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pearlsteinj

1,214 karma · joined June 13, 2013

[ my public key: https://keybase.io/jlp; my proof: https://keybase.io/jlp/sigs/FNo3PEhj2RIJDKXxfonIqb3EsFE2elTL-S30ERessZs ]
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pearlsteinj··on Show HN: Points and Miles Database
This is cool. One feature that would be awesome would be to query the "graph" of points.

I have point type A and I want type B - what's the most economical path to walk between the two point types.

pearlsteinj··on Ask HN: Stubhub buying their own tickets under fake names?
Totally just guessing: Maybe to reduce inbound spam that's forwarded to the buyers? If it was one central email address, spammers could just send a ton of images/PDFs to all known prefixes of that central domain, but needing to guess the prefix + right domain adds a layer of indirection? They may not do much validation on the forwarded tickets, just store it for disputes
pearlsteinj··on Ask HN: Stubhub buying their own tickets under fake names?
I was curious the last time I sold tickets so actually called them asked about this. The emails are aliases to verify the tickets are valid, then they are forwarded to the buyer.

Usually the format is <email prefix of buyer>@<stubhub controlled domain> and the tickets are forwarded pretty quickly. This way stubhub can actually validate you sent over a PDF + the contents of those PDFs or images if the buyer disputes delivery.

pearlsteinj··on Show HN: a desktop app to discover, download, and run offline LLMs
Wow, this makes running LLMs locally significantly more approachable. Very cool!
pearlsteinj··on Making Humans a Multiplanetary Species [video]
He's doing a great job of only looking a little bit uncomfortable with the questions.

Seriously this Q&A is incredibly odd.

pearlsteinj··on iOS Dev Tools
TLDR; it's because they're not pushing new features but rather bug fixing through the proper channels (Webkit framework or JavascriptCore).
pearlsteinj··on More code review tools
I've been pleasantly surprised at how fast Github has been moving since that critical open letter came out. For a giant company like Github they've been releasing developer tools very quickly.
pearlsteinj··on Alphabet Becomes the Most Valuable Public Company in the World
I totally agree, this is just the first glimpse we get into the finances of the moonshots.
pearlsteinj··on Alphabet Becomes the Most Valuable Public Company in the World
Also interesting to see in this earnings report is that Google's "other bets" aka moonshots are 3.5 billion in the red...[0]

[0]https://abc.xyz/investor/news/earnings/2015/Q4_google_earnin...

pearlsteinj··on Twitter Sees 6% Increase in “Like” Activity After First Week of Hearts
I'd be interested to see if this is just because it's new and novel or because of some sort of human psychological difference. The latter would be really interesting.
pearlsteinj··on Edgar Allan Poe had a time machine and I can prove it
Woah
pearlsteinj··on Arbitration Everywhere, Stacking the Deck of Justice
The only way to bring about that kind of change is from the regulatory level, the companies benefit from obfuscating the changes they're making you agree to. Making it easier to see that they just added a single provision allowing them to sell your data is not something companies will want to implement themselves.
pearlsteinj··on US Military Blimp Loose Over Pennsylvania, F-16s Scrambled
Gizmodo article is actually decent: "While helium doesn’t appear to be a problem at the moment, deflation is. ABC27 reports: “Authorities said it is equipped with a device to slowly deflate it, but it apparently is not working.” Whoops. If you see the free-floating balloon on the loose, call 911. Do not attempt to engage."

http://gizmodo.com/theres-a-runaway-defense-department-blimp...

pearlsteinj··on US Military Blimp Loose Over Pennsylvania, F-16s Scrambled
They do, they tried using it and it didn't work...
pearlsteinj··on Ask HN: If Apple iOS is pro-privacy, how to block Internet access for one app?
The short answer is no, not easily. A more elaborate solution would be to install a global proxy on the device and route the connection through a server you control, filtering the traffic you don't want to go through. You can use Apple Configurator to configure the global proxy.
pearlsteinj··on [dead]
This is very cool!
pearlsteinj··on A Riddle Wrapped in an Enigma [pdf]
Seems like either the NSA has easy methods to crack ECC that they think will be public knowledge in the immediate future(unlikely but who knows), or they can't break ECC and are trying to push people away from it for the NSA's own own good
pearlsteinj··on 360 Video Library
This is definitely going to be useful when virtual reality gains traction
pearlsteinj··on US government to require registration of some small drones
I think this proposal is ridiculous. There is no need to register individual drones. If you want to require drone pilot licenses to fly a drone where potential pilots need to learn the rules that seems much more reasonable to me but having to register each individual drone seems like overkill.
pearlsteinj··on A planning page for asteroids 2009 FD and 2015 TB145
What could we possibly do to prepare/handle something like this?
pearlsteinj··on Notifications for targeted attacks
Will it disregard National Security Letters to notify users?
pearlsteinj··on Ship.io says goodbye
Damn, this was actually a really helpful and easy to use service...
pearlsteinj··on Merch by Amazon
And if you use anything but their lowest quality shirt and make it double sided then your cut is dropped to about $3.40..true it's more than a few cents but still a pretty small cut per shirt.
pearlsteinj··on Merch by Amazon
Interesting business model...Promoters design shirts then advertise to their customers to buy them? Amazon gets the $$ and the promoters get brand awareness and a few cents of royalty...
pearlsteinj··on Spaceteam is now a chaotic and cooperative card game (currently on Kickstarter)
Spaceteam has to be one of my favorite multiplayer/in person mobile games but one of the things that makes it fun is the app itself creates the chaos and time crunch. Do you see the card game being able to maintain that same level of excitement and chaos?
pearlsteinj··on Encryption doesn't stop the FBI
I think this title is a little misleading. The article says nothing about the FBI's ability to beat encryption, just that they have more success with keyloggers and backdoors than they're willing to admit. Encryption used correctly is still able to "stop the FBI".
pearlsteinj··on Jeff Atwood: Learning to code is overrated
"If someone tells you “coding is the new literacy” because “computers are everywhere today,” ask them how fuel injection works. By teaching low-level coding, I worry that we are effectively teaching our children the art of automobile repair."

I think this article misses the point that "fuel injection" and other vocational skills are nowhere near as prolific and impactful as code on daily life.

pearlsteinj··on InstaSource: On-demand tech magicians at your service
All fair points, at the moment it’s geared towards empowering the usually the non tech savvy who right now have to beg their friends or break the bank for small things. We’re definitely working on ways to mitigate the risk for the recipient of the assistance. We vet all of the coders, make sure they know what they're doing, and only assign them jobs within their ability.
pearlsteinj··on InstaSource: On-demand tech magicians at your service
Hey Max, founder here. While we don’t deny that we believe a no interface interface is a delightful way to receive services, we do believe that certain people have use for a immediate technical assistance for everything from SSL installation and word-press tweaks to writing a query for a large data set or quick app debugging