• 0 Posts
  • 136 Comments
Joined 1 year ago
cake
Cake day: October 4th, 2023

help-circle
  • Most male computer uses watch porn and would not want an AI to log that. Many women find porn sickening and don’t understand it and will never understand male urges that result in watching it. The fact that this got into a finished product tells you a lot about Microsoft’s corporate culture.

    Excellent point. We saw exactly the same phenomenon play out with Google and Gemini. The tool created racially diverse Nazis. Even a few minutes with the tool revealed major issues. There must have been hundreds of people who witnessed the slow moving train crash in realtime, but were either unwilling or unable to speak out. I think these companies have clearly cultivated a hierarchical culture of fear and intimidation. I recently left a job in which my manager was ex-Google. The stories she would tell were appalling. Her command-and-control style was, frankly, disgusting. She permitted zero critical feedback or discussion. It was her way or “fuck off.” I found that very instructive as to how these companies have morphed into shells of their formers selves. I’m not bullish on the future of these companies. They’re coasting very well on the fumes of their historical successes, and I think their demise is all but assured.













  • Shorting a stock in effect means selling a stock you don’t own. The stock market derives price based on supply and demand. When more people are selling than people are buying, the stock price goes down. There are many more dynamics at play than this though. Often there are investment firms which will identify a price mismatch and attempt to price out the short sellers by buying and pushing the price up. This can trigger a short squeeze which makes the price suddenly pop.

    IPOs are exciting times to be a trader, but individuals are largely in for the ride. They can’t move the market. If they identify one of these larger plays they can join the fun. Game Stop was one of the first examples of a consumer-driven play, and it scared the shit out of institutions because it upended their risk models.



  • Rowling is an hell of a woman. She’s donated more money than we will ever earn and doesn’t dodge her taxes.

    She lost her billionaire status a few years ago after donating between 160 to 200 million quid!

    Say what you want about her views on gender, but she has done more good for the world than most.

    Introduced an entire generation to reading. Millions of kids who weren’t big readers picked up lifetime habits!

    Started or donated to many charities. Including the Multiple Sclerosis Society Scotland, The Maggie’s Centres for Cancer Care, Doctors Without Borders, and more. She founded the Children’s High Level Group, known as Lumos, which works to “end the systematic institutionalization of children across Europe and help them find safer, more caring places to live.” She has also contributed to various other charitable causes through her philanthropic trust, Volant.

    Helped save female Afghani lawyers from the taliban.

    Funded the Anne Rowling Regenerative Neurology clinic in Edinburgh.

    And rather more contentiously, has stuck to her guns about the areas where she believes sex should take precedence over gender identity in the face of abuse, rape and death threats.

    And now employment tribunals are ruling again and again that gender critical views are perfectly reasonable to hold and in fact are legally protected.



  • Lots of surveys show one of the primary barriers to EV adoption is range anxiety. I’ve seen people trying to “educate” potential customers out of this anxiety, but it’s pissing into the wind. You’re not going to convince most people to downgrade their current ICE experience while paying the same or usually even more. I think the inflection point is above real world range for ICE. For example my 2016 Honda Civic can get about 7-800km of range on a single tank, and stops are as quick as a few minutes. This provides a lot of flexibility about where and when one stops. The range needs to account for:

    • The 20-40 minute charge vs five minutes for gas.

    • The lack of chargers relative to gas stations.

    • The 30% drop in range in the cold.

    Our annual Austria ski trip takes about 30% longer in our Model Y than the Civic. That’s hours extra on an already very long drive, and the Y costs a lot more. That’s a big downgrade in experience. An appalling experience with a family. We won’t be buying another EV until affordable range is above 1,000km (620 miles). I know many current, former, and non-EV owners who feel the same.

    There is a market for commuter cars with poor range, but primarily in rich places where owning 2-3 cars is common. These rich places have already bought EVs as they are. Most of the world relies on just one car, if they own one at all. That one car needs to perform well in all conditions.




  • I guess my mortgage could be considered bad debt on account of being adjustable interest rate - this is however the most common type of mortgage arrangement in Sweden where I live. This has led to my interest rate costs going up an eye watering 400% in about a year.

    As a Dane am I envious of some of your systems like investeringssparkonto, but we have the better mortgage system. My home loan is locked in at 1% for 30 years.

    You guys have had ENORMOUS immigration over the last eight years without building homes at commensurate rates. No wonder it placed pressure on housing. I don’t think your government had a realistic housing and immigration plan. I guess that’s why they were voted out. I hope things improve.