skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
Minor note: The Boring Company is a completely separate idea from the hyperloop. They instead proposed what's essentially a Personal Rapid Transit concept ("The Loop"), which has been shopped around a couple of times, but has seen no takers other than the Las Vegas Convention Center. The only public transit project it seriously competed for was one iteration of the O'Hare/Loop express transit system, but that was a zombie project that had already died a decade earlier.

The main arguments being used to militate against urban rapid transit (i.e., metro systems, regional rail; not inter-city HSR) these days tend to be "automated taxis will make all of this imminently obsolete," although that may have died down in the past several years given that a decade has passed since it was first trotted out.
Are we surprised that PRISM companies are doing this?
I can confirm that this kind of look is not at all atypical in the quantitative prop trading world and it's not contrived.
I’m lawyer for private companies, though very rarely for VC-backed companies, and to my paranoid mind, the SAFE is at the end of the day not really much more than a term sheet on a handful of key economic terms. Which, in a high trust environment, is just fine the vast majority of the time and the reduction in transaction costs is almost always worth the trade-off! For instance, no one reads the deal documents they’ve paid hundreds of thousands of dollars for (if not more) after they’re signed … until there’s a commercial disagreement, and then every word, and sometimes punctuation marks, can make or break a case, so the docs get read VERY closely at that point. (This is an exaggeration, but directionally true.)

But statements like the following from TFA (which I enjoyed quite a bit and found quite interesting) seem like they obviate the protections that are the sole reason for equity investment documents to exist:

It seems to be that, after a certain point, the utility and success of the SAFE really is contingent on a founder's worldview — how much effort they put into tracking dilution, how closely they read the document when they sign off on terms, and whether they keep their promises to investors, even when they don't have to.

If you don’t have to keep it, it’s not a promise! If the fundraising system relies on norms and reputations to enforce baseline expectations, you frankly don’t need contracts - a handshake, an email memorializing key terms and the whisper network is enough to keep founders and investors in line. But for any kind of reasonable legally enforceable rights and remedies, that’s gotta be documented - and unfortunately, usually at great length and expense.

(Side note: private equity sponsors frequently, though not as often as they used to, push back on their counterparties in negotiations by telling them “trust us, we’re in the reputation business - if we screw you, no target/management team/issuer will ever take our money again.” When the sponsor has to choose between its IRR and its reputation, guess which it picks?)

I think the SAFE is a cool instrument. I think it’s great for start-ups existing in the right cultural setting. But it’s less a legal innovation than a thoughtful short-form summary of a standardized set of commercial terms.

Question to any VC lawyers who happen to see this - have there been many SAFEs litigated?
Related story with more details about the new PDF features in Firefox 106:
https://www.theregister.com/2022/10/18/firefox_106_arrives/?...
Of our three-letter agencies, I'd really much prefer the domestic federal investigative arm of the DOJ not become comfortable beating secrets out of criminals.
Fred brooks went supernova today. Let the brilliant light mark his passing and remind us of the light he shined on the software world.
Never promoted just showed data. Is that promotion. Here is data: https://www.ivmmeta.com
You are right. I am failing to see that future.
Thank you. People do no know everybody's situation, and those who come in here saying things like "COVID isn't a big deal" do not know everybody's story.
Creative but just as immature, distasteful, and scumbaggish as Elon is. Would you proudly stand by the person doing this?

This solves nothing; it's [very] temporary obscene night graffiti, little more.
Ooof. I don't follow football, but yes, World Cup and Thanksgiving the same week.
This is a great product. Is this one an open-source project or not?
Can we collaborate on some features?
Take a look at our product here:https://github.com/illacloud/illa-builder
This comment is very out of left field. Are you calling me fat? Hahaha
Congrats you have stage fright. Join a toastmasters nearby and work on your public speaking and presentation skills and build your confidence. After just a few sessions you’ll be interviewing the interviewer and impressing the shot out of them.
And it's not even just going "hardcore" his wording was "extremely hardcore."[1]. That sounds devoid of fun to me and possibly a euphemism for exhaustion. The World Cup starts on Sunday, it will be interesting to see if the wheels stay on for that.

[1] https://www.theverge.com/2022/11/17/23465274/hundreds-of-twi...
I think they rotated it. The new one isn’t in crt.sh yet, but for posterity’s sake this is the old one https://crt.sh/?q=DA26F72EACAC75CCEE794140441020848697AEB0
Based on my experience in SV startups, this is simply not true. VCs pay a ton of attention to what other VCs are doing and do in fact include what other VCs are doing as part of their decision-making process.
My understanding is that laws covering mass layoffs have resulted in a plan to keep them employed normally for 2+ months (they just aren't showing up to work and don't have access to systems), and then the severance would be a lump sum after that. So I don't think Twitter would be liable to pay out 2-3 months of salary immediately, but that severance package is still going to be a big dent in the company's funds when it comes due in a couple months.
I was just looking him up the other day and found it was remarkable he was still alive. What a wonderful long life
Yep. For me recently it was Assassin's Creed Valhalla. I've played the previous two games and The Witcher 3 - all fairly similar games. I got maybe 1/3 through the entire map and realised how much more time the rest of it would take plus the DLC.

Maybe another day, but right now it just makes me feel bad afterwards like I ate too much pizza, so I uninstalled.

With AAA games if you're not using a subscription service then it's also a bit of a sunk cost situation - feeling guilty to play my backlog of purchased games because I've spent thousands on it over the years.
I had the same experience. Thanks for the summary. Need to read that the next time.
Twitter locks staff out of offices until next week
almost certainly not true, but next week during the world cup WOULD have been an all-time high usage event
Maybe you are an Examinator?
Depends on your interests and what videos you get. Although I don't use tiktok I do use youtube and with its movement towards shorts I recently started seeing some excel tip videos. And some of the tips are helpful and have made my use of excel more efficient so I think like all media platforms how useful something is depends on the user and how they use it rather than the platform.
Do you have an opinion on all the people who are saying that Twitter had too many engineers but never delivered anything?
Yup that's the post. Thanks for the recs! Been trying to learn more as I come from a nonCS background.
If someone has a secret volcano lair, it's Larry Ellison, but I'm sure Elon has something too.
Would I work for a narcissist asshole ? The question answers itself
Interesting to have a workable demo right in the home page without asking people to signup.

It works better than screenshots
Are drummers not musicians because they don’t play melodies and harmonies?
I am thankful I do not have young children right now. I don't know what I would do!

I am taking the risk of social isolation into account- that is why I say "even though it is wrecking my mental health". It is something I am very aware of.
It's been rolled back, as long as your manager says you are producing "exceptional output" or however he phrased it, remote is ok it seems.
This is how you reset the culture.
The Humble NE-2 Neon Lamp Has a New Trick (2021)
I wish they'd shut up and actually take action on this issue.

It's both ridiculous and pathetic that China can block all foreign media within it's own borders yet still run one of the most privacy invasive apps currently available outside its borders.
Ok, how about Howard Stern? People who hated Stern were most likely to listen to him. He had people masturbate on his show, curse, yell racist remarks...etc. Everything people expect Twitter to become and fail from yet Stern (30 years ago) made his bones off such behavior.

The difference today is that advertisers don't apparently have to make money they just have to do what Blackrock tells them. That seems to be the difference.
> He failed at Full Self Driving, the Roadster is nowhere to be seen, the Cybertruck is MIA and the Tesla Semi is years late

No, stop it, that's ridiculous. Tesla is an immensely successful company. It just is.

Multiple things can be true: Musk can be a chaos bully driving Twitter into the ground and the CEO of the most successful heavy industry startup since the end of the second world war. I'm no doubt as horrified as you are at what is happening at the bird site, but I still know my car is great.
Good word, it gets better from there:

https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1593455727611215872

> And … we just hit another all-time high in Twitter usage lol

> Let that sink in …

He literally cannot distinguish between good and bad attention. He still thinks he's winning this.
Btw chatterhead, did you email me yesterday? Your updated profile comment seems to jive with the message I received. I hope you're okay, bud.
He also would have owed fiduciary duties to the TSLA stockholders if he were a director. I think this, and not the D&O questionnaire, was the primary reason he turned down the board seat. No more pumps and dump with TSLA stock or playing fast and loose with SEC filings triggered by stock accumulation.
North Korea fires suspected intercontinental ballistic missile, lands near Japan
If he really wants to do that, by buying Twitter he removed the incumbent and also acquired its users. Much easier than competing and trying to make people switch to a new service.

My unverifiable prediction: no matter how many users will leave Twitter, the ones left will be more than the ones that would be using a new service after 1, 2, 5 years.
It is--it's following the current trend, whereas NOAA's intermediate projection is around 3'4". (https://www.climate.gov/sites/default/files/styles/full_widt...)
My "best" friends that I am still in contact with are definitely from childhood. We all live in separate parts of the world now, but if I really needed help I know that they would come, just as I would go to help them.
My reaction was a bit shorter: "someone found a bug in some software, must be Thursday..."
I too feel quite similar. I have never had any experience approach bad. The experience just... Is
You could script Libre Office to do this.
World Cup starts on the 20th. We'll see what happens then.
He can't. Competent people (mostly) don't want to work for him, especially after this fiasco.
Anecdotally I think this is normal? I've heard actors and musicians can continue to get stage fright throughout their careers, but it fades after a minute or two.
> that shows FTX and Sam Bankman-Fried are complicit in laundering money to the Democratic party through Ukraine donations

No one mentioned that. But you’re right. It’s irrelevant that FTX donated to Democrats, Democrats have spent as much on Ukraine since this summer than any full year for the entire US military operation in Afghanistan, and that Zelensky used non-combat US aid funds to invest in FTX.

There is literally nothing there, it’s all true, but it’s not what any conspiracy theorists think it is. I’m glad we have same voices that are here to help us know what to think.
In major cities yes, SFPD for example starts just over $100k base and you can rack up a lot of overtime.

https://transparentcalifornia.com/salaries/search/?a=san-fra...
This was at a relatively small startup, so we all spent a lot of time together. Those that did leave are/were still in the friend group! I know this is pretty rare in the corporate world, but it really was a "special place" to work.
Newer editions of the book usually include the paper too.
I don’t think you can really draw a line between the loss of supersonic commercial flight or the stagnation of space travel to environmentalism as the author implies here.

Supersonic commercial flight was too expensive and commercial flight trended towards lower costs basically as soon as the Concord was built.

And you can attribute the lack of progress in space travel to the collapse of the Soviet Union. The US “won” the Cold War and so there was no more reason to throw additional money at something that politicians viewed as a tool to demonstrate western rocket capabilities. Rocket technology = missile technology. If the US can land a rocket on the moon they can most certainly land a missile on Moscow.

The real reason is that there was less imperative to innovate.
I have never worked at twitter, but this really hurts to watch. Imagine being one of the many great engineers there who spent the last 10 years building the product, building relationships, building teams and a culture. In ever sense except the legal one, they "own" twitter. They ARE twitter. And then this drunk monkey comes along and destroys all that history and upends their lives.

At this point, some of you will say something like, "But they can just find another job, I have no sympathy for people who make 300k".

First of all, not everyone has that luxury. Not everyone makes 300k, some are on visas, etc etc

But more importantly, look at what you are arguing for: a world where we should invest nothing in our work emotionally, because we should expect to take our paycheck and just do what the boss says, and just walk away if we don't like the way management is treating us. I would hate to work like that. If I don't enjoy my work, that's when I look for another job. If I do enjoy my work, a HUGE part of it is my relationships at work, building upon my previous contributions, and being a part of the culture. For me, and I think for you, a big part of feeling connected to this thing we do for 8 hours every week-day is having ownership over it.

All of this is why it makes sense to have a union, even for tech workers. Also, the workers simply know better than management in most cases. Stop buying the reactionary propaganda that only the big man knows what's best. Twitter would be much better off if the employees input had been sought in this mess.
Further, and to their credit theres a lot of great tech in there.

Just the other day I stumbled on DERP [1] their wireguard-over-tcp (over their node network) implementation which they fall back to if NAT traversal fails. While sure, this is partly ipv4 problem, it recently helped me connect with friends behind government firewalls, presumably because the packets aren't recognized yet.

But that sort of automated connectivity during nat traversal failure through a global network of edges isn't something you can easily setup yourself (if you care).

[1] github.com/tailscale/tailscale/tree/main/derp
Last I heard it was tens of millions. I'll have to look again.

> Open source projects are not as sue happy as Oracle is.

Comes across as punching down. Like it's OK to steal from the mom and pop stores, they're too poor and overworked to do anything about it.
tiktok's search sucks and doesn't seem to interact with their algorithm much. it's kind of silly but to bootstrap it you need to flip through the feed until you happen upon something you like, then like that video. you can also follow the person and scroll through their profile to like other of their videos. it takes a little while (couple days) but once it starts spinning up it gets really good at showing you what you want. i ended up uninstalling it since it was too tempting to waste time on (now i waste time on twitter, eh)
> I am saying that perhaps those companies succeeded in spite of him.

Wow really? You would really prefer to entertain speculative realities instead of just give credit where it's due?

That's impressive.
We want to make sure you have access to the most recent contract management tools. We aim to assist you in learning about OCR contract management technologies because of this. We'll cover the fundamentals of OCR tools, their effects on contract management, and how they're expected to enhance contract life cycle management in this free webinar.
Action shooting is definitely the hotter sport right now. But I think bullseye will stay around, especially as the current generation of action shooters ages into it. It has one huge advantage over action: every competitor can shoot at the same time, up to the capacity of the range. If you go to a bullseye match, you get to shoot for a few hours. If you go to an action pistol match you spend hours waiting around only to shoot for a few minutes.
The price of Tesla is artificially inflated due to easy money. That BWM I7 looks like a work of art compared to a Tesla.
A telling exchange

> What do people mean when they say Twitter is gonna shut down? Doesn't it kinda run itself? I feel like engineers are for changes not to just keep it running? I also don't know anything. Hey @elonmusk wanna do a Twitter space with me? Im confused. - Dave Portnoy @stoolpresidente

> The best people are staying, so I'm not super worried - Elon Musk @elonmusk
I used to feel like this, but I fear I've burnt out the circuit. I'm numb to stress now. The stakes are never high enough.
If you want to be under the radar go ahead. It is a strict controlled substance. Spores are just loopholes but can't be sure if you don't get a visit one day.
"The teacher's job is to design learning experiences; not primarily to impart information." -Fred Brooks

A favorite, lesser known quote of Fred's from his technical communications course at UNC and a SIGCSE talk. Beyond a software engineer and researcher, he was an extraordinary educator. His design ethos carried through to pedagogy, as well, and has been an inspiration to me. Thanks, Fred.
His financing was committed at the time he signed the merger agreement, and the banks that agreed to lend it were pretty tightly committed to the deal. They also have their own separate legal exposure and risk to their franchises if they refused to fund the debt at closing.

If the financing failed to show up through no fault of the acquirer, then yes, the acquirer could terminate and pay a $1 billion break fee. But there have been recent Delaware cases that suggest an acquirer manufacturing grounds for its lenders to refuse to fund will not excuse the acquirer’s obligation to buy the company - regardless of whatever limited termination fee is written into the contract.
Also PICA-X is a SpaceX variant of a NASA heatshield.

It's typical for SpaceX to use the off-the-shelf material initially, then do R&D to customize it for a material that better suits their needs.
In the US, dividends from stocks held more than a certain amount of time are taxed as capital gains (qualified dividends):

https://www.investopedia.com/terms/q/qualifieddividend.asp
I seem to have a low conversion ratio with interviews but at no point was drinking a strategy. Would this be considered a performance enhancing drug and do employers even care or is that encouraged?
Just calling something AI doesn't copyright-wash the output.

If I write an RE to strip license comments and sell it as AI that doesn't mean I'm innocent of facilitating copyright infringement.

Or if I sell a NN to strip watermarks from a movie broadcast it's unlikely a court is going to throw out the case because "welp it's AI, no copyright".
Yeah, this was a quote from the TechCrunch story from earlier in this mess.
They already have basically no advertisers except SpaceX, which is a balance transfer in all but name, and maybe some right wing stuff. Real brands are terrified of them.

They have no money. It’s not coming in, and only gets worse when the site goes down.

They’re facing employment lawsuits over the last two weeks. They’re facing a discrimination lawsuit for requiring an employee with an ADA accommodation to work from home to work from the office (after that announcement).

The FTC is mad. Congress is mad. Who knows what other lawsuits/etc will pop up.

I just don’t understand how they can survive. Seems like chapter 7. Not “renegotiate the debt and we swear we’ll be fine” chapter 11. Sell every last post-it note and auction off the wall art to pay the creditors chapter 7.

I knew he’d ruin Twitter. I never expected anything like this. I expected people to slowly leave (platform and employment) due to new policies and values.

This was, and honestly is, unimaginable.

Did he really destroy $44B in three weeks?
>He failed at Boring Company and Neuralink.

How?
Honestly, all the companies listed are not at risk of default - overpriced, yes, but when they rebalance their budgets to stop growing (because they don't have any more cash to burn, so they can't continue to grow, so their valuation lowers, so their stocks crash) - they will end up joining the ever growing pile of mediocre software companies with moderately large revenue caps.

The only difference is that they will have redistributed wealth - the losses from the stock crashing and stock options becoming worthless magically appearing as gains for the VCs and founders in the crazy time-travelling payout scheme that is the venture equity system.

It's a twisted look into what has driven upper middle class modern society for the past 20 years, and the software world is an especially pristine microcosm of it.

You have developers, who are one of the top paid professions in the world, who classify as upper middle class no matter where they live in the world, who rant the most about being undervalued and underpaid instead of being grateful for the privilege of their income and status. I should know, because I used to think like that too.

The belief that you're underpaid results in a mindset, an ego - an inability to "sell yourself short".

This is the culture of the upper middle class. Building a small, profitable business is selling yourself short. Not getting rich quick is selling yourself short. After all, why build a million dollar business when you can build a billion dollar one?

Behind the scenes, this sentiment is fueled by investors who need people to spearhead their high risk, high reward investment plays - high risk for those people, high reward for themselves, of course.

And its true - some people do get really rich. But, like a casino, the odds are always stacked against you. Once you realize this, you realize that you're stuck in a growth mindset, but the growth you are compelled to do is not your own, it's the collective society's desire to grow, and you're just swept up in it. And the increasing magnitude and difficulty of it makes you weary.

If "growth" is the defining word that encapsulates the past 20 years, "sustainability" should be the defining word that sums the next 20.

DHH writes about a sustainability mindset as it relates to business and work, but once sustainability as a concept embeds embeds itself into your worldview, it makes you rethink a lot of things, not just work and business.

A sustainability mindset is part of the antidote to the weariness of a growth mindset.