Hacker Newsnew | past | comments | ask | show | jobs | submit | nottorp's commentslogin

Try opening a google spreadsheet in 512 Mb ram.

Interesting, what happens?

Whatever happens will take a while, since the one google docs spreadsheet that I keep open - which isn't complex - uses 399 Mb just for its own tab.

> the real question is how long a given workload takes to complete

The memory eaters most people are complaining about are not workloads, but shitty communication apps that keep all those cat pictures from the last 4 months uncompressed in ram...


I don't think Apple has used "desktop chips" in a looong time. With the lone exception of the Xeon Mac Pros.

> but not the same level of destructive activity as gambling for cash

... are you sure?


Yes, I am very sure.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fixed_odds_betting_terminal

Buying Pokemon cards in the hope of getting a specific rare one is a pretty niche form of addiction. Compared to walking into a shop, putting in £100 and getting nothing back, then another £100, then another, in the hope of getting £500... it's a lot more accessible, and can easily wipe out your life savings.

Perhaps it's like arguing "which is more lethal, a gun or a screwdriver?", and you're arguing on a technicality that if you're really persistent then they're equally lethal as you can get the job done with a screwdriver, but you're overlooking how much easier the gun makes it.


Isn't this Fixed odds betting terminal how most slots work in North America as well? I'm aware of a few places where it isn't required. But the reality is if your RTP is something like 10%, not many people are coming by that often

A fixed-odds betting terminal is a type of slot machine. But unlike other categories of slot machine, it was (at one time) allowed a maximum bet of £100 and a maximum payout of £500. The RTP was around 95%, but allowing such a large maximum bet meant you could easily lose a lot of money, very quickly.

In 2019, the regulations changed to make the maximum bet £2 (50 times lower), in line with most other slot machines.

https://www.gamblingcommission.gov.uk/authorities/guide/page...


And having a smaller addiction rate makes it any more moral?

Yes, it does. Only Sith deal in absolutes. You can say the same about, let's say alcohol. For most it's an entertaining social lubricant. For a much smaller number, it leads them to wreck and ruin. Is it therefore a wicked evil sin that no God-fearing person should engage in, and I'm going to ban it to protect the morality of society?

The USA tried that out with Prohibition, and only after years of misery and gangsters taking up power did they realise their mistake. Moral absolutism doesn't work, problem management does.

Per the Gambling Commission in their call for evidence from a few years ago:

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/review-of-the-gam...

> Gambling is a popular leisure pursuit in Britain. Last year, 47% of adults surveyed had taken part in at least one form of gambling in the previous four weeks [...] Gambling can be entertaining and sociable, and enhance enjoyment of other activities, and the vast majority of gamblers take part without suffering even low levels of harm. [...]

> However, gambling does come with risks, and problem gambling can ruin lives, wreck families, and damage communities [...] approximately 0.5% of the adult population are problem gamblers [...] this rate has remained broadly steady around or below 1% for the past 20 years and now equates to about 300,000 individuals whose gambling is also likely to cause harm to those around them

> This Review seeks to ensure that people can continue to gamble but that the legislation and regulation we have in place addresses as many factors as possible to give the necessary safeguards [...]

Evidence tells you plainly that different forms of gambling are not equal, and don't have the same power to trigger problem gambling in individuals. Coin pushers at seaside amusement parks with a maximum "bet" of 10p are not in the same league as fixed-odds roulette in a run-down high street with a £100 maximum bet. Lootboxes have some level of risk of causing harm, but not that level of risk.


That's all well and good, but then why introduce gambling-like mechanisms (with real money) in new areas where people have not been looking for them, like lootboxes in games or randomized trading cards?

It's a bit as if ice cream shops suddenly decided "hey, wouldn't it be cool if we put alcohol into most of our sorts? It's just tiny amounts and alcohol-laced sweets have a long history already, so what's the harm?"


My favourite ice-cream is rum and raisin, by the way...

I guess I'd say the thing to do is to measure harms with direct evidence (e.g. this many people get addicted to lootboxes, they spend this much of their money, etc.) rather than seek an imperfect analogy with an existing but different harm. Lootboxes and fake FOMO are both techniques used by video game producers to fatten their bottom lines by psychologically manipulating their playerbase, let's get that regulated and set controls on it (audience, age limits, frequency, openness, etc.) rather than argue where it lies in the games-of-chance spectrum.


Wireless is convenience on the go and when you don't give a shit, like work calls.

Wired is for when you want to listen to music you really like and it's too late to use the speakers.


Tbh it may be the host that's causing the problems, not the headphones. I'm using pretty cheap JBLs with a mbpro and iphone and also never have any problems.

Incidentally the same goes for bluetooth mice.


So if there's an active shooter on the one alley to your workplace you should still be at work in time, right? :)

Or let's make the analogy clearer: if your Uber driver cancels the ride because there's an active shooter on the only road between him and you, it's their fault not the shooter's?


no, but if two ships were hit, while one clearly by mistake, it is very early to say the straits are going to be closed as opposed to incorrect targeting

your analogies have went past me though, generally although a common misconception, countries are not people and wars are not comparable to crime


Oh, well, if it was by mistake...

The active shooter is shooting a specific group of people who don't include you. Will you walk past?

> Why? They're completely unneeded, I can do (and WANT to do) that myself.

Do you WANT to do that?

I've tried to run my own items at the corner store via the automatic checkout. Whenever I buy lightweight items or items that lose weight during the day (fresh bread) the anti fraud weighing system lights up. And I like my fresh bread.

So I've gone back to the one manned checkout. Judging by the lines I get sometimes, so have most other customers.


"Please don't post shallow dismissals, especially of other people's work."

I wonder if an explicit expansion of that rule would help. Maybe in all caps. Saying "picking on grammar is a shallow dismissal".


I don't believe that's always true, and I suspect it was left out of the guidelines deliberately, and I wish people receiving suggestions would stop interpreting it that way. Of course people suggesting grammar corrections and treating it like they just demolished and eviscerated your argument are part of the problem. But what about people out here just trying to help? Grammar is important, as it's the syntax of the programming language we all use with each other. People act as if bad grammar is something you're born with, and can't change. Like learning grammar is impossible, and those who don't bother should be a protected class. I'm just trying to help man. Or I was anyway, before I stopped. But if I'm trying to engage with someone's main point, it should be obvious. Whereas a quick grammar correction is just that. But it's a tangent, and not interesting (especially if you already know), and supposedly grammar is "not a technical topic" (despite daily use) so it ends up deemed a "low value comment" and gets downvoted to oblivion.

> I wish people receiving suggestions would stop interpreting it that way

The specific problem here was that the poster was being downvoted for grammar. Of course, that's how he could have read it.


Picking on LLM use is a shallow dismissal, too.

LLM use is what LLMs are best at: spam.

They seem to be trying hard to annoy developers lately though.

<cough> xattr...


Guidelines | FAQ | Lists | API | Security | Legal | Apply to YC | Contact

Search: