Hacker News Reader

_nedRon Tolkien was right: Scholars conclude Beowulf likely the work of single author

This is already a thing. In fact the rumour is that the US govt discovered the identity of Bitcoin's Satoshi using this.

https://medium.com/cryptomuse/how-the-nsa-caught-satoshi-nak...

_nedRon Reducing notification permission prompt spam in Firefox

Au contraire, i think the bell meme is more widespread than you think. Taking India as an example, the lower levels of literacy has actually made video content the primary form of online content. And with youtube being one of the major portals of such content and with every youtuber in every corner of the globe nagging subscibers (in their native language) to click that bell icon i think it has already spread to a large demographic.

_nedRon American Hackers Helped UAE Spy on Al Jazeera Chairman, BBC Host

Could you help dispel the myth by providing sources? Info regarding Android phones would be appreciated.

I certainly was still under the impression that phones were a crapshoot of vulnerabilities especially outside the iphone.

_nedRon Reducing notification permission prompt spam in Firefox

It is literally being used to abuse less tech literate ppl (elderly, children, non english speakers, non-tech savvy people, people from third world countries).

Such people just click yes yes yes to these popups without reading them (thinking theyre EU cookie, T&C, privacy prompts, etc). Its a prime vector for malwartisements these days.

_nedRon Reducing notification permission prompt spam in Firefox

Just a couple weeks ago i was helping "disinfect" an android phone for a acquaintance (shopkeeper) here in India.

The "virus" in question was chrome notifications for spam/porn/malware probably from malvertisements embedeed in some websites. It took me several minutes to locate and disable them. You would think that chrome on android would give an option to disable an offending notification from the notification bar but no, you have to go digging in the chrome settings and scan through the permission list to find the offenders.

While i certainly think it is a useful api needed for the free web(i still prefer websites over apps which are essentially websites with undeleteable hypercookies), Mozilla and Google need to do a better job protecting the literally billions of people who are less literate (either in tech or english) from the cesspool that is online media.

_nedRon In Beijing, it’s often cheaper to have food delivered than to get it yourself

The honeymoon may end sooner than we think. There are already rumours floating around online of Uber Eats selling their India operations to Swiggy.

_nedRon In Beijing, it’s often cheaper to have food delivered than to get it yourself

In third countries with lax food safety regulation i feel they matter. When there are more layers of separation between you and your end customer i think its human nature that you will be little less vigiliant / anxious about seeing a cockroach or rat in your kitchen. At some point it isalmost anonymous like an internet crime.

_nedRon India test its first anti-satellite missile system

You are in all probability correct and you arent the only one. (https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-india-47114401)

Like the other commenter pointed out, the DRDO has long claimed this capability. But this surprise announcement in a planned press conference (without telling what it was about) before elections.. why announce this now? Timing of it only makes sense in context of elections

_nedRon Apple Wins $539M from Samsung in Damages Retrial

Was his company awarded 500 million dollars in damages?

_nedRon Apple Wins $539M from Samsung in Damages Retrial

>It tends to bring this pointless debate to a quick end.

Not really.. all the before photos are for keypad phones. All the after photos are for touchscreen phones. I would argue that if you are going to design a pure touchscreen phone, you are likely to end up with an 'iPhone-like' design. Case in point is the LG Prada which was unveiled before the iPhone.

_nedRon Ask HN: I'm writing a book about white-collar drug use, including tech sector

Ah, a perl user ;)

For those who don't know :

"The three principal virtues of a programmer are Laziness, Impatience and Hubris." - Perl man page

_nedRon Samsung Galaxy S9 and S9+

Fair enough. Especially In the case of the iPhone there seems to have been a lot of 'wasted' vertical space that could have otherwise been used for the display (albeit requiring a different aspect ratio). But my point still remains - Is the 1-2mm of extra screen space afforded by an edge-to-edge display really worth it? For me at least the answer is no.

_nedRon Samsung Galaxy S9 and S9+

Cinderella phones, I call them.

_nedRon Samsung Galaxy S9 and S9+

which phone was it?

_nedRon Samsung Galaxy S9 and S9+

Seriously.. This obsession with thinner, bezel-less flimsy phones that look good only until the first time you drop it at a height greater than 2cms; Its cancer, causing manufacturers to make phones that are objectively worse from the viewpoint of ergonomics (these phones are very slippery and easy to drop), reliability and battery life.

I would pick a sturdy rugged phone over these cinderella phones any day of the week.

_nedRon In One Tweet, Kylie Jenner Wiped Out $1.3B of Snap's Market Value

What's to laugh at. In the first case you are financially vested in something's success. In the latter case you are invested in something's failure.

There is a difference between insuring a house you want to live in and insuring a house you want to burn down.

_nedRon Doctors in China Lead Race to Treat Cancer by Editing Genes

I believe his point is that although it is useful to analyze someone to see what they're doing wrong (so that you don't repeat the same mistake), it would be more useful to study what they are doing right so that you can apply those lessons to your situation. The former is quite easy to do and runs the risk of lulling one into complacency and a false sense of security, while the latter exercises your brain and demands greater effort and a more impartial assessment of the situation.

http://www.aaronkharris.com/presumption-of-stupitidy https://sivers.org/ss

In the grandparent commenter's case, he is saying that everyone is focusing on the negatives of Chinese research when there are some useful lessons regarding regulation that could possibly be ported to the US.

_nedRon Flight Sim Company Embeds Malware to Steal Pirates’ Passwords

Fair enough. It does not seem to have undergone the level of scrutiny that one would hope for. But for me it seems to make sense to trust one app rather than having to individually trust the dozens of random apps i encounter day-to-day use. I am pasting an example i gave in a reply to another comment :

"So for example the other day i wanted to download a 60fps video from youtube, and the only practical option was to use and adware ridden java downloader.. So i just downloaded it, created a new sandbox (based on the template sandbox) for the app, installed it (i recall i had some minor kinks in the install process but managed to get it to work in the end); after i was done with it , i deleted the sandbox, and i was off on my way without having to worry if the application had left some unsavoury bits on my system.."

edit: It seems Sandboxie was acquired by Sophos, so now you have to decide whether you trust Sophos or not.

_nedRon Flight Sim Company Embeds Malware to Steal Pirates’ Passwords

It works well enough for most applications and games although I have had issues at times; for example with firefox installs. Using portable version of apps will make it easier in such situations.

It is mostly trial and error fiddling with the level on f restrictions you want while not breaking apps. In my case, i have a template profile of permissions, most of which are for restricting access to personal/confidential files/folders like Documents, Browser profiles, etc. Instead of blocking access outright though , i usually make the files/folders write-only..

So, for example the other day i wanted to download a 60fps video from youtube, and the only practical option was to use an adware ridden java downloader.. So i just downloaded it created a new sandbox (based on the template sandbox) for the app, installed it (i recall i had some minor kinks in the install process but managed to get it to work in the end). After i was done with it , i deleted the sandbox and i was off on my way without having to worry if the application had left some unsavoury bits on my system..

edit: I might add that a key advantage of Sandboxie as opposed to other solutions like VMs is that afaik, Sandboxie mostly works by intercepting API calls to the underlying OS.. This maybe more leaky than a VM, but it is also much more lightweight, and as a consequence it has given me good performance for stuff like games, etc.

_nedRon Flight Sim Company Embeds Malware to Steal Pirates’ Passwords

https://www.sandboxie.com/

You can either run Steam sandboxed which in turn will sandbox all the games it runs, or you have to do a bit of finagling if you want to individually sandbox your games.

_nedRon MPEG-2 Patents Have Expired

Make software patents last 5 years instead of 17.

_nedRon AMP for email is a terrible idea

As a user, screw you. Sorry to be harsh, but the fact of the matter is the harder your life is, the easier my life becomes, no joke.

I dont want AMP. In fact, I want emails to go the other way. It already annoys me that email marketers can track whether i have read their email or not.

_nedRon 'It Knows When I Got Out of the Car': How Google's Tracking You

Note : You have to watch the embedded video as the article text is sparse in content.

Many may raise eyebrows at the source (am not a fan either), but i shared it anyway because i found the video quite eye-opening wrt how precisely Google tracks your whereabouts even in airplane mode. Honestly, i am surprised that i am hearing about this from Fox before any of the other traditional tech sources.

_nedRon Saudi Arabia’s Arab Spring, at Last

One 'anonymous' source cited by the Daily mail; Really? That too claiming that billionaire prince Alaweed no less is being dangled by his feet.

_nedRon Saudi Arabia’s Arab Spring, at Last

Some of the reforms have already happened. Prominent examples include the reforms to the guardian system and woman's driving issue. Also there is the planned and widely announced IPO of Saudi Aramco. If the IPO announcement is a marketing stunt, then it is a pretty lame one as it is easily verifiable/disprovable. I have trouble figuring out what the short term gains could possibly be from announcing a fake IPO.

_nedRon Leonardo Da Vinci Painting Sells for $450.3M, Shattering Auction Records

Art is supposed to inspire our inner eye for beauty. Seeing the 450 million dollar price tag, i feel an unusual amount of anger, disgust, revulsion at the ostentatiousness, excesses and brazen corruption of the rich and of the fine art world. I feel more disgust at this than i would at the usual gaudy, blingy excesses (like gold-plated cars and mansions) of the tasteless wealthy. I suppose good art can also seek to inspire these feelings, even if the price tag has only cheapened the actual artwork in my eye. I wonder how the millions of the poor, nameless, talented artists around the world feel about this.

A portrait of Jesus Christ of questionable origin and authenticity being sold by a Russian fertilizer magnate for 450 million usd. Says quite a bit about the times we live in, Doesn't it?

edit: Sorry for my salty tirade; Just sharing a viewpoint.

_nedRon How Julian Jaynes’ consciousness theory is faring in the neuroscience age (2015)

>Any useful theory of consciousness has to be able to explain animal consciousness too

Taking it further, i would argue that whatever physics theory that claims to state the truth about the Universe and its origins has to explain how consciousness works down to the elementary level. Similar how electronic circuits can be explained based on the atomic model and quantum theory. Like a "Quantum theory of consciousness" or some such.

_nedRon How Julian Jaynes’ consciousness theory is faring in the neuroscience age (2015)

As a Computer Engineer by training I am curious about the field of research regarding conciousness.

Is there any contemporary book or resource that summarizes the current academic views and discoveries on the subject?

_nedRon Snap’s Rise and Fall: How a Big, Splashy IPO Prompted the Doubters to Keep Mum

Thats a product, not a feature.

_nedRon “We have obtained fully functional JTAG for Intel CSME via USB DCI”

Apparently Intel ME can be killed by setting an undocumented flag discovered by the same group?

https://www.csoonline.com/article/3220476/security/researche...

Anybody can shed light on this tool and whether it can mitigate the attack mentioned in the tweet?