Hacker News: curlypaul924

New comment by curlypaul924 in "Mold: A Modern Linker"

curlypaul924 — Tue, 23 Feb 2021 10:10:55 +0000

It would likely get shortened to emu, and then we would all be wondering if it's an emulator or a large bird.

New comment by curlypaul924 in "Mold: A Modern Linker"

curlypaul924 — Tue, 23 Feb 2021 10:08:47 +0000

How interesting. Doesn't the fungus get its name from the oxidized metal though and not the other way around? Mold the form and mold the fungus seem etymologically unrelated, however.

New comment by curlypaul924 in "NASA releases new 3-minute video of rover Perseverance landing on Mars"

curlypaul924 — Mon, 22 Feb 2021 21:58:40 +0000

The Perseverance team is also hosting an AMA today (https://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/lpzbzo/were_scientist...). We live in exciting times.

New comment by curlypaul924 in "YouTube blocked chess channel after mistaken detection of racial slurs"

curlypaul924 — Mon, 22 Feb 2021 21:48:23 +0000

Please do not misconstrue what I have said. The term "oreo" has a long history of being used as a racist epithet. There is nothing wrong with using it as an analogy, but in a discussion on racism, it might be better to pick a cookie with a similar color scheme that does not already have racist connotations, such as a Moon Pie. You are, of course, free to use whatever analogy you feel best expresses your point.

New comment by curlypaul924 in "Opinion: We’ll Have Herd Immunity by April"

curlypaul924 — Mon, 22 Feb 2021 15:36:41 +0000

> I think this is only because it was contained in China before it reached the world

Is this true? According to the CDC, there were SARS cases reported in Europe and the Americas prior to containment in China. Why was it different this time around?

New comment by curlypaul924 in "Nuklear: A cross-platform GUI library in C"

curlypaul924 — Mon, 22 Feb 2021 14:25:00 +0000

What makes a toolkit accessibility-aware? Is it not enough to support native widgets?

New comment by curlypaul924 in "Nuklear: A cross-platform GUI library in C"

curlypaul924 — Mon, 22 Feb 2021 14:08:17 +0000

It absolutely can be a legal requirement, though I am not arguing that it should be one. I was specifically addressing the comment "I don't think people who need a screen reader are going to be playing a twitch-reaction shooter game." Apologies for being unclear.

New comment by curlypaul924 in "Nuklear: A cross-platform GUI library in C"

curlypaul924 — Mon, 22 Feb 2021 11:28:47 +0000

I would think the same thing, but playing video games blindfolded is a thing. Look up ponktus Super Metroid 100% blindfolded and zallard1/sinister1 2p1c blindfolded Punchout for examples.

If it's possible for someone to beat these games blindfolded (at a competitive pace, no less!), then it's possible for a blind person to beat it too.

The old consoles didn't have screen readers, but watching zallard1 play Wii Punchout blindfolded, I can see where they would help. Amazing fights, yet painful to watch when using the menu system.

New comment by curlypaul924 in "YouTube blocked chess channel after mistaken detection of racial slurs"

curlypaul924 — Mon, 22 Feb 2021 09:27:37 +0000

The oreo itself may not be racist, but it most definitely is associated with racism because of its colors. So I would caution you in using it as an analogy; it may be why your post was flagged.

New comment by curlypaul924 in "YouTube blocked chess channel after mistaken detection of racial slurs"

curlypaul924 — Mon, 22 Feb 2021 09:12:13 +0000

> Either they automate removing content and end up removing some of the good with the mountains of bad, or they do it manually which costs a fortune and is too slow.

I think this is a false dichotomy; they could automate flagging for human review instead. This would address the cost though not the speed.

Content awaiting review could be disabled, or it could be disabled only if it is deemed sufficiently egregious.

New comment by curlypaul924 in "YouTube blocked chess channel after mistaken detection of racial slurs"

curlypaul924 — Mon, 22 Feb 2021 03:12:09 +0000

Yes, master could mean master copy, but that analogy falls apart quickly. Obviously it's not master/slave (I don't even know what a slave branch would mean). But that doesn't mean it's a good name. And not being a good name doesn't mean we should change it everywhere (because change has a cost that must be weighed).

New comment by curlypaul924 in "YouTube blocked chess channel after mistaken detection of racial slurs"

curlypaul924 — Mon, 22 Feb 2021 03:05:09 +0000

Of those, I've heard of white hats, but I've not heard of white markets or white sites.

If it had been black list and green list, I'm not sure anyone would have made a racial connection.

New comment by curlypaul924 in "YouTube blocked chess channel after mistaken detection of racial slurs"

curlypaul924 — Mon, 22 Feb 2021 03:00:19 +0000

Blocklist to me means a list of blocks, like blocks on a disk. I am not a fan of using it as a replacement for blacklist.

I am in favor of denylist, though. I have never liked blacklist as far as I remember. I could never remember whether black means let it through or stop it.

I get similarly confused with "in the red" and "in the black" - which one means I'm losing money?

Don't even get me started on the CIA's black phones (which are green) and red phones (which are black). At least I think I got that right.

Colors are not a good way to name things.

New comment by curlypaul924 in "Statement on New York Times Article"

curlypaul924 — Mon, 15 Feb 2021 08:42:28 +0000

Christians like to think of ourselves as less degraded than our neighbors, rather than less evolved. It amounts to the same thing in the end - a false superiority.

New comment by curlypaul924 in "Statement on New York Times Article"

curlypaul924 — Sun, 14 Feb 2021 15:15:54 +0000

I get the same feeling. Is there any way we can isolate the underlying cause? Maybe then it would be possible to change things for the better.

New comment by curlypaul924 in "Statement on New York Times Article"

curlypaul924 — Sun, 14 Feb 2021 15:13:09 +0000

I avoid both NYT and Fox, because it's too much effort to fact check every detail of every article I read. Both have too high an error-to-fact ratio IMO. That sort of thing has a way of affecting one's thought.

New comment by curlypaul924 in "Statement on New York Times Article"

curlypaul924 — Sun, 14 Feb 2021 14:21:21 +0000

(To clarify, I'm not suggesting Wikipedia is a good source of medical information -- it's not. Often I find articles say one thing and the citation says the opposite. But in spite of that, it's a much better starting point than webmd, in my non-expert opinion).

New comment by curlypaul924 in "Statement on New York Times Article"

curlypaul924 — Sun, 14 Feb 2021 14:18:55 +0000

I don't have any specifics handy, but over the years I've found a lot of information on webmd that is plainly false. Maybe it's better now, but I have been ignoring it for years and encouraging friends and family to do the same. Even Wikipedia, for all its flaws, is a better source of medical information.

New comment by curlypaul924 in "How did things get this bad? The Axioms of linking (2019)"

curlypaul924 — Mon, 08 Feb 2021 01:56:33 +0000

The main reason IME for a header-only C++ library is that when it is template-heavy (as a lot of C++ code is these days), a lot of it ends up in headers anyway, so it's not a big leap to header-only.

I've never seen a widely used header-only C Lucas library, and while it wouldn't surprise me, it seems harder to justify.

New comment by curlypaul924 in "The war on disinformation is a war on dissent"

curlypaul924 — Sun, 07 Feb 2021 16:47:15 +0000

I've done that and the only general news source I have left is NPR. I think I'm foolish to have all my eggs in one basket, but I can't find any other baskets that aren't broken.