years on end. Amazon didn’t make a profit until a decade of operation. Uber and Airbnb ran at losses for most of their life.
In terms of just nominal pricing, we’ve seen plenty of behemoths like Walmart ruthlessly price down their items.
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Comment on McDonald’s is losing its low-income customers in ~food
stu2b50 Link ParentThis doesn't seem to pass occam's razor. If they would make more money by not raising prices, why would they choose to not make more money? I would bet that the people running McDonalds love...They did this to themselves by raising prices through the roof when they didn't need to
This doesn't seem to pass occam's razor. If they would make more money by not raising prices, why would they choose to not make more money? I would bet that the people running McDonalds love making money. Considering the brand was built off of being cheap, it's not like they have qualms about being down market, unlike, say, a traditionally luxury brand that would hesitate to make a drastic change.
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Comment on McDonald’s is losing its low-income customers in ~food
stu2b50 Link ParentWhat’s the hit?Amazing how it's not the investors that need to take the hit
What’s the hit?
Sure, that’s another discussion, I just think people have misconceptions about how the economic structure the US and most of the rest of the world adopted is intended to work.
It comes up often with “greedflation”, which is a nonsensical term. Like, even if you look at it from a socialist lens it’s nonsensical.