Hacker News Reader

LaundroMaton Count Binface receives over a quarter of votes in Clacton by-election

I wonder how many people who wouldn't normally vote for Farage did so because they knew voting him back in would re-open the investigation against him.

LaundroMaton EU ban on destruction of unsold clothes and shoes enters into application

Isn't that recycling instead of destroying?

LaundroMaton The Anti-Palantir Manifesto

Just state your argument.

LaundroMaton Ask HN: Where is the programming profession going?

"A computer can never be held accountable

Therefore a computer must never make a management decision"

-- Internal IBM training manual, 1979

LaundroMaton Bricks and Minifigs Parts Ways with Franchise Owners

there -> their

(Sorry, I couldn't resist).

LaundroMaton Viral victory: Iran is beating the land of tech bros in the social media wars

I don't think it's aimed at them anyway.

LaundroMaton LibreOffice and the art of overreacting

I like to call that dark number the "conversion aversion".

LaundroMaton They’re vibe-coding spam now

A Belgian ethical hacker showed how insecure these phishing platforms are: https://inti.io/p/how-i-infiltrated-phishing-panels

(By the way, the perpetrators are closer to home than Nigeria).

LaundroMaton The EU moves to kill infinite scrolling

Because you want to support the platform or because you don't want to see ads?

LaundroMaton The First Eighteen Lines of the Waste Land (1989)

It's about the poem by T.S. Eliot.

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

LaundroMaton Our approach to advertising

They even used to say ads were a bad idea [0].

[0] https://indieresearch.net/2014/03/30/advertising-and-mixed-m...

LaundroMaton The Art of Atari (2016)

Aargh. I've been wanting a large poster of Missile Command for a while now, but can't seem to find one at a decent price. Having one printed is difficult too as I can't find high-res, large image files of it.

LaundroMaton Do you know that there is an HTML tables API?

Thereby forgetting that some people like to open links in a new tab.

LaundroMaton "Your" vs. "My" in user interfaces

Oh, that's interesting! I always thought French-speaking people (I'm from the Dutch-speaking part of Belgium) actually expected this type of language.

LaundroMaton Nepal moves to block Facebook, X, YouTube and others

Choice quote from the opposition in the article you linked to: "If social media is shut down, the country will become chaotic."

LaundroMaton The forgotten meaning of "jerk"

I learned about it through Freaks and Geeks, so I was in the right mood when watching The Jerk decades after its release.

LaundroMaton The forgotten meaning of "jerk"

Where was the cutoff point?

LaundroMaton Commodore acquired for a 'low seven figure' price – CEO from retro community

Adding noise to the signal here, but "Don't look at the balance sheet as the game. Look at the people and the assets as elements used to stage a show, and put on a show that people want to believe in." is a quote I want to remember forever.

LaundroMaton How to post when no one is reading

Please don't do this here.

LaundroMaton Duolingo CEO tries to walk back AI-first comments, fails

It makes you wonder whether they use the app themselves...

LaundroMaton What do wealthy people buy, that ordinary people know nothing about? (2015)

Why sell tickets then? :)

LaundroMaton Dr. Dobb's Journal interviews Jef Raskin (1986)

Cookie popup keeps popping up if I allow only necessary cookies on an article about frustrating interactions with technology. (FF on Android)

LaundroMaton UnitedHealth Group is under criminal investigation for possible Medicare fraud

This investigation is about them defrauding the government, not their customers.

Them (allegedly) having it both ways is very cynical, but entirely predictable. It's utterly amazing someone believed a service like health-care should be driven by profit to ensure the best outcomes.

LaundroMaton Telling Lies: Bowie and Online Music Distribution in 1996

One reason for the existence of albums were distribution costs: it was cheaper to produce, ship and store 10 songs on a single disc than shipping 10 separate discs.

LaundroMaton Telling Lies: Bowie and Online Music Distribution in 1996

Didn't he also bring out a song where the lyrics were algorithmically generated?

LaundroMaton Is outbound going to die?

I have a similar annoyance: the obvious ways marketeers try to get me in their funnel (I call it conversion aversion). It's hard to measure, so it's not taken into account by marketeers, but I'm quite certain the amount of people annoyed by conversion optimization tactics represent a lot of potentially lost sales.

LaundroMaton Is outbound going to die?

Spoken like a real Theodore Levitt-fan!

I've been reading up on 70s and 80s technology firm histories (including game consoles) and it strikes me that marketing back then was much more strategic, much more about understanding the market, the value customers seek and how to deliver it.

Marketing today feels like a grift.

LaundroMaton Temu pulls its U.S. Google Shopping ads

Maybe the law should impose quality and environmental standards instead of tariffs. But no, that would hurt domestic businesses.