Hacker News Reader

Google has confirmed a Chrome update is at fault for a mysterious reported wave of unbootable Macs. The update was causing issues by corrupting an operating system folder, which prevented those impacted from being able to log in to macOS.

https://www.forbes.com/sites/kateoflahertyuk/2019/09/26/goog...

qiloon Resources for understanding cryptocurrency and blockchain technology

It’s about cryptocurrencies, not cryptography. Saved you a click.

qiloon Wi-Fi over Coax

The prefix micro- in microwave is not meant to suggest a wavelength in the micrometer range. Rather, it indicates that microwaves are "small" (having shorter wavelengths), compared to the radio waves used prior to microwave technology.

Microwaves are a form of electromagnetic radiation with wavelengths ranging from about one meter to one millimeter; with frequencies between 300 MHz (1 m) and 300 GHz (1 mm).

Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microwave

qiloon SmileBASIC 4 for Nintendo Switch

Can you share a link? Do you think would it be possible to play with the code from the (free) book "Machine code for beginners" [0] with that emulator? I'd like to get some familiarity with machine code, and thought maybe it's a simplest way to start with. Or maybe you can give other suggestions for the emulator?

From the book (page 3):

> The book is specially written for computers with a Z80 or 6502 microprocessor.

[0] https://usborne.com/browse-books/features/computer-and-codin...

qiloon CSS for Internationalisation

Google crawler apparently ignores "lang" attribute [0]:

> Google uses the visible content of your page to determine its language. We don’t use any code-level language information such as lang attributes, or the URL.

But what about the Chrome browser?

[0] https://support.google.com/webmasters/answer/182192?hl=en

qiloon What doctors on the front lines wish they’d known a month ago

It's a known issue if you're using Cloudflare DNS servers. Here's explanation from the Cloudflare CEO: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19828702

qiloon A TCP/IP Tutorial (1991)

You probably meant “High Performance Browser Networking” https://hpbn.co

qiloon Western Digital admits 2TB-6TB WD Red NAS drives use shingled magnetic recording

The general rule I use is to look at the DRAM size, if it is:

* 256 MB (or more) - most likely it’s an SMR drive

* 64-128 MB almost guaranteed it’s an PMR drive

I base this on my observation, that I’ve never seen an SMR drive with less than 256 MB of cache.

qiloon Palm Phone for Minimalists

This is not a new device, it was released 17 months ago (November 2018).

qiloon Python for Non-Programmers

I'm just a viewer of that course. I guess for Mac users, it's easy, cause MacOS already comes with Python (3.x?) preinstalled. The course author himself video streams from the MacOS system.

qiloon Python for Non-Programmers

Microsoft Store in Windows 10 has the Python 3.7 and 3.8 packages (prepared by PSF itself) with some limitations, which shouldn't matter for beginner users. So it's basically one click install.

The issues has to do with the way Microsoft Store apps are sandboxed within the environment, to quote:

Because of restrictions on Microsoft Store apps, Python scripts may not have full write access to shared locations such as TEMP and the registry. Instead, it will write to a private copy. If your scripts must modify the shared locations, you will need to install the full installer.

https://docs.python.org/3.8/using/windows.html#known-issues

qiloon PostgreSQL is the worlds’ best database

When I knew nothing about databases, and was trying to read stuff on the web about those, it was very confusing trying to understand what the author talks about when he uses the term database, is it about a DBMS (software), or it’s about a database (data). So, yeah, it’s a problem, at least for beginners.

qiloon PostgreSQL is the worlds’ best database

Technically, PostgreSQL is a DBMS, not a database. I.e. “PostgreSQL is the worlds’ best DBMS”, but not “best database”. The problem is, if you call the DBMS a database, so what do you call the database (collection of data, tables, etc.)?

qiloon Researcher questions data in old paper by chloroquine researchers

Literally the 2nd tweet:

As reminder: Raoult's paper on alleged #chloroquine cure of #COVID19 had rigged, omitted or even falsified data and was published without peer review in a journal he controls. Trial was not randomized, controlled or blinded in any way.

https://twitter.com/schneiderleonid/status/12429058031888220...

qiloon Google tracking a bike ride past a burglarized home made the rider a suspect

It’s not certain that the guy had Location History enabled. In the article he only talks about Location Services (enhancing precision using WiFi and/or Bluetooth).

qiloon The Bash Hackers Wiki

TIL about Python __import__ function. Thanks!

qiloon South Korea switching their 3.3M PCs to Linux

I guess the parent poster meant that despite doing the same in Australia, this didn't produce global companies like Samsung, Hyundai, LG, etc.

qiloon With no brand license, Blackberry Mobile fades to black

Yes, it's documented. But I'm not defending Apple on this, found the link on Apple forums when googled for solution to why it's nearly impossible to edit URLs in Safari. Btw, very similar trick works on Android's Gboard keyboard too, though on Android you touch the space bar and need to move the finger immediately, as opposed to IOS where you touch, hold for a second and only then move the finger.

https://support.apple.com/guide/iphone/type-and-edit-text-ip...

qiloon Every classic Half-Life game is now free on Steam

Not mentioned in the announcement, but in fact both are also included in the "FREE to play" promo.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/50/HalfLife_Opposing_Forc...

https://store.steampowered.com/app/130/HalfLife_Blue_Shift/

qiloon Every Google result now looks like an ad

There is a https://ddg.gg which redirects to the main domain, so I'm not sure if it's what you're looking for.

qiloon AMD Ryzen 4000 Mobile APUs

DeskMini A300 by AsRock. Slightly larger than NUC, but can house full power 65W desktop CPU.

qiloon Google Chrome 78 is out: Forced dark mode, DoH trials, no more XSS Auditor

One feature I immediately found very annoying is Tab Hover Cards (when hovering over a tab a big panel pops up), to disable it or change style, visit:

  chrome://flags/#tab-hover-cards

qiloon Sunsetting Python 2

Yes, you are free to do it, no one is stopping you, but don't call it Python.