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lumpa

2,789 karma · joined January 14, 2021

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lumpa··on The science against mass vaccination during a pandemic (viral immune escape)
I think highly of this concern about selecting vaccine-escaping variants due to exposing a lot of immunized people to a lot of infected people, to the extent that I've posted about it myself[0].

However, the author is wrong about there being no attention given to these issues, it's a very active research topic in general (although AFAIK not some specifics he mentions like NK vaccines). Vaccine escaping, its consequences, and how to beat it are not obscure topics, but seem to be considered and explored on virtually every scientific endeavor in the last months.

Vaccination efforts aren't necessarily informed by those, and more attention to real world risks is warranted IMO. But that effort should build on the growing awareness and datasets about vaccine escaping. And probably it should avoid presenting a solution (NK vaccines) to a problem (vaccines actually making the immune response weaker when escaping happens) that is AFAICS construed from first principles as opposed to experimental data.

I have issues with this particular effort, but welcome it if it's a way to foment evidence based, non-alarmist discussion on possible vaccine-escaping and what can be done to avoid it. It might result in opposite decisions to what the author argues, like for instance we may have to massively speed up vaccination in key countries, maybe funded by other countries, or escaping becomes much more likely. There are many ideas around, and fortunately there's a lot of science being made on this.

[0] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26071768

lumpa··on 7-Zip developer releases the first official Linux version
Thanks for clarifying, the original tweet has also been expanded innl the same vein: https://mobile.twitter.com/AdmVonSchneider/status/1369300173...

And a bit off-topic, but have you heard of (or maybe commented on) "Bring macOS Quick Look Feature to Windows"[0] aka "parse and preview everything"? Is it paranoia[1] to think "how we defend against parser exploits" should be part of the tool design?

[0] https://github.com/QL-Win/QuickLook

[1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26007577

lumpa··on 7-Zip developer releases the first official Linux version
Previously (link to upstream announcement): https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26426816

No simultaneous source release, a call for users to run Linux benchmarks, and a mysterious tweet about 7Zip source code quality.

lumpa··on These fossilized lamprey hatchlings disprove an age-old evolutionary theory
The article could be more helpful by naming hagfishes from the start.

"As for the earliest vertebrates, Mayashita and his co-authors argue that another group of fish, characterized by bony armor in their skin, are closer to the mark. Like lampreys, they have no jaws, and appear to have given rise to other boneless vertebrates."

They never name the other group of fish, but the CMS is smart enough to link to hagfish slime. If you're curious about the origins of vertebrates: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agnatha

lumpa··on Comparing the Network Behavior of Popular Browsers on First-Run
The data presented is still interesting and makes it more likely that we'll hear about how Brave is or isn't good from other sources doing similar analysis.
lumpa··on A warning about 5.12-rc1
It would do an even better job if the user could easily increase coverage or depth of that stressing and check against known issues (regressions). Maybe `make kselftest` is the way to go. But it might be worth creating an easy way for people to help test the kernel, something like Debian popcon meets CPU-Z benchmarks.
lumpa··on A warning about 5.12-rc1
Comment rom "Helping Out with LTS Kernel Releases"[0]:

"I find it amusing that the answer to "how can I help test" is "that people test the -rc releases when I announce them, and let me know if they work or not for their systems/workloads/tests/whatever". No smoke tests, no automated tools, no suggested workloads, no fuzzing, just "fool around and report back". There probably are lots of kernel testing tools around, but you wouldn't learn that from the linked article."

It seems to be conscious choice, to the point of developers stating that "the process works". Which, looking at the results, it does seem to work. But wouldn't it work better with more tests, easily run by users wanting to help? I mean, if a downstream patch in related code regresses the issue, is there a new test added with this fix that would catch that?

Edited to add: it seems that the situation is changing for the better, with gregkh saying in a comment: "`make kselftest` seems to do what you want today, if there are any gaps the kernel developers are glad to take more tests."

[0] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26021962

[1] https://lwn.net/Articles/848352/

lumpa··on Google recruiting needs a format C
Copyright of 2018 is completely irrelevant. Auto reply says to expect delayed response, not complete unavailability, so nothing explicitly out of the ordinary.

I don't understand your mention of a BOT or much of your messages, maybe you could make the post better by writing a bit more on what happened and your take on it?

lumpa··on Google recruiting needs a format C
Can you please explain what a format C means, and provide some context to your highlights and overall story?
lumpa··on Changing Python's string search algorithms
This is about speeding up some string searches in CPython, with an aim of avoiding pathological cases. One given example goes from over three hours (currently released CPython) to 0.1 seconds (proposed patch).

Here's the bug report that lead to that discussion: "bytes.find consistently hangs in a particular scenario" -> https://bugs.python.org/issue41972

lumpa··on Rant HN: Microsoft Writes Useless Documentation
I have no experience with Microsoft documentation. Still, I don't expect you can extrapolate from aspnet core docs to the whole Microsoft docs including kernel, userland and UI, compilers, programming languages, gaming products, etc.

What other products with unusable docs have you had experience with? Can you point to some particularly bad examples from aspnet core for my own education?

Also, I'm curious about how awful/passable/good documentation is distributed among the many tech products Microsoft owns and publishes docs on. Do you know about any good docs from them?

lumpa··on European Internet Archive Launched
From the About: "The European Internet Archive is a free service which provides access to historical versions of websites. The mission is to provide a long-term archive of websites to citizens of the EU and abroad.

It is operated by Intelligence X, a search engine & data archive. We are not funded by the EU. It would make sense if the EU Commission paves the way for a EU-funded and operated internet archiving project.

Technical details: For security reasons, pictures, videos, JavaScript, and other potentially dangerous codes and external references are removed. Therefore historical versions may appear 'blank'. Our crawler only indexes HTML pages; if a website relies heavily on JS and dynamic elements, it will not be properly archived. "

lumpa··on Academic journal editor allegedly steals paper for himself
More readable Retraction Watch article: https://retractionwatch.com/2021/01/25/here-comes-the-judge-...
lumpa··on Ask HN: What are some red flags at work that make you want to leave?
People and the processes not caring about writing knowledge down. From no process documentation to no knowledge management tools, including but going way beyond:

* Being OK with useless commit messages.

* Disregard for auditable tracking of issue progress, decision making, design flows, etc. E.g. Anyone having to tackle any existing non-trivial issue needing to be forwarded many email threads and random files.

* Predictable emergencies needing avoidable crunch mode over and over, no knowledge accrued about how the last fixes went.

The more examples I think about, the more it boils down to: any signs of an insatiable gluttony for technical debt should make you think twice. You're likely to be the one paying for it in the end.

lumpa··on I'm accidentally dominating my own contest
Besides the accidental voting corruption you mention, you might also be seeing the Expert's Ideas Get More Traction effect. People might be posting ideas they just came up with and organized as best as they could, while yours were stewing and benefit from knowing you'd be writing them down some time.

There are many ways to dilute the "first posted, most voted" effect without actually changing how votes get counted. In a way, it's a very similar problem to how voting happens in sites like HN. Mostly you can change how entries are displayed (hidden votes until done?), ordered (new first? random? less voted? trending?) and discovered (tags? keywords?).

In your specific case, next time you can try making sure you add a couple clearly bad ideas (off topic?), maybe one clearly placeholder (or kinda tutorial) idea and maybe some you can remove later could give you a good starting brew to grow user submitted content.

You can also somehow put the same projects to vote again, starting with zero votes. To have two projects done instead of one, maybe that's enough of an excuse.

lumpa··on CheapETH: A Fun Ethereum Testnet
Is it a testnet or not? How does it relate to the accusations being made here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26175655 ?
lumpa··on Building Rich Terminal Dashboards
I think it was changed to title case by a mod. It might have been automatically changed on submission without me noticing. But I'm sure it was submitted with the proper capitalization you suggest.
lumpa··on Building Rich Terminal Dashboards
Looks great, thanks for the link! Some very nice examples of other cool stuff that depends on the blessed Python package: https://github.com/jquast/blessed
lumpa··on Building Rich Terminal Dashboards
Just realized that the post author submitted[0] it hours before I did, but it didn't come up in search because it was dead at the time.

This is sad because Will writes great posts[1] and great software[2], but somehow his submissions mentioning Rich tend to end up dead. Would it be a case of bad project name for HN titles?

[0] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26147831

[1] https://www.willmcgugan.com/blog/tech/

[2] https://github.com/willmcgugan

lumpa··on Cache poisoning in popular open source packages CVE-2021-23336
Write up and timeline of fixes reported by a Python core dev: https://python-security.readthedocs.io/vuln/urllib-query-str...

bugs.python.org tracker issue: https://bugs.python.org/issue42967

lumpa··on Hacked verified account going rampant on Twitter posting spamm
By now you have enough material to write a short article about this. Or to ping someone to write one. It might have a better ROI than the many no comments, almost no votes submission on this subject (which I always upvote when I see BTW).
lumpa··on Recommitting to the Python Software Foundation
Here's a link to the corresponding PSF post: https://pyfound.blogspot.com/2021/02/welcoming-google-as-vis...
lumpa··on dev-python/cryptography to use rust, killing alpha, hppa, ia64, m68k, s390
It seems at least portage will be able to remove the dependency on dev-python/cryptography: https://archives.gentoo.org/gentoo-dev/message/73e4a44a8d047...
lumpa··on [dead]
Here's an archive link:

https://web.archive.org/web/20210209194250/https://www.borin...

Not much better than the fart sound.

lumpa··on Ask HN: Best Therapeutic Models for Autistic Children
Makes sense, I think you can get some answers in HN (worth asking again, maybe direct the question to "parents of children in the autistic spectrum"?), but there are better places to ask. It's great that you're taking steps to give your son the best environment you can, please take these as attempts to help you achieve that.

You say you don't know about what I asked and if asked directly they'll justify as necessary focusing on the affected children. That doesn't help you much, maybe there's something already published you can find yourself and read to help figuring things out? What do Dane psychologists/neurologists say in articles they write? Are the comparisons of the different systems in Europe? You have to go a bit deeper to figure out what is best, reading about about autism is part of the package IMO. Some people[0][1] find that writing about it also helps.

Also, you're (going to be?) THE expert on your son and his needs, no doubt about that. So if you study a lot right now it'll help to make your case (and/or mind, if you haven't decided what's best yet) and get the assistance he needs sooner. You can be the best people at fighting for what your son needs, it's a necessary skill to have in the long run. Asking and caring about the best way shows you've already started on this journey.

Being somewhat of an outsider does complicate some things, but it also offers you perspective and that may be more important for you and your son in the long run. So don't blame yourself, try to adapt where you feel it's necessary and be comfortable where you feel it's your choice.

Lastly, be sure to also get the assistance YOU need. Professionals can help you develop skills to handle the stress and find the joy. Friends, volunteering, gaming, arts, sports, being outdoors, there are tons of activities that can help. Some of these will work for you, some won't, and some might even enhance your connection to your son.

[0] https://nedbatchelder.com/blog/tag/autism.html

[1] http://susansenator.com/

lumpa··on Ask HN: Best Therapeutic Models for Autistic Children
I'm sorry, I had no idea this was a thing and should have had more empathy. Have you formed a position about what would be the best approach?

My son is on the spectrum, what used to be called Asperger's. He does therapy with an Applied Behavior Analysis certified professional and also a group socialization therapy with half a dozen other kids. The group organizers mentioned they prefer the group to be diverse: not all kids have the same issues, so they can help each other. Other than that, the current wisdom here is that children on the spectrum should go to the same school/classes and participate in external activities as much as any other children, but have professionals helping bridge the necessary gaps (like the socialization group, or pedagogic helpers, or even food allergy managers).

Before being diagnosed, my son took classes which also had some other toddlers on the spectrum, one with Down Syndrome, etc. But it's always a diverse, inclusive group. I'd fight fiercely against any suggestions of restricting his social group to any kind/class of kids.

Of course, if other schools cannot provide him with the assistance he needs, you might not have much choice but to put him in "a kindergarten for autistic children". Ideally, you'd be considering what they offer, what he needs, and what other schools offer. This one might be the best. But IMO that makes you and the social system responsible for finding other venues where he can meet and play with other kids. Maybe if you explain that he will be effectively restricted to socialization with his classmates, it can change their suggestion? Maybe they have something extra to offer people who are in your situation (shouldn't be too uncommon)?

Because it's not just about "being taugh to socialize". He also need to have fun, to learn from example, to get frustrated and improve his abilities to deal with that. He will grow to be his own person, you know your role in this is so important that you cannot just go with the flow. So it's nice that you came to HN to discuss, but we're not adequately educated to offer the help you need. Also discuss with professionals and in parent forums (but beware the crazy ones).

There's a lot of data you can gather to help you choose a position and arguments to defend it at the meeting. Do you know people on the spectrum that went to schools like you mention? And do you know people on the spectrum who went to generalist schools? What do you get from their stories? What are the reasons for Denmark to choose this scheme? Are they focusing on the affected children, or in not inconveniencing the other pupils and their parents? What does the science say about this approach? What are your options for arranging playdates for your kid outside school and family?

I hope you have a good meeting, I kinda have high expectations from the social system in Denmark. Your son deserves going to a place where he can be his best self and grow.

lumpa··on The first commits to the Go repository are a legendary easter egg
Not sure what I should be looking for, any hints? Also, the link doesn't quite go to the "first commits of the Go repository", should I be looking at those instead?

Edit: Here's a link to the first, legendary commits in Go: https://github.com/golang/go/commits/eef3fbb83ee0d654fbd3545...

I guess HN stripped the "after" param from the URL, breaking your link.

lumpa··on Ask HN: Best Therapeutic Models for Autistic Children
Er, have you ever heard/read something suggesting an autistic child should socialize with only other autistic children, or is it something you came up with?

Please, write more about your thought process and the problem you're trying to solve. It greatly interests me, as the idea of restricting a child to only interact with autistic (and there are many different labels that would have the same effect) children is overwhelmingly alien to me.

lumpa··on Why Opening Restaurants Is Exactly What the Coronavirus Wants Us to Do
"[...I]mplementing large scale vaccination while large numbers of infected people interact with immunized people sounds like an efficient way to discover vaccine-escaping strains. This vaccine-escaping selection should be more than offset by the fact that vaccination will result in fewer infections and lessen the opportunity for more, worse strains to evolve.

Still, it would be better if we could avoid exposing a huge population of immunized people to a huge population of infected people. It's obvious everything would be better with fewer infected people, but it's still dawning on some that benefits include fewer strains and maybe more effective vaccination impacts."

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26071768

lumpa··on Rust: “Move fast and break things” as a moral imperative
Compare and contrast with https://drewdevault.com/2021/02/02/Anti-Wayland-horseshit.ht.... ISTM that Rust is way more deserving of an anti-FUD blog post than Wayland is.

"Maybe Rust doesn’t work for your precious use-case."

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