Hacker News: vaduz

New comment by vaduz in "Space junk on a 5,800-MPH collision-course with moon on Friday"

vaduz — Thu, 03 Mar 2022 03:49:25 +0000

> > 3 tons of space junk, a punch that will carve out a crater big enough to fit several semitractor-trailers > These are likely US tons, so 2722kg.

Earlier reports put the mass at explicitly "4 metric tons" [0][1], so it is a bit of a guess either way.

> I'm not sure about the SI conversion of the semitractor-trailer units.

Are we talking Arizona trailers, normal NA trailers or international-compliant sizes to begin with?

[0] https://www.space.com/spacex-rocket-crashing-into-moon-crate... [1] https://www.livescience.com/spacex-rocket-to-hit-moon

New comment by vaduz in "Space junk on a 5,800-MPH collision-course with moon on Friday"

vaduz — Thu, 03 Mar 2022 03:37:06 +0000

5040 knots, aka nautical miles per hour.

Because if you are using miles, use the only ones that matter (in aerospace).

New comment by vaduz in "No Space Left to Run: China's Transnational Repression of Uyghurs"

vaduz — Sun, 27 Jun 2021 12:23:56 +0000

> Or are we seriously going to say slavery isn't a problem as long as as it isn't in our own backyard? So slavery in the 1800's was a problem but we can live with the fruits of modern day forced labor since we want our cheap iPhone?

Modern day forced labor is still allowed and utilised in the United Stated - it's mandatory for all able-bodied inmates in federal and most state prisons. For an additional kicker, US is also leading the world in both absolute and percentage of population measures of people incarcerated and has for decades.

The difference with what is happening in China is how targeted it is, what the conditions of labor are and how eager various US corporations are to directly use fruits of said labor - but it is just as immoral.

New comment by vaduz in "MyBook Users Urged to Unplug Devices from Internet"

vaduz — Sat, 26 Jun 2021 16:34:39 +0000

That's assuming it does not issue ATA Secure Erase to the drive - whilst WD drives of the era were using absolutely atrocious controllers for the most part, it would be enough to thwart testdisk.

New comment by vaduz in "How to Destroy the Earth (2006)"

vaduz — Sat, 20 Feb 2021 17:51:05 +0000

It is pretty hard to imagine any particular set of conditions short of total planetary surface destruction that would make all extremophiles go extinct - and as long there is enough of them, they will start spreading again.

Any particular species, including humans that lives on Earth is unlikely to survive catastrophic changes - but life will come back and spread into the newly freed and opened niches, just as it did before multiple times.

New comment by vaduz in "How to Destroy the Earth (2006)"

vaduz — Sat, 20 Feb 2021 17:38:02 +0000

> On other hand Earth is just tiny thing in solar system, which is tiny thing in galaxy which is small thing around general area which is tiny thing in great scale of things...

Don't go down that route - down that route lies the Total Perspective Vortex, and that is something you don't come back from.

New comment by vaduz in "How to Destroy the Earth (2006)"

vaduz — Sat, 20 Feb 2021 17:35:00 +0000

We would do better with methane (100-year GWP 25), or even better with nitrous oxide - with added bonus that both N2 and O2 to produce it can be taken straight out of atmosphere (100-year GWP 298), though they would not last very long.

New comment by vaduz in "How to Destroy the Earth (2006)"

vaduz — Sat, 20 Feb 2021 17:20:23 +0000

Requires strange matter to exist in the first place, and currently the evidence does not support the hypothesis.

New comment by vaduz in "RE3(reversed source code for GTA3/VC) has received a DMCA takedown from Take-Two"

vaduz — Sat, 20 Feb 2021 16:01:02 +0000

The lawsuits regarding unregistered copyright are and were expressly forbidden under Copyright Act of 1976 - 17 U.S.C. 411 [0] (with the specific exception for the case where all procedures were met, but registrations has been refused), but some districts used to consider the mere filing of the papers as sufficient to sue under, and some did not. SCOTUS resolved it in the Fourth Estate case by reaffirming that you are required to hold a registration of the work to sue for copyright infrigement of that work. [1]

THe "infringement before registration" does not affect the ability to sue for it - it only affects the ability to get statutory damages [2], which is where the huge figures are coming in, as you do not have to prove actual damage - but it does mean that any lawsuits filed before registration is obtained are to be dismissed due to lack of standing and of course statute of limitations also applies.

There are some othe exceptions but they consider unpublished works and/or works within 3 months from publication, so they don't often come into play.

[0] https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/USCODE-2010-title17/html...

[1] https://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/586/17-571/

[2] https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/USCODE-2010-title17/html...

New comment by vaduz in "RE3(reversed source code for GTA3/VC) has received a DMCA takedown from Take-Two"

vaduz — Sat, 20 Feb 2021 12:54:05 +0000

To add to this, in the US, registering is also necessary to sue for infringement (since the 2019 Fourth Estate ruling in SCOTUS) and it determines if the statutory damages apply or not - registration must come before infringement. It's not at all required to file a takedown notice, though.

New comment by vaduz in "Accused murderer wins right to check source code of DNA testing kit"

vaduz — Mon, 08 Feb 2021 16:49:44 +0000

Even if you had plenty of DNA material, going with multiple labs comes with a risk that one of them comes with a "no match" result - and that is something that is supposed to be disclosed to defense as potential exculpatory evidence - and is a nice source of reasonable doubt for a jury. It's something that is terribly inconvenient for the prosecution when someone has already been charged with the crime...

New comment by vaduz in "Terraria on Stadia cancelled after developer's Google account gets locked"

vaduz — Mon, 08 Feb 2021 14:28:03 +0000

> It's the same in France and I think most of EU as the highest french court ruled that forced arbitration was against EU law.

For consumers or businesses? Not being nitpicky here: I am not familiar with the French ruling, so I would genuinely want to know - as regulations tend to differ (businesses, even single sole trader ones, do not enjoy consumer protections). Not really relevant for the Terraria dev as it is his personal account that is banned, from the sound of it - but important.

New comment by vaduz in "Terraria on Stadia cancelled after developer's Google account gets locked"

vaduz — Mon, 08 Feb 2021 13:13:20 +0000

.eu is classified as a ccTLD [0], not gTLD by IANA, so for the purpose of this discussion it is one - and the registrar for it (EURid) requires ciitzenship of one of the member states to hold .eu domain. EU citizens living the UK can have .eu names, but no-longer-EU-citizens of UK do not.

Very much agreed on .org.

[0] https://www.iana.org/domains/root/db/eu.html [1] https://eurid.eu/en/register-a-eu-domain/brexit-notice/

New comment by vaduz in "Terraria on Stadia cancelled after developer's Google account gets locked"

vaduz — Mon, 08 Feb 2021 12:53:03 +0000

> .io isn't a gTLD at all, it's a ccTLD belonging to British Indian Ocean Territory (which I find to be bullshit, since those islands have no permanent inhabitants).

That's not strictly true - British Indian Ocean Territory has permanent inhabitants, just not any native ones (never had had them, really - it was uninhabited until 1793). US military Diego Garcia base is there...

It's bullshit for other reasons, and expulsion of Chagossians to build the base is a tragedy - but not due it being empty territory (it's not).

New comment by vaduz in "SpaceX says Starlink now has over 10k users"

vaduz — Fri, 05 Feb 2021 17:23:38 +0000

Speed of beamforming tracking is not the problem - what is a problem is the lack of compensation for movement of the base station (and necessary hardware for it) which is quite evident when people test it in motion [0] - which is quite understandable, SpaceX had to think about the features it actually needs to support to get current price point and use in motion is not the intended target for the current rollout. Tracking is much easier if you can assume that the ground station is immobile.

And no, putting it in a passive gimbal as some of the other commenters are suggesting is not enough to fix this as the direction of the antenna beam is not even close to being parallel to ground (like it is when a gimbal is used with a marine radar).

Plus there is the fact that it does not appear to be sufficiently waterproofed to begin with and the motor mount is rather flimsy (both a problem if you want to use it at sea instead of lakes...).

Marine antennas for Starlink will come, no doubt - but the current home user terminal one is not it.

[0] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cU2y-QmQfXY

New comment by vaduz in "SpaceX says Starlink now has over 10k users"

vaduz — Fri, 05 Feb 2021 16:32:14 +0000

Where did they demonstrate it? Latest news was that they filed for a license [0] to install 5 user terminals on up to 5 Gulfstream planes - application that is still pending.

[0] https://fcc.report/ELS/Space-Exploration-Holdings-LLC/0955-E...

New comment by vaduz in "Help users in Iran reconnect to Signal"

vaduz — Fri, 05 Feb 2021 10:24:03 +0000

Reproducible builds do not help to determine if the version you download via the Play Store (or, for those on enterprise devices, any pre-installed corporate stores) is the same as you build - Play Store presents no real means to verify that. This includes any auto-updates if they are enabled.

It's an issue with Play Store as a delivery channel, the individual app in question can't do much about that.

Reproducible builds help if you: - download the APK separately (includng from the Signal website, or some of the other sources) - install the file locally via sideload - disable updates (!)

New comment by vaduz in "Dante's descendant seeks to overturn poet's 1302 corruption conviction"

vaduz — Wed, 03 Feb 2021 03:13:15 +0000

Under current laws, city council of Florence does not have extraordinary power of pardon and clemency - President of the Republic of Italy does.

The declaration you linked is symbolic only - and the Italian sources [0] indicate the plan this time is to look if the case can be re-tried in light of some new evidence.

[0] https://www.corriere.it/cronache/21_gennaio_31/contro-mio-av...

New comment by vaduz in "Dante's descendant seeks to overturn poet's 1302 corruption conviction"

vaduz — Wed, 03 Feb 2021 02:27:25 +0000

Holy Roman Empire is not a factor - Dante was found guilty and exiled under the laws of the Republic of Florence. Ultimately Italy has jurisdiction as the successor state of Florence -> Tuscany -> Sardinia -> Italy after 1861...

New comment by vaduz in "Just because I have a vertical screen doesn’t mean I’m on a phone"

vaduz — Wed, 03 Feb 2021 02:01:07 +0000

And it would have been avoided entirely if HN simply used relative font measures (em/rem) and allowed the user just set the damn base font size in the browser settings.