jrwoodruff (u/jrwoodruff)

jrwoodruff commented on Cowboys and Drones: two modes of operation for small business emeaentrepreneurs.com/ant... · Posted by u/sixhobbits

inSenCite · 6 months ago

In my experience people can be both although they might prefer and/or excel at one.

A good "cowboy" is one that gets the job done but can also build a sustainable, changeable process in their wake.

A good "drone" is able to spot ineffective parts of the system/process and change it.

As an aside, I really dislike the cowboy and drone nomenclature.

jrwoodruff · 6 months ago

Same. I think metaphors that paint something as black or white are almost as damaging in practice as they can be useful in understanding. It doesn't help that these metaphors usually have a built-in positive/negative connotation as well - who wants to be a drone?

jrwoodruff commented on Who killed the rave? ft.com/content/2138e940-0... · Posted by u/this_weekend

Tade0 · 8 months ago

Supply can't possibly keep up when real estate is used as an investment.

As an analogy to the dead internet hypothesis I present the dead real estate market hypothesis. Increasingly it's just investors buying and selling properties from each other.

And it's not just a hypothesis. China built enough homes to house its population twice over, yet it's not reflected in the prices. All because everyone and their grandma is investing in real estate.

jrwoodruff · 8 months ago

Also made possible by the internet and computers in general, I'd argue. Without the easy availability of prices, sales data, and general number crunching capabilities I don't think this would be happening. Certainly not at the scale we're seeing.

jrwoodruff commented on T-Mobile pays $16M fine for three years' worth of data breaches arstechnica.com/tech-poli... · Posted by u/pseudolus

mmh0000 · a year ago

If I'm not terrible at my math...

T-Mobile earned $8 billion in 2023. Some division later, that works out to $21,000,000 per day.

They were fined less than one day's income. If I owned that company, increasing IT security would be near the bottom of my list of priorities.

jrwoodruff · a year ago

The equivalent of about $200 for someone making $100,000/yr

jrwoodruff commented on Apple apologizes for iPad 'Crush' ad that 'missed the mark' theverge.com/2024/5/9/241... · Posted by u/linguae

jhbadger · a year ago

Except what are pianos, guitars, cameras etc.? Also products made by companies that are equally "soulless" (they make these things to make money just like Apple). And in terms of aesthetics you can think technological products are just as beautiful as those other products. I personally get angry when I see things like classic Macintoshes turned into fish aquariums and the like, as I see it as beautiful technology destroyed, but even so not that angry.

jrwoodruff · a year ago

For me, it was more about the humanity represented by the objects than what company they came from. All of those objects are far more human-centered than the iPad. All of those objects were crafted and perfected over centuries - guitar forms, paint formulas, camera technology, etc. In a way it's representative of the much of human culture, and this add kinda says, yea, screw all that old crappy stuff. Look at our neat piece of glass that replaces all that humanity.

I get it, that's exactly their point. The iPad can do all of those things. But at a time when many creatives feel like AI is going to replace them or make their skills irrelevant, it's pretty tone deaf.

And also, it's far more likely that most of those objects were made by skilled craftsmen, even if they did work at a bigger company.

jrwoodruff commented on Warn HN: The AI That Plugs Your Product on Reddit in Conversations replyguy.com/... · Posted by u/A_D_E_P_T

jrwoodruff · a year ago

Yea this is gross. Even the examples they provide are gross. Someone struggling with debt, and a some robot gives them the impression that there's a person that cares and, by the way, you should spend your money on this service. Ewww.

jrwoodruff commented on The U.S. government may finally mandate safer table saws npr.org/2024/04/02/124114... · Posted by u/walterbell

gorkish · a year ago

I'll forever remain skeptical of SawStop. I understand their mechanism works quite well and they sell a very high quality saw, but I will never in my life buy it.

It's amazing how the discourse online has shifted. SawStop's original focus after having their patent granted was super-litigious IP-troll type behavior. They were able to win some cases and force other manufactures like Bosch to remove alternative safety they had engineered to compete. SawStop was lobbying heavily for a regulatory requirement to mandate their patented technology be installed on all table saws.

The online opinion of them was ... not good. Look up the old SawStop stuff on Slashdot if you want to see it.

Now that their patent is about to expire, it's "oh look we have changed" -- they haven't. It's just a desperate bid to get themselves insinuated in front of manufacturers who will be suddenly charged with a mandate to ship safety devices -- and of course SawStop will be there with the business shortcut. Sorry, no. Fuck them. Let the patent expire.

jrwoodruff · a year ago

Color me jaded, but isn't this just business as usual in the U.S?

jrwoodruff commented on Do loud pipes save lives? (2021) autoweek.com/news/industr... · Posted by u/luu

rudedogg · a year ago

Most police bikes I see in the US are Harleys, I don't think they're buying anything out of practicality. If they were, you'd see a lot more BMW police motorcycles.

jrwoodruff · a year ago

Michigan State Police somewhat controversially switched to BMW motorcycles in 2012, and actually disbanded the motorcycle unit for awhile because of safety issues. Apparently it's returning this year, still using the BMWs.

https://www.freep.com/story/news/local/michigan/2024/02/15/m...

jrwoodruff commented on A formula for responsive font-size jameshfisher.com/2024/03/... · Posted by u/jamesfisher

Karellen · a year ago

The point of the user's custom setting is that you don't need to scale with it. The user's custom setting is the font size they want! That's why they set it.

If the user wants a different root font size, they'll set it themselves.

jrwoodruff · a year ago

If every site used the same font, maybe. But different font faces vary in readability at the same size. Also, we still have to set sizes for things like titles, subtitles and other elements to create a hierarchy on the page.

'Don't resize my fonts' is such a narrow view of whole range of design considerations.

jrwoodruff commented on The failure of self-checkout technology bbc.com/worklife/article/... · Posted by u/LaksiMati

jtbayly · 2 years ago

I disagree. The majority of the problems that I run into with self-checkout are related to not being able to buy items I picked up off the shelf like Mucinex or children's cough syrup or alcohol without getting an employee to check me out... at self checkout.

What's the point of "self" checkout if somebody is required—not by failure of the system but by rules—to come help me several times during the process?

Edit: at least with alcohol I know it’s coming. But it feels like every time I try to use self-checkout I’m foiled by surprise rules about particular items.

jrwoodruff · 2 years ago

Definitely a yes-and scenario here. I was a cashier, I'm good at finding and scanning bar codes and PLU lookups. I was a damn fast cashier. That's impossible in a self checkout. And then you get carded for a can of spray paint, and the one attendant for 8 machines has three people with blinking lights. On top of that, most of these self-checkouts are not designed to handle a full cart of groceries, but also why do I want to do the work of ringing up and bagging a full cart of groceries by myself?

For the most part, in practice there's little or no advantage for me, the consumer with a cart full of groceries.

One exception was 2003-era Martins in Virginia - Walk in, grab a cart that had bags attached to the front, grab a portable scan gun from it's charging dock. Scan and bag as you shop, dock the gun to the checkout register, show the attendant my id if needed, pay, and I'm done. No unloading and reloading the cart, no fiddling with plu lookups, fumbling with bags, etc. It was actually glorious, but relies on trusting your customers. Corporate stores seem to trust me even less than I trust them.

I'm somewhat ok with these things as a secondary 10-items-or-less option. But for the love of god staff enough cashiers to handle the grocery-shopping-Sunday crowds.

jrwoodruff commented on US sues eBay for allowing sale of emissions defeat devices thedrive.com/news/us-sues... · Posted by u/PaulHoule

RC_ITR · 2 years ago

Say what you will about over-engineering, but the Germans got it so so so right with their metal full black out shades.

jrwoodruff · 2 years ago

I'm unfamiliar with this, but I'd love some well-done black out shades - got a link or a brand?