Hacker News: stvltvs

New comment by stvltvs in "It's time Amazon played by the same rules as everyone else [video]"

stvltvs — Tue, 11 Aug 2026 18:03:29 +0000

Are these really local businesses or are they employees forced to take on liability as a condition of employment? Tech has been mislabeling employees as independent contractors for years.

New comment by stvltvs in "Lake Mead hits historic low water level as Colorado River struggles"

stvltvs — Sun, 09 Aug 2026 17:05:07 +0000

Maybe I'm thinking too literally, but alfalfa isn't grass. It's a legume.

New comment by stvltvs in "Lake Mead hits historic low water level as Colorado River struggles"

stvltvs — Sun, 09 Aug 2026 13:26:41 +0000

Over half of Colorado River water goes to agriculture, about half of that irrigates alfalfa for animal feed. It's not clear if that's what you meant by capitalism, but lawns are a very small portion of what the water is used for.

https://watereducationcolorado.org/fresh-water-news/most-com...

New comment by stvltvs in "All of Winona Police Department's Flock cameras cut down and stolen"

stvltvs — Thu, 06 Aug 2026 18:00:05 +0000

Even better a single video frame because the OCR is demonstrably fallible.

New comment by stvltvs in "Google will expand age checks on Android worldwide till the end of the year"

stvltvs — Fri, 31 Jul 2026 02:10:22 +0000

This could be more targeted, like a no-fly list for the internet. Political dissidents, journalists, etc. could be effectively exiled from online activity.

New comment by stvltvs in "Google will expand age checks on Android worldwide till the end of the year"

stvltvs — Fri, 31 Jul 2026 02:07:12 +0000

I'm not saying age verification is a good idea, just that a centralized government-mandated implementation is a bad way to do an already bad idea.

New comment by stvltvs in "Google will expand age checks on Android worldwide till the end of the year"

stvltvs — Thu, 30 Jul 2026 19:08:04 +0000

Data ownership is just one area of concern. Controlling our access to the internet is another.

If age verification was an open standard, we could hope for competition so that we could jump ship from a bad actor. If one blocks our access, we would have alternatives. In theory.

Not so with a centralized government-mandated service.

New comment by stvltvs in "1,741 "informed" consents with one click? GDPR complaint filed"

stvltvs — Thu, 30 Jul 2026 19:01:00 +0000

Anecdotal but my laptop just found 2 open WiFi networks out of 20. One's enough though.

New comment by stvltvs in "Toot.community is shutting down"

stvltvs — Thu, 30 Jul 2026 18:00:01 +0000

They can't delete their accounts after the server hosting the account shuts down.

New comment by stvltvs in "1,741 "informed" consents with one click? GDPR complaint filed"

stvltvs — Thu, 30 Jul 2026 16:37:40 +0000

Putting on tinfoil hat... how do we know it isn't connecting to our neighbors' open WiFi?

New comment by stvltvs in "Google will expand age checks on Android worldwide till the end of the year"

stvltvs — Thu, 30 Jul 2026 16:31:46 +0000

It's not supposed to. Just one more way to limit our freedom to control our own devices.

New comment by stvltvs in "Google will expand age checks on Android worldwide till the end of the year"

stvltvs — Thu, 30 Jul 2026 16:28:09 +0000

The concern isn't that an authoritarian government locks you out of some age-restricted sites, it's that it locks you out of them all.

New comment by stvltvs in "GrapheneOS Defends Data-Wiping Function That Blocked US Border Search"

stvltvs — Tue, 28 Jul 2026 18:53:21 +0000

I'm not aware of any confirmed citizens being sent to foreign prisons (maybe?), but Trump is deporting people without due process, including the chance to demonstrate to the courts that they are here legally.

New comment by stvltvs in "LG to ban residential proxies from smart TV apps"

stvltvs — Wed, 22 Jul 2026 04:15:43 +0000

It does, at least for any media played through the device. Read up on automatic content recognition.

https://www.howtogeek.com/its-not-just-streaming-content-you...

New comment by stvltvs in "Do we just want slaves?"

stvltvs — Tue, 21 Jul 2026 13:27:19 +0000

* per se

New comment by stvltvs in "Show HN: A zoomable timeline of 4M Wikipedia events"

stvltvs — Fri, 17 Jul 2026 20:45:24 +0000

Nice! I can't help thinking it would be informative to see it on a linear scale. Vast, unfathomable stretches of time before humans come on the scene, and then human history is a blip at the end.

New comment by stvltvs in "America pays workers just 27% of what its wealth allows – the worst in the OECD"

stvltvs — Wed, 15 Jul 2026 14:04:43 +0000

Only if you weren't fired for cause, are looking for full-time employment, have earned enough recently, etc.

New comment by stvltvs in "Show HN: Make senders work to get into your inbox"

stvltvs — Wed, 15 Jul 2026 13:50:13 +0000

It's hard to say whether you're missing out on legit emails from new senders or old senders with new addresses unless you review your spam folder regularly.

New comment by stvltvs in "Leak of San Francisco Police Drone Footage Exposes Reality of Urban Surveillance"

stvltvs — Mon, 13 Jul 2026 14:35:19 +0000

And helicopters tracking you are hard to miss.

New comment by stvltvs in "Leak of San Francisco Police Drone Footage Exposes Reality of Urban Surveillance"

stvltvs — Mon, 13 Jul 2026 14:34:10 +0000

People will shoot themselves in the foot if it means criminals get harsher punishments, sometimes literally.