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mindrag

66 karma · joined March 23, 2012

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mindrag··on Google under fire from regulators on EU privacy ruling
Pesky problem, civil liberties that apply to all people regardless of the whims of the government or the majority of its citizens. Free speech is guaranteed by the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
mindrag··on Malaysia B772 has crashed near Donetsk
Turn on any American news outlet, check the front page of any American newspaper, and you'll see tons of coverage of Gaza. It's all over the place. Wall to wall.

If you aren't seeing it then you either aren't really paying attention, or you don't consume American media and have no idea what you're talking about on this topic.

Well, it's going to be overshadowed by this plane crash for a bit.

mindrag··on Malaysia B772 has crashed near Donetsk
The TWA 800 plane crash referred to by the OC happened in 1996 (not in the 1960s). So a lot of Americans have memories of that event as well as the aftermath (which dragged on for years).

> twist them into a discussion about your own local issues/problems/incidents

Again, not really sure why this offends you so much. There may not be a lot of value in pointing out this particular coincidence, but it's certainly not intended to pull attention from the tragedy that just occurred. It's just...conversation. Isn't that why we're here on HN?

mindrag··on Malaysia B772 has crashed near Donetsk
You're an ass. Nobody is trying to "Americanify" the event. They are simply remembering another event that is linked to the current one by coincidence. The anti-American knee-jerk reaction is 10x worse than any "Americanification".
mindrag··on Malaysia B772 has crashed near Donetsk
What makes your theory "overwhelmingly likely"?
mindrag··on Malaysia B772 has crashed near Donetsk
> It is barely news when a couple hundred civilians die on the ground in a war zone

Have you been watching the news recently? Wall-to-wall coverage of Gaza.

mindrag··on Knuth: Open Letter to Condoleezza Rice (2002)
Nahh
mindrag··on Netflix disables use of the Chrome developer console
I think you totally missed the point. We don't want Netflix to go away. (Actually, Netflix is one of the most important technology companies in existence at the moment). We want better behavior.
mindrag··on Why Reddit moderators are “censoring” Glenn Greenwald’s latest
This issue has implications far beyond reddit.
mindrag··on Google’s suggestion for a better infinite scroll?
There's an elegant way to add some sort of progress indicator to infinite scroll. I just haven't figured it out yet :)
mindrag··on Sen. Manchin demands complete US ban on Bitcoin
Hmm. I think it's far from the only place. You might want to check a dictionary.
mindrag··on Mt. Gox Resigns Bitcoin Foundation Board Seat
No, I believe he is saying that he had a downswing in his poker career during that time, i.e., losing a lot of games.
mindrag··on The American Who Designed the PlayStation 4 and Remade Sony
Because that will be forgotten in a matter of weeks as more titles begin to roll out for both platforms.
mindrag··on Martin Gräßlin, KDE: "Good Bye, Ubuntu"
XP? Really?

It's time to let go of a 12-year-old OS.

mindrag··on Obama administration urges FCC to require carriers to unlock mobile devices
I would say voting for the lesser of two evils, while not exactly my idea of a thriving democratic process, is still worthwhile. Imagine McCain had been elected. How many of our soldiers would have been killed due to his desire to swing America's big dick around in front of the world? How many foreign civilians? Obama's far from perfect, and his Nobel Peace Prize is a joke, but he's kept the body count relatively low compared to any hypothetical Republican commander-in-chief.
mindrag··on US Budget Visualization Using d3
That's like comparing an aircraft carrier to a rubber ducky. Budgeting for a country of 300 million bears no resemblance to household budgeting. The priorities and general principles are completely different.
mindrag··on From Thomas Pynchon, a novel of the dot-com era and the end of history
Is that article actually in English? I couldn't understand a damn thing the author was trying to say.

"...like a black pearl from an oyster unfathomable by any other diver into our eternal souls."

What?

mindrag··on Why Aren't There More Women Programmers?
The comparison doesn't seem applicable here. Women's suffrage was about gaining a right that was, at that time, forbidden. Preference shouldn't play a role in basic rights, but it certainly plays a role in an individual's choice of career.
mindrag··on Massachusetts Introduces Software Service Tax
This is America, where even people who pay a next-to-nothing tax rate on high incomes complain about supposedly high tax rates.
mindrag··on The Door To The FISA Court Doesn't Even Have A Sign On It
That's true, but all FISA proceedings are classified, so there's no way they would allow cameras.
mindrag··on I'm learning to code by building 180 websites in 180 days. Today is day 115
If I could ask, how did you find your own way around that feeling?
mindrag··on Show HN: HN Special – A visual theme and Chrome extension for Hacker News
Very cool! I just forked it, thinking of implementing collapsible comments.
mindrag··on Native vs. HTML5: looked at objectively, the debate is over
The author totally ignores that fact that apps are created for different reasons, different audiences, and have different goals. It's no wonder he seems quite full of himself:

"Almost a year ago I wrote a white paper...Strangely, though, the debate rages on."

mindrag··on Reddit user captures video of 2012 voting machines altering votes
There are all sorts of laws that protect us from various government abuses, such as requiring search warrants, trial by jury, freedom of speech, etc. Voter secrecy is a prudent safeguard along those same lines.
mindrag··on Google Censors Guns, Ammo & Accessories from Shopping Results
I'm upset by what I see as a sense of entitlement by gun owners who think that every retail outlet should be selling guns. Many gun buffs won't shop at Target because that store won't sell guns. Now they are complaining about Google. It's not like Google is the only way to shop online. Heck, it's not even the BEST way to shop online. Get over it and shop somewhere else.
mindrag··on 50 Years Ago: The World in 1962
The best baseball players in the world play in the US, so it truly is a World Series, regardless of where the teams play.
mindrag··on "Gangbang Interviews" and "Bikini Shots": Silicon Valley’s Brogrammer Problem
So your name is Matt Van Horn, but you are not the Matt Van Horn from the article, but you've met him and he's actually a pretty good guy? That is some coincidence right there.

Regardless of what kind of person he is, the presentation he gave was in poor taste and deserves to be ridiculed. Attacking the writer or publication for wanting to "drive more page views" doesn't change the fact that he gave a sexist presentation.

mindrag··on The Crisis in American Walking
It's not a terrible thing to think. You aren't thinking this because you're racist, but because we all know that in many communities, the cops will not give nonwhites the same benefit of the doubt that they extend to white people.
mindrag··on Flashback trojan reportedly controls half a million Macs and counting
It's not at all clear. It's deliberately ambiguous. If they wanted it to be clear they would have said "Macs are only susceptible to a fraction of the number of viruses plaguing Windows-based computers."