Hacker News Reader

kindatrueon I was at Woodstock ’99 and it destroyed my innocence

I remember hearing about Woodstock 99 in the news during that time. That there were "problems". That documentary was pretty shocking. I hadn't realized it was that bad / chaotic.

kindatrueon U.S. public health agencies aren't ‘following the science,’ officials say

One of the authors tweeted this:

"The rest of the world has accepted the endemic nature of Covid and moved on, but the U.S. is an int'l outlier, still pushing mass testing & chasing down every case." [0]

I'm not sure what inverse universe he lives in given that we barely do any official testing, and contact tracing never even got off the ground.

His retweets are also all the other well known covid-minimizers - including the infamous Jay Bhattacharya.

[0] https://twitter.com/MartyMakary/status/1546533258187390977

kindatrueon Axios-Ipsos poll: Most Americans say Covid is no longer a crisis

It's like car crashes and mass shootings. Both are preventable. But we just choose to ignore them because doing something about it would be too hard and not fun.

kindatrueon Air-purifying headphones with active noise cancelling

"washed"

Have you seen people in the real world?

kindatrueon The underground economy of solitary confinement

Once you fall into Prison Conditions Twitters, it's pretty eye opening.

Like the guy who was boiled to death with hot water for funsies:

https://www.miaminewtimes.com/news/florida-wont-charge-priso...

Or where rat poison is regularly fed:

https://abcnews.go.com/Health/22-rikers-island-prisoners-sic...

kindatrueon Pfizer Shot Just 39% Effective Against Delta Infection, Israel Study Suggests

>for what gain

Those clicks!

kindatrueon HK's Apple Daily raided by 500 officers over national security law

Electricity too. That PRC nuclear plant that was in the news? Helps power HK.

kindatrueon Berkeley may get rid of single-family zoning

>Construction in Berkeley is still extremely difficult

True for most of the Bay Area

kindatrueon How America Bankrupted its Cities [video]

In California property taxes are 1.x rate, and the assessed price is based essentially on when your ancestors bought it, with a 2% increase.

Which leads to comedy like this: https://twitter.com/nextdoorsv/status/1265719788875272192

kindatrueon Ultra-processed foods and the corporate capture of nutrition

>video games were just getting started

It's also worth noting that the nature of video games have changed. Back then you'd pay $ for a cartridge and CD and that was it. There was little in the way of analytics.

Now it's all about DLC and ancillary monetization - with high power analytics. The model has shifted towards addiction.

kindatrueon Elon Musk moves to Texas

https://twitter.com/nextdoorsv/status/1265719788875272192

Palo Alto. Someone pays $1081 per year living adjacent to someone who pays $24K per year.

kindatrueon Elon Musk moves to Texas

Here's a link to the map https://www.officialdata.org/ca-property-tax/

This tweet highlights some of the insaneness: https://twitter.com/nextdoorsv/status/1265719788875272192

Someone pays $806 per year, living next to someone who pays $27,732 per year.

kindatrueon Why Japanese web design is so different (2013)

+1000

It's one thing to have a touch screen to control your phone - where your attention is the phone.

It's another to have a touch screen to control the accessories of your car - where your attention is driving.

kindatrueon The self-driving car is a red herring

There's also what's known as the "geometry" problem - 1 self driving car takes up as much space as 1 human driven car.

Part of the problem is the general incompetency and mismanagement of US public transit construction -- the costs are insane, even when compared to "socialist" "high-cost" union-heavy Europe.

This was a great read on why we get so little for our money: https://www.nytimes.com/2017/12/28/nyregion/new-york-subway-... - and it busts the common misconception that it's 100% because unions. (tldr: it's because politicians get rewarded for creating jobs (votes) and spending money on contractors (lobbying), and because we outsourced everything)

kindatrueon The real prices of the iPhone 12 and iPhone 12 mini

AT&T/Cingular was in a very weak position at the time, and really needed a win -- Steve Jobs exploited/leveraged the situation.

kindatrueon The real prices of the iPhone 12 and iPhone 12 mini

Contracts never stopped Steve Jobs from doing what he thought was right for his customers.

kindatrueon The real prices of the iPhone 12 and iPhone 12 mini

Steve Jobs was rolling in his grave

kindatrueon The real prices of the iPhone 12 and iPhone 12 mini

Studies have shown that people spend less money when prices are higher/all inclusive. Check out the story of Stubhub and their attempt to be all inclusive. (tldr: people stopped buying tickets until they unbundled the mandatory fees)

What's good for GDP is good for America!

kindatrueon Roof blows off new Tesla Model Y

>from start to destination without help

You might want to narrow this down by location.

Take a 10 mile trip in Menlo Park (which they once called "urban" in a video) is different than a 10 mile trip in Manhattan... in February

kindatrueon Portland passes low-density zoning reform

This seems disastrous for homeowners and landlords hoping to recreate this Silicon Valley success flywheel https://twitter.com/nextdoorsv/status/1129046954409902081

kindatrueon Artificial eyespots on cattle reduce predation by large carnivores

kindatrueon Mozilla lays off 250 employees while it refocuses on commercial products

Fascinating stuff! https://www.thestreet.com/personal-finance/credit-cards/15-h...

kindatrueon Suspect is arrested in grisly killing of tech CEO Fahim Saleh

Tidbit from the article: He founded PrankDial.com and it's a $10M business.

I'd never heard of it. Wow... $10M run rate for a website that sends prank calls to others? Like "Chinese Apology" "Indian Tech Support"? Talk about a site that should be cancelled: https://www.prankdial.com/?category=services

kindatrueon The stock market and economy have parted ways

Ah, the era of NINJA loans.

My haircut guy went from renting to "owning" 2 homes.

Those were amazing times.

kindatrueon The greatest privilege we never talk about: beauty

Something I noticed recently (prepandemic of course) after living in Silicon Valley for 20 years: the amount of plastic surgery that you see around town in Palo Alto has really gone off the charts. Both men and women. So much botox. So much nips/tucks.

It feels like Los Angeles light.

kindatrueon Audio Engineers Built a Shield to Deflect Police Sound Cannons

"The shield is also 50 lbs, so it’s not exactly easy to transport through a crowd."

That's putting it mildly.

kindatrueon The Dyson Battery Electric Vehicle

The video that says "See the Dyson car on the road" is so strangely fake.

So you're driving down 6th ave away from the Madison Square Garden sign promoting the Knicks? There's not going to be a double yellow line because it's a one way street. Perfectly smooth road in Manhattan? Nope.

Here's what the area really looks like: https://www.google.com/maps/@40.7487638,-73.9922756,3a,75y,3...

Credit to whomever thought adding "Modells" would make it look more locally authentic though.

kindatrueon CNN reporter arrested live on air while covering Minneapolis protests [video]

And then sometimes they forget that you're there

"Daniel Chong Drank Urine To Survive 5 Days In Holding Cell Without Food, Water"

https://www.huffpost.com/entry/daniel-chong-dea-urine-cell-5...

kindatrueon CNN reporter arrested live on air while covering Minneapolis protests [video]

Fun Fact: A court determined it was legal for the NYPD to discriminate against hiring police officers that had IQs too high.

https://abcnews.go.com/US/court-oks-barring-high-iqs-cops/st...

kindatrueon CNN reporter arrested live on air while covering Minneapolis protests [video]

They also depend on citizens not having the financial or time resources to sue.