Hacker News: the_why_of_y

New comment by the_why_of_y in "Poland is now among the 20 largest economies"

the_why_of_y — Sat, 09 May 2026 12:47:42 +0000

What happened in Spain is that they joined the Euro currency, and this caused a massive boom from 2001-2007 where GDP more than doubled in only 6 years. This was mostly fueled by capital transfers from other Eurozone countries, seeking higher returns than in their home country.

Of course this rate of growth proved unsustainable: in 2008 the (Spanish) real estate bubble burst and this caused bank bail outs, massive unemployment (rates around 25%), and put an end to GDP growth for many years, exacerbated by the fact that Spain did no longer have its own currency to devalue in order to regain international competitiveness.

At the time the bubble burst, government debt in Spain was at a bit more than 40% GDP, with a budget surplus, far lower than for example the "responsible" Germany at more than 60%.

Now what does any of that have to do with "socialists"? If anything, it's a cautionary tale about badly designed currency zones and financial markets misallocating capital.

New comment by the_why_of_y in "Russia Poisons Wikipedia"

the_why_of_y — Sun, 03 May 2026 10:21:50 +0000

Did that article also mention how Nuland gave cookies to the riot police on Maidan square?

https://archivist.substack.com/p/in-kyiv-nuland-handed-cooki...

New comment by the_why_of_y in "Russia Poisons Wikipedia"

the_why_of_y — Sun, 03 May 2026 09:23:04 +0000

> What public state speculation about Russian interference in anything ever was substantiated?

Report On The Investigation Into Russian Interference In The 2016 Presidential Election

https://www.justice.gov/archives/sco/file/1373816/dl

New comment by the_why_of_y in "SystemD is of out of control. The Best Minimal, Modern, Linux alternative"

the_why_of_y — Sat, 02 May 2026 07:59:47 +0000

That's not even factually correct, systemd doesn't verify anybody's age, it just provides a DBus API to store any date the user enters, in case the OS provides some UI on top of it.

https://blog.bofh.it/debian/id_473

New comment by the_why_of_y in "America's Geothermal Breakthrough"

the_why_of_y — Sat, 02 May 2026 07:36:31 +0000

Because it saves the have-nots 300 dollars a year, it's a transfer from the poor? Thank you for explaining, that was not obvious to me.

New comment by the_why_of_y in "America's Geothermal Breakthrough"

the_why_of_y — Sun, 26 Apr 2026 21:26:43 +0000

Moving the goalposts.

New comment by the_why_of_y in "America's Geothermal Breakthrough"

the_why_of_y — Sun, 26 Apr 2026 09:13:22 +0000

Australian households will be able to access free electricity for three hours every day, in an effort to encourage energy use when excess solar power is being fed into the grid.

The federal government scheme will require retailers to offer free electricity to households for at least three hours in the middle of the day, when there is often more electricity generated than is being used, leading to very cheap or even negative wholesale prices.

Climate Change Minister Chris Bowen said the scheme would share around the benefits of solar panels, including to those without panels or who rented their homes.

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-11-03/energy-retailers-offe...

New comment by the_why_of_y in "IEA: Solar overtakes all energy sources in a major global first"

the_why_of_y — Sat, 25 Apr 2026 21:25:15 +0000

The majority of the subsidies are implicit, in the form of negative externalities that are not priced in.

But I really should locate a more recent version of this report...

https://www.imf.org/en/publications/wp/issues/2025/12/20/und...

In 2024 they found $725bn in explicit subsides, plus $6.7tn in implicit subsidies.

New comment by the_why_of_y in "IEA: Solar overtakes all energy sources in a major global first"

the_why_of_y — Mon, 20 Apr 2026 21:18:09 +0000

Subsidies for fossil fuels in 2020 were $5 trillion according to IMF Working Paper:

https://www.imf.org/en/Publications/WP/Issues/2021/09/23/Sti...

New comment by the_why_of_y in "France's government is ditching Windows for Linux, says US tech a strategic risk"

the_why_of_y — Sun, 12 Apr 2026 09:30:04 +0000

There are now "loyalty tests" for those who apply to positions at the FBI, to be hired you have to state that the "patriots" on Jan. 6 2021 were the rioters attempting a coup, not the Capitol Police defending the constitutional transfer of government power.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2025/02/08/...

But technically you are correct, of course. Trump never demanded that VP Mike Pence be hanged, the rioters he sent to Congress did.

New comment by the_why_of_y in "EFF is leaving X"

the_why_of_y — Thu, 09 Apr 2026 22:13:22 +0000

My bad, I posted below the wrong parent, now I can't delete it.

New comment by the_why_of_y in "EFF is leaving X"

the_why_of_y — Thu, 09 Apr 2026 21:49:38 +0000

https://www.techdirt.com/2022/12/07/hello-youve-been-referre...

New comment by the_why_of_y in "Author of "Careless People" banned from saying anything negative about Meta"

the_why_of_y — Sun, 05 Apr 2026 16:26:20 +0000

Ms Wynn-Williams has also filed a whistleblower complaint with the US markets regulator, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), alleging Meta misled investors - which Meta also denies. The BBC has reviewed the complaint.

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cq5zyq0250wo

New comment by the_why_of_y in "Author of "Careless People" banned from saying anything negative about Meta"

the_why_of_y — Sun, 05 Apr 2026 14:05:28 +0000

Facebook has always moderated (in those languages where they do moderate at all) according to policies, and politicians are exempt.

https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2019/09/facebook-confirm...

Joel Kaplan was hired as the VP of global policy at Facebook in 2014, and he was hired for DEI reasons, i.e., specifically because he was Republican.

Before his role in the GWB White House, he participated in the Brooks Brothers riot that stopped the Florida vote recount in 2000.

https://talkingpointsmemo.com/muckraker/img-src-images-joelk...

New comment by the_why_of_y in "GabeN Is Shitting Yacht Money into Flatpak and You're Still Arguing Init Systems"

the_why_of_y — Sun, 05 Apr 2026 09:32:50 +0000

If you look at Apple / Google mobile platforms, these are the requirements for modern desktop apps:

1. providing a build environment for app developers to build something that can run on any distro

Both Flatpak and Snap solve this by providing a SDK; for Snap there is one SDK built out of Ubuntu packages, for Flatpak there is a choice of various options, most built on the Freedesktop.org SDK (Gnome/KDE), plus some independent ones. AppImage provides nothing to solve this problem.

2. providing a runtime environment that conveniently integrates the app on users' desktops

Flatpak and Snap solve this via integration into Gnome Software, KDE Discover and similar UIs; AppImage also solves it in a way by being just a single file that the user clicks on.

3. sandboxing to keep users safe

Flatpak provides sandboxing via Bubblewrap, which works on any Linux distro. Snap provides sandboxing mostly via AppArmor, which requires (last I checked) out-of-tree Linux patches, and only works fully on Ubuntu. AppImage does not provide sandboxing, but the expert user can manually run an AppImage with firejail to sandbox it.

4. a convenient way for users to find applications to install

Flatpak has Flathub as a vendor-independent central app store with volunteer reviewers, and also provides the option to self-host apps conveniently. Snap has Snap Store as a central app store that is run and monetized by Canonical, and it's not possible to set up an independent alternative. AppImages are typically hosted directly by the upstream project, but now there is also an AppImageHub.

5. automated updates

Flatpak and Snap provide this automatically from Flathub/Snap Store; AppImages may be auto-updatable in several different ways but it requires the application author to implement support for it.

New comment by the_why_of_y in "F-15E jet shot down over Iran"

the_why_of_y — Sat, 04 Apr 2026 12:05:26 +0000

Why would Ukraine mine their own cities? Unlike Russia, Ukraine signed the Ottawa Treaty that bans anti-personnel mines in 2006.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ottawa_Treaty

A more likely explanation is that butterfly mines were dropped by Russian armed forces; see Human Rights Watch:

Russian forces have used at least seven types of antipersonnel mines in at least four regions of Ukraine: Donetsk, Kharkiv, Kyiv, and Sumy.

There is no credible information that Ukrainian government forces have used antipersonnel mines in violation of the Mine Ban Treaty since 2014 and into 2022.

https://www.hrw.org/news/2022/06/15/background-briefing-land...

https://www.scotsman.com/news/world/ukraine-conflict-likely-...

Of course this is all tradition to bring rebellious minorities back into Russkiy Mir, just look at how Grozny looked in 2000. That was Putin's first war, started when he was prime minister.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Grozny_(1999%E2%80%9... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russian_war_crimes

New comment by the_why_of_y in "Iran-linked hackers breach FBI director's personal email"

the_why_of_y — Sat, 28 Mar 2026 09:49:07 +0000

https://www.justice.gov/archives/sco/file/1373816/dl

https://www.intelligence.senate.gov/sites/default/files/docu...

New comment by the_why_of_y in "Iran-linked hackers breach FBI director's personal email"

the_why_of_y — Sat, 28 Mar 2026 08:53:59 +0000

That can't be the first one. Colin Powell used a personal email account during the GWB administration.

https://www.npr.org/2016/09/08/493133413/colin-powells-ways-...

Of course that pales in comparison with the practices of the GWB White House:

https://www.newsweek.com/2016/09/23/george-w-bush-white-hous...

New comment by the_why_of_y in "Western carmakers' retreat from electric risks dooming them to irrelevance"

the_why_of_y — Sun, 22 Mar 2026 11:55:49 +0000

A big chunk of the $5 trillion yearly subsidies for fossil fuels is for ICE car fuels. See IMF Working Paper for year 2020.

https://www.imf.org/en/Publications/WP/Issues/2021/09/23/Sti...

New comment by the_why_of_y in "Head of FCC threatens broadcaster licenses over critical coverage of Iran war"

the_why_of_y — Sun, 15 Mar 2026 14:03:09 +0000

arbitrary, adjective:

2 a: not restrained or limited in the exercise of power : ruling by absolute authority

  b: marked by or resulting from the unrestrained and often tyrannical exercise of power