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sebastien_bois

43 karma · joined March 10, 2020

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sebastien_bois··on Recoil – Retro Computer Image Library
These seem to be the 'old style' Quicklook plugins, which aren't supported in the lastest macOS releases (I tried forcing it with the qlmanage CLI but didn't produce any output using that plugin).
sebastien_bois··on Facebook (Meta) international cable expansion: animated map
I heard a meme of how "Meta" is short for "Metastasize" - seems like each new FB story makes it more and more of a reality.
sebastien_bois··on Apple Music is the most buggy and annoying software I use
>songs take like 5-15s to start playing when selecting one that isn't super popular. It feels like some server is spinning up a hard drive to stream it.

If it's really that long, it sounds like it's literally spinning up an actual vinyl record.

sebastien_bois··on How did Tropicana lose $30M in a packaging redesign?
>I would be suspicious of any orange juice where the company feels the need to stipulate "real orange juice". What the heck else would it be made of?

You're right to be suspicious; most juices are not just "freshly squeezed" from a fruit - they're processed.

Part of the "process" is to actually extract the sweetest part of the juice and leave the rest behind (so way more sugary than "natural") and some will actually contain some other forms of filler (like non-orange based oils).

It's a lot like McNuggets or Subway chicken sandwiches - they're made "from real chicken" but with all of added the salt and fillers, you end up wondering exactly how much of it is actual chicken.

One of the best way to evaluate "real juice" is by how long it'll last before it expires (either shelf life or after opening) - more than a few days will indicate there's extra preservatives, etc. in it.

sebastien_bois··on Top Mac app store dev abuses free with in-app purchase for bait-and-switch apps
> My only guess is that somehow the people from review team know those developers and somehow let them to be on app store. Considering how hard sometimes to pass the review, that is the only explanation I have.

The explanation is simple: it's an app that makes Apple money, so of course Apple is going to let it through unchallenged.

Apple is not consumers' BFF - it's the BFF of their shareholders, for which they'll do anything to please.

sebastien_bois··on Top Mac app store dev abuses free with in-app purchase for bait-and-switch apps
But of course, Tim Cook likes to whine about Zuckerberg's hypocrisy on fees (which isn't happening yet), and complain about imaginary privacy nightmares if sideloading is allowed on iOS, while ignoring the very real and very current scams on their precious appstore.
sebastien_bois··on Ask HN: Why do negative crypto articles dominate on HN?
> The sum of these [anti-crypto] articles appears to me as "propaganda". Does anyone else feel the same way?

Funny, I would consider all the unending pro-crypto stories to be the propaganda (someone coined a term: "pro-bitcoinism"[1])

What I've noticed is that the vitriol is almost always instigated by the crypto crowd (especially the bitcoiners), that will lash out at anyone or about anything that doesn't have total loyalty to their "movement". Not exactly an inviting crowd, and certainly doesn't reflect well on cryptocurrency as a whole.

> I for one, take this perceived negative bias as a confirmation that Bitcoin is a genuine threat to the existing financial system.

And the other side perceives that total loyalty/belief as some sort of cult. Turns out both sides are right...*and* wrong - just not for the reasons they think.

[1]https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=pro-bitcoini...

sebastien_bois··on The Oncoming Ransomware Storm
I was referring more to general attacks, the type that would have seemed too far-fetched decade(s) ago.
sebastien_bois··on The Oncoming Ransomware Storm
But not entirely inaccurate.

I mean, 20 years, maybe even just 10 years ago we would've shrugged off the type of attacks happening now as "pure science fiction".

sebastien_bois··on iOS developer who drew attention to App Store scams is now suing Apple
You are correct - you don't understand.
sebastien_bois··on iOS developer who drew attention to App Store scams is now suing Apple
> That would get Facebook, Google, and to a certain extent even Amazon off our backs instantly. Why not go that route?

They already have enough clout to be able to buy the votes to avoid that (it'd be pocket change to them).

sebastien_bois··on iOS developer who drew attention to App Store scams is now suing Apple
No, they are not - they're pointing out your 'argument' is as without support as that example.
sebastien_bois··on Toronto swaps Google-backed, not-so-smart city plans for people-centred vision
Frankly, either "Doug" or "Rob" applies equally.

(For those not in the know - Rob Ford was a former mayor of Toronto, whom was not known for being a particularly smart or nice person; Rob Ford died a few years ago. Doug Ford is his brother, and is the current Premier of Ontario. Doug is definitively less of an embarrassment, but only "less".)

sebastien_bois··on Coinbase S-1
Wonder why the first picture with an app shows BTC going down, with the actual price covered up.
sebastien_bois··on Apple doesn't let you disclose their 30% IAP fee to your customers
> They'd probably do just fine if they'd lower the fee to 10%, and stop enforcing that you don't have third-party payments.

Especially considering they're a) charging a yearly fee and b) selling ads on the AppStore (which as someone else here pointed out is their aim to grow ad sales by clamping down on the ad identifier to make ads outside of the AppStore less useful).

sebastien_bois··on Ask HN: Do You Despise Marketing?
So it's more a question of "Do you despise having to market yourself/your product"?
sebastien_bois··on SQLite 3.33
That's not french at all. :)
sebastien_bois··on What killed Quayside, Sidewalk Labs’ ambitious smart city in Toronto?
I would think that one would be on the Daily-Double for $2000.
sebastien_bois··on What killed Quayside, Sidewalk Labs’ ambitious smart city in Toronto?
AFAIK it wasn't going to be a condo-like development, with restricted access to residents-only, so anyone could walk within the Sidewalk area, and potentially be tracked, willingly or not.
sebastien_bois··on What killed Quayside, Sidewalk Labs’ ambitious smart city in Toronto?
On-call? Do you get on-call pay?

If not, have you asked for 3x normal salary, since they apparently think they own you 24/7?

sebastien_bois··on Why are currently no ads on Techdirt? apparently Google thinks we're dangerous
Monopoly it is, then.
sebastien_bois··on 11 Foot 8 – The Can-opener Bridge
Ultimately I think the proper solution would be either far more clearance, or a dedicated lane for trucks/large vehicles (probably ALL trucks) forcing them to turn.

The casualty of that solution might be buses (as others pointed out this road is also being used for), but the city can make exceptions for those (as is usual in most places due to stops being commonly in the right turn lane).

It's clear from the massive number of videos, and of various types of drivers (truck rentals, furniture delivery trucks, campers, etc.) that the current "system" they have is inadequate to avoid these crashes. "It just doesn't work". Just blaming the driver only isn't a solution (I actually wonder if the city/railroad has ever been sued because of this).

sebastien_bois··on 11 Foot 8 – The Can-opener Bridge
> That's going to get destroyed by every 13' truck that smacks into it

Why, yes, a 9 foot pole would get run over by a 13 foot truck. There's a reason I used the words "something like..." and not "exactly this..."

> but I'm sure you wouldn't want random plastic objects scraping across your roof when you drive, right?

Again - it's used as a WARNING SYSTEM - you prefer returning the truck with a torn off roof, or a still-fully functional one with just some extra minor scrapes?

sebastien_bois··on 11 Foot 8 – The Can-opener Bridge
> You make it sound like it's normal that people would expect that they can drive into a bridge without checking the height first

1. Most people would correctly expect that road-approved vehicles would clear all bridges.

2. This one is literally a couple of inches out for clearance; it looks like the truck is 12ft (or whatever the current bridge height is), which is probably what the truck's height indication is. It's not unreasonable for the driver to expect to clear the bridge even knowing the height of both, especially if they match closely.

3. The bridge was recently lifted to its current height - if this is a 'local' driver, they probably expect all vehicles to clear it now, knowing it got lifted.

sebastien_bois··on 11 Foot 8 – The Can-opener Bridge
> That's what the big yellow beam is; it was installed to protect the bridge.

Yes, that one protects the bridge - what I'm talking about is a 'warning' bumper, that you can run into, but won't damage the vehicle (as others' comments here have mentioned). It would be put up further up ahead of the bridge itself (not at the bridge). Something like this:

https://www.cisco-eagle.com/catalog/product/157494/garage-lo...

sebastien_bois··on 11 Foot 8 – The Can-opener Bridge
Still not high enough. They raised it another 8 inches to make it an even 12ft not too long ago, but evidently that still not enough.

One would think they would've looked more closely at the traffic on that road and adjusted it accordingly.

It's also really silly to have a sign indicating that too large vehicles must turn, which most drivers won't read/see in time, and practically force them to crash into the bridge, instead of having some sort of 'bumpers' ahead of the bridge for those vehicles to bump into first (I've seen those at entrances of parking lots that have both above ground and underground parking).

sebastien_bois··on Ask HN: Why should I use Brave vs. Firefox?
Given the recent (and recurring) shenanigans with Brave (https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23442027), I'm staying with Firefox.
sebastien_bois··on Ask HN: Optimal cloud service to run tiny website with back end Python + SQLite?
Might not fit your needs exactly, but others looking for something similar might find NearlyFreeSpeech.NET a good fit: https://www.nearlyfreespeech.net/
sebastien_bois··on What the blame-Trump crowd gets wrong about blaming China
I hate it when "opinion" pieces get passed off as legitimate articles (hence the almost-fine-print-sized section title at the top of the page).

P.S. Not blaming the poster for submitting this - only the WP for publishing it.

sebastien_bois··on Apple engineer in need of OSS maintainers
Sounds to me like if they own you 24 hrs/day, you should get paid 3x normal wages.
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