HNHacker News
TopNewBestAskShowJobs

WAthrowaway

88 karma · joined October 3, 2018

submissionscomments
WAthrowaway··on Fighting the “loneliness epidemic” at work
>I don't really understand why all these groups are around race, sexuality or gender. This seems to me the opposite of diversity. In my view there should be groups around interests instead.

I don't see why a reason why you can't have both?

WAthrowaway··on Fighting the “loneliness epidemic” at work
>As a white male you haven't experienced any of that, which is fine!

You know absolutely nothing about this person and yet feel completely at liberty to issue blanket statements about their life and what they have experienced and how they 'should' feel.

White privilege is obviously real. However, that doesn't mean that a white male hasn't ever been nervous around the police or felt queer thoughts.

This is why people resent contemporary 'identity politics' and 'diversity' initiatives. Not because of the end goals themselves (that is, to mitigate racism and prejudice) but because the rhetorical methods currently employed are cloying, tone-deaf, and frankly just plain condescending. The overall point you are making is a noble and important one - to self-reflect and put yourself in other people's perspective - but I don't think this is the most effective way to convey it.

WAthrowaway··on The Google Cemetery – A list of dead Google products and why they died
lol i worked in the same department as the search team. what a nightmare - some of the code in there went back to the 90s
WAthrowaway··on Ask HN: What was your best passive income in 2018?
I often have specific authors or periods in mind - such as when I am reading a book and come across a reference to an untranslated author or piece - and so I just search for the source text (usually on wikisource or gutenberg) and make sure its public domain.

I publish them myself, yes - there is a "press" I put them under but its just me. I have a few friends who do reviews and I am also on several academic mailing lists

WAthrowaway··on Ask HN: What was your best passive income in 2018?
I'd prefer to stay anonymous on this site but I will say there are a lot of French horror /occult stories from the 19th Century that are in the public domain and attract a niche following. For instance, one of the seminal works of demonology, "Dictionnaire Infernal", remains largely untranslated into English.
WAthrowaway··on Ask HN: What was your best passive income in 2018?
I'd prefer to stay anonymous online. However someone I've worked with in the past recently translated this and makes a comparable amount from the residual sales http://www.lulu.com/shop/natan-dubovitsky-and-vladislav-surk...
WAthrowaway··on NYC subway and bus services have entered 'death spiral', experts say
They are already doing this for several lines. The L wasn't running on weekends at all in November for them to do repairs.

NYC is unique in that there are LOTS of people whose working hours fall into that range and they rely on the subway. Just shutting down the whole system is unfeasible.

WAthrowaway··on Ask HN: What was your best passive income in 2018?
I translated some well-regarded public domain works into English. I make around 2-3k a month from the ebook sales. If you find niche areas of interest or research it can be quite lucrative. Of course you invest the time to translate but I find it rewarding and less like actual "work"
WAthrowaway··on Most ATMs can be hacked in under 20 minutes
If you find the ATM make and model, you can usually just google the manual for it and find the default password for admin / operator mode. In my experience, most still use the default (usually 0000, 1234, or 000000).

I've done this sometimes to change the ATM fees if they were absurdly high - the student center ATM at my college charged $4 bucks. Or at least it used to...

WAthrowaway··on Embracing the Laws of Physics: Three Reversible Models of Computation
Thank you for the insight, that makes a lot of sense! I just ordered the Feynman Lectures on Computation, excited to read.
WAthrowaway··on Embracing the Laws of Physics: Three Reversible Models of Computation
Hmm would software like Nix function as a practical example of 'reversible computing'?
WAthrowaway··on Amazon Selects New York City and Northern Virginia for New Headquarters
>What ever happened to living within your means?

You mean like they were before the area became gentrified? It's not an intrinsic property of neighborhoods to become gentrified - it's an external process forced upon a populace by governments and corporations and landlords

WAthrowaway··on Google Earth for live radios
Seconding the request to be able to "lock" a station while scrolling. Other than that it is perfect - UX and discovery is intuitive, the station listings are comprehensive, and the music sounds great
WAthrowaway··on Tim Berners-Lee says tech giants may have to be split up
Or just a couple of smart, dedicated people in a garage
WAthrowaway··on Ask HN: As a Software Engineer how can I help in colonizing mars?
1. Work for SpaceX

2. Work for NASA

3. Work for your local space agency or aeronautics concern

4. Amass a large amount of money through software engineering and donate / invest

5. Amass a large amount of money through software engineering and create your own colony initiative

WAthrowaway··on Transforming Wikipedia into a cultural knowledge quiz
Creating a grid to fit the chosen words in wouldn't be so hard. The real difficulty would be coming up with clever clues that weren't just the first paragraph of the wiki article with the names removed
WAthrowaway··on Tiny Books Fit in One Hand. Will They Change the Way We Read?
Not only is the emphasis on hard covers for new release - meaning you have to wait a bit to get a decent paperback - but the paperback sizes are always too huge to fit into a jacket pocket.
WAthrowaway··on When Adolescents Give Up Pot, Their Cognition Quickly Improves
It is, but harder to get in non-legal markets (most of the US right now). I work in the industry and the trend seems to be more towards purer concentrates like wax and oil - the margins on those are incredible
WAthrowaway··on Ask HN: What paywalled content do you pay for?
Pornography and Lapham's Quarterly
WAthrowaway··on Christie’s sells its first AI portrait for $432k
Proof that money cannot buy taste
WAthrowaway··on Enabling further research of information operations on Twitter
Perfect training data for my own botnet for the 2020 election
WAthrowaway··on Vehicle-to-Vehicle Communication Could Replace Traffic Lights, Shorten Commutes
We've come full circle back to CB radios. 10-4 good buddy
WAthrowaway··on Code hidden in Stone Age art may be the root of human writing (2016)
>It would also be amazing if more stone age art was found in underwater caves.

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

WAthrowaway··on The Student Loan Debt Crisis Is About to Get Worse
Your points about the entitlement of hippies is disingenuous. Max Yasgur wholeheartedly allowed Woodstock to happen on his property. Paid workers helped clean up the aftermath as well as volunteers.
WAthrowaway··on Ask HN: Tips on hiring a “life manager” or coach to be productive?
I'll do it for you for only 100 dollars a session. I will also send you reminder texts and set checkpoints for you to keep you on track. Email is in profile
WAthrowaway··on Facebook to ban misinformation on voting in upcoming U.S. elections
They really should just disallow all posting from Nov 1 until after the elections. It would be much more effective
WAthrowaway··on Ask HN: Was hired to improve company's devops, founder won't listen to my ideas
Yea I am looking around but I really like the product and I thought this would an opportunity to put my skills to the test since it all essentially greenfield. But if I can't get approval from the guy who hired me then it seems moot.
WAthrowaway··on Ask HN: Was hired to improve company's devops, founder won't listen to my ideas
Yes these are all things I have proposed but I just get stonewalled by the founder and the two senior engineers. I am debating just implementing the block without their approval - because it would seriously help the company - but I don't want to seem aggressive or confrontational?
← PreviousPage 2 of 2