Hacker News: alexdw_mgzi

New comment by alexdw_mgzi in "Session is shutting down in 90 days"

alexdw_mgzi — Thu, 09 Apr 2026 17:48:32 +0000

I'm amazed by how many companies I first discover via their shutdown announcement on Hacker News.

New comment by alexdw_mgzi in "Locked out: How a gift card purchase destroyed an Apple account"

alexdw_mgzi — Wed, 17 Dec 2025 04:49:02 +0000

The "ensure they use it" is the part that is uncertain, and thus the 'scam' aspect. Amazon (and other vendors) are betting that a significant percentage of end users will not actually use it, and the seller will get to keep the entire balance as profit.

New comment by alexdw_mgzi in "California bans legacy admissions at private universities"

alexdw_mgzi — Mon, 30 Sep 2024 21:04:00 +0000

Definitely agree that empowering those who's only desire is power is not a desirable outcome. As for the current crop of elites, I get the impression that there is a clear split between business elites and political elites. Wealthy but foolish kids are of only limited benefit in the world of business, but in politics knowing some senator's son opens a lot of doors. (This is not a desirable outcome, of course.)

To the extent that eliminating legacies disrupts this pipeline, great. The world does not need another President Bush.

New comment by alexdw_mgzi in "California bans legacy admissions at private universities"

alexdw_mgzi — Mon, 30 Sep 2024 20:26:55 +0000

> You're describing someone with zero intellectual curiosity and only a base form of ambition.

If attending university was merely a means of satisfying your intellectual curiosity, we wouldn't be concerned about legacy admissions. The problem is that a university education is seen as the only viable path to a good life and a good career, and elite universities being one of the few paths to membership in Western society's elite class. So in effect, a lot of young people are pushed into getting a university education so that they can have a good life.

> No, you cannot replicate being taught by one of the brightest minds in a field by reading their published work.

Personal mentorship by one of the brightest minds in a field is indeed difficult to replicate with YouTube videos and online courses.

Undergraduate-level lectures taught by bored TA's? Video lectures are almost certainly a superior alternative -- especially if the student actually has that intellectual curiosity and initiative.

New comment by alexdw_mgzi in "California bans legacy admissions at private universities"

alexdw_mgzi — Mon, 30 Sep 2024 19:58:19 +0000

Without networking opportunities, what possible incentive would there be to attend a top university? Especially if you aren't directly performing research, you can gain most or all of the benefits of a top-dollar education these days by reading the necessary literature online.

New comment by alexdw_mgzi in "Tattoo ink sold on Amazon has high levels of weird and rare bacteria"

alexdw_mgzi — Wed, 28 Aug 2024 00:06:54 +0000

Out of business.

New comment by alexdw_mgzi in "Some Unlikely 2021 Predictions"

alexdw_mgzi — Wed, 13 Jan 2021 16:41:35 +0000

If you link to that particular blog from HackerNews, he checks the referer and serves you up a nasty message instead of the blog post. So, instead of providing a direct link, search for JWZ, GNOME and CADT.

New comment by alexdw_mgzi in "My Google Traffic Has Fallen to Zero"

alexdw_mgzi — Tue, 05 Jan 2021 01:22:46 +0000

That is how most of the (American) retail auto market works, though, so it's not a strange idea.

New comment by alexdw_mgzi in "Fuzzy logic rice cookers (2016)"

alexdw_mgzi — Tue, 22 Dec 2020 02:03:07 +0000

Probably a big part is that it soaks the rice (with no heat) for an extended period before cooking. I think the soaking is roughly a third of the total cooking time.

New comment by alexdw_mgzi in "Sony acquires anime streaming service Crunchyroll"

alexdw_mgzi — Thu, 10 Dec 2020 14:00:01 +0000

This was never a problem in the DVD era, but started happening again with several Blu-ray releases. In most cases, these are simply "locked" rather than truly hard-subbed. (The subtitle images aren't mixed with the video, they are a separate track that cannot be disabled.)

http://www.lockedsubs.byethost7.com/

New comment by alexdw_mgzi in "Sony acquires anime streaming service Crunchyroll"

alexdw_mgzi — Thu, 10 Dec 2020 13:55:15 +0000

As I understand it, some of the older fansubbers went "legit" as well (ADV, perhaps?). The basic distribution model is as you described, starting with an Amiga Video Toaster or other titler. Then, local anime clubs and other distributors would send them blank tapes, which the fansubber would dub with the latest episodes. Finally, people would send blank tapes to that distributor, who would dub a copy for them. After a few generations of this, the quality was quite bad in some cases.

New comment by alexdw_mgzi in "Nutcracker Challenge: Blob-Free WiFi and BLE"

alexdw_mgzi — Wed, 28 Oct 2020 15:24:10 +0000

I think "blob" is being used in this case to refer to a "large undifferentiated mass".

New comment by alexdw_mgzi in "Stop Asking Me to “Sign Up” (2014)"

alexdw_mgzi — Sun, 27 Sep 2020 00:53:28 +0000

Add some metrics to the app itself, I'd wager. Then you'll get people complaining about how the app (or app store) is spying on your every action, and phoning home.

New comment by alexdw_mgzi in "Research questions that could have a big social impact, organised by discipline"

alexdw_mgzi — Tue, 01 Sep 2020 15:46:45 +0000

Many of these questions are not well posed. For instance, the question, "What’s the average lifespan of the most common species of wild animals?", has a fairly simple answer. Most animals are insects, and most insect larva get eaten. Ergo, the average lifespan is probably measured in hours.

If the question is restricted to only mammals, then you still have fairly big ranges. Small animals may live only long enough to breed, while some larger animals (such as humans) may live for decades.

There are other questions about cultural longevity, well-being as well as broad and specific questions about risk factors. Communicating the desires behind these questions might be more helpful than the questions themselves.

New comment by alexdw_mgzi in "How China’s Expanding Fishing Fleet Is Depleting the World’s Oceans"

alexdw_mgzi — Mon, 17 Aug 2020 13:31:05 +0000

I'm not sure there's a Western democracy that fits the bill of a "healthy democracy", then.

New comment by alexdw_mgzi in "Apple declined to implement 16 Web APIs in Safari due to privacy concerns"

alexdw_mgzi — Mon, 29 Jun 2020 13:59:11 +0000

If you had access to the magnetometer, you could make a navigation compass. Or, you could animate a map to rotate as the phone rotates. It might be good for implementing a GeoCaching helper app as a website.

New comment by alexdw_mgzi in "Chernobyl with Zero Tourists"

alexdw_mgzi — Wed, 17 Jun 2020 03:03:06 +0000

Many years ago, a woman named Elena rode through this area on a motorcycle and documented quite a bit of it: http://kiddofspeed.com/

I have always found pictures of the decaying remnants of human settlements to be fascinating. This series of pictures is great!