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kettro commented on FTC bans hidden junk fees in hotel, event ticket prices   cnbc.com/2024/12/17/ftc-b... · Posted by u/LordAtlas
carlosjobim · 9 months ago
Free competition should mean that you don't get punished for winning. There is no sport that punishes a competitor who is constantly winning, as long as they are competing fairly. Imagine Schwarzenegger being banned from Mr Olympia or Gretzky being banned for life from minor league ice hockey. So that the other competitors are given a fair chance of winning.

But every sport punishes competitors who are cheating or being unsportsmanlike. As it should be in the marketplace. But hackers and the EU and US bureaucrats think that being a leader in a market has to be punished for being a "monopoly". While always turning a blind eye to rampant fraud and scams that are in the marketplace everywhere online and offline.

kettro · 9 months ago
> There is no sport that punishes a competitor who is constantly winning, as long as they are competing fairly

Almost all North American sports have a player entry draft, where the weighting is based on your success. The best teams (eg the Detroit Red Wings of the 90’s and 00’s) are given garbage draft picks, while the bottom-feeders (eg the Edmonton Oilers of the late 00’s-early 10’s) are given (the opportunity for) superstars. This is clearly a punishment for doing well, and a reward for being terrible.

kettro commented on I coded something dumb and I'm proud of it   plbrault.com/blog-posts/i... · Posted by u/drfreckles
kettro · a year ago
Well done!

It is exactly the correct approach — especially with the dataset potentially changing at each iteration, treating it as a contiguous sequence of executions is wrong anyways. Plus, you should always strive to reduce state as much as possible.

kettro commented on Jan Leike Resigns from OpenAI   twitter.com/janleike/stat... · Posted by u/Jimmc414
llm_trw · a year ago
>dangerous for mentally unwell users

It's not our job to make the world safe for fundamentally unsafe people.

kettro · a year ago
I would argue that it is society’s job to care for its most vulnerable.
kettro commented on Jan Leike Resigns from OpenAI   twitter.com/janleike/stat... · Posted by u/Jimmc414
bnralt · a year ago
One could also say that therapists prey on lonely people who pay them to talk to them and seem like they’re genuinely interested in them, when the therapist wouldn’t bother having a connection with these people once they stop paying. Which I suppose is true from a certain point of view. But from another point of view, sometimes people feel like they don’t have close friends or family to talk to and need something, even if it’s not a genuine love or friendship.
kettro · a year ago
This is implying that therapy is nothing more than someone to talk to; if that’s your experience with therapy, then you should get another therapist.
kettro commented on On clock faces, 4 is Expressed as IIII, not IV   museum.seiko.co.jp/en/kno... · Posted by u/malingo
nescioquid · a year ago
In Latin, sometimes numbers have synonyms, like 18 (two from twenty or eight and ten). In my mind, the Roman system was very obvious. Then I learned to read a little French, and had genuine curiosity about the reasoning behind this soixante-dix-neuf character.

edit: sometimes I wonder if arithmetic arose simply from naming numbers

kettro commented on The Montreal problem: Why programming languages need a style czar   earthly.dev/blog/language... · Posted by u/ingve
rightbyte · a year ago
Easy to read? That would be Python. I would say Go is designed to be fast to learn for experienced programmers.

Null pointers are a free runtime check for invalid assumptions. I don't understand the fuzz about them being bad at all.

kettro · a year ago
I find python quite hard to read, honestly. The lack of typing in most python means that it isn’t immediately clear what a given piece of code does without diving into its implementation. You have to rely on docstrings (good luck) or descriptive naming.

The issue with null pointers is that they are, as you said, a stand-in for an invalid state. However, most null pointers don’t prevent you from trying to use the underlying data, which can, among other things, cause crashes (think not checking the return value of malloc). Additionally, it doesn’t make formal the litany of possible forms that a value can take — if you codify possible states, then you don’t always need to check everything. I’m currently working to port security firmware from C to Rust, and I’ve found I make fewer state checks, because the data I’m working with has bounded state — the data given cannot be in an invalid state.

kettro commented on More doctors are charging fees to respond to patient messages   wsj.com/health/wellness/d... · Posted by u/gnicholas
QuantumGood · a year ago
One Medical charges $9/month (through Amazon), all video visits are free (if you click the proper link), and I've had multiple prescriptions renewed that way. Three times waited less than a minute, longest wait was 15 minutes, and the app will call you back if you wish so you don't have to keep the app open.
kettro · a year ago
My company pays for One Medical, and it’s honestly the best practice I’ve been to in the US. I can typically get an appointment the next day, there are tons of offices (in SF), and everyone is kind and efficient.

They ask you to set a primary care doctor, but I have had more success with seeing a small group of their more available non-MD physicians.

kettro commented on Unicomp's "New" Model M Keyboard   pckeyboard.com/page/produ... · Posted by u/Phileosopher
adrianmonk · 2 years ago
As long as we're talking mechanical keyboards, do they all require maintenance just to keep working, or is the basic Cooler Master one I bought just a dud?

After only like 2 years, many of the keys stopped working reliably. They'd double type or fail to register. I looked into it, and this seems to be a common issue with many mechanical keyboards. I tried some of the recommended solutions (blow dust out, use contact cleaner), and it improved things, but it's still not quite right.

I do like the feel, but I don't like the maintenance or lack of longevity. I'd be willing to pay more for a mechanical keyboard that is darned near maintenance free, but I'm not sure whether such a thing actually exists.

kettro · 2 years ago
I’ve had my New M for a couple years now, and it’s been great. No complaints. Unicomp has sorted out their QC issues, and it’s a solid board. I’d say that the lack of a removable cable is a bit of a bummer, but that’s a nit pick.
kettro commented on How many software developers work in non-tech companies?   lmy.medium.com/how-many-s... · Posted by u/tslmy
dan-robertson · 2 years ago
Do you think the average engineer at Garmin is spending their time thinking about the algorithms to interpret GPS signals?
kettro · 2 years ago
As a former Garmin employee, a surprising number actually do.
kettro commented on How the creator of Alone in the Dark came back to games   news.play.date/news/skew/... · Posted by u/ecliptik
Shugyousha · 2 years ago
I thought I wouldn't need a pkaydate even though I like the concept because it can only render at 30 FPS.

Turns out that 50 FPS is the limit: https://sdk.play.date/2.0.3/Designing%20for%20Playdate.html#...

That is more acceptable to me!

kettro · 2 years ago
I love mine. The refresh rate is absolutely not an issue at all IMO.

u/kettro

KarmaCake day176June 25, 2019
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