HNHacker News
TopNewBestAskShowJobs

xethos

1,521 karma · joined June 20, 2023

Matrix @xethos:xethos.net eMail cmckinnon@posteo.net
submissionscomments
xethos··on Apple defeats liability for not scanning iCloud for CSAM
> the right to own firearms is very explicitly stated in our constitution

The right to bear arms does not necessarily mean firearms. Arms doesn't necessarily even have to include firearms, and America is already pretty damn strict about certain armaments, such as sub-machine guns.

Americans are allowed to have certain firearms, sometimes, in some places. I'm not sure how one squares that with the blanket statement from the American constitution that Americans have the right to bear arms, unless it's simply an impossibly poorly-informed citizenry

xethos··on My car’s OTA update broke Android Auto
You're gonna love finding out who was behind the founding of Comma.AI, which adds self-driving to cars that shipped without it
xethos··on The lost joy of music piracy
> and I’ve done all the searching in the world for the lyrics I remember and have never found the band

Shoulda posted what you remember (and ideally male / female vocalist) as a post-script. The throwaway comment could be your way back

xethos··on Under federal rule, colleges must leave grads better off or lose financial aid
Regardless of whether we classify it as humanities or political science (as neither seems to be looked at as terribly useful in the states), a population without some grasp of civics does not lend itself to a healthy democracy

Not everyone must be a plumber or electrician, but we're well-served by having some basic knowledge, and an ability to find answers to the questions that arise as we do basic handywork, such as changing a lightswitch or replacing a faucet. Similarly, we are well-served as a society when we can answer basic questions about our democracy past the age of 18; IE, shortly after testing ends, and typically before it actually matters - when voting.

Not everyone needs to become a licensed electrician, or have a deeper-than-average understanding of civics. But knowing someone you can trust with an answer that isn't purely to line their own pocket is still important.

xethos··on Falling fertility on the left as key driver of US birth decline
Sure, that's why Smokey the Bear is such a bad idea. Ignore the fact that pushing propaganda starts young, (the population in general, but especially) children are impressionable, and (echoing sibling) that we should probably consider the impacts of media on children.

Lots of cartoons are wholesome, and it can be a powerful tool for setting social norms. More to the point, it's going to happen anyways - so let's do what we can to make sure it's a message we agree with

xethos··on Google's New reCAPTCHA Wants Your Camera Access and 21 Points of Your Hand
I'm struggling not to be sarcastic here, as I'm not quite stoked about Canadian Tire owning most of what's left of Hudson's Bay Company. It's pretty undeniable proof that age and revenue will not make a company immortal or invulnerable though.
xethos··on Feds Killed Polestar and Spared Volvo
> Its [sic] bad when a hostile foreign government has [...] information about [...] your citizens

How many domestic automotive manufacturers does America have, and how many times has the current administration threatened annexation of their Northern "ally"?

This is, at best, hypocrisy; and being on the recieving end of the annexation threats, I'm disinclined to use the most generous interpretation of America's "Rules for me but not for thee" attitude

xethos··on Feds Killed Polestar and Spared Volvo
Ironic coming from the country with three domestic OEMs, and routinely threatens economic annexation of my country
xethos··on Canada plans 'nuclear renaissance' with up to 10 reactors built by 2040
> Commissioning reactors that won't come online for 10-15 years makes no sense at all, economically and practically.

Because we won't need base load in 15 years? Or because you're arguing that we'll have so many batteries, and they'll be so cheap, and they'll be so over-provisioned regarding summer/winter variance, that we won't be able to sell excess nuclear power to the states?

Personally, I wouldn't make either bet, no matter what odds you give me

xethos··on Canada plans 'nuclear renaissance' with up to 10 reactors built by 2040
The fact that every 737 MAX was the samew design also means that, upon rcognizing the flaw, every one could be grounded and fixed properly. We did not have to verify 15 different designs were all vulnerable due to Boeing trying to nickel and dime their customers (by making the third sensor esssentially a paid upgrade/addon)
xethos··on White House delays US voting-machine vulnerability report
This is entirely unrelated to your point, but as you brought up the sanctity some Americans hold their founding fathers to:

How do some assume the American founding fathers thought ahead, and had it all planned out, with good solutions (instead of merely solutions),

...while also being aware of the Flynn effect?

xethos··on Law Enforcement's "Warrior" Problem (2015)
That still means the main point, the reason they are there, will never be peace. They are there to fight, and to fuck your shit up - which is both an image the current administration embraces, and very much not a good look outside the country.
xethos··on Law Enforcement's "Warrior" Problem (2015)
> And frankly I don't see the problem with warfighter

Because it implies, quite pointedly, that the United States will never send a peacekeeping force.

xethos··on Mercedes‑Benz starts large‑scale production of electric axial flux motor
> Cd will never be the dominating factor at speeds which do not produce significant aerodynamic drag

That helped it sink in, thank you

xethos··on Digital Sovereignty Becomes an Imperative as the US Reads Dutch Emails
This is in no way a solution to the population-scale problem of a belligerant nation having root on the citizenry's mobile phones/cameras/GPS units/network scanners
xethos··on Mercedes‑Benz starts large‑scale production of electric axial flux motor
As efficiency improves across motors and inverters, wouldn't regen make CoD matter more, possibly tilting it to the dominant factor again?
xethos··on Mercedes‑Benz starts large‑scale production of electric axial flux motor
I'd throw in the manual gearbox, the noise, vibration, smell, and being able to see the mechanical workings as well. We can get a punchy, lightweight vehicle with an EV conversion, but as you've heard from others, that leaves something to be desired
xethos··on Wow, if it's this easy in 1998, I bet it'll be even easier in 2026
Fuck, you missed it being bad at being a phone. It launched on the network that had such bad coverage they needed Apple's hottest product ever to get people to switch. They had to put a cell repeater (or was it a miniature tower?) in the presentation center so the call would go smoothly, and still had to rig the cellular icon to always show full bars.

Judged purely as a "Let's give Ted a call"-phone, it was fucking bad compared to the competiton. They killed it in other areas, don't get me wrong, but not at being a phone.

xethos··on My Students Can't Read
> Devs have always considered ourselves lazy. The point of programming is to do as little actual work as possible ;) Any self-respecting sysop has a couple hundred scripts so that they don't have to actually type anything :)

Sure, that's why this [0] XKCD was made - getting pulled off on a geeky sidequest, automating something that has (almost) no business being automated, and spending far longer configuring, debugging, and refining your "time saving" scripts than actually doing the damn task are what I expect a dev to get lost in.

Which, sure, is a form of laziness, but it has a different vibe than getting an LLM to do everything for you IMO.

As an aside, a common refrain is that the best computer people are innately curious; they wanted to see how the computer responded if they broke or changed something. LLMs make putting up with the (relatively) long slog to find out less likely to happen; in a way, I'd argue they destroy curiousity itself: a horrifying proposition for anyone that looks to the future of computing, or even humanity in general.

[0] https://m.xkcd.com/1319/

xethos··on CT scans of BYD car parts
While I could have sworn RIM put out their own modems (which Qualcomm used to make life difficult for them, especially as the world transitioned from 3G to 4G), and did their own hardware and software, I can't currently find a source
xethos··on Sergey Brin told Google staff that working 60 hours a week is the 'sweet spot' (2025)
The frog was smart enough to hop out, and only stopped when just this side of lobotomized. The story doesn't match, and it's because frogs are smart enough to leave when they recognize their environment is not amenable to their continued existance
xethos··on GitHub bans security researcher who posted zero-day Windows exploits
Personally I'd think Microsoft would be cool with following the report instead of demanding video evidence in the first place, but silly me thinking the trillion dollar multi-national would be reasonable
xethos··on Blue Origin's New Glenn blows up during static fire test
I'd probably throw "grandiose" in there somewhere as well, but that may just be me
xethos··on Blue Origin's New Glenn blows up during static fire test
> They even requested access to a ULA building to see if a sniper could have taken a shot at the rocket.

> It turned out to be an exotic failure: liquid oxygen had gotten caught inside a buckled liner

I gotta say, suspecting "Rival company hired a sniper" before "Dealing with liquid oxygen is very fucking hard and incredibly flammable" feels very Elon

xethos··on GitHub bans security researcher who posted zero-day Windows exploits
Which, if any of the exploits require anything that isn't on-screen (USB or other HID, key combination), requires a reboot, or anything done before Windows has fully booted, means one must have an external camera

Doesn't sound like it for these exploits specifically (except Yellow Key), but I could be wrong, and again: that's just for these exploits specifically

xethos··on The Problem with the Ferrari Luce EV Offers a Lesson for Every Leader
Legally, "Pink Ferrari owners" are not a protected class, and Ferrari's legally in the clear here.

Morally... I dunno. Telling a customer they're not worth the headache is something I'm generally on the side of, so long as the goods being sold are entirely optional. Once again, Ferrari's in the clear. A Lamborghini may not be exactly the same, but they're wildly different goods they are not.

And as lazy a counter it is: If you disagree, you're more than welcome to start your own luxury car brand. That's even how Lamborghini got their start - to knock Ferrari down a peg

xethos··on The Problem with the Ferrari Luce EV Offers a Lesson for Every Leader
Ferrari's done this for... I don't know how long. Hilton bought one, she owned it, and she painted it pink. That's all legal. Then Ferrari fired her as a customer - also legal.

You missed out on the more egregious (IMO) points about having to buy certain "entry" Ferraris to be allowed to buy the rarer ones too.

xethos··on Canada to order military plane fleet from Sweden in shift from US suppliers
Cheaper to operate and mission-fit (debatable) is one thing, but the real question is: "Would this have happened without the US president's antics?"
xethos··on Motorola phones have started hijacking the Amazon app to insert affiliate codes
Evidently some disagree, but I'm on your side. Biggest reason I didn't immediately think of "But what would I use for a keyboard" is my Q25 has on built-in.

UnifiedPush, F-Droid, a GMaps webview (arguably cheating, but I'm not RMS), NewPipe or Invidious are all good-enough alternatives, but I remember struggling to find a keyboard that felt right when I was using a Pixel 2 for a fortnight.

I think I went with the oldest Fleksy or Minuum APK I could find (from a reputable source), as they were fine without GApps.

Though I'd also like to call out the fact that AOSP has talkback, the accessibility service built-in, but there's no AOSP TTS engine to use it with. This is especially noticable when trying to use any spoken directions in OSMAnd, as it requires a TTS engine to use that function.

The only reason it's not the dumbest thing about Google's stewardship of AOSP is that I'm not sight impaired - as it stands, the multi-trillion-dollar corporation ripping out the built-in SIP client in their phone OS takes that prize

xethos··on Motorola phones have started hijacking the Amazon app to insert affiliate codes
It's not necessarily enjoying it. OP evidently just thinks the trade-off is worth it. Some people like baseball more than researching which phone they can buy, which one has an unlockable bootloader, and which is supported (even unofficially) by LineageOS.

That's fine. They don't have to. Their solution can be calling their local representative and complaining that the stadium their city is paying for, is locking them out.

← PreviousPage 3 of 25Next →