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oldbbsnickname

334 karma · joined October 3, 2023

SJC->ATX

SRE platform engineering and support at scale: Rust, Elixir, Erlang, C, and the usual stack friends

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oldbbsnickname··on After 28 years, SSLv2 is still not gone from the internet
I can bet Please install JAVA and Flash plugin to continue... ):

Oh lord. Even Supermicro BMCs from 2020 still have Java applet support. On the plus side, it only does TLS v1.2 and serves certificates properly. Let's ignore that it's also very, very slow.

Edit: APC NMC2/3 don't allow of loading of conventional PEM PKCS#8 certificates. They require proprietary variations of "PKCS#12" certs and have no readily-available tool to change them. Also, APC's new owner has switched to a business model where they charge for firmware updates and refuse to patch devices without $$$$.

oldbbsnickname··on LAPD YouTube Channel Suspended for Posting Violent Content
If you're going to be inflammatory and rude, please use another site.

https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html

oldbbsnickname··on Toyota's reliance on single supplier drags out long shutdown
It's not a valid critique of lean or TPMS, it's the liability introduced with sole-source vendors. This a problem in every company that isn't vertically integrated and makes physical objects. "Irreplaceable supplier" must be made a non sequitur by deliberate incubation, partnering, incentivizing, and other strategies to ensure the health of suppliers providing critical inputs.
oldbbsnickname··on US halts exports of most civilian firearms for 90 days
Not a huge deal and not a surprise. This aims to stop opportunists profiting from dual-purpose items sent to war zones and arming US adversaries, and to maintain domestic supplies that are under stress.

https://www.arkansasonline.com/news/2023/oct/19/war-could-li...

Another problem outside of the civilian arena is lack of DoD oversight and regulation of the military-industrial complex to ensure it can function and doesn't create a single-points of failure. Layers of mergers and outsourcing create a web of ownership that the DoD has all but given up on tracking. And when the sole-source vendor for a specialized component forgets or decommissions the tools, materials, sources, and knowledge for restarting an assembly line, then there are risks of delay and outright nondelivery... and F-35's get incorrectly imported materials and arms remain backordered.

https://www.thebignewsletter.com/p/why-america-is-out-of-amm...

oldbbsnickname··on LAPD YouTube Channel Suspended for Posting Violent Content
I don't really care what YT does. I already know they're going to silence meaningful content if their algorithms determine it to be "sad" or "violent".

Interestingly, there is much content lost, demonetized, and simply not made because they determine factual content to be "sad". There's an amateur reporter and retired commercial pilot in central California who determined he both wouldn't go viral and wouldn't make much money because journalism and facts aren't what YT rewards.

This manipulation and ads like it's a goddamn cable network make it a pointless waste of time.

oldbbsnickname··on Getting my library cards onto my phone the hard way
I believe there were or are arbitrary pass generator apps that can slap a logo and various data into a custom pass.

Alternative solutions to barcodes are RFID/NFCs and geofenced authorization.

oldbbsnickname··on Nitrogen electroreduction with almost 100% current-to-ammonia efficiency (2022)
Incorrect in multiple respects. The molar mass of N is 14.006747 g/mol, while ammonia is 17.03052 g/mol. Gas expands to fill the container, so it's only worth discussing in mass terms.

It's rate of production over the area of the catalyst. Put another way, that's 1.5 ± 0.2 mmol/m²s or 25.5 ± 3.4 mg/m²s.

24 hours of production over a catalyst with an area of 1000 m² would create 25 ± 3.4 t. That's about the product weight of a typical full cold / cool towed trailer tank sent to large-scale customers. A commercial ammonia refinery would need many multiples of this area to be economically viable.

https://alliancetruckandtank.com/products/transport-trailers...

oldbbsnickname··on The Cruel Fantasies of Well-Fed People
Yellow vests protests and Occupy Wall St. are examples of ineffective movements: lacking identification of root causes of problems, lacking specific demands to redress, lacking leaders, or lacking resolve. XR is also sort-of in this camp.

The unfortunate reality is declarations about existential peril and what we "should" be doing fall on deaf ears of policymakers and regulators where particular governments are de facto run by the billionaires. Most necessary changes cannot happen without first defenestrating corporate lobbyists and the money politicians receive. This won't happen by elections, by reform from within (Sen. John McCain discovered this), or by wishing for it. And honestly, most US politicians should be in prison because they do more than just take stacks of cash and gold bars to fund reelection media buys, many allow their attention and votes to be curried for it, and even propose bills verbatim from the lobbyists of their benefactors.

Change can only happen externally by many, sustained, nonviolent mass demonstrations sufficient to achieve specific policy objectives. ("World peace" and "save the planet" aren't policies, while "phase out all coal power plants in 5 years" is.)

In absence of the people demanding specific actions and changes, the "green revolution" will be half-assed for renewables in electricity (currently at 30% worldwide, may top out at 80-90%), but that's about it. No net negative global emissions and not much carbon sequestration. Ultra-processing and megafarming practices sure as shit won't change by debate or wishful thinking alone.

oldbbsnickname··on The Cruel Fantasies of Well-Fed People
Commercial, profit-optimizing meat and dairy ag inexorably lead to GMO corn megafarms, CAFOs, and overuse of antibotics bringing the risks of antibiotic resistance, pandemics, climate change, and pollution of air, water, and soil.

What is missing is regulators mandating genuine sustainable practices and taxing and fining where appropriate. The absurd cruelty of CAFOs and using the atmosphere as an open-air sewer for methane and CO₂ must end.

oldbbsnickname··on Finding that lead emissions from aircraft engines contribute to air pollution
TEL is incredibly bad stuff*, but it's rarely used in commercial flight operations as they predominantly use jet aircraft. Leaded avgas is completely unnecessary as non-TEL fuel formulations have been created and certified. The problem is they're not available anywhere, while leaded avgas is everywhere in GA. Municipalities should do like they did for leaded automotive gasoline: supersede commercial interests with public health regulatory ones and ban it. (The EPA only banned leaded automotive gasoline nationwide in 1996 after allowing 25 years for the phaseout.)

* In the same category of human harm as nerve agents, dioxin, and methylmercury.

https://www.aopa.org/news-and-media/all-news/2021/july/27/ga...

https://www.epa.gov/archive/epa/aboutepa/epa-takes-final-ste...

oldbbsnickname··on The negative impact of mobile-first web design on desktop
Most problems stem from users conflating for-profit corporations for public commons. Nonprofit co-ops must provide critical infrastructure.

Who exactly is this prerogative "freeloader" you throw around so casually? Is there some service or good denied others involved?

oldbbsnickname··on BP to purchase $100M in Tesla Superchargers
A cynical perspective is also potentially possible: that it's greenwashing to distract from continued FF extraction. Both realities can coexist.

Until they make a commitment, timeline, and are excited about measurable progress ending FFs, they lack credibility that they're not the world's and Earth's Big Tobacco.

oldbbsnickname··on The Cloud Computer
Anyone recall Egenera? Compute only, virtualization, and fault-tolerance with the Ferrari of servers only MAANG-equivalents could afford in small numbers.

[PDF] https://web.archive.org/web/20050325213243/http://www.egener...

oldbbsnickname··on Google's plan to stop Apple from getting serious about search
TL;DR: Google doesn't have to do a damn thing.

Apple won't enter search or social networking because Erik Neuenschwander would poke holes in its privacy and Tim Cook would ask how it would add value.

And there's no point in competing in hard-fought, expensive, entrenched categories without a mission and differentiation.

And Spotlight isn't a search engine in the web sense or in the monetizing other things sense. It's an OS-based indexing engine to find local and some web and app content. Windows has one, Linux does, and so on. If anything, I would first bet Microsoft monetizes placement of "rich content" whereas Apple would be unlikely to do so. (Retail Windows looks to me like Yahoo or AOL of the 90's, but as a Teams, OneDrive, and Office365 advertising engine.)

oldbbsnickname··on Finding a Job in Tech Is Almost Becoming Impossible
Record profits. Record layoffs. It's all about wage suppression by megacorps following the management consultant playbook.

The only path to workers seeing a fraction of their real contributions is by having a significant fraction of equity shares with fair precedence.

oldbbsnickname··on Poll: What are the gender demographics of HN?
More ground mystery meat in tube shape than a nightlight venue in Man Jose.
oldbbsnickname··on Probably Buy a Flipper Zero Before It's Too Late
FZ is a toy that's easier to demonize than question the lack of security of systems and protocols in the real world.

But let's ponder what could possibly go wrong™ with autonomous, goal-seeking generative AI/ML/DL that can use local machine(s) and launch IaaS public compute instances, and effectively use a fraction of the toolset of Kali. But going further to add the capabilities of multiple, various sensors, network and RF hw modules, and autonomous vehicles.

oldbbsnickname··on Viagra could slash risk of Alzheimer's disease by 60%
Yes. PDE5's are stereotyped as "enabling dirty old men".
oldbbsnickname··on Viagra could slash risk of Alzheimer's disease by 60%
There's no mention of it in the abstract. It's probable men who are sexually active also have higher T-levels and are generally in better health. There aren't many other reasons to prescribe PDE5 inhibitors.
oldbbsnickname··on Tick-borne diseases: Racing to defuse a 'ticking' public health time bomb
Antibiotics of all classes are widely-abused clinically and in dairy and meat ag in America. However, if someone wears a seatbelt in a car, VLA15 and Lyme PrEP are similar to vaccines targeting the prevention of various forms of LD specifically. An ounce of prevention...

Let me regale whichever reader happens by with just a sliver of the oral traditions of farmers in my family who, over the centuries, died from preventable skin cancers by not wearing sunscreen or hats, lung cancers from smoking, uranium water contamination in the Four Corners region (many horrible deaths in one house), and from treatable conditions by not going to the doctor and who chose to snub precautions.

oldbbsnickname··on Tick-borne diseases: Racing to defuse a 'ticking' public health time bomb
PSA: Let's refrain from diagnosing people with medical or mental health problems over the internet please. Thank you.
oldbbsnickname··on Tick-borne diseases: Racing to defuse a 'ticking' public health time bomb
I used to live where it was endemic to western black-legged ticks since the 80's, the tiny ones that carry LD.

If ticks are that much of a problem there, I would look into the Lyme PrEP clinical trial. LD is nothing to fuck with due to the neurological decline it can cause. Thankfully, cats are unlikely to catch it so I hope they're okay.

Clarification: ridding ticks or riding large mammals?

PS: I think chiggers are worse because (I at least) can't see them and they can transferred simply by walking across an infested, short cut lawn.

oldbbsnickname··on Roombas at the end of the world
Makes you wonder about the conversion factor between Roomba years and human years.
oldbbsnickname··on Roombas at the end of the world
Mine are named Trouble (S9+) and Mayhem (m6). They're dressed in vinyl wraps to be less boring.
oldbbsnickname··on Sodium batteries offer an alternative to tricky lithium
A failure to appreciate both are alkali metals.
oldbbsnickname··on U.S. GDP grew at a 4.9% annual pace in the third quarter, better than expected
- Mass shootings every damn day (one loose right now is a military firearms instructor who had a psychotic break and shot up almost 100 people)

- No universal healthcare

- No universal mental healthcare

- Millions of homeless and functionally housing-insecure people

- Crazy people in government who don't want it to function and who supported the insurrectionists

- Absurdly gerrymandered Congressional districts that put the thumb on the scale for one side

- Grotesque corruption of dark money in politics

- Supreme Court justice who pals around with and takes gifts from a billionaire, oh and sexually harassed women

- Like a third-world country, women don't have a federal right to choose what happens to their own bodies

- No meaningful climate change policy

- Massive income inequality

- An inability of the average family to purchase real estate

- A doddering old man sleepwalking the US into a new era of terrorism in 2026-2029 by taking the side of a brutal, corrupt authoritarian and an inability to apply the nuance to the Middle East conflict

Apart from mythological ideals, what specific benefit do US citizens have that British or EU Schengen citizens lack? I want to know if it's net better in say Finland or Sweden for average people because it's not very nice here.

oldbbsnickname··on Ask HN: PG's 'Do Things That Don't Scale' manual examples?
It was one of the last known large-scale users. They were pretty durable and it was needed as they were used outside and in spaces with humidity, dirt, etc.

The final contenders came down to the MC9000, MC50, and MC430. The MC9000 was "too expensive" despite meeting all of the requirements, so the MC50 was chosen.

PS: I acquired an eMate 300 because it's quirky and interesting.

oldbbsnickname··on Someone is trying to rebuild Friendster
My eyes are still bleeding from the mouse cursor turned into a magic wand and animated deer with tramp stamps stomping all over the screen.

Perhaps MySpace's freedom inspired the stuffy boringness of FB.

oldbbsnickname··on Synology MFA Fails if Internet is down
HOTP (one-time) and TOTP are typically used in conjunction with one another. HOTP provide backup codes should client or server time be out of sync.

https://www.rfc-editor.org/rfc/rfc4226

FIDO2 with a hardware key source provides a much stronger and more secure guarantee than a 6 digit hash and an unencrypted symmetric secret stored in an app.

https://fidoalliance.org/fido2/

Any and all 2FA approaches demand backup codes (and backup code management with confidentiality and durability) to protect against 2FA loss or inability of the 2FA to function. For example, there are some apps that insist on performing FIDO2 on a non-NFC platform. While I can use a Lightning to USB-C adapter to workaround this limitation, it's possible that I might not have it and would need some other 2FA "sufficient" mechanism.

By the way, there is "HSM"-like passkey functionality embedded in most modern Apple and Samsung devices that doesn't require a USB token. This has the downside of not being a dedicated hardware token, so it cannot be physically isolated offline and requires an additional piece of software to act as a FIDO2 authenticator.

oldbbsnickname··on Synology MFA Fails if Internet is down
Well, your "feeling" is misleading. TOTP relies on correct time within a certain interval of grace period. The problem is the fault of Synology lacking a correct internal timekeeping source and the fault of paying money for other people's closed-source, faulty hardware. I have a Linux NAS running on a type-1 VM with passthrough to the actual disks. It also has TOTP when connecting over ssh but never has a problem because the hypervisor maintains the clock for all VMs and the on-board hardware clock is operable and has a battery.
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