Hacker News: stu2b50

New comment by stu2b50 in "Apple acquires Pixelmator"

stu2b50 — Fri, 01 Nov 2024 20:37:34 +0000

Eh, I don’t think it’s the same thing. The gulf between “photos user” and “pixelmator” user is quite high, much more so than “weather app” and “weather app but better”.

In particular, if you have the average user Pixelmator, they’d be worse off. The same isn’t really true with weather or darksky - they really just do the same thing.

We still have iMovie and FinalCut, GarageBand and Logic. Apple has kept two different product lines before.

New comment by stu2b50 in "New iMac with M4"

stu2b50 — Mon, 28 Oct 2024 16:01:29 +0000

No. If you’re that kind of power user, the iMac isn’t for you. Get a Mac mini or studio.

New comment by stu2b50 in "New iMac with M4"

stu2b50 — Mon, 28 Oct 2024 15:36:19 +0000

Many of these are customer service desks which are visible from the side.

New comment by stu2b50 in "New iMac with M4"

stu2b50 — Mon, 28 Oct 2024 15:33:18 +0000

When was the last time you saw a GPU with slottable memory?

For transfer speeds, look at the data sheets for the M series. Much faster than DDR4 or DDR5 RAM. In the ballpark of GPU memory.

New comment by stu2b50 in "New iMac with M4"

stu2b50 — Mon, 28 Oct 2024 15:29:17 +0000

The ram is on the package for more than portability. It’s necessary for fast enough transfer speeds for the iGPU.

New comment by stu2b50 in "How We Found Bin Laden: The Basics of Foreign Signals Intelligence"

stu2b50 — Fri, 20 Sep 2024 04:16:07 +0000

First, there's an official position: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chief_Official_White_House_Pho...

Secondly, why would it be a coincidence? You don't think... the people in the situation room knew something, perhaps a situation, was happening at the time?

Otherwise, why would they _be_ in the situation room? There's usually a situation going on.

New comment by stu2b50 in "Warner Bros shelves finished ‘Coyote vs. Acme’, takes $30M tax write-off"

stu2b50 — Mon, 13 Nov 2023 23:11:18 +0000

It doesn't. A loss is a loss.

New comment by stu2b50 in "Bored Ape conference attendees wake up with eye pain, vision loss"

stu2b50 — Tue, 07 Nov 2023 00:00:41 +0000

I think being into NFTs and crypto makes you a fool.

But I do not think fools should suffer vision damage, or that they deserve harm on them.

New comment by stu2b50 in "Log is the "Pro" in iPhone 15 Pro"

stu2b50 — Wed, 11 Oct 2023 16:42:49 +0000

RAW video isn’t like RAW photography. The sheer size of raw footage is insane - it’s normal for cameras to be unable to record RAW footage natively without an external recorder.

Thats not to say processing isn’t part of it, but even $2k mirrorless cameras don’t record RAW video internally.

New comment by stu2b50 in "Fine, I'll run a regression analysis but it won't make you happy"

stu2b50 — Sun, 01 Oct 2023 21:52:07 +0000

That depends on what the goal is. It's worthless if you're trying to convince the other side. But in many cases, you're actually trying to convince the audience, and certainly for something like a blogpost here, I'd argue that it is not only the case, but successful, since at minimum we know it got posted to hackernews and has traction.

New comment by stu2b50 in "iPhone 15 Pro Max vs. DSLR photos: Real world camera comparison"

stu2b50 — Sat, 23 Sep 2023 18:14:14 +0000

To not be too pedantic about "ever", the current prosumer camera market is not shrinking, is growing, and the main manufacturers are increasing the pace of production, as models like the Fujifilm X100v have become highly sought after, but new, cameras that Fuji can't make enough of. Sales of the main full frame shooters Sony, Canon, Nikon, etc. are selling well, and we're getting active R&D on them. And the x100v is a "point and shoot", of course, but far more expensive (the real price for one is >$2k), far better image quality, and far better build quality.

Past the ~2000s these weren't really ever the cameras that laypeople bought anyway. Back when they were DLSRs, the cost and size were always prohibitive once cheap point and shoots were around. Cheap point and shoots are dead (but again, cameras like the x100v or ricoh gr are selling so well they can't make enough of them), but the interchangeable lens camera market is by no means in decline relative to the near past.

New comment by stu2b50 in "iPhone 15 Pro Max vs. DSLR photos: Real world camera comparison"

stu2b50 — Sat, 23 Sep 2023 17:58:23 +0000

I mean, you'd also probably want to shoot at something other than 26mm. The image quality from the "telephoto" lens and wide lens on the iPhone (and any other flagship) is so bad it's distinctly noticeable even on an iPhone sized screen, compared to just the iPhone's main shooter, let alone a discrete camera.

Traditionally, the "default" focal length, for being close to the amount of distortion the human eye has, is 50mm - so quite a lot tighter than the iPhone's main shooter.

The iPhone look is a combination of extremely deep depth of field, not particularly pleasing bokeh, and digital sharpening and smoothing. Image stacking can make up for the lack of light on a tiny sensor with a slow lens, but it can't make up for the depth of field.

New comment by stu2b50 in "iPhone 15 Pro Max vs. DSLR photos: Real world camera comparison"

stu2b50 — Sat, 23 Sep 2023 17:54:43 +0000

I don't think that's a fair characterization of the market. $300 point and shoots are indeed dead, but the prosumer photography market is as alive as ever, especially since the pandemic, during which every white collar worker seems to have decided to get a hobby of some kind.

Analog film photography, famously, had a huge resurgence the last 5 or so years, and is quite popular.

New comment by stu2b50 in "Consumers defrauded on Zelle are left high and dry by the banks that created it [pdf]"

stu2b50 — Tue, 12 Sep 2023 05:17:33 +0000

Sure, and that's the merchant's issue? There are no lack of merchants that take credit cards without any further measures like that. And because you used a credit card, you can, and probably should, just file a chargeback and be done with it.

New comment by stu2b50 in "Consumers defrauded on Zelle are left high and dry by the banks that created it [pdf]"

stu2b50 — Sat, 09 Sep 2023 00:05:59 +0000

What part of Zelle isn't safe, fast, and convenient, that is actually scoped under Zelle's responsibilities? Zelle is for moving money from bank account A to bank account B - that's where its responsibilities end.

> Are they getting a cut of every dollar I spend?

They aren't.

New comment by stu2b50 in "Consumers defrauded on Zelle are left high and dry by the banks that created it [pdf]"

stu2b50 — Sat, 09 Sep 2023 00:04:54 +0000

What part of that is the fault of using a credit card? I'm extra confused since Amazon came into this, where you distinctly are able to use credit cards?

With a credit card, you have the fallback of chargebacking. That's the benefit. You haven't gotten to that stage, although you certainly could have escalated to there by now.

New comment by stu2b50 in "NY Times Rides in Waymo Robotaxis in SF"

stu2b50 — Wed, 23 Aug 2023 11:27:20 +0000

Idk, BART generally is considered to be dangerous and/or dirty but I don’t think the muni rails are considered as such when I lived there. They were generally pretty clean and not particularly janky.

New comment by stu2b50 in "NY Times Rides in Waymo Robotaxis in SF"

stu2b50 — Tue, 22 Aug 2023 16:58:24 +0000

I'm pretty sure it would detect the flat tire, alert a technician, and refuse to move.

New comment by stu2b50 in "NY Times Rides in Waymo Robotaxis in SF"

stu2b50 — Tue, 22 Aug 2023 16:24:06 +0000

Disagree on what? What angle is this from? Their bosses? The police? As a reader of journalism, I appreciate that they tested this edge case. I am not responsible for their safety, and as autonomous adults I trust they know what they're getting themselves into.

New comment by stu2b50 in "NY Times Rides in Waymo Robotaxis in SF"

stu2b50 — Tue, 22 Aug 2023 10:59:29 +0000

Muni is actually fairly clean and safe, it just goes nowhere.