Hacker News: theshadowknows

New comment by theshadowknows in "Ask HN: Why is today's Internet experience so user hostile?"

theshadowknows — Mon, 03 Jan 2022 13:14:13 +0000

100% - even annoying "promotional" email blasts. I've worked for companies where, when we did surveys, customers overwhelmingly said that we sent them too many emails or that the emails were not relevant. Yet time and time again we would do a bulk email send and watch in-store sales climb up proportionally. So naturally then we had to make email address a required field when making an account online. One more step for users, and specifically something that most users don't want to give...but the money says otherwise.

New comment by theshadowknows in "Tesla recalls nearly half a million Model 3 and Model S cars"

theshadowknows — Fri, 31 Dec 2021 10:24:40 +0000

Actually I was referring to the Ford rollover thing: https://www.ewg.org/news-insights/news-release/ford-hid-suv-...

And to the GM ignition thing: https://www.vox.com/platform/amp/2014/10/3/18073458/gm-car-r...

New comment by theshadowknows in "Tesla recalls nearly half a million Model 3 and Model S cars"

theshadowknows — Fri, 31 Dec 2021 00:08:35 +0000

My understanding of the automotive industry is that they cut corners everywhere they can because they know it’ll save more money than a lawsuit or recall will cost. Do they do these things and when someone dies or raises a stink only then do they do the recall.

New comment by theshadowknows in "Titanpointe: The NSA’s spy hub in New York, hidden in plain sight (2016)"

theshadowknows — Tue, 21 Dec 2021 23:22:22 +0000

is the last layer turtles?

New comment by theshadowknows in "Apple added an orange dot that’s a showstopper for live visuals"

theshadowknows — Mon, 20 Dec 2021 23:35:52 +0000

So...I'm sure I'm not alone when my first thought was "big deal" but then I thought about it and I'm thinking there's two main issues here:

1. we don't want it there and they didn't ask permission or give a way to remove it

2. a tiny orange dot on a monitor will turn into a basketball sized orange ball on a big professional display

am I getting the right idea?

New comment by theshadowknows in "Anti-5G necklaces found to be radioactive"

theshadowknows — Fri, 17 Dec 2021 21:17:31 +0000

I mean…isn’t that exactly what the government _would_ say if these devices actually were working? /s, obviously

New comment by theshadowknows in "Vivaldi Browser 5.0"

theshadowknows — Fri, 03 Dec 2021 03:18:20 +0000

Also iCab which at least let’s you use the new engine. I don’t think the other browsers even allow that.

New comment by theshadowknows in "Reality shifting: an emergent online daydreaming culture"

theshadowknows — Sun, 28 Nov 2021 00:38:54 +0000

Thanks for the recommendation consider it done :)

New comment by theshadowknows in "Reality shifting: an emergent online daydreaming culture"

theshadowknows — Sat, 27 Nov 2021 22:00:56 +0000

Wow, and here I am dropping cash on weed and shrooms like a chump. I’ll be honest, this strikes me as similar to the whole binaural sounds thing…I tried that way back in high school and got nothing from it but my friend swore it was elevating. I won’t knock it, I’m sure some people really do get something out of it and who and I to say otherwise. I might even try it some time. But shrooms haven’t ever let me down. So at least I’ve got a backup

New comment by theshadowknows in "Ask HN: What’s the best TV to buy?"

theshadowknows — Thu, 25 Nov 2021 18:40:00 +0000

Depending on how clear of a display you want, a projector may be a good option.

We have a small shelf in our bedroom with an Apple TV, a HomePod mini, and a $90 projector from Best Buy. It projects to the large wall across the room from our bed and is perfect for night time or late evening viewing. I’m sure you could put together a similar system using either SD cards or streaming from your Plex or whatever media server you use.

New comment by theshadowknows in "Web is Dead: introducing the temporal web"

theshadowknows — Thu, 25 Nov 2021 16:58:00 +0000

The very first website I ever saw was at my cousin’s house during a visit for Christmas. They had just recently “gotten the online” and he was showing me his favorite site which was an Oprah talk show discussion forum. At first I was like “wow this is stupid” but then he told me that there’s discussions for “almost everything” and that you’re talking to people all over the world…now I was from a town of about 10,000 people or so and had probably met a thousand people total in my lifetime if that (I think I was 8 or so at the time) so it was mind boggling to me to have the ability to just talk to someone on the other side of the world just by clicking a few icons on a computer screen…I was hooked immediately.

Flash forward years and years and so far I just have not sensed the same magic and awe with things like blockchain “stuff” but it may be that I’m not allowing myself to be mentally agile and open (I’m willing to admit it’s a possibility, at least).

New comment by theshadowknows in "Only 90s web developers remember this (2014)"

theshadowknows — Mon, 22 Nov 2021 01:28:58 +0000

You could however nest horizontal and vertical marquee to make a diagonal marquee :)

New comment by theshadowknows in "Only 90s web developers remember this (2014)"

theshadowknows — Mon, 22 Nov 2021 01:23:17 +0000

For my very first interview I was told “write something in php” so I put together a few scripts to parse templated txt files into html and made a little baby version of a cms. Wasn’t exactly scalable or ground breaking but I thought it was cool. But the engineer that interviewed me was like so this imports text files and it took you all afternoon to build it? …didn’t get that job.

So the next one was pretty similar “hey use this language called Sikuli to build something.” Now, I’d never heard of Sikuli but it was basically python so I built a little app that, based on the screen, could offer up context sensitive hotkey chains…kind of like a baby version of Alfred that literally only worked with Microsoft office. But the guy thought it was cool and hired me anyway :)

Went from working in a gas station over night to working in my kitchen or the coffee shop. I thought it was sooooo cool

New comment by theshadowknows in "Holmes jury learns how Theranos duped a savvy health care investor"

theshadowknows — Sun, 21 Nov 2021 16:33:26 +0000

Yeah that’s what I’m understanding now. Really would have been amazing if it were possible. If you’ll indulge me, is there some theoretical technology that could enable such a breakthrough or is it so far from possible that it’s not even feasible for some reason?

New comment by theshadowknows in "Holmes jury learns how Theranos duped a savvy health care investor"

theshadowknows — Sun, 21 Nov 2021 13:53:48 +0000

When I first heard about the Theranos meltdown I was so sure that Holmes was a victim of big pharma trashing her name and her company. But man..as the story unfolds in front of us that is obviously not the case. I’m pretty bummed about it because I was really excited a few years ago when the company was so hot. Hopefully some of their tech or ideas are solid and someone really can build on them to make good healthcare products for people.

New comment by theshadowknows in "Is it stealing to read by the light of your neighbour’s lamp?"

theshadowknows — Sat, 20 Nov 2021 21:04:13 +0000

Yep my wife and I moved to Connecticut from North Carolina. The summers here are very mild compared to what we are used to and as such leave the windows open to stay cool. But as you mentioned the screens do allow in rain if it’s raining and windy. Funny I never thought about seeing if there’s an alternative material for it.

New comment by theshadowknows in "MacBook Pro creative pro tests question value of M1 Max chip"

theshadowknows — Sat, 20 Nov 2021 03:25:20 +0000

“ There are specific tasks that see a significant difference. If you’re editing ProRes video or working with Apple’s Metal graphics API, there is a clear benefit to the more powerful chip. But that isn’t the case for many creative tasks…”

I mean…yeah..that’s sort of how these things are supposed to work, right?

I get that a lot of consumers aren’t experts and rely on the marketing. So when they buy the most expensive laptop that Apple will sell then they expect it to be considerably “better” than the next rung down the ladder. I guess I just don’t blame Apple for that like I should?

Maybe the marketing materials could be more clear and lay out the exact cases where it would be better. But I just don’t think most people would read it.

New comment by theshadowknows in "TheNFTbay.org – The Billion Dollar Torrent (All NFT's from Ethereum and Solana)"

theshadowknows — Thu, 18 Nov 2021 14:13:50 +0000

That makes a lot of sense, and thanks for the detailed answers. The age old "this isn't for you" is applicable here...I don't see the value personally, but I understand the motivation behind it..sort of like how I don't mind streaming music vs "owning" a digital copy of it as .mp3 or whatever.

New comment by theshadowknows in "TheNFTbay.org – The Billion Dollar Torrent (All NFT's from Ethereum and Solana)"

theshadowknows — Thu, 18 Nov 2021 13:55:47 +0000

I absolutely think that digital art is as valuable and worthy of recognition as physical art. My wife is an artist (oils and water colors, not digital) and we've discussed it at length that the skill and talent required to create digital art imparts equal value. I'm not arguing against that (I'm not saying that's what you're saying either, but just to be clear for folks who read the comments).

But...I do not see the value in being able to "prove" that you own said artwork...because you can't do it...Globally, the number of people who know what Ethereum or any other block-chain technology means is probably what..many thousands? Maybe..maybe a few hundred thousand? And of those the subset of people who actually care...I'm sure is far fewer. So you can only verify yourself as the "owner" of said art to a very small subset of people...

I guess it's like a collector community? People are willing to spend literally millions of dollars to prove to other collectors that they are the owners of these digital assets?

New comment by theshadowknows in "TheNFTbay.org – The Billion Dollar Torrent (All NFT's from Ethereum and Solana)"

theshadowknows — Thu, 18 Nov 2021 13:44:27 +0000

I used to come onto HN and see crypto-coin news and I'd jump into the comments and ask something along the lines of "But isn't bitcoin and all the other things like it just a giant scam?" and someone who believed in Bitcoin to be a transformative technology would jump in and explain the real potential. I personally still think it's sort of a scam, but I'm happy for all of the people who used it to get rich....so, along those lines...

How is "NFT" not a gigantic scam? I'm looking at this image right now: https://rarible.com/token/0xbc4ca0eda7647a8ab7c2061c2e118a18...

There is nothing at all to keep me from screenshotting or otherwise downloading that image. I won't have to pay the author $213 for it, I just take the image because I can. Now I won't necessarily "be the original owner" of it or whatever but....I mean....I have the same image as the owner and I have $213 where the new "owner" simply has the image.....

Can someone, if such a person exists, that believes in NFT's as having actual value please explain it? It just seems to me like a few thousand people have realized "Hey people will literally give me $200 just because I told them to" and are doing it at scale....

And according to that website, so far the author of those "NFT"s has made 13 million dollars......Is that true? If this person has made 13 million dollars because they drew a few monkeys....I'm pretty sure they will be President of the US one day.