Hacker News Reader

sgenton “Free PACER” bill advances through Senate judiciary unanimously

It is, and its 100% funded by the fees they charge attorney's and others to access the documents. The amount of fees and use of them is somewhat ridiculous currently, but if they remove the fees without setting up an ongoing funding source I'm afraid it will stagnate like many state court systems.

sgenton “Free PACER” bill advances through Senate judiciary unanimously

That was a very fact specific case that ruled that the GA legislature's copyright on the GA code was invalid. It's a stretch to expand that to something like the National Electrical Code or International Building Code since those copyrights are not owned by a legislature.

sgenton Pixel prevented me from calling 911

Maybe? Check the android release notes on the Jan 4th update.

sgenton Audio Distortion and THD Explained

http://www.gedlee.com/Papers/papers.aspx

An introductory talk is http://www.gedlee.com/Papers/The%20Perception%20of%20Distort...

Is the real expert on both linear and non-linear distortion. The link contains links to all of his papers that are available freely.

End result is that linear distortion isn't much of a problem (we tend to ignore it), but non-linear distortion is a major issue.

sgenton TheNFTbay.org – The Billion Dollar Torrent (All NFT's from Ethereum and Solana)

Digital art is and should be valuable, but how is owning an NFT proof of ownership if no one recognizes it as such? If I own a NFT I get no real world ownership benefits (like displaying it on my website, or in my metaverse). The NFT can be deleted by the host and I have no recourse.

sgenton Wirecutter asks users to sit out black Friday

In general Consumer Reports, although rtngs.com is good for the categories they cover.

sgenton China Bans Flightradar24

If they use those planes for other reasons (search and rescue, fire, etc.) then the cost is minimal. If the pilot weren't out there catching speeders he would be doing touch-n-goes, etc. to maintain currency.

Pilots have a minimum number of hours / approaches per time period, and planes have high fixed operating costs (annual service, hanger, etc.), combined the marginal cost of catching speeders is low.

sgenton Fed to ban policymakers from owning individual stocks

The SEC even in overt insider trading cases doesn't pursue criminal charges -- they refer it to the Justice Department.

Congress currently is exempt from insider trading that comes about due to executing congressional duties. They would have to pass a law subjecting themselves to it.

sgenton The FDA wants you to be able to buy a hearing aid without a prescription

The real issue is that an iphone cannot check for conductive or mixed hearing loss.

sgenton G7 finance officials endorse principles for central bank digital currencies

Banks usually charge .9-1.5% for cash deposits, plus staff time to count, insurance, safes, etc.

A debit card costs .10c and no %. A well implemented cryptocurrency would be even less.

sgenton People Don't Understand NFTs

Even worse, what happens when Bill Watterson sues for copyright violation and wins? What happens when a court serves an order on every US person / exchange to remove the NFT from their platform or be shut down?

Note: The Calvin peeing image is derivative and was never drawn by him. The artist might have a defense of fair use but it is not clear in precedent.

sgenton Intel said it didn't consider UK for new chip-making factory because of Brexit

For foreign business investment purposes Europe = UK + EU (and associated / treatied countries). Yes there are a few other areas (Ukraine, Russia), but they don't have much of an economy nor geopolitical safety, and are not in play for a multi-billion dollar investment unless its resource extraction.

sgenton Where Have All the Sex Scenes Gone?

I don't buy this. A gen-X friend returned to college to change careers, and if anything sex and sexuality are much more present than when he was at the same school 20+ years ago.

sgenton The high cost of surviving rabies

Same in US. The reason its not given to the general population is that it has to be repeated every 3-5 years, and you still need evaluation and possibly PEP after exposure. Its just that the PEP is much less severe.

sgenton EU plans to force OEMs to use a common charger for all phones

iPhone can backup to a PC or NAS wirelessly, no reason for a cable other than charging.

sgenton Experts Have Resigned from an FDA Committee over Alzheimer's Drug Approval

Also it causes brain bleeds in about 40% of patients, and was only tested on those with mild disease. Again, showing no improvement of progression or symptoms, but a reduction in plaque.

sgenton France cancels defence meeting with UK over submarine row, sources say

Yes but only the Afghanistan invasion was a NATO operation, the rest were either US only or US and allied countries, but not NATO.

The NATO treaty only protects members if they were attacked in Europe or the North Atlantic. If bin Laden had hit the Sear Tower instead of the WTC it would probably not have been a NATO operation.

sgenton Show HN: Neural-hash-collider – Find target hash collisions for NeuralHash

Apple did not scan uploaded images. Apple has never scanned iPhone images. Last year Apple reported 245 cases to missing and exploited children, and Facebook reported 50M, Google ~4M, Microsoft reported, and Apple was below the line.

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/02/07/us/online-child-sexual-ab...

sgenton Manhattan judge rejects 'server test' for internet copyright infringement

It will be interesting to see if this is pursued rather than settled. Worth keeping an eye on because the 2nd and 9th circuit are the major players in copyright.

sgenton AI tools have been built to catch Covid, but none of them helped

We have good tools for diagnosing COVID-19, and have had them from almost the start. If your looking for medical AI problems, start with the 12-lead EKG which fits on one piece of 8x10 piece of paper, is 2D, and current formulaic algorithms misread about 50% of the time when compared to a paramedic or nurse. Much less a physician, cardiologist, or electrophysiologist.

If this algorithm was better it would absolutely save lives and make everyday life easier for clinicians.

sgenton FDA head asks for investigation into Aduhelm drug approval

These are outside advisors, probably about 1/2 of them or more are academics as well as patient advocates, etc. They maybe paid some amount, but its not their primary income source.

sgenton Some locals say a Bitcoin mining operation is ruining one of the Finger Lakes

Yes but (for instance) some people who are 100% on board with reducing CO2 emissions to prevent global warming have different views about using fertilizer or plastics.

sgenton Lina Khan: The 32-year-old taking on Big Tech

Although they often intercept, her paper was not an economics paper, it was a legal treatise. I think the novel portion was that she used modern economic theory to create a legal framework that could be used for enforcement.

That said, that and one other paper got her tenure (not just tenure track) at Columbia Law.

sgenton Federal Reserve Now Projects Rate Increases in 2023 as Economy Heals

Renters are paying all the same things you are, and are usually paying through the rent much higher taxes and mortgage interest. The only difference is they don't have variability in expenses (AC goes out) -- but neither does a large landlord.

sgenton Most hospitals aren't complying with price transparency rule

Most providers have a pretty good idea what the lower bound will be, its the upper 5% they may have no idea about.

Pathology maybe usually $100 for a tissue exam, but I've seen a routine mole biopsy need $1,500+ (wholesale) exams after referral to an academic center because there was something off that required further workup. This happened 1 time in 10 years.

Anesthesia knows that a breast augmentation will usually be no less than $X, but if the patient has an anesthesia reaction and decompensates and needs 4 hours of one on one time with an MD its going to be a lot more. Very, very rare.

You get the idea, its often not possible to know until you do the procedure. Even more when surgery is involved because imaging is not 100% and you may wind up with a much more complex procedure than you bargained for once you cut someone open, or a complication like a perforated bowel during colonoscopy, etc.

Finally, most of these people don't talk to each other -- so the pathologist has no idea what the surgeon is charging and neither of them the hospital nor radiologist.

sgenton How Doctors Die (2013)

My 74 YO relative was 1 of 5 in her graduating class of 210 from a US medical school. Women being even a significant minority of US physicians is a new thing.

sgenton Woman may have tried to sell Pelosi computer device to Russians, FBI says

House speaker is 2nd in line for the president, and she has the highest security clearance in the government and is briefed on all major intelligence / national security operations -- although I doubt any of that was on this computer.

The house decides the budget for the entire federal government (so black budgets, NSA, etc.) and most of their work is public, but at least some of it is classified and other parts are politically sensitive.

sgenton Boeing quietly pulls plug on the 747, closing era of jumbo jets

Maybe... the Secret Service and Military REALLY want a 4 engine plane for AF1 -- remember other than transporting the President it serves as command and control for US armed forces. Losing an engine due to an attack is part of their planning.

They may look at a military conversion if there isn't a civilian airliner available.

sgenton In NYC, almost 9 in 10 Covid-19 patients on ventilators don't make it

Germany has done very well (in a traditional manner). Ireland as well. I agree with you that we still have a ways to go -- but every day we last means one more day gained worth of knowledge, trials, etc.