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markx2

1,517 karma · joined June 4, 2011

ex-NHS RNMH 1985-2002 ex-Automattic Support Maven 2006-2020
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markx2··on Musk says humans can be on Mars in four years. Many laugh, but some see purpose
Lead from the front Mr Musk!

We'll meet you there.

markx2··on Throwable tactical camera transmits 360° panoramic thermal images
“The man from Box 500 [UK MI5] proudly announced that the thermal-imaging camera at the rear had detected a pattern of movement. Every morning, he reported, at exactly 08:00, the hostages gathered in the commercial section on the ground floor. An SAS officer tartly pointed out the central heating was timed to go on every morning at that hour: the “hostages” detected by MI5’s machine were radiators warming up."

Excerpt From: The Siege by Ben Macintyre

Very good read.

markx2··on Titan sub disaster: Five key questions that remain
1. "Did the passengers know the dive was going wrong?"

Why does this matter? It was far too late for them.

2. "Which part of the Titan sub failed?"

Established precedent and good designers have already answered that

3. "Did ocean sounds distract from the search?"

What are you going to do? Ask the ocean to hush?

4. "Why were safety concerns ignored by Oceangate?"

From what I have read, that'll be ego.

5. "Why did the authorities allow Titan to dive?"

They could not stop them.

I can't see a 'key question' in the above.

markx2··on The Great Evernote Reboot
First used Evernote back in the XP / ME / whatever came next days, and it was fantastic. The never ending till-roll in the bottom left (?) of the screen where I could and did dump heaps of information. It really was "Notes forever" all on my machine.

Then their monetisation, along with their restrictions arrived.

Then it was sold.

I loved what it did, but Zoho Notebook alone has meant I'll never look at Evernote again.

markx2··on Add Featured Images to WordPress Posts in Bulk
1. This is yet another way to spam.

2. "Refund Method - In case of a legitimate refund request due to technical concerns, we will NOT be returning the payment directly. Instead, we will credit the respective amount back to your account in the form of credits, which can be utilized for future article generation."

In other words - it's our money now.

100% spammy junk.

markx2··on Show HN: Bullshit Remover
I would use http://www.blablameter.com/ on posts made by certain team leaders.

It is amazing how someone can write three or more paragraphs of ..... nothing ..... but it had all the right buzzwords which is how they kept their job.

markx2··on AppleWatchAmmeter
They don't see them.

On the two occasions I failed to remove the large steel/titanium item in a piercing that set off the scatter machine so I was taken to a room and searched.

But the steel in my hands, the LED, chip and magnet in my left hand, the Vivokey and chip in my right hand - nothing. Even the handheld scanner doesn't pick them up.

One of the NFC chips was useful on my last trip to the US. I was constantly pulled over by the TSA and they might have wanted to inspect my laptop. So I made a backup, saved the minimum I needed, encrypted it on another device and uploaded to a domain. Clean installed the OS. The NFC chip carried a long string which to me gave the directory structure (very nested, no / in the string) and the encryption key. It wasn't needed, but it was amusing.

markx2··on AppleWatchAmmeter
It can lift a paperclip, buckyballs stick to it, and moving the fingertip across devices - spinning HD's, laptops gives a sensation when the magnetic field changes. No real practical use but I knew that.
markx2··on AppleWatchAmmeter
I had an MRI.

I have tragus piercings where the rings are titanium but the balls were steel. It was missed that they were there.

I have surgical steel self-done implants in each hand.

I have a magnet in one of my fingertips

I have NFC chips in both hands.

I did not explode, nothing felt hot, the only sensation was my tragus piercings wobbling slightly.

This whole MRI thing ....

markx2··on Tell HN: Stripe Dashboard no longer supports Firefox
> Chromium is Open Source, and anyone can fork it if Google go too far.

'anyone'.

The resources required to fork and then maintain would be huge, and that completely disregards the publicity needed to say just why the fork was needed and is in the consumer's best interest to use instead.

Google have already gone too far. I can only hope the EU breaks them.

markx2··on CSAM content on Bluesky has risen ten times in just a week
Just checked - they have no vacancies for Support staff to help.

Make of that what you will.

markx2··on Has anyone noticed how overrun by bots Reddit has become?
That would (1) take an amazing amount of time and (2) an account just saying that type of stuff would be noticed and shadow-banned or downvoted.
markx2··on Has anyone noticed how overrun by bots Reddit has become?
> Are people farming karma to later sell the accounts to shill products?

> Yes.

I wonder who buys though. I had an account which was 9 years old, over well over 100k karma and I decided I would delete it. Before doing so and out of curiosity, I contacted a couple of accounts that said they bought accounts. I was offered $20 (twenty) dollars. No more. Deleted the account.

If that is a representative amount then it's a lot of 'work' for no real gain.

markx2··on Show HN: I made a website where you can discuss your issues
I viewed source

It was not minified.

markx2··on Show HN: I made a website where you can discuss your issues
"Create New Problem" is not good text.

2 lines of code with 62362 characters is not good.

A never-ending scroll that means I cannot see any T&Cs is not good.

I'll pass.

markx2··on Tumblr to move its half a billion blogs to WordPress
Automattic has said for years that they (Wordpress) power X% of the internet.

Before wordpress.com users had to actively choose WP.

With the advent of wordpress.com and it's 'freemium' tier that arguably started to distort numbers. After all, stale, dead "Hello World" blogs count toward stats.

Now, with Tumblr, Automattic will say they power X+% of the internet

When Automattic buys Blogger, that boast about powering % of the net will increase even further.

It's a takeover, not user choice.

markx2··on Bypass Paywall Reader, A website to bypass paywalls on articles to read for free
DMCA notice probably

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=41331185

markx2··on Tumblr to move its half a billion blogs to WordPress
Just wait until Automattic acquires Blogger and switches that to WP.
markx2··on Major Sites Are Saying No to Apple's AI Scraping
Does wordpress.com count as a major site? They host a huge amount of sites.

They are saying Yes to everyone. There is no indication anywhere that they block AI scrapers.

In fact, they let a blogger 'profit'.

https://wordpress.com/blog/2024/07/30/perplexity-partnership...

markx2··on Facebook Helped the FBI Exploit Vulnerability in a Secure Linux Distro (2020)
This appears to be the original article: https://www.vice.com/en/article/facebook-helped-fbi-hack-chi...
markx2··on The Story of the Successful Life and Abrupt Death of Flip Video Cameras
London 2009. The first ever Automattic Team meetup and it was Support staff. Matt Mullenweg gave each of us a WP branded Flip camera. I still have mine, though I doubt it holds a charge. Cool toy at the time.
markx2··on Ask HN: How do you keep track of “Log in with” accounts
I use Bitwarden but have used LastPass and 1Password before.

I always, without exception, will sign up with a username & password. I would never use a"Log in with". To me, if I am logging in through a different company then it is that company who has control, not me. There are tales here and elsewhere when Google has nuked someone's account. That's bad, but if you logged in with Google on other sites then you are completely screwed. Same applies to other companies.

I won't be using the Apple Passwords app.

markx2··on Firefox to show (more) ads on the new page tab
Non-story

Article dated July 16, 2024

In the latest Firefox (and it has been this way forever)

Settings > Home > New tabs > Blank Page.

markx2··on Show HN: RedditScout – Best product reviews summarizer
I'll bet that Conde Nast come after you for using 'reddit' in the name.

Might be wise to change that.

markx2··on Would console manufacturers be in violation of U.S. law by fixing stick drift?
> eliminating stick drift would certainly reduce some number of repeat customers

Someone experiencing stick drift - there is no guarantee they will come back to the original company for a fix. In fact they may well go elsewhere.

Eliminating stick drift, and as importantly eliminating reports of it happening, can only enhance your brand. Better build reputation = more sales?

What we don't know is (1) the cost of a Hall Effect sensor and (2) the replacement cost to the company. That would seem to be the maths that matters.

I know I put off buying a Switch in part because of drift reports.

markx2··on Terry Deary: The man behind the Horrible Histories (2012)
Also:

Terry Deary: ‘Horrible Histories was an original – but the books don’t pay very well’ (July 2024)

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/money/jobs/career-advice/terry-d...

No paywall: https://archive.ph/qUtmS

markx2··on About Google Chrome's "This extension may soon no longer be supported"
Can the explanation be more verbose or link to "Why this matters for you".

Inform people instead of what could be read as "I'm just not doing it".

Firefox user here since before it was Firefox so I see this as a chance to educate.

markx2··on [dead]
Reminds me of the IRA Brighton bomb which was aimed at killing Margaret Thatcher.

No remote, just a timer.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brighton_hotel_bombing

And then the quote:

"Today we were unlucky, but remember we only have to be lucky once - you will have to be lucky always."

http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/witness/october/12/newsid...

markx2··on Everything I, an Italian, thought I knew about Italian food is wrong
https://archive.ph/MtRm3
markx2··on India alert after boy dies from Nipah virus in Kerala
"The WHO has described the virus as a priority pathogen because of its potential to trigger an epidemic."
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