HN user
TR will not disappear. But their value to the market was "data + interface to said data" and that value prop is quickly eroding to "just the data".
You can be a huge, profitable data-only company... but it's likely going to be smaller than a data+interface company. And so, shareholder value will follow accordingly.
I learned of the lid angle sensor due to my MBP draining its battery. Whenever I flew across the country I'd always end up with a dead battery. Originally thought it was some process preventing sleep but was spinning circles hunting it down until one night, I closed the laptop... the screen turned off as it was closing and just as it shut.. you could see the faint glow of the screen turning back on again. If I cracked the lid open 1/8th of an inch it would turn off again.
I had thought that the MBP (an Intel one) had used magnets to detect lid closure but alas that's when I learned of the lid angle sensor and all the symptoms I was experiencing made sense. Basically the laptop would wake up when shut and the screen would stay on the entire time thus draining the battery.
Ended up getting the LAS replaced which was not DIY'able unfortunately... but was a relatively cheap fix (~$90).
That which might be of additional interest... look at how the top 10 of the S&P 500 has changed over the decades[1].
At any point in time the world thinks that those top 10 are unstoppable. In the 90's and early 00's... GE was unstoppable and the executive world was filled with acolytes of Jack Welch. Yet here we are.
Five years ago I think a lot of us saw Apple and Google and Microsoft as unstoppable. But 5-10 years from now I bet you we'll see new logos in the top 10. NVDA is already there. Is Apple going to continue dominance or go the way of Sony? Is the business model of the internet changing such that Google can't react quick enough. Will OpenAI go public (or any foundational model player).
I don't know what the future will be but I'm pretty sure it will be different.
[1] https://www.visualcapitalist.com/ranked-the-largest-sp-500-c...
Likely to steer clear of regulatory scrutiny or approval processes (specifically FTC and DOJ).
Tesla vehicles have a fatal crash rate of 5.6 per billion miles driven, according to the study;
So, why are Teslas — and many other ostensibly safe cars on the list — involved in so many fatal crashes? “The models on this list likely reflect a combination of driver behavior and driving conditions, leading to increased crashes and fatalities,”
What is the nature of those miles driven by each brand? I've got to imagine that pure-EV companies like Tesla are predominantly driven in urban/city driving (shorter daily distances, more traffic, etc). In contrast to ICE cars which can rack up lots of miles on long trips.
1 billion Tesla miles I suspect looks different than 1 billion Ford miles.
Would be neat if instead an open-ended challenge ("here's some data, do something cool") the MTA instead shared a list of hypothetical or real problems to solve and provided data that could be potentially useful in the exploration/solution to the problem.
I ask this question - always - but it goes like this.
Q1: Rate yourself 1-10 on X language? Their answer is Y (and almost always 7).
Q2: What's the difference between a Y and a Y+1?
Q2 is real question with Q1 being there just for framing. Some people simply state that the difference between a 7 and an 8 is "just more experience". TBC, that's not a wrong answer.
However what gets me really excited is when this line of questioning shines a light on what the candidate is curious about, or interesting in learning next. It goes a step beyond just self-awareness that there is always more to learn. To me it's a signal that this person has a plan and a drive to grow oneself.
While I do not make binary hiring decisions on this question or any question; I can vividly remember the answers I was given to this line of questions by some of the best engineers I've worked with.
Happen to be in France and can confirm (along with many others on Reddit) that cell service is indeed out. Interestingly it’s not one carrier but seems to be all the major ones (VZ, ATT, TM) and has been this way for 24 hours.
I used LangChain early on in it's life. People crap on their documentation but at least at that point in time I had no problem with it. I like reading source code so I'd find myself reading the code for further comprehension anyway. In my case - I'm a seasoned engineer who was discovering LLMs and thought LangChain suited that way of learning pretty well.
When it came to building anything real beyond toy examples, I quickly outgrew it and haven't looked back. We don't use any LC in production. So while LC does get a lot of hate from time to time (as you see in a lot of peers posts here) I do owe them some credit for helping bridge my learning of this domain.
It’s got a term - “garden leave” and yeah it was prevalent in finance. I say “was” because I think some states are changing laws wrt/ non-competes and this calling this practice into question.
Does this change a lot for many people?
This doesn't mean you can scurry off a just build a competing product/service to your existing employer. You probably also have NDA and/or IP agreements too.
The Commission found that employers have several alternatives to noncompetes that still enable firms to protect their investments without having to enforce a noncompete.
Trade secret laws and non-disclosure agreements (NDAs) both provide employers with well-established means to protect proprietary and other sensitive information. Researchers estimate that over 95% of workers with a noncompete already have an NDA.
Trade secrets would generally include anything from code, approaches to problems, product roadmaps, customer lists, etc (so spans not only engineering... but also product, sales, etc).
20 years ago nobody thought there'd be a another US automaker beyond the big three (Ford, GM, Chrysler)... yet today here we are with Tesla and a list of others.
Are there any other US companies today that could ostensibly be viable alternatives to Boeing's spot 20 years from now?
Electric-first-and-only was the differentiator for Tesla vs big three... what differentiator will it be in the aero industry?
I'm confused. The articles talks about the data not being available for download and cites another article[0] which talks about it being available only for a fee.
However if you go to the maps you see the data available for download and no fee[1].
What am I missing?
[0] https://potsandpansbyccg.com/2024/02/14/shouldnt-broadband-m... [1] https://broadbandmap.fcc.gov/data-download/nationwide-data?v...
TIL APL...neat! Found this for others who want to play along.
(Note: took a while but the special characters for producing lists, etc... are from "virtual keys" you can see at the very top of the web page)
More specifically... "probate issues".
If you die with assets... you assets are going to be transferred to beneficiaries in accordance with a will if you have one. It's a lengthy legal process called probate. Because its going through the court system the filings are all public record too.
If you put your assets into a trust (generally a revocable or living trust)... when you die you aren't dying with any assets. The trust "lives on" and has the rules for distribution codified into it. No probate court. No public record of assets, etc. Tends to be a faster, more efficient for everyone process as I understand it.
I grew up having pinball machines in our house (my dad bought and fixed them as a hobby, sold or gifted them to friends). I have my childhood Black Knight pinball with me now. Love playing it, the kids and their friends love it. Honestly it’s great.
Repairs and maintenance is very DIY able at least for this age of machine. Luckily I can still call dad when I’m stuck troubleshooting.
No idea if they hold their value. Never thought of selling.
Live near Boston. Natural gas is the predominant energy source for heat and electricity[0]. The NG pipeline that feeds this geography is too small[1] so LNG is shipped in[2]. Sadly, while the US is one of the larger producers of LNG in the world market[3] we are not able to purchase US LNG be of restrictions from the Jones Act (the ships themselves are not domestic made or flagged).
What I don't know is all the ins and outs of whats preventing domestic ship building or flagging or maybe the northeast energy market just isn't big enough.
[0] https://www.iso-ne.com/about/key-stats/resource-mix/ [1] https://www.wbur.org/news/2023/09/22/enbridge-weymouth-compr... [2] https://www.balticshipping.com/vessel/imo/9230062 [3] https://www.worldometers.info/gas/gas-production-by-country/
Matt Levine (of MoneyStuff/BBG) covered the events[1] of the oddness that led up to the eventual layoffs. His perspective seems to convey that the layoffs were not a "AI can replace staff" play but more so... there was a lot of shady (or mis-executed) corporate dealing and the layoffs were tied to Arena losing its license.
The reason behind that license loss is a contradiction between the two sources. TechDirt seems to imply that it was a renegotiation tactic where as Levine seems to imply that it was chaotic at post-Merger Arena and they were just dropping the ball on their debt and licensing obligations. Maybe a little of column A and a little of column B.
[1] https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2024-01-23/sports...
I must say this is indeed a fascinating threat vector.
"We have seen that you can embed viruses in the cartridges. Through the cartridge, [the virus can] go to the printer, [and then] from the printer, go to the network."
I don't see any instances of this type of attack in the wild. Also, if you made your cartridge "dumb" then there would be no threat vector any more.... no?
Agree that the range degradation is unsettling. My model 3 started with 320 and now its about 7-8% lower after 2 years.
However, this is my daily driving car for which I put on average 25 miles a day... but maybe an occasional peak at 150 miles in a single day or weekend. One thing that you'll discover is that charging is super simple. Plug it in at home and fill it up (I have a 30amp 240v) whenever you want. Or go find a super charger nearby if you're in a pinch.
Granted what people can do at home wrt/ electrical and how close you are to a super charger is all situational. But at least for me the loss in range hasn't changed my behavior or caused me any problems.
However, important note: I do not use the Tesla for long distance trips. I've done it a few times... its fine, but prefer gas/ICE for that.
Our Model 3 got 9000 miles added to it this past year. Our family 2011 Q5 got 1500 miles.
Similar experience here with a ~2021 Model 3 in Massachusetts. Maintenance has been 0 thus far. Electric rates are high, I think.. compared to most of the US. I'm at $0.27/kwh looking at the last rolling 12 months.
Still, at $0.27/kwh that roughly equates to about $0.07 per mile based on recorded usage in the car.
In contrast... gas prices here are now $3.30/gallon. An ICE sedan might get 33mpg... so $0.10. A Hybrid however is on par or slightly beating (say 55mpg so thats $0.06).
I've driven 18,000 miles over the last 2 years. So... call it $270/year in savings vs the ICE. I have a 12yo ICE SUV used as the family car for long trips. Even though we don't drive it a ton, I still have to change the oil (which I do myself and costs ~$60 all in).
Is it an amazing savings. No. But the car is fun to drive, quiet, comfortable. It is our daily driver. The fact that I don't have to change its oil is a nice bonus.
All the focus is on Boeing (as it is a household name) and they have final signoff... but Spirit Aerosystems (the fuselage manufacturer, not the airline) is also a big, public company that doesn't seem to be sharing any of the blame here.
This is ironic because Spirit also manufactures parts for Airbus, etc.
Honestly she loves all her subjects in school. I’d say the “engineering tendency” that she picked up from her mom and I (both eng) is the desire the go deep on learning something. I see it when it comes to math, but equally see it when it comes to music or history.
Years ago when my daughter was around 5 I was showing her a raspberry Pi zero I had just picked up. I told her - years ago before Daddy was your age a computer like this used to be as big as a house. Her response was - “houses were that small?”
Favorite office setup as a programmer - was early 2000's.
First key feature - 50% of the exterior building walls was windows, the other 50% had offices.
Second key feature - cubicle design. It was staggered duets of cubes. Great for privacy... and at best made it easy to turn around and talk to 2 other people if needed. Best of all... each cube had a full window instead of your classic wall. And these windows would all allign so that you could see straight out to the outside if you wanted. You had privacy - but still daylight.
Most "cube farms" I see are a sea of interior cubes completely surrounded by wall of exterior offices. That's depressing. Or we see an open office concept where everyone has light but 0 privacy which is hard for concentration.
This particular design that I got to work in circa 2002-2005 was delightful at least for me (and then we moved offices and that design sadly didn't carry over).
I miss well designed cubes.
Depends what you're solving for. Building a website that requires user authentication and basic relational DB... I default to Django. But if I'm building small internal services then I go FastAPI or Flask. Django's ORM is still dreamy.
I used to like DRF (Django Rest Framework) and Django + DRF was a powerful combo to drive single-page-application sites. But DRF can get a little painful if you're not using some of the out-of-the-box classes. Painful as in... lots of code to right and very hard for someone to maintain without knowledge of how DRF magic is made under the hood.
... and kudos for a timely status page!
Might not need it?
Ultimately these are the "bones" of the wall to which you afix stucco or house wrap + furring strips + siding on the outside.
Inside would be stucco (if in warm weather climate) or furring + insulation + wall board (if in cold weather climate).
Wish there was a way to extend voice commands in the car... my own "Alexa skills" but for Tesla so to speak. Even if the only output could be a tweet sized text box.
I would ask questions like... "what streets around here have parking meters" and give me a list to look out for.
Quick glance through the API docs and I'm not seeing it.
If you raise VC money, the above scenarios are considered a failure. You will have to shutdown/get acquired for nothing. You have to shoot for the moon to get massive ARR, that very very few companies ever hit.
N=1 example at least to the contrary... I read this a year ago.
https://twitter.com/robgo/status/1559517843388977152
I don't know who the company was, what the terms were, who/if were other investors, etc. But as I read it... the company was venture-backed, didn't really create (or pivoted away from) something that was "venture scale" but otherwise had built a good business.
The end result however, was not shutdown/get acquired.
By building a good business, the company gave themselves optionality with their current investors and seemingly got to a good outcome for everyone.
If you know your business is not going to be venture scale... there are probably better sources of capital out there for you to leverage if you need it (or bootstrap). Stresses that create less stress, less friction, etc.
That being said - venture or not... don't forget to build a good business.
Disclosure: NextView is one of our investors hence why I stumbled upon that post of Rob's back then.