rgmerk

6 ms·

1.
by rgmerk 4d ago
Maybe I’m just old and cynical but that sounds like the kind of assumption of independence of events that led to the GFC .
2.
by rgmerk 17d ago
I would too...but an off-grid solar and battery setup sufficient to run the induction stove and microwave is still well into four figures - cheap for a developed country resident who wants some basic comforts in their wilderness lodge, but
3.
by rgmerk 17d ago
This arguably had some relevance in 2011. In 2026, cheap solar and batteries make human-powered static devices that would benefit from the extra power of a stationary cyclist completely redundant.
4.
by rgmerk 17d ago
Not to mention they’re talking about lead-acid batteries, which have been replaced for pretty much every application, except (for now) starter motor batteries for combustion vehicles, by the various lithium batteries.
5.
by rgmerk 18d ago
Non-commercial projects and individuals can do bad stuff too. I agree the bar is a lot higher for those projects than massive corporations, but I think it's a pretty arguable case that "people are using 3D printers to make guns wi
6.
by rgmerk 18d ago
A quick search suggests that 3D-printed guns being used in crime is an actual, for-real, and growing problem. I take it that you wouldn't be OK with somebody building a uranium enrichment facility in their backyard for their hobby reac
7.
by rgmerk 20d ago
Amazing games. It'll be fun to give this a spin some time.
8.
by rgmerk 21d ago
Gates was a ruthless businessman who fought his way to a couple of monopolies and would have happily had a lot more if he could.
9.
by rgmerk 23d ago
That's awesome that medical science is making a big difference for your family member. I suppose my point on "are we there yet?" is that the benefit of knowing is limited when there aren't any preventative treatments you
10.
by rgmerk 24d ago
Not a doctor or medical scientist, but my understanding is a) the effectiveness of those anti-amyloid drugs as a preventative tool is unclear, and b) they have a pretty scary safety profile. Clearly the goal is to be able to prevent the dis
11.
by rgmerk 1mo ago
In Australia, where legal online sports betting is everywhere, it's hugely unpopular with everyone except the bookmakers, TV networks (for whom betting ads during sports broadcasts are the one remaining decent revenue stream), a relati
12.
by rgmerk 1mo ago
In other parts of the world, betting exchanges like BetFair operate this way, but unlike Kalshi, there's no pretence that what's occurring is anything other than gambling, and they are heavily regulated like other sports betting o
13.
by rgmerk 1mo ago
The US SCOTUS is the single best argument against putting too much into a written constitution.
14.
by rgmerk 1mo ago
I'm with the state of NY on the merits here. They're basically BetFair, and they should be subject to regulation like it.
15.
by rgmerk 1mo ago
Cite your sources. While there have been cost increases in offshore wind projects in recent years, they remain well under nuclear costs as far as I’ve been able to find. I’d add that any new nuclear projects, if anyone is courageous enough
16.
by rgmerk 1mo ago
I've no doubt that fusion will be solved, technically. I am hugely skeptical that it will be solved economically given that it suffers from many of the problems currently pricing coal and nuclear out of the market.
17.
by rgmerk 1mo ago
Nuclear reactors across the US and Europe have been a complete project management omnishambles and consequently have been massively costly and massively late. SMRs are vapourware and are similarly economically uncompetitive. Just build sola
18.
by rgmerk 1mo ago
It will be interesting to see whether OS and application developers start to face commercial pressure to debloat their applications. For operating systems and their bundled applications, Apple's integration is an advantage here; the OS
19.
by rgmerk 1mo ago
Some thoughts: * you can run data centres on grid electricity, which can come from mostly-renewable sources (in short, you need gas mainly as as an occasional backup). * running things off-grid is dumb, and they’re only doing it because the
20.
by rgmerk 1mo ago
I’ve no doubt they’re setting up memory-footprint auditing agents as we speak.
21.
by rgmerk 1mo ago
I dunno, a RAM expansion on my Commodore 64 Ultimate might let it open bigger documents in GEOS…
22.
by rgmerk 2mo ago
I was a kid at the time, so I only got as far as writing and modifying a few programs in MBASIC. Anyone that got anything nontrivial to work on those systems deserves much respect.
23.
by rgmerk 2mo ago
CP/M - because pip just makes more sense than copy.
24.
by rgmerk 2mo ago
Yeah, 95% of the job is just telling people not to sell in the dips and buy at the peaks.
25.
by rgmerk 2mo ago
The Internet was hugely disruptive. The dot-com bubble burst and tech stocks flatlined for years afterward.
26.
by rgmerk 2mo ago
The difference is that there establishment space launch companies were basically monopolies using ancient technology and processes. That’s not true for commercial aviation, which is subject to pretty relentless cost pressures.
27.
by rgmerk 2mo ago
I wish them well but a startup building an airliner seems like an utterly impossible task.
28.
by rgmerk 2mo ago
From what I’ve read the only part of their business that is holding up is the 911 and particularly the high-end variants. It’s everything else that’s struggling.
29.
by rgmerk 2mo ago
The rate of success of side projects seems unrealistically high. Yeah, I know, it's the YC dream, but even acquisitions where the founders walk away with a few million dollars are rare enough, right?
30.
by rgmerk 2mo ago
You can make decent code with AI assistance. You can churn out 37kLOC per day. However, I’ve seen no evidence to suggest that you can do both.

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