Test0129 (u/Test0129)

Test0129 commented on Idaho Stop en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ida... · Posted by u/mmastrac

joshlemer · 3 years ago

This is such a terrible and uninformed comment. Your complaint against people on bikes is that they think they're entitled to use the road at all? Holy smokes, yeah people on bikes are so entitled by insisting on existing in any shape or form? What a selfish and arrogant attitude, shame on you. Cyclists are not the problem with the North American transportation system, cars are.

Test0129 · 3 years ago

Stay mad imo. Bicyclists should be licensed and insured just like cars. They pose a danger to everyone around them just like cars, and should have to be able to make anyone they harm whole. Anti-car rhetoric is absolute top tier nonsense. It's harder to get access to a 2000 pound vehicle than it is to get access to a projectile on two wheels that can easily flatten someone.

Test0129 commented on Idaho Stop en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ida... · Posted by u/mmastrac

Test0129 · 3 years ago

> Studies in Delaware and Idaho have shown significant decreases in crashes at stop-controlled intersections.

Seems like the introduction of the law got people to think about cyclists because lunatics will fly through stop signs and ignore yields. Now that they can do it legally, you have to be more mindful, leading to less accidents.

These laws are asinine. Cyclists are such a problem where I live. They believe they are entitled to the road like a 3000 pound car, they slow traffic down, they create jams at intersections, they don't pay attention and fly through cross walks, etc.

You should need to be licensed to use a bicycle. There are far too many stupid people. My favorite example of this from recent history was pulling out to take a right turn, stopping, and right as I'm rolling out to commence the turn a bicyclist FLIES past me such that 1" in any direction would've probably killed him.

Test0129 commented on Graduate students question career options nature.com/articles/d4158... · Posted by u/clockworksoul

supernova87a · 3 years ago

I think part of the problem for current graduate students (well, for the last generation or so) is that while the past idea / lore of graduate school modeled by mentors (professors, parents) was built on a growing post-war pyramid of faculty jobs and research opportunities, now it has become a saturated pyramid in many fields. So then students find themselves not competing easily for a growing number of jobs, but waiting to see which senior professor retires or dies and opens up a spot. Or else leave for industry. And woe to those who go into fields where there is not a lot of industry to exit to.

You've probably heard in your field of the old professors who got a faculty job after one postdoc, or even out of grad school? Well, those days of yore are long gone. And don't think that it was just because they were incredibly smart (well, some of course were) but that the field had ripe jobs for them to fill. Do you see some colleagues going to "odd" countries for positions lately? It's where the money is -- we just didn't realize in the past it actually was tied to where the money was (hidden in the form of jobs).

Anyway, also now it has almost become a baseline credential for certain jobs or advancement (like college), further filling up the pipeline with competitors for those jobs.

Don't get me wrong, for some people graduate school can be great, a great time to explore and satisfy an intellect that wants to gather and contribute to knowledge. But for others, the idea of graduate school is no longer what it was. You're in for a multiple-postdoc, where-is-this-going-on-the-faculty-track questioned existence, seemingly at the whim of advisors who hardly have time to spend on helping your career.

Of course, it varies by field. Chemical engineering, probably ok no matter how relatively bad it seems. Astronomy? Not so much. Biology? Better exits, but you're also competing against everyone who can afford a hot plate and PCR rig. Computer science / ML? Your competition is every student in China who has access to a couple hundred hours of GPU time. (exaggerating a bit of course)

Just go into it knowing the situation.

Test0129 · 3 years ago

> I think part of the problem for current graduate students (well, for the last generation or so) is that while the past idea / lore of graduate school modeled by mentors (professors, parents) was built on a growing post-war pyramid of faculty jobs and research opportunities, now it has become a saturated pyramid in many fields. So then students find themselves not competing easily for a growing number of jobs, but waiting to see which senior professor retires or dies and opens up a spot. Or else leave for industry. And woe to those who go into fields where there is not a lot of industry to exit to.

I was basically told I would not graduate my PhD program if I didn't do my dissertation in a machine learning application of my field of interest.

The intersection existed but after a year of trying to motivate myself I could not. I ended up quitting. It's more politics than it's worth and I was in competition with students from other countries who had infinitely more funding, infinitely more time, and infinitely more energy than me. I was doing night classes and spending every other waking hour I wasn't working pushing my research.

Test0129 commented on Graduate students question career options nature.com/articles/d4158... · Posted by u/clockworksoul

robomartin · 3 years ago

> I got a Ph.D. in computer science a long time ago, and I think it was the worst mistake of my life

I can't tell you how many PhD's I know the resemble your remarks. Quite a few of them (most?) are not doing anything related to their field of study. For example, one with a PhD in Physics owns a small vocational school teaching nursing and some IT courses.

The following is going to sound horrible. Over the years, having worked with thousands of people over a career spanning about five decades and across a range of disciplines, I developed this strong belief that if you need to get things done you should not hire PhD's.

In fact, speaking of technology, some of the most creative and talented people I have worked with were university dropouts who, for the most part, got tired of the slow pace and wasted efforts (i.e., having a year of general education coursework for an EE or CS degree) and went off on their own. I am talking about people who had a direct hand in delivering millions of dollars of revenue for the companies who employed them and doing so at breakneck speed. The going joke at one place where I used to work was something like: If you need it done right and in 6 to 12 months, get a college dropout with enough schooling to be able to do the job. If you have four years and don't are about making a prouct, hire a PhD.

I know, harsh. I did warn it would be.

That said, I have met many brilliant PhD's. I just don't know how the skills, capabilities, creativity and productivity metrics distribute in that population. No clue at all.

Test0129 · 3 years ago

You missed the point of hiring PhDs. You don't usually need them unless you are on the literal bleeding edge of a very minute subfield-of-a-subfield.

You hire PhDs as a value signal. "We have 6 PhDs from ivies working on solving X, Y, and Z". It doesn't even matter what X, Y, and Z are. People will THROW, THROW money at you.

The only PhDs who, by my estimation, enjoy themselves are in their late 60s to mid 70s, have had tenure for 25+ years, and just do whatever they want in the fields they enjoy. It's equivalent to earning something like an Engineer in Research position. The utility you bring to industry as a PhD is almost nothing - except those 3 letters. Who would've thought 3 letters could net you so much damn money from stupid investors.

Test0129 commented on Wells Fargo mortgage staff brace for layoffs as U.S. loan volumes collapse cnbc.com/2022/11/02/wells... · Posted by u/paulpauper

bequanna · 3 years ago

> House prices are set at the margins, just like any asset. Even if the folks with 3% mortgage rates sit tight and don’t sell, there will still be downward pressure on prices because prices are not determined by non-transactions.

YES! There is a sort of delusion that has taken hold of people who became “house rich” in the past couple years. They seem to think that if they don’t sell, their house will still be worth whatever fantasy number they have in their heads.

It does get me thinking about the psychology of these economic cycles and how the transformation of that delusion to acceptance/sadness on an individual level will impact their buying habits and risk taking. On a large scale, it is easy to see this is sort of spiraling into a protracted recession.

Test0129 · 3 years ago

Similarly, the delusion of the "house poor" hoping for another 2008 is frankly hilarious.

The difference is, if you picked up a house at 2.7% you will be winning for a long time. There are fewer ARMs, which means a small more protracted "collapse". Housing supply is still non-existent and will be into the near future. Wages will need to keep pace with housing costs in order to provide anyone a chance to succeed. Even after a so-called "recession" in housing they'll still be too expensive. For example, if my house dropped 50% in value, it'd still be way over what I bought it for.

The only deluded people are the ones not holding property. Make no mistake, if you didn't buy/refinance in 2020 you lost out on a literal once in a lifetime opportunity to lock a massive short against the fed.

Test0129 commented on U.S. authorities seized Z Library domains fastcompany.com/90806657/... · Posted by u/ahmedfromtunis

kennend3 · 3 years ago

> harming the extortative textbook business

This.

The government doesnt seem to be doing anything about the textbook business and their questionable practices like:

- Moving a few words/chapters around and calling it a new release

- Selling "activation codes" with the text to kill off the resale book market.

When i went to school (long ago) there was a very active/healthy used book market, not anymore.

My kids were being gouged for books, often written by their prof's and you cant use last years book because the textbook integrates with the testing and you need your code?

But sure, let's not focus on that at all.

Test0129 · 3 years ago

The worst offender when I was in school was a physics textbook for a 2 semester introductory physics series. The textbook was about 400-500 pages with an online code. The total cost was $380, and even in graduate school this physics textbook remained the most expensive textbook I was forced to purchase.

Of course, the other worst offender is schools that get their own copy and sell you a printed version (so you can't resell it after).

Entire business is corrupt all the way down. Piracy would be unnecessary if a single semester didn't require almost $1000 in books. Textbook trading was commonplace when I was in school. To the point the CS lab was a veritable copy-factory because one kid would get a textbook and the rest of us would use our monthly credits (something like 2000 pages/semester) to copy it.

Test0129 commented on U.S. authorities seized Z Library domains fastcompany.com/90806657/... · Posted by u/ahmedfromtunis

jryb · 3 years ago

> The exact circumstances of Z-Library’s shutdown are still unclear. Some of its many domain names simply won’t load. Others lead to a message reading: “This domain has been seized by the United States Postal Inspection Service in accordance with a court order.” However, in response to a request for comment, the Postal Inspection Service wrote that “this case was inadvertently credited to Postal Inspectors,” and directed media requests be sent to the Department of Justice. (The DOJ declined Fast Company’s request for a comment.)

How do the people putting up the seizure notice not know who they work for? Does the US government contract this out?

Test0129 · 3 years ago

> How do the people putting up the seizure notice not know who they work for? Does the US government contract this out?

Because they US Gov. troglodytes. These are people chasing after some nobodies harming the extortative textbook business instead of going after drug dealers or something. Assuming they even possess two fully functioning brain cells to rub together, the USG never sends it's best.

Test0129 commented on Starlink to start “deprioritizing” traffic after 1TB monthly i.imgur.com/NfSTpZN.jpg... · Posted by u/noncoml

Test0129 · 3 years ago

At least this somewhat makes sense with satellite.

I have a 1gbps down connection and 1 TB cap because my ISP has a monopoly. I pay an arm and leg for this connection. The nearest competitor is basically a town over.

Don't worry, I can pay an extra $150/mo for unlimited data on top of my already $300 connection. I'm not convinced networks should be public utilities but certainly ISPs should be pursued for de facto monopolies. These jerks even tanked my connection during COVID because of all the Netflix consuming the bandwidth at the trunk. Customers paying for 1 gbps down (< 1% of their customer base I'd imagine) should have priority access in times of increased usage. I shouldn't have to compete with a 20 mbps home connection for usage at the astronomical cost I pay for the privilege.

Test0129 commented on Twitter’s mass layoffs have begun techcrunch.com/2022/11/03... · Posted by u/matthieu_bl

Test0129 · 3 years ago

We don't actually know the situation. If he wants people to work 84 hour work weeks regularly - yeah that's a problem. I looked at it charitably. Twitter is in such bad shape the only choice is to burn out engineers in order to fix it. This points to terrible product management, which points to terrible engineering leadership, which points to a terrible C-suite. It sucks, but once you pass the point of no return you can't hire more people (they take months to ramp up), and you're gutting the low performers (they will slow you down), so unfortunately the work has to be foisted onto the rest. It's not a fun time, it will cause more people to quit, but it's also the only solution to fix a trainwreck if you notice the speeding freight train too late.

Test0129 · 3 years ago

Dang dunno why I got downvoted. Guess people are upset at reality.