Hacker News: robonerd

New comment by robonerd in "Playstation Store removes Studiocanal movies, no refunds offered"

robonerd — Thu, 07 Jul 2022 11:38:15 +0000

You're asking me why I'm not kind to somebody who has fallen for / is shilling for an absurd scam? I slam the door on Jehovah Witnesses too.

New comment by robonerd in "Playstation Store removes Studiocanal movies, no refunds offered"

robonerd — Thu, 07 Jul 2022 08:21:34 +0000

It's as old as law itself, isn't it? From the Code of Hammurabi (translation from wikipedia):

> If a merchant should give silver to a trading agent for an investment venture, and he [the trading agent] incurs a loss on his journeys, he shall return silver to the merchant in the amount of the capital sum.

Not quite applicable, but kind of? If I give silver to Sony for a movie and Sony loses the rights to that movie, I want my damn silver back.

New comment by robonerd in "Space Force launches new intelligence unit: Congress voices concerns over growth"

robonerd — Thu, 07 Jul 2022 08:07:06 +0000

Well if that was throwntoday's point, it's a distinction without a difference. The Korean War particularly, despite not being officially declared as a war, came disturbingly close to going nuclear.

New comment by robonerd in "Playstation Store removes Studiocanal movies, no refunds offered"

robonerd — Thu, 07 Jul 2022 07:59:52 +0000

Decriminalize piracy for natural persons (not corporations.)

New comment by robonerd in "Playstation Store removes Studiocanal movies, no refunds offered"

robonerd — Thu, 07 Jul 2022 07:43:44 +0000

How do otherwise intelligent people come to believe things this stupid? An NFT is a glorified receipt, the most it can possibly do is prove you purchased something but you can already do that with regular fucking receipts and credit card statements.

Seriously, I want to know. How did this happen to you? Was your common sense dazzled by math?

New comment by robonerd in "Space Force launches new intelligence unit: Congress voices concerns over growth"

robonerd — Thu, 07 Jul 2022 06:36:30 +0000

I thought this "end of history" narrative would be dead by now. It's incredibly naive to think that major wars are a thing of the past. The trade/commerce argument against the political viability of war has been made and debunked in the past. WWI should have been the nail in that coffin but I guess the idea is too appealing to give up.

> In The Great Illusion, Angell's primary thesis was, in the words of historian James Joll, that "the economic cost of war was so great that no one could possibly hope to gain by starting a war the consequences of which would be so disastrous."[4] For that reason, a general European war was very unlikely to start, and if it did, it would not last long.

Published in 1909. Yeah..

New comment by robonerd in "Space Force launches new intelligence unit: Congress voices concerns over growth"

robonerd — Thu, 07 Jul 2022 06:32:08 +0000

> GPS is probably the only useful satellite for the majority of the world,

Synthetic aperture radar is incredibly useful to the military [and generally.]

New comment by robonerd in "Boost-Phase Missile Defense: Interrogating the Assumptions"

robonerd — Thu, 07 Jul 2022 06:08:21 +0000

OP link is a video of a discussion panel about a report which you can download a PDF of here: https://www.csis.org/analysis/boost-phase-missile-defense

The TL;DW/TL;DR is that boost-phase missile defense, deemed infeasible years ago, may now be practical thanks to advances in technology (rockets, electronics and sensors, lasers, etc)

Boost-Phase Missile Defense: Interrogating the Assumptions

robonerd — Thu, 07 Jul 2022 06:06:14 +0000

Article URL: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zaBiv6r_Xz8

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=32010459

Points: 1

# Comments: 1

New comment by robonerd in "Space Force launches new intelligence unit: Congress voices concerns over growth"

robonerd — Thu, 07 Jul 2022 06:02:52 +0000

In the context of fighting a war, Kessler Syndrome is a meme. It reduces the expected lifespan of a satellite, but that only becomes strategically relevant if the new lifespan of your satellites is shorter than the war is expected to last and satellites are being destroyed faster than they can be replenished. America is rapidly developing the ability to launch a ton of new satellites very quickly.

Of course the post-war aftermath would be deeply regrettable. But it always is.

New comment by robonerd in "Space Force launches new intelligence unit: Congress voices concerns over growth"

robonerd — Thu, 07 Jul 2022 05:27:46 +0000

An attack 80+ years ago does not underscore the need for any reform today, nor for that matter does an attack 20+ years ago. Not unless you think nothing has changed between then and now, which would be silly. Introspection and reform after both those attacks happened years ago. It may be the case that we do need additional reform today, but that isn't evidenced by attacks which occurred generation[s] ago.

New comment by robonerd in "Why isn't the internet more fun and weird? (2019)"

robonerd — Wed, 06 Jul 2022 23:02:52 +0000

This site is excellent, worth a submission of its own.

New comment by robonerd in "Why isn't the internet more fun and weird? (2019)"

robonerd — Wed, 06 Jul 2022 22:58:51 +0000

Maybe Gopher or one of those similar inspired projects is the future after all. Too weird for mass appeal.

New comment by robonerd in "Emacs’s Builtin Elisp Cheat Sheet"

robonerd — Wed, 06 Jul 2022 22:54:31 +0000

evil-mode

In other applications I mostly avoid the ctrl-v/ctrl-c and use X's highlighting and middleclicking system instead. When those aren't available, I actually prefer context menu copy/paste entries to the CUA shortcuts.

New comment by robonerd in "Why isn't the internet more fun and weird? (2019)"

robonerd — Wed, 06 Jul 2022 22:53:31 +0000

TikTok used to suggest all sorts of long-form articles. Tiktok is all short-form video; a bunch of vapid trash.

New comment by robonerd in "Clint Eastwood Made Carmel Safe for Ice Cream"

robonerd — Wed, 06 Jul 2022 19:59:41 +0000

Local newspapers don't need cookies to sell ads.

New comment by robonerd in "Clint Eastwood Made Carmel Safe for Ice Cream"

robonerd — Wed, 06 Jul 2022 19:57:53 +0000

> a rule stating that all takeout food must be packaged or covered

> On May 6, 1986 Carmel City Council passed a resolution to enable a rewrite of the ordinance related to eating places and takeout food and make said ordinance more friendly toward ice cream parlors. The new language made eating establishments that “primarily serve frozen desserts” their own category

So they solved this inane takeout ordinance by exempting frozen desserts. I guess takeout hotdogs, pretzels, etc are still required to be sold with excessive packaging. Or perhaps a little paper dish for a hotdog is sufficient packaging? Could they have sold icecream cones if they put the cone into a paper sleeve?

Some of the things small towns see fit to regulate give an undue bad name to all government regulation.

New comment by robonerd in "Ask HN: Why do I struggle to follow corporate meetings?"

robonerd — Wed, 06 Jul 2022 19:40:04 +0000

You have a soul. That's a handicap if you want to keep up with bureaucratic bullshitting.

New comment by robonerd in "Emacs’s Builtin Elisp Cheat Sheet"

robonerd — Wed, 06 Jul 2022 19:35:19 +0000

Evil-mode is incredible, for me Emacs with evil is the best vi-derived editor in the world, beating neovim and vim by miles. But as an ex-Vim user and fairly recent Emacs convert I feel like a guest in a clubhouse full of old timers. It wouldn't be right for me to swagger around their domain, demanding they change things up to accommodate me. Evil mode is already a much warmer welcome than I'm entitled to, so what if it takes a line or two to configure? I'm very grateful to have what I have now, I don't need or want Emacs defaults changed.

New comment by robonerd in "Emacs’s Builtin Elisp Cheat Sheet"

robonerd — Wed, 06 Jul 2022 19:30:43 +0000

> But Emacs predates CUA by a couple of decades

Only a couple of years if you're taking GNU Emacs specifically. About one decade if you're talking about editor macros for TECO.