Hacker News Reader

petitmiamon Stop Using The Cup of Coffee vs. $0.99 Cent App Analogy

which is why, thankfully there are hardly any Starbucks left.

Although I noticed one has just opened up on Elizabeth St. I guess they still attract tourists looking for something they know?

petitmiamon Planetary Annihilation - A Next Generation RTS by Uber Entertainment Inc

"Expand your empire to harness the resources of entire solar systems to create vast armies with which to annihilate enemy planets, destroy rival systems and win the Galactic War!"

It will be interesting to see how that pans out. Star Wars: Empire At War tried a similar thought of thing, but lacked depth.

petitmiamon Germany: Facebook must destroy its facial recognition database

does anybody do all of the features of Facebook as well as Facebook does?

petitmiamon Quora Feeds Will No Longer Show Data On What Other Users Have Viewed

Facebook scared me the other day with payment details. Once you add them, there is no way to remove them. You can only replace them with different details.

It's worrying if this becomes the norm.

petitmiamon Anonymous hackers may be targeting Mars rover, says security firm

"A cybersecurity firm claimed to have spotted an Internet relay chat (IRC) message seeking help to hack into the National Aeronautics and Space Administration's Mars Science Laboratory Mission,"

So someone joined the anonops IRC server, sent a message asking for help and a security company bothered to write a report about it. Must have been a slow day.

petitmiamon Coding Horror: I Was a Teenage Hacker

I too changed the default Windows background. However it was just the default image with an almost transparent eye in the corner. It lasted a few weeks before it was reverted one day.

petitmiamon Yesterday, I Went to the American Idol for Startups. It Made Me Want to Die.

Some of the photos for 'Stranger Personals' that appear on the right of the article aren't really safe for work.

petitmiamon Show HN: Burner, for temporary phone numbers

HeyWire lets you get a U.S number for SMS for free.

petitmiamon Valve brings non-game software to Steam

> I know multiplayer between the two platforms has been ruled out

Thanks for pointing that out. I had thought CS:GO was going to be cross-platform Xbox/PC, but it's not anymore.

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2011-08-26-ps3-cs-go-suppo...

petitmiamon Valve brings non-game software to Steam

The offline mode only works well when you are online and you know you will want to use it offline next time.

If you're already offline, you're screwed. I remember once having to connect up my phone as a modem just to launch Steam so I could start it online, then switch offline.

petitmiamon IPhone caused "crisis of design" at Samsung

Probably not even those. There's still a flood of cheap no-name Android tablets out there.

petitmiamon Mars Curiosity's first images

Time for a sequel to 'The Dish'.

petitmiamon Apple Support Allowed Hacker Access to Reporter's iCloud Account

I had this problem with a website from the Australian Government. I was actually trying to login to update my address, but I didn't know the password. For that though, I was able to visit a store front and update it after providing ID. I guess Apple could do a similar thing.

petitmiamon Yes, I was hacked. Hard.

but this isn't the password for gmail. This is the password for the password manager account. So you need to know the password manager they are using and the username to match with the password. They have to find this out within the time that we've realised we have lost our wallet and are changing the password.

Obviously this is still less secure than no password in the wallet at all, but I don't think it's "very vulnerable" as you are claiming.

petitmiamon Facebook unfriended

What about a "Facebook Pro" account, that adds extra features (no ads?) on top of the standard basic free account?

petitmiamon Show HN: HubChilla - Asynchronously Chat With Similar People Using SMS

Tried to sign up, but it kept refilling the phone number field with the default value. Could just be a Firefox Beta (Android) thing though.

petitmiamon Draconian ‘Wi-Fi police' stalk Olympic Games

I've only been to the UK once, but I don't remember fries being called "chips" in UK McDonalds.

I've always thought of "fries" as those skinny things McDonalds/Hungry Jacks/Burger King sell, while chips are the chunkier version you get at a proper Fish'n'Chip shops or pub. Restaurants here (Australia) generally distinguish between the two.

petitmiamon Draconian ‘Wi-Fi police' stalk Olympic Games

"The absurdities don't end there. According to Britain's Daily Telegraph, Fish and chip stalls have been advised they are not allowed to serve chips on their own without fish as McDonald's is the official chip maker of the Games."

That is absurd. McDonalds sells fries, not chips.

petitmiamon Facebook has more than 83 million 'fake' users

Sounds interesting, I'll give it a shot.

petitmiamon Facebook has more than 83 million 'fake' users

Did you have much trouble convincing your friends to move to Path? I think that's the biggest headache for anyone wanting to move away.

petitmiamon The "Taken Username Effect" on Twitter

I can relate to this. Last week I received 2 rather lengthy and intimate love letters, in my inbox from a lady in half Italian/half English. This was made all the more interesting, by the fact that a month ago I received a series of risqué photos from a different lady speaking Italian. Maybe it's just coincidence, but I like to think there's some Italian stud out there who's too busy working his charm to remember his correct email.

Other highlights have been a company requesting a toothbrush design (to which I promptly replied with a ms paint mock-up) and 2 requests for me to provide artwork for graphic novels.

petitmiamon Changing My Mind On Microsoft

> I agree with most of the article, but the "The Ubuntu Unity failure" was only a temporary one.

Absolutely. Unity in 12.04 is very solid. There's still a lack of settings options, but I don't think that warrants the whole thing being called a "failure".

petitmiamon Ubuntu Evolution: anti-Christian?

You would hope it was just a successful troll.

petitmiamon Google Fiber

Did you save the rabbit? It's a 404 now.

petitmiamon Gabe Newell Wants to Support Linux, Because Windows 8 is a 'Catastrophe'

I've never had an issue with throttled downloads. Doesn't your ISP have a Steam mirror?

Also, Counter-Strike: GO is being released on Aug 21. http://store.steampowered.com/app/1800/

petitmiamon Gabe Newell Wants to Support Linux, Because Windows 8 is a 'Catastrophe'

Installers are an annoyance when game patches are released. Steam makes game updates seamless.

Right now, the benefits of Steam far outweigh the fact that your games can't be exported. I guess time will tell if that will change. It's not like Steam has always been the darling of gamers.

petitmiamon Gabe Newell Wants to Support Linux, Because Windows 8 is a 'Catastrophe'

and saying he thinks the future of interaction will be through computerized wristbands

How far off are computerised wristbands?

petitmiamon Google Begins Practically Begging You to Use Your Real Name on YouTube

I use my real name online for professional work-related things.

I use a username for non-work related things like posting a videos of toy animals to youtube.

The way things are headed, I guess I need to invent a "real name" for my online personal persona, to replace my username.

petitmiamon HN's Daeken will expose security flaw in 4m hotel room keycard locks

Or there's those hotels where you have to leave the keys at the front desk. Each time you come back you say your room number and they give you the key.

petitmiamon EFF, Reddit, Mozilla, others launch Internet Defense League and Cat Signal

Thank you for the explanation. I couldn't find a nice succinct explanation in my quick google search.