Hacker News: brndnmtthws

New comment by brndnmtthws in "U.S. consumer protection official puts Equifax probe on ice"

brndnmtthws — Mon, 05 Feb 2018 15:42:33 +0000

I think a lot of people in the US still have a strong sense of patriotism/nationalism. Nationalism is a trick dictators/tyrants/corrupt govs have used for decades to control people.

New comment by brndnmtthws in "U.S. consumer protection official puts Equifax probe on ice"

brndnmtthws — Mon, 05 Feb 2018 15:20:01 +0000

The senate has an excellent track record for protecting the corporate elite, not the broad constituency.

New comment by brndnmtthws in "U.S. consumer protection official puts Equifax probe on ice"

brndnmtthws — Mon, 05 Feb 2018 15:13:36 +0000

There are only 100 seats in the US senate. How can 'we' participate in that? There are somewhere around 330 million people in the US, represented by just 100 people, who mostly act in their own self interest. How can one person properly represent on average ~3.3 million people?

What a sham.

New comment by brndnmtthws in "Free Software Foundation Receives $1M Donation from Pineapple Fund"

brndnmtthws — Wed, 31 Jan 2018 14:35:12 +0000

I checked my calendar and it would appear the current year is 2018.

New comment by brndnmtthws in "Free Software Foundation Receives $1M Donation from Pineapple Fund"

brndnmtthws — Wed, 31 Jan 2018 14:33:57 +0000

You may be confused about the use of the term "free" in this context. It isn't about giving stuff away for $0 in compensation, it's about freedom in the sense of liberty and freedom to modify software you own.

RMS is possibly considering renaming it, too: https://www.reddit.com/r/linux/comments/7t97sn/fsf_foundatio...

New comment by brndnmtthws in "Free Software Foundation Receives $1M Donation from Pineapple Fund"

brndnmtthws — Wed, 31 Jan 2018 14:27:28 +0000

It's a shame that companies like Google, Facebook, Amazon and others who have benefited so much from the work of organizations like the FSF don't pony up. These companies are notably absent from the current list of patrons[1].

[1]: https://www.fsf.org/patrons

New comment by brndnmtthws in "Tarsnap Support for Bitcoin Ending April First"

brndnmtthws — Mon, 29 Jan 2018 00:17:22 +0000

Do what brings you joy in every day.

New comment by brndnmtthws in "Tarsnap Support for Bitcoin Ending April First"

brndnmtthws — Mon, 29 Jan 2018 00:16:07 +0000

I suggest you read the white paper if you're interested: https://raiblocks.net/media/RaiBlocks_Whitepaper__English.pd...

New comment by brndnmtthws in "Tether Is Breaking Its Peg to the Dollar"

brndnmtthws — Sun, 28 Jan 2018 19:44:19 +0000

A good book to read for anyone interested in economics is called "The End of Alchemy: Money, Banking, and the Future of the Global Economy", by Mervyn King, who was head of the Bank of England for about 10 years and during the financial crises of 2007-8. In the book, he discusses "the alchemy of money" which he roughly defines as how money isn't necessarily backed by any tangible assets. A lot of what happens in the banking system is pure alchemy. A fascinating read IMO.

New comment by brndnmtthws in "Tarsnap Support for Bitcoin Ending April First"

brndnmtthws — Sun, 28 Jan 2018 19:32:48 +0000

Your opinion is irrelevant. The market has the last word, and the market has already decided Bitcoin is the most valuable and useful. You can verify this by looking at hash rate, market cap, and distribution (amongst other things). You may not like it, so feel free to downvote me, but the facts are indisputable.

New comment by brndnmtthws in "Tarsnap Support for Bitcoin Ending April First"

brndnmtthws — Sun, 28 Jan 2018 19:27:50 +0000

Not necessarily. There are also some coins which use methods of securing the network which don't require incentives (ex: RaiBlocks).

New comment by brndnmtthws in "Tarsnap Support for Bitcoin Ending April First"

brndnmtthws — Sun, 28 Jan 2018 15:00:12 +0000

Unfortunately I think that's where we're headed. They will copy the tech, call it "crypto", and now they're in the cool kids club.

Bitcoin, however, will remain king because it's the first (Lindy effect) and it still offers more than any of the clones.

New comment by brndnmtthws in "Ivy – A static website generator built in Python"

brndnmtthws — Sun, 28 Jan 2018 14:22:38 +0000

How does this compare to something like Jekyll? Is the only difference that this is written in Python and Jekyll is Ruby?

New comment by brndnmtthws in "Ikea founder Ingvar Kamprad has died"

brndnmtthws — Sun, 28 Jan 2018 14:19:09 +0000

It is indeed true; the winners always earn the privilege of defining morality and rewriting history to their liking.

New comment by brndnmtthws in "U.S trade body backs Bombardier against Boeing"

brndnmtthws — Sat, 27 Jan 2018 20:13:51 +0000

Edit: *what's to stop

New comment by brndnmtthws in "U.S trade body backs Bombardier against Boeing"

brndnmtthws — Sat, 27 Jan 2018 13:32:45 +0000

Something tells me this battle isn't over. What's stop stop Trump from issuing another executive order that reinstates the tariffs? That's what he's been doing in a battle with the supreme courts on his Muslim ban for the past year.

New comment by brndnmtthws in "What gig workers can learn from romance writers"

brndnmtthws — Fri, 26 Jan 2018 20:36:04 +0000

Excuse me for not confirming your biases. I will, however, continue to think freely as I choose. I don't care much for echo chambers. If that does not work for you, please do ban me.

New comment by brndnmtthws in "What gig workers can learn from romance writers"

brndnmtthws — Fri, 26 Jan 2018 16:48:30 +0000

Resources are scarce, and until we live in Star Trek where we can magically replicate anything, there will be no free lunches.

New comment by brndnmtthws in "What gig workers can learn from romance writers"

brndnmtthws — Fri, 26 Jan 2018 16:38:27 +0000

It's not easy but it can be done. The US is a nation of immigrants. Unless you're native American, you either emigrated here or descended from someone who did.

It turns out hard things are hard. There's no free lunch or get rich easy schemes.

I'm an immigrant (I was completely broke when I moved to the US) and my parents were immigrants and their parents were immigrants.

New comment by brndnmtthws in "What gig workers can learn from romance writers"

brndnmtthws — Fri, 26 Jan 2018 16:30:52 +0000

Skills aren't handed out, you acquire them by learning which is something you can only do for yourself.