skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
Advice he should have probably taken when referring to 4d chess.
I was going to say something similar. It's inarguable that they were a tech company, when they pioneered streaming delivery for existing video content. Their tech platform was their primary differentiator to competitors for a number of years.

Whether they are currently a tech company is a bit fuzzier. Certainly they new have content as an additional differentiator, and the margin of their tech advantage has narrowed.
At least it's not DNS... right?
Which is why there's no decent judicial system here
What a coincidence—I ordered the print version, and it’s arriving today.

I’ve been following the book for a while but decided to wait until the print version was out.
I've always viewed genetics and talent as essentially your maximum potential. Lots of ways to drag you down from being all that you can be (lead, malnutrition, a good knock on the head), but given a sufficiently good environment, genetics (or perhaps inherent ability might be better) then become the limiting factor on how far you can go.

Your random guy on the street ain't going to be Newton, no matter how much he studies or loves math. Similarly, the man born with muscular dystrophy isn't going to be setting marathon records.

This is a simplification of course, but I hope it conveys the point.
There are these things called CI/CD and integration tests.
Found this interesting deck[1] on El Salvador's digital climate while looking for smart phone adoption statistics. It would appear that there are more than enough smart devices to allow for such a transition successfully. Already on Twitter we're seeing crypto-punks there using Bitcoin to pay for their McDonalds, paying something like 0.000002 Bitcoin. I can't help but wonder what the outcome +1 year / + 5 years will be.

[1] https://datareportal.com/reports/digital-2021-el-salvador
Banks are run by the bankers and the tech team is typically very second fiddle. I work in fin tech.
Aren't you worried about name similarity to Revolut? Or old RC car game Re-volt?
Calling PragerU propaganda is like calling an Western history book written by a religious person contraband. What exact points do you take umbrage with or is this just a signal to your political preference?
Oklahoma Doctor at Center of Viral Ivermectin Story Says Report Is Wrong
This strikes me as a bit weak, and an answer looking for a question.

> the current evidence is limited to case–control studies that are prone to bias and studies relying solely on administrative data.9–14 It is also limited in its definition of exposure, as these studies assess patients with heavy cannabis use (cannabis abuse or cannabis use disorder).9–14 Very few studies have assessed the prevalence of recent cannabis use (any use within past 30 days) and its association with MI.7,9,15 Prevalence estimates of the primary method of cannabis consumption and the frequency of cannabis use are incompletely characterized, and the potential impact of these factors on the risk of MI remains undefined.

Is it just me, or does that sound like they are admitting that there were no real controls, except they tried to select for people who had an "abusive" (a level of use not defined in the abstract) relationship with Cannabis.

The conclusions they drew sound a bit heavy-handed for such a vague survey of corellations, or is that just me?
Or just have customers who mostly can't grasp authenticators. A friend worked for a company that implemented 2FA with the authenticator app. They removed it in a day as it ground the company to a halt.
Best part is the President trolling the IMF on Twitter: https://twitter.com/nayibbukele/status/1435263064933285898
Yeah, when adding new customers is near marginal cost you are tech company. This ofc does fail some like Tesla at far end, but also Apple and Amazon.

So tech is bit murky, but Netflix with Google and Facebook should clearly qualify.
Some of the worst aspects of IBM's internal dysfunction survived Gerstner, even though he claimed to had fix them. It's hard to blame him personally, he's just one person. The important point is he perfectly identified the problems, which I find amazing considering most corporate CEO's don't have a clue about how their companies are actually operating.

disclaimer: ex-IBM.
> purely based on a superior and novel tech experience for its users.

I don't think this is accurate - the main value proposition of Netflix seems to have always been "streaming site with lots of mainstream content, that is also legal". I.e. it's the streaming deals they've made that mattered, not delivery tech or their web player.
I also tend to think the distinction is related to compartmentalizing all technical activities into an IT suborganization. A tech company performs all these activities as a matter of the regular course of business, within the lines of business organizations. A bank would have a dedicated IT organization, a few layers of 'governance' and human orchestrators to slow down your builders, and you get all the dysfunction you describe.
It's less than 1.3%; it's a +0.5% delta (+0.3-3% for the confidence interval).
> Ultimately any company that makes money is not a tech company because pure technology on its own does not make a business.

So Intel, TSMC, Nvidia are not tech companies?
Fiscal policy is what the government does. Governments sell bonds to raise money, this is what "government debt" is, a bunch of bonds each for a fixed period (usually between 1 and 30 years), pay interest each year and then repay the collateral when they expire.

Monetary policy is what central banks do, and includes quantitative easing (QE) which is often referred to as "money printing". Monetary policy also includes setting interest rates, managing the supply of physical currency and acting as a clearing house for bank operations.

The two are separate things but get conflated a lot in discussion - including on here - which makes the whole thing way more confusing than it could be. These Bank of England pamphlets on money in the modern economy are the clearest layman's overviews of the monetary policy side of things I've found:

https://www.bankofengland.co.uk/-/media/boe/files/quarterly-...

https://www.bankofengland.co.uk/-/media/boe/files/quarterly-...
Sales and consulting are two sides of the same coin.

Both bring in revenue, but neither creates product.

If you have leadership that allocates resources to boost revenue, without an understanding of why customers are paying, more and more resources and power accrue to sales and consulting departments. Eventually, this kills the company.

Above anything else, the lack of a distinct and political sales and/or consulting org is what makes startups startups. Most of the people fulfilling those roles are dual-hatted elsewhere, or at least sit close enough to people who are that they have a more holistic view.
> Crypto is a real industry.

Not really. An industry produces goods and services. What does crypto produce?
This is utterly ridiculous.

I think it's generally understood that, in the 21st century, a "tech company" is a company that uses tech as the principal competitive advantage to replace traditional "non-21st-century-tech" incumbents.

Obviously, Netflix used streaming, collaborative filtering recommendations, and a massive CDN to replace cable TV subscriptions.

If that's not a perfect example of a tech company, I don't know what is.

Yes Netflix needed a good content library too, but that's never been its primary differentiator. NBC and HBO have been producing good content for many decades now. That's table stakes.

There's another "level" of tech companies, you could argue -- companies that supply tech rather than just use it as a competitive advantage -- e.g. Microsoft, Apple, MongoDB, Dropbox.

But today we tend to label those "software" or "hardware" companies specifically (or a combination). Perhaps in the 1980's those were the only "tech" companies. But at least ever since the dot-com era, "tech company" has meant companies that use tech as the principal competitive advantage (as opposed to merely increasing internal efficiency).
> , the streaming and compression are good,

I've been in video tech for a long time, and you glossed over the part where Netflix does tech company things. They invented VMAF and per-title encoding. I've seen countless video tech talks and Netflix consistently brings innovation to the table.
I read the whitepaper around early 2011 if my memory serves right. I remember finding it rather intriguing but also quite far-fetched for the lack of a better word. A whacky thought experiment on how to reimagine money only just after the GFC. Now 10 years later that whacky thought experiment is an official tender of a country. We truly live in interesting times :)
Increasing developer happiness with GitHub code scanning
Isn't that his point?
I too wonder if it is due to the way it was consumed primarily (smoking).

There is a bit about the impact of cannabinoids on the cardiovascular system however.

> The impact of exogenous cannabinoids on the cardiovascular system has been well described.7,33 After acute exposure, cannabis induces dose-dependent tachycardia and, in some cases, decreased ventricular contractility, palpitations, atrial fibrillation and arrhythmia.

Table 2 differentiates the form of consumption but I couldn't find them controlling for it. Did I miss that somehow?
Several past discussions with comments, but I felt that with [0] it was worth reposting.

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23496800 - 2020, 87 comments

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17825747 - 2018, 30 comments

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13611222 - 2017, 54 comments

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1758057 - 2010, 1 comment

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1643098 - 2010, 4 comments

[0] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=28440490
The section “Study design and participants“ is rather questionable based on dependence upon the BRFSS survey. Most of their citations about this survey attempt to adjust for and explain how they have accounted for the fact that a random telephone survey is extremely unreliable in this age, and several of their citations do not even link to anything functional.
It doesn't say that at all.

>The effect estimates for history of MI were similar across methods of consumption, including among people using other forms of cannabis, including edibles, as a primary method of consumption. This finding is consistent with a case study reporting an acute MI triggered after consumption of a lollipop containing a large dose of Δ-9-tetrahydrocannabinol.36 The Canadian government recently legalized cannabis edibles;2 however, the risks associated with edibles are poorly understood and are of concern to Canadian physicians.37 Edibles are often perceived as a safer alternative for cannabis consumption, but recent evidence suggests that edible cannabis is attributed to a larger proportion of cannabis-related emergency department visits for cardiovascular symptoms compared with inhaled cannabis
Ah, nothing like a clickbaity title to nerd-snipe us the morning after a holiday!

> Like Sky, Netflix has used technology as a crowbar to build a new TV business. Everything about how it executed that technology has to be good. The apps are good, the streaming and compression are good, the UI is good, the recommendation engine is good, and the customer service and experience are good. Unlike American cable subscribers, Netflix subscribers are generally pretty happy with the tech. The tech has to be good - but, it’s still all about the TV... It used tech as a crowbar, and the crowbar had to be good, but it’s actually a TV company.

By this logic, Google is less a tech company than an advertising firm that used tech as a crowbar! Microsoft is an office supplies manufacturer! Which seems absurdly reductive.

In my mind, if you're scaling customized services for individual users far beyond what a team of top-tier customer service professionals could do (or you're cyborg-izing those service professionals!), you're a tech company. Plain and simple. And Netflix fits this bill because part of its approach to content creation is that programming choices should be driven by quantitative insights about individual users - it's just a very, very long iteration cycle on the optimization algorithm.
In 1997, Hastings and Randolph mailed a DVD to see if it would be delivered without damage. Netflix was created because a new market (home delivery of movies) was created by an emerging technology.

10 years later, Netflix kick started the streaming revolution. In 2008, Netflix licensed the Starz catalogue of 2,500 titles.

In a podcast episode, Ben Thompson said Netflix was his favorite company to write about because they have successfully transitioned their business model multiple times to take advantage of technological shifts.

https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/ben-thompson-platforms...
In five years, every company will be an Internet company — or they won't be companies at all. Andy Grove, 2000
The most famous recent example is Bernie Madoff who regularly preyed upon other Jewish people and organizations. Not as explicitly religious as some famous Christian hustles (like various forms of prosperity gospel) but definitely an adjacent kind of affinity fraud. https://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2016/02/madoff-...
Exactly this! I’ll fix it after work.
Netflix wasn't the first service to show TV online. Others didn't catch on because the tech WAS terrible. That's why we all would stream torrents before. Netflix's promise was convenience at a good price and it definitely came down to the tech.
No, erasing all that debt world not affect the amount of money in circulation. It would only affect the balance sheets of the two institutions. (The money is already in circulation)
I was unclear: I meant the magic of turning kids into programmers, which I agree was a feature of many (most?) 80s machines.

This was in response to the comment I was immediately responding to, and not the article posted.
Or they’re domestic actors using Russian networks or tools to make their activity appear to be of Russian origin.
This is attributing much more coherence to Netflix's strategy than could be reasonably assumed.

Netflix is still trying to figure out what it is. I think their growth post-DVD was based on the assumption that they would be the clearinghouse for all video content; with Hulu and the further balkanization of the video space, it was clear that this was not going to happen; that Netflix was destined to be one provider among many, and that their sources of content would start to dry up as other companies decided that the streaming and application and appliances were commodity technology that they could just brand in-house.

The quality of the UI of Netflix is terrible, but everyone else is so much worse that for the moment they stand out. And they never managed to get on the bandwagon of selling add-on packages like Hulu and Amazon did (although both of those products have such abysmal UX that you gain very little over using the respective native apps).

So now they're continuing to play up the original content game, which appears to be where the industry in general is headed, because the Paramount Consent Decree is so dead that it can't even hear our prayers.

They are a tech company insofar as they have invested heavily in the tech and as a result have the most reliable and usable platform (and the most research into recommendations), but the gap between Netflix and commodity streaming is narrow enough now that their edge in the technology space is gone. So they're basically a studio/theater at this point, like everyone else in the space. The only difference between Disney and Netflix is that Netflix doesn't have a theme park (yet!).
What happens if nobody listens to your proofs? What happens if they prefer the lie?
Also, when it came out in print: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=27997167
Taking Control of the Rewrite Reflex
Bash scripts and cron. Automatic alerts go out to devs via OpsGenie when resource availability drops so we can get out ahead of it. 0 seconds of downtime in the past 12 months.
It very likely is due to smoke inhalation or even mixing with tobacco; IIRC inhalation of any kind of micro- and nanoparticles is linked to higher risk of myocardial infarction.
I think it is pretty easy to define tech company.

Is the IT/Software Dev a profit center or a cost center, easy as that.
It seems like there are some good intentions here but spending time/money with this company to design a city feels like a vanity project for Uber-rich people.. seriously wondering is this proposal actually helping / likely to help literally anybody like city planners etc? Or just a bunch of pictures? It’s like if somebody sent you a PowerPoint presentation that showed how to build a tech stack for a thing but that person had no intention of building it, you would probably glance at it and scoff I would imagine..
> Smoking cannabis was the most prevalent primary method of consumption (76.3%, 95% CI 74.3%–78.4%) relative to vapourization (11.3%, 95% CI 9.8%–12.8%) and other forms of consumption, including edibles (12.4%, 95% CI 10.8%–13.9%).

> Compared with nonusers, the prevalence of recent cannabis use was higher among males (62.9% v. 49.3%), unmarried respondents (68.0% v. 46.4%), current combustible cigarette users (31.6% v. 13.2%), current e-cigarette users (18.1% v. 5.1%) and heavy alcohol drinkers (17.4% v. 5.2%).

You run into cannabis users that have massively high tolerances because they dab all day. I wonder how d8, d10, etc would come out, cause that's probably a big part of the future, that an other cannaboid mixes.
>Who in America would benefit from this?

Well, there would be less immigration from Salvador to the USA so basically people concerned about economic refugees. I don't mean this in a xenophobic way. Balanced trade will improve the conditions in El Salvador and thereby let people stay in their home country voluntarily rather than be forced out for economic reasons.
It doesn't guarantee it, but it helps.

I personally have gotten bugs fixed at Google. How? Because I, a white man, spotted a bug, cared about it, and talked to white men of my acquaintance at Google who had enough power to get things done. How did I know them? From other tech companies created, run, and majority staffed by other white men.

Why am I in these networks at all? Well, my dad was a software developer and he introduced me early on. How did he get his start? His dad, an insurance company exec, brought him in to deal with this newfangled computer thing they had just gotten. That was in Milwaukee in the mid-1960s. I promise you that although Milwaukee had a significant black population, exactly zero of them were insurance company executives in the mid-1960s.

So what Allie Bland knew when she wrote her tweet was that she did not have any connection to Google where she might be able to get a to-her glaringly obvious pronunciation issue fixed. That in her estimation no black person did. And I see no reason to think she was wrong.
How does this compare to the myocardial infarction risk that occurs in the same population due to cigarette smoking?
I've seen this on a lot of sites that are laden with ads, and a news site that tries to get fancy with different panels on the page. Until now, I didn't know what was causing the jitters. Interesting article.
I find it wonderfully self-referential that the quote in question can't really be attributed reliably. It's perfect.
> I run IAP. It's TCP-over-HTTPS but it works remarkably well, connects to all kinds of things, and for users it really is just "login with google, proceed as normal."

Yeah that's really amazing, with client-side software like they've already made and I've seen from other vendors (whether GUI or TUI) the interfaces IaaS/PaaS companies can build are really slick. Looks like they'll be able to cut down on dashboard fatigue/complexity people are wrangling quite a bit.

> I use a JWT proxy + ghostunnel within GKE with a VIP so it's not quite their reference setup but it's extremely "just works" outside GKE being weird and eating its own routes.

Interesting, so JWT proxy (or any other auth mechanism that is viable over HTTPS) -> ghostunnel machine w/ public VIP -> Target machine ? Or ghostunnel directly running on the Target machine which holds the public VIP? Or does the JWT proxy take the public IP and the ghostunnel machine keep the private VIP?

Apologies just want to be able to picture your solution clearly.

> BTW, side-note but try out ghostunnel over stunnel! I've really enjoyed using it and it's been fantastic to debug and work with.

Thanks for the recommendation of ghostunnel, will use it in the future over stunnel next time I hack together something like this.

BTW: super-side note, breath of fire III avatar was a blast from the past, instantly recognized it.
> What does crypto produce?

Money. Jobs. Aficionados. “Real” as in it has political heft.
In good companies I've worked for, there was optimistic realism. "We hear that we need X, but we can't afford that right now. Could we Y?"

Admitting you have a problem, first step, etc.
> Is it weird that you sound proud about this? Is there something noble about doing work that makes lives harder for hobbyists trying to preserve video games for the future, and has nearly zero impact on the actual sales of the game at release?

What makes you think we did it for any of those reasons? And how does us abusing hardware bugs make video game preservation any harder?

This was not for a commercial game, this was for an entry point to load your own software on a locked down video game console.

And back then people were selling our (free!) software and we added those protections to make sure we could show a "you have been scammed if you paid for this" screen that couldn't be removed. Unfortunately that also meant breaking our loader from running in emulators, but that didn't matter at all: Those could just directly launch actual .elf files anyway and didn't need the detour through the homebrew channel.

The code (minus those protections) for the Homebrew Channel is also available as open source these days.
Pretty sure he's talking about the OG Netflix DVD-by-mail request-by-web model.
It could be related to https://www.vsynctester.com/
Climate change: Dragonflies spread north in warming world
> From a sample of 3 countries (two with very traditional gender roles), I’m not convinced.

These are the three biggest countries (40% of the world population), and also the ones most represented in tech here in the USA, at least (because they are the biggest).
People who make poor health decisions also have poor diet and exercise habits. Shocking and has never been proven before.
I’m sort of skeptical about these “turns out” stories. Generally when you follow the trail of turns out the original statement is kind of right but for the wrong reasons. It’s sort of like high school physics, kind of wrong, but right enough to be useful.

Take dunning-kruger for example. Yes, it was not shown that people of low ability rank themselves higher than those of high ability. But it was shown that people of low ability rank themselves higher than they should, and that makes dunning-kruger’s popsci version right enough in many circumstances where it is used to make a point.

Or take the findings on happiness. Yes, money can make you happier, contrary to prevailing opinion. But other factors affect happiness as well if not more, so if you have to choose between money and other things, often times the other things will make you happier. Again, the popsci version of “money doesn’t make you happy” is right enough to be useful.

Same thing with climate change skepticism. When you first start digging into the better skeptic arguments they seem to be onto something, but as you dig down into the details and peel back the layers of the onion, the popsci consensus view of climate change turns out to be right enough to be useful.

I’ve come to the conclusion that these false trueisms hang around because they are “good enough”. It turns out the turns outs are much less insightful than they seem.
Everyone with PTSD nods in agreement.