Funny that as Discord releases a light theme, Slack releases a dark theme.
But in seriousness, does Slack really have any value proposition over Discord beyond Screen Hero these days?
I switched my organization over to Discord based on the ability to create public channels for testers/customers to communicate with my team on the server without any role-based overhead (also because my target market is largely the Twitch/gamer crowd - most of whom already have Discord set up).
I understand that there are less integrations baked in, but most are easily worked around with webhooks.
Yeah, I've been making that argument since Musk and Bezos first announced their intentions (though I usually used terraforming Arizona as an example as that state has become one of the largest polluters per capita in the US).
But the argument that guys like Bezos and Musk are clinging to is that Mars presents an opportunity to continue the human race in an event of cataclysmic proportions (like another massive asteroid strike, the Yellowstone caldera erupting at a scale we hadn't anticipated, or global warming making Earth generally uninhabitable).
Being farther away from the Sun, Mars gets much much colder than Earth, but it never gets as warm (max temps are something like 60 - 70 degrees Fahrenheit). So it's substantially different than a place like the Nevada desert.
I don't argue that we shouldn't be trying to terraform Earth first and reduce our reliance on positive feedback loop functions like air conditioning, quite the contrary. And I do believe all the rocket launches involved getting people to Mars would likely accelerate warming here on Earth. But Earth and Mars are vastly different places that are very far apart, and I think that's the argument for colonizing Mars.
Yeah I personally stopped buy chicken years ago for mostly ethical reasons but I think Costco getting into the chicken game will probably be a net positive.
Reason being that for one, Costco was one of the first grocers to start replacing items with Organic alternatives, and in general, they usually demands higher quality goods than other grocers. For example, compare the ingredient list for Delimex taquitos from Costco to your supermarket and it's basically half the size... or Campbell's "Simply" Chicken Noodle soup to what's sold at the grocer - again about half the ingredients. Even those $5 chickens Costco sells are antibiotic/hormone/steroid-free humane-certified Foster-Farms chickens.
Then there's employee treatment. Costco has a long history of being one of the better employers in the country. They pay their employees well, pay for people to attend college, don't require a lot of interaction with irate customers thanks to their no deadline any reason return policy and generally promote internally rather than hiring outsiders to leadership roles.
Compare that to the average chicken farmer who has to buy all of their own equipment that the big companies are constantly requiring them to update at their own expense, raise chickens they don't own like a horrific daycare center at very low return, all while being exposed to chemicals/drugs they're being forced to use and it's kind of a nightmare.
Costco cares about their brand image, their customers and their employees... I expect this will end up being a good thing.
> just because it's inconvenient for you doesn't make it their obligation to stop
Yeah, the thing is, having to cancel services tends to be inconvenient by nature. Usually when someone signs up for something it's because a) they're trying it out to see if it makes sense for them or b) they intend to be a paying customer.
It seems like MasterCard is addressing "a" here which is massively commendable. Companies don't need to auto-charge after a trial period ends, and it seems dishonest to do so. Services like Pandora will just take some functionality and inject advertisements after the trial payment ends or you miss your monthly payment.
Regarding "b", churn is a massive problem for businesses and if my company is doing something to alienate my customers, I would be trying to figure out how to reconcile the issue and retain them instead of trying to force payment on a single month of service and potentially drive them to file complaints against my business.
It sounds like Twiddla might be the exception to the rule and is commendable for that - I've never heard of a company offering to refund months of service fees, but most businesses aren't like that. And to a consumer, that unexpected $5 charge might include $35 of overdraft/NSF fees from their bank that they have to reconcile - to people on a budget, that might be a lot. And some companies will try to recharge the account again and again. I know from experience that DigitalOcean reattempts charges every 2 days for a missed payment without any reference to that in the TOS, even if you have emailed them agreeing to pay the full balance before their account suspension deadline and request that they stop the arbitrary recharge attempts, which can end up costing hundreds for a missed $10 payment.
And these sorts of practices don't generate any extra revenue for the service provider, but they may generate needless churn. It ends up turning into a massive headache for something that was totally avoidable - and it usually ends up hurting the people with the least money the most.
The current government shutdown is a perfect example of why we should be careful about our billing practices.
I was using Ubuntu exclusively for around a decade too. It's a great development environment. But about a year ago I needed a new laptop and with the one I purchased, some things didn't only require extra steps to get working, some of them were no fix issues until some indeterminate date in the future.
You mention the fingerprint reader not working out of the box - with my laptop, Fingerprint GUI was basically waiting on one of its dependencies to somehow figure out how to integrate my fingerprint scanner. Things like my active-stylus capable touchscreen weren't supported, and there were no applications to really utilize it even if it was.
I switched to Windows as my primary OS when I realized Windows PowerShell had basically become on par with Linux in almost every degree and that VS Code was as cushy as I could hope for in a development environment. The only thing I've found that isn't supported out of the box is Redis, but I downloaded a ridiculously lightweight version of Ubuntu from the Microsoft store (we're talking <1 MB memory footprint) with one click and was then good to go.
The other thing that really impressed me was all the easy to use tuning software. With ThrottleStop I was able to easily under-volt my processor to completely eliminate things like thermal throttling and improve performance all while greatly improving my battery life. Nvidia support is also way better so I can turn off my graphics card for anything but games - and then there's MSI Afterburner to under-volt my GPU when I am using it.
And yeah, not only do my fingerprint scanner and stylus work on Windows, but Windows has Windows Ink built in so I can easily take screenshots of whatever I'm doing with Snip & Sketch and annotate them with a pen in an instant, and I can use Sketchpad like an on the fly whiteboard when I need to do some math.
Plus, it has art programs like Krita that basically turn my laptop into an iPad Pro when I feel like getting artistic.
And with programs like Enpass, I can use my fingerprint with Windows Hello in place of my master password for stuff like logins and credit card information, which is a lot more secure for someone like me that does a lot of my work from coffee shops.
I still love Ubuntu, but all the offerings of Windows 10 has kind of made me a Windows fanboy and even makes MacOS seem like a decisive downgrade.
Trying to make the software "theirs" seems to be an issue at Google, at least with their open source software and has seemed to have lead to it being less reliable.
For example, Angular Material v1 was one of the most complete and stable front-end packages on the market a few years ago. Then, back in 2017 the lead developer for the project was replaced with a new dev.
This new dev then went about assigning every issue and pull request to himself, modifying or rejecting pr's that had previously been approved, closing issues that had in progress pr's as won't fix, locking discussions, and just generally breaking stuff. (I've personally had to peg my project to v1.4 because everything since 2016 has been a regression)
If you go to the Angular Material v1.x Github page today, you'll see the same dev on pretty much everything.
This isn't productive ownership as it prioritizes the engineer over the customer and has lead to a generally broken system from one of the most stable properties out there. Not to mention, these open-source projects are most people's first exposure to Google's code... Having them be unpredictable regarding the functionality of their software with little concern for users/contributors in the name of making their devs feel special seems like a bad model to learn from.
Eh... There was a toll lane added from just outside Boulder part way to Denver. This has not generated more traffic, but it has generally speed up the road (sometimes to an undesirable extent as faster moving vehicles make more noise).
They didn't change the two lane in each direction structure, they just added another lane on each side which can only be entered/exited around exits.
A couple things I've noticed, most mid-day traffic occurs in clumps. You can usually take one segment of toll road for $0.35 and exit back into a mostly empty highway. Also, the toll lane people usually move above the speed limit. This speeds up traffic in general because people seem to tend to move into the right lane when someone blasts past them. A few people do it and most slow drivers will get the idea. And it also discourages lane switching which is a significant contributor to traffic. Once you're in the toll lane, you're committed to it until the next exit.
The problem with just arbitrarily adding more lanes is than lane switching is a major cause of traffic. Every time someone switches a lane because their lane is too slow, they usually cause the car behind them to have to slow down which causes a ripple effect. Add this to complexity of an 8 lane freeway and you may have created a nightmare for travelers. Granted in over populated areas like much of CA, congestion is somewhat unavoidable. (I grew up in the LA area)
I use Trello to stay on task, easy to manage daily to-do lists while being able to just push everything to the next day and also managing long-term lists. It lets you comment, add files or links, create internal check-lists for each card, has the option for due dates, even integrations for stuff like Slack. It's great for keeping track of stuff in general. Plus it has a really friendly UI and it's free for the base package.
Asana is what we used at my last company and it's pretty much the same (at least from what I remember) with a different UI.
Another neat productivity thing I use is the Sketchpad app in the Windows Ink Workspace. My laptop has a touch screen that works with an active stylus. The app basically turns my laptop into a whiteboard on the fly (really handy for when I need to work out some complex math) and I can save a snapshot to then stick into Trello or wherever. Only gripe - Microsoft should add two-finger drag support (like in art programs like Krita) so you're not limited by you monitor size when using it.
Hey sorry for the delay, it was at the end of the second tutorial "Our First Neural Net!" I think you were instructing us to try testing the outputs for the other sets in the training data which all work as expected, but I took the "play around with the outputs" instruction to mean, see how the NN responds to novel inputs like the ones I mentioned.
Sorry I didn't see this immediately, I don't think that downloading the next episode is a dark pattern in and of itself. But I do think downloading the next app over mobile when the description explicitly says it wouldn't is questionable. And I think deleting downloads automatically without any good reason is so far removed from assumed functionality of a download to be a borderline dark pattern.
Without the "Smart Download" enabled the episodes persist until I delete them or cancel my service, that's the assumption with a download. Smart download immediately deletes whatever you downloaded as soon as it sees fit - which in my case was erroneously assuming I was on wi-fi. And this was my first download, it's not like it had some storage space restriction to deal with. I had ~16 GB free and it was 100 MB.
The next episode feature aside, it seems weird to say, "Okay, download this one" and then it saying, "Okay, so you meant download it and then delete it".
And to your Youtube point, I think it depends on the use-case. I fully agree with holding the buffer there, but if I'm on mobile data, I might not necessary want it to just load as much as it can as soon as it can because I pay per MB.
Yeah definitely. When I said "a desktop" I was trying to say pretty much any desktop, even you mom's 15 year old Dell Dimension desktop, which many phones these days are more powerful than - and the majority of Fortnite's players are younger than.
I also agree about the social network angle, the one area Epic has really shined is their season and special event model. While other games have special events and it's really nothing new, the consistency with which Epic produces them creates a constant buzz around the product. Like rugrat water-cooler talk. And some of their events only last a day or two, so if you take a week off for a vacation, you may miss some major thing that your friends may be talking about for who knows how long. Granted this might be intentional addiction fostering aimed at kids by Epic.
I think you're missing a lot of what contributed to Fortnite's success. Namely their ripping off of pretty much every one of Valve's most lucrative decisions of the past 10 years and in principle - Free to play.
Fortnite was pretty much a failure when it first launched. Sure they copied PUBG's last-man-standing game mode, but what really made it take off was that you didn't have to pay for the game.
You could get it, play it, and then upgrade or not upgrade your character as you desired. This is what made it so wildly popular with its base audience of 7-15 year olds. They can't drive, they don't have money, they might have hyper controlling parents that won't let them go out and be proper kids, but if they have a desktop and a reliable internet connection, they can be a part of this game. That's a big selling point for kids. Not to mention if they watch Twitch/Youtube, it would appear to be a potential career path for them to sit on their ass consuming content in an interesting way as they see people like Ninja and Muselk getting rich.
As for Fortnite's financial success, again I think this comes down to them ripping off Valve - principally Team Fortress 2. When Valve made the game free to play in 2011, they added other monetization mechanisms like premium cosmetics and taunts. This is exactly how Fortnite has become so huge.
Instead of having major entrance barriers like having to own a console or forking over $60 - $100 for a game. You can get it for free and maybe pay a few bucks here or there when it suits you. And parents love it because it gives them a passive way to control their kids at little to no cost. (Unless their the absurd type of people who pay for Fortnite tutors)
Not that Gabe Newell or Valve need the money, but Epic has ripped off almost everything from other games for Fortnite. With their massive budget they're basically like Facebook in that they can steal any concept to be produced in house and fight legal battles as necessary. And I think their success compared to what they've ripped off is largely a matter of timing with the rise of services like Twitch, Youtube and Discord than anything specific to their IP.
I had been a customer of theirs for years, starting with the DVD rental. After a while they started adding the streaming content which was cool, but then they eventually separated the two services and switched my plan from DVD rentals to exclusively streaming content. All without any action on my part or any consent from me.
Eventually, I quit Netflix because between Prime Video and Hulu, I was covered for my streaming needs and with the exception of a few shows, was unimpressed with Netflix's original content so it was a waste of money for me.
Fast forward to a week ago, I decided to give Netflix another shot. What amazed me is the dark patterns you speak of. Like downloading content for offline viewing.
I was without access to my normal ISP and had to use cellular data so I opted to download a show. 1 episode was 100 MB and I'm on Google Fi so it was basically $1 of data usage which I understood. But then when the episode was over, I stepped away from my phone to go to the bathroom and when I came back, I found that the episode had been deleted from my phone, and that the next episode had automatically downloaded without any action on my part incurring another $0.90 of data (not to mention deleting the episode I had intentionally downloaded making the first $1 a waste)
I saw at the top of the download section that there was something called "Smart Download" enabled that claims to do exactly that - delete the last episode and download the next, but it's only supposed to happen on wi-fi which wasn't the case for me. I turned off the feature as it was obviously broken and tried contacting customer service.
The CSR I talked to then told me that the app cannot delete or download material without me clicking a button - which contradicted their description of "Smart Download" that I had just read, and he explained there was no way for them to process a refund or credit to my account because they don't have any way to do that.
This seems like a pretty major problem.
Even when confronted with a direct customer complaint, their response was just to deny, deny, deny rather than taking even minor steps to rectify the issue. This seems mind boggling from a customer service perspective when companies like Amazon will bend over backwards to keep their customers happy. Even Hulu will credit you a free month of service when they goof - they even do it if you try to cancel the service because you can't find anything good to watch. Netflix's service isn't good enough to justify this type of behavior and general apathy. Customer-last seems like a crummy business model.
It's incredible. The last company I worked for before going it alone (I was the front-end engineer and moved away from ML based business models) was trying to automate statistical analysis. I came from an academic background in economics and I tried to propose modelling to them in simple terms and they jumped to, "it sounds like you're talking about forecasting, let's go with that." And they started trying to implement python models from academic papers with highly limited training data and my reaction was generally, WTF?! You can't even start to forecast without a reliable base model. But they went ahead trying to sell stuff like churn prediction to companies with 0 understanding of how these models work at the basest levels.
And yeah, Google started to throw their hat in the game with Analytics 360 and an enormously larger training base. Amazon's another major player.
Weirdly enough though, people do still blindly pay my previous employers to figure stuff out because easy answers are always actionable, even if they're wrong. It's just crazy because the CEO explained to me that lying about the service to potential customers and investors was necessary because "Faking it til you make it" was a sound business principle in his mind like 1980's Michael J Fox was his primary sources of business info.
Long story short, don't waste your time with these little companies purporting ML holy grails. They're probably just lying to you, whether intentionally or not. ML is a game for the big boys with access to market level aggregates. The models that last company came up with were wildly inaccurate.
Hey Axel! Just started watching but the interactive guide is incredible. It's like having Screenhero with a private tutor.
Only thing is, I kind of wish there were something like the time-coded comments SoundCloud has. At the end of the second guide, we're asked to play around with the tests.
I added:
console.log(net.run([0, 4]));
console.log(net.run([3, 3]));
console.log(net.run([8, 4]));
Based on the training data, I would expect this to resolve to ~4(or 1), ~0, ~8(or 1) by standard logic expectancies (if same return 0, else return the higher number or 1). But instead I received ~0, ~0, ~0.
It's not immediately obvious what is causing this. But it seems like the model created is inherently ignorant of basic logic (at least by my narrow definition), and there isn't any immediate discussion of caveats as to error margin.
I'll admit this might be a n00bish concern based on never programing neural nets before, but as this guide seems focused on introducing NN's to n00bs like me: a way to discuss concerns with other viewers/the author would be amazing.
Aside from that, incredible work! I'll keep watching to see if I can figure out my misunderstandings.
Update: Just discovered the Q&A tab, this should likely be adequate for my concerns. Well done. This may be the best online demo/tutorial I've ever seen.
I'm an Eagle Scout too and I guess I don't really have a strong opinion because scouting here in CO is fundamentally different in my eyes than what I grew up with in CA.
In my troop, once a year we'd spend one weekend spreading flyers about our annual garage sale, over the following week we'd pick stuff up, then the next weekend we'd use the community clubhouse that was our home-base for meetings for a blow-out garage sale.
We'd clear $15-20k in a week, give everyone who donated a tax slip for their donation, and sit pretty for the rest of the year with regard to our outings. Plus we'd do a clearinghouse in the last few hours of the sale where you could fill a trashbag up with anything and pay $5 for it. (I got stuff like suits, laser prints and antique cameras for <$1)
These massive fund-raisers are why we could finance trips to places like Hawaii or Scotland every few years and had outings like going to Camp Pendleton for paintball wars, plus we were helping the community by moving their junk.
Here in CO, the Boy Scouts do the door-to-door sales thing with over-priced caramel corn and the like.
I'd rather just give the troop $20 than spend $10 on a little bag of popcorn. Maybe that's part of the GS issue, a lot of Boy Scout troops are basically just copying the Girl Scouts' business model.
But I guess what I'm saying is, there are a lot of factors that go into your fundamental scouting experience (I honestly give all credit to the crazy outdoor dads that were in my troop at the time), so I'm trying to observe this transition more than question/judge it.
I can't think of any good reason why the Scout Law shouldn't be ubiquitous in American society.
Based on personal experience, I doubt $50k in credit card debt was what was planned for and probably came out of necessity to finish the thing.
Fund-raising takes a lot of mental space on its own which comes at a high premium when you're focused on finishing a product.
Even with $50k at 20%, we're talking about $833 a month in interest, that's not that much to someone who would usually make $100k+ at a job if they fail.
Nothing about the Boy Scouts is really gender specific, beyond their requirement to be male that's set to be amended in February.
I don't understand how "Scouts BSA" is a violation of any trademarks that the Girl Scouts might hold. Especially considering the Girl Scouts came after BSA had already been established. If anything I would say that Girl Scouts are encroaching on the BSA's brand identity by calling themselves "X Scouts". When someone talks about being in the Scouts, I tend to take it as the Boy Scouts already.
And there aren't to my knowledge a lot of boys upset that they can't become Gold Star Girl Scouts... There are on the other hand a lot of females that are upset about not being able to become Eagles. [0]
Reading the article it sounds like some evil cookie corporation is pissed that they're losing free child labor rather than genuine concern for the empowerment of young people.
Also, reading the study further: despite the fact that the author of the article may have been paraphrasing a statement in the abstract conclusion, the study seems to mostly undermine that premise as it shows an inverse relationship between screen time and sleep.
But in seriousness, does Slack really have any value proposition over Discord beyond Screen Hero these days?
I switched my organization over to Discord based on the ability to create public channels for testers/customers to communicate with my team on the server without any role-based overhead (also because my target market is largely the Twitch/gamer crowd - most of whom already have Discord set up).
I understand that there are less integrations baked in, but most are easily worked around with webhooks.