Hacker News Reader

NoZebra120vClipon Disney 'Cracks Down' on Mickey Mouse 'Steamboat Silly' Pirates

You know how films and TV show different, fake UIs when a character works on a computer? GUIs and their elements are copyrighted.

NoZebra120vClipon Comparing dd and cp when writing a file to a thumb drive

Distrowatch.com is a site promoting use of Linux and BSD.

"eject" is a Linux command which attempts to safely disconnect removable media.

https://manpages.ubuntu.com/manpages/noble/en/man1/eject.1.h...

TFA doesn't mention filesystems at all, sort of jumps in where we find the block device. Things could become messy if the device were mounted while the copy is attempted.

NoZebra120vClipon In loving memory of square checkbox

Around 2015, I authored my résumé in LibreOffice, and I sprinkled in an assortment of bullet points. Some were indented. I used open squares, filled squares, open and filled circles, right-arrows, stars, etc.

I brought it into an employment center for critique, and my mentor informed me that those shapes all had different meanings and functions. It was a wake-up call for me.

I am not a UX/UI designer, so my experience with the UI elements in applications had been intuitive, and moreover, disconnected from the activity of authoring a non-interactive document.

So I believe that these UI features were imitating paper-based forms. Those ovals or circles on Scantron sheets: you'd better not fill in more than one per line! And being named "radio buttons": yes, if you pressed "AM" then the "FM" button popped out. If you had six presets in a car--wait a minute, those were oblong...

NoZebra120vClipon Comparing dd and cp when writing a file to a thumb drive

For removable media, I believe that finishing up with "eject" would be the safest way to ensure that all writes were committed to the hardware.

NoZebra120vClipon Hello IPv6: a minimal tutorial for IPv4 users

Speaking of managing at scale and splitting well:

  the reverse lookup domain name corresponding to the address

       4321:0:1:2:3:4:567:89ab

   would be

   b.a.9.8.7.6.5.0.4.0.0.0.3.0.0.0.2.0.0.0.1.0.0.0.0.0.0.0.1.2.3.4.IP6.
                                                                  ARPA.

https://datatracker.ietf.org/doc/html/rfc3596#section-2.5

NoZebra120vClipon Understanding the world science fiction convention

> Châteauneuf-du-Pape

That reads more like "[The] Pope's New Castle" https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ch%C3%A2teauneuf-du-Pape_AOC

In fact, Avignon was the site of the Apostolic See and indeed, seven canonically-accepted Popes resided there, plus two antipopes. https://www.catholic.com/encyclopedia/avignon

This period also featured Italian antipopes! It was dramatic! https://www.catholic.com/encyclopedia/western-schism

NoZebra120vClipon A Wild Claim about the Powers of Pi Creates a Transcendental Mystery

Well, the headline promises A Wild Claim!

NoZebra120vClipon Proposed top-level domain string for private use: ".internal"

Couple things here:

The GP describes resolver software, which corresponds to item 6.3.3, not a caching server. This does specify the same behavior.

In RFC terminology, "MUST" > "SHOULD" > "MAY", so there is some wiggle room there.

6.3.2 permits Chromium and other apps to hardcode localhost names as such, instead of using a resolver.

A very popular vector for adware/malware is to take over the system resolver, or replace the DNS client configuration, so this is one reason Chromium jealously guards 127.0.0.0/8

NoZebra120vClipon Android now lets you transfer eSIMs between your phones

Sending SMS costs $$$, and the gateways are closely-guarded. There are bad actors hammering on logins to elicit SMS codes, and Zelle is charged for the service according to that volume.

NoZebra120vClipon Hold on there: WPA3 connections fail after 11 hours

"Here's a nickel, kid." http://www.miketaylor.org.uk/tech/eta/doc/dilbert.gif

NoZebra120vClipon Shunned in computer age, cursive makes a comeback in California

Brahmic scripts such as devanāgarī, Gurmukhī, and Bengali are noted for joining glyphs with a long horizontal line across the top (shirorekhā). However, other examples such as Tamil use more curls and curves, and lack the shirorekhā.

I am told that one reason for this change was because manuscripts in certain regions used parchment or vellum, and in other regions used palm leaves. Writing on a palm leaf, if you made long, straight horizontal marks on it, you could split the fibers.

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Thiruvaymoli_palm_ma...

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Palm-leaf_manuscript...

NoZebra120vClipon Cruise wasn't hiding accident video from regulators – it had bad internet

Stopping at red lights can add 10-15 minutes to a motorist's cross-town journey. So does the Pythagorean Theorem. What can you do.

NoZebra120vClipon The FCC Is Taking Steps to Wind Down the Affordable Connectivity Program

No, they use a proxy to a virtual private server. Depending on the nature of the proxy and exit node, it may have a uniquely bad reputation, or is collateral damage from other bad actors in that cloud service.

Here is the FCC Complaint Center: https://consumercomplaints.fcc.gov/hc/en-us

NoZebra120vClipon Proposed top-level domain string for private use: ".internal"

The last time I set up DNS at home, I decided to use a fictitious and undelegated subdomain under my ISP's domain name. This structure did not create any "extra" problems in the short term.

But I suppose that I still ran the risk that the subdomain could "become real", or draw attention from security admins, or I would change ISPs.

NoZebra120vClipon How French was medieval England?

The sort of compound words which we're discussing appear by a process of synthesis:

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

See also: agglutination https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agglutination

A portmanteau is different, where parts of several words are blended, rather than retaining the substance of each word in a compound.

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

And let's not forget xkcd's coinage of the malamanteau:

https://xkcd.com/739/

NoZebra120vClipon Comparing dd and cp when writing a file to a thumb drive

This example was performed on the block-special device, so there is no filesystem.

dd uses a default block size of 512 bytes, according to the manual page: calling write(2) directly means you need to choose a buffer of some size.

"bs=" sets both input and output block sizes, which probably isn't the best idea in this case.

Block sizes are a tricky subject:

https://utcc.utoronto.ca/~cks/space/blog/unix/StatfsPeculiar...

https://utcc.utoronto.ca/~cks/space/blog/tech/SSDsAnd4KSecto...

NoZebra120vClipon Proposed top-level domain string for private use: ".internal"

Other currently reserved TLDs:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Top-level_domain#Reserved_doma...

NoZebra120vClipon Google's New AI-Powered Browser Could Mark the End of the Human Internet

We are still working with yes/no questions. While perhaps a landlord may reply with more information, I would phrase them as open-ended: "What can you tell me regarding dog ownership in your community?" That is an invitation to describe pet deposit, size/breed limitations, places to walk them, etc.

NoZebra120vClipon British Court Answers an Eternal Question: How Much Potato Does a Crisp Contain?

I hosted a friend from Catalonia who was amazed and bewildered by the variety in shelves full of crisps: Chee-Tos, Doritos, Pringles, that sort of thing. And that was in a corner gas station's convenience store.

When I visited her in Catalonia, we visited a Carrefour, and I took note of the varieties of olives available. Also, the mounted legs of jamón serrano, curing in the open air. Complimentary olives were served at every Italian restaurant there, and her sister eagerly served me a jamón sandwich at her café.

I think she has the better part.

NoZebra120vClipon How French was medieval England?

> bend over backwards

That is literally a valid movement of the tongue to produce a retroflex [ɭ].

In contrast, Spanish phonology lacks retroflex entirely.

NoZebra120vClipon We've Forgotten How to Use Computers

In 1980, Rogue for Unix was a dungeon crawl game that coincidentally used the same keys as vi for navigation. Even today, Nethack and vim are widely revered. Nethack takes vi training further: there are several two-key commands, and some prefix keys which open a "command-line" interface.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rogue_(video_game)

https://nethackwiki.com/wiki/Commands

https://vim-adventures.com/

Even today, I posit that twitch video games train future developers and users on UX/UI features. In a mobile or web GUI, there are moving targets; there is progressive rendering; there are ephemeral dialogs. If you've played DOOM and Fortnite, then you're better equipped for all that.

NoZebra120vClipon Artist trained rats to take selfies to make a point about social media

That currently applies to photos with animals deliberately triggering the shutter. I would hesistate to say "it's established" without more than one precedent in US case law.

However, candid nature photographs taken with camera traps are copyrighted, and Wikimedia Commons has tolerated this status since 2011.

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

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Photos_taken_wit...

NoZebra120vClipon Artist trained rats to take selfies to make a point about social media

What if the quality and quantity of rewards were linked to the engagement metrics on the selfie posts? Wouldn't that be a better approximation of our current addiction?

* More likes -> more food

* Retweets -> better food

* More followers -> larger cage

NoZebra120vClipon Pixel owners report problems after installing January 2024 Google Play update

Look at the bright side: a bricked phone won't collect your personal data, you won't be able to fall for phishing scams on it, and its battery should last a really long time!

Hyperbole aside, let's remember that "better" and "safer" exist in dialectic tension. Or, "convenience" vs. "security". Often, functionality or features are removed because they were insecure, so now your device is "safer". If you've got a big feature update pending, consider how many bugs/flaws it may introduce as the software gets "better".

NoZebra120vClipon What is the difference between free as in beer and free as in speech?

They were popularized in academia: political activism on weekdays, keggers on the weekends.

NoZebra120vClipon Don't Talk to People Like They're Chatbots

September 24, 1995: The Simpsons S7E2: "Radioactive Man" https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radioactive_Man_(The_Simpsons_...

Comic Book Guy demonstrates exactly how to query Usenet forums such as "alt.nerd.obsessive" with the single line: "need [to] know star rm pic" which is answered within 7 minutes by a cadre of nerds, including Prince Rogers Nelson, and a guy hiding under a Hollywood conference table.

https://youtu.be/uVuyPn3t1CU?si=pou3NZ9apXGUuUCj&t=48

NoZebra120vClipon ArVid: Russians squeezed 4 hard drives into one VHS tape in the 90s

If you think that would be heavy, imagine what 120 Libraries of Congress would weigh! You would need a VHS tape the length of 4 football fields.

NoZebra120vClipon A Review of Mushrooms as a Potential Source of Dietary Vitamin D

It says here that my Vitamin D3 supplement is derived from lichen. And that normally, D3 would be taken from lanolin, an oil from the wool of sheep.

NoZebra120vClipon We Asked A.I. To Create the Joker. It Generated a Copyrighted Image

Fan art and memes are tolerated despite their infringing nature. It's a laughable double-standard. You only need compare the contents of a typical Fandom wiki vs. Creative Commons repositories to see this in action.

If fan art increases brand recognition and promotes the properties, then it gets a free pass.

NoZebra120vClipon Replication Prohibited: Attacking Restricted Keyways with 3D Printing [pdf]

That's what metadata is for! Created and modified: 7/21/15.

"woot15" in the pathname may also be a clue for us: https://www.usenix.org/conference/woot15

tptacek is listed as co-chair and committee member. Hi there!