Hacker News Reader

howard941on Why are banks still getting authentication so wrong?

Social Security just tried to authenticate my wife's birthday this way. She told them no, give me your phone #. It googled to SSA in Alabama and she called it up and proceeded from there.

howard941on Elizabeth Holmes's Partner Has a New Blood-Testing Startup

Yesterday's post had a lovelier headline

howard941on Trump reportedly prepared to accept 'palace in the sky' as gift from Qatar

It's [flagging] like this that makes me yearn to see a price for flagging. It's too easy and used too often.

Perhaps payment in karma in exchange for piercing the thin skin.

howard941on Burrito Now, Pay Later

The payday loan people are very nice and friendly. Seriously. Maybe the only friendly finance people those struggling talk to. Even so yes they are actively harmful.

howard941on To Dominate the Arctic, Trump Needs Ice-Breaking Ships. Finland Wants to Help.

Difficult to discuss this without talking about the Jones Act ramifications of using a Finn-built vessel

howard941on EU chiefs use controversial Signal app but will not reveal what is said

No worries. E2E is nice but their devices are already or soon to be cracked. Revelation is inevitable.

howard941on Telemarketers Are Using a Weird Trick to Sell Bare-Bones Health Plans

https://archive.ph/WryBD

Although it has some weird features - like phony employment - it's not weird. At its core it lives through an intentionally deceptive loophole. Guess who pushed for the concept?

howard941on When encryption works perfectly and still fails

This misses the Waltz_2 problem. Waltz's device is cracked (assume). So even if he's using real Signal the plaintext is exposed once it's decrypted by his device.

howard941on Spain-Portugal blackouts: what happened

Can the excess water be dumped out to waste generating just enough power for grid stability?

howard941on It feels at the beginning of the end of the world

West central Florida's been doing this three times for the last two autumns, after the hurricanes roar through. It's not the end of the world, no, but it's awfully inconvenient.

howard941on Corporation for Public Broadcasting Statement Regarding Executive Order

The courts aren't going to save us. No one is going to save us.

howard941on In the US, not even $11,000 a month can buy you dignity at the end of your life

Get a Hoyer Lift - it should be covered by hospice. And speaking of hospice, consider it. With dementia she'll be approved. The Hoyer Lift will make moving her about much easier.

howard941on The missteps that led to a fatal plane crash at Reagan National Airport

What is your point, that 75' isn't enough separation? Of course it's not enough. But you know as well as I do that visual separation is normal, encouraged even. We know pretty clearly what the Blackhawk crew said. They said they had the traffic in sight and requested visual separation from the reported traffic, not from some passive lights on the ground.

Yes indeed, failure was built in to the airspace design.

howard941on Ask HN: Who wants to be hired? (May 2025)

Embedded Firmware Engineer

Location: Sarasota

Remote: Preferred

Willing to relocate: No thank you

Full time or freelancing

Technologies: C; Sensors; Communications; Drone/UAV/robotics: New product development; Sustainment; Embedded/firmware/bare metal, FreeRTOS, NuttX; *nix/RF/crypto; Kinetis KE Cortex M0+ & M4, Nordic Semi's M4 SOC, ST's M4 ARMs, Espressif's ESP8266, Microchip dsPIC; realtime; IAR, gcc via MCUXpresso & Kinetis Dev and TrueStudio & unix like systems; MPLAB-X IDE; Embedded FreeBSD; Embedded Linux on for ex. Raspberry Pi / Broadcom BCM2837; PX4 drone NuttX on STM32F4; gdb; clang; UML; debugging development prototype hardware; embedded HTTP server; grid support power generation systems; TCP and UDP over IP; Ethernet; power line communications; RS-485; RV-C CANBUS; Bluetooth LE; LoRa; Battery powered devices; storage scopes; visual studio; Java w/Android Studio; GNSS. Licensed attorney & pilot (ASEL/IA); amateur radio extra class

Resume: Please request by email

Email: hginfla@gmail.com

howard941on The missteps that led to a fatal plane crash at Reagan National Airport

Let's refresh recollections. TFA: "Shortly after the Black Hawk passed over Washington’s most famous array of cherry trees, an air traffic controller at nearby Ronald Reagan National Airport alerted the crew to a regional passenger jet in its vicinity. The crew acknowledged seeing traffic nearby. One of the pilots then asked for permission to employ a practice called “visual separation.” [...] "Visual separation approved,” the controller replied."

There's no ambiguity here.

howard941on The missteps that led to a fatal plane crash at Reagan National Airport

Yeah but the Blackhawk requested visual separation. It shouldn't have, it couldn't tell the difference between the CRJ and any number of lights around it. Anyway, at that point the request was granted and you see how it ended.

howard941on The missteps that led to a fatal plane crash at Reagan National Airport

Yes, you're right, lousy airspace design. Flown perfectly the chopper should have been no closer than 75' from the airplane if everyone is flying exactly on altitude (which never happens, you have to give at least +/-50'). Couple that with the difficulty of picking out an airplane against the hundreds of backlights of the valley and disaster was inevitable.

howard941on The missteps that led to a fatal plane crash at Reagan National Airport

The idea is that you're supposed to train as you fight.

howard941on What Happens When There Are No Deals? – Paul Krugman

Nixon wasn't impeached. Had he not been pardoned the last 50 years would have been much different, probably better. Instead his goons moved into Reagan's WH.

howard941on 'Trump 2028' hats and T-shirts for sale on US president's online store

YHBT

howard941on We Are Suing the President

In that event the case you cited isn't involved.

howard941on We Are Suing the President

No, it's not a criminal prosecution.

howard941on Banned Books List 2025

It's ironic seeing The Handmaid's Tale on the list. Sad too.

howard941on What my stroke taught me (2017)

My mom's personality changed a lot with dementia. After a couple of months she forgot she was a heavy smoker. Watching documentaries and sitcoms pre-dementia was replaced with aimless watch anything but not really caring about it at all. She lost a lot of self restraint so it was hard to go out to places because she'd make an insulting remark about a stranger. We tried anyway. This was all after she forgot who her children were so we were getting pretty late stage.

howard941on Pentagon's 'SWAT team of nerds' resigns en masse

Assuming this was asked in good faith, I'll answer it as such. It weakens us by knocking out experienced and talented DoD employees.

howard941on Ask HN: What 3 Books Would You Recommend to Anyone?

Hyperion

Dahlgren

What to do when there is no Doctor

howard941on The Bond Market's Rout Is Bad News for the U.S. Economy

Thanks for trying. It's all good, foundart found the article on msn

howard941on Ask HN: What Problem Would You Solve with Unlimited Time and Money? [Apr 2025]

Reverse dementia, because it's horrible to suffer a loved one going through it. Stopping me? I don't have the knowledge to fix it.

howard941on The Bond Market's Rout Is Bad News for the U.S. Economy

impenetrable (?) paywall

howard941on Ask HN: What's a surprisingly useful tech skill that's underrated today?

Knowing when to demand proper tooling (such as IAR for embedded ARM)