Hacker News: throw_a_grenade

New comment by throw_a_grenade in "IT administrators are "fed up" with Microsoft's "useless" apps and Windows 11"

throw_a_grenade — Sun, 12 Jul 2026 13:18:40 +0000

Good point. If I were facing the problems they have, I'd surely would change the distribution.

New comment by throw_a_grenade in "NSA and IETF: Fairness"

throw_a_grenade — Tue, 07 Jul 2026 11:36:09 +0000

Unfortunately, that's not how modern crypto works. Many mathematical problems on which algorithm rests their security are not proven to be unsolvable, but instead they're believed to be hard to solve. So here are the questions, who believes what is hard, and hard for whom.

Somehow I wouldn't trust my data on mathematical problems, for which the recommendation is that they would challenge Kayne West.

New comment by throw_a_grenade in "Sony Deletes 551 Movies PlayStation Owners Paid For"

throw_a_grenade — Wed, 01 Jul 2026 18:13:18 +0000

May I recommend the excellent “top 10” list maintained by torrenfreak and updated yearly: https://torrentfreak.com/top-torrent-sites/

New comment by throw_a_grenade in "Xsnow "protestware" in Debian"

throw_a_grenade — Tue, 30 Jun 2026 20:31:18 +0000

popcon shows 302 users as of now: https://qa.debian.org/popcon.php?package=xsnow

New comment by throw_a_grenade in "Xsnow "protestware" in Debian"

throw_a_grenade — Tue, 30 Jun 2026 20:28:09 +0000

No it won't.

New comment by throw_a_grenade in "We all depend on open source. We will defend it together"

throw_a_grenade — Fri, 26 Jun 2026 09:25:33 +0000

I mean, it won't be neither the first nor the last slopdump, but it's the first that's backed by a threat of project takeover.

“Maintainers of last resort”, my [back].

New comment by throw_a_grenade in "We all depend on open source. We will defend it together"

throw_a_grenade — Fri, 26 Jun 2026 08:57:36 +0000

Will they hire the actual maintainers of the software in question, to have time dedicated to the project, or will they as usual, dump AI-generated patches unto maintainers, but this time with even more time pressure to merge, lest them consider projects “unmaintained” if they don't push a fix in 3 femtoseconds, and use it as a rationale to take over the project?

New comment by throw_a_grenade in "GrapheneOS user reported to authorities for using GrapheneOS"

throw_a_grenade — Sat, 06 Jun 2026 12:21:36 +0000

Oh, this gave me an idea. OP should be able to get a hold of this „report” by subject access request. Law enforcement exception to GDPR doesn't apply to private companies.

New comment by throw_a_grenade in "UK media fails to disclose defence sector links in nearly 60% of cases"

throw_a_grenade — Thu, 04 Jun 2026 11:44:32 +0000

10-20× more in private sector for senior leadership/advisory role sounds reasonable, but still, I wonder if some part of that compensation stems from the fact that the person is availing him/herself as an asset of influence, i.e. can be used to push narrative through media while posing as independent, credible expert. Needs further research and/or A/B testing I guess.

New comment by throw_a_grenade in "Adafruit receives demand letter from Fenwick legal counsel on behalf of Flux.ai"

throw_a_grenade — Tue, 02 Jun 2026 11:17:43 +0000

It's deliberately written that way, by lawyers who are making sure they (Adafruit) won't accidentaly admit to something they didn't.

New comment by throw_a_grenade in "Commission fines Temu €200M for breaching the Digital Services Act"

throw_a_grenade — Thu, 28 May 2026 18:50:39 +0000

They cetainly get to argue before two sets of judges. Otherwise it's not justice.

I wanted to make clear that press release is not a valid substitute for a court order. And it's OK to publish one before the final instance issues it's verdict.

New comment by throw_a_grenade in "Commission fines Temu €200M for breaching the Digital Services Act"

throw_a_grenade — Thu, 28 May 2026 17:16:31 +0000

In my world people are innocent until proven guilty before a court of law, twice. Yes, even business people. Executive branch shouldn't be able to just bankrupt a company and tell the owners to go through the courts to maybe recover the money in 10 years, if they're innocent after all.

There were several such cases in my country before we joined EU, most high profile one was against Optimus SA (predecessor to CD Projekt), where they just took people's money, without cause as they courts later found. Never again.

So the middle ground is, Temu can choose to play hardball all the way to ECJ, but if they are wrong (they are and they know it), the cost will be substantial (200 M€ + interest + daily fines + interest). So I think they'll enter talks, pay 200 M€ and pinky promise to delist offending items.

New comment by throw_a_grenade in "Commission fines Temu €200M for breaching the Digital Services Act"

throw_a_grenade — Thu, 28 May 2026 15:29:53 +0000

They'll put them on naughty list that will be enforced by financial institutions, i.e. it will be an infraction for credit card operators to process such a payment. Financial operators have well oiled compliance facilities and the payment won't clear. If Temu won't get the money, they won't ship the parcel. And if they won't ship, then there will be a bit less carcinogens in EU. Good stuff.

New comment by throw_a_grenade in "Commission fines Temu €200M for breaching the Digital Services Act"

throw_a_grenade — Thu, 28 May 2026 15:24:16 +0000

It's actually both: they handed one-time fine for past behaviour (about 200 M€, not final, can and most likely will be appealed and paid in like 10 years or so; cf. Apple tax breaks in Ireland); and threatening more fines if they don't play along in the future. One of the kinds of punishment that Commision can slap (subject to court oversight, ofc) is „daily fines”, which is a fine that accumulates with constant daily rate up to the date the company complies, or some pre-set maximum, which usually calculates to several months, and need to be reissued afterwards (which is an opportunity to double the daily amount, and again, can be appealed to a court).

New comment by throw_a_grenade in "Donald Trump and sons to be 'forever' exempt from tax audits"

throw_a_grenade — Wed, 20 May 2026 17:49:12 +0000

https://archive.is/5hYwT

New comment by throw_a_grenade in "California bill would require patches or refunds when online games shut down"

throw_a_grenade — Fri, 15 May 2026 22:26:26 +0000

Why not? They'll spin a new LLC for every title and leave it empty shell, without capital to be recovered by the users should they sue.

New comment by throw_a_grenade in "Removing the modem and GPS from my 2024 RAV4 hybrid"

throw_a_grenade — Fri, 15 May 2026 11:21:17 +0000

Mostly works, some stuff doesn't. The worst thing that doesn't work is alternative maps (e.g. OsmAnd).

New comment by throw_a_grenade in "Debian must ship reproducible packages"

throw_a_grenade — Sun, 10 May 2026 08:25:07 +0000

It's npm that's affected, therefore it's not even considered when choosing language/ecosystem for writing distro tools. You'll find no sane distro writing package manager in javascript precisely to avoid this joke of a supply chain.

New comment by throw_a_grenade in "LinkedIn profile visitor lists belong to the people, says Noyb"

throw_a_grenade — Thu, 07 May 2026 13:37:15 +0000

> it doesn’t pertain to you until you pay

Respectfully, that's bollocks. The data, by itself, either does, or it does not. Exchange of unrelated money does not change anything in the data itself. IOW, it's the data that matters, not a wannabe-service that is pitched to the rightful owners.

New comment by throw_a_grenade in "LinkedIn profile visitor lists belong to the people, says Noyb"

throw_a_grenade — Thu, 07 May 2026 12:49:57 +0000

Yes, of course. In European cities there are GDPR disclosures hanged on the lampposts on which CCTV cameras are mounted. The disclosure contains retention period and contact to data processing inspector where you can request the data. You probably need to specify the timestamps and haw to recognise you.

In commercial buildings the disclosure may hang on the wall besides main entrance.

Everything as designed.