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Comment Meh (Score 4, Interesting) 203

As a card-carrying cranky old recovering sysadmin I get as excited as anyone about the latest systemd faceplant. Because in my day we had sys v and bsd init and we liked it. We liked it just fine.

But I digress. This isnâ(TM)t even that big a stumble. Itâ(TM)s a little egg on face at worst for the team, itâ(TM)s no big deal for shops who do security right (principle of least privilege and defense in depth notifications it at least twice over), and itâ(TM)s potentially a hassle for admins of multiuser systems with malicious or capricious users.

Now, if it were remotely triggerable that⦠(is it? I only read the summary. Or, you know. Glanced at it). Iâ(TM)d have a good chuckle over that one. Because Devuan and the various BSDs all exist and are viable choices. Or unikernels, even.

Comment Re:This literally never works on me (Score 3, Informative) 41

Came here to say exactly this.

IMHO, there should be a system-wide setting that enables or disables apps' ability to request ratings.

I'll add that years ago, there were such a thing as "human interface guidelines" that apps were expected to follow.

One of those guidelines was "do not steal focus from the user." In other words, no popups asking/requiring that the user change contexts.

It's unfortunate that so many developers these days are thinking about themselves (rate me!) instead of their users' experience.

Comment Re:Restricting movement didn't help (Score 1) 641

Restricted movement is ineffective because viruses move. Goods move or your country dies. People jump borders--not just the unauthorized immigration about which Trump keeps whining, but do you think anyone wasn't desperately trying to evade the prohibition from leaving Wuhan? Everyone in Wuhan wanted out of Wuhan. Border guards contact these people and get the virus; physical barriers prohibit anyone who doesn't have the determination to go over, under, around, or through, and don't change their tactics as people compromise them.

It's not ineffective because you did it wrong; it's ineffective because it doesn't fucking work.

Businesses

Augmented-Reality Startup Magic Leap Reportedly Considering Selling Itself (cnet.com) 37

An anonymous reader quotes a report from CNET: Magic Leap, a mysterious maker of augmented reality glasses, is reportedly considering strategic options that include selling itself. The startup is working with an advisor to explore options such as forming a partnership or selling a stake in the company ahead of a potential listing, Bloomberg reported Wednesday, citing unidentified sources. Founded in 2011, Google-funded Magic Leap has spent $2.3 billion creating its AR glasses, and after years of skepticism that the startup might be building the world's best funded vaporware, it finally released its headset in the fall of 2018. The Magic Leap One glasses, which launched with a hefty price tag of $2,295, feature displays, audio and external camera sensors. However, the company reportedly sold just 6,000 virtual reality headsets in the six months after launching the product -- far behind CEO Rony Abovitz's goal of selling 100,000 Magic Leap One devices in that period.

Comment Re:Woah. This is not political, this is economic (Score 1) 463

Yeah, I made 26% today in the first 40 seconds of market open. I'm out right now looking for a directional signal. If we don't seem to be hitting recession, I'll jump in on a triple-leveraged position and take another 60% growth in a week.

It's not exactly a risk-free enterprise. I *can* lose 10% in a day (I've done it before). The whole aim is of course to gain more than I lose in the long run. The S&P does that, but look at its movement: up 1%, down 0.9%, up 1%... I don't like those single-day swings. I like 3% over a week, since I can identify when it's shifting its trend and change my strategy. Repeatedly. That means when it goes up 2%, down 3%, up 2%, down 3%, I make 30%.

As you can imagine, the recent growth (with such tiny wobbles) has been not great for me. It's a lot of risk when the movements are slow, since it turns around in 2-3 days and I usually would buy in at the bottom if it only drops 0.5% across the whole span, so I've been out of the market.

Comment Re:You can't just do basic income (Score 1) 277

But what if you increase productivity and capital and the rent-seekers just soak it all up by raising prices? That's what GPP is suggesting. (This actually happens if minimum wage doesn't track with per-capita income.)

As for increasing productivity, there are a number of ways to bolster that. Negative income tax is actually one way: when you get a liquidity crisis, you lose employment because people who want to buy have no money to pay people who want to work. You can literally fix this by printing money, although I tend to rely on tax-sourced funding--and even then, it moves from low MPC to high MPC. That means NIT flows spending power into geographically concentrated areas of low spending, creating employment, which increases productivity per-capita by increasing labor hours.

Comment Re:Indeed even 25% of the reliable ones quit worki (Score 1) 277

If we have at least a childlike understanding of people, we know that responsible people are responsible and irresponsible people are irresponsible.

Plenty of people drop out of studies and don't return surveys, yet are highly-responsible people. Folks don't necessarily see the same things as a responsibility, i.e. they may see the survey as a triviality and not understand the importance of scientific research.

Here's a fun one: do you think people are more or less likely to do something if you pay them?

We've actually tried this several times. In Sweden, the government did an experiment where they asked various towns if they could put a nuclear waste containment facility near the town. Generally around 45%-50% of residents said yes. They also tried the same survey, but offering the townspeople $4,000, which got them barely above 25% of residents saying yes. Why do these people hate money?

Simple: when not offered money, they had no perception that they weren't offered enough. When offered money, they decided it wasn't enough money.

I get surveys all the time. Sometimes I answer them; sometimes I don't. I only answer the census because I know it matters. I answered an arbor society survey once, then ignored it the next year. I've also held a job for over 6 years straight and never missed a debt payment in my life. Where do I fall in your categorization?

That's right: your existing prejudices and biases inform your ideals about what surveys say about people--or, not really; it's not the survey, but your existing prejudices and biases about giving people free money. That's not human nature; it's a heuristic from recognition of a common archetype: you're the sort who needs downward social comparison so you can feel good about being better than some people.

Comment Re:Indeed even 25% of the reliable ones quit worki (Score 1) 277

That's actually not what happened. Of the 32 who left the workforce, 29 were in unstable employment to begin with. A great number of those who did leave the workforce--and of the unemployed--went to college or vocational training.

We can't project anything about those who didn't follow up. They could have all gotten better jobs and become disinterested in the survey for all we know. Remember people who don't respond to surveys are a different group: there's some variable that separates them from people who do respond to surveys.

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