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iamdaveon Show HN: A decentralized index of banned users and where to find their content

It isn't, but for a good number of people it certainly does appear to be a more comforting approach to stop short of making any sort of ethical claims about the 'free speech' question because it means getting what they want: uncomfortable ideas punted into the closet.

iamdaveon Facebook has ended the ability to automatically post Tweets to profiles or pages

Here here, re: content.

My usage of Facebook would probably increase if there was a way to filter-on site-keywords in and out of my newsfeed instead of relying on a browser extension.

As it is, I'm constantly hiding posts, snoozing or unfollowing people altogether-thinking "Fine Facebook, if you want to use algorithms based on how I use the site to customize my newsfeed, customize this".

Seems the site hasn't yet picked up that I don't want everyone's oversimplified political hot takes (but I like one Nicholas Cage meme and suddenly FB reacts "Would you like ALL the Cage recommendations??" No, not really). I like checking in on my friends, and that's the extant of how useful FB is to me, but there's a real fatigue to the political fatalism front and center.

So, twitter it is. So I can get my oversimplified sports hot takes. Those are at least humorous and entertaining.

If a social network comes along and grants me that kind of control, I would gladly beta that.

iamdaveon Marvel Movies Will No Longer Be Released on Netflix Starting with Captain Marvel

So an online cable company? I was wondering if I'd see the day where the "buy from one get access to all" content consumption model came back, but applied to streaming services.

iamdaveon What can defend against off-the-shelf drone weapons?

The problem is that virtually all those things could harm, interfere with, or annoy human activity.

In the context of how to respond and if possible disabled a weaponized remote controlled aircraft, I think being dead or seriously wounded also interferes with human activity. These proposals aren't-I didn't get the impression at least-meant to be implemented and operated persistently, but applied into purpose-built apparatuses to disrupt a hostile remote controlled aircraft.

That's a context I'm willing to trade having my phone work for a moment if there's a DJI Phantom dropping bombs over Boston (I beg humor for the hip-hop hyperbole) being taken out of commission before someone gets hurt.

iamdaveon Decentralized Identifiers – DIDs

at the two telecom jobs in my past DID only got called a "DID" when specifically talking about configuring routes for DID or some other associated configuration. Even as telecom engineers unless that was the specific context the nomenclature was to call it a phone number all other times. Across separate companies.

And yet ...

...you've got me wanting to pay attention to something; I'm migrating from a public telco/PTSN job to The world of hosted pbx and managed voice in two weeks and I wonder if that linguistic quirk translates between the two types of environment.

iamdaveon Facebook Wanted Gizmodo to Kill Investigative Tool

That's the one (lo and behold it was Voyager, after all)! Curious if that's where your mind was when you threw the idea of writing that story of yours?

iamdaveon Facebook Wanted Gizmodo to Kill Investigative Tool

I kind of want to write a dystopian story about babies being bartered based on their social network rating, which of course is derived from their family history.

I'd have to go look for it but I swear there's an episode of either Next Generation or Deep Space 9 that covers almost this exact topic to the letter. Anyone else know what I'm thinking of??

iamdaveon Voting system to be used in West Virginia elections is vulnerable

Are we sure? Did you read the thread? Or is my sarcasm meter broken this morning? reaches for another coffee

iamdaveon Apple Removes Infowars from Podcast Directory

This is a great point and an even greater counter I think to give a more explicit argument as to the usefulness of the Internet.

iamdaveon Facebook has asked U.S. banks to share financial information about customers

Don't ask me how I know, don't believe me, but its Wells Fargo.

I'm asking anyway because a statement like this absolutely demands more than what you're offering for anyone to take a statement like this, in this context remotely serious.

Not even an article or something published from WF to support the claim, that the rest of us may benefit from?

iamdaveon Apple Removes Infowars from Podcast Directory

I often wonder if there's a way to talk about this without the C word coming up, as it seems to quickly slide down the rabbit hole of definitions and what the substantive merit of 'censorship' is.

Okay, sure YouTube telling Alex Jones to kick rocks isn't censorship, because only the government has that power.

It used to be a go-to move of mine to remind the holder of that opinion that government (supposedly) exists as a stand-in embodiment of the will of the people. The kind of laws we pass (or allow to pass) are macro-indicators of what we value. Certain amendments are passionately argued as being just that-weirdly, except the first amendment. It gets all sort of special treatment that sometimes (operative word) looks like selective application of the argument of "only government" can curtail speech.

Lately though I'm beginning to wonder if a better argument against "only the government can enforce speech" looks something like questioning the power given to corporations (those private enterprises that are free to curtail speech as much as they like) to suppress or hide what Edward R Murrow called "unpleasant or disturbing information"[1] with how much power and influence these corporations have at large, comparatively speaking at the government level.

Or, said much more succinctly: I'm terrified of the eagerness to treat 'freedom of speech' as something that is universally, and singularly granted by the government-and I think it hides some really painful truths about the speaker that they probably would never admit themselves if pressed.

---

[1] https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/39004-we-have-currently-a-b...

iamdaveon Apple Removes Infowars from Podcast Directory

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Imminent_lawless_action

iamdaveon Apple Removes Infowars from Podcast Directory

I admit I wasn't at all surprised to see it getting downvoted so heavily-I was not one of them I as I agree; it's a good question-even if, directed at me-I'm not inclined to go through all of the setup and groundwork necessary to give a response in the affirmative or otherwise.

Being willing to critique ones own body politic is a healthy thing. My lack of surprise comes from this strange phenomenon going about that presumes anything short of full-fledged vociferous condemnation or admonishment must automatically mean harbored complicity and is worth the harshest rebuke or silent dissent in the form of drive by downvotes without much contemplation or substantive discussion in the slightest.

iamdaveon Apple Removes Infowars from Podcast Directory

I suppose that question would require a bit of insight into how you define "affect" and a deeper inquiry into what my "real" politics currently are, in order to draw a meaningful contrast-wouldn't it?

As asked-I'm not particularly sure I'm open to arbitrarily unloading all of that context-and reduce it all down to a simplified yes or no.

iamdaveon Apple Removes Infowars from Podcast Directory

Would you say John Oliver serves that role pretty decently?

iamdaveon Apple Removes Infowars from Podcast Directory

Oh, heard, understood and acknowledged. I get that completely (don't know that I agree that it's a good reason to take him off the air). My story wasn't meant to suggest this isn't the case for many, but to just share an anecdote of the humor Mr. Jones brings to my life because I tend to appreciate absurdity when I see it.

I'm still sitting behind this keyboard chuckling slightly at the idea that a human being has the capacity to be so completely apoplectic over homosexual amphibians.

iamdaveon Apple Removes Infowars from Podcast Directory

As an Austinite (well now Iowan) who grew up with plenty of Alex Jones on the airwaves, it's stuff like this I'll actually-in a morbid kind of way-really miss. I suppose you have to be exposed to it long enough to grow numb to it but Alex Jones became a source of entertainment as I grew older just to see what wackiness he'd come up with next. Gay frogs still manages to put a grin on my face even on my most stressful days.

It was almost a contest between he and the considerably less inflammatory but still uniquely weird John Aielli.

This isn't, nor should be read as a defense of Alex Jones by any sane person-but an acknowledgement of the absurd. I mean come on. Gay frogs? You gotta admit--it's chuckleworthy.

iamdaveon Ask HN: What is the most unethical thing you've done as a programmer?

.....isn't HostGator by chance is it? Sounds like the kind of stuff they would have pulled back in their days

iamdaveon Ask HN: What is the most unethical thing you've done as a programmer?

It was a feature set that was supposed to provide additional reporting views and expose data to customers when queried. Turns out one exec had some very embarrassing transactions that emerged from this and he wanted that info suppressed and the person who leaked it fired.

The feature worked as designed, and this exec was the one who pushed for it to go to market despite all warnings that a review of the depth of exposed data was needed first. Nothing was ever leaked, as I mentioned it worked exactly as we were instructed to build by the product managers and our engineering lead.

The outcome is the outcome scoped for.

Fwiw many engineers left after that moment. We were already at odds with leadership and when they showed their colors in that incident it resulted in nearly the entire engineering department bailing.

This never made it publicly, it was an internal product demo to the whole company leading up to launch. To my knowledge no customers or media outlet caught wind of the transactions or the internal coup that resulted.

iamdaveon Ask HN: What is the most unethical thing you've done as a programmer?

I once got pulled into an arbitration hearing to explain how certain code functions operated. While not necessarily unethical it was a moral moment because I knew the inquiry came with the loaded intent to twist whatever explanation I gave into the worst possible extreme.

Sure enough that's exactly what happened and a really hard working and honest developer lost their job so an executive could save face.

Left that company a month later but I still feel horrible

iamdaveon Spotify GDPR data export: user receives 250MB containing every interaction

Gotcha. Thank you, for some reason that wasn't immediately clicking in my brain.

iamdaveon Spotify GDPR data export: user receives 250MB containing every interaction

Further I don't think anyone understands Identity well enough to be able to provide transitively collected data without breaching confidence of similar third-parties.

Would you be willing to unpack this statement a bit, please? I'm not quite sure I understand.

iamdaveon Forget joysticks, use your torso to pilot drones

That referring to an aircraft controlled by a human a 'drone' isn't accurate.

iamdaveon Forget joysticks, use your torso to pilot drones

Not necessarily against lowering the barrier to flying quadcopters for recreational use (commercial use different story-and I say that as someone who took and passed the FAA Part 107 test).

I'm chiefly curious how/if this system allows operators to adjust or control things like trim-for example and what that mechanism looks like using one's torso as an input source.

Furthermore with a joystick, the resistance of the sticks counts as it's own input mechanism; less about fine-tuned control for its own sake but more about that fine tuned control as an input mechanism of its own.

I think that speaks to your statement here:

An intuitive interface is not necessarily the best interface for skilled users.

Absolutely.

That being said, being able to control yaw by turning one's head-similar to how the AAIH works for AH-64 pilots is something I would welcome-or at least play around with. The rest--possibly, but with reservation.

iamdaveon Forget joysticks, use your torso to pilot drones

Overall, the scientists compared their torso strategies to joystick control in 39 individuals. They found that torso drone control outperformed joystick control in precision, reliability and with minimal training sessions.

Until you sneeze, and double over to cover your mouth and send your aircraft plummeting to the ground :P

(Also, we're still calling all unmanned, but ultimately human controlled aircraft 'drones'? This is never going away, is it?)

iamdaveon Spotify hosts questionable content

This may be an unpopular opinion: What happened to our capacity to just ignore and in our own circles mock whackos like Alex Jones? He's been a laughing stock here in Austin for years, and personally...I kind of enjoy watching his show on YouTube in a real, genuine and non-snarky way because his gesticulating, shock-jock radio style is just humorous (read: hilarious, I mean...gay frogs? Come on. That's funny.

Just the notion of it is funny. Not that there's anything wrong with two consenting adult frogs doing the dirty, but watching an evolved human being lose their mind over the sexual orientation, proclivities and preferences of amphibians gets me going every time. I don't want that to go away.

Unless I missed something-which I probably have-of him advocating extreme violence (physical or political) against groups of people, he's just a weird person with a platform and a weirder audience.

iamdaveon Apple was overtaken by Huawei in global smartphone sales

I actually pretty quickly found a link of the Pentagon ban and updated my post to comment as such. So far sitting at +6 vote wise-for whatever it's worth.

iamdaveon Facebook’s New Message to WhatsApp: Make Money

Since we're sharing anecdotes as qualitative data points, my experience has been the exact opposite: every last one of my friends that were on WhatsApp have migrated to Signal. I followed them. We're all US based, with two exceptions in the UK.

iamdaveon Apple was overtaken by Huawei in global smartphone sales

I think that was ZTE, but may be mistaken

Edit: I went and looked it up, as far as the DoD is concerned, they're both verboten from usage in official DoD capacities it seems, and from being sold on military bases.

https://www.cnet.com/news/pentagon-reportedly-bans-sale-of-h...

iamdaveon Removing Bad Actors on Facebook

Question about that, if it's something that takes us too far into the weeds I'll stuff it and save it for later in the interest of keeping us on topic:

When people make the argument of-wrt suppression or censorship of speech "Legally no but socially/in the court of public opinion yes", I often want to fire back "But...are not our laws a distilled and concentrated output of what we value in social publics? If we start allowing exemptions and exceptions to that value system to get an outcome that takes away liberties in social publics, are we unwittingly creating the 'case' to erode those values in (the grander) legal establishment-given enough time?"

(This might be a long winded argument of 'slipper slope', unsure. Someone call me out on this if so)

Maybe it's a question of ethics versus law, or perhaps ethics in the context of buffers between person/individual and state/government?