Hacker News Reader

Judgmentalityon Project Starline: Feel like you're there, together

I can just imagine how crazy this would make my dog. I think the technology is amazing, I'm just imagining how much this will confuse animals.

Judgmentalityon Ethereum will use around 99.95% less energy post merge

Now this is my favorite new cryptocurrency idea!

Judgmentalityon How I learned to stop worrying and love the lab-leak theory

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

TIL. Thank you.

Judgmentalityon Evolving beyond 100B recommendations a day at Reddit

There are still fewer than 10 billion people on the planet. I realize people can have multiple accounts, but realistically let's limit it to something like 1 billion actual users. Why does everybody need 100 recommendations a day?

It's a slight tangent, but it seems somewhat relevant - they're not only making so many recommendations, but the recommendations seem to be universally hated (judging by the comments here). It's like they're bragging about how epic their fuckup is.

Judgmentalityon Evolving beyond 100B recommendations a day at Reddit

I love how every comment so far is about how much people dislike reddit.

Judgmentalityon More Scientists Urge Broad Inquiry into Coronavirus Origins

Are you saying Trump was complicit in calling it the Chinese virus as part of their propaganda campaign? Sometimes things can just be explained by stupidity.

Judgmentalityon Why is the Gaza Strip blurry on Google Maps?

Does the UN have any authority?

Judgmentalityon CEO behind Japan’s best-performing stock says his secret is raising salaries

I'm guessing he means if you work somewhere that isn't "we only hire the best, and we'll fire you if you're not" like Netflix, the better employees realize they can work half as much for the same pay and just enjoy life more.

These employees are optimizing for free time, not salary. As someone who thinks big tech pays ridiculously more than is necessary for a comfortable lifestyle, if I could work 1 day a week for 1/5 the pay I would (I understand why working so little would likely not make sense, I am just fantasizing).

Judgmentalityon Starting in August, Google will require that they sign apps, not you

If it were ever presented in front of a judge it would be considered fraud. The FBI and CIA will go to extraordinary lengths to never actually have to face a judge, because they know what they are doing is illegal and their entire defense is obfuscation of the law. Even the police are doing this today to avoid ever having to face scrutiny over their use of STINGRAY devices. And when it does find its way in front of a judge, the judge gives them the proverbial "fuck you"

https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2018/07/judge-slams-fbi-...

People have this notion that the court system just blindly agrees with three lettered agencies, when in reality they tend to hate each other.

Judgmentalityon Starting in August, Google will require that they sign apps, not you

> They control the UI that shows you the certificates too.

Sure, but if they lied about that isn't it an open-and-shut case of fraud? What they're doing here instead is obfuscating away everything behind an announcement, so there is no legal recourse for the consumer against their bullshit. The best we can do is hope an anti-trust suit is brought against Google (I have approximately zero hope of it happening because of this, though).

Judgmentalityon Coin Carbon Cap – PoW cryptocurrencies ranked by energy efficiency

https://dev.to/hugovk/python-version-share-over-time-6-1jb8

It seems like Python 2 is still pretty prevalent, with over 40% of new downloads taking place as of last year. And people forget Python 3 was originally introduced in 2008. So the transition is taking decades, not years.

The last place I worked was still using Python 2 as of last year, and they were a startup without all the bureaucracy of a big company. They also had plenty of money and engineers. Python 2 is still the default for everybody I know.

Judgmentalityon The True Size of Africa (2015)

My phone gets about 4 days of use currently before recharging, and I could pretty easily find ways to recharge it even using solar power if I wanted to.

If you don't want to use your phone as a map that's fine, but it's incredibly convenient for (I'd wager) 99% of use cases.

Judgmentalityon The True Size of Africa (2015)

> Hiking away from cell towers and wifi

Just download the map in advance.

> Historical maps

Agreed on this.

> Maps that aren't owned by Google

I agree with this in principle, but there are alternatives to Google Maps and some of them are even gaining popularity because developers in general are terrified of ever relying on Google for anything besides ads.

Judgmentalityon Coin Carbon Cap – PoW cryptocurrencies ranked by energy efficiency

> so once Ethereum finishes its switch over to proof-of-stake

Isn't there a lot of uncertainty as to how well proof-of-stake will work?

Judgmentalityon Waymo AV Freaked Out by Traffic Cones, Blocks Traffic, Evades Support Vehicles

> It sounds like the car automatically pulled over when it detected the cones (as intended)

You can watch the video. It pulls over incorrectly at first and is blocking traffic, then the support team made a mistake, and a hilarious escalation ensues with the vehicle actually attempting to run away from the support team multiple times!

Judgmentalityon Mammals can absorb oxygen through their intestines

Yep. I'm not sure how pervasive it is, but there are leaks of medical experiments being done on Uighurs today in China (including experimental coronavirus vaccines).

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/asia/china-xinjiang...

https://www.thedailybeast.com/china-forcing-experimental-cor...

Judgmentalityon Mammals can absorb oxygen through their intestines

My point is many will say the same thing about animal experimentation today. And there are doctors that reference the Nazi experiments, even if most refuse to ever look at the data.

http://www.bu.edu/articles/2019/learn-from-nazi-medical-rese...

Judgmentalityon Mammals can absorb oxygen through their intestines

I have a hunch future generations will look back on our animal experimentation similar to how we look back on human experimentation, horrified but with a silver lining (and most people just prefer not to think about it much at all). I'm very much against both, but I recognize the important advances they've made for medicine. I also recognize that most of the advances for animals don't translate to humans, and some even argue it's slowing progress overall.

https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2017/04/10/5227754...

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

Judgmentalityon Pentagon surveilling Americans without a warrant, Senator Wyden reveals

> I saw every losing group complain of the election being stolen from them in some way, Warren, Sanders, Yang.

The irony of this statement is you see it as evidence of there being no conspiracy, but I see it as exactly the opposite. Maybe everyone complaining about the same problem means the problem is real?

Judgmentalityon Tesla Model 3 Owners Are the Happiest Car Owners, According to Consumer Reports

I don't care about legality. I care about safety. And everybody assumes they're an above average driver. You should do everything possible to minimize accidents, otherwise you're not driving defensively.

Yes, I'm calling you irresponsible.

Judgmentalityon Tesla Model 3 Owners Are the Happiest Car Owners, According to Consumer Reports

It is if you need to know the speed limit during that 30 seconds and it causes you to get into an accident. I've strongly felt like Tesla drivers were the biggest assholes on the road, and things like "how fast I'm going doesn't really matter" is a pretty good confirmation of that.

Judgmentalityon Tesla Model 3 Owners Are the Happiest Car Owners, According to Consumer Reports

If we're talking about the Model 3, wouldn't you also not be able to know your speed since the speedometer is on the center console? I feel like that's pretty significant for most drivers.

Judgmentalityon Amazon Fake Reviews Scam Exposed in Data Breach

If Amazon wanted to solve this problem, they'd get rid of comingling and allow customer to flag bad returns as "fraudulent products." It would be trivial to train an ML model to catch fraud this way, all you have to do is allow it to have meaningful inputs. Of course once you get rid of comingling you don't even need to bother with that, as you've solved the problem the same way the rest of the industry has already solved it.

This isn't hard. Seriously, you have lost all goodwill from me - anyone that isn't a fucking idiot could immediately solve this problem. But Amazon doesn't want to lose money, is what you really mean.

Fuck Amazon and fuck you. I have more respect for Facebook at this point.

Judgmentalityon AMD server CPUs capture highest market share gains from Intel in 15 years

It will go up if I understood the recent market trends correctly.

Judgmentalityon A review of correlations between big five personality types and life outcomes

> Interestingly, those people don't seem to do particularly well in the SAT. Perhaps their abilities are "unlocked" to the fullest only after they get into college and get a chance to make independent decisions.

Or maybe the SAT is just a shitty test.

Judgmentalityon Be in a field where tech is the limit

> except perhaps finance it pays far, far better.

I hear this a lot, but I've never seen it. I know plenty of people in tech making the better part of $1 MM a year at FAANG, and a few who even breach that. Most people I know in finance never break $500k.

So how much do people make in finance?

Judgmentalityon Amazon Fake Reviews Scam Exposed in Data Breach

> If that ever changes in a broad way, that'll be the beginning of the end of Amazon's dominance.

And I'm saying I think this is already happening, and the most talented senior employees are already starting to leave. This is going to take years, maybe decades to unravel. But I've already shifted away from buying things on Amazon because the experience has become significantly worse for me and I'm better off buying elsewhere.

You're welcome to disagree, but I think Amazon is no longer about value creation but value extraction. And quite frankly it doesn't matter if you feel differently as an employee, because that's how I feel as a customer.

Judgmentalityon Facebook threatens to make iOS users pay. Please do it, Mr. Zuckerberg

And that's why we have Netflix today. If Netflix started pushing commercials I'd leave immediately, and I think a lot of other people would too. Meanwhile Netflix is printing money like crazy.

Judgmentalityon Amazon Fake Reviews Scam Exposed in Data Breach

I have never worked at Amazon, but I have heard enough horrible things from people that used to work there that make me believe not everybody shares your opinion. In fact, those other people went out of their way to convince me not to take a job there.

I am glad you seem to enjoy working at Amazon, or at least have a respect for the culture. I've never been there so I can't comment on it, but I've heard lots of horrible things about the culture there. And lately the complaints have been shifting towards Amazon thinking more and more about short-term profits instead of the big picture.

All I can say is not everybody agrees with you.

Judgmentalityon Amazon Fake Reviews Scam Exposed in Data Breach

> I get it, it's hard to believe because it's easy to think of Amazon as all-powerful.

This has nothing to do with thinking Amazon is all-powerful, and everything to do with thinking they don't care because it makes them money. Amazon's revenue is clearly skyrocketing and they make a ton of money because of the marketplace. It seems obvious to me they made the decision to put revenue/profits over long-term customer support.

You believe that Amazon wants to solve the problem. I believe Amazon doesn't want to solve the problem, because they make more money not solving it now. And talking about the long-term vision of a company whose founding CEO just stepped down is pretty meaningless.

I'll be more blunt. Amazon saying they care about fake reviews is like Facebook saying they care about privacy. They make money by lying about it, not fixing it. Facebook clearly hasn't suffered the long term damage of years of horrible PR using their stock price as a metric (you know, the only metric that really matters), and Amazon likely won't either (in fact they've had just as much bad PR and look at them now).