skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
Your theory doesn't match the timeline. Under the engineering first strategy, Google became the juggernaut it is today, with products like Gmail, Maps, Street View and of course Search.

Unfortunately, the approach doesn't work for all product categories. Product design, usability, simplicity, and sheer style were not the forte of the Google of old. As a result they saw themselves fall behind Facebook in social, failed to stop the tsunami that was iPhone, could not compete with Amazon in e-commerce, and ceded heavy ground to it in home automation.

But Google still wanted these things and more, as all exceptionalist mega corps do. So they did the unthinkable. They handed the decision making back to the same product and business overlords that they had once shunned.

As someone who has one foot in engineering and one foot in product design, I know how important product experts are in producing well loved, intuitive, and incredibly successful experiences at scale. However, you can feel it in the experience as a user when the product team is given the keys to the kingdom and left unchallenged. The product becomes soulless and vapid. It loses it's charm and abandons it's loyal customers when the wind shifts even slightly.

I'm not placing the blame solely on Google's product apparatus, quite the opposite. It's clear that it's engineering apparatus has become so careless, so content with the status quo and the cushy paycheck and perks, that they don't push back anymore. Whenever you use a Google product as a software engineer and you wonder how it's possible that its blatantly obvious failures made it one day in the dev process of a company that apparently prides itself on hiring only the best engineering talent, know that it's not that these people aren't smart, it's that they do not care.

It seems likely that Google incentivizes it's engineers not to care. The engineers get the crazy salaries and all the perks, they don't get to decide things. If you want to decide things, get promoted into product. You don't want to do product? You actually enjoy writing code? Then don't complain when your opinions and concerns are deferred. You could have switched to the business side, made less money, and hated your job.

Google used to be an amazing engineering company because it promoted an atmosphere where engineers wanted to care about what they were doing. They have been unable to sustain that dynamic as they tried to make the company good at things that were not engineering, and as a result, the engineers just don't care enough to save it anymore and you can feel it every time you use a Google product.
Not every mathematician needs to understand axiomatic set theory, but probably every working mathematician needs to understand at least basic set operations, simple identites like De Morgan's laws (I don't care if you know the name or not), as well as what cartesian products, relations and functions are.
Large companies do not have the CEO getting involved in Product decisions like which platforms to develop for or the various downstream implications of those decisions.

It's left up to Product Managers who very much do care about whether their analytics data is messed up given that it is often used to evaluate their performance.
Being able to classify your own CVEs has a bit of a fox watching the hen house vibe to it

yes, but no. from the article:

There’s an appeals process so someone can still actually file CVEs for issues even if we say no, but at least there’s a process where both sides will argue their points.

which is how filing for CVE should have been organized to begin with.

noone should ever be able to file a CVE without the product owner having a say in this.

filing a CVE should always include the party that is responsible for the vulnerability with proper checks and balances.

the current process allows accusing someone without the accused having any ability to defend themselves. it was created with the expectations that only security experts who know what they are doing will file CVEs. that expectation has not held.

this is pretty much why linus thorvalds refused to announce when they fix security issues in the linux kernel.
There's no good way around that unfortunately. The proxy could build in an OAuth client for the major providers, but it's unlikely that this would be trusted by default without significant effort being put into review processes.

As the readme explains, there's nothing to stop you using the existing OAuth client details from another source (such as the many already trusted open source email clients that exist).
> The web is the best cross-platform environment we have as evidenced by the fact that developers flock to stuff like Electron at all

I suspect that web developers who only know web development flock to electron because they think it's easier than learning a new technology.

In my professional experience, it is perhaps easier for a web developer who only knows JS to get a prototype working, but when you want a nice application you end up having to re-implement a number of things that any regular widget toolkit would already offer. So on the long term I don't think it's cost efficient at all, but at that point you've already spent resources on your electron GUI so you keep going forever.
I used to do this, I had to retire several mice because the underneath of the left mouse button was worn away from hitting the micro-switch so much..
Maybe, but here's an alternative interpretation. Google discovered a money spigot. At first the money spigot funded lots of smart people having fun. (But not making any more money.) Then, as tends to happen, the money spigot attracted parasites. Now the spigot is, if not running dry, at least not growing. Times get tough. Management wants to focus. And so everything is less fun than it was. And the playground culture, which was irrelevant when the spigot was gushing, is an impediment to change.

I think it's fair to say that Google's leadership is also not up to the job. But even if Satya Nadella were in charge, he'd still have to deal with the "grad school playground" aspect, which has as many negatives as positives from the vulgar point of view of making money.

More generally, I want to argue that the common HN meme, "management and politics ruins everything from the point of view of us heroic engineers", is self-serving and naive. Management and politics are how companies run. If you don't want to do that job, fine; if you want to grumble about its pathologies, fine and you'll often be right; but don't kid yourself that it can be avoided.
Even if this is true, it's not accessible anymore. So perhaps the initial wave of 10 engineers eventually got to a good place, now getting there is impossible.
https://www.cultofmac.com/227969/steve-jobs-would-have-thoug...

>Steve immediately shot his idea down and told the guy that he would probably trip and fall if that were the case. Steve also suggested he should get a girlfriend so he has someone to keep him company while running.
Hi Lars,

Sorry for your loss. I myself have two sons and almost cried when I read your post.

I just wanted to respectfully disagree that losing a child was that commonplace until approximately yesterday. IMO it's such a common thing that even today millions of people around the world suffer from that [0]. It's equally horrible experience to lose a child to what you describe in your post or to lose a child due to something this: [1]. (One could argue that a child simply dying is slightly better than having them brain dead for the next X years. But... let's leave it aside for now.)

My humble suggestion would be that maybe it would help to focus on preventing other children die. But IDK, I'm not a psychologist.

Chreers!

[0] https://ourworldindata.org/child-mortality

[1] WARNING: pretty graphical https://w.wiki/8thW
If you put a photo with your location information on the internet, that’s your problem. It’s not the responsibility of whatever website you’re putting it on to decide for you if you want to share your location.
From a description in the proposed rule update: “

The calculation procedure converts the measured electrical energy consumption of an electric vehicle into a raw gasoline-equivalent fuel economy value, and then divides this value by 0.15 to arrive at a final petroleum-equivalent fuel economy value which may then be included in the calculation of the manufacturer's corporate average fuel economy.”
https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2023/04/11/2023-06...
The Meta glasses don't actually display anything, though. Apple will get there eventually, but they're focusing on quality and fidelity of experience first.
Steve Jobs Would Have Thought Google Glass Was for Sexless Nerds (2013)
There's a descendant of Rebol that is maintained: https://www.red-lang.org/
Wonder where does it come that:
“Cleared for the visual, report three mile left base for Runway 31,” becomes “Cleared to land, 31”
or
“Line up and wait” was interpreted as “Cleared for takeoff”
Maybe I fly too little as a private pilot but I can't imagine those interpretations happening.
I'm not talking about appeasement. I'm talking about peacefully losing all there is to lose.
I work at Google. Having Google on my CV has been a huge bonus, I get so much more interest from companies trying to hire me and many of them directly reference having Google on there as a positive. I know zero people who are just coasting along, everyone is working super hard. I have seen a few people leave in the last year because they were under too much pressure, despite the pay.
The linked wiki page on monotropism states "some students have trouble taking notes in class while listening to a teacher"

So, pretty much in every class I have ever taken the teacher starts out by saying that we don't need to take notes because their lecture materials will be posted online. Why do they say this? Because almost everyone can't take notes and also hear everything the teacher says. The only exception is probably court stenographers.

It feels like professional educators spend a lot of time coming up with ways to categorize people as a bad fit for the classroom rather than evaluating their own teaching methods.
I like Tbray's posts but I want to quibble over language.

What's happening to the term "late stage capitalism"? Feels like it's becoming a meme like neoliberalism. What does it even mean to say that it wasn't tech's fault, it was late stage capitalism's fault? Kind of dodging a particular responsibility with a generality.

I think LSC came to prominence through cultural marxists like David Harvey and Frederic Jameson. (People I read and liked btw). But the people I now hear regurgitating the phrase make me wonder what happened. For Marxists I think the implication is that capitalism will soon die with its host. Which like all prophecies will probably be proven ironic in retrospect, but who knows.

But I'm starting to think the way people use it now, it's like they sub-consciously think there was a good capitalism time just like there was a good Google time.

Hegel observed that the US was founded on greed. When I look at tech, I see greedy people. That's more general and just as specific as the ambiguous term "late stage capitalism".
They are choosing cost reduction. If this increased cost, they would not have done it. So the primary driver is not the environmental benefits, it's the cost. I think what bothers me more is that people are so easily deceived by this.

Again, cost-cutting is great, especially when it can be done with no impact to consumers and employees, because those are humans I care about.

In this case, it is at the expense of consumers, the people who are affected are getting less for their money. Shrinkflation if you will, but because of the corporate, bureaucratic and dysfunctional mess between the people paying and the people choosing MSFT — and the way MSFT operates, which is by bundling basically everything but the kitchen sink — there really is no practical way for the consumer to shop around with their money for a better cloud storage deal.

MSFT could still be the most inefficient storage, cloud storage space from competitors could be much more energy efficient for the same amount of GB — but the storage will stay with MSFT because they bundle it with everything else.

This has nothing to do with the efficiency of cloud storage or the carbon footprint of cloud storage. It has to do with giving people less value for the money that MSFT gets, and it works out because MSFT has done everything they can to ensure that there is no way this will result in revenue reduction.

From a shareholder perspective, this is great, you should give customers the least amount you can for their money so you can maximize profits, but if you tie this together with the immoral business practices of MSFT it really becomes very detrimental to society, the environment, and consumers.
I'm not going to respond to your specific claim directly, because I just said I wouldn't do that above. If you really want to hear my opinions bring this up in some other thread, or just wait for someone else to make the argument ;) But I would like to ask you if what you're saying is validated by actual silicon, and if so, under which constraints. Does "microarchitectures can then fuse these" actually pan out? Do the (size, mainly?) savings actually help in the contexts it is claimed it targets (embedded?). How do other contexts (server, desktop) feel about this? Is it useful for them? Perhaps it is actively harmful for what they want to do?
I'm still salty that there's no FITALY[1] equivalent for iOS. MessageEase[2] has the same kind of idea but is nowhere near as easy to learn and use. I could whip through text at great(ish) speed on my Palms and PocketPCs using FITALY...

[1] https://textware.com/fitaly/ofkey.htm

[2] https://www.exideas.com/ME/index.php
Detection and Exploitation of Ivanti's Pulse Connect Secure RCE
How are the president's nominated and senate confirmed agency heads not accountable to the political process?
I'd dare to say that Google is very bad at doing products. They tried so many times and almost always failed, the list of products killed by Google is huge, They really succeeded in search, maps and gmail; all of these products are engineering-first products, created in the early days.

One might argue that YouTube and Android should go in that list, but I disagree.
YouTube was acquired and it never managed to become something really big (it failed to compete with Netflix for video streaming, with Spotify for music and with TikTok for social network).
Android also, was acquired and without a pletora of hardware vendor supporting it, it would have failed too (I'd say that Android without Samsung is nothing -- of course, it's big on embedded things, like cars or TVs, but it's not a world-wide product like gmail).

And likewise it is failing in AI, against OpenAI, which looks like another engineering-first product.
As an undiagnosed but frequently-accused autistic person:

> Up to 90 percent of autistic people report sensory problems, including heightened sensitivity to sounds or an aversion to certain smells. Yet others barely register sensory cues and may seek out sensations by making loud noises or rocking back and forth.

I couldn't read anything after that last sentence.

It seems like nonsense to me, and therefore it seems that everything after it is also likely to be nonsense.

I don't (and haven't) done things like make loud noise or rock back and forth because I somehow seek to have more sensation. But I have done things like that because the sensations I am perceiving are too intense (even if those sensations do not exist outside of my own head).

In normal daily discourse, the last thing I want is more uncontrolled and inescapable stimulation.

And when uncontrollable stimulation gets to be too much (which can happen in a quiet and empty room, or a very loud and busy room full of colors and scents) and becomes overwhelming, I sometimes seek to whelm myself with things that can be controlled.

But that's never because I'm seeking more. It can be because I want or sometimes need for the noise (eg, the scents, scenes, tastes, sounds, physical sensations, and internal noise like pain and internal dialogue[s] and strong emotions) to cease, but since that is often impossible then the best I can do is give myself something else that I can control to focus on.

And that could mean making loud noises, or rocking. It can also include literally running away, or vocal outrage that surprises anyone around. The antidote could include lots of things.

But it's always just an attempt at an antidote; it isn't ever an attempt to feel more.

I think that if "up to 90 percent of autistic people report sensory problems" is true, then "at least 10% of autistic people are completely misunderstood" must also be true.
Goodness yes. Your relationships literally are your career at small startups. Your reputation means everything. Not to mention the nepotism and the privilege - the people with truckloads of money meeting for dinners afterwards while those who’ve had to budget a house payment in 10 years go for a beer.
I think most people loved lockdown, but the people that couldn't handle it just wouldn't shut up about it.
You might like Clicks in that case: https://www.clicks.tech/
For our web service, we didn't stop anything. They had a few seconds of errors though it seems like some sessions were just buffered or paused and experienced high latency.

We also had background worker services. For the very high throughput ones, we spun down the # of tasks to a bare minimum for <5 minutes and let the queue build up, rather than have a massive amount of errors and retries. For the other ones where throughput wasn't high, we just let them be, and during the downtime they errored and retried and the retries mostly succeeded.
No, but I can see why you’re seeing it. The “It’s not clear”, “While this”, and similar are common starts in GPT3/4 replies. There’s enough stuff in the later half of the sentences that don’t feel GPT-y to me.
Show HN: CoWordle – 1v1 Multiplayer Wordle
Should we even bother with loaders? .. how can we load assets and carry out transactions that have async behaviour in another way?

Maybe load in the background or show some other content while a long operation is taking place?
From Google's own official documentation:

"Tip: App passwords aren’t recommended and are unnecessary in most cases."

"Tip: Don’t create an app password unless the app or device you want to connect to your account doesn’t have 'Sign in with Google.'"

"To help protect your account, we revoke your app passwords when you change your Google Account password."

"Tip: If the app offers 'Sign in with Google,' we recommend you use that feature to connect the app to your Google Account."

"If you use a non-Google app and can't sign in, the app's sign-in process might not be secure. Try to update to the latest version of the app and use 'Sign in with Google,' if it’s an option."

Yeah, no problem at all. I'm sure it's going to work flawlessly and effortlessly.
Sure, but it comes with its own biases and a certain conviction about how things should be.
Flagged, because the title is both editorialized and factually wrong.
Wow thanks for sharing these, I had never heard of these!
Apple now ships a USB C cable. They shipped 1 year of iPhone with a USB C brick, so I doubt most iPhone users had one except maybe for their MacBook.
> Beautiful visualization of data

Absolutely. The visualizations in that song text really add value.
> I don't mean to say it was a waste of talent, because clearly some of these things were a huge success.

Nothing apart from search, ads, maps, Gmail, Chrome and Android was a huge success. They essentially created their own monocultural ecosystem.

Most of everything else was a short-lived fad. Plus, Wave, Reader, Chat and Glass, to mention a few.
I work for a company that I think will last, and is good to work for so just hold on tight! I did move over to devops (platform if you prefer) which I think is more evergreen. So knowing both app development, being the person who can configure tailwind on npm, how to do backend queries and set up an ingress controller in kubernetes is kinda a good jack of all trades to have!
I think the two viewpoints are compatible. The "PM takeover" was indeed a very distinct event, and the precursor of today's problems. I think the reason that takeover was allowed to happen is because engineers-in-charge wasn't bringing enough results, like I said. Maps and Gmail are good success stories but they happened many years earlier.
I prefer Gregg shorthand to Pittman because Gregg doesn't require variable stroke width and thus it's easier to write with a ballpoint pen.
I suppose it's a little like UIs. Old school, green screen UIs have a learning curve and can result in very efficient usage. Modern, friendly UIs sacrifice speed for presentation and accessibility.
I wouldn't say creating something like Google search is purely _luck_, but having the right skill and hitting it at the right timing_is indeed a big component of success
I get that, but at the same time it seems like a bit of a dystopia if there is no path to this person being rehabilitated despite his sins (i wanted to say "forgiven", but that seems like a whole other thing i guess). I don't know, maybe he doesn't deserve to be treated like a normal person ever again. But then is he just condemned forever? Is there no way for him to obtain grace for lack of a better word? How horrific that feels.

Hell, i dont know. Maybe there are no good answers in the face of such things.
> Making housing cheaper also means making higher quality housing cheaper.

Or, much more likely, builder profits higher.
The AI research wasn't a commercial success, but it did have a huge impact.
Well. Hardware keys are just hardware keys. They can be used as a second factor, they can be used as a third factor, they can be used as the only factor. It's not immediately obvious that using only a password is less secure than using only a hardware key.
Why do you assume I want anything here?

I just stated what is. Per stream the small guy gets less than the big guy. If anything the question here is why a big act gets more per stream than a small act – and what effect this ultimately has for the art that is created. There is many ways of slicing the cake without making the cake bigger. The biggest actor in the streaming business saying small acts can suck it is a statement, sure. But unless you want only corporate-created music you should remember that all artists start small and rooting for the big guy gives you nothing.

For small bands the whole thing means they have to rely more on merch, gigs and fans that actually buy things – you do streaming because it is convenient for people and you often cannot afford not not being visible on those platforms, not because it gives you any meaningful revenue.

Society doesn't owe me or my band shit, neither does Spotify. But they are not the good guy here.
Good to see Perl is still alive and kicking.
There's a lot to like here, but I do want to grumble about one blind spot:

> ... no more onsite dry cleaning or daycare. But again, these things weren't the reasons Googlers came to work. No big deal.

Those are not the same. Onsite dry cleaning is probably not a big deal. If you are the primary carer for a young child and want to work, daycare is an absolutely massive deal. Whether you can combine 'carer' and 'career' depends on a lot of things, one of them is the support you get.

I know enough stories from child-raisers I've worked with myself - including some men - to know that the cost and difficulty of arranging childcare is one of the things that drives people to exit the workplace and become stay-at-home parents, or perhaps part-timers in a less 'all-in' place than google.

Calling onsite daycare 'no big deal' doesn't seem to me like the thing that would be said by anyone using the service.