Hacker News Reader

jqmon U.S. Suicide Rate Surges to a 30-Year High

They were talking about raising the retirement age in the US during the election debates also.

Whenever I hear this I think "fine, I like working, but it's hard enough getting hired after 50 never mind 60". What are they expecting all these 66 year old people are going to be doing?

jqmon U.S. Suicide Rate Surges to a 30-Year High

You still can't admit to atheism in many (most?) areas of the country without pretty severe social penalty.

Hopefully this is changing, but I think it's less that is atheism growing and more that people are becoming comfortable admitting what they really think.

jqmon Show HN: I made an interactive Bootstrap 4 cheat sheet

I agree the on back button. To me this is a page. When I push back I expect to return to the previous page not a different view of the same page.

That being said, this is really awesome work and will certainly come in handy! Nice job.

jqmon Fresh evidence links Saudi government to 9/11

You could be right, but it's a familial monarchy in ownership of a country. One that behaves pretty badly as well. So if it is a screwing, it seems the very very least that they deserve.

jqmon Nearly half of Americans would have trouble finding $400 to pay for an emergency

Maybe he gets paid by the word? Well, he did say he needed the money.

jqmon The Black Death: The Greatest Catastrophe (2005)

Not with the degree of murderous violence?

You are aware of what the Aztecs (for instance) did with enslaved tribes?

jqmon The Black Death: The Greatest Catastrophe (2005)

Tribes wiped each other out from time to time. Native tribes did at as well as pale tribes coming over in boats.

It's awful. I don't think people should do it anymore. But "native inhabitants" isn't a uniform group any more than "white men". And both groups have had their share of unsavory individuals.

jqmon The Black Death: The Greatest Catastrophe (2005)

It's not my responsibility to "fix" things that can't be fixed like greed and hate and violence from centuries ago. I don't believe there is a governmental social program that can fix it either.

The only thing I can do is try my best to be a good and fair and kind person in the time I'm in now. I can't atone for what assholes centuries ago did even if I wanted to.

This collective blame assignment is the same kind of evil thinking that led to someone trying to wipe out a race in the first place.

jqmon The Black Death: The Greatest Catastrophe (2005)

I doubt it.

Seriously... this whole "you are a white man so you share blame for anything a white man ever did" is absolutely stupid.

jqmon The Black Death: The Greatest Catastrophe (2005)

I live in the US but I'm not taking credit for the smallpox thing. That was the doing of a few people at most, and I'm not one of them. I don't think it was even official policy, so my great grandfathers vote can't be implicated either.

I get very tired of the collective American guilt trip. I don't see how it does anyone any good.

jqmon Ask HN: Can't concentrate to focus, until it's last minute or later

https://www.youtube.com/user/jodywhiteley/videos?flow=grid&v...

These video series have really helped waking hours as well. Sleep quality has been much better and I feel a lot more in touch with who I am. A lot more focused during the day.

jqmon $153M in Bill and Hillary Clinton speaking fees, documented

It's not worth paying for and the "real" service rendered for payment is suspect.

jqmon A New Map for America

Well Eastern Wyoming is certainly part of the Great Plains. But agreed, the line across Wyoming is too far to the west and includes a significant chunk of Mountain regions in the Plains area. Maybe the author doesn't care about Wyoming. Hardly anybody lives there. Except Dick Cheney.

jqmon A New Map for America

To work for the private sector further against your interests? /s

jqmon U.S. government worse than all major industries on cyber security

This job was posted in my town a few days ago. Must be able to support Server and Office 2000.

http://newmexico.jobing.com/lovelace-health-system/it-suppor...

Is there something I don't know or is it crazy for a hospital to be using MS Server2000 in 2016?

jqmon 40 year old study could have reshaped American diet, was never fully published

"Pork is roughly twice as efficient as beef to produce"

Citation needed.

Beef can live on range-lands that aren't good for much else and requires very low inputs. If we didn't have a taste for grain fed finished animals it would almost certainly be many times as efficient as pork.

jqmon Vim 8.0 is coming

Agreed. Vim is one of the best investments in learning I've made to date.

jqmon Vim 8.0 is coming

Depending on the meaning of "productive" of course...

jqmon Are We Living in a Computer Simulation?

No but we are living in a mental simulation.

jqmon Fvck school (2012)

College is a huge waste of time. But then again so are a lot of jobs.

If you don't care about college because of all the bullshit and dumb people, just wait until you enter the workforce!

Probably best to go ahead and go for most ambitious people. Besides, those years are a lot of fun if you do them right. It's not a great system and certainly not the best way to learn, but for the foreseeable future it is the most sure path toward increased financial success. But I do understand your frustration... I barely got out myself because of similar experiences (in a different field but same type of nonsense).

jqmon Apply HN: Eat My Dust - Home testing for dangerous materials

I think it's a great idea. Not just for homes but other sites as well.

jqmon Design better databases

The site (databaseanswers) is neat and I've gotten some good ideas from it in the past, but most of the models (that I've looked at anyway) are pretty simple and you almost really wouldn't need to look at a diagram drawn by somebody else to intuitively put something like that together. It seems almost more for someone creating MS Access level applications. Granted there may be some more complex schemas that I didn't see.

There might be an argument about excessive normalization in some cases also. Take some of those layouts too far and try to extend them and you might wind up with tons of little tables. Normalization was I think more important back in those days (not that it's not still important... but some of the downsides of going overboard on normalization have become apparent I think.... at least to me).

jqmon Classism in America

I have a friend I grew up with in Florida that for some reason developed an extremely thick southern accent (I didn't).

He never finished college but started a machining company making parts for the food industry and has done very well making many times the money I have. He is a reasonably smart guy but most people wouldn't guess it talking to him. He sounds like he stepped directly out of the "Deliverance" movie. I didn't realize how bad it was until I saw him a year or two ago and even though he hasn't lived in the south in years, I swear his accent has gotten worse.

Obviously this would be a huge negative in certain professions in certain locations. But it certainly hasn't prevented him from succeeding. In fact, my theory is that it has helped and this is why the accent has gotten stronger.

His employees are mostly machinist/welder types. No way to say sissy to those guys more than speaking properly without accent. So maybe it give his some credibility with that crowd. He also does high dollar contracts for major companies. I bet more than a few times he has been sized up as "dumb hick we are going to take advantage of" and been severely underestimated in negations. Point being, in some times and places appearing a dumb hick might get one further than talking smart. Not in the software industry in California necessarily. There appearing smart might be more important than actually being smart:)

jqmon When It Comes to Age Bias, Tech Companies Don’t Even Bother to Lie

That should have absolutely nothing to do with it. Nothing. The only thing that should matter is ability to the job. Anything else is wrong and in most cases (rightfully so) illegal.

jqmon The TSA Randomizer App Cost $336k

Ya well, that's 10K development, 30K profit and 290K meeting time and paying people to fill out forms. Sounds about right.

jqmon Will minimum wage hikes lead to a huge boost in automation? Only if we're lucky

Sure I can. Feudalism. Oh, you meant a higher standard of living for everyone? Well then, are you sure market economies are really the end all solution for that?

Listen, you seem to think I'm arguing against market economies or trying to promote some kind of communism. I'm not. I'm just pointing out capitalism and communism are not the only choices. There have been other systems and some of them lasted a long time and were extremely "successful" (if by success you mean providing a sustainable livelihood for the members).

But I don't disagree that market economies are effective in achieving certain ends. However humanity didn't come down out of the trees to a market economy and market economies likely won't be around when humanity finally ends. They are a phase in human history, that's all. It's not an ideological statement. Just observation and projection.

jqmon Will minimum wage hikes lead to a huge boost in automation? Only if we're lucky

Indeed. I propose we create a professional meeting attender certification. We could even have meeting attending bootcamps which teach people how to do things like bring up points that only relate to one or two others, schedule further committee meetings, go off on tangents and otherwise extend meetings into a full time profession.... which it actually kind of is in some cases.

I for one would be very grateful for this new class of service workers. I mean.. I don't change my own oil. I could but I don't. Jiffy Lube does it better and cheaper.

jqmon Will minimum wage hikes lead to a huge boost in automation? Only if we're lucky

There have been successful (meaning what exactly?) societies that were not market economy based.

People tend to think communism vs capitalism but for most of human history it's been something else. Like hunter/gather or some form of feudalism. I don't disagree that market societies work for distributing goods. But they do have external costs. Are there more efficient ways? Probably. Will market economies go the way of hunter/gather economies at some point? Almost certainly.

jqmon How an Army of Ocean Farmers Are Starting an Economic Revolution

How do you get a lease on a section of ocean?

jqmon Sound check: the quietest place in the U.S

The quietest nature place I've experienced is the Sonoran Desert in mid summer mid afternoon.

With the temperature approaching 120F nothing stirs (wildlife and insects are all hiding from the sun waiting for it to cool a bit). If you are out far away from the city and no plane is overhead it is dead dead silent. A weird silent.