Hacker News Reader

bb101on Cable Haunt: A critical vulnerability found in cable modems

For most home users, the NAT on their router is also their firewall. It's akin to saying that it doesn't matter if someone can open your front door as they will only get access to the entrance hall...

bb101on Apple’s Predatory Free Trial

I just set a reminder for +1 year minus 2 days in my calendar and live happily knowing I'll be notified when the time is right.

bb101on Boeing whistleblower raises doubts over 787 oxygen system

It would appear QANTAS doesn't have any ex-Charleston 787s either. Couldn't say whether it's intentional.

bb101on Boeing whistleblower raises doubts over 787 oxygen system

It's possible to find out whether a 787 was made in Everett or Charleston by checking the production site and remarks on planespotters.net

e.g. https://www.planespotters.net/airframe/Boeing/787/G-ZBJM-Bri... vs. https://www.planespotters.net/airframe/Boeing/787/9V-SCF-Sin...

bb101on We Need to Dream Bigger Than Bike Lanes

Excellent analysis of the topic. Thank you.

bb101on We Need to Dream Bigger Than Bike Lanes

Interesting how the author seems to think that cycling advocates have only a marginal impact on our built environment because they "ask for twigs".

I would have assumed that the lack of cycling infrastructure in cities is more influenced by the people who have power over our town councils and planners -- wealthy developers and transport lobbyists. How likely are these people to use bicycles over cars themselves?

bb101on Obesity Is Weighing on Education, Productivity and the Economy

A good place to start is to read Michael Pollan's Omnivore's Dilemma[1]. I was amazed at how much of our current food originates as corn. Corn is good at fattening cattle in record time, and seems to be having the same effect on humans who eat its derivatives.

[1] https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/3109.The_Omnivore_s_Dile...

bb101on Preparing for 25 Years

I use RSS multiple times a day through Feedly and Reeder. It is anything but dead.

bb101on Tethered Jailbreaks Are Back

If one is going to buy the phone anyway, payment plans with 0% interest make a lot of sense (from the buyer's perspective).

bb101on Irish Teenager Wins Global Science Award for Removing Microplastics from Water

Depends if his objective is form a future network of C-suite acquaintances (Harvard, Oxbridge), or to learn science (MIT, Netherlands).

bb101on Irish Teenager Wins Global Science Award for Removing Microplastics from Water

"Ferrier sat his Leaving Certificate exams last month at Schull Community College and is due to attend university in the Netherlands. The teenager works as a curator at the Schull Planetarium, has won 12 science fair awards, speaks three languages fluently, plays the trumpet at orchestra level, and had a minor planet named after him by the MIT Lincoln Laboratory."

Anyone else feeling somewhat inadequate in comparison?

bb101on Cabin releases 2nd-gen fleet of sleeper bus from SF to LA and back

Many supermarkets in the UK outsource maintenance of their car parks to private firms, who benefit from being able to charge after a certain period has elapsed. It's the same with hospitals, train stations, council car parks. It makes me sad.

bb101on Cabin releases 2nd-gen fleet of sleeper bus from SF to LA and back

I found the food on the Amtrak Coastal Starlight (Seattle-LA) better than expected, and their wines were much better than I expected (comparable to Asian airlines' wines in business class). A pleasant journey all round really.

bb101on The New American Homeless

The BBC had an interesting article this week exploring these very ideas in the context of the island of Barbuda.

Why I don't want to own the land my business is built on: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/stories-49210150

bb101on The New American Homeless

I remember watching the 1988 film God Bless the Child [1] with Mare Winningham as the hardworking yet impoverished mother trying to keep it together for her young daughter. It was so moving, I cried all the way through it and it has left a life-long impression.

So sad to see not much has changed in 30 years.

[1] https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0095227/

bb101on Who Owns Huawei?

Thanks, I'll take a look.

bb101on Who Owns Huawei?

Fascinating. Do you know any recent good books that cover the topic? I'm thinking something like Browder's Red Notice, but for China. Misha Glenny delved into China in his McMafia, but it was more about smuggling in the Fujian province, and its governor at the time: Xi.

bb101on Old Paris Is No More

The last time we drove through Poundbury on a summer weekend, the town (it's not a city) was a ghost town. We tried to find somewhere pleasant to have lunch - i.e. open and not fast food - and utterly failed. It has a central town square with nothing going on. I'm sure the rest of Dorchester is interesting and full of life, but Poundbury wasn't.

bb101on What you may have heard about the dispute between UC and Elsevier

The rot starts at the top: https://www.elsevier.com/about/management

bb101on Facebook Hit by Apple’s Crackdown on Messaging Feature

iOS 13 will be supported on the 6s, just not on the 6/6 Plus (and below).

bb101on My 300 Mile Lyft Ride From Chicago to Bradford

"But since I flew into O’Hare on a commercial flight, like a common schmuck, Hertz wouldn’t give me the car, even though they clearly had it to give. Basically, I wasn’t rich enough to rent the car Hertz had allowed me to reserve, so they weren’t going to let me have it. Which, I don’t know. Seems like a real dick move on Hertz’s part, and doesn’t incline me to use them ever again for anything."

The author's experience with Hertz mirrors my own experiences with them. Much like using UPS, they are an absolute last choice for us. We have a saying in our house: "It's called Hertz because it hurts."

bb101on Maps Reveal the Difference in How Cities Are Perceived by Tourists and Locals

I lived across the street from the Charles Dickens Museum in London for years. Never once went as "it'll always be there later". Still haven't been.

bb101on Maps Reveal the Difference in How Cities Are Perceived by Tourists and Locals

It could be the tip of a trend. For every one person suffering the full Paris Syndrome psychosis, there are probably a thousand Japanese departing Charles de Gaulle thinking to themselves "What a horrible dump, thank god we are leaving." -- Paris Syndrome-lite?

bb101on Thaddeus Kosciusko

The jocular style had me clicking the close button after three paragraphs ... "(long story, don't ask)"

bb101on Scientists use camera with human-like vision to capture 5,400 FPS video

This is revolutionary, even if only from a dynamic range standpoint. It's somewhat disappointing to see the first comment under their article is "Looks like VHS" ... really?

bb101on Google employees are listening to Google Home conversations

Iain Bank's Culture series deals with self-conscious machines with the same rights and freedoms as humans. Each machine has a value denoting its mental equivalence to a human, and some starship Minds are close to gods (similar to comparing a human to amoeba).

'Never forget I am not this silver body, Mahrai. I am not an animal brain, I am not even some attempt to produce an AI through software running on a computer. I am a Culture Mind. We are close to gods, and on the far side. ‘We are quicker; we live faster and more completely than you do, with so many more senses, such a greater store of memories and at such a fine level of detail. We die more slowly, and we die more completely, too. Never forget I have had the chance to compare and contrast the ways of dying.’ [1]

[1] https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/12016.Look_to_Windward

bb101on Saudi airline cancels $6B Boeing order in favor of Airbus

Only if I had no other choice. When choosing my flights, I'd actively avoid the Max and if my flight was changed to use a Max, I'd look around for an alternative date or time.

bb101on Record Number of Honeybee Colonies Died Last Winter

We have a similar one -- a Cotoneaster. Turns out bees love it in May.

bb101on Record Number of Honeybee Colonies Died Last Winter

We have a few hives in a field behind our house. We have noticed all the neighbouring fruit trees doing very well this year -- clutches of plums and apples weighing down the branches.

bb101on Retail stores use Bluetooth beacons to track customers

Shouldn't there be a setting under Privacy to turn responding to beacons off?

I'd be interested in a list of popular apps or SDKs that use beacons -- so I could uninstall them pronto.