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Calamitous

1,048 karma · joined April 26, 2008

Admin of Ctrl-C.club. I have been manufacturing high-quality software bugs for over 30 years.
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Calamitous··on Cybersecurity training programs don't prevent phishing scams
The only anti-phishing program I've ever seen that was even a little effective was at one company I worked at, where there was an ongoing phishing test.

Users were randomly selected to get the test, and each phish was hand-crafted to trick people specifically at our company (but using only publicly available information). Anonymized results were posted quarterly, divided by department.

I only got fooled once, but man, it felt so bad to see Engineering show up on the dashboard with one hit that quarter.

(Sales was usually at the top of the list, which makes sense, since they interface with a lot of folks outside the org)

Calamitous··on AI helps unravel a cause of Alzheimer’s and identify a therapeutic candidate
> If we had universal healthcare in the USA, we'd have to have a common charting protocol and a medical chart exchange.

Isn't this exactly what HIPAA was supposed to address?

Calamitous··on Zest: a programming language for malleable and legible systems
Elixir has this as well, IIRC.
Calamitous··on 3,200% CPU Utilization
That's because it moves from being a project to being a process. I've tried to express this at my current job.

They want to take time out to write a lot of unit tests, but they're not willing to change the process to allow/expect devs to add unit tests along with each feature they write.

I'll be surprised if all the tests are still passing two months after this project, since nobody runs them.

Calamitous··on Why Ruby on Rails still matters
I'd argue it's the main benefit.
Calamitous··on Five years of React Native at Shopify
> These are surprisingly often easy to answer

I agree that maintenance costs are often overlooked/ignored, but I'm curious how you get answers on the costs. I've never found it particularly easy to get reliable information on maintenance costs.

Calamitous··on Car tires shed a quarter of all microplastics in the environment
Whatever became of the tweel?
Calamitous··on A change of heart regarding employee metrics
Cynical, but probably the most humane take I’ve seen here so far.
Calamitous··on Ask HN: I miss the internet of the 90s/00s. What should I do?
There’s still some of that feeling in little pockets around the Internet. The tildeverse (https://tildeverse.org) might interest you; it’s a loose group of servers that offer free shell accounts for hosting simple web pages, chatting, programming, or playing around on a mostly unrestricted Linux box.

I run http://ctrl-c.club, one of the oldest tildes. We’re (mostly) closed to new signups, but if you’re interested, send me an email to admin@ctrl-c.club and we’ll get you in.

Calamitous··on "We ran out of columns"
That’s… not a senior engineer. Whatever his title may have been.
Calamitous··on Don't Let Architecture Astronauts Scare You (2001)
The article is from 2001, but it’s an evergreen reminder to _stop building solutions in search of a problem._
Calamitous··on Allan McDonald refused to approve Challenger launch, exposed cover-up (2021)
> Punishing people for making mistakes means very few will be willing to take responsibility.

That’s what responsibility is: taking lumps for making mistakes.

If I make a mistake on the road and end up killing someone, I can absolutely be held liable for manslaughter.

I don’t know if jail time is the right answer, but there absolutely needs to be some accountability.

Calamitous··on Ask HN: What macOS apps/programs do you use daily and recommend?
Came here to recommend rectangle and iterm.
Calamitous··on After 6 years, I'm over GraphQL
Fundamentally, GraphQL is a _query language_, but people keep trying to build/use it as an _API_.
Calamitous··on Tell HN: I think there are major issues with Google –> Squarespace domains
I’ve had a lot of success with namecheap. Granted, I haven’t tried many others, but it’s worked well for me.
Calamitous··on Kagi Small Web
So go build something better.
Calamitous··on Ludum Mortuus Est
> Nobody wants deflation.

I hear this argument regularly, but I’ve never understood why. Hyperinflation is historically a bad thing, but whenever I ask about deflation, I just get hand-waving about the Great Depression. Is there any reading that lays out the dangers of deflation?

Calamitous··on uBlacklist: Blocks specific sites from appearing in Google search results
Haha. But seriously, Kagi gives you all this out of the box, in any browser…
Calamitous··on I Just Need a Programmer
In business, I have four "bad words": just, only, simply, and obviously.

Used in a work context, they are nearly always used in an attempt to diminish the perceived effort of something, so I get very sketched out when anyone (even/especially other programmers) starts throwing them around.

Calamitous··on Null Island Tourist Shirt
Why not both?
Calamitous··on String pinsetters are upending bowling
Never before have I been so repulsed by a thread on HN.
Calamitous··on Hasbro laying off Wizards of the Coast staff is baffling
> three times a fortnight

I approve of this unit of measure.

Calamitous··on Role-playing with AI will be a powerful tool for writers and educators
Has it? From what I’ve heard about the textbook industry, I feel like it hasn’t.
Calamitous··on Zoom Fatigue Is Real, According to Brain Scans
My company issued everyone headsets, and the audio is night-and-day difference, but maaaaaaan I hate wearing a headset.
Calamitous··on Self-proclaimed 'gay furry hackers' breach nuclear lab
I have long been of the opinion that, if multiverse theory is correct, there must be one timeline that is the most hilarious, and I believe we are in it.
Calamitous··on 23andMe says user data stolen in credential stuffing attack
This is precisely why, though I find it to be a fascinating idea, I have steadfastly refused to do one of these genetic tests.
Calamitous··on Productivity has grown faster in Western Europe than in America
> overestimate their own happiness

?

How can you overestimate your own happiness? Either you happy or you aren’t.

In my experience, comparing yourself to others, regardless of circumstances, only leads to unhappiness.

Calamitous··on Weird A.I. Yankovic: a cursed deep dive into the world of voice cloning
Key takeaway:

> No current artificial intelligence is powerful enough to hide the weirdness of Weird Al.

Calamitous··on Fairphone 4 with /e/OS by Murena now available at fairphone.com
Is there a phone that’s not entirely made in China?
Calamitous··on Rust vs Go: A Hands-On Comparison
> Go, TypeScript, and Python are pencil and rust is ink

I love this analogy

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