Hacker News Reader

jaskerron Linode Security Advisory

Do you have hosts you would suggest? There are so many hosts out there, it's hard to know wheat from chaff (to put it politely).

jaskerron Theranos Founder Faces a Test of Technology, and Reputation

Aha. Thanks. Very SV, said from the wilds of upstate NY.

jaskerron Theranos Founder Faces a Test of Technology, and Reputation

PAMPA? Sorry.

jaskerron The assault on neurosurgeons’ privileges by software and bureaucrats

If my doctors are anything to go by, you shouldn't worry too much. You'll be able to make your supporting nurses deal with the computer systems for you ...

Not that I'm advocating this as a good thing. I only report a pattern that I've seen across a number of offices. I can also report that the nurses hate the computer system as much as the doctors, probably more.

jaskerron Attempting the first unsupported, unassisted solo crossing of Antarctic landmass

If you don't mind my asking, do you know (or can you surmise) how Will Steger and his team made it across Antarctica?

I remember following their dog-sled-ski traverse in the papers while living in MN. But, I don't remember reading how they handled crossing the crevasses.

jaskerron Donald Knuth's Annual Christmas Tree Lecture

Sadly, for me all that appears is a Stanford University slate.

Are you sure of the URL?

jaskerron What is Color Banding? And what is it not?

Do you use Privacy Badger or another blocker?

The markup loads images from seemingly local URLs:

  http://data.simonschreibt.de/gat055/intro_comic.png

but redirects to images stored at SSL-ACCOUNT.COM:

  https://ssl-account.com/data.simonschreibt.de/gat055/intro_comic.png

I reset Privacy Badger, and the assets loaded fine.

jaskerron Gamma rays from the Milky Way's core look ever more like signs of dark matter

They're echoing a statement made in the third paragraph: "Everything from the motions of galaxies to calculations about what sort of universe came out of the Big Bang says it [dark matter] must exist—and must outweigh familiar, atomic, matter by about six to one."

jaskerron Paul Tudor Jones to Staff: Learn to Write or I'll Rip Up Your Memo

One of my favorite professors assigned papers with maximums. The maximum was a hard stop. If your paper was longer, she tore off the overage and graded the paper as it was.

I quickly learned to be concise.

jaskerron AVG can sell your browsing and search history to advertisers

Why did you switch from Bitdefender? I'm forced to "sysadmin" my family's Windows systems ... and last I looked, Bitdefender seemed to do a good job. Was I wrong to recommend?

jaskerron OpenWRT vs. FCC – Forced Firmware Lockdown? [video]

(slap forehead) OK. Got it, now. Thanks.

jaskerron OpenWRT vs. FCC – Forced Firmware Lockdown? [video]

A noob question: what does MASQ refer to?

Also, do you have any suggestions for a motherboard + minipcie combo? I'd like to get off of our DSL router soon-ly.

jaskerron For only the second time in our history the ownership of The Economist changes

Be sure to check the origin/return address before you blame the Economist.

I receive multiple Economist spam emails a day, and none of them are from <>@economist.com, or a marketing firm. The TLDs alone give them away: <>@<>.faith, <>@<>.date, and so on. The links in the emails also go to the odd TLDs or to clearly bogus domains.

jaskerron Even – Get your average pay, every payday

Citation, please.

jaskerron We Can’t Let John Deere Destroy the Idea of Ownership

As and aside, farmers aren't the only ones interested in old farm equipment. There's a vibrant community of collectors. Both communities tune and refurb the equipment to working order, tho' the collectors go further for appearance. So there are two groups vying for old equipment, driving prices even further.

jaskerron I made a debugger that draws the state machine of the program

Are you using OpenBSD, or one of the Linux ports (Neukirchen?)?

jaskerron Nature makes all articles free to view

Be prepared to name research projects that do not receive government funding in the first or second degree. (That is: receive funding directly, or from grant-making organizations that themselves receive substantial government funding.)

jaskerron Richard Feynman and the Connection Machine (1989)

Your joke was a poor one, one that Feynman would probably have demurred.

The story was decently told, whatever your view of the later TED performance. It gives the reader yet another aspect with which to view Richard Feynman. The reader comes away with more respect for Richard Feynman the man. And a little bit more understanding of Richard Feynman, the genius.

(The Long Now Foundation dates from 1996. Danny Hillis has been involved since the beginning. I believe the Danny Hillis / Richard Feynman / Connection Machine story dates from not long after. Which is long before TED.)

jaskerron Richard Feynman and the Connection Machine (1989)

Darwin was an amateur. So was Einstein. And both were subject matter experts. It might help to remember that the root of "amateur" is "amator", lover. An amateur is one who does what they do out of love.

Amateur astronomers still make meaningful contributions, especially in the realm of variable stars.

Amateur archaeologists and paleontologists are often welcome at many digs. Not only are they free labor: they provide watchful eyes and minds.

jaskerron YouTube Takes Manhattan

I'm glad someone got the reference! I hope to see LC soon ... he just finished a tour of Europe, maybe the US and CA next?

jaskerron Linode under large DoS attack

Care to clarify to which platforms you have moved your clients? I've considered Linode, but haven't "pulled the trigger" just yet, and all this turmoil has me reconsidering. Thanks in advance.

jaskerron Meanwhile, just East of Silicon Valley, in Tupelo Mississippi...

Thanks for the reference to Burke and "Connections".

I'm not sure whether you are using Burke as an example of over- or under-weighting factors in history. I believe the latter, but can see either argument.

No matter. "Connections" was worthwhile viewing.

jaskerron Comcast Decided To Shut Down SearchYC

I'll second the request for a blog post or write-up.

I'd love to read more about setting up nginx, ec2, s3 and cf.

jaskerron Was LinkedIn Scammed?

Cargill. 2009 revenues of $116 billion. (That's declared revenue.)

Is, was, and will be privately held for the forseeable future.

jaskerron EFF on new electronic privacy bill - government will need to get warrants

That you take the good (enough) when you can get it?

jaskerron Ars reviews the Motorola Xoom

Although the Xoom performs well, its reliability leaves a lot to be desired. During a week of very heavy use, I had between 5 and 8 incidents of applications force-closing every day. The issue wasn't isolated to third-party applications—Google's own software crashed pretty regularly.

[...]

Android in general is not especially robust, but the stability issues I encountered on the Xoom seem worse than the relatively minor stability problems I've had over the past few years with my various Android phones. I imagine that the stability problems will be ironed out as Google improves the platform.

And I would want to put up with this because ... ?

Waiting on promised fixes from Google, Motorola, or Verizon doesn't strike me as worth the money.

(And, no, I'm not arguing in favor of Apple's iOS devices. In fact, I feel poorly served by both Apple and Google - egregious policies on the one hand, and poor workmanship and customer service on the other.)

jaskerron Is TED Elite?

For me, the more interesting question is the natural response - Why?

jaskerron Why Payments Are Hard, Even For Apple And Google

I'll bite ... what is it about their reader / product line that makes it equivalent to a "gorgeous eight-track"?

I've thought the reader looked a bit fragile (and wouldn't hold up to heavy use), but that doesn't make it obsolete right out of the gate.

jaskerron Steve Jobs Takes The Stage At iPad 2 Event

Several people have posited that Jobs should stay well back from the limelight, for just such a reason:

Why Steve Jobs Shouldn’t Return to Apple http://db.tidbits.com/article/11981

jaskerron Apple Launches Subscriptions on the App Store

It's safe to say that an entity/group/company in control of a market will likely act to prevent circumvention of the market.

Amazon does this - any Amazon Marketplace seller who sells products independently of the Marketplace must offer the goods on Amazon for the same price or less -- "General Pricing Rule" - http://www.amazon.com/gp/help/customer/display.html?nodeId=1...

(I believe Kindle purchases aren't subscriptions, so let's leave that aside for now.)

(I'm also leaving aside whether this behavior is ethical, good, whathaveyou.)

The problem is Apple's insistence on a 30% commission. I think the backlash against this will be substantial.