Well yes, when "code is data", data suddenly becomes very dangerous. This is recurring theme when dealing with Lisps and Emacs especially. For instance, it is also quite common for Emacs packages to save data in the form of ELisp code. When loading the data, it is simply evaluated and boom, your data is loaded. It's a powerful thing, but of course this is a security issue, and this is why we can't have nice things...
If I understand this correctly, this exploit only works with macros that evaluate at least one of their arguments, otherwise no code is actually run. These kind of macros are not that common. I guess one possible fix would be to mark these kind of macros as potentially dangerous and do not expand them automatically for things like code completion and such.
I think it's entirely warranted. It's not just because of the show itself, but the impact it had at the time. If you watch it today for the first time, it's probably harder to see what exactly made it so important. But being old enough to have seen it when it came out (well, a year later on DVD), at least to me, I had never seen anything like it. At that time, you had the "HBO trifecta" of shows: Sopranos, Six Feet Under, and The Wire. I watched each of those slavishly. No other thing came even close at the time. It was the most revolutionary TV since Twin Peaks.
The Wire was special in several ways: First was the dialogue, especially the Baltimore accent and slang. I never even heard anything close to that. I'm in Europe, BTW, and even with subtitles I had a hard time following (that was before urbandictionary, mind you). It was actually years later that I learned Idris Elba is British, which still blows my mind.
The characters and casting are impeccable. Idris Elba, Dominic West, Lance Reddick, Wendell Pierce, Wood Harris, all absolutely incredible and pitch perfect in their roles. Probably most memorable is Michael Williams as Omar Little, a side character in the show which is impossible to forget.
It's not a perfect series, but I'd say the first season is damn near it. I would even go as far to say that it's probably enough to watch the first season to get most of what this series wants to say, mainly to watch the tragedy of the war on drugs from the deeply humanist perspective of David Simon. IMHO the later seasons never matched the first one. On the contrary: the later seasons usually have one central theme which is explored (like journalism, education, etc.) and get a bit preachy at times. Also, the series lacks character development. Yes, people become more cynical and burnt out, but they are already very cynical and burnt out to begin with, so there's really not that much to build upon...
> Also, the series lacks character development. Yes, people become more cynical and burnt out, but they are already very cynical and burnt out to begin with, so there's really not that much to build upon...
Bodie, Carver, Daniels, Cutty, and those are only the ones I can remember on the spot now...
And Bubs! Bubs has clearly the best character arc ever
> IMHO the later seasons never matched the first one. On the contrary: the later seasons usually have one central theme which is explored
Each season added a theme to the show - the first was the streets, the second was blue collar workers, etc. This was very much on purpose, I thought, and well-executed.
So many incredible and rich, nuanced side characters. mentioned Bubs in the comments, and as soon as I read his name his memory came back as if I knew him personally. Snoop was a Baltimore native, did a stint in prison and had really lived the life they portrayed.
Sorry to hear that. I actually cheaped out and for the first time went for the L-series, L14 G4, but with Ryzen. Very happy overall, pretty much no issues whatsoever, running Debian. I miss the old keyboard, though.
I find this to be less and less of an issue, because RAM has gotten so cheap that you can pretty much just max it out when buying. At the moment, going from 32GB to 64GB incurs a 193$ markup for this laptop, which I think is entirely reasonable for a machine like this (although, honestly, I'm usually not even close to reach 32GB in my normal work).
The only notable exception here is Apple with their absolutely bonkers RAM upgrade prices, which is why I would never buy a Macbook.
EDIT: I just HAD to look, MacBook Pro(ha!) by default with 16GB unified memory, it will set you back 400$ to go to 32GB, so more than 4x what Lenovo takes (64GB not even possible, of course).
You say ram has gotten cheap, and then $193 for 32GB is fine with you? You can easily get 64GB for that price when buying separate modules.
I still think it would be beneficial for us to keep memory swappable at all costs. And if the connector is the problem, they should address that, rather than just accepting these tactics that _enable_ manufacturers in setting their own prices. I'm not saying they all do this, but there's plenty of them and Apple is the perfect example like you say.
The $193.00 for an extra 32GB of LPDDR5X is simply an example of Lenovo's CTO website showing the pre-discount MSRP prices for all the upgrades, even though they run near-permanent discounts of 40% and more compared to their official MSRP for many products.
As pointed out in the other comment, the true price at Lenovo for this upgrade is only $112.80 — not as good as you'd get with the DDR5 SODIMM, but it's actually cheaper than what Crucial supposedly charges for their 32GB of LPCAMM2, which isn't even as fast as what Lenovo includes.
We wanted longer battery life, so they run RAM at lower voltages now, which makes it necessary to minimize paths as much as possible. It's not some conspiracy. And they are working on a connector, see the LPCAMM2 link in the other post, so maybe you can wait it out if you feel that strongly.
It's $1184.40 for the default CTO with 32 GB LPDDR5X-8448MHz, and the upgrade to 64GB LPDDR5X brings the total cost of T14s to $1297.20 USD.
Even though the upgrade is listed at $193.00, that's actually the MSRP before the near-permanent discounts that Lenovo is very famous for, because 1297.20 - 1184.40 = 112.8. E.g., the extra 32GB of LPDDR5X-8448MHz — it's actually a faster variant of LPDDR5X than used in the base M4 — costs only a net $112.80 USD!
All together, that's $1297.20 for a machine with more AND faster RAM, at a cheaper price, than an M4 MacBook Pro that has a starting price of $1599.00 USD in the US, for just 16GB of the slower LPDDR5X-7500, compared to 64GB of the faster LPDDR5X-8448MHz with the Snapdragon ThinkPad.
Also, Apple is the only manufacturer in the form factor and price categories to solder storage with their laptops, as nearly everyone else uses the standard 2280, 2230 or 2242 NVME instead. Lenovo generally uses 2242 NVME in their ultraportables, which is also compatible with the cheaper/smaller and more popular 2230, as the 2230 format appears to be more popular because of its use by SteamDeck handheld gaming console and the clones, and hence has a lower price, because there's more competition in the form factor.
Drives with 2TB NVME in a 2230 form factor retail at about $150 right now (that's more expensive than 2280 but cheaper than 2242), compare to $600 that Apple charges for a 2TB upgrade from 512GB on a MacBook Pro! (It's actually $800 on a MacBook Air or Mac mini to go from 256GB to 2TB!)
Not to mention that Snapdragon does support DP MST for daisy-chaining the monitors through DisplayPort Multi-Stream Transport, whereas MacOS still doesn't — unless you're using Windows on an Intel Mac, that is!
But, hey, at least Apple has finally given us a 2 external monitor support with the base M4 chip, without having to close the lid!
So at least here in Germany, we pretty much all use nasal spray with xylometazoline, and it's very effective as it also binds to adrenergic receptors. It does not seem to be available in the US, and at least from a cursory search I cannot find out why...?
EDIT: After looking a bit more, the simple answer seems to be that it's not FDA approved for nasal congestion, and since there's not much money to be made, there's simply no incentive to go through the costly approval process..
They have oxymetazoline but I think the problem with this class of decongestants is that it is ineffective and dependency is basically guaranteed if used for more than a couple of days
Oxymetazoline is different from Xylometazoline, although it was derived from it. Xylometazoline is pretty harmless for adults when not used over extended periods (it is advised to not use it longer than 6 days, but that will cover your typical cold). It is true that if you take it regularly over extended periods, you will have a rebound effect and your nose will get congested when not taking it, so in that way, you develop a "physical dependency", but that's obviously much more harmless than other medication dependencies. Getting off a Xylometazoline dependence means that you'll have to deal with a congested nose for a few weeks...
I don't see from your comment how the risk from congested nose for a few weeks deems it "harmless" for you. Two fully congested nostrils is hell for one night alone, imagine a few weeks of that. A few weeks of terrible sleep, if any. It's torture.
It can also cause permanently enlarged turbinates with chronic use.
I said it's more harmless than other medication dependencies, like getting hooked on pain medication or benzos. Even here in tightly regulated Germany, Xylometazoline can be bought without a prescription. It is very effective and, compared to other drugs, pretty harmless.
Look, there are always extreme cases. Just look up how many people need a liver transplant or even die each year from misusing paracetamol. So should we make it a prescription drug? Maybe, I don't know, it's always a trade-off.
Is there any basis to think xylo- is better than the similar oxymetazoline available in the US? Both the efficacy and downsides seem similar from discussion so far.
> I said it's more harmless than other medication dependencies, like getting hooked on pain medication or benzos.
I've never taken any opiod, but two weeks of being unable to breathe properly or sleep sounds as hellish as my idea of quitting heroin.
I mean, I quit smoking, hardest thing I've ever done, and the physical withdrawal effects were insignificant compared to that.
It's funny; looking back, I quit smoking exactly BECAUSE I was suffering from crazy congestion, and after a week of Afrin and poor sleep I thought quitting smoking altogether would help me regain my sanity.
> I've never taken any opiod, but two weeks of being unable to breathe properly or sleep sounds as hellish as my idea of quitting heroin.
Let me assure you that there's (yet?) no Xylometazoline epidemic ravaging though Europe, with tens of thousands of people dying each year, destroying families and communities, in effect causing endless grief for people and huge profits for pharma companies. There's also no black market for Xylometazoline, with people overdosing because there's nasal spray on the street that is contaminated with a much more potent derivative than can kill pretty much instantly. I've also never heard of babies born with congested noses that spend their first weeks of life going through a Xylometazoline withdrawal.
So to summarize, I think my initial statement that a physical dependence on Xylometazoline is less harmful than a dependence on opioids is probably correct.
OK, this is getting ridiculous, but stop putting words in my mouth. So for the third time: less harmful than a dependence on pain killers. How this could be even a controversial statement is completely beyond me, but HN never stops to surprise me.
Many medicines pose some risk to some people who would abuse it for too long. Xylometazoline just is crazy effective (instantly eliminates congestion and running nose completely in most cases) and completely harmless in what looks like 99% cases of usage - nearly-everyone here in the EU uses it happily and has no problems. I would really dread a cold without it and never travel without having it with me. Just try to not over-use habitually. The sense of measure is always a key to healthy and happy living.
That’s why if you developed a dependence you don’t quit cold turkey.
The strategy I’ve heard is purchasing a normal bottle, and refilling it with boiled cool water when it’s ½ empty. Then refilling it again when it’s ¾ empty.
Xylometazoline is an absolute godsend, and has even more efficacy in a dual-action spray with saline water.
It feels nothing short of magical to do one spray per nostril, and be completely uncontested in less than 10 minutes.
Worse, the symptoms gets worse after you stop using it, see rhinitis medicamentosa.
Many people have used decongestants so much they cannot quit them or will have to suffer weeks of nasal congestion. I risked going through that; later I swore I will never touch one ever again.
Kind of funny to see a medication that's super common in Germany, widely recommended by doctors, given to children, etc. to be discussed in those terms.
This isn’t that strange in the context that all medicines, while generally safe in OTC form, can have negative side effects if used for too long or at the wrong dose or in the wrong circumstance.
My wife has one kidney and as such is told to avoid NSAIDs as a class of medicine. She’s realistically fine taking it every so often but her doctors are asking her to avoid using kidney capacity that could hypothetically be needed to filter and excrete something else.
Acetaminophen/Paracetamol is great alternative for her since it’s processed in the liver. However if you’re a frequent drinker, have a liver deficiency, or have to take some other drug straining your liver, it’s contraindicated.
For most of us most of the time you’re completely correct though.
In the case of these nasal spray decongestants I had a case of rebound congestion due to over-reliance on them while surviving some family bringing really bad colds into the house and my son starting daycare. It was really bad. I then managed by switching to an alternating schedule of pseudoephedrine and the nasal spray so I could reduce the physical dependency on the latter and get a good night’s sleep.
My doctor eventually cleared me to take an allergy spray medication (Fluticasone propionate) that is safer for long term use but generally not used for colds because it inhibits immune response and mask the symptoms which can cause new infections and hurt your ability to heal. Yet another case of the mundane medicine that is contraindicated. While seemingly being the wrong thing to be put on while fighting off infections it worked out great.
After four months I had seen enough child germs and no adult has brought their own plague or food poisoning (it was a very bad summer for me) and I finally became healthy again.
> Acetaminophen/Paracetamol is great alternative for her since it’s processed in the liver. However if you’re a frequent drinker, have a liver deficiency, or have to take some other drug straining your liver, it’s contraindicated.
What many people don't know: Overdosing on paracetamol is the leading cause of acute liver failure. It's also contraindicated for people with Gilbert's syndrome, which is actually pretty common (~5% of people in the US) and most people don't even know they have it, as it's harmless and usually only found accidentally through high bilirubin levels in the blood.
I've been through this and sucked hard. Never will I use a decongestant nasal spray again.
If there was a way to somehow sum up all of the suffering caused by these sprays from dependency (which lasts weeks, months, years even) and compare that with the suffering alleviated from a cold (which lasts a fews days), my bet is these cause more harm than good.
The best thing I ever did for decongestion was to get outside and start wearing a mask during the winter. The air entering my nose is clearer and warmer, which causes less mucus production. The mucus that is produced is more likely to drain, rather than sit around thickening and waiting to be blown out. I wish I'd thought to wear a mask while out when I was younger; could have saved myself much suffering waiting at the bus stop and during the subsequent schoolday.
It's not a dependence like mental addiction. Your body becomes dependent on it. Your sinuses "rebound" and all but completely block in absence of the spray. I had a cold that blocked my nose up so bad I couldn't sleep because I was afraid of suffocating so I tried one of the sprays and it opens you up like magic, super effective. But about an hour after use if would completely block up again where you literally can't inhale through your nose at all. That's how it is even after you get over the cold/illness. You have to continue to use the spray to keep your airway open until you suffer through breaking the "addiction" by not using it for however long that takes. It really does immediately open your airway, but I won't EVER use it again because it's really scary to be completely blocked like that and have to get a dose in every 30mins-hour just to breath.
Of course it can. You take drug A for 5 days to get rid of symptom X. The symptom X does not go away. It is ineffective! You stop taking drug A and immediately experience brutal migraines that go away when you start taking drug A again. Ergo, you have become dependent on drug A for normal functioning, even though it is ineffective at ridding you of symptom X.
I’ve wondered this also. As an American who lived in Germany and found this while living there, I can attest that it’s quite effective for me. There are other quite useful and safe drugs that are not available in the US.
It's actually slightly more selective for a1 receptors than the German alternative. They both have the same dependence potential and rebound liability.
There are nasal sprays in the US - and yes they are more targeted and better in general than pills. But Americans love their pills ... almost as much as Germans love their homeopathic remedies :-)
Yes, I agree it's probably the right choice for them. Companies using the GitLab CE would probably never buy Mergify anyway, not only because they don't want to spend money, but also: if they can live with the bare-bones GitLab CE, I can't imagine why they would have the need for Mergify.
Regarding market share of GitLab, I would also assume that it's not looking good, but I only have anecdotal evidence. At least we (350 premium seat license) are definitely looking to migrate away from GitLab, for various reasons, but mostly cost. It seems the Premium tier has become the ugly step child of GitLab, but Ultimate is simply way too big a step cost-wise. Also, the new AI features have a hefty additional cost, and at least for coding, Copilot is superior in my experience. Combined with the overall bugginess of GitLab and missing essential features like proper code search (yes, I know, they will ship with Zoekt any day now), it's in a bad spot now compared to GitHub.
EDIT: I forgot one very important additional thing: GitLab was attractive in the EU for regulatory reasons, as GitHub was US hosting only. But since end of October, GitHub has EU hosting generally available:
AFAICT it doesn’t matter where things are hosted, the US still reserves the right to access the data because if the company or the parent company are based in or want to deal with the US.
Or has this changed somewhere in the last 4 years since I looked at it?
> The EU parliament raised substantial doubts that the new agreement reached by Ursula von der Leyen is actually conform with EU laws, as it still does not sufficiently protect EU citizens from US mass surveillance and severely fails to enforce basic human digital rights in the EU.[7] In May 2023 a resolution on this matter passed the EU parliament with 306 votes in favor and only 27 against, but so far has stayed without consequences.[8] The NGO NOYB (European Center for Digital Rights) has announced that it will once again try to set the Framework out of force in front of the European Court of Justice.[9]
That might very well be, but what are you gonna do? Forbid using Microsoft cloud services completely? As we say in Germany: that train has already left the station...
> There are tens of thousands of organizations that depend on it every day, and projects that are funded on the time scale of decades. It's here to stay.
I like Nix, but what turns me off most is this kind of hyperbole from its evangelists. "tens of thousands of organizations" depend on Nix every day? How do you even come up with that kind of number? And as someone who has actually worked on projects that are funded for decades: the first rule is that things are changing, so stay flexible, chose boring technology, and always have a plan for migration. Binding yourself to a niche framework that is also strongly opinionated with an arcane syntax is pretty much the worst you could do.
As you say, Nix is already over 20 years old, so yes, it's probably not going anywhere, but that goes both ways: it will probably not vanish in the near future, but it'll probably also not become really popular. And that's fine.
I sometimes feel like I'm crazy when I read the comments here. I absolutely cannot listen to these things. They sound like mixture of satire and late-night TV home shopping to me, all this campy hyperbole, the hyping up of even the most mundane things... Also, content-wise, stuff is dumbed down to the point where I can maybe see some value in this as entertainment, but this is not a learning tool, just like you won't become an astrophysicist by watching PBS space time (don't get me wrong, I love space time, but purely as entertainment).
Good article about the downsides of infrared heating. These things can be useful. They are very light, safe and easy to install, and they can really make a difference in tight spaces like a caravan. However, with 425W, of course you cannot expect this thing to heat a larger room (to be fair, the article also does not claim this). The theory that you can direct this thing at yourself so that you feel warm but the rest stays cold is nice in theory, but as the article says, this is really difficult to achieve and usually not worth the trouble. And of course, these things only make sense in your home if you happen to get electricity very cheaply (which the writer of the article apparently does).
I mean, the two main issues here seem to be : poor placement and bad thermostat control, both of which seem (?) to be fairly easy to solve (at least for manufacturers) : place one horizontally over the top of the TV, focused on the sofa (since it's basically a big lamp, would it work better with a parabolic shape and/or a reflector ?), and don't use a thermostat so dumb that it can only do on/off, but instead one that slowly modulates power output %.
(The expensive electricity point is also kind of moot in case that's your only heating option.)
I'm also wondering about the potential for hyper-localized heating. Like, could I have a family picture printed 8"x10" and place one on my desk? Could I then stay comfortable in a much colder office?
I'm only ever in one place at a time, and both my house and workspace are compact, so I'd be up for moving one around with me if it meant saving on propane for the "real" heater.
I'd also happily place one under my sink or wherever to keep my pipes warm without having to heat the rest of the room when I'm not in it.
You can find heaters using the term "parabolic infrared heater". This is what I use for my basement studio, where I frequently produce music and thus do not want a heater with a fan (like many basements, it's quite a bit chillier than the rest of the house). Something like this [1], which appears to be a differently-branded identical unit to the one I actually purchased in Canada [2]. You can point this thing directly at yourself and you'll be perfectly comfortable even in a very chilly room, and it's noiseless.
Caveat emptor: in my experience, these things only last one or two seasons. But paying $25 or $50 to be comfortable for the winter is worth it. There are more expensive, presumably more durable wall-mounted options as well. [3]
I've also tried various methods like electric blankets and pads but I find the sensation of direct heat like that kind of annoying, plus I often end up with a warm butt and cold fingers, which is not ideal for music or coding.
My basement tends to be colder than the rest of my house as well.
To solve this, I put a blower fan at the foot of the stairs blowing up. This takes the coldest air in the house and sends it to the middle of the house.
The 1 ~100 watt fan balances the heat of the basement far more than any supplemental heating systems ever would, and at 13 cents/kwh only costs me about $0.30/day to run.
Fans are very underrated. I've been heating 1700 sqft of living space using a 25k BTU mini split in Maine for 2 years now.
The hot air is moved with some repurposed computer fans up high in a few doorways, and a return cold air fan , like your case, blowing the lower colder air back to the room with the mini split.
The introduction of the fan moving the cold air into that room has a FAR larger impact on the house temp than just the fans moving the heat alone. (They obviously help as well but it's far more effective to move the cold air).
As a geek side note, I also have a few "in wall" fans that direct into 6" vent work, and come out floor registers for the second floor. There are enabled or disabled via esphome temp sensors -- when a differential greater than X is noted, the fan(s) turn on, more rapidly evening the temps upstairs and downstairs.
(To be fair, I also have an oil hot air furnace, and a wood stove, but the furnace has not been used for 2 winters, and the wood stove on the cold cold days in Jan/Feb when the heat pump isn't very happy)
Can I hire you to figure out how to cool my space? It's only 625 sqft, and it's all one room except the bathroom, which accounts for the middle third of one side of the house (kitchen is on one side of it and bed area on the other, but they're not separated from the other half of the house by anything.
The problem I have is that all my windows are narrow casement (crank out) windows, so the only AC I can use is a floor unit, with a plexi plug covering the rest of the window. They're too narrow for real window ACs. It's 14,000 BTU, ostensibly, and has a dual hose to avoid creating negative air pressure inside the house, but it can only really keep it 10-15° cooler inside than outside. That's fine until it's over 90°, which thankfully doesn't happen all that often. The AC has to be in the southeast corner, and there can only be one, because all the outlets near the windows are on the same circuit, and it's not able to power two. Oh, and the whole east wall is a giant double sliding glass door, which has a gorgeous view of the river, but gets hot first thing in the morning.
I'm mostly kidding, but man, any suggestions for how to improve this would be great!
I had a similar issue in my old apartment. You might consider the use of a thermal battery.
Cool the space at night (when it's cooler already) as much as possible. Then during the heat of the day, use thermal curtains to both block the heat out and to trap the cool in.
On days where that is simply not enough, cross breeze is underrated.
Get one of those magnetic mosquito door net things and set it up on your front door. Open the windows and the doors when it's too hot for the AC to help and get some air movement with a fan if necessary to push air from the shady side to the hot side.
At least I know I'm on the right track. I've been doing all those things!
Fortunately cross breeze often comes in off the river, which is cooler, and I'm far enough north that it doesn't break 100° more than once or twice a year, if that, so I guess maybe this is as good as it gets.
Get a heated mouse (those exist), heated mouse/desk pad (those exist), heated chair(pad), heated footpad (often bought for animals), some IR thingy for the head and you're covered. Any mask over your nose/mouth will retain a lot of warmth and humidity.
This is the same logic for electric cars where heat is expensive: conduction>>> convention. Heat the occupant(s) and not the air with heated steering wheels & heated seats. Some ICE gear shifter knobs would get warm from transmission conduction!
At one point in life, I had a heated mattress pad so I could turn the heat off a lot. I just ran it before I went to bed so it wouldn't be frigid when I got in. In the morning I'd just run into the shower and leave for the day. My place was western facing (in northern hemisphere) so I got a lot of afternoon sun and would return to a warm place in the afternoon.
I'm not going to go through the list individually, but I can't use a mouse for ergonomic reasons (literally have bones where I shouldn't, so these are fairly unique ergonomic problems), and my laptop already doesn't ventilate very well, so I'm still a lot more interested in something very subtle, like a picture frame on my desk, that wouldn't make me look as weird as I'd look with half a dozen wired things in different places.
It's not freezing in my workspace, just a few degrees cooler than I would like, and something inconspicuous like this seems like a great idea!
You could try putting a ceramic terrarium heater into metal desk lamps (I assume metal reflects far IR too) and use them to irradiate whichever body parts feel cold. They operate on the same principle as the panels but at lower power.
425w is about as much as having two 50 inch plasma tvs on. So it might ever so slightly increase the temp in the room but not if it is cold outside at all really.
reply