Hacker News Reader

there_the_andon Rga: Ripgrep, but also search in PDFs, E-Books, Office documents, zip, tar.gz

I don't see any indication that pdftotext has been discontinued [1]. It looks like a Mac-specific installer available via Homebrew Cask has been discontinued [2], but pdftotext is still available through the normal poppler formula [3].

1. https://poppler.freedesktop.org/releases.html

2. https://formulae.brew.sh/cask/pdftotext

3. https://formulae.brew.sh/formula/poppler

there_the_andon Rock art discovered in remote Amazon forest

It seems like a likely explanation is that these are primarily done by children and that this is a human universal / instinctual behavior during child development. Looking at google scholar there are at least a couple studies of hand print sizes estimating that in a few regions they were almost exclusively done by young people. That would seem to suggest a biological basis for this specific behavior.

there_the_andon Rock art discovered in remote Amazon forest

What I find interesting about this explanation is that it suggests a much more limited scope of decision-making than is often attributed to humans. A practical example of why this could matter is that instead of spreading an idea through viral mechanisms where an information is transmitted between individuals, this would provide an illustration of how an idea could be spread by replicating conditions and causing the idea to essentially regenerate in a predictable manner among disconnected individuals, while from each individual’s perspective they are doing something novel.

there_the_andon Rock art discovered in remote Amazon forest

Indeed. It seems possible that there’s something about the red ochre hand motif is hardwired into human brain and is related to language development. But on a time scale of tens of thousands of years, even if we somehow outgrew it as a species, it seems there would still be residual evidence.

there_the_andon Rock art discovered in remote Amazon forest

Rock art is really weird because there are exactly same motifs using the same materials (usually red ochre) all over the world and separated by tens of thousands of years.

People act like it’s no big deal, but it sure looks like a pretty big deal that raises some interesting questions. We have a global view of information flows now, and I feel like I haven’t seen a lot of behaviors in humanity that explain how this has been working. What is happening here? Every few thousand years some small group of people in a new random spot on earth somehow magically decides to do that hand thing with red ochre on a rock face? By what mechanism? There doesn’t seem to be a lot of evidence that we are innately drawn to hand symbols in red ochre, aside from these examples separated by diameter of the earth and tens of thousands of years.

Given the time scale and given our current visibility into humanity, human information, and human creativity, it seems like whatever would cause that to happen should be something that’s still observable in the modern world.

there_the_andon Single Page Applications using Rust

> import a second backend into your main backend

This is not typically how the term "backend" is used in this context. Most mature apps will use a variety of tools and services built in a variety of languages, but this is not referred to as "importing a second backend." In fact, your comment is apparently the first use of the phrase "import a second backend" on the entire internet: https://www.google.com/search?q=%22import+a+second+backend%2...

there_the_andon Single Page Applications using Rust

That is obvious (it's in the name). The way your comment is phrased reads to me like you are saying that one can't use Rails and has to switch to a full JS backend for SSR. If that's not what you are saying, then it's unclear what you are actually saying and why you juxtaposed Rails / Django against a JS backend.

there_the_andon Single Page Applications using Rust

> if we're talking about building an SPA you're typically going to be building a worse solution if you can't SSR your client views, which you need a js backend to do.

I have not used React with Rails and maybe I'm misunderstanding your comment, but the react-rails readme includes a section about SSR via ExecJS and integrated with Rails:

https://github.com/reactjs/react-rails#server-side-rendering

there_the_andon Ask HN: Geopolitical forums similar to HN?

To be like hacker news it would have to be filled with actual insurgents, including some who managed to make their own countries.

there_the_andon Twitter is dropping coding terms like 'master' and 'slave'

Names change all the time. Leader / follower and primary / secondary are better for a lot of things, anyway. Even ignoring the social issue, master and slave are not great terms for how they are used. Frankly, I find it disturbing that so many developers are so attached to the master and slave terminology. It’s like the tech industry’s version of the confederate flag.

there_the_andon Urban Gilgamesh: What the earliest epic tells us about living in an ancient city

3000-2500 BCE is such an interesting time period. Civilization and technology somewhat inexplicably pick up throughout the world within just a few centuries. For example, coinciding with the Gilgamesh time period (around 2800 BCE to 2500 BCE) the major pyramids in Egypt pop up, and so do the Caral / Norte Chico pyramids and cities in Peru.

there_the_andon GitHub abandons 'master' and 'slave' terms to avoid row

> I picked the names "master" (and "origin") in the early Git tooling back in 2005.

> (this probably means you shouldn't give much weight to my name preferences :) )

> I have wished many times I would have named them "main" (and "upstream") instead.

> Glad it's happenning @natfriedman

https://twitter.com/xpasky/status/1271477451756056577?s=21

there_the_andon GitHub to Remove 'Master' Terminology

Nope. Any third party software that assumes a “master” branch always exists and is always the main branch was already broken.

there_the_andon GitHub to Remove 'Master' Terminology

It’s not a breaking change.

there_the_andon GitHub wil change default branch name from 'master' to 'main'

Yes. Software evolves as the environment evolves. Software that can't evolve gets replaced.

there_the_andon GitHub to replace “master” with alternative term to avoid slavery references

If people are offended by "git" and want to advocate for a name change, they are free to do so.

there_the_andon GitHub to replace “master” with alternative term to avoid slavery references

Obviously people feel otherwise, and it's changing regardless of whether you are able to understand or not.

there_the_andon GitHub to replace “master” with alternative term to avoid slavery references

It's not. This is more like a swear word. No one would expect that calling it the "fuck" branch would be OK. Just because more people are OK with "master" doesn't change the fact that it bothers other people who are just trying to code. This isn't hard to understand.

there_the_andon The American Press Is Destroying Itself

I’m asking if you could please share links to the information you saw about about the widespread subscription cancellations that you referred to.

there_the_andon The American Press Is Destroying Itself

They reported at the beginning of May that subscriptions are at a high:

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/05/06/business/media/new-york-t...

Scanning the google results for “nyt subscribers” I see them reporting 5 million in Feb and 4.7 million in Aug 2019, so it looks to me like subscriptions have been accelerating in recent months.

Can you please share the information you have regarding mass subscription cancellations due to this op-ed? I would like to see it.

there_the_andon Is Dark Mode Such a Good Idea?

Blues exist along a range of brightness values and blues work great in dark terminals and editors all day every day for many many people. I'm typing into a browser window surrounded by probably about 4 or 5 terminal and editor windows peeking out of the background with somewhere between 5 and 10 different shades of blue on dark grey backgrounds and they look clear, bright, and amazing. The dark background makes the blues pop.

there_the_andon DEA authorized to conduct surveillance on protestors

The way we fix most legacy software systems is by replacing them with newer, different ones.

there_the_andon Microsoft finally gives AppGet developer the credit he deserves

[deleted]

there_the_andon Google allows G Suite administrators to monitor and audit user emails

This is standard practice, it's not your email address, you are just using it for work, and your employer needs access for a variety of very obvious reasons. This should not be news to any technology professional and it's mind-blowing seeing these comments on HN.

there_the_andon Guide to running Elasticsearch in production

Unsecured Elasticsearch servers have been implicated in multiple breaches in recent months [1][2]. Since this post is an "In depth guide to running Elasticsearch in production,” it should prominently include information related to security and configuration. With tools like these where there is a learning curve for new users, security can end up treated as an afterthought, leading to these kinds of breaches.

1. https://www.pandasecurity.com/mediacenter/news/billion-consu...

2. https://thedefenceworks.com/blog/250-million-microsoft-recor...

Edited for clarity

there_the_andon The Age of Instagram Face

It was never “only vain aristocrats.” Life is not a cartoon. Cosmetics, tattoos, and jewelry have been in use for thousands of years.

there_the_andon The Shadow Inc. app that failed in Iowa last night

> This seems overly paranoid to me

This is not even close to paranoid. Conflicts of interest are an important issue for nonprofits because it can cause them to lose tax exempt status, and the IRS makes a whole todo about it, and therefore so do competent boards. Trying to brush this under the rug because of politics is disgusting and would not be tolerated at ethical and competent organizations.

there_the_andon BlackRock’s decision to dump coal signals what’s next

It makes me proud of the Hacker News community that there have been so many climate change articles posted at an increasing rate. This is a very important issue, more important than technology since technology won't exist when the climate collapses and destroys civilization. We need to make a serious effort educating the public about climate change, so we need to work together to ensure that, at minimum, the top article on Hacker News is always a climate change story. It would be even better if we keep multiple climate change articles on the front page at all times.

there_the_andon Climate threats now dominate long-term risks, survey of global leaders finds

The Blackrock letter did not state that they are divesting from fossil fuels in 2020. It stated that they are planning to remove companies that generate more than 25% of their revenue from thermal coal production (i.e., thermal coal producers that are not diversified, meaning the large diversified thermal coal producers are not affected) from their discretionary active investment portfolios, which only accounts for a minority of their assets. Note that thermal coal is already declining in the US and other markets due to increased competition primarily from natural gas, a fossil fuel which, like oil, the letter says nothing about.

https://www.blackrock.com/corporate/investor-relations/black...

there_the_andon Alienated, Alone and Angry: What the Digital Revolution Did?

> widespread fear of crime, immigration (aka the actual sociological results of Robert Putnam, rather than the yammerings of some Buzzfeed wanker), poisonous oligarch funded divisive politics, and the general disintegration of anything resembling a family life or social fabric

This is just a collection of sky-is-falling narratives promoted in the media. Stop letting the endless cycle of negative political and media fads drag you around mentally and emotionally, and instead focus on improving your personal health and the lives of those around you in actual reality.