Did Sandia use a thermonuclear secondary in a product logo? • Hacker News Board

Re: Did Sandia use a thermonuclear secondary in a product logo?

#221

Post by keepamovin » Mon, Sep 09, 2024, 1:45 PM UTC

Cushman wrote: post #137

gnfargbl wrote: post #112

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm not contemptuous or mocking, and I'm sorry it came across that way. I am annoyed at having my time wasted by what I feel is a clickbait article. Given the article title, the accusation of straw-manning is really unfair. Your comment would also have been better without the jab; if you're familiar with the field then we both know why I left science for software, and it isn't because of a lack of jobs.

Gently: The snark you’re getting is undeserved, but you are doing the “but why male models?” thing. You gotta make a left turn here :) Let’s reset: Hey, did Sandia use a thermonuclear secondary in a product logo? Did they actually? Despite all the reasons they wouldn’t? If they did, why? Was it a mistake or on purpose? Neither one quite makes sense. Those are interesting questions! But there’s no alleged secrets leak…

Well, I think the (wouldn't really call it snark, more accurate dissection) is deserved, and instructive! But otherwise I think you're right. They are interesting questions, and gnarfgabrl (or whatever) seemed obtusely resistant, to the point of needlessly quarrelsome for quarrels sake, of appreciating that genuine interestingness.

Re: Did Sandia use a thermonuclear secondary in a product logo?

#222

Post by Log_out_ » Mon, Sep 09, 2024, 6:00 PM UTC

gnfargbl wrote: post #26

What is it that the author thinks is particularly unusual about this image? Pretty much every schematic of a Teller-Ulam type weapon -- a schematic which you will find in every introductory Nuclear Physics textbook -- shows a large cylinder with a spherical fission device at the top and a cylindrical fusion device at the bottom, plus some FOGBANK-type material of unconfirmed purpose. This image looks exactly like tho…

plus the us disinvolvment has driven incentives to get nukes through the roof.ukraine support is a scary casus belli if you are the neighbor of a landenpire. Now imagine broke Pakistan auctioning off nukes to american allies in eastern europe or chinese neighbors. the maga movement has a price tag and thats that for this world order.

Re: Did Sandia use a thermonuclear secondary in a product logo?

#223

Post by chefandy » Tue, Sep 10, 2024, 1:36 PM UTC

ajkjk wrote: post #191

chefandy wrote: post #115

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've done branding and identity design in the past, and got university training to do it. I've also worked as a developer and contributed a ton to FOSS projects. That an engineering organization thinks this is a product logo is entirely unsurprising. I'll bet their interfaces are really something. The most frustrating thing about being a designer in those environments is the dunning-krueger cockiness many technical p…

I've never understood this use of the phrase 'senior developer' like it's evidence of being masterful at coding. In my experience half the juniors and half the seniors were good and the other half were bad. Tenure gets you a bit of perspective but it didn't turn bad programmers into good ones...

I don't think it's meaningless even if it's not completely codified. I use the term senior as a way to distinguish someone that's competent enough and knowledgeable enough about the environment to direct technical initiatives like architectural decisions that will be acted upon by other developers, and be a consistent go-to resource for others for questions either about the environment or coding. When I you l was a chef, it was a little more cut-and-dried because the organization required more of a hierarchy, but there was still the same dichotomy. Lots of young talent could mop the floor with the older cooks — but it was a combination of knowing the environment— eg cuisine, equipment, processes, etc— and knowing how to cook. It wasn't at all unheard of to have a young cook make sous chef over older cooks, effectively becoming the senior, even if they were still asking the older cooks questions about how specific things get done around there.

Re: Did Sandia use a thermonuclear secondary in a product logo?

#224

Post by jjk166 » Tue, Sep 10, 2024, 4:18 PM UTC

avar wrote: post #74

Let's assume the schematic depicts a genuine weapon, and that this was a massive redaction screw-up. I think the author is omitting the most likely explanation for why it wasn't redacted in future publications. It took from 2007 to 2024 for someone (him) to publicly notice this. If your job was to censor documents coming out of Sandia National Laboratories, and you screwed up this massively, what's your incentive to…

It took until 2024 for the author to see the image, he noticed the screw up within moments of looking at it. Betting that no one is going to look at a logo before you change jobs is a pretty big gamble.

Updating a logo (especially a bad logo) after a couple of years is not exactly a newsworthy event. If you replaced any other part I would not assume it was to correct an accidental disclosure of classified information.

Re: Did Sandia use a thermonuclear secondary in a product logo?

#225

Post by jjk166 » Tue, Sep 10, 2024, 4:19 PM UTC

numpad0 wrote: post #195

Isn't one of best ways to verify this is to computationally "detonate" a similar model? If it's real, it should compress nuclear part, if it's not, it behaves like a HEAT warhead or whatever it is based on, or is that not the case?

If you can simulate a nuclear weapon with that degree of accuracy, you already know what it is actually supposed to look like.

Re: Did Sandia use a thermonuclear secondary in a product logo?

#226

Post by ajkjk » Tue, Sep 10, 2024, 8:20 PM UTC

chefandy wrote: post #223

ajkjk wrote: post #191

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've never understood this use of the phrase 'senior developer' like it's evidence of being masterful at coding. In my experience half the juniors and half the seniors were good and the other half were bad. Tenure gets you a bit of perspective but it didn't turn bad programmers into good ones...

I don't think it's meaningless even if it's not completely codified. I use the term senior as a way to distinguish someone that's competent enough and knowledgeable enough about the environment to direct technical initiatives like architectural decisions that will be acted upon by other developers, and be a consistent go-to resource for others for questions either about the environment or coding. When I you l was a c…

I agree that it _should_ imply expertise, but it doesn't in practice. It bugs me because start using it as a status thing: "how to think like a senior developer", "listen to me because I'm a senior deveveloper". The title hasn't earned its credentials and it keeps getting used to fake credentials. Instead we should talk about good developers vs. bad ones.

Heck, I know someone who got the title of "senior" on their first job out of a bootcamp. They were credible in the sense that they had worked at other companies before and had a grown-up and dependable demeanor. But they weren't someone I would want to take coding advice from.

Re: Did Sandia use a thermonuclear secondary in a product logo?

#227

Post by chefandy » Wed, Sep 11, 2024, 2:11 PM UTC

ajkjk wrote: post #226

chefandy wrote: post #223

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't think it's meaningless even if it's not completely codified. I use the term senior as a way to distinguish someone that's competent enough and knowledgeable enough about the environment to direct technical initiatives like architectural decisions that will be acted upon by other developers, and be a consistent go-to resource for others for questions either about the environment or coding. When I you l was a c…

I agree that it _should_ imply expertise, but it doesn't in practice. It bugs me because start using it as a status thing: "how to think like a senior developer", "listen to me because I'm a senior deveveloper". The title hasn't earned its credentials and it keeps getting used to fake credentials. Instead we should talk about good developers vs. bad ones. Heck, I know someone who got the title of "senior" on their fi…

I've been lucky in that anywhere I've worked, titles like that came with additional technical responsibilities and were awarded by technical managers who actually had a stake in whether or not people were qualified for them. The youngest company I've worked for started in the early 90s, though, so I've weirdly avoided a lot of the practices born from startup culture over the past couple of decades, and haven't had the chance to get burned by (many of) them. Sort of parallel to your criticism is the "what do I call myself on LinkedIn before I've had any actual job titles" thing, which I really don't care about. I've had a bunch of job titles over the years and I've gotten 'less' descriptive in my 'business card' level title for those sorts of uses— I think it's all up to whoever is doing the hiring to cut through the chaffe, and anything on LinkedIn should be considered marketing fluff anyway. Maybe it's different with ATS job applications and HR people?