Hacker News Reader

laputan_machineon Add opt-in transparent telemetry to Go toolchain

Google doing more spying, unsurprising. At least it's opt-in (for now)

Towcester (Toaster) , Gloucester (Gloh-ster), Worcester (Wuh-ster)...

cester -> ster (or 'stɜː' round my end)

laputan_machineon Saturn reclaims 'moon king' title from Jupiter with 62 newfound satellites

English doesn't sex nouns, so it will probably vary from language to language

laputan_machineon Pinball is booming in America

I think you're spot on. Where I live there is a huge arcade in what's effectively an old millhouse in a suburb, over 3 floors, and has been selling beer for a while. It's so popular it's spawned a bunch of smaller arcade bars in the city centre.

I think another part of it is that as the highstreet moves away from appliance shops there'll have to be things to fill these places instead, such as these kind of entertainment venues.

I love arcades, so I'm hoping that they're here to stay :D

laputan_machineon Distrobox: Use any Linux distribution inside your terminal

It's surprisingly refreshing to see a project say what it actually does

laputan_machineon One Day You'll Find Yourself

https://www.onedayyoullfindyourself.com/swearing.html

Fuck off.

laputan_machineon Thunderbird Is Thriving: Our 2022 Financial Report

Yeah, the UX could do with some improvement but IME once UX people have their claws in they change the design every 6 months to give themselves something to do. Anyone who works in the industry surely shares this pain.

laputan_machineon UN Human Rights Chief Urges UK to Reverse ‘Deeply Troubling’ Public Order Bill

The UK has "freedom of expression": https://www.equalityhumanrights.com/en/human-rights-act/arti...

laputan_machineon Squad Solar City Car

A lack of physical exertion is a large cause of obesity and depression. Human innovation tends towards us making our lives easier (so: less physical exercise). Quite the dilemma!

laputan_machineon Agile soccer skills for a bipedal robot with deep reinforcement learning

I think there's a fairly big caveat: when one team beats another team, they don't take over the opposing team's stadium.

laputan_machineon News Minimalist – Only significant news

This is a good idea but I already disagree with the output. Of the top stories, the majority of them are "could" and "probably" -- that isn't news.

News is something that either has happened or is going to happen. If it might not happen, then it's speculation, that isn't news (imo).

e.g.

- "US Braces for potential recession" -- no, the REAL story is the interest rate is going up

- "US Debt default could happen by 2023" -- pure speculation, not news

- "WEF predicts jobs disrupted" -- speculation, not news

And also I echo the other comments about it being overly US-centric, but that's par for the course.

Edit: I should also say, good job! It's a nice website

laputan_machineon The Difference Between European and American Butter

Cadbury's has never been treated as anything other than a "chocolate for the masses". It was however, a pretty decent middle-of-the-road chocolate. Until it got bought out. Now it's shite.

laputan_machineon The Truth Matters and Secular Humanists Should Defend It

You (the child) do not get to pick the outcome. Hence it is a lottery.

laputan_machineon The Truth Matters and Secular Humanists Should Defend It

The more that we can voice these views calmy and rationally, the more that people will reflect upon it.

It takes courage to do so.

laputan_machineon New Zealand admits it has access to Facebook takedown portal to censor content

What an authoritarian statement.

That isn't your decision to make.

laputan_machineon The Twitter Files

> The Overton window in the US stems from center-right (Democrats) to extreme-right (Republicans) so if you're in the middle of that you're firmly a conservative.

This is something Europeans have been saying online since at least the early 00s. It might be worth splitting it up into "social" policies and "economic" policies.

Democrats are a socially very left (dissenting views are not allowed), economically right party. republicans are a socially right, economically very right (taxation is theft) party.

laputan_machineon The Twitter Files

My country has a defacto two party system. It's pretty poo but stateside these guys take it to another level.

We're all human, we probably agree on far more than we disagree on. Let's all be a little kinder to each other

laputan_machineon China state CCTV avoids crowd close ups at the World Cup

Thanks, this is the kind of information I'm after.

So, the Senate is not a trustworthy source of information? I'm not clued up on US politics so I really have no idea how the system works, upper/lower houses, senate is lower? Like the house of commons in the UK?

e.g. could an analogy be this is like a small party of Brexiteers making a document on how leaving the EU is economically a sound idea? There is no requirement for it to be evidence-based?

Finally, have you read the document and is there anything in particular that is egregiously incorrect? Just because we don't agree with someone's political stance on something doesn't mean what they're saying isn't necessarily true.

laputan_machineon China state CCTV avoids crowd close ups at the World Cup

- The CCP have been routinely supressing any hypothesis on COVID-19 being a lab-borne virus.

- The CCP have been stoic on their approach to zero-COVID

- IF the virus was lab-borne, and IF the CCP know it was, is it not (very, very remotely) possible they know more about the consequences of this virus?

That line of reasoning is pretty conspiratorial, but given that the CCP have been incredibly cagey about the whole affair, I don't think it's unreasonable to be doubtful.

I think it is FAR more likely that it is a face-saving exercise, but I also think it's worth keeping an open mind

laputan_machineon Taking a Good Picture of a PCB

I'd imagine you should be able to place a thin sheet of perspex - or something similar - to protect the glass

laputan_machineon Oldest cooked leftovers ever found suggest Neanderthals were foodies

> Unfortunately, European-derived cultures are so downstream of professional milling that the ultimate role of parching grain in the agrarian revolution has been lost in the popular mind.

In my part of the UK parched peas are a common autumnal food, just a small counter-point.

> This is totally understandable given that for centuries in Europe it was broadly illegal for peasants to mill their own grain. The feudally-entitled miller was actually allowed to destroy any querns that he found to prevent defection.

I had no idea about this, and because it sounds like it could be bullshit, I had to look it up: https://www.eskdalemill.co.uk/history/mills-in-the-lake-dist...

> Building a mill allowed the feudal lords of the manor to control an essential activity by establishing a monopoly. The medieval community would have been forced to grind their grain at the mill that belonged to the lord of the manor. The miller would take a fraction of each farmer’s grain as payment, commonly a tenth or twelfth. Forcing their tenants to grind corn in the manorial mill generated income – huge sums it has been claimed.

laputan_machineon Ooh.directory

Very cool

laputan_machineon Why Isn’t the Whole World Rich?

Even then, $2.15 in Jackson, MS will get you further than $2.15 in NYC.

laputan_machineon Japanese have been producing wood for 700 years without cutting down trees

It's a very cool project, and I really like the aesthetic of beige-ish background and reduced-bit, dithered images, almost feels like an old school magazine

laputan_machineon Mycroft – open source voice assistant

I love the idea, but I think this isn't going to be "the one".

It's VC funded, the VCs are going to want to get a RoI.

And we all know where that leads...

laputan_machineon Why some feces float and others sink

Definitely check your stool often and for things like mucus and blood. It could be a warning sign of something more sinister, and if you do find anything questionable contact your GP and get it checked out.

On a lighter note, this paper is _really_ studying the gut flora which we do know has at least some impact on immunological function.

laputan_machineon Can't Unsee

Telling me my design choices are wrong?

That's just, like, your opinion, man.

laputan_machineon Show HN: Firefox Addon to Filter NSFW Content

Ok, then what I mean is "what do you consider to be pornographic"?

In some countries it's not NSFW to see a naked breast, I am going to assume this software does not take that into account.

Am I right?

A bigger point one could make is that this is projecting your cultural norms onto the internet as the "default".

It's a cool idea, though.

laputan_machineon Show HN: Firefox Addon to Filter NSFW Content

Maybe I am being stupid, but I cannot see anywhere where you describe what you consider to be "NSFW"

laputan_machineon The FBI alleges TikTok poses national security concerns

China is under the rule of the CCP, an authortarian party to which you cannot challenge.

For all democracy's failings, for the mess the US is in, and rise of populist parties in Europe, it is still freedom.