Hacker News: iacvlvs

New comment by iacvlvs in "How to found a company in Germany: 14 "easy" steps and lots of pain"

iacvlvs — Mon, 08 Apr 2024 11:58:41 +0000

Why?

There’s always a lot of hand-wringing and FUD around giving people ID numbers, but never a coherent rational argument. What makes it a big brother nightmare for all humans?

New comment by iacvlvs in "Anatomy of a credit card rewards program"

iacvlvs — Thu, 04 Apr 2024 18:03:15 +0000

I assume it’s a simple accidental transposition of “case in point”, an instance or example that supports, or is relevant or pertinent to, what is being discussed.

https://www.merriam-webster.com/wordplay/usage-of-case-in-po...

New comment by iacvlvs in "Companies embracing SMS for account logins should be blamed for SIM-swap attacks"

iacvlvs — Tue, 06 Feb 2024 06:31:03 +0000

I use 1password with Fastmail integration to create unique email addresses for each login. This new “sipping from thimbles” approach to authentication breaks that because iOS and/or 1pass don’t recognise it as a login until the password screen, so I’m swapping and searching and copying and pasting just to log in. I viscerally hate that sort of user hostile design of the auth/login.

New comment by iacvlvs in "‘Broken’ solar panels manufactured to deter criminals in South Africa"

iacvlvs — Tue, 22 Aug 2023 19:06:53 +0000

South Africa’s violent crime problem isn’t despite its wealth, it’s because of the wealth and, crucially, the inequality in its distribution. Higher inequality is associated with higher crime and lower social trust.

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-020-80897-8

New comment by iacvlvs in "Police sue rapper Afroman for using footage of home raid in his music videos"

iacvlvs — Fri, 24 Mar 2023 08:19:40 +0000

In many police departments in the US the problem is essentially that there are so many bad apples that every good apple that comes is spoiled or cannot do good. This can only be changed be decisive action from the top.

How many bad apples does it take, to spoil the whole barrel?

I'm not disagreeing with the comment I'm replying to, just trying to challenge the perception that there's anything ok with "just" a few bad apples. The acceptable number of bad apples is zero.

New comment by iacvlvs in "'Securing Open Source Software Act' introduced to US Senate"

iacvlvs — Fri, 23 Sep 2022 23:09:57 +0000

> Debian doesn't ask people before including their packages, and ex. nixos pulls directly from those "non-distribution" channels.

Then Debian (or NixOS) are publishing the code for distribution, and Debian (or NixOS) should be morally obligated to do the bare minimum to make the code acceptable for others to use.

New comment by iacvlvs in "Responding to recruiter emails with GPT-3"

iacvlvs — Fri, 02 Sep 2022 07:36:52 +0000

https://index.medium.com/career-advice-nobody-gave-me-never-...

New comment by iacvlvs in "Civet coffee: why it's time to cut the crap"

iacvlvs — Sat, 14 Sep 2013 22:47:27 +0000

It is fundamental to all markets in the real world. It is also a defining trait of the platonic ideal of a free market, and one of the reasons why the platonic ideal absolute free market is unrealisable. Markets can be more or less free, but never entirely so. Regulation by non-market forces is one way that markets are made less free. Such regulation is often intended to counteract or offset other things that make the market in question less free.

New comment by iacvlvs in "Civet coffee: why it's time to cut the crap"

iacvlvs — Sat, 14 Sep 2013 21:02:48 +0000

There is no true free market in the world. One of the defining characteristics of a free market is perfect information. This is one of the downsides of market imperfections.

New comment by iacvlvs in "Stealth Wear Aims to Make a Tech Statement"

iacvlvs — Mon, 01 Jul 2013 10:32:54 +0000

From TFA: "In theory, this limits one’s visibility to aerial surveillance vehicles employing heat-imaging cameras to track people on the ground."

New comment by iacvlvs in "PRISM kills the cloud"

iacvlvs — Tue, 11 Jun 2013 09:36:23 +0000

I agree with the point you are making. In the spirit of agreement, I would suggest that the right question is "what is it about your relative's blood test that you specifically want to bring to the attention of the NSA, government, contractors, and lobbyists."

Privacy should be the default state and expectation, and disclosure should be by exception when necessary, for exactly the reasons outlined in your post. The argument that privacy only matters if you have something to hide conceals a number of assumptions, and misses the fact that one doesn't know what one might one day wish one had hidden.

New comment by iacvlvs in "US Government Takes Down 3D Printed Gun Plans"

iacvlvs — Fri, 10 May 2013 11:49:35 +0000

"When the people fear their government, there is tyranny; when the government fears the people, there is liberty."

New comment by iacvlvs in "Back up your precious files on ordinary paper"

iacvlvs — Tue, 14 Aug 2012 07:25:28 +0000

Would turning your computer off, help? I can see it helping for normal EM interference, but in an apocalyptic EM pulses scenario I thought the induced current would be enough to damage components.

New comment by iacvlvs in "Drug resistant malaria takes new ground, raising fears of global spread"

iacvlvs — Fri, 23 Mar 2012 08:05:01 +0000

We're already working on a mosquito genocide solution. Ever since the Nature article ( http://www.nature.com/news/2010/100721/full/466432a.html ) about how the ecosystem would be fine without mosquitoes I've seen a number of mosquito genocide solutions that just yell "mad scientist".

We're using lasers http://www.physorg.com/news185463943.html

We're using smelly socks http://www.popsci.com/science/article/2011-07/sock-science-f...

We're tricking them into drinking poison http://www.nytimes.com/2011/09/27/health/27mosquito.html

We're even genetically engineering them to self destruct http://gizmodo.com/5852703/mosquitoes-genetically+engineered...

It's a bad time to be a mosquito.

(Also, I think this is how a Starship Troopers / Ender's Game scenario starts.)

New comment by iacvlvs in "Notch gives his $3,000,000 Minecraft dividend to his employees"

iacvlvs — Fri, 02 Mar 2012 11:00:24 +0000

iirc, Steve Wozniak did something similar: when Apple went public without giving anything to the early employees, Woz basically gave/sold (cheaply) them stock from his own holdings.

New comment by iacvlvs in "Sony Finally Fully Unveils Its Android Tabs, The Sony S and P"

iacvlvs — Wed, 31 Aug 2011 18:27:26 +0000

It's so good to know I'm not the only one still boycotting them! I was actually starting to reconsider it when the GeoHot thing happened and renewed my resolve. In this case, I don't think we're missing out on anything: if their Android tablets are anything like their Android phones they're going to be locked down to the point of uselessness and crammed to the rafters with proprietary rubbish.

New comment by iacvlvs in "Why is there only one human species?"

iacvlvs — Thu, 23 Jun 2011 10:34:39 +0000

If we killed off other humanlike species because they terrified us, wouldn't we have also killed off other species that terrify us, like snakes, rats, cockroaches and spiders?

I can't find a reference right now but I remember reading somewhere that European Homo Sapiens contain genetic evidence of interbreeding with Neanderthals, and Asian Homo Sapiens contain genetic evidence of a second, later round of more interbreeding with Neanderthals. I think that suggests we didn't find them all that horrifying :)

New comment by iacvlvs in "Why is there only one human species?"

iacvlvs — Thu, 23 Jun 2011 10:30:04 +0000

And hobbits! The BBC article Homo Floresiensis. From Wikipedia ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Homo_floresiensis )

Homo floresiensis ("Flores Man", nicknamed "hobbit") is a possible species, now extinct, in the genus Homo

New comment by iacvlvs in "Why is JSON so popular? Developers want out of the syntax business"

iacvlvs — Thu, 23 Jun 2011 03:43:06 +0000

I've worked with worse:

  
    
      
        John
        Smith
      
      
        123 Some Street
        Blah
        Blah
        Blah

... and so on. I can't think of any advantage to (or excuse for) doing it this way. The only possible reason for it that I can think of, is rather comprehensive ignorance of how XML and related standards work.

New comment by iacvlvs in "Human eye protein senses Earth's magnetism"

iacvlvs — Thu, 23 Jun 2011 03:31:52 +0000

I know the opposite has been done, on a grand scale. A group of residents in a local suburb were complaining that a iBurst's (a local wisp) newly erected tower was causing headaches, nausea, tinnitus, dry burning itchy skins, totally disrupted sleep patterns, gastric imbalances and bouts of nausea and retching. They claimed that for these symptoms to subside took up to six weeks away from the broadcasting tower. At a meeting where concerns residents confirmed they were still experiencing symptoms. iBurst then revealed they had shut down the tower more than six weeks earlier. Unfortunately, if you're hoping to cure a psychosomatic illness, evidence alone just won't do it. Last I heard, residents were looking at a solution through the Department of Environmental Affairs. Full story at http://goo.gl/8UxNI