Language is a tool for manipulation. Sure it is used for communication with people considered “equals”. But primarily people use it to get what they want from people they can outmaneuver and/or manipulate verbally and legally (both are an extension of language).
Language’s roots are in trade and survival. Therefore manipulation of others for the speakers benefit has ALWAYS been the primary purpose.
Language's roots are in survival, as in being able to talk to others of your tribe. I'm sure manipulation has always been part of language, but it's a tool for communication foremost. "Og, watch out for that sabretooth tiger!" is hardly manipulation.
I feel sorry for you that you consider manipulation to be so central.
Reading through papers on cholangiocarcinoma: most of them ARE falsified. And I want to harm people for it. Only three new drugs in 29 years. And I can’t help but think it’s partially due to this.
Mother has stage 4 intrahepatic cholangiocarcinoma.
I've taken many road trips across and around Texas in a Model Y.
Superchargers are so dense on the major roads in Texas you don't even need to plan ahead: You just get in the car and drive, like in an ICE car. On smaller roads you have to plan a bit but Level 2 chargers are common. If I stay with friends, I charge in their driveway and leave the next day with a full "tank." Charging in Texas is a non-issue unless you're visiting very remote places like Big Bend NP.
As well, my perception is that Texas has been slow to install charging stations. I had a very difficult time finding an available charging station for a Mustang Mach-E rental car in San Antonio, and I ultimately returned it well below the level which they consider to be full - 70%, I believe. It was the holidays, but I suspect it would be painful any time of year.
Two supercharger stops. You'd probably need to make one gas stop in an ICE car for those kind of distances.
Discussing the state of charging infrastructure is one thing. But if you have a Tesla then there are superchargers everywhere. The whole argument is FUD, usually propagated by people who don't own EV's or have some agenda.
You can downvote me all you want, it doesn't win or lose the argument.
Yeah, it never ceases to amaze me that the fact that you need an extra coffee break whenever you drive for more than 4-5 hours at a time is ostensibly such a huge inconvenience, but somehow the fact that you never need to go to a gas station at any other time doesn't matter.
In the real world, I've never met an EV owner who didn't prefer it to a gas-guzzler, so I'm somewhat skeptical of the number of people on social media who claim to have returned theirs.
Not downvoting personally. But the charging situation on the ground in Texas is hit or miss. If you’re along major interstates and major metropolitan areas you’re fine. You might have to wait for an hour for an open spot but you’ll get charged eventually.
But once you start going to many of the smaller cities you have to start taking longer routes to get to chargers and make weird detours and backtrack from chargers to get to your route.
Same with many tourist destinations outside the major cities.
Friends that tried to go pure EV and didn’t live their lives entirely in one city have inevitably had to buy a second gas car or truck. Because those “occasional” issues show up a lot in Texas.
My personal main concern is the emergency situations where the grid is down or there are mass evacuations. After hurricanes entire highly populated of the state can be without power for weeks. The area I live in now to be near my ailing parents regularly has power issues. I can bring in gas from outside the area to last a while but I can’t bring in a high voltage source.
Seriously. Just give me a NORMAL car with a modern electric drivetrain and I’ll be happy. I have my 4Runner for longer trips and “electric grid down because Texas is a 3rd world island in a 1st world country” situations.
These electric cars are going for full gimmickry and just look like a giant long term ownership nightmare. Built to be disposable status symbols for your average American trying to appear wealthier than they are instead of practical vehicles for the mass market.
If you can get a very base model Nissan Leaf, they're pretty basic. Bonus points if it's a bit older. Ours is extremely old fashioned, and except for the sound when driving is basically indistinguishable from a mid-2010s Honda Fit.
My 2012 Leaf is amazing. It has sadly lost a lot of battery capacity, and I think there is something funny going on with the brakes, but it is still a great car. Just can't go very far anymore. But I only drive it around my small town anyway, so it doesn't need to go very far.
One minor comment, but if the electric grid is down, then it's likely you won't be able to pump gas either. At least, most gas stations have not planned to be functional without electricity.
Yeah. But I can still fill an ICE car manually with a can or hand pump.
Also hurricane evacuation with mass electric adoption is going to be an interesting situation to observe. It may be better than with an ICE. We’ll see.
> And do you keep spare gas in cans ready, before the outage?
A lot of folks keep a 5 gallon for their lawn mower… although gas powered mowers are going the way of the dinosaur too
But yes, I tend to keep 2-4 5 gallon containers of 4 stroke gas. I’m almost certainly an outlier, but in more rural areas where you have to be self sufficient it’s not rare.
Heck, a lot of pickup trucks have diesel tanks with 12v pumps built into the bed.
But then you also have to meter the gas to know how much to pay. Most gas stations have no plan for a power outage, and little incentive to plan for such a situation.
I believe you but this never made sense to me. A random internet search shows that there are on the order of 100k gas stations in the USA. It seems like FEMA could come up with on the order of $20M to buy generators for all of them and make them come up with a plan to operate without electric power.
Although maybe it costs more than I think? This "industry lobbyist"[1] claims $40k PER PUMP which seems much more expensive than the ~$2000/station I was estimating.
However they do not require generators on site, and only require companies with a 10 or more stations in a county to have generators available, but then only within 24 hours.
This is more regulation than I had expected!
There was great article on HN years ago about a Canadian (New Brunswick, maybe?) gas station run by a former software engineer, and how he had planned for an outage by getting a generator for his station. But when the power outage happened, he was too far away to get back to his station, and couldn't find a place to fill up to get back. Wish I could find it again...
Not sure if it’s still this way, but Kotzebue AK was the perfect place to test low bandwidth internet. The over the horizon satellite uplink the entire town shared could only allocate 56k speeds to each client and had horrific packet loss.
I had to rearchitect an entire file synchronization and uplink system for resilience while sitting in a hotel room in the middle of a blizzard during the shortest days of the year so I could deploy software for clients up there.
Both of my parents are simultaneously dying from different forms of cancer. My father the same as yours (it started in his upper gum line). My mother a rare form of bile duct cancer. They’re not the sort to engage in psychedelics, but I suppose in some way their deep religious beliefs and experiences served the same purpose.
Your story and others I’ve read have really helped me understand the turmoil they’re facing internally and externally, and to analyze what I’ve been feeling to this point.
Perhaps a brief trip into the unknown is in my future.
You're welcome and I'm sorry to hear about your parents; some things in life just suck and dying from cancer is among them.
I know extremely religious people who find psychedelics enhance their religious feelings and practice (that said I obviously know nothing about your parents). If you're curious, send an email.
All these new hardware level physics exploits in software fascinate me. At the same time they make me wonder if the hardware will ever truly be able to be secure and perhaps we need to just move on to new methods and concepts in hardware design and maybe trade size for security.
It also brings to mind that Simpsons scene: "Stop stop! He's already dead!"
It also makes me think of the phonograph in Godel Escher Bach. One character made a record player and the other made a record that always caused the record player to break. The crux was that a record player cannot be built that can play all records; it is impossible.
I think moving such complexity to hardware was a mistake (like branch predictor, etc). Perhaps exposing a very low level API to CPU functionality (like microcode level) and JIT compiling existing x86 to that could perhaps work? We have just enough problem managing complexity in software but at least it is fixable there.
(As for the possibility of such, there is already an x86 to x86 JIT compiler that increases performance)
What does any of this stuff have to do with Rowhammer, an attach that doesn't even target the CPU, which just so happens to have ECC on all its registers and cache lines?
Parent was talking about modern hardware in general, and it’s not like CPUs don’t get their own fair share of similar vulnerabilities. Also, a JIT compiler can probably realize that the same memory region gets rowhammered and may throttle execution of such thread.
That why the solution is to only allow speculation when it's "ok". M1 is believed to have a number of Spectre-esq security mechanisms built into it to determine just that. For example: https://patents.google.com/patent/US20200192673A1
Also, In dougallj's code [1] the zero of registers should be superfluous so it is assumed the function below is needed to make the experiments run stably by claiming ownership of the registers as part of a general anti-speculation security mechanism.
static int add_prep(uint32_t *ibuf, int instr_type);
The M1 explainer [2] has lot of interesting ideas like this contained inside it.
That's revenue, so not .. quite what he's taking home. Less cost of servers, then benefits which he's not getting from an employer, 401k matching, etc.
Oh I’m not disputing it’s good for a single developer along with the freedom.
It’s just that these projects always get talked up as huge successful life changing products (like Bingo Card Creator and appointment reminders etc) and then have really small revenue numbers attached to them.
Don’t get me wrong, kudos to the developers for building something people love and that give them the lifestyle they want.
I just think these projects are often overhyped to seem more than what they actually are: lifestyle projects.
Frankly, if you don't have a bespoke Pagani Zonda with your initials in the model name, we're collectively unsure that your lifestyle has enough style or enough life. Thinking it over, I might not even invite you to my birthday party.
It's a lot for a single developer. But not a lot for a product that has a lot of mind share and receives a lot of free publicity via outlets like this.
220k/yr is would probably be fine for most (he probably takes home less than that, but at the same time he can do whatever he wants).
However, I don't really like pinboard's "business" story - it seems, selfish, for lack of a better word. Pinboard lives and dies with Maciej and the people who have come to depend on that product may lose an amazing service if Maciej gets tired of running it.
He may never get tired of it, but pinboard is reminiscent to me of many one-man communities that were built in the early 2000s that just died once the admin left - and no one was equipped to take over because the admin never wanted to let anyone else in. So 220k is great, but is it enough to support at least one other person full time? Is everyone who uses pinboard aware that the services lives or dies with one man (I know its called out in the blog post).
When I see pinboard, I see less of a product that was made to provide value to others and more of a side project that lets the CEO live how he wants. Which is fine (I think Maciej is a great person - and I've donated to the Great Slate), but isn't my cup of tea when it comes to product responsibility.
I think the short history of web services has shown that depending solely on the whims of the founder is often much more reliable than the whims of VCs or other methods of running it. Delicious didn't live or die with Joshua Schachter, yet it's not around anymore.
And yeah, 220k/y is more than enough to support another person full time. Not everyone lives in SF and pays thousands for half a bedroom.
Well, a one-man community usually makes no money and nobody wants to take it over. But a business making 220k/yr? I bet he (or his relatives in the bus scenario) would find lots of people willing to maintain Pinboard for 220k/yr.
> However, I don't really like pinboard's "business" story - it seems, selfish, for lack of a better word.
How is it different than any other small business started to serve a community? Businesses close all the time for all kinds of reasons. If your favorite restaurant were to close because the owner and cook developed a serious illness, would you be upset at the selfishness of that person?
While I'm aware anecdote is not the same as data, I really feel that the smart home experience vis-a-vis Alexa is getting worse. It no longer recognizes simple voice commands. Third party integrations constantly need to be reset ("I'm sorry, I can't find that." or "If you want to use SiriusXM, please open Alexa on your phone."). Randomly swaps responses between devices across the house whereas it would always respond with the nearest device in the past. Etc. Etc. Etc.
It's the same sort of things that keeps happening with maps programs, smartphones, and basically any modern tech with software updates. No one can leave well enough alone. They have to put their fingerprints on it in order to advance their careers, so everyone mucks around and breaks things and calls it an improvement.
Frankly I'm just tired of expensive devices getting worse with every single software update.
All of these pointless upgrades that make things worse just make me use fewer features, do less exploring of what's possible, and I end up giving up on a product/company.
I used to be able to say to my watch, "Hey, Siri, where is my wife?" And I'd be shown a map. Now when I ask, it says I have to open the app on my iPhone. If I could use my phone, I wouldn't ask my watch!
I can have my Groceries list showing on my watch and say, "Hey, Siri, add 'peanuts' to my Groceries list" and she'll respond with, "You don't have a list called 'Groceries,' but I can create one for you."
I haven't tried since the iOS 12 release a few days ago. Hopefully it got fixed, but I don't even feel like trying anymore.
I've lost so much faith in Siri and similar technologies that the only thing I use it for anymore is once a day: "Hey, Siri, turn off the lights." And even then then there's a 5% chance of her responding, "Here are some web sites about 'turn off the lights.'"
I’ve noticed Siri has gotten worse on my watch as well. It’s basically impossible to use Siri to send a message on it now. I get the ‘what would you like me to send?’ prompt and then it doesn’t hear me at all. Really hoping the iOS 12 focus on Siri has fixed some of these issues.
Pointless updates really are a scourge of modern tech. I wish there was some googleable concept to focus and unite user rage. I don't think the culprits even recognize there's a problem.
I've been thinking about this a lot recently. Do you think these kinds of 'updates' belong in the category of feature creep, or do they deserve some new category?
I was more thinking about updates that don't actually advertise their purpose - no new features at all (unless you do some forensic analysis I suppose). So that can't be feature creep on the surface. But no doubt it would be possible to define a whole taxonomy within the class of 'updates considered harmful' that includes feature creep updates.
I must admit the ones that really get to me are Windows updates that for some reason best known to the devil himself seem to be postponed until I actually need to use the computer. Or those ones where you've just done a fresh install (say) only for the system to proudly announce that it's downloading updates, then installing updates, then working on updates, then (finally) announcing it needs to reboot (okay) and then just when you think maybe it's time you can use the system - no - checking for updates - and finding new ones! Just kill me please.
> I must admit the ones that really get to me are Windows updates that for some reason best known to the devil himself seem to be postponed until I actually need to use the computer.
This is the one thing that's becoming really infuriating lately, not only Windows but even macOS.
It's not just updates either (which macOS does pretty well), but a more general problem that the OS routinely interferes with what I need the machine to do and wastes the CPU/RAM/SSD/Network resources I need while I'm using it.
For example, updating caches/indexes requiring it to read/write the system drive heavily, running various kinds of maintenance and pinning the CPU to 100% for several minutes, or taking up all available bandwidth to do things that frequently did not need to be done at all.
Apple's iCloud Photo Library did the last one all the time until I disabled it. If you delete a large file and free up local drive space, it will almost immediately start using all available internet bandwidth to download and cache photos and videos from iCloud to fill up that space again.
Just yesterday, I discovered that Microsoft has either intentionally pushed everyone to use the "balanced" power plan or just broke the ability to select "high performance" in control panel. I had to open the group policy editor just to put it back it on high performance, because it was not possible to do it anywhere else.
I only noticed that little change because I was capturing data from a satellite passing overhead, which is not something that you can just arbitrarily delay or slow down, and right then Windows decided to reduce the maximum CPU speed to 0.49Ghz, completely ruining the data. That's not even a "real time" task, it doesn't specifically require low latency just high performance. Ordinarily that machine can handle it just fine, as long as the OS isn't actively crippling the hardware or trying to do other pointless, resource intensive tasks at the same time.
The other day I asked Alexa: "What day is the 28th?" I wanted to know about the next upcoming 28th later this month. Alexa told me what day August 28th was. I asked: "What day is September 28th?" I was told I have no calendar events that day. "Alexa, what day of the week is September 28th?"
More anecdata — my wife and Alexa got along only about half the time at launch, and a few years later it’s down to 1/4 or less.
Meanwhile, HomePod Siri understands her 9/10.
Every room has both, both are able to manage all devices, and Alexa was here first. Because of comprehension challenge, Alexa has been abandoned, now the only time Alexa wakes up is for TV mentions.
Note, not talking about syntax, talking about whether the words she said are what the device says she said.
Also agree about wrong devices in wrong rooms answering. Used to work, now doesn’t.
my wife and Alexa got along only about half the time at launch, and a few years later it’s down to 1/4 or less.
My wife has the almost identical problem with Siri. She has a very slight northern plains accent, but it's enough to confound Siri about 25% of the time.
It's worse with Microsoft's horrible "Blue & Me" system. That thing understands her only 5% of the time. She gave up on using it.
Siri understands what I say almost all the time, but only rarely knows what to do with the questions or commands I speak.
Except for one app: Reminders. For some reason, Siri has a hard time when I add things to Reminders lists. I have a Groceries list with about 30 items on it that are bad Siri misinterpretations of things that I want to buy, and I have no idea what they're supposed to be.
Things currently on my Groceries list that, thanks to Siri, that I have no idea what they are but keep them anyway just in case I figure them out later: Canned pills, Maybe to la, Bicycle, Not what I said, North, Raisin berry, Frog nodes, Special, Compound dirt.
> I really feel that the smart home experience vis-a-vis Alexa is getting worse.
To add a counter point, a week ago my 7 year old daughter had a great time asking one for various types of joke (“Alexa, tell me a bird joke”) at a pace only a primary school child can. It worked really well.
> I’m tired of expensive devices getting worse with every single software update.
Replying to you from an iPhone 8 that reloads the page 9 times before I’m allowed to see it, crashes every 10 minutes and has deleted all my photo albums. Yay iOS 12.
Skype seems to have recently lost the ability to have a text chat window open during a voice call. It doesn't do notifications on the icon in the task bar anymore, either. Sigh.
I'm on the latest version and I seem to still be able to chat on a voice/video call at the same time? Are you talking about chatting with people you're not on a call with?
I'm text chatting with someone. Then I initiate a Skype call with them. The text window disappears, the window goes blue, and there's no way to text and talk.
I clicked on everything on the screen, no text window. There is a balloon icon with lines in it, I thought "aha, the text chat window!" Sure enough, it opens the text chat window, and hangs up the call.
Arrgghhhh.
Microsoft has installed numerous Skype updates. I can't find any usability improvements. Things are just shuffled around, and/or broken.
I've been using Skype for 10+ years, and am about ready to abandon it for Slack.
I feel like Google Assistant has also gotten worse lately. I used to tell it to "navigate to the library" and it would handle it just fine. Now it asks "which 'the'?" like an idiot.
I turned off all the Alexa stuff a few months ago because I was tired of just randomly triggering all the time. It went off 10 times more when we weren’t trying to use it that it did when we were.
Here’s where I come off as ass, but what do you expect? These are complex systems with millions of moving parts and millions of lines of code. The chances of anyone ever being able to fully secure all systems (physical and virtual) is literally zero.
Combined with truly awe inspiring lifespans (how many coders truly have systems running mostly unmodified thirty years later?) this means that many many defects and vulnerabilities will be discovered over the lifespan of an aircraft.
Add in avionics and flight control upgrades designed to interface with legacy controls, and I consider it a miracle these amazing machines are as secure as they are.
It’s a testament to the engineering that goes into these machines that more stuff isn’t found or (god forbid) actively exploited.
Language’s roots are in trade and survival. Therefore manipulation of others for the speakers benefit has ALWAYS been the primary purpose.