Hacker News Reader

bootloadon A man was gifted his dream car by Kevin Mitnick, who he helped put in prison

“He seemed to lack systems thinking, producing a report that focused on calling out specific employees as dumb or incompetent.”

2002 “Companies spend millions of dollars on firewalls, encryption, and secure access devices and it's money wasted because none of these measures address the weakest link in the security chain: the people who use, administer, operate and account for computer systems that contain protected information.” — Kevin Mitnik

“Amateurs hack systems, professionals hack people.” — Bruce Schneier

source < https://archive.md/LiQN4> / (paywall) <https://economist.com/special-report/2002/10/26/the-weakest-...>

bootloadon Sam Altman may control our future – can he be trusted?

“Today’s news comes at an interesting time. Last week, Business Insider’s Jonathan Marino reported that YC is close to raising several billion dollars for a new fund, with the goal of possibly expanding its scope to later stage funding. It said it’s still in preliminary discussions for this new strategy, but if true, Thiel could definitely play a big role there.”

My recollection was Thiel was injecting cash, a money deal. [0] There was another less advertised play. An established path for the Thiel “Boy Wonder Fellows”. [1]

“In addition to founding PayPal and Palantir and being the first investor in Facebook, Peter has been involved with many of the most important technology companies of the last 15 years, both personally and through Founders Fund, and the founders of those companies will generally tell you he has been their best source of strategic advice. He already works with a number of YC companies, and we’re very happy he’ll be working with more.”

Guess who was involved in the Thiel / YC deal? [2] You are not the only one seeing this as a reputation hit for YC. [3] Even I, disconnected across the other side of the world could see this as an issue.

[0] https://www.inc.com/business-insider/peter-thiel-is-joining-...

[1] https://boingboing.net/2016/08/25/peter-thiel-y-combinator-f...

[2] https://www.ycombinator.com/blog/welcome-peter/

[3] https://qz.com/810778/y-combinator-has-no-problem-with-partn...

bootloadon Sam Altman may control our future – can he be trusted?

“By 2018, several Y.C. partners were so frustrated with Altman’s behavior that they approached Graham to complain. Graham and Jessica Livingston, his wife and a Y.C. founder, apparently had a frank conversation with Altman. Afterward, Graham started telling people that although Altman had agreed to leave the company, he was resisting in practice”

This statement rings true.

JL, PG has mentioned often, is his weapon to test the “people” integrity aspect of YC / Startups. It’s not lost on me both Altman and Thiel both associated with YC were useful short term only, highlighting how regular “character” evaluations are required at higher levels of responsibility.

bootloadon Musk has a plan to make human labor obsolete. Billionaires are joining in.

thx didn’t see this (a glaring fault on HN is dupes)

bootloadon Musk has a plan to make human labor obsolete. Billionaires are joining in.

“While AI has spread into white collar jobs such as software engineering, it has yet to meaningfully disrupt spaces dominated by physical labor, where software and hardware must work together to perform complicated tasks.”

BMW are demonstrating humanoid robots 27/Feb/2026 ~ https://www.press.bmwgroup.com/global/article/detail/T045586...

bootloadon Musk has a plan to make human labor obsolete. Billionaires are joining in.

Alt unblock https://archive.md/xmr82

bootloadon Raspberry Pi 5 support (OpenBSD)

Interesting, going through the comments…

“WiFi is still via SDIO on the Broadcom chip, IIRC.”

<https://www.jeffgeerling.com/comment/34061#comment-34061>

And

“Ran a quick search on Raspberry Pi's github linux repo and found where I got my info from re the stuff they took out on D0. From what I can see, they actually removed device tree support for parts of the chip they don't use on C0/C1 that are not present on D0, and folded these changes into the same DTS file. They also seem to have added a DTS specifically for the D0 stepping, which seems to be register changes, i.e. stuff that is present in both variants of the chip but has moved or needs to otherwise be handled differently between C1 and D0. See https://github.com/raspberrypi/linux/pull/5847, specifically for the bits removed see <https://github.com/raspberrypi/linux/pull/5847/commits/8be08...>“

<https://www.jeffgeerling.com/comment/34061#comment-34061>

Something broke. Without going through the obsd code it remains unknown. Unless there is reference to uart3 & uart4?

bootloadon Raspberry Pi 5 support (OpenBSD)

“WiFi on the Raspberry Pi 5 Model B "d0" boards doesn't work.”

OBSD reports

> “The 4GB and 8GB variants of Raspberry Pi 5 are built around two key chips: the RP1 I/O controller, developed here at Raspberry Pi and providing the interfacing capabilities of the platform; and BCM2712C1, a 16nm application processor built by our friends at Broadcom. BCM2712C1 is a hugely complex and powerful device, with a quad-core Arm Cortex-A76 application processor running at 2.4GHz, and the latest iteration of the VideoCore multimedia platform. Alongside the features required to power a Raspberry Pi, it also contains functionality intended to serve other markets, which we don’t need. This ‘dark silicon’ is permanently disabled in the chips we use, but takes up die space, and therefore adds cost. The new D0 stepping strips away all that unneeded functionality, leaving only the bits we need.”

This is what Eben Upton reported on 19th Aug 2024. [0] and Geoff Geerling makes a comment on chip revisions. [1]

> “Steppings are basically chip revisions where they don't change functionality, and usually just fix bugs, or tweak the layout. But even tiny design changes could have unintended consequences.”

So the dark silicon removal step from BCC1 to BCD0, a cost cutting measure, killed wifi? Damn, I was hoping to use this for a obsd firewall.

Cf:

[0] <https://www.raspberrypi.com/news/2gb-raspberry-pi-5-on-sale-...>

[1] < https://www.jeffgeerling.com/blog/2024/new-2gb-pi-5-has-33-s...>

bootloadon GeoCities in 1995: Building a Home Page on the Internet

GeoCities was the place you’d go to if you didn't have access to an Internet account with web hosting. I had a page there, don’t remember the location at all. Search wasn’t a priority.

At this point I was working in an Internet startup building client-side side tools.

GeoCities did one thing really well, building pages on the Web. All you needed was a browser. Innovative.

Compare this to downloading, then installing software on a Win95 box. Work on some markup, FTP the HTML, graphics, stylesheets to the server. A hint to the future you’d see in 2003 with WP. [1]

Reference

[1] Wordpress, https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/WordPress

bootloadon Ask HN: Who is at the forefront of fighting climate change?

“Which initiatives / organizations / companies – teams / groups of people / individuals are actually working towards impactful climate change solutions?”

Personal changes work to a point. Take for instance solar power in Aus.

“The sudden rise in solar PV installations in Australia since 2018 dramatically propelled the country from being considered a relative laggard to a strong leader by mid-2019. Australia has the highest per capita solar capacity, now at more than 1kW per capita.” €

€ <https://iea-pvps.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/08/PViA-Report-...>

That’s not enough. For humanity on Earth to survive, the Petrol/Oil/Gas Industry cartels must be destroyed and dismantled.

How? by working out who & what are exploiting the energy Industry:

“How regular taxpayers are subsidizing the ultra-wealthy's use of climate-polluting private jets” ¥

¥ <https://heated.world/p/they-pollute-you-pay-literally>

bootloadon Every neuron potentially has a different genome than those it's connected to

"The bottom line is that when you add up all of the genetic risks, it looks like genetics can account for 50 percent of the risk for autism, which is very high,” -- David Amaral, an Autism specialist UC Davis MIND Institute. ~ https://www.vox.com/science-and-health/2017/5/11/15508006/wh...

Yes you're write Dang. Incivility vs factual evidence. Maybe I should be more tactful.

bootloadon How Australia Bungled Its $36B High-Speed Internet Rollout

"Absolute boondocks of Tassie, mostly agricultural/tradesfolk I'd guess. Seems odd but I'm glad they did."

Glad someone gets access. Start a software company in the bush.

bootloadon How Australia Bungled Its $36B High-Speed Internet Rollout

I feel your pain, the rollout was interesting. Wonder if the NBN rollout in Melbourne related to electorates?

bootloadon How Australia Bungled Its $36B High-Speed Internet Rollout

Interesting with Sydney. Highest density of fibre into the country and the reason google has their Aus HQ there. Be interested to find out just how much of Aus capitals w/o NBN access.

bootloadon How Australia Bungled Its $36B High-Speed Internet Rollout

I did say patchy.

bootloadon How Australia Bungled Its $36B High-Speed Internet Rollout

The NBN is a tale of geography. If you live in the CBD mainland capital city you will get good coverage. Even that it's patchy. If you live more than 30km out access get mostly worse. If you live in the bush, the best you'll get is crappy satellite or your own jury rigged antenna to the nearest town.

If you were lucky enough to a) live close to the city b) have telephone poles c) live near a telephone exchange and were chosen by Telstra to get FTTN before the change of government you can get 100Mb+ access. [0] Otherwise you are out of luck.

This is largely a political issue that could be fixed by leadership. Australia has weak leaders of both sides of the political spectrum.

Market forces are supposed to fix this problem according to our learned leaders, but it won't. Australia is big, really big and we needed a federally funded optic fibre solution to the country even if it cost a lot.

   Here's my version of NBN... Exchange->fibre->POTS 
   https://www.flickr.com/photos/bootload/tags/pots

Using technology developed during the early 1900s.

[0] Relative has NBN fibre to the node.

bootloadon Self-Compassion Works Better Than Self-Esteem

"In tech, you never realistically need to worry about money or losing your job (as it is so easy to find another) - most people don't have this comfort."

This is a misconception. If you work in a cost-centre (biz speak for not making direct dollars) your task maybe cut. I've seen whole divisions in corporations cut when savings were required. Startups are notoriously flakey for employment for reasons other than direct failure. If you work in an area with measurable sales (product) you may make a lot of money.

Tech at the moment reminds me of Rock music in the 70's. Lots of cash splashing about, deals done, people making money in making music. If there is a re-adjustment due to technology, for example the move to coughDigital/CDscough in the 80's using our music analogy?

bootloadon Every neuron potentially has a different genome than those it's connected to

"Say you discover data that leads you to suggest a different vaccination procedure."

There are plenty of examples of how accepted treatment is hard to shake. Take for example ^stomach ulcers^. Barry Marshall conducted self experiments to prove the H. pylori theory. The initial work started in '82. Marshall/Warren won the Nobel prize in 2005 [0] for this work. It changed the way stomach ulcers were understood and the treatment.

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barry_Marshall

bootloadon Every neuron potentially has a different genome than those it's connected to

"It is unclear whether decisions people made about vaccination were influenced by their exposure to certain tweets and media, or whether they simply chose to inhabit an online community that reinforced their beliefs, a tension known as contagion versus homophile." [0]

Interesting article on role of social media. Obviously you are a hard core, a non-fence sitter, so I'll ignore you.

[0] http://www.smh.com.au/national/health/how-twitter-more-accur...

bootloadon Every neuron potentially has a different genome than those it's connected to

"if it turns out vaccines are linked to autism.."

Facts not superstition, reducibility through empiricism. Rational thought instead emotion. Ideas like this were fought and won during ^the Enlightenment^ some 200 to 250 years ago. [0]

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Age_of_Enlightenment

bootloadon Every neuron potentially has a different genome than those it's connected to

"if it turns out vaccines are linked to autism"

I don't believe you, please show me some peer reviewed science instead of waiving around some ^hokey-pokey^ rubbery belief.

bootloadon Every neuron potentially has a different genome than those it's connected to

"who cares? But what if multiple vaccinations (i.e. significant stress for the body to fight a disease) for for young kids actually turned out to be problematic in some circumstances?"

This is a trivial argument. The benefits of vaccination is both individual and that a large population of immunised individuals The idea of herd-immunity is a large percentage of the population is immunised the chances of disease spreading is minimised. [0]

Vaccinations are effective because individuals taking vaccinations develop immunity and if they come into contact with antigens again, anti-bodies are produced to fight. This is important for infants, who if exposed to an antigen, the time taken and effectiveness of response is weak. [1]

References

[0] http://www.nhs.uk/Conditions/vaccinations/Pages/How-vaccines...

[1] https://www.cdc.gov/vaccines/vac-gen/howvpd.htm

bootloadon Human behavioral complexity peaks at age 25: study

"I'm probably going to fail the final exams next week."

You can improve on mental toughness to control emotion. It is not a fixed skill. Four skills needed to overcome ^fear^ and ^panic^ is through control of the limbic system: [0]

  - Positive self talk
  - Goal setting of tasks
  - Mental rehearsal of tasks 
  - Arousal control (breathing)

[0] "Mental Training" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AZ-24JtAFQw

bootloadon Solar Roof

"Solar Roof uses two types of tiles—solar and non-solar. Looking at the roof from street level, the tiles look the same. Customers can select how many solar tiles they need based on their home’s electricity consumption."

Game changer for suburban housing. This will accelerate the decentralisation of power generation making it less likely power failure will occur. Now for housing regulations at state and municipal level to mandate solar tiles in construction.

bootloadon SyntaxNet: The World’s Most Accurate Parser Goes Open Source

You'd think after 11 years of development, HN would be able to at least work out that:

a) http://googleresearch.blogspot.com/2016/05/announcing-syntax...

b) https://research.googleblog.com/2016/05/announcing-syntaxnet...

c) http://googleresearch.blogspot.com/2016/05/announcing-syntax...

... the URL and title for a==c AND the titles for a) == b) == c) are the same or similar. Make the ^dupe^ post irrelevant.

bootloadon U.S. life expectancy varies by more than 20 years from county to county

"Mokdad mentions Australia, where the tobacco tax is $14 per pack plus an additional $2 sales tax."

There is something else going on as well. The young (Australians) don't see smoking as ^cool^. In fact the path to smoking is the path to being a social pariah. You can't smoke in pubs, clubs, taxis, trains, trams, in or around public buildings.

The Australian curse is alcohol and drugs.

bootloadon Wikimedia Foundation spending

"The modern Wikipedia hosts 11–12 times as many pages as it did in 2005, but the WMF is spending 33 times as much on hosting, has about 300 times as many employees, and is spending 1,250 times as much overall."

Are there any comparable data on the costs for 11x( 16 billion PV/M) this? (I'm thinking google/amazon here)

"their poor handling of software development has been well known for many years."

So is the problem inefficiency in the code/HW setup? That is solvable. Any pointers to the hosting solution used?

bootloadon The great British Brexit robbery

"what about the CIA psyops?"

The CIA psyops question is a good one. The CIA was setup by Eisenhower to collate intelligence not engage in operations. Psyops is operations. The question of CIA dabbling in operations was resolved in '63. Post '63, there was no real threat to the CIA charter.

I'll double up, "why has the CIA got an Airforce?" [0] T

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Targeted_killing#Use_by_the_Un...

bootloadon The great British Brexit robbery

Psyops.

I occasionally delve into the CIA CREST database and one day stumbled on old articles with dollar values [0] Russian Intelligence services dumped on psyops against their adversaries at the height of the cold war. In 1980 for instance this was reported:

    "According to the CIA's reckoning, the Soviets in 1979 
     poured at least 200 million dollars (I assume US) into 
     a variety of campaigns - using propaganda and covert 
     operations - to isolate the US from it's friends." [1]

Nothing has changed.

" Palantir is practically now a trigger word. The data-mining firm has contracts with governments all over the world – including GCHQ and the NSA. It’s owned by ^Peter Thiel^, "

Let that sink in. How long till this article is flagged?

Reference:

[0] Values in CIA reports are often redacted because they are an indication of resources.

[1] CREST (Psyops Russia 1980): DEPARTMENT OF DIRTY TRICKS, SOVIET STYLE Document Release Date: January 13, 2011

Summary: https://www.cia.gov/library/readingroom/document/cia-rdp90-0...

Document: https://www.cia.gov/library/readingroom/docs/CIA-RDP90-00552...

bootloadon Sorting Two Tons of Lego, the Software Side

"then several things happened in a very short time: about two months ago HN user greenpizza13 pointed me at Keras, rather than going the long way around and using TensorFlow directly (and Anaconda actually does save you from having to build TensorFlow). And this in turn led me to Jeremy Howard and Rachel Thomas’ excellent starter course on machine learning."

This is why you read HN. Interesting though had Jacques not made the original attempts I don't think the payoff above would have been as useful.