Hacker News: bb101

New comment by bb101 in "Forced to Upgrade"

bb101 — Mon, 02 Dec 2024 11:38:47 +0000

I tried to go back to using an old but trusty iPhone 5 in 2018. I found that I couldn't get a signal in half the locations I used to get signals fine previously. Technology had marched on, and so had the mix of 2G, 3G and 4G bands.

Given that our beige computing boxes used to be out of date within two years, I'd say six years for a phone is good going. Time to get a new iPhone.

New comment by bb101 in "Meta is banning people from advertising after running ads for Python and Pandas"

bb101 — Thu, 19 Oct 2023 09:55:55 +0000

Our legal systems have already become like this. Only those with the knowledge on how to navigate the system or those qualified to interface in the expected protocols have any hope of achieving results.

Super-corporations are now just the next rung down, adopting all the habits of their superior, but without the responsibilities.

New comment by bb101 in "Why the Culture Wins: An Appreciation of Iain M. Banks (2017)"

bb101 — Mon, 16 Oct 2023 10:12:06 +0000

I do wonder if there is any overlap between the Culture novels and The Algebraist. I seem to remember mention of aHumans and rHumans in both -- a fascinating idea really.

New comment by bb101 in "Why the Culture Wins: An Appreciation of Iain M. Banks (2017)"

bb101 — Mon, 16 Oct 2023 10:02:25 +0000

Works perfectly on Mullvad Browser, Firefox and Safari. Remember: friends don't let friends use Chrome.

New comment by bb101 in "My Beautiful Friend"

bb101 — Fri, 21 Jul 2023 14:00:03 +0000

Hands down the best TV show I've ever seen, and so well matched with Max Richter's soundtrack. Very much looking forward to the last season.

New comment by bb101 in "Apple says it'll remove iMessage and FaceTime in UK rather than break encryption"

bb101 — Thu, 20 Jul 2023 14:31:29 +0000

I can't help but think the other parties would put forward better policies that don't alienate the electorate nor swathes of international business. Some would say the current conservative cabinet are the low-grade remnants of the recent party turmoil, and their policies demonstrate this. Unfortunately for us, they really have nothing to lose over the next year.

New comment by bb101 in "Apple says it'll remove iMessage and FaceTime in UK rather than break encryption"

bb101 — Thu, 20 Jul 2023 14:23:49 +0000

The current conservative government is on its last legs before being banished for at least a decade. It appears they already have their eyes on the lucrative private sector and are willing to vandalise the UK with little thought to public protest.

New comment by bb101 in "Wix’s new tool can create entire websites from prompts"

bb101 — Mon, 17 Jul 2023 16:57:18 +0000

Any mention of Frontpage should come with a trigger warning! After all these years, I still haven't forgiven Microsoft.

New comment by bb101 in "Wix’s new tool can create entire websites from prompts"

bb101 — Mon, 17 Jul 2023 16:50:36 +0000

"Now there's a design that POPS!"

https://theoatmeal.com/comics/design_hell

New comment by bb101 in "Researchers treat depression by reversing brain signals traveling the wrong way"

bb101 — Thu, 18 May 2023 09:47:06 +0000

Interesting. A real life example of latency and half-life[1].

[1] https://slimemoldtimemold.com/2023/04/25/n1-latency-and-half...

New comment by bb101 in "Unapproved books now a felony in Manatee County schools"

bb101 — Mon, 23 Jan 2023 16:43:44 +0000

"banished handguns so you can no longer protect yourself..."

I think this view has been quite comprehensively debunked by now. I for one do not want to live in a country where most people have access to handguns.

New comment by bb101 in "Photos capture life inside a drop of seawater"

bb101 — Fri, 20 Jan 2023 12:52:02 +0000

Andy Weir's short story "The Egg" deals with similar topics.

https://www.paullowe.org/the-egg/

New comment by bb101 in "LastPass user vaults stolen in recent hack"

bb101 — Fri, 23 Dec 2022 13:44:00 +0000

Field 6 "sharedfromaid": "aid of the sharer's Site/Secure Note" is unencrypted. The hackers will be able to infer relationships between Lastpass users.

Field 10: "genpw": "Is an auto-saved generated password". Good for deciding whether to brute force or not.

Yikes. I can't imagine why anyone would trust Lastpass after this.

New comment by bb101 in "LastPass breach is worse than you think because URLs were unencrypted"

bb101 — Fri, 23 Dec 2022 12:19:30 +0000

1Password also uses a secret key in addition to your master password to encrypt your data. You enter the secret key when setting up the account on a new device.

So a hacker would have to get hold of the encrypted data, together with the secret key for each account. The secret key isn't stored by 1Password, requiring the hacker to brute force it. However, each key provides 128 bits of entropy, which makes it infeasible to brute force with current technology.

More info: https://support.1password.com/secret-key-security/

A Pomodoro timer app helped me regain my focus

bb101 — Mon, 21 Nov 2022 09:12:34 +0000

Article URL: https://www.theverge.com/23466074/pomodoro-timers-focus-productivity-app

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=33690501

Points: 3

# Comments: 0

New comment by bb101 in "Never trust a system that seems to be working"

bb101 — Mon, 17 Oct 2022 16:37:32 +0000

It seemed to me to be a handbook on how to conduct a revolution. Much as Heinlein's Stranger from a Strange Land was a handbook on how to start a religion (hello Scientologists).

New comment by bb101 in "An odd discovery on Spotify"

bb101 — Tue, 23 Aug 2022 08:46:28 +0000

I agree. There are some playlists and songs I only listen to in the gym, and similar songs constantly float to the top of Spotify's recommendations for me due to gym being 3x week.

I did consider creating another "gym-only" user on our Family plan, but Spotify should really have a way to create named contexts for the one user. e.g. commute, gym, run, working from home, on a plane, etc.

London’s climate ‘will resemble Barcelona’s by 2050,’ study reveals (2019)

bb101 — Tue, 19 Jul 2022 12:48:46 +0000

Article URL: https://www.nationalgeographic.co.uk/environment-and-conservation/2019/07/londons-climate-will-resemble-barcelonas-by-2050-study-reveals

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=32150709

Points: 4

# Comments: 1

New comment by bb101 in "IQ decline and Piaget: Does the rot start at the top? [pdf]"

bb101 — Tue, 04 Jan 2022 19:29:37 +0000

Perhaps as technology progresses, we'll see the equivalent of Neal Stephenson's Young Lady's Illustrated Primer from his book The Diamond Age. The primer is an AI-backed story interface, designed to teach and entertain a child whilst also becoming more complicated as the child ages.

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/827.The_Diamond_Age

New comment by bb101 in "Elizabeth Holmes found guilty"

bb101 — Tue, 04 Jan 2022 15:23:45 +0000

I do feel sorry for her in a way. She was riding a treadmill of expectations. Started off slowly, probably thinking "yeah, we can do this" and by the time the treadmill was moving at light speed, it was too late to get off.

Even TED has removed her talk from YouTube. What responsibility do the media bear when their shallow hype turns out to be false and damaging to all parties?