Hacker News: datacruncher01

New comment by datacruncher01 in "Google details new 24-hour process to sideload unverified Android apps"

datacruncher01 — Fri, 20 Mar 2026 06:14:59 +0000

It does not help. This is friction imposed to reduce and eliminate sideloading in the name of safety.

I own my device, I choose the software running on it. Create friction points and I will chose another platform to execute my software.

New comment by datacruncher01 in "YouTube announces 'voluntary exit program' for US staff"

datacruncher01 — Fri, 31 Oct 2025 04:41:53 +0000

Well it's part of the hiring strategy with tech companies. You hire based on your competitors hiring. The company that can raise to hire more talent is able to get to market on the next big thing before the competition and see stock value rise. But when a down cycle hits, they all drop hiring to match because you're overspending and will see stock prices drop to the competition.

New comment by datacruncher01 in "Malaysia is betting on data centers to boost its economy"

datacruncher01 — Thu, 20 Feb 2025 14:52:39 +0000

Worked with Malaysian counterparts for a number of years. You have decent talent there but one of the key constraints I've heard from higherups is that the market doesn't have enough workers and a large multinational can saturate the skilled workers you need. So some companies are skipping to go to India instead.

New comment by datacruncher01 in "41% of Employers Worldwide Say They'll Reduce Staff by 2030 Due to AI"

datacruncher01 — Fri, 10 Jan 2025 15:50:44 +0000

They say that but in my experience, automation leads to more work. If AI does lead to cost savings and improved business, they will have additional demand and need more people though the type of workers they have may change.

And if everyone is dumping employees then we'll have a recession and everyone will blame it on AI and start hiring new talent to pivot for shareholders.

New comment by datacruncher01 in "Can solar costs keep shrinking?"

datacruncher01 — Thu, 29 Aug 2024 17:29:12 +0000

I think eventually the hardware will be so cheap it'll make more sense to use them as solar fences. Reduce the cost to install and maintain by 3-4x easily. Or DIY for practically nothing.

New comment by datacruncher01 in "Morale plummets at Google as workers complain bosses are 'inept' and 'boring'"

datacruncher01 — Fri, 09 Feb 2024 16:43:20 +0000

I'd say the simpler answer is likely the right one. Rates being higher means it's more expensive for the business to maintain it's cash flow. Shouldn't be an issue for a company like Google but here's the rub, an exec at one public company sees a peer at another (that's probably doing worse financially) drop headcount and a rise in stock, if that exec doesn't do the same they get perceived as not doing enough and see a dip in stock. So they drop headcount too.

While it sucks for those who get the boot, this has the benefit of raising salaries overall. Because the company that does this usually cuts too much and has to later rehire at market rates which rise over time.

New comment by datacruncher01 in "Can flow batteries finally beat lithium?"

datacruncher01 — Mon, 25 Dec 2023 02:39:18 +0000

Flow batteries biggest issue has been density. If they have solved it at better cost effectiveness than current EV batteries then it may take off. I doubt the complexity of the electrolyte water solution, pumps, and membranes would really win out against an equivalent electrolyte in a rechargeable battery for car sized volumes.

Where this could be a major use case is large scale grid batteries. That would allow for an effective baseline power store for solar and wind power.

New comment by datacruncher01 in "My failed attempt at using a closet as an office"

datacruncher01 — Thu, 21 Dec 2023 15:12:56 +0000

The closet idea was a good one but you need intake and exhaust fans to circulate the air for CO2 and good temperature control. Something like the airframe system would work fine.

New comment by datacruncher01 in "Greedflation: Corporate profiteering 'significantly' boosted global prices,study"

datacruncher01 — Fri, 08 Dec 2023 13:57:23 +0000

I think the easiest explanation is people rightly figured back during the pandemic lockdowns and wfh policies that people had more money than they usually did even in spite of some people losing their jobs. Gov spending was very high to be honest and people suddenly had somewhere between 1k to 2k extra cashflow. That kind of increase leads to every business trying to extract that as fast as they can.

If your business didn't increase their costs during the last three years it's a dying business.

New comment by datacruncher01 in "I worked in Amazon HR and was disgusted at what I was seeing with PIP plans"

datacruncher01 — Thu, 30 Nov 2023 16:27:22 +0000

Stack ranking biggest flaw is that it results in managers gaming the system by over hiring to create strategic buffer ftes they can drop if they need to. Which leads to a reoccurring need to use stack ranking and more over hiring.

New comment by datacruncher01 in "The Tech Gold Rush Is Over. Where's the Next One?"

datacruncher01 — Fri, 03 Nov 2023 22:16:18 +0000

Nothing, that's why VCs will invest an enormous sum to grow faster than the competition to become the dominate player. Once established and people are used to the product other companies will struggle to compete against it without doing so purely on a cost cutting model that they can't sustain against bigger players.

Problem for many companies is that they are in the middle of a constantly changing tech landscape and become obsoleted fairly quickly or try and use their size to artificially increase margins too much and allow for competitors to eat their market.

New comment by datacruncher01 in "The Tech Gold Rush Is Over. Where's the Next One?"

datacruncher01 — Fri, 03 Nov 2023 22:09:31 +0000

The reality is there are very few other types of businesses where you can scale your product so cheaply and still save or increase productivity to justify high prices. Sure music and entertainment can scale but at the end of the day, it's regular people buying the product and there's only so much money there.

It's a temporary issue, rates being what they are means money goes to easier profits. Just like the dotcom bust, it'll eventually make a comeback but good luck figuring out if your company will survive it.

New comment by datacruncher01 in "Genie: Text to 3D in Seconds"

datacruncher01 — Thu, 02 Nov 2023 22:06:28 +0000

Discord? Pass.

New comment by datacruncher01 in "Histotripsy – a technique that harnesses soundwaves to attack cancer"

datacruncher01 — Sat, 14 Oct 2023 16:56:49 +0000

From the article, once the tumor is broken up the immune system begins to clean up the area and is able to learn antigens against the tumor. So your immune system would attack cells that are spreading around the body.

New comment by datacruncher01 in "Return to Office Is Bullshit and Everyone Knows It"

datacruncher01 — Mon, 02 Oct 2023 18:57:01 +0000

I think the cat is out of the bag, didn't suffer in productivity from WFH and in fact many companies posted some of their best quarters. They got giddy on the returns and overhired and overspent, now credit is expensive and they are tightening back. Enforcing RTO is an easy way for most companies to cut 10% or more of the workforce.

Realistically these companies are going to lose out to companies that have embraced remote work. The benefits of not having that expensive downtown real estate and being able to hire talent from anywhere are too good.

New comment by datacruncher01 in "Inflation-adjusted iPhone 15 most affordable base model since 2007 original"

datacruncher01 — Fri, 15 Sep 2023 13:44:40 +0000

If you have to justify the price with inflation adjusted prices for a consumer electronic device you're already messing up somewhere.

New comment by datacruncher01 in "Microsoft to kill off third-party printer drivers in Windows"

datacruncher01 — Tue, 12 Sep 2023 02:44:48 +0000

We have all this innovation for 3d printers but 2d printers get the suck. Really, I wish someone would come out with an open source 2d printer, hell even just a pen plotter type.

New comment by datacruncher01 in "When your classmates threaten you with felony charges"

datacruncher01 — Mon, 28 Aug 2023 19:26:24 +0000

Best advice I can give someone is never do security research for a company without expressed written consent to do so and document everything as agreed to.

Payouts for finding bugs when there isn't an already established process are either not going to be worth your time or will be seen as malicious activity.

New comment by datacruncher01 in "Ask HN: Cyber Security folks – what are your biggest pain points?"

datacruncher01 — Thu, 01 Jun 2023 15:55:13 +0000

A common trend with vendors is they can provide you all the data in the world that you want, but few condense it into actions to be done. The better ones do and even they only do surface level actions like one action for each detected issue. A smart person worth their salary takes in the data and turns it into a plan, these 500 issues get fixed with this action. If you want to lead in the automation state, do that. Go beyond simple detections and turn it into actions. Use data to infer states about systems you haven't scanned. Feed that into a tracking tool to showcase progress to make your customers look like they are moving goalposts.

New comment by datacruncher01 in "Ask HN: Do you think the future of social media looks like Discord/Reddit?"

datacruncher01 — Thu, 18 May 2023 19:49:20 +0000

Facebook is the brand that's not gamer nerd culture. You have groups there, lots of normies you may not regularly interact with use that platform quite a bit.

I think it's too difficult to speculate what the next big social platform is/will be though. It goes through cycles from what I've observed. Generally the platform changes in a direction that the community at large doesn't like which causes a fragmentation to occur and other sites pick up the loss to start the process again.