Hacker News: cJ0th

R/Europe: Update on the issue of user privacy changes by Reddit

cJ0th — Sat, 27 Feb 2021 11:19:12 +0000

Article URL: https://old.reddit.com/r/europe/comments/lt5xfg/update_on_the_issue_of_user_privacy_changes_by/

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26284104

Points: 8

# Comments: 0

New comment by cJ0th in "Ask HN: Why aren't micropayments a thing?"

cJ0th — Fri, 22 Jan 2021 22:08:31 +0000

There was (is?) a website that charges you a couple of cents per article. They offer content from many different magazines. I got some free credit during the early phase. Even though I wasn't even spending my own money, seeing the amount go down after every article made me realize that none of the articles I read were worth any money.

On the other hand, I am willing to spend $80 on a book if it contains really valuable information.

One idea I like is spending $x flat each month and then consume as much as I like knowing that the amount gets shared equally among all the creators whose contents I have consumed. There probably are businesses with such a mode out there but I am not aware of any.

New comment by cJ0th in "Poll: Switching from WhatsApp"

cJ0th — Thu, 07 Jan 2021 19:39:14 +0000

I like conversations. The app is straight forward and it uses xmpp with omemo encryption. Therefore, there is no "lock in" (https://conversations.im/).

I guess Signal would be the best bet as an alternative because of where it is right now in terms of market share.

New comment by cJ0th in "Ask HN: How would you convince your friends and family to switch from WhatsApp?"

cJ0th — Thu, 07 Jan 2021 19:14:42 +0000

i don't know how to do it but my parents and a good friend switched to conversations[0] because this is what I prefer.

I guess people are willing to switch if they care about you a lot. in other words, most won't.

[0] https://conversations.im/

New comment by cJ0th in "The Design of the Roland Juno Syntheziser's Oscillators"

cJ0th — Fri, 01 Jan 2021 11:17:03 +0000

I can only second this. It was surprisingly easy to follow along even though I know very little about electronics (I do program synths, though). The interactive illustrations are also great.

New comment by cJ0th in "Windows 7: A year after end-of-support deadline, millions choose not to upgrade"

cJ0th — Thu, 31 Dec 2020 08:52:43 +0000

Windows 10 is basically what's wrong with business software these days. Gone are the days were we at least tried to make these types of applications predictable and consistent.

I have to work with D365 applications a lot and it is flabbergasting how companies accept this level unreliability.

New comment by cJ0th in "No Config for Old Men"

cJ0th — Sun, 29 Nov 2020 07:35:27 +0000

> Anyone who has had to help elderly relatives should know the value of computers that works like an appliance and can't easily be screwed up.

The problem is they are still having trouble but I cannot help them as often as I used to.

New comment by cJ0th in "The Mac is losing me"

cJ0th — Thu, 19 Nov 2020 10:58:48 +0000

I assume that Apple's next chapter started coincidently with the leaving of Steve Jobs. Of course, I do not know if Jobs would be cool with today's Apple. But he certainly worked hard at turning it into the cash cow it is nowadays. So in other words, we are in a different cell of the BCG Matrix today.

New comment by cJ0th in "'Ugh fields', or why you can’t even bear to think about that task"

cJ0th — Sat, 12 Sep 2020 14:27:59 +0000

> The fact that I can go about my life without procastination and anxiety is a testament to the correct diagnosis and accurate dosing that my Psychiatrist prescribed.

So whenever you now have to carry out a task you simply dispassionately do it? Taxes, cleaning the house, starting projects you do not understand yet...

There is no putting it off for days or even weeks?

Really trying to understand this as I assumed that doing this is at least to some extend pretty normal.

New comment by cJ0th in "Ask HN: Is it just me? why is “news” so addictive?"

cJ0th — Fri, 24 Jul 2020 12:06:50 +0000

While reading the news you do not have to deal with yourself. Quite a relieve for most people I reckon.

On top of that, bad "news" sources are designed in such a way that you do get addicted (e.g. endless scrolling, getting notifications on new article while still reading one, clickbait and so on).

New comment by cJ0th in "Perseverance Toward Life Goals Can Fend Off Depression, Anxiety, Panic Disorders"

cJ0th — Fri, 24 Jul 2020 07:51:12 +0000

While most here see some merit in such research - or at least in debating it, to me it seems utterly meaningless.

These papers seem like mere artefacts of the researcher's mind. At best, they learn a lot by (re)defining the problem, looking into different methods for testing their hypothesis ...

Personally, I never understood how mental unease can be tackled on the verbal level. Even if your definition of "perseverance", for instance, appears very succinct - there is no way it will mean the same to me in a couple of days, months or even years.

In fact, because of this I constantly have to redefine my mental models to minimize the time I stay passive/goal-less. This may not sound so bad, but it is emotionally rather taxing and I still spend a lot of time down in the dumps.

New comment by cJ0th in "What are your WWDC thoughts?"

cJ0th — Tue, 23 Jun 2020 18:02:12 +0000

pretty microsoft-ish in my opinion.

New comment by cJ0th in "Firefox extensions to make remote work and school a little better"

cJ0th — Thu, 21 May 2020 21:57:32 +0000

Learned about midnight lizard thanks to this post. like it a lot. some websites take a while till they are rendered in midnight mode. However, my laptop is not very powerful.

New comment by cJ0th in "Ask HN: Do you get tired of using your personal laptop sometimes?"

cJ0th — Sat, 16 May 2020 12:49:27 +0000

actually no. in the past it used to be exciting to set up a new laptop and find out the subtle differences to the previous model. Now I am already content if everything stays the same for many years (yes, I run debian).

Ask HN: Is there a search engine which excludes the world's biggest websites?

cJ0th — Sat, 16 May 2020 12:28:36 +0000

Discovering unknown paths of the web seems almost impossible with google et al..

Are there any earch engines which exclude or at least penalize results from, say, top 500 websites?

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23202850

Points: 578

# Comments: 228

New comment by cJ0th in "Xiaomi Recording ‘Private’ Web and Phone Use"

cJ0th — Fri, 01 May 2020 07:56:57 +0000

I use LinageOS myself but I would never use a smartphone for anything related to personal finance.

Without an extensive research project there is no telling what's going on under the hood imho.

New comment by cJ0th in "SoundCloud raises $75M from SiriusXM"

cJ0th — Thu, 13 Feb 2020 18:04:22 +0000

same here. I am gladly donating every year. Today I find hand picked music more valuable than ever.

New comment by cJ0th in " Jimmy Wales has quietly launched a Facebook rival"

cJ0th — Fri, 15 Nov 2019 19:10:38 +0000

i think it could actually work. a couple of messengers (slightly different product but still...) have tried offering good alternatives to whatsapp at a sensible price. It turns out, people aren't motivated to switch even if the price is low.

When you make it expensive, otoh, it feels exclusive. After some reputation is built you can somewhat lower the price and perhaps many people are thrilled that they can join a very exclusive club.

whether this works out remains to be seen. success in this area is hardly likely but I doubt pricing is the determining factor.

New comment by cJ0th in "What randomisation can and cannot do"

cJ0th — Fri, 01 Nov 2019 11:22:00 +0000

What they achieve in the real world is good. But I can't see the scientific merit. Doesn't the actual work lie in making organisations accept change?

New comment by cJ0th in "The Most Intolerant Wins: The Dictatorship of the Small Minority (2015)"

cJ0th — Sun, 01 Sep 2019 15:02:36 +0000

After just reading the linked articles / chapter I was thinking: This is an interesting approach to look at the situation. After reading a couple of posts on this blog I can't shake off the feeling that the objective of his writing is being divisive to sell content.

While his models provide an interesting lens they are applied selectively. Instead of looking at the picture holistically by examining if the mechanism he describes can be found everywhere (e.g. on both sides - and I believe it can), there is one side that has feature x and the other that hasn't.

If you look at the Brexit article in the same blog, he is eager to point out the mistakes of the intellectuals who are against Brexit. But he looses no word about the fallacies that made people actually vote for Brexit.