Hacker News: itchitawa

New comment by itchitawa in "Voynich Manuscript partially decoded, text is not a hoax, scholar finds"

itchitawa — Sat, 22 Feb 2014 01:51:22 +0000

This observation lends weight to my naked women theory. That extravagent P has arms, legs, a head and ... :P

New comment by itchitawa in "Voynich Manuscript partially decoded, text is not a hoax, scholar finds"

itchitawa — Sat, 22 Feb 2014 01:48:38 +0000

Surprising discovery about the Voynich manuscript - it contains hundreds of pictures of naked women, probably outnumbering the pictures of plants. Maybe the focus on botany is misguided!

New comment by itchitawa in "Bitcrypt broken"

itchitawa — Thu, 20 Feb 2014 23:31:47 +0000

Or at least cause you to consider the risk of loss compared to the value of using the software while not panicking when you receive a spam email with a suspicious looking xls file attached.

New comment by itchitawa in "Bitcrypt broken"

itchitawa — Thu, 20 Feb 2014 23:18:40 +0000

Indeed. Or even "don't click on suspicious emails or visit suspicious websites" which are actually always harmless. How about simply "don't run a program you don't trust" and we wouldn't need virus scanners at all.

New comment by itchitawa in "Google Doodle Upholds Gay Rights Ahead of Sochi Olympics"

itchitawa — Fri, 07 Feb 2014 12:10:15 +0000

It helps to highlight our cultural biases. In some cultures pornography is more acceptable than homosexuality. These are just different prejudices that different people hold. It's not obvious which is more right or wrong.

New comment by itchitawa in "Google Doodle Upholds Gay Rights Ahead of Sochi Olympics"

itchitawa — Fri, 07 Feb 2014 11:27:26 +0000

They're probably just trying to be sensitive to their audience and sponsors. Google also censors pornography because a subset of users are offended by it.

New comment by itchitawa in "Twitter's sputtering user growth unnerves investors"

itchitawa — Thu, 06 Feb 2014 01:37:42 +0000

"suburban moms in mid-west buy those stocks" There's no need to blame. Those investors are trying to make free money without doing productive work or even investing in productive companies. They're also the ones who lose the most if it fails so they automatically experience the rewards or blame financially.

New comment by itchitawa in "What Happens When You Drop A Magnet Inside A Copper Tube [video]"

itchitawa — Tue, 04 Feb 2014 03:00:49 +0000

Ha. I did exactly the same thing with a dryer years ago but with a neodymium magnet from a hard drive head actuator.

New comment by itchitawa in "California Pollution: Made in China?"

itchitawa — Thu, 30 Jan 2014 05:45:38 +0000

In other news - China Global Warming: Made in America?

New comment by itchitawa in "Jade Rabbit moon rover may be beyond repair, state media hints"

itchitawa — Mon, 27 Jan 2014 10:11:11 +0000

Industrial interest in the moon is a good thing for the development of space travel and discovering new things. Also, you might find America's human rights abuses to be worse than China's when you count all the imprisoned American people who shouldn't be there and the forced conscription around the time of America's moon missions. America's pollution is certainly worse than China's when summed over the last century.

Low-polluting, low abussing countries like Tuvalu are typically not well equipped to go to the moon.

New comment by itchitawa in "Argentina restricts online shopping as foreign reserves drop"

itchitawa — Wed, 22 Jan 2014 06:09:45 +0000

After a century of failing to manage its economy, Argentina continues to fail to manage its economy.

In other news, water is wet.

New comment by itchitawa in "Snowden-haters are on the wrong side of history"

itchitawa — Tue, 21 Jan 2014 11:15:31 +0000

I don't think this is a valid argument. It seems to be "I'm right because I believe people in the future will agree with me". Maybe so but the author can't know that until the future comes.

New comment by itchitawa in "What The Chinese Tech Industry Is Like"

itchitawa — Mon, 13 Jan 2014 01:43:08 +0000

The same goes for a lot of stats about America. But who notices Israel's massive per capita tech industry?

New comment by itchitawa in "What The Chinese Tech Industry Is Like"

itchitawa — Mon, 13 Jan 2014 01:37:02 +0000

MegaUpload, Silk Road shut down by US government. Piracy, drugs, child porn, online gambling. These are things Americans feel are OK to silence. Inciting violence (they have deadly anti-government riots), destabilizing the government. These are things Chinese feel are OK to silence. Different stokes for different folks. In either case you need enough staff to monitor for such illegal content.

New comment by itchitawa in "At last, a law to stop almost anyone from doing almost anything"

itchitawa — Tue, 07 Jan 2014 11:13:06 +0000

How many people are afraid to walk down a dark alley at night? That's a freedom we should have but plenty of people are forced to get a taxi or stay home because of a real fear of being robbed. I live in a city where it is safe, even for young women alone and I'm amazed when I remember what a restricted life it was in more dangerous, yet more "free" cities. If someone demands money from you in a deserted street, do you have the courage to refuse? If not then you need something, perhaps not these poorly defined laws begging to be abused, but something to protect you from those subtle threats that constantly erode your quality of life.

New comment by itchitawa in "Watch pg write an essay in real time"

itchitawa — Wed, 01 Jan 2014 12:50:46 +0000

Without the link from his own site we can't tell who even claims to have done the typing. Someone who isn't PG may have all sorts of reasons to fake it. Gentle suggestion - if you think the answer to someone's comment is obvious then it's a good sign there's a miscommunication and you should consider other interpretations.

New comment by itchitawa in "Watch pg write an essay in real time"

itchitawa — Wed, 01 Jan 2014 12:43:39 +0000

Thanks. That's an important link to know where it came from.

New comment by itchitawa in "Watch pg write an essay in real time"

itchitawa — Wed, 01 Jan 2014 01:12:20 +0000

Is there a way to verify this is actually Paul Graham writing, not someone else who reenacted it based on the published essay?

New comment by itchitawa in "Citibank India wants credit card, bank account numbers to stop marketing emails"

itchitawa — Sun, 29 Dec 2013 23:57:47 +0000

My bank requires a 4 character password with no letters or special characters! Oh wait, a PIN doesn't count?

New comment by itchitawa in "Bitcoin and positive vs. normative economics"

itchitawa — Sun, 29 Dec 2013 04:53:14 +0000

Nor does glass or plastic-coated aluminium. There are lots of shiny things that people don't want in their jewelry. If diamond were as common and cheap as glass, we'd probably see just as much diamond jewelry as glass. They're not massively "better" at being shiney. Even artificial gems are worth less in than natural ones even if they have fewer defects!