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Comment Re: We are also paying the Germans 1.2 billion (Score 2, Interesting) 122

Given how much of modern manufacturing is fully automated, why couldn't US companies compete on a level playing field with Chinese ones?

Tariffs simply allow domestic manufacturers to reap higher profits and/or continue to use inefficient processes to create an equivalent product.

Perhaps the motto of the USA will eventually become: "Tariffed into mediocrity"

Comment Re:Wait a second (Score 1) 22

Depends on the studio and position. A very well paid senior programmer might make $150k-$170k in the US. But that's pretty much the top end of the scale. Salaries in the game industry are infamously low because it's so FUN. Aren't you grateful to have such a FUN job? It's FUN, be grateful that you make any money at all so you can be creative!

Designers make less, Artists make less. QA makes WAY less (which is a travesty, because we depend on them so much in the development cycle. As a programmer, I probably talk to QA as much as I talk to design).

But if you're a Canadian programmer, you might make $150k and live in a city like Vancouver which has insanely high housing costs. Maybe you have kids, or pets.

You've kind of hit the nail on the head with regards to the issue, though: many developers aren't paid particularly well, even by huge companies that make billions of dollars (and indeed, that's why the companies are so profitable).

I interviewed at Roblox, and their salary ranges STARTED far beyond where most studios ranges ENDED for my position (Senior Programmer, 20 years experience). They told me that they consider tech companies like Google to be their competition for talent, not other game studios, so their salaries are adjusted accordingly.

So yeah, very easy to believe that people are feeling the pinch after getting laid off. It's not a lucrative industry for the workers.

Comment Parsing (Score 1) 20

What was the headline supposed be? At first I thought they left out a hyphen, so there were 11-hour outages:

IT Teams Report 11 Hour a Week on-Cloud Connectivity Problems

But no, the teams are talking about hosting clouds themselves, so they really just got the plural wrong:

IT Teams Report Spending 11 Hours a Week on Cloud Connectivity Problems

I think by convention (if not by definition) I should expect to understand the headline without reading further.

Comment Re:Between 30 and 35,000 jobs lost (Score 3, Interesting) 22

This comment is very stupid for a lot of reasons.

1. Not every developer needs help
2. Not every developer wasn't able to find a new job
3. The intention is not to distribute money to every person that lost their job in the layoffs, it's to extend a lifeline to people who are struggling
4. The thing that would meaningfully change things is to implement strong labour laws, tax the wealth of the extremely wealthy, and make it easier to form unions. The number of roadblocks to unionizing have increased over the decades, which is one of many reasons there's been such an obvious, ongoing, inexorable transfer of wealth from the working class to the owning class.

When the government is in the pocket of these huge companies and actively make laws diminishing the power of workers, it's an obvious bad-faith question to ask why people don't do something about it.

I have lots of ways to meaningfully change things, but I can't buy a politician because I'm not a billionaire, so changing things take longer. Don't worry, though, we're making some progress despite that.

Comment Basic question (Score 2) 78

Why isn't there a second independent AI that examines the main AI's output, and decides if it should be censored or not. If it thinks so, the answer is not delivered.

Since the second one is only looking at the first AI's output it seems like it would be difficult or impossible to fool it, especially if it's window is very short (like only the current message).

I assume there is some reason this does not work. Any explanations?

Comment Destined for failure (Score 1) 14

These drone delivery services that have to operate in line-of sight and comply with a gazillion FAA regulations are doomed to failure. You could deliver the order faster using a trebuchet over such distances and with fewer liabilities or costs.

Manna Aero has moved to the USA for its trials because it effectively had so many problems in it's home of Ireland and Just the other day another 85lb Amazon drone crashed and burned.

Given the costs, both from a hardware, labor and systems perspective, they'll never compete with a gig-worker on an ebike.

Comment Re:Bring back forest managment (Score 5, Informative) 111

No amount of forest management can help a forest that's tinder dry the whole year.

I live in the Okanagan valley in BC, and this winter we got so little snow, and the snow pack had melted off extra early. A deeper snow pack lets the water feed the water system over a longer period of time, keeping the ground wet for longer. Our early summer was a little cooler and wetter than usual, but our lake levels are the lowest in recorded history. (My city is in between two lakes: Okanagan and Skaha.) I talk to the farmers at the market every week, and every farm exists in a different microclimate, so sometimes 10 minutes between farms is the difference between ground so wet you can't walk in the fields and dusty-dry conditions.

But overall, it's hot and dry here, and getting hotter and drier. We've been on level 2 water restrictions since early May, if I remember right, and we've had a campfire ban for about the same time. There was no ice on the lake over the winter--the long-distance outdoor swimmers swam the whole winter this year. 40-50 years ago (long before I moved here, this is just what the older folks around town say) the lake froze over so solid that you could drive a car across it.

The tinder isn't the issue anymore, even though it's true that we ignored the indigenous people here for too long and should have adopted their land use practices. I wish it were as easy as you say.

Comment Re:Neuromancer looks good. (Score 1) 42

As someone with aphantasia, the settings never really stick with me (or that may be separate from the aphantasia, honestly, I don't know) but the vibe is very much what I was hoping for.

I read the book again a couple years ago, and it's aged really well, honestly. The things he gets wrong aren't that critical, in my opinion. I've read a lot of scifi that has done a much worse job of hanging together, even though it's only 10 or 20 years old. Neuromancer was published when I was a kid, and even the NAME is still cool as hell.

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