New comment by 3xblah in "Is Microsoft Windows a crime against humanity?"

3xblah — Wed, 29 Apr 2020 05:54:57 +0000
Yes, given the decades worth of damages it has caused by being an inferior quality software product (no quality control) and the anti-competitive tactics used to ensure that consumers could not choose a higher quality alternative. Unfortunately, this petition is concerned with something else.
New comment by 3xblah in "Having trouble with the IRS site? Try all caps"

3xblah — Wed, 29 Apr 2020 05:15:13 +0000
Having trouble with the LA Times site? Try without Javascript
   curl https://www.latimes.com/business/story/2020-04-27/irs-website-hack-coronavirus-stimulus-checks-all-caps?_amp=true|sed -n 's/.*/<title>/;/footersubscribe/d;/<h1/,/<\/h1>/p;/<title>/p;/<blockquote/p;/<p>/p' > 1.htm 

   firefox ./1.htm</code></pre></p>

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<h1>Is Microsoft Windows a crime against humanity?</h1>
<p>3xblah — Tue, 28 Apr 2020 11:48:56 +0000</p>

<p>Article URL: <a href="https://fastnews.ch/410000-people-sign-white-house-petition-to-investigate-bill-gates-for-crimes-against-humanity/">https://fastnews.ch/410000-people-sign-white-house-petition-to-investigate-bill-gates-for-crimes-against-humanity/</a></p>
<p>Comments URL: <a href="https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23006066">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23006066</a></p>
<p>Points: 2</p>
<p># Comments: 1</p>

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<h1>New comment by 3xblah in "Will cable TV be invaded by commercials? (1981)"</h1>
<p>3xblah — Sun, 26 Apr 2020 21:09:48 +0000</p>

<p>I only meant TV ads.  As for trying to guess about me, I watch almost no TV in recent times, though I did watch it back in the 80's and 90's.  I am basing this opinion on only small periodic encounters with recent TV, random samples.  I do not see internet advertising because I use a text-only browser except when doing commercial transactions.  In any event, I use local DNS, no third-party "upstream" DNS provider.  I never see ads.  Away from home, I generally do not access the internet from mobile phones.  It is a reasonable guess, though.  No doubt Americans are being targeted by advertising like never before.</p>

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<h1>New comment by 3xblah in "Will cable TV be invaded by commercials? (1981)"</h1>
<p>3xblah — Sun, 26 Apr 2020 11:55:02 +0000</p>

<p>Direct to consumer TV ads for pharmaceuticals were illegal in 1981.  This did not change until 1997.  As I remember it, in the few years after 1997 there were still relatively few drug ads on TV.  It was nothing like today.  <i>It seems like</i> the number of ads has dramatically increased in more recent times I would guess because many large pharmaceutical companies lack the pipelines they had in the 1990's and are under more pressure to increase sales on existing drugs.</p>

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<h1>New comment by 3xblah in "Instagram no longer allows people without an account to view photos on computers"</h1>
<p>3xblah — Thu, 23 Apr 2020 22:50:03 +0000</p>

<p>There is also a browser-free method.  Localhost proxy, e.g., haproxy, that rewrites User-Agent header according to URL and/or Host header.</p>

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<h1>New comment by 3xblah in "Instagram no longer allows people without an account to view photos on computers"</h1>
<p>3xblah — Thu, 23 Apr 2020 20:08:42 +0000</p>

<p>What if more users install the browser extension/add-on that automatically changes the user-agent string based on domain name, e.g., for Instagram it changes to a random mobile user-agent.  Sorry I forgot the name of the extension.</p>

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<h1>Message from the real 3xblah</h1>
<p>3xblah — Wed, 22 Apr 2020 06:50:43 +0000</p>

<p>Yours truly would never submit a video promoting cryptocurrency.  Just discovered account was compromised.  Password has been changed.</p>
<hr>
<p>Comments URL: <a href="https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22942934">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22942934</a></p>
<p>Points: 1</p>
<p># Comments: 0</p>

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<h1>New comment by 3xblah in "Stripe records user movements on its customers' websites"</h1>
<p>3xblah — Tue, 21 Apr 2020 21:12:12 +0000</p>

<p>"This data has never been, would never be, and will never be sold/rented/etc. to advertisers."<p>"Stripe.js collects this data only for fraud prevention -- it helps us detect bots who try to defraud businesses that use Stripe."<p>The language of the revised ToS could go something like "Stripe shall only use the data for fraud prevention.  Stripe shall not permit the data to be used for any other purpose, inlcuding, without limitation, any use that aims to increase customer acquisition or sales of products or services."<p>The problem with statements like "We only use the data for X" is that this is not a limitation.  It is perhaps a representation of what Stripe is doing as of the date of the ToS, however it does not mean Stripe does not have permission to use the data for any other purpose. Further, it only applies to Stripe.  Another party could be using the data for some other purpose besides fraud prevention and the statement would still be true.  Nothing requires that there be a sale or "rental" for another party to make use of the data.<p>The problem with statements like "We will never sell/rent/etc. the data to Y" is that it does not prevent Stripe from using the data to help Stripe or other parties to sell products and services.  Stripe does not need to sell or rent the data to provide that assistance.<p>To recap, a ToS should <i>limit how the data can be used</i>.  Stating how a company currently uses the data is not a limitation.  Stating that a company will not sell or rent the data does not necessarily limit how the data can be used by that company or anyone else.<p>Facebook does not sell or rent data but their collection of data ultimately results in more advertising on the web, and on Facebook-owned websites.  How does that happen.  The first problem is the collection of data above and beyond what is needed to fulfill a user's request, i.e., the purpose for which it was collected.  Ideally we could stop the unnecessary collection of user data, e.g., through law and regulation, and this would reduce the amount of data we need to worry about.  The second problem is that after users "agree" to the collection of data, there are no contractual obligations on the collector over how the data can be used, other than not sharing it.</p>

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<h1>New comment by 3xblah in "It’s Time to Build"</h1>
<p>3xblah — Mon, 20 Apr 2020 09:18:12 +0000</p>

<p>"I'm in the process of reading the book _Why Nation Fails_.  The central thesis is that rich and poor countries are separated by inclusive vs extractive institutions.<p><i>It seems to resonate a bit here</i>, when Marc speaks of things like regulatory capture."<p>However if we actually look at the pages of that book from 2012, the authors never use the US, or any present day "Western" country, as an example of one that had or has extractive instutitions.  Instead they cite examples such as Mexico, Colombia, Argentina, Venezuela, Uzbekistan, Zimbabwe, Sierra Leone, Angola, Sudan, Chad, Cameroon, Liberia, Egypt, North Korea, Nepal, or Haiti.<p>According to the authors, the US currently has <i>inclusive institutions</i> and uses the example of the software industry as a success story to support this argument.  This industry is in fact the blog post author's area of focus as a former programmer turned venture capitalist.<p>To quote from the book:<p>(Note the bit about fraud.  The US had serious problems with fraud 100 years ago, and still does.  Consider that is why the SEC exists.  Many would argue it has very limited powers of enforcement to deal with modern-day fraud.)<p>"Bill Gates, like other legendary figures in the information technology industry (such as Paul Allen, Steve Ballmer, Steve Jobs, Larry Page, Sergey Brin, and Jeff Bezos), had immense talent and ambition. But he ultimately responded to incentives. The schooling system in the United States enabled Gates and others like him to acquire a unique set of skills to complement their talents. The economic institutions in the United States enabled these men to start companies with ease, without facing insurmountable barriers. Those institutions also made the financing of their projects feasible. The U.S. labor markets enabled them to hire qualified personnel, and the relatively competitive market environment enabled them to expand their companies and market their products.  These entrepreneurs were confident from the beginning that their dream projects could be implemented: they trusted the institutions and the rule of law that these generated and they did not worry about the security of their property rights. Finally, the political institutions ensured stability and continuity. For one thing, they made sure that there was no risk of a dictator taking power and changing the rules of the game, expropriating their wealth, imprisoning them, or threatening their lives and livelihoods. They also made sure that no particular interest in society could warp the government in an economically disastrous direction, because political power was both limited and distributed sufficiently broadly that a set of economic institutions that created the incentives for prosperity could emerge.  Secure property rights, the law, public services, and the freedom to contract and exchange all rely on the state, the institution with the coercive capacity to impose order, prevent theft and fraud, and enforce contracts between private parties. To function well, society also needs other public services: roads and a transport network so that goods can be transported; a public infrastructure so that economic activity can flourish; and some type of basic regulation to prevent fraud and malfeasance.<p>Though many of these public services can be provided by markets and private citizens, the degree of coordination necessary to do so on a large scale often eludes all but a central authority. The state is thus inexorably intertwined with economic institutions, as the enforcer of law and order, private property, and contracts, and often as a key provider of public services. Inclusive economic institutions need and use the state."<p>The US approach to business does have its flaws. However the book "Why Nations Fail" does not address them.  To the authors, the US is a nation that "succeeded", and continues to succeed, by having inclusive institutions, not one that "failed" or is failing today.<p>A book like "Why Nations Fail", and there are many others like it, arguably encourages readers to view the US, irrespective of its flaws, as the shining example of what a country could/should aspire to become.  There are no present-day comparisons of the US with Western Europe in books of this type.  Such books are arguably part of the reason for certain institutional problems that will forever remain unfixed in the US, e.g. regulatory capture and complexity, because books like these have themes that support the idea that America's "solutions" are not just different but better than all the others.<p>This book really has no relation to any criticism of US institutions.  If anything, it supports the idea that the US has the best formula for creating a rich country, i.e., a country where "anyone can be rich".  They compare how Bill Gates became wealthy versus how Carlos Slim became wealthy.<p>From a presentatation given by the authors:<p>Acemoglu Robinson (Harvard) Why Nations Fail June 6, 2011 8 / 36<p>Main Concepts Inclusive and Extractive Institutions<p>Towards a Theory of Institutions<p>Extractive economic institutions: Lack of law and order. Insecure property rights; entry barriers and <i>regulations preventing functioning of markets</i> and creating a nonlevel playing field.<p>Extractive political institutions -- in the limit of absolutism: Political institutions concentrating power in the hands of a few, without constraints, checks and balances or rule of law.<p>Inclusive economic institutions: Secure property rights, law and order, markets and state support (public services and regulation) for markets; open to relatively free entry of new businesses; uphold contracts; access to education and opportunity for the great majority of citizens.<p>Inclusive political institutions: Political institutions allowing broad participation pluralism and placing constraints and checks on politicians; rule of law (closely related to pluralism).<p>But also some degree of political centralization for the states to be able to selectively enforce law and order.<p>Acemoglu Robinson (Harvard) Why Nations Fail June 6, 2011 36 / 36<p>Why Nations have and Do Fail<p>Because they have extractive political and economic institutions.<p>These are difficult to change though they can be successfully challenged and altered during critical junctures.<p>The roots of modern world inequality lie in the emergence of inclusive institutions in Britain and the fruits of this - the industrial revolution - spread to those parts of the world that had similar institutions (settler colonies) or quickly developed them (Western Europe).<p>Other parts of the world languished with extractive institutions which have persisted over time and thus remain poor today.</p>

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<h1>New comment by 3xblah in "It’s Time to Build"</h1>
<p>3xblah — Sun, 19 Apr 2020 08:24:41 +0000</p>

<p>As I read the parent comment, the point is not that Andreesen could singlehandedly make a difference with his investments.  The point is that his words do not match his actions.  His work is fostering an industry whose competitive advantage is not having to build anything tangible for the public's benefit and, in the case of companies like Facebook, not having to pay taxes on their profits.</p>

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<h1>New comment by 3xblah in "It’s Time to Build"</h1>
<p>3xblah — Sun, 19 Apr 2020 02:46:50 +0000</p>

<p>The author is a VC who almost exclusively funds software-based businesses where "build" generally refers to intangibles and businesses based on intangibles.  He refers to Western/American effectiveness ("we") in building computers, including smartphones.  His famous quote, displayed prominently on his website, is "Software is eating the world."<p>However, strangely, this post from him calls for building tangible assets, not software.  Perhaps some of the funding directed at software can now be directed to businesses whose primary assets are tangible.  What do you think.<p>Consider all the money and willingness to invest that has been directed toward software-based businesses. What if more of that investment capital had gone to non-software-based endeavours that America chose <i>not</i> to build while Silicon Valley VC like Andreeson Horowitz were busy directing focus to software.<p>It seems to me that his firm could be complicit in a general unwillingness in America to build tangible things.  If I was someone following his philosophies over the past few decades, I would be less inclined to invest, or promote investment, in the types of "traditional" business required to build the things he calls for in this post.</p>

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<h1>New comment by 3xblah in "Ask HN: Is there anything new on e-commerce besides catalogue/cart shopping?"</h1>
<p>3xblah — Sat, 18 Apr 2020 09:12:53 +0000</p>

<p>I have thought about this for decades.  Using web-based HTML forms for transmitting information, whether e-commerce or otherwise, is often overkill.  There should be a standardised format for consumers to send basic plain text information such as name, address, etc. over the internet.  In many cases using a website to submit such basic information, where every website potentially collects information differently, creates more work for everyone.  It is mind-biggling to think of how many people have struggled with brittle web forms and how much time and energy they have wasted.  It is sad to think that probably very few of them have ever thought "There must be a better way."</p>

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<h1>New comment by 3xblah in "Downturns are accounting crooks’ worst enemy"</h1>
<p>3xblah — Sat, 18 Apr 2020 08:30:36 +0000</p>

<p>Disable Javascript.</p>

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<h1>New comment by 3xblah in "Egoless Programming (2011)"</h1>
<p>3xblah — Thu, 16 Apr 2020 20:32:39 +0000</p>

<p>Why not just serve plain HTML pages like C2 wiki used to do.  Why use Javascript and Google Analytics.  Why ask why.<p>Fact: It took more work for someone to convert the HTML to JSON, write the Javascript and set up the proxy than it did for me to write a shell script.<p>Not sure what were the benefit(s) to that person versus the one-time cost of switching away from plain HTML to requiring Javascript.  No doubt he deemed it worth the time to set up.<p>What I do know is the benefit to me versus the one-time cost of writing a shell script.  It means I do not need to use Javascript or submit to Google Analytics. I do not even need internet access once I have downloaded the C2 wiki, converted it to text and stored it on local media.  If it one day disappears from the web and the IA, I still have a copy.  This wiki is a piece of history and it is not changing.<p>Apologies for the error with the quotes.  Here is a fix<p>cat > 1.sed<p><pre><code>      s/ *//;s/{ //;s/ \"date": \"//;s/. \"text\": \"//;s/)//;s/\",/\
   /;s/ )//;s|\\r\\n\*|\
   \
   \*|g;s|\\r\\n|\
   |g;s/'''//g;s/''//g;s/\\\\"/"/g;s/\\"/"/g;s/\\t//g;s/ ://g;s/  */ /g;s/\"}$// 
   </code></pre>
^D<p><pre><code>   curl https://proxy.c2.com/wiki/remodel/pages/EgolessProgramming|tr -d '\n'|sed -f 1.sed > 1.txt</code></pre></p>

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<h1>New comment by 3xblah in "Egoless Programming (2011)"</h1>
<p>3xblah — Thu, 16 Apr 2020 00:44:01 +0000</p>

<p>To get an index of all C2 wiki pages<p><pre><code>      curl https://proxy.c2.com/wiki/remodel/pages/ > 1.html
</code></pre>
To get a wiki page in JSON and convert it to textfile without using gratuitous Javascript<p>Optional: feed through fmt(1)<p><pre><code>      curl https://proxy.c2.com/wiki/remodel/pages/EgolessProgramming|tr -d '\n'|sed 's/ *//;s/{ \"date\": \"//;s/ \"text\": \"//;s/\",/\
   /
      s/\. :)//;s|\\r\\n\*|\
   \
   \*|g
      s|\\r\\n|\
   |g
      s/'''//g; s/''//g;s/\\\\"/"/g;s/\\"/"/g;s/\\t//g;s/ ://g;s/  */ /g;s/\" }$//' > 1.txt
</code></pre>
To search the wiki<p><pre><code>      curl https://proxy.c2.com/cgi/fullSearch/?search=$1|sed 's|href=wiki.|href=https://proxy.c2.com/wiki/remodel/pages/|g' > 1.html</code></pre></p>

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<h1>New comment by 3xblah in "GitHub is now free for teams"</h1>
<p>3xblah — Tue, 14 Apr 2020 21:48:38 +0000</p>

<p>Would it be fair to explain this move as a "user retention" tactic.  Perhaps it becomes a more difficult decision for teams to close out their paid accounts, even amidst an economic downturn, when the fees are removed.<p>One could argue some MSFT acquisitions have been focused on acquiring large swaths of exisiting users moreso than acquiring revenue streams or work product.  Github could have been one such acquisition.</p>

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<h1>New comment by 3xblah in "Wildlife is reclaiming Yosemite National Park"</h1>
<p>3xblah — Tue, 14 Apr 2020 05:01:18 +0000</p>

<p>Correction:<p>In the example, there should be an additonal \r\n after "Connection: close".</p>

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<h1>New comment by 3xblah in "As YouTube traffic soars, YouTubers say pay is plummeting"</h1>
<p>3xblah — Tue, 14 Apr 2020 04:49:05 +0000</p>

<p>Doesn't Google have millions of dollars in cash on hand.  Perhaps it could pay YouTube content creators.<p>Google sells ad sales services utilising, in part, data collected on YouTube visitors.<p>An old saw amongst internet marketers was that "traffic" was the single most metric behind the financial success of any website.  That idea only makes sense if the plan is to sell online ads or, in Google's case, provide online ad sales services.  In lockdown, arguably the best "business plan" for a website is to sell essential goods/services.<p>What consumers might be reminded or become aware of during lockdown is that the internet, including the web, still continuses to work without any online ads.  Ad buyers might not be buying onlne ads, but consumers are still paying for home internet access.  Lo and behold, even when online ads are diminished, creative and generous people still create content and use the internet to share it.</p>

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<h1>New comment by 3xblah in "NextDNS is my new favourite DNS service"</h1>
<p>3xblah — Mon, 13 Apr 2020 21:39:51 +0000</p>

<p>"I will concede am lucky enough to have static IPv4/IPv6 addresses on my home connection."<p>A while back, some HN commenters in a Wireguard thread tried to argue that all home connections have static IP addresses, or at least ones that do not change frequently enough to be an issue.  If I had a static IP address I, too, would consider myself lucky.</p>

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Hacker News: 3xblah

New comment by 3xblah in "Is Microsoft Windows a crime against humanity?"

New comment by 3xblah in "Having trouble with the IRS site? Try all caps"
