Hacker News: toble

New comment by toble in "White House Had Advance Notice on Heathrow Detention"

toble — Mon, 19 Aug 2013 19:56:58 +0000

In the UK, 'partner' is a spouse. You need to say 'business partner' if you want to avoid the confusion.

New comment by toble in "How to trap a whistleblower"

toble — Sun, 18 Aug 2013 13:34:47 +0000

Misled is a political euphemism for lied. Politics is full of that sort of indirect language.

New comment by toble in "Groupon sales rep threatens restaurant with negative Yelp reviews"

toble — Sat, 17 Aug 2013 19:06:10 +0000

I think you need really high margins to do well with Groupon. Their first client was a pizza outlet, which is about as high a margin as you can get in food.

New comment by toble in "Groupon sales rep threatens restaurant with negative Yelp reviews"

toble — Sat, 17 Aug 2013 16:41:46 +0000

Sounds like one of those game theory side effects. If you pay and measure people by targets then expect them to use dubious techniques to win the game.

New comment by toble in "I asked the NSA for its file on me, and here's what I got back"

toble — Sat, 17 Aug 2013 10:05:53 +0000

I assumed from the title that it would be something other than a boilerplate, or at least a follow up, but it's just a commentary on said boilerplate.

New comment by toble in "Edward Snowden and Gen Y: a sign of leaks to come?"

toble — Fri, 16 Aug 2013 13:55:16 +0000

Also, if newer generations are more independently minded, i.e. less influenced by patriotism and the like, then I guess they are likely to support a David over a Goliath. Pressuring people like Assange and Snowden is just making them into historic figureheads.

New comment by toble in "[dead]"

toble — Thu, 15 Aug 2013 11:33:43 +0000

It would be good to at least indicate when an editor has rewritten a submission, so that responsibility for the headline can be pointed to the correct user. Like a '/ editorsusername' after the submitters name.

New comment by toble in "Is there any such thing as 'road tax'? (UK: Cars vs Cyclists)"

toble — Thu, 15 Aug 2013 10:54:03 +0000

I would like to see the insurance industry reduced in size, rather than be further bolstered by legislation.

New comment by toble in "Is there any such thing as 'road tax'? (UK: Cars vs Cyclists)"

toble — Thu, 15 Aug 2013 10:27:29 +0000

It's similar for Scotland's rural routes. Some councils don't have the funding to maintaining their roads properly, so they focus on the important roads. It can be quite jarring crossing from one area to another.

New comment by toble in "Hyperloop"

toble — Tue, 13 Aug 2013 10:16:33 +0000

I rarely fly. I have used British Airways, Cathay Pacific and Easy Jet.

New comment by toble in "The big, ugly affiliate marketing scam"

toble — Tue, 13 Aug 2013 10:04:10 +0000

It's not so much stealing the customer as it is rescuing the order. It may not be the most ethical of techniques but they are claiming a bounty for converting abandoned carts.

Like someone else said earlier, the order process is broken by encouraging users to leave the website and potentially forget the order.

New comment by toble in "Hyperloop"

toble — Mon, 12 Aug 2013 21:32:59 +0000

I think one advantage of air travel is it's distracting. Busy flight attendants, announcements from pilots, plane moving to the runway, taking off... so there's less reason to concentrate on the lack of space while stuck in the seat.

New comment by toble in "Hyperloop"

toble — Mon, 12 Aug 2013 21:10:35 +0000

You can get up and walk around on a plane.

New comment by toble in "Spy access to NZ used as bargaining tool"

toble — Mon, 12 Aug 2013 11:10:27 +0000

The way things are going, I wouldn't be surprised if they bundled it in as a secret requirement for international trade deals.

New comment by toble in "The Animals are Also Getting Fat"

toble — Mon, 12 Aug 2013 02:45:14 +0000

It depends on the type and quality. If you purchase a can, then I would hope that it is mostly animal based ingredients. If it is dry food then it will be mostly cereals.

New comment by toble in "Hacking Transcend WiFi SD Cards"

toble — Mon, 12 Aug 2013 02:29:40 +0000

Yep. Whenever you work in an industry that involves churning out software as quickly as possible, it's easy to appreciate that commercial pressures are often too great to test properly. Whereas with start-ups (for example), they're usually well funded and have a strong focus on building great software.

New comment by toble in "The Animals are Also Getting Fat"

toble — Sat, 10 Aug 2013 19:11:54 +0000

I don't know what pet food was like in the past, but today it seems to be dominated by flavoured products made of cereals, rather than meat or offal.

New comment by toble in "Bugger"

toble — Fri, 09 Aug 2013 15:35:54 +0000

Historians pull their information from sources of all kinds. For example, a piece of propaganda from WW2 (which is likely to be almost completely untrue) could be an invaluable insight into determining a collective mindset of the time. Similarly, a diary of someone on the street, who's been taken in by that propaganda is also useful.

Adam Curtis exists in the outskirts of a behemoth of a broadcaster, so his interpretation of these events will be useful - especially given that they are broadcast so widely.

New comment by toble in "Bugger"

toble — Fri, 09 Aug 2013 15:13:29 +0000

He's an artist who uses archive footage to tell a story. The story is often so simple that it isn't strictly true, but it's still worth a watch. I think his films will be treasured by future historians to get an insight into the current events of our time.

New comment by toble in "Do you need a degree to be a coder?"

toble — Fri, 09 Aug 2013 10:24:20 +0000

There's also the 'engineer' baggage, in that engineers probably don't think software engineering is engineering.