Hacker News: kenj0418

New comment by kenj0418 in "T-Mobile is writing the manual on how to fuck up the internet"

kenj0418 — Tue, 10 Nov 2015 22:31:29 +0000

I agree with the difference between land-line and mobile providers. If a provider has the benefit of monopoly control of a wire into my house (or some other government-enforced monopoly), then net-neutrality should be part of the price they have to pay for that.

But if it's like mobile and I can switch to any other provider I want, then let the market work instead.

New comment by kenj0418 in "Rent-Stabilized Housing Is Disappearing Fast in NYC"

kenj0418 — Fri, 31 Jul 2015 19:13:55 +0000

Assuming that you want to allow poor people to live in an area that they couldn't otherwise afford, why are price controls used instead of directly subsidizing housing costs for those with lower income.

It seems like the direct subsidy would have a less distorting effect on the market.

New comment by kenj0418 in "A Response to Your Petition on Edward Snowden"

kenj0418 — Tue, 28 Jul 2015 14:35:33 +0000

He would almost certainly be put in jail as soon as he stepped foot on American Soil. In most circumstances someone could make bail awaiting trial, but considering that he'd been hiding in another country (and the government would argue that he might run off again) it would be very doubtful for him.

But then they would have a trial. It would likely take a very long time (and he would likely be in jail during it).

The term 'jury of his peers' means regular American citizens (not judges or other government officials). Sadly, the government has done a good job of convincing many people that all their spying on us is for our own safety. They'd just need to work to get 12 people that believed that (while Snowden's attorney's would work to get at least one that didn't). Though anyone that already (openly) had an opinion on his guilt or innocence wouldn't be allowed on the jury.

(note: this is assuming a civilian trial. I think they'd have a very hard time trying to give Snowden some sort of military tribunal)

New comment by kenj0418 in "Stephen Hawking and Yuri Milner Announce $100M Initiative to Seek ET"

kenj0418 — Mon, 20 Jul 2015 14:39:11 +0000

I wouldn't think those would be noticeable unless you were already closely observing the earth.

I'm not a physicist, but I assume there isn't any detectable, unique signature of an explosion that can be detected from space. Stories I've read about test-ban treaties and non-proliferation efforts give the main mechanism for detecting tests are the seismic effects they have.

New comment by kenj0418 in "New Letters Added to the Genetic Alphabet"

kenj0418 — Fri, 10 Jul 2015 17:19:27 +0000

18 years ago, and I just now realized the title was chosen because they are all DNA letters.

New comment by kenj0418 in "“Cheating teachers go to jail. Cheating Wall Streeters don’t. What’s up?”"

kenj0418 — Thu, 23 Apr 2015 19:35:05 +0000

> You know who never goes to jail? Regulators.

Nor should they unless they were colluding with him or accepting bribes.

The punishment for just being bad at your job should be getting fired, not jail. Of course, I doubt many lost their job either.

New comment by kenj0418 in "If 1+x is 1, how much is 1-x?"

kenj0418 — Tue, 21 Apr 2015 20:57:26 +0000

> design a library providing arbitrary precision "computable numbers"

I believe they call those "programming languages"

New comment by kenj0418 in "Why the sun is a poor dumping ground for nuclear waste (2010)"

kenj0418 — Mon, 13 Apr 2015 21:55:27 +0000

Simple: Just invent a rocket that runs on nuclear waste. Then you have all the fuel you need to get the rocket there. (joking)

New comment by kenj0418 in "Netflix algorithm tells you when your best employee is about to leave you"

kenj0418 — Thu, 09 Apr 2015 14:38:33 +0000

What I expected:

if ( isEmployeeWatchingNetflixAtWorkAllDay() ) { employeeIsAboutToLeave(); }

New comment by kenj0418 in "10%? 20%? Apps Are Changing How We Tip"

kenj0418 — Mon, 30 Mar 2015 14:00:40 +0000

Watch out, there's also an unwritten rule that forbids commenting on the unwritten rules. Wait... Uh Oh, now I've broken it too.

New comment by kenj0418 in "Toxoplasma Could Manipulate Our Behavior"

kenj0418 — Thu, 26 Mar 2015 17:06:37 +0000

> Instead of smelling danger, the rats smell love.

The story of my life.

New comment by kenj0418 in "Disproportionately Common Names by Profession"

kenj0418 — Tue, 13 Jan 2015 17:40:47 +0000

Kurt and Jessica just had a lot of time on their hands.

New comment by kenj0418 in "Millions of Americans Get Wages Garnished Over Credit Card Debt"

kenj0418 — Mon, 15 Sep 2014 14:18:40 +0000

- Option 1: Avoid getting into debt

- Option 2: Pay your bills on time

- Option 3: File Bankruptcy

If you haven't taken option 1 or option 2 and you start getting court notices - then it's time to start talking to someone about option 3.

New comment by kenj0418 in "Amazon Fire Phone is now 99¢ with a 2-year contract"

kenj0418 — Mon, 08 Sep 2014 17:54:46 +0000

So about $600.99 then? What a bargain. The $449 price is cheaper than that. (Assuming you are on AT&Ts more recent plans where they charge you $25 more for having a subsidized, on-contract phone.)

New comment by kenj0418 in "How ACH works: A developer perspective – Part 4"

kenj0418 — Fri, 05 Sep 2014 19:50:39 +0000

Can anyone in the banking industry explain why there is no security on ACH similar to how there is for credit cards?

20 years ago when I first wrote a program to generate ACH files it struck me as crazy that all that was needed to take money from someones account (given an existing ACH relationship with a bank to send the file in the first place) was an individual's bank's public routing number and the individual's personal checking account number - both of which were at the bottom of every check they write.

I get that fraudulent charges can be reversed, but that's also true on credit cards - so why the lower security on ACH?

New comment by kenj0418 in "TrueCrypt Master Key Extraction And Volume Identification"

kenj0418 — Wed, 15 Jan 2014 17:45:29 +0000

TrueCrypt offers a volume-within-a-volume option. The free space of a volume normally contains random data, and the hidden volume is presumably headerless. The idea is then to put something that you might want to hide in the outer volume (freaky porn, for example), then put your actual secrets (evidence of your criminal enterprise, for example) in the hidden volume. If forced to disclose the password, then only the outer volume is apparent and you can disclose that under duress.

New comment by kenj0418 in "As Feds Demand the Keys, Preparing for the Death of Public-Key Encryption"

kenj0418 — Thu, 25 Jul 2013 14:16:32 +0000

"full of people" being the operative phrase here. People with power tend to abuse that power. This is human nature, and this is where distrust of government comes from.

People work in their own interest (however they may define that). Working in the interests of those that elect them is just a hopeful side effect of the democratic process.

New comment by kenj0418 in "In America, Where You're Born Is Correlated With How Far You'll Go In Life"

kenj0418 — Mon, 22 Jul 2013 17:52:54 +0000

Well, I thank my mother all the time for moving north several years before I was born.

But I'm pretty sure the comment was referring to "Children in homes containing books display intelligence at elevated rates" not the overall article.

New comment by kenj0418 in "Cosmologist claims Universe may not be expanding"

kenj0418 — Wed, 17 Jul 2013 17:08:49 +0000

My cosmetologist told me I was gaining mass too. She recommended a diet though - not further research.

New comment by kenj0418 in "NSA revelations only 'the tip of the iceberg,' says Dem lawmaker"

kenj0418 — Thu, 13 Jun 2013 16:51:35 +0000

Assuming they are reading it from the floor of the House (or Senate), it does protect them from being prosecuted: "and for any Speech or Debate in either House, they shall not be questioned in any other Place."

They would be subject to whatever punishments their fellow Representatives (or Senators) decided to impose (including possibly expulsion).