Hacker News Reader

The-Buson Microsoft has detected nation-state activity associated with NOBELIUM

Best thing to do is give them non-threatening names like Beige Team or Fanny Pack.

The-Buson Roku tells customers it is unable to strike a deal with YouTube

Roku captures subscription and advertising revenue, and also resells/licenses ACR (Automatic Content Recognition) data, aka viewing data. Users can turn this off if needed.

ACR Service Policy: https://docs.roku.com/published/acrservicepolicy/en/us

Roku is not alone in doing this, of course. Every major TV manufacturer in the US does this.

The-Buson What if performance advertising is just an analytics scam?

The competing ads will often say something like "Introducing [Product Y] which costs 25% less and is 10% less smellier than [Product X you searched for]"

If you've never heard of Product Y, you might be intrigued and click. Maybe you want something less smelly!

The-Buson Facebook Is Weaker Than We Knew

Adult smoking has been on a downward decline in the US for decades and youth smoking peaked in 1997[1]. While I'm sure the returns of stocks like Philip Morris were very good in their heyday, nowadays MO stock does not have astronomical returns. They just have an extremely solid dividend yield. Compared to FB (>21% 5-years) or Snap (>100% 3-years), Altria Group total 5-year returns are just over 10%. Over 15 years, they don't even break 5%[2]. Philip Morris International has a similar story: returns in the mid to high single digits[3].

1: https://www.lung.org/research/trends-in-lung-disease/tobacco... 2: https://www.morningstar.com/stocks/xnys/mo/trailing-returns 3: https://www.morningstar.com/stocks/xnys/pm/trailing-returns

The-Buson Trailerduck is a smart e-bike trailer

Amazon deliveries in NYC are done by a mix of bikes with trailers, the US Postal Service, Amazon's own Sprinter vans, and third-party contractors using their own vehicles (e.g. Lasership). The bikes and trailers are replacing these vehicles, not a normal bike.

The-Buson Job vacancies surge past one million in new record

If some combination of pensions/social security allowed people to live a comfortable, safe retirement with some guarantee of food, shelter, and medical care, then they'd be less worried about the one asset they own worth more than five figures.

The-Buson 61% of Americans paid no income taxes in 2020

> more than _half of all Americans don't pay taxes_

I think the only Americans without a real tax burden are children. Even someone destitute who spends $5 on a fast food meal may pay taxes on it.

Taxation is a complex topic, and reducing it to statements like CNBC's headline is not very helpful.

The-Buson Chip shortage: Toyota to cut global production by 40%

Plastics have actually experienced a pretty significant shortage this year, with resins and other components being hard to source[1]. Polaris, for example, would build their entire vehicle except the seats, then build and attach them once the plastic resin for the foam became available[2].

1) https://www.ntotank.com/blog/resin-material-market-shortages... 2) https://www.wsj.com/articles/supply-chain-bottlenecks-drive-...

The-Buson First town in America to ban new gas stations

Another proof point for Betteridge's Law of Headlines

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Betteridge%27s_law_of_headline...

The-Buson The emergence of heat and humidity too severe for human tolerance (2020)

The problem is that wet-bulb temperature is not the Heat Index or a "feels-like" temperature. Here's a bit more info: https://www.weather.gov/source/zhu/ZHU_Training_Page/definit...

The-Buson For developers, Safari is crap and outdated

> push notifications feel more like walking down the Vegas strip having leaflets constantly shoved in your face.

Strong agreement here.

There's a significant (single digit %) of sites I run into that ask me to accept push notifications or ask for my email before any of the content loads. I usually close the tab when that happens.

The-Buson We prefer abusers like you to stop using Puffin instead of becoming paid abusers

From a response to a user review complaining by the developer (CloudMosa Inc):

"95% of the free users are good users. 5% of the free users are bad users because they are ‘parasites’. Parasite users think they are ‘entitled’ to unlimited free usage. People with ‘parasite syndrome’ are those who are on welfare with free handouts for so long that they expect the free handouts will last for the rest of their lives."

Well... that escalated quickly.

The-Buson Valve Steam Deck

Had this issue as well. I now use it as a display only and always play with a controller (tabletop mode). If I can't use a controller, I play slower games (like Civ).

The-Buson Sriracha hit revenue of $150M a year with no sales team or ad spend

> I've no idea of the history of say Tabasco

The Tabasco story is really interesting and it's essentially the Sriracha of the late 1800s and early 1900s. Tabasco is a private, family-owned company. They still grow all the seeds for its pepper crops on the same island they did in the 1800s [1]. Some family members were friends with Teddy Roosevelt [2]. I remember hearing, but cannot find a source right now, that Roosevelt like the sauce so much he had it included in military ration kits.

[1] https://www.cbsnews.com/news/tabasco-hot-sauce-industry-60-m... [2] https://www.theodorerooseveltcenter.org/Blog/Item/John%20Ave...

The-Buson Ask HN: How did an adult ADHD diagnosis help you?

I was prescribed Adderall XR which did wonders for my symptoms but eventually I stopped taking it as my heart would race after doing any strenuous exercise. I wish that wasn't the case, as it did help.