Hacker News Reader

RCitronsBrokeron I turned my ThinkPad into a programmable USB device

Thats genius

RCitronsBrokeron Intuitive Machines successfully lands on the Moon

Unfortunately, they are. It’s hard to overestimate how scary govt contractors, especially PMIs can get.

RCitronsBrokeron U.S. to invest billions to replace China-made cranes at nation's ports

this. they could easily swap out the controller for a western made product and stop using big words to justify their trade war.

RCitronsBrokeron Coffee machine camera at Amazon warehouse raises concerns about surveillance

this is absolutely impressive, but target is in no way representative of the avg. level of surveillance/LP tech in retail. they are notorious for being at the leading edge of technology and dedication. Their forensics actually did contract govt work at some point in time.

RCitronsBrokeron Would von Braun's Mars landers have worked?

i agree. separating the man from his work is kind of hard after the man made a name for himself by hanging the slowest of his Jewish indentured servants "employed" in his German factory.

RCitronsBrokeron If architects had to work like programmers (1995)

Fibonacci derived values is wayyy too un-arbitrary

RCitronsBrokeron Hip to be square – 70 years of the Citroën H Van (2017)

LOL over here in Germany we got drunk-tanked in VW vans and Mercedes sprinters

RCitronsBrokeron The web won't be nirvana (1995)

take it with a grain of salt then, i haven’t lived in Japan for longer than a few weeks. I live in a german city with a large Japanese diaspora, so that’s where I got my, possibly wonky, intel

RCitronsBrokeron The web won't be nirvana (1995)

yup, and the Japanese internet is said to be much, much worse in this regards. Being able to find everything and anything but the fact you’ve been looking for is kind of a running gag over there, at least i was told.

RCitronsBrokeron Not Without Us – Joseph Weizenbaum (1986)

considering how close to the edge of extermination we already have been brought, calling MAD successful leaves a real bad taste in my mouth.

RCitronsBrokeron Not Without Us – Joseph Weizenbaum (1986)

this paper, without failing, makes me cry.

RCitronsBrokeron EncroChat

there was one called SKY ECC in Europe that, similarly to ANOM, was a honeypot from the get go.

RCitronsBrokeron AI cannot be used to deny health care coverage, feds clarify to insurers

maybe there are some differences from medical system to medical system, but that’s decidedly not what those characters are over here in Germany. This isn’t a case of student loans going overboard, we have it pretty good in this regard, the physicians working as insurance consultants/experts are almost exclusively retired physicians with decades of clinical practice long behind them. At least over here, if you don’t screw up BAD, you’ll live a pretty cushy life as long as you stick to your means.

There’s a difference between doing an unsavory job to the best of one’s abilities and calling women’s mental health issues "hysterics" and invoking psychosomatics to avoid paying out after someone was badly injured horseback riding and are bedridden due to debilitating neurological disorders following her injuries.

There’s a decidedly difference between being strict, maybe even excessively so, whilst doing a controversial job and systematically being misleading, manipulative and untruthful when confronted with established standards of care.

I fully get having to yield to the way the world works, and i sincerely feel for your view. My parents have basically disowned me and trying to sustain myself through medical school is taking a fat toll on me.

But I’m sorry, but "savying" away any sort of criticism of the conduct of our profession on the basis of "that’s not of the real world works" has it’s limits. Maybe you haven’t been at the receiving end of this sort of ordeal, but i can attest you first hand that this group of physicians, at least here, has issues way beyond having to sustain themselves. Maybe our generation will be different, but the ease of your dismissal is kind of troubling to me.

A few months ago i came across an interview with a physician who worked for one of the online pill mills that sprung up after the US loosened the rules for RXing scheduled substance via telemedicine. He pretty much approved Benzos and Adderall all day. He invoked pretty much the very same argument you have, and I’m sure his situation was everything but easy. The pressures of becoming a US physician are very alien to me, so maybe i just don’t get it. But "well, that’s how the world keeps spinning, grow up kiddo" isn’t a carte blanche for being oblivious to the damage you’re doing. You have sworn or will swear an oath. Being a mercenary liar, misrepresenting medicine for monetary gain is not quite what was implied there. If you don’t see a glaring issue with behaving this way, maybe you should look into an alternative career path.

RCitronsBrokeron AI cannot be used to deny health care coverage, feds clarify to insurers

as a med student, those guys are an embarrassment to us all. I had to deal with those guys to get my insurance to cover recombinant antibodies for the treatment of several autoimmune diseases. They haven’t practiced clinically for a decade, haven’t kept up with research ever since they left residency, but still don’t see any problem with denying anything but the cheapest immunosuppressant, no matter how bad the side effects may be. Screw them all, i wish them nothing but the worst

RCitronsBrokeron Morale plummets at Google as workers complain bosses are 'inept' and 'boring'

this comment is really something

RCitronsBrokeron Dutch Airline Pilots Union Protest on Plans to Operate Single Pilot Flights

i feel like quite a few folks in this thread greatly underestimate the things that may go wrong with automating flight controls. Just a recent example: in the past months, mainly due to Israeli military ops afaik, GPS spoofing (!not jamming!) experienced a significant uptick. If you spoof GPS, you can have all the redundancies in the world, they’ll all agree over the spoofed data. There are videos of resulting egpws misfires [1] already. Also, (enhanced) GPS is also used to recalibrate inertial navigation to keep the system as accurate as possible during the progression of the flight, just saying…

[1] https://youtu.be/-aExG6YUwFg?si=y6R26YdIXgtdyGdi

RCitronsBrokeron Weaveworks is shutting down

thats really funny

RCitronsBrokeron Why China is flooding Europe with EVs

it’s almost like betting our entire automotive industry on full plug in EVs, as well as being competitive in said market, was a transparently bad play from the very beginning. Not saying this wasn’t obfuscated by regulatory pressure and "shareholder value" (read: why is my stock not going through the roof in lockstep with Tesla), but that does not absolve execs of their fiduciary duties. Of course the Chinese are able to offer lower prices; battery packs being by far the most expensive part of any plug in EV is not classified information.

RCitronsBrokeron DEF CON 32 Was Canceled. We Un-Canceled it

being ambivalent towards a group, filling up your hotel, but otherwise alien to you, may be a little less polarizing than just having been forced to shell out $100M to a similar sounding demographic.

RCitronsBrokeron Acme Klein Bottle

You’re awesome! I’ll order a bottle as soon as I’m less acutely broke ;)

RCitronsBrokeron DEF CON 32 Was Canceled. We Un-Canceled it

you say that like a person informed enough to know what a white hat is lol. Let’s be real here, even the ethical hacker bunch can look VERY wonky and rowdy to an outsider, especially if you are as far removed as the hospitality industry. The only time they had to deal with hackers in the recent past was decidedly painful for them

RCitronsBrokeron DEF CON 32 Was Canceled. We Un-Canceled it

im really sure you have found the answer, it’s most likely more of a perceived thing than any of us wants to admit. DEFCON attendees can be walking stereotypes at times anyways, but the combination of drunk, low yielding hacker(wo)men(tm) roaming your hotel probably just made the juice not worth the squeeze.

RCitronsBrokeron FDA says 561 deaths tied to recalled Philips sleep apnea machines

please don’t take this with offense, answering this question inherently involves assuming things about you. But as far as the literature i have read goes, at least 70% of OSA cases stem from obesity. [1]

As you probably know, the severity of OSA is quantified in something called the apnea-hypopnea index. For every SINGLE point of BMI reduction (5-8lbs depending on height), you achieve an AHI reduction of 6.7%. That’s absolutely massive. [2]

It’s still multifactorial, one’s anatomy can be varyingly predisposed for OSA, sometimes to the point of causing problems without obesity. But in general, that’s one hell of a bet.

!! I’m a medical student. I have not yet achieved the status of approbated physician. Please adjust your trust accordingly. I don’t think i have to spell out the difference between informed medical advice and comments on HN, my comment is already patronizing enough as is, but regardless.

[1]Resta, O., et al. "Sleep-related breathing disorders, loud snoring and excessive daytime sleepiness in obese subjects." International journal of obesity 25.5 (2001): 669-675.

[2] Fattal D, Hester S, Wendt L. Body weight and obstructive sleep apnea: a mathematical relationship between body mass index and apnea-hypopnea index in veterans. J Clin Sleep Med. 2022 Dec 1;18(12):2723-2729. doi: 10.5664/jcsm.10190. PMID: 35929587; PMCID: PMC9713905.

RCitronsBrokeron Intel's Humbling

https://www.csis.org/analysis/local-global-tensions-course-t...

Turkey, Iran and Syria can and have caused horrible water shortages in Iraq.

RCitronsBrokeron Intel's Humbling

i seem to have been throughly wrong about the three gorges dam. But i think you also have misunderstood the scenario i was imagining. I was actually entirely unaware of there being a meme about the thing collapsing on its own. I was strictly referring to its viability as a strategic target for infrastructure terrorism if that’s the term to use here. I was imagining a scenario where the US is going to town in support of TW, as has been theorized by just about every media pundit in existence right now. I may be wrong about the state’s willingness to commit war crimes, but i just watched IDF, dressed up as civilians, sneaking into a hospital to shoot unarmed patients, alleged to be Hamas members. Or the lack of care over Gaza being white phosphorous'd.

But, as it seems, i vastly underestimated the effort needed to cause my theorized catastrophe. I’m entirely open to admit being wrong about that, always good to learn.

Also, correct me if I’m wrong, but afaik, the viability of nuclear plants as strategic targets has been vastly overblown. I’ll go read up on it, but i don’t think it’s that big of a risk.

RCitronsBrokeron Intel's Humbling

none or VERY few are even remotely close to the impact a potential breach of the three gorges dam would have. [1] Seriously, it’s worth reading up on, it’s genuinely hard to overstate.

[1]: https://www.ispsw.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/718_Lin.pdf

"In this case, the Three Gorges Dam may become a military target. But if this happens, it would be devastating to China as 400 million people live downstream, as well as the majority of the PLA's reserve forces that are located midstream and downstream of the Yangtze River."

RCitronsBrokeron Intel's Humbling

yup. there are more examples than i can muster up to write. One more gut-wrenching than the former. The US calling anyone irrational is pretty rich anyways. After all, invoking the use Brainwashing in war after war, instead of accepting the existence of differing beliefs isn’t the pinnacle of rationality either. Neither is kidnapping your own people in an attempt to build your own brand of LSD-based brainwashing. Neither is infiltrating civil rights movements, going so far as attempting to bully MLK into suicide. Neither is spending your people’s tax money on 638 foiled assassinations of Castro. Neither is committing false-flag genocides in Vietnam, or PSYOPing civilians into believing they are haunted by the souls of their relatives.

none of those claims are anything but proven, historical facts by the way.

Wanna lose your appetite? The leadership in charge of the described operations in Vietnam gleefully talked about their management genius. They implemented kīll quotas.

this list also is everything but exhaustive.

RCitronsBrokeron Intel's Humbling

I don’t think Xi is as independent as you believe, but that’s a matter of personal opinion.

I just don’t think it’s very likely for just about any leader putting themselves into the position you are describing. This is a reoccurring narrative in western media, and I’m not here to defend dictators, but i feel like reality is less black and white than that.

Many of the "crazed leaders" we are told are acting irrational, often do not. It’s just a very, very different perspective, often bad ones, but regardless.

Let me try to explain what I mean: during the Iraq war, Saddam Hussein was painted as this sort of crazed leader, irrationally deciding to invade Kuwait. But that’s not the entire truth. Hussein may have been an evil man, but the way the borders of Iraq were re-drawn, Iraq was completely cut off from any sources of fresh water. As expected, their neighbors cut off their already wonky water supplies and famine followed. One can still think it’s not justified to invade Kuwait over this, but there’s a clear gain to be had from this "irrational" act. Again, not a statement of personal opinion, just that there IS something to be had. I’m not trying to say that i am certain that Hussein had the prosperity of his people at heart, but i do think that it isn’t entirely irrational to acknowledge that every country in human history is 3 missed meals away from revolution. That’s not good, even if you are their benevolent god and dictator for lifetime(tm).

Russia "irrationally" invading the Ukraine may seem that way to us, but let’s see. Russias economy is just about entirely dependent on their petrochem industry. Without, their are broke. The reason why they still can compete in this market is their asset of soviet infrastructure and industry. A good majority of USSR pipelines run through the Ukraine. I’m not saying it’s okay for them to invade, but i can see what they seek to gain and why exactly they fear NATO expansion all that much.

I personally don’t see a similar gain to be had from China invading Taiwan, at least right now. They have lots to lose and little to gain. Taiwans semiconductor industry is useless without western IP, lithography equipment and customers. There are even emergency plans to destroy taiwans fabs in case of invasion. And that’s beside the damage done to mainland China itself.

But as i stated, this may very well change when they get more desperate. Hussein fully knew the consequences of screwing with the wests oil supply, but the desperation was too acute.

I just don’t buy irrationality, there’s always something to be had or something to lose. It may be entirely different from our view, but there’s gotta be something.

RCitronsBrokeron Intel's Humbling

True, but the elite class that’s currently profiting from and in control of said country would devastate themselves if they dare. Skepticism about the wests self-inflicted dependency on China is at an all time high. Terms like "on-" or "friend-shoring" are already coming up now.

You’re not wrong, maybe all the scaremongering in the west about China overtaking us got them delusional enough in a Japanese nationalist type way for them to behave this irrational, but i highly doubt it. But that can also change pretty quick if they feel like their back is against the wall, you’re not wrong in that regard

RCitronsBrokeron Intel's Humbling

it’s where the growth is coming from. Chinas growth (or even just sustenance) isn’t coming from a healthy job market and consumer spending. It’s mostly fueled by SOEs and prefectures going into debt to keep on investing, many local administration have found out they can trick debt limits by forming state-owned special purpose vehicles that aren’t bound to their debt limits. That’s not good at all. there’s a reason we are seeing tons of novel Chinese car brands being pushed here in Europe, they massively overproduced and cannot sell them in their own market anymore. It’s really not looking great atm.

edit: one also should keep in mind that the Chinese real estate market is entirely different in its importance to its populations wealth. "Buying" real estate is pretty much the only sanctioned market to invest your earnings. They still pretend to be communist after all.