Hacker News: samdunham

New comment by samdunham in "Mazda's $10 Subscription for Remote Start Sparks Backlash"

samdunham — Mon, 30 Sep 2024 20:47:03 +0000

As some in the comments correctly point out, this service requires a cellular connection. Which involves costs for Mazda. It's appropriate for them to charge a small monthly fee for the service. My only real complaint about this is discontinuing the keyfob-based feature. All that said, I see no need for remote start, anyway.

New comment by samdunham in "30th-anniversary limited-run PS5 and PS5 Pro bring back mid-'90s gray plastic"

samdunham — Fri, 20 Sep 2024 13:31:20 +0000

WiFi 7 possibly?

New comment by samdunham in "Cisco slashes thousands of workers as it announces yearly profit of $10.3B"

samdunham — Thu, 15 Aug 2024 17:31:49 +0000

Staffing isn't necessarily directly tied to profits. Just because a company is financially successful, does not automatically mean that it isn't overstaffed. I'm not saying that's the case here, specifically, just as a general rule.

New comment by samdunham in "What Happens When Ozempic Takes over Your Town"

samdunham — Fri, 09 Aug 2024 15:22:12 +0000

But it IS as simple as eat less and exercise. And no, not everyone would do it. Everyone isn't doing it. Because people are lazy, want instant gratification, and consequence-free eating habits. If 99.9999% of the people taking these drugs were to cut their caloric intake to something reasonable (1500-2000 calories per day) and exercise for half an hour to an hour a day, every single one of them would lose weight. It's not that they can't, it's that they don't want to.

New comment by samdunham in "AI instructed brainwashing effectively nullifies conspiracy beliefs"

samdunham — Mon, 08 Apr 2024 13:23:28 +0000

Mentioning it only briefly seems a bit Pollyanna to me. Couching this as mostly a good thing is overlooking the terrifying implications it would have in the "wrong" hands. And that overlooks the fundamental notion of there being "right" and "wrong" ways of thinking.

New comment by samdunham in "Mazda’s rotary engine in the age of the electric car"

samdunham — Fri, 29 Mar 2024 20:41:50 +0000

I've had three RX-7s. A first generation and two second generations. I drove the first until the wheels literally fell off (I was a young, stupid kid that ignored the crunching sounds of the rear wheel bearings falling apart. The rear wheel(s) seized while I was driving down a bridge causing the axel to snap in half. That was an interesting "drive" down the rest of the bridge). The second was a base model second gen that I gave up when I suddenly had two cars because of getting married, then divorced. The third was my favorite. A late model second gen fully loaded. That one eventually caught on fire due to negligence at a tire place. I loved that car.

The third generation never got cheap enough for me to consider one, but oh, I wanted one badly. The RX-8 never really caught me. Plus they had some early issues. That Iconic concept definitely has my attention, though.

New comment by samdunham in "Plastic bag bans work"

samdunham — Mon, 05 Feb 2024 18:06:44 +0000

I stand by my (100% non-scientific) position that smoking bans would never have gained traction if cigarette smoke didn't smell. When all of this was being discussed in a serious manner, that was what I always heard in the background chatter, well more often than "it's unhealthy." If cigarette smoke smelled pleasant or had no odor, the bans would never have had enough support to get pushed through. I still don't support smoking bans in private businesses. I think as long as the business is up front and only hires employees that are okay with it, they should be allowed to decide whether their customers can consume a totally legal product in their place of business. Is it unhealthy? Absolutely. But the government should allow people to decide for themselves whether they want to take that risk.

New comment by samdunham in "Plastic bag bans work"

samdunham — Sun, 04 Feb 2024 19:10:17 +0000

Exact same thing here. I reused the thin plastic bags as trash can liners. And I use the new, thicker ones, the same way. I'm contributing exactly the same number of bags back into the environment, they just have a whole lot more plastic in each bag.

New comment by samdunham in "Electric Car Owners Confront a Harsh Foe: Cold Weather"

samdunham — Wed, 17 Jan 2024 17:39:01 +0000

It's not about "every day." It's about being able to hop in the car and just go at a moment's notice. Regardless of the distance. In an ICE car, that's a given. In an EV, it's murkier. Much murkier.

New comment by samdunham in "Tesla is banned from driving schools because of new turn signals"

samdunham — Wed, 03 Jan 2024 20:56:36 +0000

Nobody seems to use them, anyway.

New comment by samdunham in "The Invisible Screen – An E-Paper Smart Display"

samdunham — Tue, 26 Dec 2023 19:22:24 +0000

I'd wager that far more individuals use GMail and Google calendar and a majority of business users use O365/Outlook. This looks more like a home device than a business device.

New comment by samdunham in ""If buying isn't owning, piracy isn't stealing""

samdunham — Sat, 09 Dec 2023 16:39:28 +0000

Piracy isn't and never was "stealing." It's piracy. They are distinctly different things.

New comment by samdunham in "U.S. Sugar consumption trend from 1970-2021"

samdunham — Wed, 01 Nov 2023 16:34:29 +0000

I stopped drinking fruit juice when, randomly, one day I stopped and thought about how many oranges it takes to make an 8oz. glass of orange juice (and no one drinks 8oz. at a time, it's usually more like 12 or more). And though, "There's no WAY I would ever eat that many oranges in one sitting."

New comment by samdunham in "Gen Z wants less sex in TV and movies"

samdunham — Thu, 26 Oct 2023 16:32:57 +0000

Gen Z also seems to want to "ship" every platonic relationship they are exposed to in media. I'm hearing them say one thing, and watching them do another.

New comment by samdunham in "Pixel fucked: Inside Hollywood's VFX crisis"

samdunham — Wed, 28 Jun 2023 19:57:55 +0000

So the general consensus from the comments appears to be that there are far more people wanting these jobs than there are jobs available. So the solution should be to discourage people from entering this profession. It's supply and demand. And currently, that balances toward the studios. Weed out the excess supply and the studios will need to pay more to the remaining workers. As for the people that can't imagine doing something else? Welcome to the real world where lots and lots of people do lots and lots of jobs they don't love. At a certain point, you have to give up on the dream job to pay the bills.

New comment by samdunham in "‘Everyone Wants to Hear’ This One Chord in a Christmas Carol"

samdunham — Thu, 29 Dec 2022 19:59:48 +0000

The link in the first paragraph basically takes you right to it. There's a second or so of lead time, but coupled with the text, it's pretty easy to get.

New comment by samdunham in "Women like working with people, men like working with things, all over the world"

samdunham — Tue, 27 Dec 2022 21:07:58 +0000

They really shouldn't require much thought in the end. Don't artificially keep people out of a particular profession. Don't artificially force people into a particular profession. Let people have the opportunity to do the job they want to do and call it a day.

New comment by samdunham in "Poll: What do you call the small USB device that you plug in to transfer files?"

samdunham — Fri, 22 Jul 2022 18:44:52 +0000

Because "dongle" has a very specific, different meaning. A dongle allows connection between two devices that have mismatched connectors. If someone asked me for a dongle, I'd reply, "From what to what?"

New comment by samdunham in "YouTube is banning anti-vaccine activists and blocking all anti-vaccine content"

samdunham — Wed, 29 Sep 2021 20:14:27 +0000

Well, the face of the government's response to the pandemic, Fauci, went on 60 minutes and stated flatly that masks didn't work. About a year later he went back on TV and was asked about his earlier comments about masks and he admitted - again, in no uncertain terms - that his previous comments stating that masks didn't work were said specifically to protect mask supplies for health care workers. Seems like he lied to me.

New comment by samdunham in "Pay Transparency Is Coming"

samdunham — Wed, 15 Sep 2021 18:57:15 +0000

Bad analogy. This would be more akin to businesses telling consumers exactly how much a product costs to produce. And even that isn't a perfect analogy. Bottom line, my salary is the business of me, the company I work for, and my wife. No one else needs to know how much (or little) I make.