Hacker News Reader

pcr0on Apple MacBook Pro order deliveries delayed until mid March

Add USA in title? I'm in HKG and MBPs are still available with next day shipping.

pcr0on DOJ proposal would require Google to divest from AI partnerships with Anthropic

On the flip side, if default placement was eliminated and browsers asked users which search engine they'd like on first launch...I still believe most users would pick Google anyway and the main loser would be Firefox as search engine placement is the majority of their revenue.

Furthermore, ChatGPT reaching 100m users in 2 months also suggests that browser placement isn't the biggest factor into where users send their queries.

pcr0on 9 Out of 10 People Are Willing to Earn Less Money to Do More-Meaningful Work

I wonder what the difference is between what people will claim on surveys vs actual behavior.

Here's a study that says the opposite (unless you make >100k/yr) https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/cutting-edge-leaders...

pcr0on NYC landlords must post FDNY safety bulletin warning of e-bike battery fires

There's a lot more ebike manufacturers than phone and laptop manufacturers, and some of them might not have the best quality control in light of the heavy competition.

pcr0on Around one-in-three children globally suffer from lead poisoning

Leaded fuel is still widely used in piston engine airplanes (most small airplanes).

https://www.nbcnews.com/business/business-news/leaded-gas-wa...

pcr0on Stackoverflow Is Down

Caused by Fastly outage https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=27432408

pcr0on Amazon, Apple and Google Cut Off Parler

Thanks, I haven't heard of this.

pcr0on Amazon, Apple and Google Cut Off Parler

Crypto is its own banking system but going from fiat to crypto falls within the current banking system, unless you're willing to buy crypto with bundles of cash and risk getting mugged.

pcr0on Ask HN: What are you surprised isn’t being worked on more?

https://sandstorm.io/

This is the closest project I can think of.

pcr0on Visa and MasterCard Are Trying to Dictate What You Can Watch on Pornhub

Technically, one can still buy cryptocurrency using a Visa/MC card and then use that to pay for PornHub. They've made it more inconvenient certainly but I don't see why card companies should be forced to directly do business with anyone.

pcr0on Slack wanted to stay independent, but was unable to compete with tech giants

The fact that they shut down the API and Android app.

pcr0on Singapore approves lab-grown 'chicken' meat

Depends on the motivation for being vegan. I think vegans who used to eat meat but stopped for environmental/ethical reasons would. Whereas people who never ate meat (e.g. religious reasons) would probably avoid it since they have no motivation to eat meat and it seems too similar (uncanny valley) to something they've always avoided.

pcr0on Pixel 5 review: Google spends its bill-of-materials budget unwisely

Wireless charging is typically included on waterproof phones.

You can take an IP68 phone for a swim in the sea just fine but afterwards the charging port becomes unusable for at least half a day as the phone's moisture sensor will disable the charging port to prevent short circuits until it's completely dry. Not a problem with wireless charging.

pcr0on U.S. Exits Paris Climate Accord

I assume consumption and population growth have declined due to COVID19, which also greatly reduce emissions. Even after it ends, it will take years before we return to pre-pandemic levels.

pcr0on Jio’s phone will run Android and cost about $54

Jio has produced cheaper phones for ~$20. What's different according to the article is that the upcoming smartphone will run Android, unlike Jio's current phones which run KaiOS.

I'm skeptical that they'll be able to run Android tolerably on a device that cheap.

pcr0on DuckDuckGo Charitable Donations (2020): $750k to Organizations Worldwide

While they might not track your search history, their business is still built on ads in search results served by Bing.

pcr0on Has Elon Musk's Tesla already won?

One is an annual snapshot of revenue and the other is number of shares * current share price. I see how it helps with comprehending the amount, but it's a very apples-to-oranges comparison.

If they compared Saudi Aramco's revenue with Hong Kong's annual GDP, that would make a bit more sense since they're both annual figures.

pcr0on Trump gives nod to Oracle buyout of TikTok in US

They've banned US transactions with the company. This means TikTok can no longer publish to Play Store/App Store. Android users could sideload an APK but that's still a huge blow. Lastly a social media app operating in the US that can't sell ads to US marketers is pointless.

As an alternative, Trump proposed letting a US company buy TikTok to get around the ban. As you'd expect, TikTok's investors are looking for a sale so they don't lose their investment.

pcr0on Gmail, Contacts, Assistant and Messages apps no longer support sending money

I've used Google Pay for years but all it does is let you add a credit card and use your phone at merchants that support contactless cards or for in-app purchases on Android. I've never heard of using it to send money or store a balance.

pcr0on Everyone’s a Day Trader Now

Change that to over leveraged in options. I think that's where the real pain is.

pcr0on GitHub was down

I believe GitHub's been adding new features much faster after the Microsoft acquisition. Moving faster can lead to breaking things more frequently.

pcr0on Can Facebook provide postmortems on their iOS SDK crashes?

As a user with a $19/year Google One subscription, I find Google support quite easy to reach.

pcr0on Studies show Alzheimer’s occurs more often in people exposed to polluted air

Still, it's much easier to install wet scrubbers on thousands of power plants rather than millions of vehicles.

pcr0on Zerodium to stop paying bounties for iOS due to sheer amount of vulnerabilities

This makes a pretty good argument for open-sourcing OS software.

"Given enough eyeballs, all bugs are shallow" - Linus Torvalds

pcr0on WhatsApp eyes lending feature in India as Amazon rolls out Pay Later

You're saying that an entire country doesn't deserve a new credit service because of a lack of existing credit services in that country.

1. You're ignoring middle class and well-off people in those countries. 2. Access to credit is important for developing economies. 3. Access to credit doesn't imply predatory lending, that's a separate problem in how the creditor runs their business.

pcr0on SICP in Python

This would fall on the opposite end of the first principles vs practical knowledge continuum of learning.

https://automatetheboringstuff.com/

pcr0on GDPR Hasn’t Shown Its Teeth, Frustrating Advocates

It's too easy to perform click fraud when advertisers only rely on server logs and nobody would pay for advertising on such sites.

Advertisers pay because companies like Google are willing to fingerprint your hardware, run machine learning models on your mouse movement, analyze your browsing history and make you jump through captchas to ensure you're actually human.

pcr0on South Korea reports recovered Covid-19 patients testing positive again

No, herpes, chickenpox + shingles would be the counter examples.

pcr0on Show HN: FalsiScan – Make it look like a PDF has been hand signed and scanned

Every bank application I've done has required print + sign + scanned, I got refused when I tried sending them PDFs signed in Preview/Acrobat

pcr0on There Is No Plan for the End of the Coronavirus Crisis

Asia is having a 2nd wave because of students and people working in the West returning to Asia due to fear of lockdown or the spread of the virus. I don't think the opposite migration will be of similar magnitude since it hit Asia first and the Asia->West migration already happened in Feb.