Hacker News Reader

Bran_sonon The EARN IT bill is back, seeking to scan our messages and photos

A better example are people that do have something to hide - whistleblowers, union organizers, political activists, journalists, upstart politicians... How does the nature of their work change, if the current government in power knows all their secrets, and abuses or selectively leaks/prosecutes them? And does that change society for the better, or for the worse?

Bran_sonon Imgur Updates TOS, Banning NSFW Content

Bait and switch: get popular with user-friendly terms, then pull the rug from under your users and use your conned popularity to serve advertisers.

Bran_sonon Sweden public radio exits Twitter, says audience already has

I have read the article. I was not criticizing Sveriges Radio's decision, but the AP's reporting.

Bran_sonon Anime Confronts a New Apocalypse

> Their contemporary cultural touchstones are much the same ones around the world.

I find this homogenization of culture incredibly sad.

Bran_sonon Anime Confronts a New Apocalypse

We would be so culturally richer on a Hollywood monoculture.

Bran_sonon Anime Confronts a New Apocalypse

They still would dismiss them if they could. But since the internet destroyed their media gatekeeping power and anime became too popular, they're now trying to control and put their own spin on it.

Bran_sonon Sweden public radio exits Twitter, says audience already has

> SR Ekot, which has been labeled “publicly funded media,” [..] CBC said Monday that it would pause its activities on Twitter after it was labeled as “government-funded” because it “undermines the accuracy and professionalism” of its journalists’ work

"Has been labeled"? Well AP, you're journalists, why don't you do your job and tell us - are those labels accurate?

This is a common tactic, presenting inconvenient but easily verifiable facts as mere allegations, and the journalist doesn't take the 10 seconds it would take to confirm* them on wikipedia.

*For CBC and Sweden public radio. In contrast, NPR only gets about ~4% of its funding from the government, so labeling it govt. funded is stretching it.

Bran_sonon CBC pauses Twitter activity after being labelled 'government-funded media'

> Unfortunately, that "government-funded media" tag implies a lack of editorial independence

Yes, Twitter should do away with mere implication and clarify that not only is it government funded, the president of the CBC is also appointed by government: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=35605906

Bran_sonon CBC pauses Twitter activity after being labelled 'government-funded media'

> That CBC is funded by the government is true according to the article itself

It's called the "celebration parallax" - https://americanmind.org/salvo/thats-not-happening-and-its-g...

If you celebrate it, it's good and true. If you criticize it, it's a false conspiracy theory. Keep an eye out for it, it appears frequently.

Bran_sonon CBC pauses Twitter activity after being labelled 'government-funded media'

> The corporation is governed by the Broadcasting Act of 1991, under a board of directors and is directly responsible to Parliament through the Department of Canadian Heritage. General management of the organization is in the hands of a president, who is appointed by the Governor General of Canada in Council, on the advice of the Prime Minister.

> The CBC's 2021-2022 annual report revealed it received almost $1.4 billion (70% of its funding) from the federal government.

Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canadian_Broadcasting_Corporat...

Bran_sonon FBI Arrests Two on Charges Tied to Chinese Police Outpost in New York

Self-defense (which is what maintaining sovereignty within one's borders is) does not require moral high ground.

Bran_sonon No Source Code == No Patent

> Patents protect the little guy from the manufacturers.

As long as the little guy's patent can improve the process without stepping on any of the countless pre-existing patents manufacturers have accumulated. Now how often is that the case?

Bran_sonon Intel won't back down on chip ID feature (1999)

> Do you own a TV? Did you buy a Sceptre? Why not?

I do, I did not, because my TV is old enough to not yet be "smart", and because Sceptres are literally not available anywhere in my country. Am I now virtuous enough by your standards to point out how hostile manufacturers are to users?

> The fact that people buy smart TVs in large numbers is proof

Hey I wonder if you asked ten random people if they knew their smart TV was reporting the contents of their USB sticks and their viewing habits to 3rd parties, how many would answer yes? This is the same revealed preference tortured logic that concludes people don't care about child labor because they still buy chocolate. Out of sight out of mind.

> If you are happy setting that bit, then the problem you are complaining about doesn't exist

Then this is a recent development, because in 2017 even Google was unable to get rid of IME: As of 2017, Google was attempting to eliminate proprietary firmware from its servers and found that the ME was a hurdle to that. - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intel_Management_Engine#By_Goo...

Bran_sonon Intel won't back down on chip ID feature (1999)

> But almost 225 million TVs sell annually. People buy smart TVs.

There's literally nothing else on the consumer market. Edit: There may be a dumb Sceptre TV hidden in a Walmart warehouse somewhere, but I checked and there are none available in my entire EU country. Meanwhile the smart TVs sure don't advertise their spyware as prominently as their price, so we can add fraud in addition to robbery.

> As I understand governments just set a bit to disable IME on already existing processors. But if you want a feature and are willing to give them billions of dollars, Intel or anyone else absolutely will add a feature for you. [..] Custom silicon is absolutely a thing

If all it takes is setting a bit, I don't see why you'd invoke custom silicon except to muddy the waters.

Bran_sonon US pay transparency laws result in worker discontent

I could easily believe that <10% of drivers are so terrible, that they drag the mean so far below the median that 90% of drivers are above the mean.

Bran_sonon Valve Restricts Accounts of 2500 Users Who Marked a Negative Game Review Useful

> lesser evil compared to having dozens of stores

Realistically, the alternative without Steam would not be dozens of stores, but (eventually) 2-3 stores, that would all behave much worse than Steam.

Bran_sonon Intel won't back down on chip ID feature (1999)

> IME exists because Intel’s big customers want it and the people who don’t want it don’t have enough money for a custom SKU

I addressed this - systems without IME exist, but are not available for purchase, for any price, except for governments. That's not economics.

> TPM exists just because it’s a good security feature that the industry has demanded

Industry demands it, and OS and CPU manufacturers collude to make sure every user gets it, whether they want it or not, so that when they start pushing remote-attestation and other user-hostile technologies in the future, they won't lose any market.

> Mainstream phones run non-privileged

I specifically said "non-rootable", i.e. non-privileged by default, but that can be unlocked. So mainstream phones would remain non-privileged except for those motivated enough to follow an unlock procedure. But it's a common tactic to excuse deliberate lock-down with "few need it, so we will invest resources into making sure they can't have it, when our previous models allowed it". If MS prevented users from running any compiler except Visual Studio on Windows, would you excuse it because those that need it are a niche market, for whom the more expensive Windows Pro licenses are made?

> subsidized TV with more features sell better than more expensive TV with fewer features

There are no non-smart TVs on store shelves next to smart ones, just for a higher price, despite demand [1]. In fact it's a challenge to find one at all.

Saying it's just about money is technically correct in most cases, but very misleading. It hides the fact that in most cases it's not just about offering a cheaper product, but involves backroom lobbying from other interests to restrict consumer options, like forcing them to watch ads on DVDs [2]. It's "about money" in the same way that robbery is about money.

[1] "This question of smart-TV data privacy and security is by far the most-asked among Ask Wirecutter readers." - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=35484594

[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User_operation_prohibition

Bran_sonon Intel won't back down on chip ID feature (1999)

> Ultimately it's rooted in economics. People like free stuff, and the only way to give it to them is to monetize it indirectly via ads and surveillance.

It's more than economics - they actively attack privacy and user control. E.g. DRM anti-circumvention laws, the impossibility of buying a CPU without Intel Management Engine (or AMD equivalent) unless you're a government agency [1], forcing the Trusted Platform Module on users, the gradual vanishing of rootable-phones and proliferation of apps that require a non-rooted phone, no more non-smart TVs, etc. Countless cases where there are no freedom-respecting options available for commoners at any price.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intel_Management_Engine#Commer...

Bran_sonon British Columbia's New Powers to Silence Dissenting Physicians

But such laws make things worse. Now, when doctors claim something is safe, they can be dismissed with "they'd go to jail if they claimed otherwise".

Bran_sonon [dead]

Ask them how many native Americans there are in the US, and you'll see how shallow this belief is.

Bran_sonon [dead]

If I made any factual errors, corrections are welcome.

Bran_sonon Japan’s population drops by half a million in 2022

You didn't, but warent's comment I replied to did: "their government strikes me as rather xenophobic and terrified of change"

In general, "xenophobia" is a frequent accusation against those that don't want mass immigration.

Bran_sonon Japan’s population drops by half a million in 2022

That's assuming religious nuttery is an unavoidable prerequisite for whatever is lifting their birth rate. I don't think this assumption is merited - according to Pew surveys, Serbia has a similar rate of irreligion (3.3%) as Israel (3.1%), yet their fertility rate is only 1.4. On the other hand Mongolia is 36% irreligious but has a 2.9 fertility rate.

Religion and fertility may be correlated, but it's demonstrably not an unbreakable rule, and outliers abound, so we shouldn't just give up. Sources:

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

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

Bran_sonon Japan’s population drops by half a million in 2022

They are only shocks if the fertility rate fluctuations have a high amplitude and period longer than ~20 years. For example, if the rate varies between 1.8 and 2.4, on a 20 year time-scale, then they won't be "shocks", but mere gentle waves.

Bran_sonon Japan’s population drops by half a million in 2022

If your condition is removing the influence of the WEF and other unelected, supranational organizations, I certainly won't argue against that. Just note that their hypocrisy is irrelevant - it won't diminish the problems the rest of us will suffer from continued damage to the environment.

Bran_sonon Japan’s population drops by half a million in 2022

It's a dispute of the implied claim that a developed nation with women's rights can't have high birth rates.

> known reliable way solution that generalizes

Why all these qualifiers? It doesn't have to be reliable or general - individual countries can each have their own approach, that only works after lots of tweaking, and even just intermittently, as long as it time-averages to replacement level. And it won't become known unless we look for it - more than the occasional sporadic attempt by a government that gets decried as racist and sexist for their efforts [1].

> exactly like Israel

Why "exactly"? If someone pointed to Japan when searching for solutions to reduce heart disease or medical costs in the US, would you also say "become exactly like Japan" isn't an option? Many countries similar to Israel have low fertility, while many very dissimilar ones have high fertility. Clearly, being exactly like Israel isn't necessary.

[1] 'Baby machines': eastern Europe's answer to depopulation - https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/mar/04/baby-bonuses-f...

Bran_sonon Japan’s population drops by half a million in 2022

So we've moved from terrified of change, to embracing some changes and resisting others. Even in culture, Japanese fashion, art, architecture, music, entertainment, and cuisine have all seen recent changes.

Yet they refuse to change some social/cultural values. What makes this a phobia worth pathologizing, instead of a legitimate preference deserving of respect?

For example, when Kashmir decried being stripped of autonomy [1], were they also just being phobic and terrified of change?

[1] Kashmir’s new status could bring demographic change, drawing comparisons to the West Bank - https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2019/08/08/kashmirs-new...

Bran_sonon Japan’s population drops by half a million in 2022

How can you say that when birth rates vary so widely with time and place? Even just in the modern developed world, couldn't we copy whatever Israel is doing [1]? It may not be easy or guaranteed, but we don't need to go as high as Israel's 3.1 - the replacement level of 2.1 would suffice.

[1] Israel has been in a constant baby boom since independence, with the highest fertility rate in the OECD at 3.1 children per woman. - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baby_boom#Israel

Bran_sonon Japan’s population drops by half a million in 2022

There's a lot more in that wikipedia article than just climate change. But even on climate change, suppose as you say there was reasonable doubt - given the potentially devastating consequences of human CO2 emission that we have not yet ruled out, shouldn't we take the precautionary principle? I.e. limit emissions until we are reasonably sure about how much harm they'll cause.

Bran_sonon Japan’s population drops by half a million in 2022

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

The problem is, of course, that immigration turns it into a tragedy of the commons: Population A won't reduce their birth-rate, if that just means population B will take their place, and the strain on their local environment won't be reduced:

Want to fight climate change? Have fewer children - https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2017/jul/12/want-to-...

Europe needs immigrants, young and committed and eager to learn. They are the future taxpayers who will support an ageing population - https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2015/nov/12/the-gu...