Hacker News: Tangurena2

New comment by Tangurena2 in "Read this before you buy that TV streaming stick"

Tangurena2 — Thu, 30 Jul 2026 21:43:10 +0000

> What worries me much more is backdoors from the foreign companies and governments that can be pre-installed at the factory to collect intelligence information.

The Snowden leaks showed that the US was already doing this. I'm certain that everything purchased is already infected with something. Most likely bugs and bad security.

New comment by Tangurena2 in "Read this before you buy that TV streaming stick"

Tangurena2 — Thu, 30 Jul 2026 21:24:27 +0000

The streaming services have fractured and taken so many movies off their service so much that it is too hard for most people to figure out where that show/movie can be found.

From a link above to the story on darknetdiaries:

> For Pokemon, there is a website that tells you how to watch this. You start off on Netflix, then swap over to the Pokemon streaming service, which is the only place that has Season 2, then swap over to Prime Video for Seasons 3 through 5, swap to Freevee, then Hoopla. Season 13 is only on Amazon, though. Then swap to Tubi, then Hulu, then Roku channel, and then finally back to the Pokemon streaming, and then Netflix. Easy.

That's 8 different streaming services to view one series.

New comment by Tangurena2 in "National Security Determination Threat Posed by Foreign-Produced Robotic Devices [pdf]"

Tangurena2 — Thu, 30 Jul 2026 12:29:22 +0000

The office I worked in back then subscribed to lots of business journals. The one I remember the most was Harvard Business Journal. I'm certain that the articles were based on a McKinsey report. I started working there in 2004, so it would have been sometime in the 2000-2006 timeframe. I had a long bus ride, so I would take a couple with me every night to read.

New comment by Tangurena2 in "National Security Determination Threat Posed by Foreign-Produced Robotic Devices [pdf]"

Tangurena2 — Wed, 29 Jul 2026 12:32:30 +0000

I remember a big push by business journals back in the 2000s with claims that "executives who offshore work get 18% greater bonuses than executives who don't".

New comment by Tangurena2 in "National Security Determination Threat Posed by Foreign-Produced Robotic Devices [pdf]"

Tangurena2 — Wed, 29 Jul 2026 12:30:34 +0000

There's a box being sold called "SuperBox". It claims to be able to stream any movie/video. The claim is "just pay $300 and you won't need to subscribe to any streaming service anymore." However, part of what it does is hacks your home network and tries to take over every thing on that network. And it sends this all back to China. The vast majority of people buying & installing these are just ordinary people but some will be executives, or people working for the feds. Did they bring their work laptop home and plug it in to their network? So it can get attacked outside the office firewall? Remember how stuxnet was spread?

This is a podcast about it: https://darknetdiaries.com/episode/172/

New comment by Tangurena2 in "National Security Determination Threat Posed by Foreign-Produced Robotic Devices [pdf]"

Tangurena2 — Wed, 29 Jul 2026 12:17:34 +0000

I think this policy is another case of projection: "we" are doing this to other countries and we are afraid someone will do it back to us - which is both unfair and illegal.

New comment by Tangurena2 in "A missing underscore sent innocent man to prison for 18 months"

Tangurena2 — Tue, 28 Jul 2026 14:40:56 +0000

This is one of those crimes where the accusation is the conviction.

New comment by Tangurena2 in "RTX 2080 Ti Memory Upgrade to 22 GB"

Tangurena2 — Tue, 28 Jul 2026 12:45:19 +0000

Yep. We've broken lots of things. Expensive things. Some days, when I remember the (frequently dumb) things I did as a youngster, I am surprised that I still have all 10 fingers and both eyes.

New comment by Tangurena2 in "Judge approves $1.5B Anthropic settlement for pirated books used to train Claude"

Tangurena2 — Wed, 22 Jul 2026 12:14:13 +0000

I've seen some YouTubes where lawyers were complaining about high bill rates and showing actual bills. One large firm billed the senior lawyers at $2500/hour and even the paralegals were billed at $600/hr.

New comment by Tangurena2 in "Judge approves $1.5B Anthropic settlement for pirated books used to train Claude"

Tangurena2 — Wed, 22 Jul 2026 12:10:40 +0000

> pattern doesn’t affect lawyers is because they tend to be the ones writing ... the regulations in the first place

In my state, the people hired to write new bills (if passed becoming statute) have to pass their JD (law degree). Legislators only get to request new bills, they can't hand a proposal (which may have been written by a lobbying agency like ALEC or Heritage) into the system.

New comment by Tangurena2 in "Hacker wipes Romania's land registry database"

Tangurena2 — Mon, 20 Jul 2026 19:39:13 +0000

Hackers would do it from the operating system level - stop the database executable, then delete the files used to store the database. Likewise, many organizations store the backups on a network share, where a hacker could delete the files.

Permissions inside the database should be segregated. The credential used by the webserver should not have enough permissions to DROP DATABASE. Just the appropriate selects/updates/inserts.

Likewise, if you are storing backups on the same network (as opposed to a tape backup), network permissions should allow writes/creates but not deletes.

New comment by Tangurena2 in "Hacker wipes Romania's land registry database"

Tangurena2 — Mon, 20 Jul 2026 19:32:38 +0000

It isn't fast enough for mortgage backed securities. Each transfer of ownership of the mortgage requires a separate transfer fee paid to the registry.

Moving from a paper registry at each county clerk (in the US) was a part of the 2008 financial meltdown.

New comment by Tangurena2 in "Hacker wipes Romania's land registry database"

Tangurena2 — Mon, 20 Jul 2026 19:21:13 +0000

Afterwards, you have to make an appointment to see them in person. Until then, you can order them online or via snailmail.

New comment by Tangurena2 in "Who Is America's Homer?"

Tangurena2 — Mon, 20 Jul 2026 12:51:51 +0000

Plato (who came long after Homer) complained about "kids these days" not memorizing poetry (like the old farts did) and using that new fangled technology called "writing".

New comment by Tangurena2 in "Who Is America's Homer?"

Tangurena2 — Mon, 20 Jul 2026 12:49:15 +0000

> No single author has defined how America speaks and writes the way Dante did for Italian

No English language version of the Bible - prior to the King James Version - contained descriptions of Hell. At best, modern American conceptions/beliefs about Hell is fan-fiction based on Dante's Inferno.

New comment by Tangurena2 in "When can a power company take your land for data center infrastructure?"

Tangurena2 — Mon, 20 Jul 2026 12:41:03 +0000

Along with lack of cooling, the cost to launch hardware means that "servers in space" can never recover startup costs.

New comment by Tangurena2 in "Three ways people respond to a problem (other than solving it)"

Tangurena2 — Fri, 17 Jul 2026 19:36:21 +0000

> Do you think people look in the mirror and say “I’m going to be a terrible person today?”

There are plenty of people who are motivated by hurting/harming their "enemies". You may have heard them brag "own the libs", or similar rhetoric, while doing something objectively terrible.

New comment by Tangurena2 in "Three ways people respond to a problem (other than solving it)"

Tangurena2 — Fri, 17 Jul 2026 19:31:40 +0000

> would go about preserving a problem like homelessness

My state chose to outlaw homelessness [0] and to make it illegal for cities & counties to offer places to lawfully camp unless the campsites are basically enough to be KOA Campgrounds.

Actually solving homelessness is politically unacceptable, therefore it will be criminalized & preserved.

Notes:

0 - The crime is "unlawful camping".

New comment by Tangurena2 in "Google loses fight over record $4.7B EU antitrust fine"

Tangurena2 — Thu, 02 Jul 2026 15:35:23 +0000

In many European countries, news agencies use "alleged" until conviction or appeals are completed. Truth as an absolute barrier to defamation is a purely American ideal.

New comment by Tangurena2 in "Why I Stopped Arguing with People"

Tangurena2 — Wed, 01 Jul 2026 16:09:36 +0000

Or, if that reply link/button doesn't show up, click on the timestamp of the comment you wish to rebut/remark/comment, then you will see a comment box with button.