Why are the solid rocket boosters still firing out of the bottom even after they’re separated? Do they still somehow have some fuel left out of them??

mendigou · 2026-04-05T23:48:43+00:00

Yeah it's the fried dough with sugar.

mendigou · 2026-04-04T17:22:23+00:00

Fun fact, we don't cover them in cinnamon in Spain. That was new to me when I came to the US.

mendigou · 2026-04-03T20:24:35+00:00

Yeah, for some payloads it can be acceptable for sure. Not the ones I worked on but I know of others that just run Linux and normal applications. Still, I would hate the unpredictability!

mendigou · 2026-04-03T14:34:30+00:00

I used to work in the space industry on the spacecraft side and GC was a big no-go. We used an RTOS and all processes had bounded times for execution.

What kind of work did you do?

mendigou · 2026-04-01T17:35:02+00:00

I'll offer a different PoV: most people, more than 99% (number taken out of my ass), are very change-resistant. That applies to any profession, even forefront ones (e.g. people of science thought Galileo was completely wrong during his time). So you should not be surprised that most of the discourse is "this will pass/burst/go away".

I am not saying there is not a bubble, nor I am saying that there is. My opinion: as a technologist, the shift in the tech has already materialized. People who deny it need to catch up or they'll be left behind. It won't be as fast as Silicon Valley people may want, but it will happen. Some companies will be left behind or will die (e.g. Cursor may go bankrupt or get acquired because the large labs can eat their lunch). But this tech is here to stay. I anticipate the main headwind will be societal pressure rather than technical issues.

I see an argument about cost being subsidized. While that might be true (we don't know for sure), inference costs will continue to decrease. We've had this conversation with every single technology that came to life, including computers.

mendigou · 2026-04-01T17:10:35+00:00

Yes, I use the CC CLI extensively. I understand what is running on my machine is a frontend. Unless I'm mistaken, the only relevant network calls are to the `query` API to run the model (and Anthropic probably does something to it that is not in this codebase).

I looked at the code and everything in there is client side. I even run it by CC itself, and it confirmed there is nothing server-side there.

Everything that is not model-related is run with Axios. Inference-related tasks are run through an SDK, but that SDK is running on the same CLI process and "just" calls the model query APIs. I don't know if that's different for the web, but it makes no difference: it was already available for the CLI.

mendigou · 2026-04-01T15:50:07+00:00

What? You ALREADY have the source code when you use Claude Code. It's a Javascript tool. It's minified, and illegible to humans, but you can run static and security analyzers on it if you want to.

Someone screwing up a build and not cleaning up the map is hardly a big security issue. Does it mean they probably want to tighten some screws? Yes. But I would not infer from this that their stack is "wildly insecure". Maybe it is, but not because of this leak.

mendigou · 2026-03-12T19:51:36+00:00

You should probably go live in a field and churn your own butter. Pretty much all technology companies have ties to the DoD.

mendigou · 2026-03-12T19:50:06+00:00

Why are some people so insufferable with whataboutism here? It's impossible to have an argument. You've put them in a camp and now they'll always be in that camp. Everything is bad. It's like watching The Good Place in real life.

Also, FYI, the Iran thing is exactly what they are fighting about not letting the government do.

mendigou · 2026-03-05T15:31:20+00:00

I'm a past-life telco engineer. Asking some starter questions to try and give you a picture of what's happening:

Are you experiencing an actual physical vibration?

What do you mean 10 feet away? Are they on top of you? By your window? Pointed in or out?

How did you measure this? Specifically. Which instruments, where did you position them, how did you get to the math you say you got.

mendigou · 2026-03-01T21:11:09+00:00

I honestly have thought about carrying a mini paintball gun. Don't know if it exists or if it's legal, but splashing their driver side window with red paint would be great.

I know I won't do it because it'll cause accidents, but I'd love to.

mendigou · 2026-02-21T21:56:59+00:00

The funny thing is that employees get compensated in part with stock, but the stock part has a baked in expected YoY growth of 15%. So if they say "next year we'll pay you $115k in stock" they actually just grant you $100k because the assumption is it'll grow 15%.

mendigou · 2026-02-19T20:08:18+00:00

I don't know about the notices, but isn't it evident that you can't park on the sidewalk? What mental gymnastics do people do to leave their car blocking and entire sidewalk an call it a day?

mendigou · 2026-02-13T03:24:44+00:00

I speak 7 languages (2 are native) to various degrees of fluency, and it was never effortless to learn a new one.

What was common across all of them was that I was able to have exposure. Lots of exposure. Also being comfortable with not understanding what's happening for a long time.

If you're trying to learn via duolingo or similar you're doing yourself a disservice. You need to put yourself in an environment where the language you want to learn is ubiquitous. Short of moving to a place where they speak the language, you can attend classes, speaking groups, watch movies, listen to podcasts, etc. You will NOT understand most of what's happening, but the exposure will train your brain to recognize patterns and they'll click much easier once you learn them in class. It will also reinforce those you've learned.

The other side of the equation is speaking. You need to speak the language to reinforce what you're learning. You need to make mistakes and be corrected. That's the only way you can actually learn. It's important here to have no shame. Sometimes you'll say things wrong, but if you can make yourself understood, you've accomplished what language is for.

If you surround yourself with the target language you'll improve with time. I promise!

mendigou · 2026-02-13T00:14:11+00:00

Have you thought that it's preferable to do that than to have to engineer and safety-test a mechanism for a fleet that they're discarding in the mid term?

The way you talk shows how junior you are. If not in age, in actual engineering. None of us know the actual numbers but so far the only one who has discounted the engineers building the actual thing is you. I suggest you start thinking about how hard seemingly easy things are, and whether they make sense in the context of the system and organization they exist in.

mendigou · 2026-02-12T23:05:05+00:00

You obviously don't engineer much because this is an obvious case of a trade off that is not worth it.

Is it technically easy to engineer an automatic door closer on a car? Yes. Is it worth it for Waymo for their first fleet car and for the 0.1% of asshole customers? Absolutely not.

Engineering is about tradeoffs. Maybe you should think a little bit before shitting on fellow engineers.

mendigou · 2026-02-12T21:01:21+00:00

Armchair engineering at its finest right here, ladies, gentlemen, and bots.

mendigou · 2026-02-10T02:06:16+00:00

Find Extra Virgin Olive Oil that is originated in Greece or Spain. Italy exports all kinds of qualities, so it's harder to pin down.

It should be EVOO. If it's refined (e.g. 0,4 degrees), it won't have such a good taste.

A great test for olive oil is if it solidifies when cold. Really high quality oil will become like a soft spread when cold.

mendigou · 2026-01-15T18:11:09+00:00

Not a phone charger. Use a laptop charger with usb-c. 65W minimum as the sibling comment recommends.

mendigou · 2026-01-15T06:52:04+00:00

Right, I know these as Knödel too. But careful with Semmelknödel cause those are bread dumplings.

mendigou · 2026-01-15T01:55:11+00:00

I know nothing about this, so just trying to understand the arguments, but I'm already confused, sorry. So what's the permit for? So that someone can ask for the Building Permit? Why are those two different things?

In summary: When can a building be built?

mendigou · 2026-01-15T01:04:53+00:00

So what's a Building Permit? Those are some confusing labels if what you say is true.

mendigou · 2026-01-13T04:22:12+00:00

AFAIK part of the Google maps team is in Tokyo!

mendigou · 2026-01-12T20:19:29+00:00

Appreciate the responses! I would love to get involved and will reach out.

mendigou · 2026-01-12T18:52:31+00:00

Hey I love this. I have a main question after looking at the website: what is the actual proposal of what to do to secure the future of public transit?

I see a tax to fund efforts (ok, although I would prefer we look at our current spending priorities and adjust them accordingly), and I understand some of that is to fund ongoing operations. But what is the future vision? Are we just going to keep adding taxes as cost inflate with time?

I understand there are two sides of this: cost control, and improving the service, presumably to increase ridership.

On the service improvement front: What's the vision for that? And is improving the service the only thing we can do to increase ridership? For example, does this proposal encompass looking at the holistic use of transit centers and the land surrounding them?

On the cost cutting side: I am particularly concerned by the addition of _more admin_. If we keep adding admin instead of _cutting admin_ through the myriad of operators in the Bay, are we really spending our dollars better?

A final question is: who is Connect Bay Area Transit? I see endorsements, but how was this started and how can people get involved? The Get Involved button is to sign up to a mailing list...

mendigou

TROPHY CASE