saltminer (u/saltminer)

saltminer commented on Show HN: Atlas of Space atlasof.space/... · Posted by u/gordonhart

saltminer · 8 months ago

This is incredible. I've also struggled to comprehend the scale of distance and time in space due to the sheer magnitudes involved, but this really puts it into perspective.

Some suggestions:

- Better documentation/help menu. (What is ∆t relative to? Some internal clock tick? Also, you should link the source code in the menu.)

- Arbitrary time adjustments so I could click on the date and set a custom date to view any point in the past or future

- The ability to see more than just the solar system

saltminer commented on White House unveils Cyber Trust Mark program for consumer devices nextgov.com/cybersecurity... · Posted by u/WaitWaitWha

kube-system · 8 months ago

You might be getting a bit too far ahead of where the industry is at with some of those wishlist items. NIST's requirements are things that are best practices that everyone agrees with, like:

* data stored/transmitted is secured by some kind of means

* the device supports software updates

* the device requires users to authenticate

* the device has documentation

* you can report security vulnerabilities to the developer

And even these are things that many devices fail to do, today. We gotta get the basics fixed first.

But for now, you can presume the Netflix button on your TV remote can't be configured to point to an alternative API if Netflix goes away. :)

saltminer · 8 months ago

> But for now, you can presume the Netflix button on your TV remote can't be configured to point to an alternative API if Netflix goes away. :)

At least for Android TV devices, Button Mapper works for some.

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=flar2.homebutt...

saltminer commented on Nvidia announces next-gen RTX 5090 and RTX 5080 GPUs theverge.com/2025/1/6/243... · Posted by u/somebee

Reason077 · 8 months ago

Many American homes already have 240V sockets (eg: NEMA 14-30) for running clothes dryers, car chargers, etc. These can provide over 7200W continuous power!

I guess PC power supplies need to start adopting this standard.

saltminer · 8 months ago

You can't use a NEMA 14-30 to power a PC because 14-30 outlets are split-phase (that's why they have 4 prongs - 2 hot legs, shared neutral, shared ground). To my knowledge, the closest you'll get to split-phase in computing is connecting the redundant PSU in a server to a separate phase or a DC distribution system connected to a multi-phase rectifier, but those are both relegated to the datacenter.

You could get an electrician to install a different outlet like a NEMA 6-20 (I actually know someone who did this) or a European outlet, but it's not as simple as installing more appliance circuits, and you'll be paying extra for power cables either way.

If you have a spare 14-30 and don't want to pay an electrician, you could DIY a single-phase 240v circuit with another center tap transformer, though I wouldn't be brave enough to even attempt this, much less connect a $2k GPU to it.

saltminer commented on NYC Congestion Pricing Tracker congestion-pricing-tracke... · Posted by u/gotmedium

asdff · 8 months ago

Thats the thing with socal traffic especially. Absolutely zero enforcement by the police. What do they do with their resources instead? There was a man with a knife caught in a burglary last week and the police sent like 40 suvs some unmarked with the blue and red lights through the windscreen, a swat team, and a helicopter. Probably in the millions spent for that operation alone for this guy with a kitchen knife. I wonder how little you could get a man with a knife disarmed for in some midwestern suburb in comparison. Oh and keep in mind they didn’t actually go in after the guy they just did a standoff till 2am when he surrendered on his own.

Meanwhile everyone blocks the box and there are cars without even plates on them.

saltminer · 8 months ago

That's hardly a SoCal phenomenon, sadly. In all the places I've lived, "protect and serve" seems to be abbreviated - "protect and serve our desk jobs and pensions" would be more accurate. If the TSA is security theater, the police are a circus, and the occasional show of force is them coming to town.

It's like those pictures of Luigi Mangione being perp walked in Manhattan with 20 cops and FBI agents behind him. Imagine if those officers were on the beat or enforcing traffic laws instead. That would make more of a difference in our communities than a photo op ever will.

saltminer commented on NYC Congestion Pricing Tracker congestion-pricing-tracke... · Posted by u/gotmedium

maxwellg · 8 months ago

I'm incredibly hopeful that NYC congestion pricing pays off in a big way - and that we start to see it in other cities across America. I really, really want congestion pricing in downtown SF. During rush hour, cars block the box and slow down busses, with cascading effects.

saltminer · 8 months ago

> During rush hour, cars block the box

There's an easy solution to this: have ticket writers waiting at intersections to paper all the cars who do it. It's not like they can drive away. NYC used to be really good about enforcement, and it worked extremely well.

It doesn't solve traffic, but it does help stave off gridlock and keep intersections free for bus lanes to operate normally.

saltminer commented on Carvana: A Father-Son Accounting Grift for the Ages hindenburgresearch.com/ca... · Posted by u/boh

saltminer · 8 months ago

Grant Thornton seems to take on the worst clients. They've been featured by Hindenburg at three other companies [0][1][2], two of whom switched to them from E&Y [1][2], like Carvana.

> Around 2019, Wells Fargo was considering becoming Carvana’s second financing partner, according to a Senior Manager at Wells Fargo we spoke with:

> “Their underwriting practices were not something that we were particularly comfortable with. [...] In one anecdotal example, when we had someone look at a proof of employment or a pay stub, it did not look to be legitimate. So we had significant concerns about some of those controls. To say you work for a large company, your pay stub shouldn’t look like someone built it in Microsoft Word. It should have a little bit more substance to it and look more official.”

With standards this low, they should hit up Block/Square [3], it's a match made in heaven.

I have to wonder if the reason Ally has been buying fewer loans is purely market-based (the risk-reward for subprime is worse in a high interest rate environment, unhappy with rising delinquency rates, etc.) or if Carvana's standards have taken a dive.

[0]: https://hindenburgresearch.com/eros-international-on-the-gro...

[1]: https://hindenburgresearch.com/crius-energy-trust-an-unsusta...

[2]: https://hindenburgresearch.com/lpp/

[3]: https://hindenburgresearch.com/block/

saltminer · 8 months ago

Too late to edit, but I scrolled right past the "Morningstar Pre-Sale Report, September 2024 [Pg. 14]" table. They've been primarily lending to deep subprime borrowers since at least 2021.

Considering other subprime lenders have reduced extensions while Carvana has doubled them, I'm guessing their lending standards have cratered even by subprime standards and Ally isn't happy.

saltminer commented on Carvana: A Father-Son Accounting Grift for the Ages – Hindenburg Research hindenburgresearch.com/ca... · Posted by u/tortilla

addicted · 8 months ago

The people who whine about shorts are ridiculous IMO.

Yes, shorts have some negative incentives that we need to be careful about.

But they’re the only ones in the entire market who don’t have incentives to lie about how well a company is doing. A decently run market with a reasonable number of shorts would not build up to the bubbles we see regularly that collapse and need to be bailed out.

It was the shorts who noticed the housing bubble in the first place. If there’s were more of them they could have popped it much more gradually and less painfully than the crash we had which has been the precursor to a lot of the terrible things we’ve faced since then.

saltminer · 8 months ago

The real problem is the SEC has largely abdicated its role to meaningfully prosecute fraud. Short sellers shouldn't be our only real defense against fraud, but that's the reality we (Americans) live in.

saltminer commented on Carvana: A Father-Son Accounting Grift for the Ages hindenburgresearch.com/ca... · Posted by u/boh

saltminer · 8 months ago

Grant Thornton seems to take on the worst clients. They've been featured by Hindenburg at three other companies [0][1][2], two of whom switched to them from E&Y [1][2], like Carvana.

> Around 2019, Wells Fargo was considering becoming Carvana’s second financing partner, according to a Senior Manager at Wells Fargo we spoke with:

> “Their underwriting practices were not something that we were particularly comfortable with. [...] In one anecdotal example, when we had someone look at a proof of employment or a pay stub, it did not look to be legitimate. So we had significant concerns about some of those controls. To say you work for a large company, your pay stub shouldn’t look like someone built it in Microsoft Word. It should have a little bit more substance to it and look more official.”

With standards this low, they should hit up Block/Square [3], it's a match made in heaven.

I have to wonder if the reason Ally has been buying fewer loans is purely market-based (the risk-reward for subprime is worse in a high interest rate environment, unhappy with rising delinquency rates, etc.) or if Carvana's standards have taken a dive.

[0]: https://hindenburgresearch.com/eros-international-on-the-gro...

[1]: https://hindenburgresearch.com/crius-energy-trust-an-unsusta...

[2]: https://hindenburgresearch.com/lpp/

[3]: https://hindenburgresearch.com/block/

saltminer commented on Why is it so hard to buy things that work well? (2022) danluu.com/nothing-works/... · Posted by u/janandonly

mattgreenrocks · 9 months ago

This post is so interesting to me, esp. the build-vs-buy spectrum.

As Dan notes, a lot of software is just...not very good. It either isn't upfront with flaws (as in the case of the Postgres -> Snowflake tool), has too much scope, or is abstracted poorly. Finding things to buy/use (as in the case of open source) can often eat a lot more time than you anticipate.

I've been dipping my toes into the JS ecosystem, and I keep bumping into the fact that using mentally cheap signals of quality (such as stars or DL counts) almost never indicates the quality of the thing itself. Winners seem to be randomly chosen, almost! The only way to assess is to read the code and try integrating it in.

I'd go farther to argue that the larger an ecosystem/market is, the more untrustworthy it behaves as a whole, simply due to the size, and the types of people attracted to it who want to get influence/money. See also: appliances that everyone needs.

saltminer · 9 months ago

I've seen this same problem with many so-called low-code/no-code application creation tools (e.g. Betty Blocks). In their quest to cover every use case, they cover none of them well, forcing compromises and creating more real-code work for the actual application developers whose systems have to be accessed by these tools.

It would have been quicker and cheaper if the company just hired more actual developers to integrate properly with existing systems (and resulted in more featureful, less buggy applications), but the prospect of paying lower salaries for less qualified people to do the same end result (as promised by the slopware vendors) seems to be a siren song of sorts to management.

saltminer commented on UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson fatally shot in Manhattan bloomberg.com/news/articl... · Posted by u/mupuff1234

ryandrake · 9 months ago

Per capita tells the real story. I'd take Chicago or New York over any small town in, say, rural Mississippi or Alabama[1]. Yet [certain] media's "big liberal cities = bad" narrative continues...

1: https://www.police1.com/ambush/articles/10-us-counties-with-...

saltminer · 9 months ago

It's wild the tales [certain] media outlets tell. When I moved to Chicago, I got no end of suggestions to buy a gun, get bulletproof glass for my car, increase my life insurance policy...

Sure, the deep south and west sides might be not be too nice (particularly at night), but that's mostly gangs shooting at each other. My neighborhood is actually quite nice, but even if you take the city as a whole, the violent crime rate is 639.7 per 100,000 people [0] or 5.38 per 1,000 [1], depending on what source you go by (but I'll just use the 639.7 figure since that actually makes the city look worse). Compare this to Houston, TX: 11.35 per 1,000 people [2], Dallas, TX: 7.71 per 1,000 [3], or Nashville, TN: 10.95 per 1,000 [4].

So, 0.006397 (Chicago) vs 0.01135 (Houston) vs 0.00771 (Dallas) vs 0.01095 (Nashville). Hmmm...seems like Chicago is slightly more peaceful than Dallas, I'm 1.77x more likely to be the victim of a violent crime in Houston, and 1.71x more likely in Nashville. One has to wonder, if Chicago is apparently a warzone, why [certain] media outlets aren't equating Houston and Nashville to Fallujah.

[0]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crime_in_Chicago

[1]: https://www.neighborhoodscout.com/il/chicago/crime

[2]: https://www.neighborhoodscout.com/tx/houston/crime

[3]: https://www.neighborhoodscout.com/tx/dallas/crime

[4]: https://www.neighborhoodscout.com/tn/nashville/crime