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Comment Re:Coming soon: EEETFTFTFs! (Score 4, Interesting) 40

The exchange-traded fund is borrowing money and using that to leverage the short, either by doubling up on trades or something similar synthetically with options contracts. Either way, they have negative carry, because they involve leverage there is a cost of doing business that is a negative on every day you hold that asset.

There are few cases where you'd want to use these over doing the same action yourself, and usually the reason people use them is because they're not allowed for whatever reason to do the direct action themselves. Ultimately, steer clear of them unless you know what you're doing, and if you know what you're doing you don't need my advice.

Comment But Why? (Score 4, Insightful) 119

Sure the quality of the education has fallen, and theres always the chance my kid gets shot by either another kid or the campus cop, but why would parents not want their kids at school? Is it the exposure to illness? The absurd political nonsense around books and libraries? The inane approach to sexual education? Insipid alternative versions of hstory? Obviously parents want their kids to be hazed, bullied, and threatened by other kids and the faculty. They need their children to be handed pre-printed worksheets all day and ignored by a teacher on their phone.

I just can't see why a parent would think that missing a day of school is acceptable.

Comment New Hires Totally Worthless (Score 0) 47

I just asked my latest just-out-of-college hires who was Nixon's Vice President. THEY DIDNT KNOW. Couldn't tell me what year WW2 formally started for the US. Many of them didn't even know who won the Grammy for best new song last year.

Basically worthless if they can't do that.

Obviously the mark of a new large language model is if it can get googable facts correct or else the tool has no worth at all.

Comment Personally (Score 5, Insightful) 192

I can't get my head around the idea that I have to authenticate to Microsoft to get into my local computer, and that my drive encryption is automatically backed up to Microsoft. Not that plus a key, but a direct use "here decrypt everything" is stored on their system. Not as an option, but by default and only adjustable with many work arounds.

I sympathize with MSFT being blamed for unpatched systems and being locked out of encryption and trying to solve both with automatic restarts and cloud-backup, but I don't need or want that. I can backup my own system, I can maintain on my own schedule, and I actually use my computer for more than just web browsing, so you can't randomly restart and "restore state."

Time to bring back Windows NT with sane settings and no cloud integration. I need a Windows made for people who USE their computers, not a Windows for people who want an "iPad but with a keyboard."

Comment Problem is that Router (Score 1) 54

For their 1G service they're happy to just leave you with a port. For 2G+ they want you to use their router & wifi access points with no other options. Sure you can disable most of it, but I have actual quality routing hardware I want to use, not their prosumer gear.

I don't know why we can't just terminate to a normal 10G port and call it a day.

Comment Re:The kid failed physics (Score 1) 231

So you can handle the math that was invented to describe the physics but not understand the physics?

If you can do calculus you should be able to do most Newtonian mechanics. I agree, that sounds like mediocre teaching. I've often thought it would make more sense to join calculus WITH physics so it would be even more straight forward, but apparently to others that sounds like joining two difficult subjects together.

Comment Re:Hurray for cancel culture (Score 1) 296

Despite the name, "corporations" and "limited liability corporations" don't magically protect the owners and operators from liability. You're just as liable for the shit that happens under your corporate structure as you'd be under a sole-prop structure. Only once you add distance between ownership and operators do you start to have the separation of liability, but even then you can still pierce the corporate veil if there is a clear liability for the shareholders.

Its not a magic get-out-of-responsibility-free card. It IS a way for you to own 10% of that business and not have to stay up at night worried that they're going to arrest you for some shitty employee behavior since you have a board that hired an operating manager and that person did a shitty thing. The company gets fined, that guy gets fired, you lose money on your investment, but your "liability is limited" in this case to just the money.

Supreme court decisions like "Citizens United" said that you can have free speech as an individual, and that doesn't go away when you become a group of people (like a company). Unless you happen to believe that "free speech" isn't a protected right for CNN, WaPo, NYT, et. al. who are all incorporated entities.

Comment Re:Bullshit numbers (Score 1) 177

I thought the same thing, but in stupid units. If I assume 2200 lb to the metric ton in the article, and ~6lb per gallon of gas, that's 1600+ gallons /yr, or over 140 a month.

Very few people I know in America drive that much, and that's before we get to the point that not all of the weight of the fuel translates directly.

Comment Re:Balance? (Score 1) 130

Went into a dealership to test drive an X3 and X5. Loved the X3. Spec'd everything out to get it ordered, trade in my current car, etc. No discounts. Terrible trade in. Said I can't do it unless you get to XYZ price on a purchase or ABC on a lease. Told me it was impossible.

Hired a broker to arrange a lease for me. Ended up selling the old car to a local dealership for 20% more than the dealership quoted me. My total price, including the broker fees, delivery fees to have the car dropped off at my front door, the notary that came to my house, and everything else was WELL below the ABC price I said I'd make a deal at.

And I got exactly the car I wanted. Guess what I'm doing when this lease runs out?

Comment Re:This is real risk. (Score 3) 82

I don't understand the failure mode here that would cause incorrect position reporting. Lack of GPS signal causes lack of GPS precision, not *incorrect* positioning. Its reflections/mirroring and other issues causing packets to show up later than they should that cause incorrect positioning.

Not to mention the "backup" traditional pressure based altimeter available when you lose GPS signal.

And of course, the fact that all this dialog is about ground radar altimeters and not GPS reception.

Comment FAA vs FCC (Score 1) 82

This is a pissing match between the FCC and the FAA. Planes with these radar systems (used for landing) are happily in use with no adverse effects in many parts of the world with closer 5G bands than what is under discussion here.

From what I've seen there is plenty of guard channel between what 5G is planning on using in the US and what these systems require, so no interference is expected. The FAA just doesn't like that it hasn't been coddled on this process and is doing everything it can to throw up its hands on the process, including apparently roping Boeing into it. Boeing is running short on friends, so it must toe the FAA line on this.

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