Hacker News Reader

wizzardon The other Phillips head screwdriver

Even if you're only assembling one IKEA thing every now and then it's still worth picking up. Makes building anything from there less stressful, especially those cam screws. I bought a driver on Amazon.

wizzardon Dark pattern: how YouTube makes sure you don’t always “skip ad”

Yes, on my smart TV app it's so slow and glitchy that the 5-second ad preview often plays for 10+ seconds before the "Skip Ad" button finally appears. Add to that the 5-7 seconds of black screen before the ad starts playing and the 2-3 seconds to resume my video, and it's a major annoyance during workouts and such.

wizzardon Death by PowerPoint: the slide that killed seven people (2019)

And could have had the same problem as Columbia. There was no quick fix to ensure Atlantis didn't meet the same fate.

wizzardon Co-founder of Snopes was writing plagiarized articles under a fake name

http://www.healthdata.org/covid/covid-19-vaccine-efficacy-su...

There's a PDF in this article that links to dozens of independent studies. Or, just google "covid vaccine efficacy" and it pulls up a bunch of links for you.

It really only takes a minimum of effort to answer these hard-hitting questions you've posed. As another example, I googled "why are pharmaceutical companies immune from liability over covid vaccine" and found https://www.hsdl.org/?abstract&did=848329 .

wizzardon Nearly 200M in U.S. under heat advisories, warnings as two heat domes form

So you haven't even tried the program but you say it causes people to "swelter"? How do you know? And the rebate is "up to" $100, not $100.

wizzardon Nearly 200M in U.S. under heat advisories, warnings as two heat domes form

If you're sweltering then maybe something is wrong with your setup. I've been on Rocky Mountain Power's version of this program for seven years and have only noticed that it's one or two degrees hotter than it should be maaaybe three times. In seven years.

Why don't you just unenroll from the program? I only get a $30 rebate per year. You make it sound like someone's holding a gun to your head and making you live in hell.

wizzardon Ask HN: Feeling guilty for doing the bare minimum at work

You didn’t respond to the strongest plausible interpretation of the point I was making when you said strep can sometimes cause OCD symptoms.

wizzardon Ask HN: Feeling guilty for doing the bare minimum at work

Very well said.

Consider how people like to say they have OCD because they think it’s just “liking to be clean”. Most people like things to be clean, right? So anyone could be diagnosed with OCD on a bad day, couldn’t they? No, because OCD is caused by underlying physical problems with the brain that cause very specific symptoms that interfere greatly with your life. When you see a person who is actually diagnosed with OCD, it becomes really clear that none of these other jokers have it.

The problem with ADHD is that instead of hand washing or checking doors or other very unusual rituals, it mostly just looks like laziness to a casual observer.

wizzardon Abolish High School (2015)

I've lived in the 'burbs of two major cities and both let you apply to attend a school outside your "boundary." One will approve your request automatically as long as there is space at the school. The other requires a darn good reason to let you switch, and "vicious bullying" was apparently not a good enough reason for my friend to be approved.

wizzardon The Awful German Language (1880)

It's not an invention of Wikipedia editors. If you just read the first paragraph of the article it explains the accepted meaning has evolved over time. It further explains "The distinction between gerund and present participles is not recognised in modern reference grammars, since many uses are ambiguous."

wizzardon The Awful German Language (1880)

That’s how I learned it too, but apparently that is “traditional” grammar. In “modern” grammar any verb with the -ing ending is a gerund now according to Wikipedia.

wizzardon Ontario teachers' unions slam province for considering permanent online learning

The problem they are trying to solve is offering more stable online learning options. Methinks it may have been spurred on by this whole "global pandemic" situation.

The article explains that teachers are primarily unhappy because one of the options would involve moving online education to a for-profit corporation, which would not only ostensibly divert funds from public education, but also operate without the oversight of the pub ed system.

wizzardon Ontario teachers' unions slam province for considering permanent online learning

By cutting "option" off of the end of the title you have made this sound more alarmist.

wizzardon She built a toy empire while hiding a lifetime of existential depression

It's not strictly impossible, but it's highly improbable. If she was capable of writing that at 5 her whole life would have been on a different trajectory.

wizzardon Labor shortage or terrible jobs?

There's nothing arbitrary about paying a living wage. I could rephrase your argument as "Shouldn't businesses be able to pay poverty wages, and taxpayers can make up the difference?" If you can't stay in business without the government supporting your workers, then your business doesn't work. These businesses are effectively being subsidized by the government without giving the government a stake.

Also, I feel like this isn't even worth addressing, but no, work is not a government-sponsored day care for workers.

wizzardon How India went from a ray of hope to world record for most Covid cases in a day

Any successful mitigation will look like an overreaction in hindsight.

wizzardon Apple is sued for telling you that you're “buying” movies

> And now zoomers, seduced by corporate sponsorships and the cozy fiefdoms of communities like YouTube or TikTok, have almost no concept of files or their utility, of the value of owning something detached from a profiteering cloud. They have no problem enriching those who seek to exploit them.

You’re blaming gen z for the world they were raised in? The oldest “zoomers” are about 25. You think they ran these companies for the last 20 years and made the decisions that got us here?

They have no problem enriching those who seek to exploit them because there is no other choice. Nobody actually wants this.

wizzardon UK court clears post office staff convicted due to ‘corrupt data’

> Yes, if they could have proved they also received what was stolen, that would have been a slam dunk but there are enough plausible reasons why they can't find the money. Maybe it was given to friends and family as cash, maybe it was used to gamble or to pay off some criminal.

If this was one or two cases, then sure, maybe they were really smart about hiding the money. However, there were hundreds of convictions. What is the more likely explanation?

wizzardon Voltswagen of America

Everyone I’ve been around says “dub-ull”. I moved from Michigan to Utah as an adult and pen/pin can be very close here, which I find annoying because I don’t want my kids to pick up the Utah accent... but of course they have.

I took Linguistics in college and my professor could tell where people were from in the US within a couple hundred miles by their accent. Anyone who thinks they don’t have an accent absolutely does. Except maybe Nebraskans — I read somewhere that they have the most neutral, “correct” American accent, though I don’t think it was a scientific source.

wizzardon Voltswagen of America

I’m a native speaker from the north and west US and it’s definitely “double-u”. A double-u S. In my experience only Southerners shorten it the way you describe.

wizzardon As U.S. schools shuttered, student mental health cratered, survey finds

It's a pet peeve of mine for people to make a bold statement like "Covid barely spreads through children" when there's no scientific consensus yet.

I want it to be true, but it would be pretty incredible if it were. There are probably other factors at play.

wizzardon Beyond Meat signs global supply deals with McDonald’s, KFC and Pizza Hut

I just clicked through that link and there are several hypotheses for what caused the extinction of these animals. You state it was humans alone as if this were fact.

wizzardon Amazon changes new app icon after design is compared to Hitler mustache

It's the blue tape that changed, not the "smile".

wizzardon Amazon changes new app icon after design is compared to Hitler mustache

I think it's a cool idea but it's so different and abstract I can't find the app even when I'm looking right at it. Hopefully I'll get used to it.

Also, the Hitler-esque tape at least looked like tape. Now the blue part uses the symbol that's usually used for a post-it note.

wizzardon 'New car smell' is the scent of carcinogens

> home that's cleaner than a laboratory clean room

> My partner is quite literally allergic to everything

... and now research is showing those two statements may be cause and effect to some degree, ironically.

I asked my mom to switch to unscented fabric softener and it took MONTHS for her clothes to stop smelling like being punched in the face with a bouquet. It's amazing how desensitized people are, and how long it takes those fragrances to dissipate.

wizzardon I followed my dreams to get demoted to software developer

The problem is that you are likening her to a janitor to create the impression that she has zero programming experience. First of all, if you'd read the article you'll find she probably has as much experience as a lot of bootcamp grads. You're also kind of insulting janitors by assuming none of them could possibly have any coding skills.

So many people nowadays learn coding using "non-traditional" means, and some of those people are REALLY good. Her skills were evaluated over a period of time and she was found to be worthy of a place. Why is that so difficult to believe? If this story were about a man, how would your reaction be different?

wizzardon Game Design Perspective: Stardew Valley (2020)

The re-grading capability was added within two weeks of the game's release in early 2016. Only the VERY earliest players would have been affected.

wizzardon Europe Is Guaranteeing Citizens the Right to Repair

YouTube has been a game changer for me. I’ve repaired my dishwasher, shower handle valve, refrigerator drain, replaced thermal paste in my laptop, all kinds of things. It seems like there’s a decent video for everything, and some random website (or eBay) selling parts.

wizzardon Permanent suspension of @realDonaldTrump

> Well as far as politics is concerned.. the US Government (and other governments) should make their own twitter like platforms which every active representative has an account, and ANYTHING (barring pure illegal) can be posted.

> It doesn't even need to have an actual user base, it can just be somewhere to go to see what your politician is thinking.

That's just called a blog. The value of social media for politicians is the "social" part.

wizzardon Archivists Are Preserving Capitol Hill Riot Livestreams Before They’re Deleted

They brought semi-automatic weapons, Molotov cocktails, zip-tie handcuffs, pipe bombs, chemical agents, and more. The congresspeople had to escape via the underground tunnels and five people died. How is using the word "terrorism" here hyperbolic?