mhneu (u/mhneu) - Readit News

mhneu commented on What would it take to recreate Bell Labs? construction-physics.com/... · Posted by u/nickwritesit

mhneu · a year ago

The key thing is time horizon.

Bell Labs invested in research that would bring payoff 20+ years in the future. That's in part because they were a quasi-monopoly. (Also because there was less pressure back then on execs to focus on short-term stock prices.)

It's also because Bell Labs ran a lot on government contracts and grants. The government CAN look 20+ years in the future. And it does.

You can see the same effect in pharma today. Pharma R&D develops drugs that will hit the clinic in the next 5-10 years at most. The true basic research of identifying targets and understanding cancer/Alzheimer's mechanisms to launch future drugs -- that's all funded by the government.

mhneu commented on New Dumb Attack Against Gigi Sohn Tries to Shame Her for Being on the EFF Board techdirt.com/2023/01/27/n... · Posted by u/VerifiedJoseph

mhneu · 3 years ago

Context: This is about the FCC.

Today, we’re just talking about a problem. That problem is the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is currently short a commissioner, and the Biden administration and Senate Democrats just can’t seem to get that seat filled despite having nominated an amazingly qualified person. Her name is Gigi Sohn. The inability to get Gigi confirmed at the FCC has left the commission deadlocked with two Democrats and two Republicans. That means the commission in charge of regulating all telecom in the United States, including how you get your internet service, is unable to get much done. And the Biden administration can’t accomplish some of its biggest policy priorities, like expanding rural broadband and restoring net neutrality.

mhneu commented on Ask HN: Has anyone worked at the US National Labs before? · Posted by u/science4sail

mhneu · 3 years ago

There's also NIH which does lots of computational biology and medicine:

https://datascience.nih.gov/

https://hr.nih.gov/jobs

https://irp.nih.gov/

mhneu commented on Caroline Ellison Plea Hearing Transcript (12/19/2022) [pdf] johnreedstark.com/wp-cont... · Posted by u/1vuio0pswjnm7

greenyoda · 3 years ago

Judge Abrams is no longer involved in the case. She recused herself due to a potential conflict of interest: https://www.businessinsider.com/ftx-collapse-sbf-judge-stepp...

"...the case was reassigned to Lewis A. Kaplan, a senior judge at the court, legal filings show."

Kaplan was appointed by Bill Clinton in 1994: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lewis_A._Kaplan

mhneu · 3 years ago

Yes. Abrams presided over the plea on Dec 19. Now Kaplan has the case.

Abrams' husband works at Davis Polk, but Davis Polk (firm w/ ~1000 attorneys) has represented FTX in the past. It's pretty typical for these sorts of conflicts to arise, and in this case it's probably best to remove any sniff of a perceived conflict by Abrams stepping aside. Nothing here is going to be controversial -- though our federal courts are currently going through serious turmoil due to events of last few years, albeit not really SDNY and the 2nd Circuit is mostly normal too.

mhneu commented on Caroline Ellison Plea Hearing Transcript (12/19/2022) [pdf] johnreedstark.com/wp-cont... · Posted by u/1vuio0pswjnm7

kerblang · 3 years ago

> So the maximum sentences for Counts One, Two, Three and Four are all the same, so I'm going to read them together, okay, at once. So with respect to your liberty, the maximum term of imprisonment for each of the four counts, One through Four, is 20 years in prison.

> With respect to your liberty on Counts Five and Six, the maximum term of imprisonment for each count is five years

> And then lastly, on Count Seven, that has a maximum term of imprisonment of 20 years

Whoa

mhneu · 3 years ago

The maximum total is not the realistic maximum that she would get if tried. Criminal offense category, concurrent sentences, and criminal history all need to be taken into account.

mhneu commented on Caroline Ellison Plea Hearing Transcript (12/19/2022) [pdf] johnreedstark.com/wp-cont... · Posted by u/1vuio0pswjnm7

mhneu · 3 years ago

Before judge Ronnie Abrams, an Obama judge.

mhneu commented on What’s in a PR statement: LastPass breach explained palant.info/2022/12/26/wh... · Posted by u/saikatsg

mtlmtlmtlmtl · 3 years ago

More interesting to me is that this shouldn't be an issue, they should just lose out to the competition organically.

And yet here we are.

mhneu · 3 years ago

Duopoly. Plus cost of switching away once you sign up.

Network effects and monopolistic (anti-competitive) features allow bad companies to survive today. Monopolistic practices are probably a worse problem today than in the 1920s.

In the 1920s governments used regulation to break up huge firms and defeat advantages due to cost of capital (hard to start a new railroad in the 20s because the cost of trains and tracks was just so high.) Today, cost of capital is relatively less important, and things like switching cost and bundling and people valuing their time and convenience are bigger factors. We need anti-trust/government regulation to address those.

(For example, in the case of password managers, imagine if there were laws requiring publicized security audits and seamless migration to a new service of customer's choice. A competitor to Lastpass might have arrived by now.

mhneu commented on Fusion breakthrough is a noteworthy step spectrum.ieee.org/nationa... · Posted by u/pseudolus

petilon · 3 years ago

Great video from David Pogue on the National Ignition Facility: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7rI5-wASmzQ

If you watch the video it looks like it was shot earlier this year, but it is 10 years old. And yet, the video mentions 192 lasers (so that hasn't changed in 10 years), and they also mention that even after ignition is achieved, "laser fusion won't be able to power a city until a plant can fire 100s of shots a minute."

Interesting quote from a skeptic in the video: "We'll see pigs fly before we see ignition at the National Ignition Facility".

mhneu · 3 years ago

the improvements have come in confinement and fuel

if this approach works, you'll see laser innovation over time to improve energy per shot. You'll also see engineering to contain the released neutrons so everything in there doesn't get made radioactive.

mhneu commented on My secret life as an 11-year-old BBS sysop arstechnica.com/informati... · Posted by u/pwg

mhneu · 3 years ago

Maximus / Squish Fido sysop here.

Long ran on a 300 baud modem (I think it was one bit per transition!.) Upgraded to a 2400 baud Hayes smartmodem full-duplex (V22bis!) and eventually a 14.4k Zyxel running some strange proprietary protocol with asymmetric channels. If I remember correctly, it's been a long long time.

Did anyone else's sister intentionally pick up other phone lines regularly to ditch the modem transfers so she could talk on the phone?

PCBoard was too expensive for me at the time

mhneu commented on Forgetting the Asbestos – how we lose knowledge and technologies 1517.substack.com/p/forge... · Posted by u/areoform

mhneu · 3 years ago

The context of when and why (and to who) asbestos causes cancer is simply ignored.

Asbestos causes a very, very nasty cancer - mesothelioma - that causes almost certain death. Painful death. With a very bad prognosis. And mesothelioma is caused mainly by asbestos.

There's a reason why we purged asbestos. No one wants to get mesothelioma.

https://www.cancer.org/cancer/malignant-mesothelioma/causes-...

The main risk factor for pleural mesothelioma is exposure to asbestos. In fact, most cases of pleural mesothelioma have been linked to high levels of asbestos exposure, usually in the workplace.

Note that talc is a mineral crystal/fiber a little like asbestos, and talc is connected to ovarian/uterine cancer. Let's not play around with dusty tiny pieces of rock, they seem to be bad for our bodies.