Hacker News Reader

cltsangon Microsoft announces new Surface Duo phone

Hate is a strong word.

But I agree that innovation is often incremental efforts of exploration and convergence, like how we got to where we are in VR today. Magical phenomenal change like iPhone is rather exceptional.

cltsangon Python Is Eating the World

That depends. If you bet on JSP, good luck. If you've shift to data or infrastructure, you're in good shape. There are lots of Apache projects[0] that are innovative and relevant today.

[0] https://projects.apache.org/projects.html?language#Java

cltsangon China is increasingly using exit bans to bar Americans from leaving

True.

But most Americans don't fuck with DPRK even if for some reason they decide to travel there. The core of the problem is they underestimate how "totalitarian" China is.

cltsangon Australia concluded China was behind hack on parliament, political parties

I'm not an American, but as far as I could tell Americans grow up learning the history about Russian being the arch-enemy, so Russia hacking is so much easier to digest.

China's is a relatively new threat. On top of that, it could be hard to get a grasp of how hostile China is when the Chinese officials on TV often sound so normal and friendly.

It's similar for the rest of the world

cltsangon Apple Watch Series 5

It's the opposite for me. Spotify kept repeating a small collection of recommended songs to me, until I react to the song by stating whether I like or dislike the song. It takes active effort from me which is bothering. Apple Music's recommendations on the other hand updates every week. And the recommendations have been quite good.

cltsangon China’s assault on Cathay Pacific

In that case I'd recommend

The Hundred-Year Marathon: China's Secret Strategy to Replace America as the Global Superpower [0] by Hudson Institute's China expert.

and

Unrestricted Warfare: China's Master Plan to Destroy America [1]

These are rather hawkish but unfortunately also nailing the truth.

[0] https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/20696000-the-hundred-yea...

[1] https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/855077.Unrestricted_Warf...

cltsangon Fuck me: iOS’ Notes app censors handwritten swears

Apple Notes can be shared [0].

But I doubt if the trade off is worth it to trouble the user even when it's not shared to anyone.

[0] https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT206987

cltsangon China Is Waging a Disinformation War Against Hong Kong Protesters

https://www.facebook.com/612Fund/

This fund is the most popular among locals.

cltsangon Ask HN: Is Hacker News Blocked by China's Great Firewall Now?

Any platform that allows debate about anything related to china is doom to be blocked by china.

Open and honest discussion leads to truth. And truth about china is not allowed in china.

cltsangon Ask HN: Wireframing Tools?

I use Adobe XD. Compared to Sketch, it doesn't have as many plugins. Compared to Origami, the animation controls are not as fine. Compared to PaintCode, it can only export styles.

However, it's free, plus there are lots of templates out there, plus there are auto animate and integration with other Adobe tools. It's not the best at anything, but is good enough at everything for my needs.

cltsangon Hong Kong Airport shuts down as protesters take over

You are not alone in this. The country flag itself does not have any true meaning other than representing the country. To the people from mainland China, it may symbolise launching rocket to fly round the moon, the 2nd largest economy, etc., but to the people in Hong Kong, it may mean uighur genocide, tiananmen massacre, years of WTO rules violations, etc..

However people grew up in China are trained to be punished and even disappeared when they speak or act against the chinese official rhetoric, where as being patriotic in the officially approved ways is rewarding.

This extends to them enjoying watching people get punished and disappeared when they speak or act against the chinese official rhetoric. It's immoral and irrational, but it's also human nature. These brainwashing started even before they have the ability to reason.

cltsangon Hong Kong Airport shuts down as protesters take over

So what about the problems themselves? The extradition bill? Police brutality? Unjustified arrests? And ultimately, the HK government not answering to the people's demand?

cltsangon Hong Kong Airport shuts down as protesters take over

Not sure what the government is trying to achieve by shutting down the airport and sending in the police to clear the scene. AFAIK the protesters are not causing any trouble there, no flights are affected.

There are many who chose to sit-in at the airport since they do not agree with the escalation of the protests in other districts. Also there are elderlies and parents who have to carry and look after their children, who just cannot bear tear gas and rubber pullets.

This act by the government will only catch more foreign attention, and put more pages on the pile of recent police brutality.

cltsangon Who Owns Huawei?

I agree the east asia approach is better if it works in the ideal situation.

The problem is everyone is not perfect. Power and wealth corrupts. And even if we are lucky to have the ideal situation at some point, no one can guarantee the next.

That's why we need separation of power: a system with checks and balances. I think as of now we don't have a equation to make the perfect system, but democracy is proven to be the best we've got so far.

cltsangon HarmonyOS is Huawei’s Android alternative for smartphones and smart home devices

China has been pushing that propaganda for years. See the movie "Transformers: Age of Extinction", and also the Chinese made "The Wandering Earth", in which Chinese people speak mandarin to white people, and those white people understand just fine.

Honestly English being THE international language is certainly a reflection of the power of English speaking nations. It's no wonder China fancy having that.

cltsangon Google Maps AR Walking Directions Arrive on iOS and Android

If it's meant to be used as shown in the top photo in the article, where the phone is held directly in front of the user at eye level, it looks quite dangerous.

cltsangon China’s liberalization and structural reform drives growth

Seems you are one of the few who understands what I'm trying to say. Over time greed and corruption take over.

I live in Hong Kong, which is the most extreme example of this.

And I've also witnessed how this whole process is accelerated in China, since greed and corruption are more prevalent.

cltsangon China’s liberalization and structural reform drives growth

So are you challenging trickle down economics? That's debatable.

I believe at least at the early stage capitalism trickle down economics works. However, without proper checks and balance system, corruption brought by power and wealth does stop the trickle down effect.

Therefore in China where corruption is an accepted norm, it's doomed to fail. That was not originally planned though.

Maybe that's also why recently the CCP has been trying so hard to abolish religions, to keep the people's moral standard low.

cltsangon China’s liberalization and structural reform drives growth

Exactly. The language of the article itself doesn't affect on the content or the credibility.

If anything, the Chinese government has higher incentive to clamp down the Chinese version as Chinese content has a wider reach and thus higher impact on the local people.

cltsangon Cure53 Audit of Chinese ‘Police App’

Uncovered CCP internal document said they oppose "universal values" as a concept established by western civilizations [0][1].

So human rights violations is not a thing in China. Under the current Chinese government's rule, the people do not have rights, unless, of course, when the "rights" are beneficial to the longevity of the CCP.

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

[1]: https://cn.nytimes.com/china/20130820/c20document/dual/

cltsangon Americans' plastic recycling is dumped in landfills

When the market is not informed or cared enough to make the move, it needs external push from the government.

This is exactly why I see a ray of hope since Canada announced she will ban single use plastic in near future [0].

I hope international cooperations grasp this chance to abandon as much plastic as possible altogether in the global supply chain, not just to cater to Canada's upcoming regulations.

[0]: https://www.nationalgeographic.com/environment/2019/06/canad...

cltsangon Beijing says military could intervene in Hong Kong

To the more fortunate among us who live in the civilized parts of the world: please proactively fight for your democratic system and basic human rights. They are hard-earned, but can be easily eroded.

cltsangon Protesters in Hong Kong are getting attacked by masked thugs

To deter persistent protests, I presume.

Speaking from experience, it is difficult to wrap a liberal mind around this.

From my limited understanding, pro Beijing people support rule by fear, since fear is the very reason they support the communist party.

They fear to even flich no matter what the communist party does to them, because they fear the revenge. That's why they want others to feel the same. That's why they approve of the violent suppression of protests. They don't believe there is hope for resistance, so they choose the winning side.

It's selfish, irrational, and immoral. There were judenrats during world war 2, and red guards during China's cultural revolution. It's all the same.

cltsangon Foreign purchases of American homes plunge as Chinese buyers flee the market

These sentimental words definitely serve better as triggers of trading algorithms. Maybe related?

cltsangon China’s State-Driven Growth Model Is Running Out of Gas

Even the second most powerful man in China does not trust official GDP figures. See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Li_Keqiang_index

cltsangon FaceApp raises concern about how photos are being used to create aging effect

According to Wikipedia [0], the app was launched 2 and a half years ago. So back in early 2017, machine learning on mobile was just beginning to gain traction. In fact, Core ML was only launched later at WWDC 2017 [1].

Yes it does look fishy. Today we have TensorFlow lite and Core ML, but to me it makes sense they did it this way back then.

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

[1]: https://www.apple.com/newsroom/2017/06/ios-11-brings-new-fea...

cltsangon China's rising tech scene threatens US brain drain as ‘sea turtles’ return home

That is not true.

The Chinese government has been actively monitoring [0] all popular online messaging platforms, and shutting down any opinion that is considered by the government anti-government.

There is also some new network security law [1] that enforces companies, from ISP to website operators, to self-censor, and to pinpoint every action from every user, such that officials could collect the data as they wish [2].

The whole process is already well organized and somewhat automated. Now that the social credit score system is being deployed to more major cities, the threat of free speech is climbing to the next level.

You may say they don't fear. But I argue that many Chinese citizens don't even realize why they feel very uncomfortable and insecure to talk about politics. They think people who voice out are stupid. The reason deep down, is fear.

[0]: https://twitter.com/0xDUDE/status/1101909112131080192

[1]: http://www.hk-lawyer.org/content/china-passes-network-securi...

[2]: https://www.zdnet.com/article/chinas-cybersecurity-law-updat...

cltsangon Chinese authorities install app on phones of people entering Xinjiang

You may have missed this paragraph from the article:

> Huawei said they would "provide industry-leading products and services... to build a safer and smarter society with the public security department of the autonomous region." Three months later, the company launched the Huawei Urumqi DevCloud to "promote the development of the software information industry in the district and all of Urumqi."

If that's not enough, please read this another article also from forbes [0].

[0] https://www.forbes.com/sites/zakdoffman/2019/04/25/huawei-xi...

cltsangon Chinese authorities install app on phones of people entering Xinjiang

Next time when you buy a burner phone, please try to be more conscious.

Huawei is likely one of the companies that contributed to this very Xinjiang endeavour [0].

Even if it's not directly related, by buying a Huawei phone, you are voting with your money to support a company that's been hurting innovation with IP theft through the years [1].

[0] https://www.forbes.com/sites/zakdoffman/2019/05/25/huawei-ac...

[1] https://www.wsj.com/articles/huaweis-yearslong-rise-is-litte...

cltsangon Chinese authorities install app on phones of people entering Xinjiang

To clarify, in China, one could get "disappeared" for the rest of his/her life, just because of befriending CCP's "enemies", or speaking up against the official rhetoric.

I don't think the two countries are even remotely comparable on this front.