Hacker News Reader

_cudgelon Why Clinton’s Private Email Server Was Such a Security Fail

The reporting on this story has been pretty terrible. Wired just running with the AP story without spending the couple of minutes it takes to verify the details is shameful.

Agreed.

But, in my opinion, the point of the story isn't to prove factually one way or the other whether or not Clinton did anything at all. The point is to put yet another seed of doubt in the collective subconscious of the voting public in the run-up to the 2016 Presidential election.

Performing this simple feat simply requires a small group of the right people to parrot the same lines ad nauseam. Then it becomes "fact" in the world of punditry.

_cudgelon The Drug Cartels' IT Guy

At some point, you'd think we'd have the sense to legalize all these substances that the cartels trade in to cut crime and drain them of their money and power.

_cudgelon Are Your Devices Hardwired for Betrayal?

Let's get this Butlerian Jihad started already!

_cudgelon The modern drug war started with Arnold Rothstein

A shortened version of the title at Salon would be, to me, more accurate and neutral: "America's First Drug Dealer: Arnold Rothstein"

I don't particularly care for Salon's subtitle, though. It paints a picture of the drug war as being started by the drug dealers, as does the headline on HN. It was certainly not: It took the US Congress to outlaw narcotics in the first place, and Anslinger's involvement to scare the public to the point that a war was truly begun. The criminal element that moved into this newly created environment were clearly opportunists who seemingly didn't realize there was a war at all.

Truly, it's a tragic story. If addiction has touched your life in any way, this book is a worthwhile read.

_cudgelon The modern drug war started with Arnold Rothstein

I'm in the process of reading this book, and am well past the excerpted part. I think this headline is very misleading.

Rothstein didn't start anything -- he responded to a situation created by Harry Anslinger. Anslinger created the situation out of a need to secure funding for his operation, and what appears, to my reading, to be a healthy dose of both racism and religious fervor.

_cudgelon An apparatus that may trick the brain into thinking the stomach is full

I had this problem as well. Finally someone said to me "What the hell makes you think you shouldn't be a little bit hungry all the time?"

That hunger is the drive that pushes me to do things now. I don't want to fully satisfy it; I use it. I think a lot of us modern humans could stand to learn that. It definitely helped me.

_cudgelon An apparatus that may trick the brain into thinking the stomach is full

Agreed; this doesn't deserve down votes.

_cudgelon An apparatus that may trick the brain into thinking the stomach is full

How about filling up on meat and vegetables, so there's no trick involved, and you get the nutrition you need?

_cudgelon Attention Grabbing Headlines Are Hurting Journalism

Here's a thought:

Journalism and Marketing are not the same thing -- though those lines are blurrier all the time, what with "native advertising". But on to my point... Marketing is really the science of fooling people. Whether it's to lure you into a website, or convince you to buy some plastic junk you don't need, ultimately it's fooling you.

Marketing is a Crime against Humanity.

_cudgelon It's Time to Break Up the NSA (2014)

If you take it as a given that the NSA is spying on all parties, that includes those supposedly providing oversight. Those providing oversight can then be coerced into rubber-stamping whatever the NSA wishes. Therefore, "increased oversight" is all but impossible.

_cudgelon Why digital natives prefer reading in print

I didn't see mention of the thing that always bothered me most: eye strain. I'm not sure if this is still an issue with newer "Retina"-style displays, but if I recall correctly, the human eye will constantly try and refocus on individual pixels while reading online. This comes across to the reader initially as distractedness, and after prolonged periods, eye strain.

_cudgelon As Office Space Shrinks, So Does Privacy for Workers

Mild interruptions don't seem like a big deal to managers, and the nature of their jobs means that they'll place constant communication far above quiet, focused, uninterrupted work.

The above is the case for flipping the "current" model on it's head: put the folks whose job it is to constantly communicate in the open space, and give the folks who need quiet, focused, uninterrupted work time in offices with doors.

It's an extremely hard sell for a culture that rewards status with corner offices, but it definitely _seems_ like the right thing to do.

Edit: formatting!

_cudgelon Internet of Crappy Things

I continue to fail to see how connecting appliances or small electronics to a network adds actual value. Simply throwing technology at a thing doesn't automatically make it better.

Yet, here we are, rushing headlong into the "IoT". We ought to recognize this for what it is: pursuit of profit from uninformed purchasers.

_cudgelon How 25 years of Photoshop changed the way we see reality

I obviously don't have a silver bullet. Some steps I've personally taken include things like canceling television service and canceling subscriptions to infotainment publications, whether in print or online. I've taken steps to minimize the number of distractions I'm forced to deal with, and don't participate in _most_ social media. For me, these distractions amount to enough mental noise that I have a hard time thinking critically about anything beyond my job. Without them, I've found numerous benefits, not the least of which is the ability to think more clearly and decide for myself whether a news item passes the smell test. I would advocate everyone at least try this. I suspect you'll find you have way more free time than you think, and the mental quiet will do most people some amount of good.

These personal steps don't really do anything to curb the actions of others. Frankly, I just don't have any solid solutions to offer. You can't legislate this sort of thing. It might be possible to break up some large media conglomerates under anti-trust laws, but given the amount of control the current media have to control the conversation, that seems like a non-starter to me. Ending the 24-hour news cycle would help too -- but again, there's a market, it exists, and we can't just wave a magic wand to get rid of it.

I think it's possible that the infotainment industry could atrophy and die off given enough lack of interest or enough obvious outright lying that their credibility becomes laughable. (As an aside, I've found the reaction of NBC to Brian Williams' "big fish" stories to be just perfect. Can't let the head news anchor call the whole operation's credibility into question, and so the punishment was predictably harsh.) I don't see that death as even remotely imminent.

I'm definitely open to suggestions!

_cudgelon How 25 years of Photoshop changed the way we see reality

It is very important to remember, particularly to those of us who "live" online, that all news and entertainment media -- not just static images, but video, audio, text, human interactions -- are tightly controlled, manipulated, and very often scripted.

Photoshop may be the poster child, but this is a much bigger problem than one piece of software. Social Media seems to be taken as unassailable fact by the press, and those "facts" from a fake world are then seemingly used to justify actions taken in the real world.

Damned near no one seems to care the emperor has no clothes -- and this puff piece does little to address the actual ramifications of living this way -- not so long as they're getting their tweets and instagrams.

_cudgelon The Great SIM Heist: How Spies Stole the Keys to the Encryption Castle

Laws only apply to people without power in the United States.

_cudgelon Apple CEO Tim Cook challenges Obama with impassioned stand on privacy

You should forward her this as well:

http://chronicle.com/article/Why-Privacy-Matters-Even-if/127...

_cudgelon Fuck It, I'm Going Back to Firefox

I've been very happy with Ghostery on Safari.

_cudgelon Samsung's smart TVs are inserting unwanted ads into users' own movies

> A bit disappointing that a hacker community's first reaction is to position against smart TVs.

I emphatically disagree. "Smart TVs" are recognized as a bad idea, and as such are shunned. It would be disappointing _to me_ if this hacker community didn't think about whether or not new tech was appropriate, and just immediately accepted it as a great new shiny.

Just because you can do something doesn't mean you should.

_cudgelon Native Americans Say Facebook Is Accusing Them of Using Fake Names

This made me do a spit-take. No sane individual should take advice or direction on _integrity_ from Zuckerberg.

_cudgelon Native Americans Say Facebook Is Accusing Them of Using Fake Names

Do people not realize that _all_ names are "made up" by someone?

_cudgelon A collection of useful .htaccess snippets

I agree completely!

_cudgelon A collection of useful .htaccess snippets

While I think this is a very valuable resource, and patterns are always welcome by me, it should be noted that the Apache docs recommend against using .htaccess files due to the performance penalty.

From the docs (http://httpd.apache.org/docs/current/howto/htaccess.html):

You should avoid using .htaccess files completely if you have access to httpd main server config file. Using .htaccess files slows down your Apache http server. Any directive that you can include in a .htaccess file is better set in a Directory block, as it will have the same effect with better performance.

_cudgelon I turned caps lock on for a week

I loathe the caps lock key. The first thing I'll do with a brand-new Mac is remap it to Control (SysPrefs -> Keybd -> Modifier Keys). Because thats where the control key belongs, dammit!

Still, from time to time I do type things in all caps. Once or twice I've even considered whether it would be wise to re-enable the caps lock key. In the end, I keep it remapped. My natural tendency is to be acerbic, and caps lock doesn't help me tone that down -- which I need to do. If I didn't, I can imagine that leaving caps lock on permanently would permanently damage some of the relationships I have, particularly those that are mostly online.

_cudgelon I turned caps lock on for a week

Perhaps.

_cudgelon Meadow (YC W15) ‘Ubered’ Over a Doctor to Give Me a Medical Marijuana Evaluation

Buggy Whips.

_cudgelon Redesigning the traditional Chinese shoulder pole

> Why did they not try to improve it themself?

What makes you think they haven't tried to improve it in a thousand years? Or that every other person that makes their own pole doesn't have some little tweak to improve it only for themselves?

> What am I missing?

I don't mean to be rude by saying this, but: humility?

_cudgelon Join the U.S. Digital Service

Does joining the US Digital Service require a clearance, and if so does occasional marijuana consumption automatically disqualify you?

_cudgelon Join the U.S. Digital Service

This was exactly my concern as well. The "party first, country second" mindset on "both sides of the aisle" is the most absurd and counter-productive thing in US politics, and the most likely thing IMO to derail any productive gains that could be made.

_cudgelon Croatia just canceled the debts of its poorest citizens

Cities old enough they were designed for foot-traffic, not car-traffic; modern-ish train systems and other public transit; the high price of fuel... My guess is less need.