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Axien's comments

Axien | 2 years ago | on: “Wherever you get your podcasts” is a radical statement

Apple was late to the game. In fact they tried to change the name away from podcast (in reference to the iPod). The TWiT team started calling them NetCast to appease Apple. In the end, Apple embraced the technology and dropped the name complaint.

By then the RSS feed tech was already well established along with a few podcast software aggregators.

Apple did not invent or even have a choice.

Axien | 2 years ago | on: JPL Workforce Update

That is the worst way I’ve ever heard of being fired.

Sit at home and wait for an invite for a virtual meeting. After the meeting you will receive a email specifying if you have been fired. What the hell! Oh and forward that email because you are about to lose access.

Axien | 2 years ago | on: Is Google Getting Worse? A Longitudinal Investigation of SEO Spam in Search [pdf]

You have been using Google less.

Quick: If you want to search on what is the best toaster to buy, what URL do you type?

How do you find out the weather?

How do you find a local brewery in your area?

For me the first answer is Amazon. And the second is ask Siri. The third is Apple Maps.

Google is now below 50% of my search terms. Heck, I’m more likely to search Reddit for some queries.

Axien | 2 years ago | on: AI Is Already Killing Books

In the past quality was maintained because it cost money to publish a book.

The solution is to charge a nominal fee to self-publishing a book. Maybe $100. The author now has to be confident in the quality of the book and is betting it’ll generate at least $100 in profits.

Axien | 2 years ago | on: Waymo outperforms comparable human benchmarks over 7M+ miles

Why would 20 cars be constantly on the road? The cars would sit in parking lots, ready for a call. The actual road traffic, will not change. 1000 people going to work is 1000 people going to work irrespective whether they own the car.

The biggest change would be the lack of a need for parking. This will allow us to build more densely.

Axien | 2 years ago | on: Waymo outperforms comparable human benchmarks over 7M+ miles

Where I live is similar, it’s just the prices are prohibitive. Round trips just to locations within five or 10 miles of my house cost upwards of $50-$60. I would end up paying 2-3k a month for Uber/Lyft.

Owning a car is simply more economical. Now if I could buy into fractional ownership of a fleet of vehicles, that may make financial sense for me.

Axien | 2 years ago | on: Space After Periods (1993)

Gen-X here. I was always a big fan of two spaces - because that is the way I was taught.

One day, a millennial woman in the office commented an email was from an old person. I asked how she knew. She said two spaces after a period.

That point forward I was a one space person.

Axien | 3 years ago | on: Hotel Safety Tips from a Former Intelligence Officer

If you are not using the hotel safe, where are you putting your valuables?

I always viewed the safe as a way to protect your valuables from the cleaning staff. A hardened criminal would have no issue opening the safe.

Plus I’m more likely to forget them if they are in some hidden spot.

My recommendation is don’t travel with really valuable stuff, lock your passport and computer in the safe and you will be fine.

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