derf_

7 ms·

31.
by derf_ 4mo ago
> So if you wanna fix or ban PE, solve pensions. We solved pensions. People have defined-contribution plans now. I would expect insurance float to dwarf pensions as a source of PE funding. The real reason PE exists is because it charge
32.
by derf_ 4mo ago
> Why are more and more utility providers charge based on ‘infrastructure cost’ or ‘fixed platform fee’ instead of usage fee? Because unlike many commodities, electricity, once generated, is hard to store, yet supply must match demand
33.
by derf_ 5mo ago
> But I wouldn't want all the negative externalities that come when money is introduced... Even before you get to the broader ecosystem, I wouldn't want daily standups, weekly 1:1s, on-call rotations, weekly business reviews,
34.
by derf_ 5mo ago
> ...any actual product RD and support is a real annoying cost that just cuts into the profits... Worse, it might not generate a return. If you have enough profits, you just buy anyone who successfully produced something innovative. Le
35.
by derf_ 5mo ago
These two goals: > ... please stop working on projects distracting from the complex and necessary work of browser and web standards stewardship. > Ditching any direct financial ties to Google or any other browser vendor is both imp
36.
by derf_ 6mo ago
The TSA is responsible for more than just airports. As someone with family who works (worked) on port security in the maritime division, I would argue that Chesterton's Fence [0] applies here just as much as anywhere else. [0] https:&
37.
by derf_ 6mo ago
You know who else is a net exporter of oil and gas? Russia. Starting a war with Iran is literally the biggest favor Trump could have done for Putin.
38.
by derf_ 6mo ago
I think the timeline is much shorter than that. These oil-producing nations have not invested in a lot of storage, because they usually ship everything out immediately. Once you no longer have anywhere to put the oil, you have to start shut
39.
by derf_ 6mo ago
> Strong regulation and legal consequences could potentially fix this. There are regulations. E.g., in the US, 17 CFR § 40.11 prohibits contracts on "terrorism, assassination, war, gaming, or an activity that is unlawful under any
40.
by derf_ 6mo ago
This sentence confused me: "For example, Sinh[ArcCosh[-2 + 0.001 I]] returns 11.214 + 2.89845 I but Sinh[ArcCosh[-2 + 0.001 I]] returns 11.214 - 2.89845 I," not the least of which because the two input expressions are the same, bu
41.
by derf_ 6mo ago
> But it can be difficult to judge second order effects in finance. Another obvious question to ask is who is providing the money that is being lent? Those are the people who now won't be paid back. The assumption is that these ar
42.
by derf_ 7mo ago
The way to tell if a business has a moat that I once learned was, "If someone gave you a billion dollars, could you go compete with that business and have a reasonable chance of winning." If the answer is yes, then the business ha
43.
by derf_ 7mo ago
Also, while the author complains that there is not a lot of high quality data around [0], you do not need a lot of data to train small models. Depending on the problem you are trying to solve, you can do a lot with single-digit gigabytes
44.
by derf_ 7mo ago
I began contributing to Xiph shortly after Ralph did. He was always thoughtful, always curious, always kind, and his example helped me to become a better version of myself. I wish he was still here to review my patches and untangle the nast
45.
by derf_ 7mo ago
In particular, the central bank, charged with controlling inflation, cannot use taxation to reduce the money supply, because banks do not get to set tax policy. That leaves raising interest rates as its only policy tool. As the political ar
46.
by derf_ 7mo ago
> I've seen many discussions stating patent hoarding has gone too far... Vibe coding does not solve this problem. If anything, it makes it worse, since you no longer have any idea if an implementation might read on someone else&#x
47.
by derf_ 8mo ago
This is the standard advice from the World Bank, the IMF, etc., and it does developing countries a huge disservice. South Korea banned the import of foreign cars from 1968 to 1988 while it developed its own automobile industry (Japanese imp
48.
by derf_ 8mo ago
It is baffling to me, as well. You know how you get a remote-code-execution vulnerability? You give a bunch of software permission to fetch code remotely and execute it.
49.
by derf_ 8mo ago
> The stock market is mostly just an inverse of currency health and tends to be inline or slightly above inflation on average... This is demonstrably false? Long-term average US inflation since 1913 is 3.1% [0]. Long-term nominal avera
50.
by derf_ 8mo ago
The business case is that I will actually buy it. I won't buy "consumer electronics" garbage when I want to buy safe and reliable transportation.
51.
by derf_ 8mo ago
This will continue to happen as long as it is effectively unpunished. Even retracting the paper would do little good, as odds are it would not have been written if the author could not have used an LLM, so they are no worse off for having t
52.
by derf_ 8mo ago
All of those are true, yet the US's (PPP-adjusted) per capita GDP was over 37% higher than the EU's in 2024 [0], and GDP growth has significantly outpaced the EU for years. Basically, whenever there was a choice between anything a
53.
by derf_ 8mo ago
"Insider trading is not about fairness, it is about theft" is a uniquely American approach that is not shared by other jurisdictions.
54.
by derf_ 8mo ago
And on X, an em-dash (—) is Compose, hyphen, hyphen, hyphen. An en-dash (–) is Compose, hyphen, hyphen, period. I never even needed to look these up. They're literally the first things I tried given a basic knowledge of the Compose idi
55.
by derf_ 8mo ago
I do not want to claim that two wrongs make a right, but it is funny that you mention "being forced into poor agreements": https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unequal_treaties
56.
by derf_ 8mo ago
You are not the only person he did this kind of thing for: https://www.basicinstructions.net/basic-instructions/2025/5/...
57.
by derf_ 8mo ago
I do not know anything about this team, but I worked with a team before that migrated from a native app to an Electron-based version. It was worse in literally every way except one: the developers on that team preferred developing that way.
58.
by derf_ 9mo ago
You can, but then those people have more money, and you have less. The money supply is much smaller than the supply of goods and services, because the same money circulates repeatedly. So simply doubling your money can tilt things a little
59.
by derf_ 9mo ago
You make it sound easy, but there are relatively few billionaires in the US descended from historically wealthy families [0]. First off, this kind of compounding has only really been possible since the industrial revolution (~200 years). Be
60.
by derf_ 9mo ago
Exactly. Even though Baumol himself used the phrase "Cost Disease", I think that framing distracts from the fact that it is a result of something desirable happening , namely increased efficiency in some sectors. You could also p

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