Hacker News: diminoten

New comment by diminoten in "Elinor Ostrom's Principles for Managing a Commons (2011)"

diminoten — Mon, 02 Dec 2019 06:09:06 +0000

HN is a commons, and follows few/none of these principles. This comment, for example, could ungenerously be considered "low effort", but that's because it's easy to dismiss a comment with few characters, so making sure the number of characters written in a comment is long enough to match the magical "not low effort" value that's applied (unevenly, to be clear).

Even trying to talk about this problem leads to censorship on this site.

New comment by diminoten in "PIA VPN to be acquired by malware company founded by former Israeli spy"

diminoten — Mon, 02 Dec 2019 05:17:48 +0000

None of these 3rd party VPNs are really meant to be hardened against state sponsored attacks, at least I wouldn't think myself secure from that level of sophistication. They're basically most valuable to mess around against adversaries that have little to no access to security resources, like your average ISP or forum moderator.

New comment by diminoten in "Features of a successful therapeutic fast of 382 days' duration (1973) [pdf]"

diminoten — Mon, 02 Dec 2019 01:15:16 +0000

I'm not you; I don't need the kind of help navigating the Internet that you do, and it's condescending as hell, writing what you're writing. You have zero clue what my mental state is, please don't presume to know how I'm feeling.

And no, I didn't misdirect my comment; you said my comment came across one way, and I replied to that. You are, again, not an objective arbiter of intent, and again, please stop trying to be.

New comment by diminoten in "Features of a successful therapeutic fast of 382 days' duration (1973) [pdf]"

diminoten — Mon, 02 Dec 2019 00:39:54 +0000

I did write what I meant; there's simply no way, on average, fasting has zero negative side effects. That's what I wrote. The fact that you or others couldn't navigate your way to that conclusion is on you, not me.

And I did want to come across as sarcastic and condescending because it's frankly insulting to others when you claim such outrageous and wrong nonsense on the internet. You deserve sarcasm and negativity if you bring idiocy to a reasonable conversation.

New comment by diminoten in "Psilocybin for major depression granted Breakthrough Therapy by FDA"

diminoten — Sun, 01 Dec 2019 08:11:30 +0000

My emphasis is on the word "risk" (captured in the literal words "most likely"). It's risky to go without a guide, though it's not "needed" in the sense of a 100% failure rate.

Honestly, the fact that you assumed others were talking about "have a guide or 100% failure" is disingenuous on your part.

New comment by diminoten in "Features of a successful therapeutic fast of 382 days' duration (1973) [pdf]"

diminoten — Sun, 01 Dec 2019 08:04:29 +0000

What you've written here sounds a lot like the utter pablum that comes from the marketing literature of every fad diet on this planet. Besides, how CEOs behave and what is sane are not overlapping circles if you're trying to draw a Venn diagram relating the two...

New comment by diminoten in "Sherlock: Find usernames across social networks"

diminoten — Sun, 01 Dec 2019 04:14:58 +0000

Sorry, but what people expect doesn't matter. What is true is that digital identities are intrinsically linked between sites where the same username is used.

You can't hide behind, "but no one expected that" and expect to live a happy, unsurprising life. There is no law you can pass that will fix this, no matter how much you complain.

New comment by diminoten in "Features of a successful therapeutic fast of 382 days' duration (1973) [pdf]"

diminoten — Sun, 01 Dec 2019 04:12:37 +0000

In no way is fasting healthy for you if you rely on having energy, focus, or any ability to function as an independent adult while fasting for more than a day or so at most.

New comment by diminoten in "Filesystem devs should aim to make “badly written” app code “just work” (2009)"

diminoten — Sun, 01 Dec 2019 04:09:58 +0000

It's easy to pretend that "badly written" code is intentional or desirable, because then when we write it, we can excuse ourselves by saying, "BUT IT WORKS!"

That's why this idea is popular, and your comment is controversial. You're taking away a crutch that many of our peers cling desperately to as a way to justify their shortcuts and poor decision making.

New comment by diminoten in "Psilocybin for major depression granted Breakthrough Therapy by FDA"

diminoten — Wed, 27 Nov 2019 06:51:39 +0000

So if I found any evidence at all, you'd agree you were wrong? Seems pretty strong if a stance to take...

New comment by diminoten in "Psilocybin for major depression granted Breakthrough Therapy by FDA"

diminoten — Tue, 26 Nov 2019 18:19:43 +0000

Enthusiast communities are probably not the most objective group of folks, so I'd take what they have to say with a grain of salt.

New comment by diminoten in "Vinod Khosla Wins Ruling Threatening Public Beach Access"

diminoten — Tue, 26 Nov 2019 17:59:03 +0000

I'd bet literally tens of dollars it has no material impact on his fund.

New comment by diminoten in "Psilocybin for major depression granted Breakthrough Therapy by FDA"

diminoten — Tue, 26 Nov 2019 17:33:18 +0000

The point is they do something, but for that something to be most likely good/positive, you also need therapy, which if you want, you can interpret as a "trip sitter" or whatever the phrase is.

Y'all aren't disagreeing.

New comment by diminoten in "The California DMV Is Selling Drivers’ Personal Information"

diminoten — Tue, 26 Nov 2019 01:30:43 +0000

Can one submit a FOIA request, load that data into a database, and sell that data to others?

Why do companies pay the DMV for this information if they can just FOIA it from them for free?

New comment by diminoten in "A new treatment promises to make little people taller"

diminoten — Mon, 25 Nov 2019 23:27:11 +0000

I hope soon, that's so cool!

New comment by diminoten in "If you care about user privacy, don’t use Facebook JavaScript SDK"

diminoten — Mon, 25 Nov 2019 17:35:00 +0000

You can choose to load the SDK or not, e.g. only when the "Log In With Facebook" button is pushed.

New comment by diminoten in "If you care about user privacy, don’t use Facebook JavaScript SDK"

diminoten — Mon, 25 Nov 2019 17:22:09 +0000

"They are not the same company" is, while true, not a guess. Come on, take a real guess! When was the last time Zuck spoke at YC? When was the last time YC worked with Facebook? How many of the folks at YC either come directly from Facebook or have invested in Facebook at one time?

Your hands aren't clean here, if you actually cared about avoiding Facebook at all costs, you wouldn't be here. The fact is, you don't (nor should you).

New comment by diminoten in "If you care about user privacy, don’t use Facebook JavaScript SDK"

diminoten — Mon, 25 Nov 2019 17:22:06 +0000

"Don't use" and "only use for people who actively opt-in" are two separate things, so no it doesn't come down to what you care about.

I'm saying give people choice, let them figure out what they care about. Making the choice for them is bad business and bad ethics. You don't know better than your users.

New comment by diminoten in "If you care about user privacy, don’t use Facebook JavaScript SDK"

diminoten — Mon, 25 Nov 2019 17:22:04 +0000

Given a person who doesn't like their nose, should it be okay to provide cosmetic surgery to that person, despite the risks any surgery comes with? If the patient doesn't care, is it ok then?

Given a person who wants to jump out of a plane, should it be okay to let them, even though it's a relatively high-risk activity? If the jumper doesn't care, is it ok then?

Given a person who wants to run for national public office, should it be okay for them to release their prior year tax returns, even though it's an exposure of their privacy? If the candidate doesn't care, is it ok then?

Turns out, this isn't an easy game to play, so stop trying to decide for others what they want for themselves. You don't know their situation.

New comment by diminoten in "If you care about user privacy, don’t use Facebook JavaScript SDK"

diminoten — Mon, 25 Nov 2019 17:22:00 +0000

The same way a trainer or doctor frames the health risks involved; you explain it and hope people are listening.

Signing in via Facebook is also a deliberate choice.