analogwzrd (u/analogwzrd)

analogwzrd commented on IRS Direct File on GitHub chrisgiven.com/2025/05/di... · Posted by u/nickthegreek

ryandrake · 8 months ago

I'm sure everyone working on this knew it was doomed before the first line of code was written, and that it would be killed as soon as the next (R) was in charge. It was a great accomplishment to get working software released before that happened, but I'm sure nobody was kidding themselves into thinking it would last. The pay-to-file tax lobby is too strong and corrupt.

analogwzrd · 8 months ago

A couple of decades ago tax code transparency and making it easier and cheaper to file your taxes would have been a very Republican policy. Point taken that the current administration is particularly destructive, but I wouldn't expect Democrats to be very staunch in support this either. The tax/accountant lobby would influence both parties.

analogwzrd commented on Libro: a command-line tool to track your books github.com/mkaz/libro... · Posted by u/marcuskaz

analogwzrd · 10 months ago

I was expecting command line financial software...oh well, maybe next time.

analogwzrd commented on US children fall further behind in reading cnn.com/2025/01/29/us/edu... · Posted by u/belter

dcsommer · a year ago

What's to say it wouldn't have been even worse workout the money? I don't think you can draw that conclusion from just this data point.

That said, education certainly needs major reforms. I like how Sweden is going full Luddite for learning: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/sep/11/sweden-says-ba...

analogwzrd · a year ago

You'll never be able to run both scenarios side-by-side to compare - obviously. But for the people who say that the solution is to just spend more money, we've been doing that for quite awhile and nothing has seemed to improve.

A more interesting study would be to see how many of those dollars actually reach the student, or the teachers - as opposed to administrators or other positions that have less direct influence over the quality of education.

analogwzrd commented on Why does FM sound better than AM? johndcook.com/blog/2024/1... · Posted by u/zdw

zsellera · a year ago

What you "more bandwidth more noise" people miss is the difference in randomness: the noise is random while the signal is not.

In case of gaussian noise, double the bandwidth means 1.41x more noise. For signal, double the bandwidth double the signal.

analogwzrd · a year ago

Where are you getting 1.41x? What you'd really like to increase is the SNR. As you open up the bandwidth, the amount of energy you can collect in your band increases, but there's no way to collect the energy from only the signal and not collect the energy from noise. So as you increase your bandwidth, your SNR stays the same.

Not all noise is gaussian. And the fact that the noise is random while the signal is not, is useful when you can average and drop your noise floor. But you need multiple measurements to do that.

analogwzrd commented on The military is an impossible place for hackers, and what to do about it (2018) warontherocks.com/2018/07... · Posted by u/NavinF

neilv · a year ago

Can we say that Technical vs. Non-Technical in this space isn't so much about formal credentials, as it is about putting in a lot of time to learn about many relevant things, hands-on and probably exploratory?

The person whose only degree is Art school dropout, but who's logged many hours coding personal projects, running their own Linux or BSD machines, playing with networking, tweaking a game binary, etc., will wipe the floor with more-credentialed others, at a lot of real-world computer technical stuff.

Compared to person with a Engineering degree, or even a Computer Science degree-- but who spent no time outside of classwork, Leetcode memorizing, and a GitHub profile that was motivated only by FAANG-application coaching.

Those people who couldn't create their keypairs probably have fine raw material for becoming the kind of Technical person you need. But they're just having a pile of information shoveled at them in lectures and homework. And maybe they just wanted a job. And nobody told them that, if you want to be good, you have to put in the hours of quality unstructured learning time.

analogwzrd · a year ago

I don't put a huge emphasis on credentials. If someone is capable and talented, a degree doesn't change that. However, if they were able to complete an engineering degree (or insert analogous degree from any other area) then they have demonstrated an aptitude and capability that others have not.

The people who couldn't create their keypairs may have had the raw material, but they were trying perform at a level they weren't yet capable of - they couldn't google a simple task and follow instructions. They needed to go back to square zero and learn basics when they were in a graduate program. And because the graduate program was dumbed down, they weren't going to learn the basics in the program.

analogwzrd commented on The military is an impossible place for hackers, and what to do about it (2018) warontherocks.com/2018/07... · Posted by u/NavinF

zaphar · a year ago

I mean, the government absolutely could fire people. They aren't giving money to Anduril because Anduril can fire people. They are giving money to Anduril because:

1. Anduril is more competent than the people they can afford to hire.

2. Giving Anduril money funnels funds into local enconomies and individuals that are important to political objectives.

analogwzrd · a year ago

It's notoriously difficult for the government to fire an employee. It can also be difficult to fire an employee in a defense contractor. From what I know of Anduril, part of their business model is that they've found a way to handle government procurement differently where they are not as constrained? They may well be able to fire people more easily, but I think they might also do a better job of hiring and retaining talent.

The government outsources things to contractors because they have no idea how to manage those projects. Do you want your mayor as the foreman for the crew paving your roads?

As with most businesses, the government has the money but not the know-how so they need to outsource or contract.

analogwzrd commented on The military is an impossible place for hackers, and what to do about it (2018) warontherocks.com/2018/07... · Posted by u/NavinF

analogwzrd · a year ago

I almost graduated (switched programs) from a graduate school cybersecurity program. They tried making the program "interdisciplinary" which essentially meant that they dumbed down the technical classes so that non-technical undergraduate degrees could pass them.

I tried to put together a team of students to compete in one of MITRE's cybersecurity competitions, but struggled to get other students to create SSH keys so that they could get access to the competition server. Not hack into the server, just follow instructions that I gave them to create keys and give me the public ones so that they could log in and participate.

The industry has a similar problem that the military does: It's very difficult to take non-technical people and train them to be cybersecurity professionals, much less hackers.

You need to start with an engineering background, and it almost has to be electrical or computer engineering, or at least computer science. Of those people with that background, hacking in particular is a type of thinking, problem solving, and mentality that not everyone has.

If you want to defend, attack, or manipulate cyber infrastructure you need an understanding of how that infrastructure is designed and operates. An engineering background will at least give you the building blocks for that.

analogwzrd commented on Ask HN: What's the "best" book you've ever read? · Posted by u/simonebrunozzi

aquir · a year ago

The Neuromancer has the greatest opening sentence of all times imho: "The sky above the port was the color of television, tuned to a dead channel."

analogwzrd · a year ago

This is a great line, though it might not have aged well. Younger generations might just think "Oh, the sky was black"

analogwzrd commented on Ask HN: What's the "best" book you've ever read? · Posted by u/simonebrunozzi

tb_technical · a year ago

No, and I don't know who he is either.

analogwzrd · a year ago

Is this some kind of test?

analogwzrd commented on Ask HN: What's the "best" book you've ever read? · Posted by u/simonebrunozzi

lordnacho · a year ago

Have you considered that someone who hears Atlas Shrugged is your favourite book might react similarly?

I'd be polite, but note you down as either an immature thinker or someone who likes to provoke. With a little more prodding, possibly also one of those people who has to be right about everything, and this is their hill.

I guess I'm on passive radar and you are on active.

analogwzrd · a year ago

If I met someone who said that any book was their favorite book, and then didn't remember anything about the book or had any value for the ideas that it advocated for, then I'd have to consider that person a bit of a manipulator.

Being disingenuous is just a bad first and only data point to give someone about yourself.