Hacker News Reader

ddpon Ask HN: I have 176 logins/accounts. How many do you have?

1112+, plus 25 in Microsoft Authenticator w/ cloud backup enabled, and a Yubikey 5c FIPS for every device I care about.

ddpon nvALT 2 (2021)

Thanks for positing this, I was using nvALT, I love this app.

ddpon A synthetic origin of SARS-CoV-2: What we know, and what we don't

ddpon Ask HN: Which books can help one become a better programmer in any paradigm?

After SICP, I would recommend The Little Schemer https://archive.org/details/isbn_9780262560993

ddpon Amazon is discontinuing the Kindle Cloud Reader

Mine works fine too (Windows/Chrome).

ddpon Most tech content is bullshit

This site is one of the reasons.

ddpon A list of computer languages with release year and category

Thank you!

ddpon What are good linux laptops for 2018?

I haven't used it enough to know what its limits are but there's a lot to like with Windows Subsystem for Linux running either Ubuntu or Debian. Compared with macOS, it's current (apt-get to your heart's content), as opposed to macOS' terminal environment, which is hopelessly out of date. I really like what Microsoft is doing here.

ddpon Zuckerberg defends Facebook users' right to be wrong – even Holocaust deniers

There is a perfectly good reason why it is against the law to deny the Holocaust in Germany. Can anyone guess what it is?

ddpon Ask HN: Favorite note-taking software?

I switched to this: http://brettterpstra.com/projects/nvalt/

Now, if I could just find something as brilliant for this Surface Book 2.

ddpon Apple planning 11″ iPad Pro, Mac mini, 1.57″ and 1.78″ Apple Watch, AirPower

Well, when it shipped it didn't support Fusion Drives, which were the default when High Sierra shipped. Time Machine backups fell over and quit working (somewhat different issue, agreed) and before I got them working again, FileVault 2 ate both of the disks on both of my MacBook Pros causing me substantial data loss.

I also had two macOS Servers running on mac minis and they announced that they're discontinuing it, leaving Apple with no server offering. I also removed the discontinued Apple Airports from my network.

I plan to stay on iOS and Watch for now, though I only use my iPad Pro for music synthesizers and basic chat/browsing.

I don't know about the rest of you, but I'm being absolutely harrassed typing in my iCloud password on all my i-devices. In contrast, I think I've typed my Microsoft password less than 10 times in the last year.

ddpon Apple planning 11″ iPad Pro, Mac mini, 1.57″ and 1.78″ Apple Watch, AirPower

I helped build Apple 1's. I had a Lisa. I've owned nearly every generation of PowerBook and MacBook and I've had enough. I bought a loaded Surface Pro tablet last summer and I ordered a new 15" Surface Book 2 w/ Nvidia GTX 1060 to replace my MacBook Pro. Not the new one with TouchBar, that one was so bad I sold it back to Apple for a substantial loss. It was a good run.

ddpon 8th-Gen Intel Core I7 CPUs Are Quite a Bit Faster

I'm sure they're just as bad as every other Intel chip has ever been.

ddpon Apple Looks to Expand Advertising Business with New Network for Apps

was

They also used to make stuff that was fun to use and had a great UI.

ddpon Alan Bean, 4th Person to Walk on the Moon, Dies at 86

My dad ran into him on a plane once. I still have my dad's business card that he signed along with a coffee table book of his artwork. What a live he lived!

ddpon Apple's 7nm A12 chip could be the best feature in the 2018 iPhones

I love my AirPods too but I'm still waiting for the wireless charging mat that works with the iPhone 8 and Apple Watch. Remember that? They announced it a year ago...

ddpon Robinhood rockets to a $5.6B valuation with a massive new funding round

Oh, that's nice. Can it land on a barge?

ddpon Trump signs bill to shut down websites that facilitate prostitution

https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2017/09/stop-sesta-section-230...

ddpon Why Does “=” Mean Assignment?

The point is that ':=' evolved in Algol 68 to solve the ambiguity inherent in '='. C is simply from a less thoughtful and primitive language family and modern languages still seem to be copying C's horrible syntax. It's also probably why technical papers are written in Algol-like pseudocode using the '<-' symbol in LaTeX for assignment.

ddpon [dead]

reminder that she has a legal defense fund here: https://www.crowdjustice.com/case/stormy/

ddpon SpaceX’s Falcon Heavy successfully launches

A wonderful inspiring art project, well done!

ddpon OpenVMS State of the Port to x86_64 [pdf]

VAX/VMS was always open sourced and available first on microfiche and later on CD. I don't know if this continued after Compaq and then HP came to own the code but that's how it started life. The only censored code was the license management facility, which realistically, was trivially subvert-able if you knew VAX assembly language.

ddpon WordStar: A Writer's Word Processor (1996)

I still think Electric Pencil running on a Processor Technology Sol-20 was superior to WordStar, but then again, I owned Newtons back in the day.

ddpon Unix OS Archaeology Tru64 Unix

The MicroVAX II was alleged to have this etched into some revs, in Cyrillic: "MicroVAX: when you care enough to steal the very best"

ddpon Backing up a Linux system to Usenet

This is one of those ridiculously pointless exercises that keep me coming back to Hacker News for more. What a waste.

http://www.tarsnap.com/

ddpon U.S. judge finds that Aetna misled the public about its reasons for quitting ACA

How about you take it to a vote and see what happens? If you just cave up front, I guarantee you you're going to lose. That's my point.

ddpon Contact Ben Horowitz for $20

Okay, noted. I don't think much of VC's in general. Ours were a decidedly mixed bag that brought little to the table, in retrospect.

ddpon Contact Ben Horowitz for $20

Who the hell is Ben Horowitz and why would I pay money to contact him?

ddpon When Their Shifts End, Uber Drivers Set Up Camp in Parking Lots Across the U.S.

Awesome! India here we come!

ddpon U.S. judge finds that Aetna misled the public about its reasons for quitting ACA

I'm for universal healthcare but the ACA is collapsing in many states. I happened to ride back to Santa Fe with the CEO of Blue Cross of Omaha who told me that BC/BS of NM lost $100m on the ACA in 2015. That's a lot of money for anyone to lose. He believed there were a few relatively simple fixes that would go a long way to bring some sanity to the system. And let's face it, tax penalties are not the way to achieve health coverage for all Americans. Boo on Obama for not even bothering to try for Universal Healthcare...