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CommenterPerson

331 karma · joined April 12, 2025

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CommenterPerson··on US criticises Australia's proposed algorithm opt-out laws as 'censorship'
"You're censoring our billionaires' freedom to addict your people, psychologically damage your children, promote climate skepticism, spread lies, motivate people to lynch others"

Serious violation!

CommenterPerson··on Data collected by cars and sold to third parties
He did acknowledge he posted something similar elsewhere a few months ago. I found his comment useful.
CommenterPerson··on Data collected by cars and sold to third parties
I have been thinking of upgrading from my 2003 Corolla to an electric (not Tesla). The Corolla hasn't had a single repair problem in 23 years!

My main motivation to get a better car was, DD goes to a super prestigious college and it seems degrading to put their bumper sticker on a 23 year old car! But I guess I won't get another car. Serves you right mfr mfrs!

CommenterPerson··on Don't let anyone take away your big box of cables
I share some genes with some squirrels and your grandfather.

I have two boxes for cables and power supplies. We have a couple of rental properties. In the garage I have boxes for plumbing parts, electrical parts, one for brackets, one with all kinds of fasteners, one for special tools. These are just small size moving type cardboard boxes, all on storage shelf. My helper laughs at why I keep all the junk, but he's the first to rummage through them when we need something. Everything somewhat organized enough that there's room to park the cars inside the garage.

CommenterPerson··on I Don't Have a Smartphone
My microwave oven, washer, dryer all have wifi, so I could supposedly interact with them via "apps". Nooooooo. I wish I could find the chip involved and "Muntz" it.
CommenterPerson··on I wanna live an NPC life
I think the OP means they're NPC in your game or everyone elses game. They don't care to participate in your meaningless rat race.

They're playing their own game, whatever has meaning to them.

CommenterPerson··on Making the Internet Boring
Here are some things I try:

Turn off Notifications.

Turn off location services except when navigating or calling the taxi.

Uninstall as many apps as possible, use browser.

Use adblocking anti tracking browser (I use Duck, alt suggestions welcome).

Report unknown / unwanted senders as spam.

That said, I am a NEWS ADDICT. There are four world leaders whose downfall I eagerly await, and frequently check the news for this ;-) .. you might be able to guess three but not the fourth.

CommenterPerson··on The internet is kind of a predatory cesspit now
Sadly, one of the contributors to this are the "Little" Tech Bros. They have drunk the kool aid at work. A bit libertarian or right wing in nature, they salivate at the latest Full Self Driving (supervised) lie, or AI hype, or crypto when it first came out. Some intricate new feature or language puts them into paroxysms of joy. In their view, any attempt to regulate or draw boundaries around "tech" equates to communism, marxism, and attempts to curtail so called freedom of speech. Don't use it if you don't like it, they say.

By Little Tech Bros i mean developers with lots of technical skills, but who haven't been lucky enough to be in the right spot at the right time with an IPO. They keep evangelizing hoping megabucks lightning will hit them the next time. It won't. More likely, a layoff notice. Because Big Tech Bro figured out how to grab all the money from their excess productivity.

CommenterPerson··on Apple introduces leasing program for iPhones and other devices
Apple = Landlord

You = Tenant

Stay poor, or just buy a basic phone, uninstall useless attention economy apps and live better.

CommenterPerson··on Upper stage impacting the moon on 2026 August 5
I wish the entire web was in this format. Really. May need a bit of work to navigate around but very fast, no BS, no tracking.
CommenterPerson··on The Vespa at 80
These are wild, very creative, Thank you for the reference!

https://youtu.be/uVeVZ-Iugkg

CommenterPerson··on The unreasonable effectiveness of simple HTML (2021)
I get all my news by reading: NYT, WSJ, BBC, AP, and a few Substacks.

NYT has gotten so bloated both in actual content (long meandering interviews) as well as the encapsulating junk. I started to put it into Gemini to summarize. During this process I found, the two hour interview transcript was 50% actual words and 50% junk (probably formatting, tracking, adware, surveillance?).

The junk made me feel dirty.

CommenterPerson··on Why are cells small?
Great concepts, very well written, Kudos to the writer! I bookmarked your main site.

Also : as usual, lots of HN type nitpicking in the comments, most missing the main story.

CommenterPerson··on Learn SQL Once, Use It for 30 Years
I'm an existence proof of this. I learned SQL following my previous employer dying a slow death > layoffs. Having worked in a narrow field, there weren't options to continue working in it. That was 25 years ago.

SQL was the foundation of a second career in business data analytics. Moderately interesting and paid the bills.

I must say, it's not just select *, joins and so forth. The human side was important. Always being on the lookout in Big Corp for people hungry for data (lots of them), and working to find quick solutions.

CommenterPerson··on The desperation of NYTimes
Another desperate practice. They have the teaser subscription at a very low rate and quietly hike it up after a year.
CommenterPerson··on The desperation of NYTimes
I've read NYT regularly over the past 30+ years, and roughly fit in this boat. They have become monetizing addicts like everyone else. They keep showing pop-ups about "family subscriptions". I've written about their desperate seeming practices in comments on appropriate articles.

On their reporting, they want to appear to be objective but their biases are clear. For example, their campaign against Mamdani at all stages (it continues). They always have a couple of crazy "conservative" columnists. And so on.

I send all their emails to spam, and X out of the pop-ups. For now.

CommenterPerson··on Green card seekers must leave U.S. to apply, Trump administration says
I've read through many comments. Like true HN-ers, they are trying to understand this change in terms of logic, reasoning, cost / benefit, and so on.

This is missing the point. The arbitrariness, cruelty, racism, xenophobia, etc. is A DESIGN FEATURE, NOT A BUG.

I hope this may help youngsters in this terrible situation understand what is happening. Since at least the 1980's, if not earlier, one American political party has been using racism as a part of their platform. They used to do this in coded "dog whistles" before. The earlier targets were mostly Black Americans (they still are, if you look at what the Supreme Court just did with their voting rights).

Now it is all out in the open. The racist beast needs to be fed continually with fresh targets. Gay Americans were another target group. More recently it is undocumented South Americans. The most recent target is .. foreigners (especially non-white non- Christian).

Don't look for logic and reasoning in all this, in the abominations. Take a deep breath, and a long walk. Evaluate if it is worth dedicating your life and career contributing to the beast, and living in constant uncertainty of your legal status, unable to travel, and so on. You are worth way way more than that.

CommenterPerson··on U.S. DOJ demands Apple and Google unmask over 100k users of car-tinkering app
Missing key points:

Why is this administration, which is all for coal, oil, and against environmental policies pursuing THIS?

This DOJ is all about pursuing cases for retribution. It could be, they already know someone they want to punish, and already found they're using the device. Or, use it as a source for finding people they want to punish.

CommenterPerson··on Show HN: Find local farms near you with raw dairy, pasture eggs, and more
Next Up: Find K-12 schools nearby with flexible vaccine requirements.
CommenterPerson··on $1,605: average annual ad value of a U.S. Google user
This is why I use Ecosia and Duck most all of the time.
CommenterPerson··on A common weed killer left an epigenetic footprint in early-onset colon cancer
Scary stuff .. I have seen up close family members undergoing treatment for a different cancer. Believe me, it is harsh, changes the rest of your life for the worse. .. Consider living in a townhouse and never having to handle these toxic chemicals ever. And saving oodles of your time for more fun stuff.
CommenterPerson··on Reaffirming our commitment to child safety in the face of EuropeanUnion inaction
Came here to write this exact same thing; saw it's already done.
CommenterPerson··on Artemis II crew take “spectacular” image of Earth
Why didn't NASA or the news agencies rotate the image so North is up? and slightly to the right. That would make Africa instantly recognizable as that's how maps are imprinted in our brains.

There is no "up" in space, so that wouldn't be editing the image I feel. The camera just happened to be oriented "upside down".

CommenterPerson··on What Is Copilot Exactly?
Everything MS does can be summed up in one word: "Clippy"

I've been using their data reporting product for ever. It's not fancy but you'll be amazed at how many data people use it. Back then it used to be called "SQL Server Reporting Services" or "SSRS". It is now called Power BI Paginated Reports. Over the years, the product has gradually become worse. Publishing, subscriptions, several features are now hard to use. All in the service of Clippy and the Cloud.

CommenterPerson··on Founder of GitLab battles cancer by founding companies
Hmmm .. where have we heard this story before? Tech bro tries alternative treatments for cancer .. somebody at Apple?

I wish him all the best and good luck. Maybe in 50, 100 years we'll have more definitive cures for cancer. Till then it's mostly slash, burn and poison, unfortunately.

CommenterPerson··on Mystery jump in oil trading ahead of Trump post draws scrutiny
"If the US doesn't win, it loses. if Iran doesn't lose, it wins"

.. per [John] on Krugman's substack.

CommenterPerson··on The Los Angeles Aqueduct Is Wild
I love Practical Engineering. Grady Hillhouse's enthusiasm for engineering shows through brilliantly. Being a graduate engineer, I've learned a lot from his videos and transcriptions. Well worth browsing practical.engineering.

PS: and it is NOT about software engineering LOL!

CommenterPerson··on The 49MB web page
I am a paid subscriber to NYT and have been reading it paper / internet for 30+ years. It is an Enshittification winner in terms tracking and click bait. It doesn't feel like a serious news outlet anymore, feels like Huff Post or similar.
CommenterPerson··on Why it takes you and an elephant the same amount of time to poop (2017)
How about a general chat and then asking him about his health? If he comes out saying he's not feeling great, that would be an opening for more pointed advice. If not, maybe you could say something like you thought he was looking under the weather.
CommenterPerson··on BMW Group to deploy humanoid robots in production in Germany for the first time
The video screams demo and stupid stuff.
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