mekanicalsyncop (u/mekanicalsyncop)

mekanicalsyncop commented on I wrote a SaaS product because the internet made me believe it'd make me rich blog.stetsonblake.com/tho... · Posted by u/stets

kilroy123 · 6 years ago

> There's absolutely zero chance that they all just happened to be female, nicely formatted [firstname].[lastname]@gmail.com addresses.

That is my email address: [firstname].[lastname]@gmail.com

I'm not female though.

mekanicalsyncop · 6 years ago

yea but if you got 50 inquiries from random people on the Internet interested in your product would you expect all or even most of them to be in the exact format firstname.lastname@gmail?

I'd expect most or even all of them to be from gmail but I'd be skeptical if they all followed the same naming convention, whether its first.last or something else.

That alone is at least mildly suspicious but it doesn't prove its not legitimate. However in this case he also used other data points to make that determination.

mekanicalsyncop commented on Valve drops VR support for macOS techcrunch.com/2020/05/01... · Posted by u/BSVogler

ironmagma · 6 years ago

This is definitely subjective. While you find mouse acceleration on Macs miserable, I find mouse acceleration on anything _but_ Macs miserable (looking at you especially, Linux/Mutter).

mekanicalsyncop · 6 years ago

I'm mostly commenting on acceleration in gaming. The acceleration alone doesn't bother me for productivity. However, for gaming it doesn't matter what platform you are on acceleration sucks. Technically a subjective opinion but its pretty close to a consensus for anyone that plays 3d action games where you control the camera and/or your crosshairs with a mouse.

mekanicalsyncop commented on Lyft cuts internship salaries by 50% · Posted by u/johntiger1

mekanicalsyncop · 6 years ago

I'm not an intern. I'm also well aware of what's happening.

mekanicalsyncop commented on Valve drops VR support for macOS techcrunch.com/2020/05/01... · Posted by u/BSVogler

ComputerGuru · 6 years ago

I don’t think you understand what raw input means. It doesn’t mean telling the OS you don’t want it to mess with your input, it means bypassing the userland OS input framework entirely and grabbing the input at a lower level preventing the default OS stack from even processing those input events.

A well-designed game would do that, anyway. I wouldn’t be surprised if the counter strike port for macOS doesn’t qualify as such.

mekanicalsyncop · 6 years ago

I understand what it means. There's an option in CS and it doesn't seem to actually do anything on Mac OS. Its one of the most popular games ever created and unlike many AAA devs Valve is still actually really good at what they do. If they can't get it right on a Mac it doesn't inspire much confidence that its an acceptable gaming platform.

Can you name an online FPS with a decent sized community with proper raw input on Mac OS? I'd be willing to give it a shot and see if its different. There are plenty of games that aren't CS that people have complained about over the years.

Also, raw input or not I was talking about multiple issues. Every mouse I have ever used on the 2 MBP's I've had felt terrible and nowhere near as smooth as the same mice on a PC even for general desktop use. Even Apple's mouse feels pretty bad.

I don't really know why, their touchpads are amazingly smooth and responsive.

mekanicalsyncop commented on Why Restaurants Are So Fucked medium.com/@joelleparente... · Posted by u/paulpauper

flowerbeater · 6 years ago

I don't buy this. At a fast food chain, drinks are $1 with free refills. A burger is $3 for the fancy ones, $1 for the dollar menu ones. The windows also have all sorts of 4 for $4 or $5 value meal deals. So $5 without any coupons at Wendy's. Two people can eat for $6 if you use a coupon.

Ruby Tuesday burgers are $9.50 with fries. Add a soda, tip, tax, and it's $16. The multiple is still 3-4x.

mekanicalsyncop · 6 years ago

It also depends on where you live. Some places the price disparity might be higher than others.

Also if you're talking about dollar menu stuff or the stuff close to it, its about 1/3 the size of the burgers included in fast food meals. The burgers in the meals are comparable in size to what you would get at a sit down restaurant.

mekanicalsyncop commented on Lyft cuts internship salaries by 50% · Posted by u/johntiger1

throwlaplace · 6 years ago

The gal of some people. How many places do you think are even running internships right now let alone paying interns over 30/hr.

mekanicalsyncop · 6 years ago

Its about more than the raw numbers too. If you make 9600 a month as an intern and you get offered a job you are certainly going to be offered more than you made as an intern. However, if you make 4800 as an intern there probably isn't a large company in the world that wouldn't use that as leverage to offer you full time employment at a salary far below 9600.

mekanicalsyncop commented on Valve drops VR support for macOS techcrunch.com/2020/05/01... · Posted by u/BSVogler

yellowapple · 6 years ago

What's sad is that once upon a time (back when macOS was called OS X, and when iMacs used PowerPC CPUs) the mouse acceleration was great, and the cursor buttery smooth, at least so I thought.

mekanicalsyncop · 6 years ago

I really like a lot about MacOS but unfortunately I didn't get a chance to ever use it until 2014 so I wasn't able to experience that.

I'd get rid of my Windows computer in an instant if it wasn't for the poor support Mac has for gaming. Windows is fine but I enjoy the Mac workflow more.

mekanicalsyncop commented on Why Restaurants Are So Fucked medium.com/@joelleparente... · Posted by u/paulpauper

dehrmann · 6 years ago

1 and 2 can both be true and margins can still be low because of higher rent and/or labor costs.

> Is it really just too many food vendors thinking that the $1 happy meal is their competition?

Maybe if you're a Burger King, but most restaurants aren't really competing with fast food. It's more like the Italian place is competing with the Sushi place in the same price bracket (I'm guessing, but 3x-5x more than fast food).

mekanicalsyncop · 6 years ago

It used to be 3-5x more than fast food.

A burger with a meal + a drink @ Wendys is like $8+. The price of fast food has risen quite a bit over the years.

I can get a burger and fries that's 10x better at Friendly's, Ruby Tuesday's or a half a dozen other franchises for about $10-12 and the only sacrifice I have to make is that I'll have to drink water instead of soda.

mekanicalsyncop commented on Valve drops VR support for macOS techcrunch.com/2020/05/01... · Posted by u/BSVogler

ascom · 6 years ago

FPS games typically use raw input, which bypasses any acceleration settings in the OS. This works on both Windows and macOS, assuming the game is properly written. This is why I insist on keeping mouse acceleration enabled since it helps with everyday computing tasks and has no effect on at least the games I normally play.

Regarding the comment above, it is definitely possible there are subtle configuration differences that cause the described behavior (different acceleration curves, polling rate/DPI settings, display refresh rates, etc). FWIW, my “gaming” mouse works fine with my MBP, but it takes a moment to readjust to the different sensitivity and acceleration behavior.

mekanicalsyncop · 6 years ago

Getting rid of Mac OS's acceleration isn't simply a matter of clicking "raw input" in a game's options.

Even if you use the command line to actually disable it for some reason the mouse still feels off.

If you google, for example "counterstrike mac os raw input" or something similar, you'll see lots of posts about people having the same issue. The raw input setting doesn't work properly. Granted the posts are from a couple years ago. The last time I tried to play a game on a Mac was probably around 2018. I tried every workaround I could find on the internet and it was still terrible.

What I described has nothing to do with a difference of sensitivity or polling rate/dpi. Although if a person is unfamiliar with those things they could have an issue with them.

mekanicalsyncop commented on Lyft cuts internship salaries by 50% · Posted by u/johntiger1

kosigz · 6 years ago

Lyft engineer here.

I agree that this is an unfortunate turn of events — and I would be sad to be in your position.

To add a bit more context:

• we just parted ways with 23% of our staff (layoff + furlough) this week.

• remaining team members are taking a 3 month 10% cut in base salary.

• unlike many companies, we're still conducting our internship program — so it's good that you at least have the option to continue with your internship, unlike many others whose internships were canceled.

At $9600 per month, Lyft had one of the highest salaries for an internship; $4800 per month is still a decent chunk of change, particularly as you don't have to be in Seattle, NYC, or San Francisco anymore.

If you have other options, I think everyone would understand if you chose to pursue those instead. If not or if you choose to join us anyway, having an internship at Lyft can lead to a full-time offer and/or make you more competitive when applying for full-time jobs in the future.

The real value of an internship is more-so in giving you practical experience rather than the compensation.

mekanicalsyncop · 6 years ago

If you're talking about software jobs, 9600 for an internship is way above average and now that its 4800 its below average so that's not a good chunk of change.