stu2b50's recent activity
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Comment on A Danish city built Google into its schools – then banned it in ~tech
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Comment on Looking for advice for starting out as a freelance software engineer in ~life
stu2b50 Linkpatio11 (Patrick Mckenzie) has written a great deal of excellent material on it on his blog. One particularly important is this one on throwing away pricing your services by hour. I think that's...patio11 (Patrick Mckenzie) has written a great deal of excellent material on it on his blog. One particularly important is this one on throwing away pricing your services by hour. I think that's something you'd really have a hard time getting use to moving away from being a salaried employee.
You are not hours worked - hours worked is meaningless. Impact is all that matters. Price by impact, by the difference to the bottom line for the clients. Something that takes you 80 hours of work can bring in $100k of additional revenue/yr easily to a client; don't get tricked into being paid, say $200/hr (a pretty high hourly pay in the salaried world!) for $16k total; charge $150k for it - it'll pay for itself in a few years.
When you buy other finished products, like a car, all you care about is how that car performs and how much it costs. It doesn't matter if the engineers labored 5x as much on a Ford Focus than a Civic if the Civic is objectively better and cost less.
It all balances out in the end, you're not going to get paid those sums regularly, and you'll have way more costs (full FICA taxes, insurance, travel, so forth).
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Comment on If you have more than ten tabs open they’re not tabs anymore they’re bookmarks wasting RAM in ~tech
stu2b50 Link ParentYep, it's why I prefer macOS's somewhat nebulous metric "memory pressure" as opposed to just raw physical memory usage often displayed on windows and many linux DEs. Raw physical memory usage is...People complain a lot about Chrome "using up" all their available RAM (Firefox does it too but nobody seems to moan about that) but why else do you have RAM? I paid for the damn stuff, I don't want it sitting there doing nothing!
Yep, it's why I prefer macOS's somewhat nebulous metric "memory pressure" as opposed to just raw physical memory usage often displayed on windows and many linux DEs. Raw physical memory usage is really very misleading; an application can allocate a bunch of virtual memory, but if they rarely use it, it will all end up in swap eventually and be as good as free.
I honestly think a lot of RAM performance concerns is some kind of placebo; people are liable to attribute any hitch, any slowdown while their physical ram usage is near its maximum to RAM.
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Comment on Reddit CEO Steve Huffman discusses how he wants every subreddit to be its own media company and he wants to see money being exchanged from users to users and users to subreddits in ~tech
stu2b50 Link ParentYou just go with the flow. You’re right in that in big discords, it’s impossible to keep up with every message, but you shouldn’t. Pick some channels that are likely to have conversations you’re...You just go with the flow. You’re right in that in big discords, it’s impossible to keep up with every message, but you shouldn’t. Pick some channels that are likely to have conversations you’re interested in, check in on them occasionally, if the topic at hand is something you can talk about then pop in, when you don’t want to, you just fade out.
Also, inevitably Discords have regulars that make up the plurality if not majority of conversation, and you’ll learn who they are in time.
This was even more the case with IRC back in the day - there was no chat history at all, so you really had to jump in blind.
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Comment on Reddit CEO Steve Huffman discusses how he wants every subreddit to be its own media company and he wants to see money being exchanged from users to users and users to subreddits in ~tech
stu2b50 Link ParentI mean independent of anything else a company fundamentally needs to at least break even to continue existing as an entity. You can only get so much outside financing. Reddit does not make money....I mean independent of anything else a company fundamentally needs to at least break even to continue existing as an entity. You can only get so much outside financing.
Reddit does not make money. It must at least make $0 every year instead of -$100m to continue existing in the long term.
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Comment on AdminLTE vs Pure Bootstrap for a new web project? in ~comp
stu2b50 LinkPersonally my favorite approach right now is going with unstyled components (if you require them) and styling them with tailwind css. Tailwind I just find easier to build on top of than bootstrap.Personally my favorite approach right now is going with unstyled components (if you require them) and styling them with tailwind css.
Tailwind I just find easier to build on top of than bootstrap.
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Comment on Tech workers are paying $75K for leg-lengthening surgery in ~health
stu2b50 LinkI'm curious why headlines about this focus so much on the "tech worker" part of it - I was wondering if there was some bio-hacking angle that was going on, but doesn't seem to be it. From the...I'm curious why headlines about this focus so much on the "tech worker" part of it - I was wondering if there was some bio-hacking angle that was going on, but doesn't seem to be it. From the article, it's just wealthy professions in general (naturally, since you need a pretty good paying job to pay for a 75k cosmetic surgery).
Tech is going to be more present than other customers because in recent years it has had absolutely crazy salary spikes (a new grad from a well ranked university program can get 200k-300k/yr, 0 years of experience, just a 4 year bachelors), and is predominantly composed of young men - likely younger and more likely to seek cosmetic surgeries than doctors and lawyers (also mentioned as common customers) who at minimum need to through another 4-6 years of schooling and may be more settled in life.
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Comment on The Ethereum Merge is done, opening a new era for the second-biggest blockchain in ~finance
stu2b50 Link ParentI think you're probably thinking of Chia or other PoW schemes where the "work" was changed to be less energy intensive. How Proof of Stake works is that holding Ethereum increases your chances...It was my understanding that Proof of Stake was originally supposed to rely on having a lot of storage available;
I think you're probably thinking of Chia or other PoW schemes where the "work" was changed to be less energy intensive.
How Proof of Stake works is that holding Ethereum increases your chances (e.g if you have 64 Ethereum you have 2x the chance of being a validator as someone with 32 Ethereum) of randomly being chosen to be a validator (a general in BFT, effectively). The randomly chosen validators for a new block then basically just run Byzantium Fault Tolerance at this point, and the validators are rewarded with Ethereum.
The bigger problem with PoS is that it's not as clear that it actually works as a consensus mechanism that's resistant to attack. For all the ills of PoW, it certainly and fairly simply accomplishes the goal of making bad actor attacks very expensive. I suppose we shall see if PoS has what it takes - Ethereum will be a big target for sure.
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Comment on The next chapter for Learning on YouTube in ~tech
stu2b50 LinkResponse on hackernews seemed a bit overly negative without sufficient reason. Seems fine, and in terms of overall strategy it makes a lot of sense. It does spell bad news for Patreon and the like...Response on hackernews seemed a bit overly negative without sufficient reason. Seems fine, and in terms of overall strategy it makes a lot of sense. It does spell bad news for Patreon and the like though, but it's pretty inevitable imo. Youtube were not going to be happy with Patreon users linking to youtube and Patreon taking 30% when Youtube could have been the one taking the cut for d2c videos.
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Comment on Queen Elizabeth II dies in ~news
stu2b50 Link ParentI mean practically is this really a thing? Let's say Canada or Australia gets taken over by a fascist fervor and the new government is a fascist undemocratic autocracy or oligarchy. The Royal...has also historically acted as a nonpartisan safeguard against the potential abuse of power by a majority government, since they must give Royal Assent to all legislative acts before they become law.
I mean practically is this really a thing? Let's say Canada or Australia gets taken over by a fascist fervor and the new government is a fascist undemocratic autocracy or oligarchy. The Royal Family or the Governor General officially dismisses the government. What happens then?
I feel like at best, and this seems pretty slim, that an opposing government could get endorsed by them and that legitimacy leads to a civil war.
Most likely, the government either just straight up ignores them, or formally disconnects power, and the populace is perfectly fine with it since at this point there is zero cultural inheritance or expectations of political power from either the british monarchy or the any remnants of the colonial power systems.
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Comment on Help me decide what technology should I use for this project in ~comp
stu2b50 LinkIn the end, if it's mainly for yourself you should write it in whatever frameworks you are most comfortable with, since that will involve the fastest iteration. That being said, if you are for...In the end, if it's mainly for yourself you should write it in whatever frameworks you are most comfortable with, since that will involve the fastest iteration.
That being said, if you are for sure going to distribute this to others, "optimizing" for distribution flexibility will lead to writing it in React. That gives you immense flexibility in how you distribute it.
You can distribute it as an electron, or tauri (which has small binaries and is relatively efficient in comparison) as a desktop application.
You can distribute it as a webapp, with a server handling persistence.
You can even distribute it on mobile via React native.
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Comment on Apple’s iPhone 14 event: The nine biggest announcements in ~tech
stu2b50 Link ParentThere still needs to be a cutout on iPhones, for the selfie camera and the faceID sensors. Because of the latter it needs to be larger than what android phones have as well. Given that, the...There still needs to be a cutout on iPhones, for the selfie camera and the faceID sensors. Because of the latter it needs to be larger than what android phones have as well.
Given that, the “dynamic island” is making lemonade out of lemons (making the best of a bad situation) - it masks the existence of the notch/pill/whatever by playing with it in the UI, turning the notch into part of the UI itself rather than just being a unusable hole on the screen.
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Comment on Apple’s iPhone 14 event: The nine biggest announcements in ~tech
stu2b50 LinkMy thoughts Apple Watch Mostly incremental upgrades. I'm on a pretty old apple watch by now and the battery is definitely not "full day", so I am planning on getting a series 8. Apple Watch Ultra...My thoughts
- Apple Watch
Mostly incremental upgrades. I'm on a pretty old apple watch by now and the battery is definitely not "full day", so I am planning on getting a series 8.
- Apple Watch Ultra
It seems like it does have quite a bit of additional features, although they're not really the features that I, uh, would really use. From other people, it seems that the dive computer capabilities are very impressive. $799 seems like a pretty fair price as well - most people were expecting $1000 and less additional features.
I have small wrists and don't do anything particularly extreme, so not for me, but it does seem like a way more interesting product than leaks indicated.
- Airpods Pro 2
Also something I'm looking to pick up. Mostly incremental upgrades, although real find my and speakers on the case is genuinely a pretty good feature. Volume controls is also very nice - most other wireless earbuds with this form factor don't have volume control either.
- iPhone 14
Almost seems like the iPhone 13 Pro minus 120hz and plus satelite emergencies.
- iPhone 14 Pro
The more interesting phone this year - smaller notch, and a good example of making lemonade out of lemons with the "dynamic island". From the video, said island of dynamacy seems very dynamic and well animated indeed.
Always on display is here, a bit interesting it took this long since everyone gets their phone sized OLEDs from Samsung but nice anyhow.
Plus the rest of the normal incremental upgrades: better SoC, better camera, better comp photo.
I might consider it coming from a iPhone 12 but I'll have to see in a store, I'm worried the pros are too heavy for me.
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Apple’s iPhone 14 event: The nine biggest announcements
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Comment on Bitwarden raises $100 million from PSG Equity in ~tech
stu2b50 (edited )Link ParentI would note, though, that people tend to overestimate the manner and avenues through which they do that. Investors are not loaners - they're not trying to have the company "return" their money +...Investors always want returns, and I worry about the ways they might seek to get them.
I would note, though, that people tend to overestimate the manner and avenues through which they do that. Investors are not loaners - they're not trying to have the company "return" their money + some delta. They don't have mechanisms for forcefully "withdrawing" money from the company (equity investment, especially early stage ones, is considered a high risk investment compared to debt!)
Early stage investors mainly make their money from increases in equity value once the company hits a liquidity event (an IPO, for instance), as opposed to dividends or other direct cash transfers from the company.
Investors can pressure the company if the disgruntled ones have a majority voting share - I would note, however, that many tech companies have, uh, "interesting" voting share structures wherein the founders will always have voting control. For instance, you've probably heard about "investors" pressuring Meta/Facebook, but that's bunk - Zuck has, and will always have, absolute control over the company, as he will always have the majority voting share even though he is now a minority shareholder.
If the a majority of the voting share wants change, they can change the C-suite, authorize M&A, and so forth, if the company is not heading in a direction they want.
In this case, from the announcement Bitwarden has sold a minority stake to PSG and other investors. Now, there's usually soft reasons to want your investors to be happy - continual investment, for instance. But if Bitwarden just did things they didn't want, PSG and co have pretty much no hard mechanisms to make Bitwarden do anything. Early stage investment is considered a scary thing, after all, before interest rates cratered at the start of the millenia and the big pool of money had to go somewhere, anywhere at all.
That's not to say that you shouldn't necessarily be worried - it certainly indicates that the Bitwarden founders have more ambitions than just to be a cost-meeting, lowkey password vault, which can be good or bad depending on perspective. I just think there's a lot of FUD over the word "investment" at this point. For a lot of tech companies, it's a symptom rather than cause.
The superhard growth search is mainly driven by the founders in the end, rather than they being victims of puppeteering investors. Of course, hardcore 20x growth founders will seek outside investment way more often than your humble, bootstrapping startup.
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Comment on An AI-generated artwork won first place at a state fair fine arts competition, and artists are pissed in ~arts
stu2b50 Link ParentIn that vein, X years from now, being an artist, at least a traditional one dictating every stroke, as a career will be thought of the same way being an NBA player would be. There will be a...AI art will eliminate the need for utilitarian imagery. Stock photo websites will die. Many corporate artists will lose their jobs
In that vein, X years from now, being an artist, at least a traditional one dictating every stroke, as a career will be thought of the same way being an NBA player would be. There will be a handful of artist whose skill and story will be such that the weird but very real humans desires for intangibilities will allow them to be famous and their works to be highly valued.
Outside of that maybe 100 sized group, artistry will be purely a hobbyist endeavor, because it will be impossible to monetize, the same way that the skill range of baskeball from YMCA to NCAA is also unmonetizable - you need to be good enough to be in a pro league to make money.
It'll be a pretty big shift in the labor market for creative works.
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Comment on An AI-generated artwork won first place at a state fair fine arts competition, and artists are pissed in ~arts
stu2b50 Link ParentFor better or for worse this is already the case. Stable Diffusion is a version of these with comparable performance to DALL-E or Midjourney (they all have their ups and downs), but is entirely...As far as I understand it, most of these image generation programs have some built in guardrails to prevent people from using them to produce grotesquely violent or pornographic images, for example. I don’t think it’s that long before people either learn to escape those guardrails, or just develop a new tool without the same scruples.
For better or for worse this is already the case. Stable Diffusion is a version of these with comparable performance to DALL-E or Midjourney (they all have their ups and downs), but is entirely open source. You can download it right now. And, of course, you can do whatever you want with it. Most of the "guardrails" are hard-coded, after all. I believe some distributions of Stable Diffusion have a nudity filter that returns an image of Rick Ashley for prompts that heuristically will lead to adult images, but you can just comment it out (this hackernews thread involved people discussing how to turn the filter off because it had false positives: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=32679772)
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=32572770 this is a hackernews thread about someone who built a porn generator from Stable Diffusion (linking to the hackernews thread since it has more context - also, the website itself immediately has images of naked women, so NSFW)
These are pretty fun to work with so there's a huge amount of interest and development in Stable Diffusion, so I would anticipate it to advance quickly as well under the open source community.
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Comment on iOS 12.5.6 rolling out to older iPhone and iPad devices with important security fixes in ~tech
stu2b50 Link ParentIsn’t that what the iPhone SE is for? In comparison to older iPhones, it will get even more security updates, plus normal updates, and while having an SoC more powerful than most laptops is a bit...Isn’t that what the iPhone SE is for? In comparison to older iPhones, it will get even more security updates, plus normal updates, and while having an SoC more powerful than most laptops is a bit overkill it’s even more future proofing.
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Comment on Klarna has revealed that losses more than tripled in the first half of the year – firm has been hit by a slowdown in consumer spending in ~finance
stu2b50 Link ParentCurrently BNPL doesn’t really have high interest rates. Many of them don’t have interest on late payments at all, and fines are minimal typically. There is a reason that as a whole, BNPL companies...Currently BNPL doesn’t really have high interest rates. Many of them don’t have interest on late payments at all, and fines are minimal typically. There is a reason that as a whole, BNPL companies make a lot of negative money.
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Comment on An AI-generated artwork won first place at a state fair fine arts competition, and artists are pissed in ~arts
stu2b50 LinkOne funny hypothetical I heard related to this is that we'll start training nn models to detect nn generated art. ...but authors of the generating neural network can use the neural networks that...One funny hypothetical I heard related to this is that we'll start training nn models to detect nn generated art.
...but authors of the generating neural network can use the neural networks that detect it to further improve their neural networks ability to create undetectable art...
...which basically makes a Generative Adversarial Network but split in the physical world.
(For context, GANs are a type of neural network that involve two networks that train adversarially - the generator, and the discriminator. The generator is trained to generate output that looks like the training set, by training against the weights of the discriminator which at the same time is trained to tell what is the generator and what is the training set)
If the educational contracts are anything like the enterprise contracts for G-Suite, they're actually quite careful about customer data in that context. It's all laid out in the contract, and no, Google is not going to breach corporate contracts against entities that absolutely will sue and quite clearly win.