Hacker News: DamonHD

New comment by DamonHD in "Scammers are abusing an internal Microsoft account to send spam links"

DamonHD — Sun, 24 May 2026 16:54:57 +0000

This is very much my experience.

I generally say at some point before terminating the call "you should not train your customers to give out account access credentials to strangers" and the caller usually has no clue what I mean. Does no one in the security teams have theory of mind?

This will be the way I bring up the issue with the regulator if I do. I can think of many ways round this issue that would be much safer and not especially arduous.

New comment by DamonHD in "Scammers are abusing an internal Microsoft account to send spam links"

DamonHD — Sun, 24 May 2026 16:48:59 +0000

Banking example: trying to move some savings from one UK bank to another - back to where the money had originally come from, and that had just purchased the first bank too. It took 8h on the phone over a week or so to get the money back, which was interspersed with a comedic number of calls from withheld numbers and people unknown to me demanding enough info to get access to my money. And other very poor practice. The bank even conceeded at least once in writing that it knew that it was screwing up and sent me £100 by way of apology - but carried right on screwing up.

Non-banking: getting a call out of the blue from my Internet Service Provider again demanding enough credentials to get access to my (business) account, and unable to understand why that was very poor practice. I used to like that ISP a lot, and have been with it for a looooooong time, but the angry exchange with who seems to have been my account manager has soured the relationship a lot.

New comment by DamonHD in "Scammers are abusing an internal Microsoft account to send spam links"

DamonHD — Sun, 24 May 2026 07:53:24 +0000

Unfortunately my UK banks (and others) DO regularly make calls to me unannounced and demand my ID to 'prove who I am'. They are not scam calls and the callers cannot understand what they are doing wrong. If I'd had more strength in the last round of this stupidity I'd have done a number on them with the regulator. (I used to work in finance and was the director of a regulated financial entity, so I think I'd have a head start.)

Big batteries took a bite out of gas generators' evening peak party

DamonHD — Sat, 16 May 2026 09:23:53 +0000

Article URL: https://reneweconomy.com.au/big-batteries-took-a-bite-out-of-gas-generators-evening-peak-party-then-they-ate-the-whole-dinner/

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48158464

Points: 4

# Comments: 0

Thoughts on ALS

DamonHD — Thu, 14 May 2026 19:42:50 +0000

Article URL: https://energydon.fi/@rmattila74/116568059478685468

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48140222

Points: 2

# Comments: 0

Wind and solar have saved UK from gas imports worth £1.7B since Iran war began

DamonHD — Thu, 07 May 2026 17:39:07 +0000

Article URL: https://www.carbonbrief.org/analysis-wind-and-solar-have-saved-uk-from-gas-imports-worth-1-7bn-since-iran-war-began/

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48052324

Points: 4

# Comments: 0

Men, masculinities, and the planet at the end of (M)Anthropocene

DamonHD — Thu, 07 May 2026 06:23:09 +0000

Article URL: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/18902138.2025.2576458

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48046079

Points: 3

# Comments: 0

New comment by DamonHD in "My grandad built the original R2-D2 for the first Star Wars film"

DamonHD — Mon, 04 May 2026 11:22:32 +0000

Maybe add a non-Twitter link so that people who don't have logins (or dislike X) can see it. Your Masto post link should work...

https://fosstodon.org/@robhawkes/116515573163883147

Decoding a decade of rising global light pollution

DamonHD — Fri, 01 May 2026 17:45:25 +0000

Article URL: https://www.darkskyconsulting.com/blog/decoding-a-decade-of-rising-global-light-pollution

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47977717

Points: 2

# Comments: 0

New comment by DamonHD in "The great Scouse pasty war"

DamonHD — Thu, 23 Apr 2026 16:48:38 +0000

Wasn't paywalled when I posted it a few days ago - would not have posted if it had been!

NCSC: Leave passwords in the past – passkeys are the future

DamonHD — Thu, 23 Apr 2026 16:14:53 +0000

Article URL: https://www.ncsc.gov.uk/news/ncsc-leave-passwords-in-the-past-passkeys-are-the-future

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47877551

Points: 2

# Comments: 0

New comment by DamonHD in "If the sun were a tennis ball"

DamonHD — Thu, 23 Apr 2026 10:09:32 +0000

I backed out as soon as I was prompted by the browser to allow sharing my location information.

I may well be a little paranoid, and I think I saw, while backing away, why it was requested, but please don't scrape data without asking first.

The [UK] Green Party is STILL bad at being green

DamonHD — Thu, 23 Apr 2026 07:38:04 +0000

Article URL: https://takes.jamesomalley.co.uk/p/the-green-party-is-still-bad-at-being-green

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47873125

Points: 2

# Comments: 0

The great Scouse pasty war

DamonHD — Mon, 20 Apr 2026 06:45:01 +0000

Article URL: https://www.livpost.co.uk/the-great-scouse-pasty-war/

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47831085

Points: 56

# Comments: 28

New comment by DamonHD in "How to raise fund from investor for my startup?"

DamonHD — Sun, 19 Apr 2026 09:19:24 +0000

Scrap metal?

Because of all the metal theft (eg stealing cables) that old-style scrap metal dealers facilitated, you may find laws and reputational risk against you.