Hacker News Reader

SHIT_TALKERon After 60 Years, B-52s Still Dominate U.S. Fleet

Don't forget Eisenhower's original wording described it as the military-industrial-congressional complex. The KC-X would be flying if the original contract to EADS had not been scuttled by Congress:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/KC-X

SHIT_TALKERon 3D Printed Revolver

Small arms are used to gain large arms. That's how it always works.

SHIT_TALKERon Ousted Founder of Men’s Wearhouse Watches His Old Company Struggle

While perpetuating ignorant propaganda. No one speaking against it helps bullshit spread.

SHIT_TALKERon The Yale Problem Begins in High School

Calling something or someone "disappointing" or "problematic" is how these people evade enumerating arguments while still attempting to establish themselves as intellectually superior to those they are criticizing. They assume to have the correct position and condescend to anyone who demurs.

SHIT_TALKERon Blue Origin Makes Historic Rocket Landing

Don't worry - it isn't.

SHIT_TALKERon How botnets are created with hijacked Worpess, fake Flash downloads and Node.js

Sounds like WordFence. Email notifications are configurable. Turning off most of them is advisable. I've had trouble with users with nominally static IP addresses changing with sufficient frequency to be too much of an annoyance to stay with IP whitelist. Limiting the failed login attempts and maxing out the lockout period cuts down on a lot of the bot activity.

SHIT_TALKERon How botnets are created with hijacked Worpess, fake Flash downloads and Node.js

Doesn't that break admin-ajax.php access? It sits behind /wp-admin/. WordPress recommends allowing access when using IP whitelists.

Apache:

  # Allow access to wp-admin/admin-ajax.php
  <Files admin-ajax.php>
      Order allow,deny
      Allow from all
      Satisfy any
  </Files>

Nginx:

  location /wp-admin/admin-ajax.php {
    allow all;
  }

SHIT_TALKERon In Patagonia 2k years ago, it was common for people to modify skulls of babies

In case you aren't just playing along: He's making a joke about braces.

SHIT_TALKERon ULA bows out of Pentagon launch competition, paving way for SpaceX

ULA's reasoning was pretty straightforward. The main reason they dropped out of the competition is because the bidding was to be decided largely on price,

The reason they had to drop out is because they're a space launch company without any goddamned engines. The chatter about the bid process is just the typical jawing members of the defense cartel engage in when they deign to speak of competitors. Sometimes they're even successful in reopening the bid process. [1]

[1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/KC-X

SHIT_TALKERon The War ISIS Wants

They work but there has to be a commitment to seeing things through no matter the extent of the ensuing carnage, something most western countries have lost their stomach for. See: Chechnya.

SHIT_TALKERon Paris Shootings and Explosions Kill Over 100, Police Say

The slave trade had stopped years ago, and the pirate activity, while not over, was way down.

Thanks to military defeats at the hands of Americans, English, and Dutch.

SHIT_TALKERon Paris Shootings and Explosions Kill Over 100, Police Say

One example of an extremely sucessful, multicultural society is Singapore.

So that's one. And one overseen and enforced by an autocrat.

SHIT_TALKERon Paris Shootings and Explosions Kill Over 100, Police Say

Context: It was French colonization that put an end to the predations of the Barbary pirates and the Arab slave trade.

SHIT_TALKERon State of emergency declared across France after Paris shootings and explosions

Breed.

SHIT_TALKERon What happens when a culture is driven by the need for money to make more money

You will find no dispute from me as to whether banks actually do restrict themselves to limiting their credit creation to a ratio of their deposits. But that is how it is supposed to work.

SHIT_TALKERon What happens when a culture is driven by the need for money to make more money

The mechanics are incorrect but he has the general idea of the benefit banks accrue from each additional deposited dollar.

SHIT_TALKERon ProtonMail pays $6k ransom, gets taken out by DDoS anyway

What argument is there to be had with someone who will not even admit the elimination of the ritual immolation of widows as a salutary benefit of colonial rule? There's clearly no reason involved in such a stance but simply reflexive chauvinism.

SHIT_TALKERon What happens when a culture is driven by the need for money to make more money

We don't determine "poverty" by living conditions but income. As someone who tries to "earn" as little as possible for tax-protest reasons, I can vouch for the parent commenter's statement. By picking the right location and work, I'm able to support a family on $20K (AGI) per year. The used cars I buy in cash get better every time I need to get another one. As people in my area moved to bigger houses in the perimeter of the city, I was able to buy a nice Victorian-era home with plenty of room for just north of the annual median U.S. income. (And I don't have a mortgage.) The home's location is easily walkable to schools, stores, shops, doctors, etc. My "living conditions" are really pretty great just making do with the castoff affluence around me. Yet my income level is considered by the federal government to be below the "poverty level". And compared to my great-grandparents, who were successful subsistence farmers, I'd say I have it pretty damn great as my "living conditions" are far superior to theirs, even though my "relative" poverty is greater.

SHIT_TALKERon ProtonMail pays $6k ransom, gets taken out by DDoS anyway

The topic was the banning of Sati. It was just one example of the benefits of British rule. That it is such a salutary example is why I mentioned it. You are welcome to keep crying on Twitter that people said things you don't like but I have nothing further to say to you.

SHIT_TALKERon WordPress now runs a quarter of the web

On the funny end of the scale, I've seen five page static websites with a landing page, a few info pages and a form done with WP. Unbelievable. Are developers that lazy today that they throw WP at everything? Or is it easier at that level to charge X to do a WP site rather than charging the same for straight-up PHP/HTML/JS?

When the client says they want to be able to update site content themselves.... okay, here's your five page WordPress site with a single form.

SHIT_TALKERon ProtonMail pays $6k ransom, gets taken out by DDoS anyway

None of the other sensible men like Napier gave such a pithy and powerful quote on the topic.

SHIT_TALKERon ProtonMail pays $6k ransom, gets taken out by DDoS anyway

What utter nonsense. Do the Romans likewise owe reparations to the Turks, French, Spanish, and English?

SHIT_TALKERon Death Rates Rising for Middle-Aged White Americans

I don't think you can tie this to economics alone. After all, blacks and hispanics have been feeling the economic pressures as well.

You have to be standing up to be knocked down.

SHIT_TALKERon Linus meltdown on a Git pull

Time for the quarterly "Linus said mean things to someone" post already?

SHIT_TALKERon Death Rates Rising for Middle-Aged White Americans

The mortality rate for whites 45 to 54 years old with no more than a high school education increased by 134 deaths per 100,000 people from 1999 to 2014.

This should surprise no one. These are the people who work marginal jobs and they have been the most affected by so much manufacturing moving offshore, the resultant shift to service sector employment, and the downward push on service wages created by massive immigration of unskilled South American workers. (Not to mention the political and social demonization of this cohort.)

SHIT_TALKERon How an F Student Became America’s Most Prolific Inventor

Terrible presentation on that site.

SHIT_TALKERon Universal Basic Income Will Likely Increase Social Cohesion

That's one of the most disingenuous statements I've ever read. The first European colonists were all scratching an existence out of the ground via their labor and celebrated, as was their religious tradition, the bountiful harvest they had "received" via Providence. That in no way resembles a modern nation-state making direct cash payments (money taken via taxes from the native population) to whoever makes it, by hook or by crook, across the border.

SHIT_TALKERon Universal Basic Income Will Likely Increase Social Cohesion

Why can it not be the story of individual failure? It is not for no reason the fable of the Ant & the Grasshopper is a staple of western civilization. When corporations are bailed out for their poor decisions, it is reviled as moral hazard and considered to set a precedent of rewarding reckless behavior. Why not apply the same standards to individuals?

SHIT_TALKERon Universal Basic Income Will Likely Increase Social Cohesion

In the studies mentioned, were immigrants able to move into the areas receiving UBI and avail themselves of those funds? It doesn't appear so. What difference might that have made? And wouldn't that have made them more realistic experiments? (Were the experiments specifically designed to produce positive outcomes?) Can the experiments even be considered to have been about UBI? What does giving money to a small group and finding it makes them happy have to do with the likely outcome of a state-level wealth distribution scheme? Doesn't receiving money for nothing make everyone happier and more trusting?

SHIT_TALKERon Prices for starter homes are crowding out millennials

You are right, it is definitely harder than it was during the mid 2000s free-for-all. People are conflating "cheaper" with "easier" in this case. Just because rates are suppressed doesn't mean anyone can get a loan.