mcbutterbunz (u/mcbutterbunz)

mcbutterbunz commented on What's happening inside the NIH and NSF science.org/content/blog-... · Posted by u/rrock

Im gonna start a downvote party on myself haha but here we go - if you want cheaper healthcare, get rid of the medical licence!! Let the free market work. Of course it wont be better but rich people will pay theough the nose for the top level of care, middle class will get the best care the market can provide for what they can afford and lower class will get someone regurgitating chatGPT - but it _will_ be cheaper.

I continue to post this, not even fully convinced - Im scared I wouldnt be able to afford good care without govt subsidies, but I am open to the idea at least. I dont think care in the USA would be worse overall

mcbutterbunz · 7 months ago

Are medical licenses actually the cause of expensive healthcare?

mcbutterbunz commented on Dumb TVs deserve a comeback makeuseof.com/reasons-why... · Posted by u/znpy

coin · 9 months ago

Just don’t use any of the smart TV’s “smart” functionality. Don’t even connect it to the Internet or give it your Wi-Fi password.

mcbutterbunz · 9 months ago

Or they start to require internet access before you can use the device. Even if it's periodic. Once a month you have to connect to the internet to validate your license and agreement, wherein it uploads your watch history and downloads new ads.

mcbutterbunz commented on Dumb TVs deserve a comeback makeuseof.com/reasons-why... · Posted by u/znpy

jszymborski · 9 months ago

Regulation could always fix this.

mcbutterbunz · 9 months ago

Regulation can prevent the fix as well.

mcbutterbunz commented on Changes in Need for Uniqueness From 2000 Until 2020 online.ucpress.edu/collab... · Posted by u/PaulHoule

pressentiment · a year ago

Was ready to be super sceptical but this is interesting. The measure gets at ways of showing uniqueness (e.g. defending a view thats different from everyone else's, not caring what others think). So I can buy that has descreased.

What I bet hasn't decreased is the extent to which people say they want to be unique.

mcbutterbunz · a year ago

> What I bet hasn't decreased is the extent to which people say they want to be unique.

FTA:

> In our study of over one million participants surveyed from 2000 to 2020, we found that need for uniqueness was lowest among participants who took the survey most recently in 2020 compared to those in 2000.

So it seems that the desire for uniqueness has decreased, unless I'm reading this incorrectly. That's a surprise to me just based on my observations and possible biases.

mcbutterbunz commented on Why are Texas interchanges so tall? practical.engineering/blo... · Posted by u/impish9208

DidYaWipe · a year ago

"the worst symbol of our car-obsessed culture"

Nothing against the article, which covers an interesting topic. But this refrain gets tiresome, the railing against our "car obsession."

We have a big-ass country. We like to move about it. Many of us don't want or need to live on top of each other. That is all.

mcbutterbunz · a year ago

I'd just love some zoning changes that would allow light commercial in the middle of some neighborhoods so I don't have to drive miles to get a cup of coffee. Could be as simple as adding more pathways between neighborhoods so I don't have to ride my bike on a busy street and almost get hit by someone on their phone.

Its not that we're obsessed with cars, its that cars are the only option for reasonable, safe transportation right now.

mcbutterbunz commented on How fast can a human possibly run 100 meters? bigthink.com/starts-with-... · Posted by u/Brajeshwar

kazinator · a year ago

Elite race walkers embarrass recreational runners with sub-40 10 km times.

There you are, running your heart out, and some guy walks right past you.

mcbutterbunz · a year ago

The 4-minute-mile is an average of 15mph. I haven't measured how fast I can sprint, but at my age (40s), I doubt its higher than 15mph for any timespan longer than a few seconds. So milers effectively sprint for 4 minutes straight. Its mind boggling what the human body can do.

mcbutterbunz commented on Ask HN: Have coders made stuff complicated on purpose? · Posted by u/ziggyzecat

vlovich123 · a year ago

Yeah I feel like people just don’t understand that the efficiency gains have not kept up with the scope of problems we’ve been tackling and that’s why it feels people used to be great.

Games yesterday: worked on certain HW, sound probably required you to jump through hoops to get working, and networking maybe worked on a LAN. If things crashed it was fine because that’s the only thing you ran anyway. Cutting edge graphics for the time but at that time showing an image or playing a video was also an achievement.

Games today: supports HW from at least 2 GPU vendors, an insane amount of resolutions and typically basically the same code for PC, PlayStation, XBOX and maybe even Linux and Mac. Sounds and graphics just works. Networking lets you play with people across the continent over the public internet. Oh and the time and effort invested in graphics quality is insane.

Teams yesterday: highly motivated engineers who were extremely talented and new every part of the machine

Teams today: a mix of highly motivated engineers who are extremely talented with many more who just want their paycheck and to go home of very varying quality of talent. Same expectations of excellence. Machines have gotten very complex that cutting through abstractions is challenging

Infrastructure yesterday: sell a database and the business is responsible for maintaining it and having it run well with onsite domain experts to help

Infrastructure today: sell almost anything so that you need almost no understanding and expertise of the software you’re utilizing.

mcbutterbunz · a year ago

> Teams today: a mix of highly motivated engineers who are extremely talented with many more who just want their paycheck and to go home

These two are not mutually exclusive.

mcbutterbunz commented on NASA spacecraft films crazy vortex while flying through sun's atmosphere mashable.com/article/nasa... · Posted by u/bookofjoe

verisimi · a year ago

You don't think colour photography is mature?

And even if that were the case, do you not think there would be some scientific value to having the photo in colour that it would be worth the risk?

Personally - I think its ridiculous that NASA get so many billions but are unable to put in a decent colour camera. I can't see any acceptable reason for this.

PS first colour photo was in 1890.

PPS I mean 1861! https://www.bbc.com/news/13411083

mcbutterbunz · a year ago

In addition to all the other replies on this topic, monochrome sensors are capable of higher detail and higher sensitivity than color sensors. There's no scientific benefit to using a color sensor. In fact, a color sensor would be detrimental.

mcbutterbunz commented on Why isn't dental health considered primary medical care? knowablemagazine.org/cont... · Posted by u/rntn

juitpykyk · a year ago

Because you can't really die from it? I know you can actually die, but for those situations it will be handled by the emergency room.

Not saying I agree with the policy.

mcbutterbunz · a year ago

Is your argument that diseases that you can’t die from shouldn’t be covered by primary medical care?