I’m an engineer. I use all of it. I use it whether I’m writing technically correct and accurate forensic reviews or doing math in my head (or on paper) to analyze a condition in real time or checking a complex finite element model to ensure that there are no improper assumptions or invalid boundary conditions. AI/ML is really useful for some things, and deadly for others.

Rote memorization may seem unnecessary, but a mental catalog - whether it be quotes, body parts and systems, equations of natural phenomena, or even manufactured parts and specifications - is the hallmark of someone who can work independently in a real time industry. It may not matter for some jobs, but it’s make or break in others.

On the contrary, it will raise the floor of required credentials. When everyone has a HS education, an undergrad degree is needed to stand out. Now that a bachelors is the de facto education level, a masters degree is necessary. If it gets easier to get a MS degree, we’ll be requiring a PhD for entry level positions.

Yet. Infrastructure on this scale moves slowly and the transparentness of pricing changes on short time lines in physical stores is hard to track. It exists in emergency economies - we call it price gouging - but that’s usually quite obvious. The idea of dynamic pricing has existed forever - hotels, airline flights, movie tickets, taxi rides, even electric rates. As technology advances it offers the opportunity to use the technology to shorten the time window for pricing changes more and more. An extra two tenths of a percent profit seems like a trivial amount. Amazon and Walmart combined for more than a trillion dollars in sales last year. 0.2% is a very non-trivial $2 Billion. If it becomes available, it will be exploited.

o7

Fly safe, cmdr

I’m shocked that the free market healthcare isn’t serving the needs of the population at large. This requires a fundamental change to the way we do things. I think we can all agree it’s time to create a special non-profit category for any existing for-profit healthcare or pharma company doing business in the US. They’re clearly constrained by over taxation and things like this wouldn’t happen if they were unburdened.

^/s

“live and work and build and pay in that world in an ongoing basis”

There, that’s more what they’re envisioning.

I can tell if China is worried about current Russia or a future US under Trump.

They’d better not be playing all my free games before I get to them.

At this point I have so much content backed up that I haven’t watched I’m not sure I’ll get through it all before I die. I say let Netflix perish on the pike of their own enshitification (ads and price increases).

Surge pricing to level demand is a potentially valid strategy when you’re trying to even optimize your off-peak manpower or have limited production capacity. Surge pricing to increase profits is going to be detrimental to their business.

I’ve edited my post for accuracy, it was genuinely an honest mis-remembering of the attack; thank you for the clarification.

Picking a fight with a superpower is generally a poor idea. Killing military members - even in Jordan - might be considered a bit beyond mere commerce.

Edit: I did misremember the attackers in Jordan and thought that was part of the Houthi organization. The Houthi’s are attacking US warship(s) in the area, but haven’t directly killed an US service members that we know of/yet. The Jordan attack was (now that I’ve checked again) by one of the groups operating under the Islamic Resistance in Iraq.

My only defense here is that all of these attacks on US and UK vessels (merchant and military) are in retribution for the US support of Israel. And, yes, there are a lot of groups backed by Iran and Iraq who are using the Israel-Hamas/Israel destruction of Gaza as an excuse to lash out at Western powers who (generally) provide support to Israel. My apologies for the error.

Funny - I’m going to be in Boston in three weeks. Unfortunately I think all my time is booked from the time my plane touches down to the time I head back to BOS.

Fascinating interview around the technology. As someone who is generally skeptical of wild “zero carbon” claims, this was interesting enough that I would definitely go out of my way to see the process in person, just to learn more about it.

Oh, I’ve been there. I hope you found a good coach. Mine moved away just a few months after I started, but I learned soooo much and he was very inspiring. Saw your first session went well - congratulations!!

Huh, I guess I’ve just adapted with the enshitification arc. It aways seems pretty clear when the publications are not specialized that the “reviews” are really just generated or copy/paste lists of devices with affiliate links - and are essentially just paid advertising (though paid by vendors and not manufacturers in this case). I will agree that it’s infuriating to have to sift through the ever-growing AI generated content to find something which has novel information.

T-mos general coverage outside of city centers and interstates is trash (they’re all pretty bad, but Tmo is very binary). I’d get it over xfinity, but it’s not even offered in my major university town due to coverage limitations. And it’s not like there aren’t big pipes nearby - the university consumes more than 100TB of data traffic a day; their Netflix traffic alone was so large just 3 years ago that they were on the edge of getting a co-located Netflix rack on campus.

Indeed. This is definitely Hanlon’s razor on their part. Though, still, this is a failing of humans - to recognize the impact their actions impose on others.

Sinus (head) stuff is just terrible - and and internet outage? You drew the short straw this week! Hope you feel better soon!

Went to see my parents last week. Dad had a sniffle the first day and I suggested we leave but my wife didn’t want to drive 8 hours back home so we agreed to “be careful” and he stayed mostly away from us and wore a mask when we were in the car. Cue to 4 days later and my wife feels tired and has allergy symptoms driving home (tbf, the pine pollen down south is nuts and it’s one of her primary allergens). I slept in the guest bedroom when we got home / spent my time on the other side of the house in case it wasn’t just allergies. Tuesday morning…she tests for Covid “just to see” and is positive. I’m typing this from a hotel room, still feeling well, tested negative. Will test again today regardless.

Oh, and Remdesivir? $1680 for a single prescription. Fuck me; no wonder they have so much money for TV ads.