Hacker News Reader

dstrooton A DIY E-bike Conversion on the Cheap

58 year old MTB’er here. I was looking forward to getting an eMTB in a few years to keep riding. Feels like the window is closing as many place around me ban eBikes for the same reasons you describe. It’s going to be pretty disappointing if I can only ride at the “eBike Park” full of kids on Sur Rons (basically an electric dirt bike). Oh well, I can still ride for now.

dstrooton IBM Z/OS v2.5, Next-Gen Operating System Designed for Hybrid Cloud and AI

Anyone else having the site crash on iOS Safari?

dstrooton IBM Z/OS v2.5, Next-Gen Operating System Designed for Hybrid Cloud and AI

In my experience a new unicorn will never architect anything the requires a mainframe. It is the older banks and insurance companies that have workloads designed specifically for mainframes that have 30-40 years of development and maintenance baked into them.

dstrooton Pegasus spyware seller: Blame our customers not us for hacking

"Guns don't kill people. People kill people."

"Spyware doesn't spy on you. [Other] People spy on you."

Guns are a much better analogy than cars.

dstrooton Inserting a billion rows in SQLite under a minute

Achieving 100m SQLite inserts in under a minute.

dstrooton ; DROP TABLE "COMPANIES";-- LTD

https://xkcd.com/327/

You mean "Bobby Tables"?

dstrooton As religious faith has declined, ideological intensity has risen

As an American I find being accused of being unAmerican is usually something I find humorous: 1) If you don't blow stuff up on 4th of of July you are unAmerican! 2) If you can't eat Hotdogs like Joey Chestnut you are unAmerican! 3) If you don't own gun you are...

dstrooton The work-from-home future is destroying bosses' brains

Would anyone like to expound on how productivity is being measured? What metrics are used? What unintended consequences come up from the metrics? Can they be gamed?

dstrooton Linus Torvalds on mRNA Vaccines

Can't upvote this enough.

dstrooton If the Lab-Leak Theory Is Right, What’s Next?

The source is irrelevant to to the virulence. We were able to measure the virulence from the start. That should be the guide for our response.

A natural virus could evolve to be very dangerous and a lab leak could give you a sore throat for a day. Origin != danger level.

dstrooton If the Lab-Leak Theory Is Right, What’s Next?

Media’s role is to a) entertain us, or b) inform us.

Under a: say whatever gets you clicks. Period.

Under b: hypotheses and theories cannot be reported as truths. Hard evidence is needed. There are two ways a virus evolves- naturally or guided/engineered. Without proof of the latter it is safe to assume former. No humility needed. If/when we have evidence of latter we can now report that.

dstrooton DarkSide ransomware gang quits after servers, Bitcoin stash seized

This is the most puzzling part of the story. These guys were evidently pretty skilled. I can see their servers being seized but I am struggling to figure out how they lost their currency. Did the Kremlin put a gun to their head and say “unlock the wallet”? This seems especially fishy.

dstrooton Deno 1.10 Release Notes

> I think it might catch on once we have some mature MySQL, Express.js, etc libraries.

This resonates a lot with me. I first wrote nodejs apps not because of nodejs but rather because of Express. I could build a simple app very quickly, wire it up to a database, use Passport to secure it and call it a day. It was the libraries that drew me in.

dstrooton Tesla with Autopilot now approaching 10x lower chance of accident than average

I own two Tesla vehicles with FSD. One misconception by people without experience with Tesla is that it is not Human vs. Machine. Rather it is Human AND machine. In other words we are not at the point where the car drives itself, rather the Human also must be engaged all the time so each system backs up the other. The Tesla system does allow for the Human to switch focus for a couple moments to change the music or read a text message which in a normal car just means the Human is distracted for a moment. The Tesla system is definitely not fully self driving by any means. I have experienced numerous times wher the car has reacted in strange ways or simply canceled self driving and told me to take over immediately. As a result I don’t trust it very much and I pay as much attention when the car is driving as when I am driving alone. The vehicle also forces constant interaction as it drives to reinforce that point. I am not surprised that “human + machine” is better than just human alone.

dstrooton It's time to build: a New World's Fair

I came to say this. Well put. Take my vote.

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.businessinsider.com/abandon...

dstrooton Security.txt

I don’t believe that paying for your reputation was what the poster meant. Blockchain can be used for basically “write once” non-alterable records that you can prove you “own” without any currency aspects. That is basic blockchain tech. However it would cost money to run the machines that managed the BC and people would not do that without an economic incentive so maybe you’re right?

dstrooton The US government is inviting inflation

Voting up because this is the question we should be exploring. If you believe the thesis that inflation is here or due soon (I do) then what?

dstrooton The Libet experiment doesn't disprove free will (2019)

1. There is a processing delay whereby sensed data reaches the brain and the brain interprets it and creates “reality”. Thus your brain projects the future and is actually telling you what reality might be x msec in the future. This may relate to an experiment like this. 2. There is a view that way back when we very early in development (think early life) that if you ate things around you and they moved perhaps you would be more successful if you interpolate your position and their position/trajectory and thus could move towards them to consume them. Scale that idea up and perhaps it’s what led to a consciousness and a sense of “I”. If “I” move towards “you” I can eat you. This line of thought actually links consciousness and free will.

dstrooton The Art of Negativity

The social aspect is huge in some organizations and I am glad you described it so well. I continue to see terrible ideas supported by rational people because of social position or social signaling. If they stand to gain from expressing support, yet would suffer no material penalty if the idea fails then why not support the person/idea? On the other hand it makes me feel like I am the crazy one - as in “am I the only one who sees how dumb this is?” “Should I speak up?” In many cases the rational answer is no. Better to support it in the slim chance it succeeds, and ignore or distance yourself if/when it fails. The organization specifically rejects/weeds out what it calls “Eeyores” - Winnie the Pooh reference.

dstrooton Infinitely zooming botanical floral paradise painting

Eventually my brain turned off the zoom effect and switched to the feeling I was flyin/floating down a path. It felt more like forward motion. Weird but cool!

dstrooton Ask HN: Any tips for a programmer wanting to switch into security?

CIO in financial services here. Most security activity is/will be driven be external forces. Auditors, regulators, etc. This tends to drive organizations towards “checklist” security. Real security professionals know that it’s not really about “can we check the MFA box” it’s about HOW we implement MFA. Unfortunately, that discussion gets squeezed in favor of “we have to close this finding by the next risk committee meeting...”.

dstrooton Delicious back online in read-only mode

I loved del.icio.us. It was probably the first really popular non “.com” site and it was such a great concept. I even tried to build a personal clone later called “vizilinkz”. Ah good times...

dstrooton Poll: Switching from WhatsApp

I ask this as a non-Whatsapp user. I have read the comments and I understand in some countries (Brazil, Netherlands, etc.) that Whatsapp is the main tool for person to person and person to business communications. What I can't figure out is why did it displace "plain SMS" or other tools. What drove the adoption? I'd love to hear more about that - was Whatsapp just the first mover?

dstrooton Upptime – GitHub-powered open-source uptime monitor and status page

In the not too distant past GitHub was hit by some massive DDOS attacks themselves.

dstrooton Ultra High Resolution Photos of Snowflakes

Nathan Myhrvold - what an amazing man of many talents. I am amazed at his talents and interests and how he can push the boundaries in so many fields.

dstrooton Tesla cancels its ‘no questions asked’ 7-day return policy

I never heard of anyone doing this. I did hear many people, myself included, who bought a Tesla and were delivered a brand new car with immediately noticeable quality issues. You are strongly pushed to “accept delivery” because a) you can always return it within 7 days, and b) Tesla will “fix everything”. Your car will not be fixed in the first seven days and will also not be able to return it. Most forums and blogs strongly encourage buyers to just refuse delivery if you find quality issues. Maybe the 7 day return policy was no longer working to get people to accept delivery.

dstrooton OpenDeck: 1,200 startup slide decks by category – Team, Market, Funding

My first suggestion is include a link in your post: https://opendeck.app/

Cheers!

dstrooton Apple’s T2 security chip jailbreak

>Hi guys, I am part of the team working on all things T2.

So there is a team working on this? What is the incentive model? Are you paid to do this work? What is the revenue model?

I woke up today learning my MacBook Pro is now substantially less secure but why? So I can run games on the touch bar? So I can use the T2 as a raspberry pi?

dstrooton Disrespectful Design – Users aren’t stupid or lazy

This is so spot on. My family tech support goes EXACTLY like this. Once I get them to actually articulate the issue I usually just google it and after I help them I send them the google search.

dstrooton The Hard Problem of Breakfast

Is it April 1st already?