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naragon Squatting in Spain: Understanding Spain's "okupas" problem

This is outrageous and now it's a political talking point for the right, because the left uses it as a matter of "activism" from the "grassroot" movements that celebrate their spoils, at the same time they deny the problem exists at all from their ministries.

But let me remind you: from 2011 to 2018 Spain was NOT governed by the left, but by the Partido Popular with this guy as prime minister:

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

This moron didn't move a finger to solve the problem, that was already a thing. That's how things work over here: unless there's a massive public outrage, politicians do nothing.

naragon Squatting in Spain: Understanding Spain's "okupas" problem

Sorry, but you have no idea what you're talking about. The "swift" solution would send you to jail in mere hours. You're presumed guilty. Yes, it defies any logic, but that's the way that it is.

My mom's husband had rented his previous flat (to complement his pension) to two women. They were working, very "normal" persons, and the contract specified that no other person could live there. One of them started dating a man and, a year later, there were three, then four (a child) living there. Then the other woman left (the guy was violent) and then the mother and her child had to flee too.

So my mom's husband had a guy that he never had any agreement with, living in his property, not paying rent, and not paying utilities. Now the law forbids to cut the utilities so you have to pay utilities for him. I think at the time (five years ago) it was still possible to cut. But the guy didn't care. After a year and a hell in courts, the flat was free again but a complete mess, broken furniture, mountains of junk. To weeks were needed just to clean, then paint, fixing doors, plumbing, etc.

He sold it ASAP. Now, I don't wonder why there's so little housing for rent.

naragon Napster sparked a file-sharing revolution 25 years ago

I meant that the music that's publicized today is the music that's made today. So if even with this handicap, older music is as popular as the new, one explanation could be that it was intrinsically catchier.

The graphic that I saw:

https://x.com/antonello/status/1781197022910947492

To be clear: I'm not arguing that it was better, just more memorable, uplifting or touching. Actually, in ye olden times, "commercial music" was a synonym of bad and "quality music" was expected to be minoritary.

naragon Napster sparked a file-sharing revolution 25 years ago

Last study I've seen, that stopped being... I won't say true, but I'd say that it stopped being a valid counterargument to that particular complaint. Now that young people can access music from any time in YouTube, their choices are more atemporal and certain remote decades keep getting much love.

If you combine that fact with current music being more marketed and aired, there's seem to be something at play here. I don't think new music is crap, but it's less catchy.

naragon Meteor seen in Portugal

Time ago there was a running joke about YouTube comments sillyness. That section has improved a lot. Live chats, on the other hand...

During a recent volcano eruption someone was convinced that the rain would help stop the lava. I can't forget that. Oh, and the prophetic, blessings, I knew it, climate change, etc.

naragon Japan: The land that doesn't need Ozempic

Walking less is not the cause of the obesity, more like the other way around: if you don't need to walk, you can afford to overeat until you're obese. Also the pleasure of walking and exercising must be replaced with something else.

But exercise has very little effect on weight compared to diet. It's a known fact, even for the fans of counting calories. Just see the tables of inputs and outputs.

Eating less and avoiding sugar and processed food is mostly enough, if not to be slim, at least to keep you reasonable healthy.

naragon Good, Kind, Caring People Became the Bad Guys

I have been close to people in that kind of situation and I am happy to answer.

We tend to see those questions from the nightmarish movie plot perspective in which someone is wrongfully institutionalized. Cuckcoo's Nest and all that.

Also many families want to have their mentally ill members with them. With proper medication they can live a happy life.

But there are terrible situations when they don't take the medication or there's an addiction problem.

There's very little nuance in these cases, really.

naragon Good, Kind, Caring People Became the Bad Guys

A judge, hearing witnesses and mental health professionals under oath, decides who is unable to behave peacefully. It's usually a last-resort measure, so when it comes to this, it's very clear cut.

Locking up can mean a number of things, but for really bad cases it's just that.

It solves the problem of people out of their mind hurting others because they forget or just refuse to take their medication. And it's a better problem to solve than dealing with dead bodies.

You can still set as many controls as you deem reasonable, but sometimes families are put in impossible situations, just like in the article.

naragon So We've Got a Memory Leak

I've used languages with and without garbage collection. Usually, manual is more difficult to write, automatic is more difficult to troubleshoot.

I would love to use a language that allows me to do both. Writing exploratory code is more convenient using automatic memory management. There are certain kinds of code that benefit from manual memory management.

I find appalling that people can't find a middle ground between forbidden and mandatory.

naragon Dear Europe, please wake up

When I'm writing this, there's not a single comment that engages with the actual proposals presented in the article. Most commenters are addressing points that the author didn't make or just insulting him.

TL;DR: 1) simplify and uniformize company creation process 2) teach English to everyone.

(I agree, BTW)

naragon Ask HN: What fields or technologies are you excited about?

I don't like playing prophet, so this is a very personal hunch: I believe we're at a social dead end. Whichever new trends we'll see in the next twenty years will come after some kind of mindset switch flipping.

If that sounds too abstract: less safetyism. We could see new kind of vehicles, sports and space exploration.

naragon Atomic nucleus excited with laser: A breakthrough after decades

A long time ago I saw some UV photos of flowers, compared to visible and IR. There were some distinct features. That suggests some insects could see them, but of course it's just speculation.

naragon The man who killed Google Search?

Yes, but there are other positions that do fit the comparison, like a couple of advanced passed pawns that can still be defended against with surgical precision, but most times are lethal.

naragon Programming Is Mostly Thinking (2014)

There's more than one way to do it.

How I work:

- First I make a very general design of modules, taking into account how they are going to communicate with each other, all based in experience with previous systems.

- I foresee problematic parts, usually integration points, and write simple programs to validate assumptions and test performance.

- I write a skeleton for the main program with a dumbed-down GUI.

From that point on, I develop each module and now, yes, there's a lot of thinking in advance.

naragon Huawei's latest flagship smartphone contains no world-shaking silicon surprises

You're going to like this:

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt2802144/

naragon El Prado Museum – Virtual Tour

No, your avg tech worker is not going to be making 15k/yr. Maybe around 40k/yr and that would be an "average" salary for a non-senior position.

Both of you are wrong for different reasons. The truth is more nuanced.

First, Madrid is very different from the rest of the country. Salaries are higher, still half of what our neighbors of the north have. 15k/20k sounds like a rest-of-the-country average.

Even in Madrid 40k€ is far from average, that it's more likely 28k.

40 is the salary for a very senior o very specialized programmer/analyst.

But there's a caveat that makes you closer to reality for Madrid and it's if you add forced pension and health insurance that the employer pays. It's around 40% on top of the raw salary, so someone earning 30k is really costing 42k to the employer.

After income tax, those 30k become 24k :(

naragon El Prado Museum – Virtual Tour

Madrid: They don't have a river, a beach or ancient ruins.

We do have a river, but if it doesn't seem much to you, take the train south and in half an hour you reach Aranjuez:

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

There you have the Tagus river and gorgeous gardens.

naragon Time Magazine's Best Inventions of 2023 Award for Humane's AI Pin

A youtuber being a youtuber, but that's his opinion. He not only tells, but he also shows and I can still form my own opinion.

To be more specific: the 3D gestures interface seems great to me. I'm not interested in the AI assistant, much less at that price point, when it's within reach of my 130€ phone. But that particular interface could be reused in a cheaper device.

naragon Time Magazine's Best Inventions of 2023 Award for Humane's AI Pin

The fine article.

naragon Time Magazine's Best Inventions of 2023 Award for Humane's AI Pin

Try this review, he highlights the positive aspects, but then concludes that execution is subpar:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TitZV6k8zfA

naragon $10M in Gold Disguised as Machine Parts Seized from Cargo Plane

One of my favourite Bond's, also the song is pure gold!

naragon $10M in Gold Disguised as Machine Parts Seized from Cargo Plane

That's it, thank you!

naragon $10M in Gold Disguised as Machine Parts Seized from Cargo Plane

I saw that trick in a couple of movies, but don't rememberch which ones.

In one of them they made a whole car of gold, maybe it was Goldfinger?

In the other one, they fled the country in a boat and replaced some parts of the boat with gold. This one is better, because it's more difficult to scan the boat.

naragon Can you really explain the difference? Subtle nuances of English words

The distinction seems useful, but consider that each of both terms have been defined in many different ways by many schools of thought along the milennia.

For Aristotle, Ethics was the way your parents raised you and the moral compass that education has provided you, either rational or not. So not what you expect after reading the article.

naragon White space killed an enterprise app (2019)

So different ways of calling the same thing and different UIs. But it's just given names vs. family names and a set of rules. I like Bulgarian ones most.

naragon Mathematician who made sense of the universe's randomness wins Abel Prize

The issue is entirely cultural.

The "issue" is entirely about money. Sports make so much money because so many have fun watching them. And it's an issue only if you want fame so badly as to make an issue of the fact that what you do is anonymous.

naragon Some notes on Firefox’s media autoplay settings in practice as of Firefox 124

I was doing that, but it's much better to have it automated. Now, I see there are side effects for other sites, but now I can fine tune it.

naragon Roll-Invert-Unroll: An easier way to replace a duvet cover

I do it in fifteen seconds at most, stuffing it without any consideration just keeping two corners in one hand, then matching them with two cover's corners and gently shaking.

Also genuinely baffled about the article, but to be honest, not the first time that I hear someone hating the procedure and describing some problem that I don't understand.

naragon Some notes on Firefox’s media autoplay settings in practice as of Firefox 124

Thanks!! :)

naragon White space killed an enterprise app (2019)

In José Manuel, Manuel would be the middle name, just like in English. It's not a "two-words-long first name". Sometimes first and middle names are coupled like a whole, like it's usual for José Manuel. Also for José-something or Juan-something in general. Other times, the middle name is never used, like in Nicolás Antonio, being the Antonio part extra annoying, because the SS personnel, for some reason, insists in calling me that when it's my turn.