Hacker News Reader

zizzleson An Open Letter to the Uber Board and Investors

> So apparently the problem is not fully solved.

You are completely right.

The problem of poor, dirty, violent, urban-youth infested communities is not fully solved.

zizzleson A Low-Cost Solution to Traffic

"Traffic is such a waste of life"

Fully-autonomous driving can mitigate this; you will still be commuting, but with an added benefit of being hands-free (to check your e-mails, to finish up your TPS reports, to nap) for much of society this can be highly efficient if utilized correctly.

zizzleson Mathematical genius is fragile

I got just a little further than you, until I reached "women make the best mathematicians" where I instantly ALT-F4'd Google Chrome and added 'medium.com' to a permanent blacklist. Truth of the matter is, math IS a high-IQ game, albeit average intelligence specimen can become semi-competent with time and practice (the payoffs of this pursuit are negligible)

zizzleson Computer Science Education

I glimpsed at the content for 30 seconds. This does not look anything like a computer science education: "Pencil Code", "Blockly", "Coding Adventures", "Craft Small Projects in HTML/CSS". These are just glorified baby-games for 5 year old's; or at the very most a stupefied introduction of basic development for girls and malnourished Indian children.

zizzleson How Children Lost the Right to Roam in Just 4 Generations

Early-mid 2000's kid here. I roamed without second thoughts: Explored forests, cities, trespassed on forsaken enchanted lands and everything in between. I admit there has been stark differences in outdoor activities; but this isn't a "it's too dangerous for Johnny to go outside" scenario, it's a "Johnny is too glued to his iPad 8.0 to enjoy going outside" scenario.

zizzleson A Month Without Sugar

I do not know what is so difficult about not eating sugar. If "without sugar" means no added artificial sweetener or added sugar (as according to this article) then I have not consumed sugar for many many years; the same goes for our ancestors, farmers, etc. I do not know if this is a case of crack-like addiction, or a case of "what is the point? you only live once, you should indulge in pleasures" either way it need not be difficult if you simply, as an example, substitute your candy for fruits (fruit cultivation is a far-cry from what it used to be, but I do not want to get into an argument about this)

Despite all of this, take it from me: The benefits are overrated

Ironically and amusingly enough, I was my happiest (and seemingly healthier) when I was a little boy running around all day outside eating candy or chocolate to my hearts content.

zizzleson From Secretary to Software Developer: The Hard Way

Explain to me what you think the key differences are between a competent and incompetent programmer; specifically, in terms of particular skillsets.

zizzleson Scientists engineer mice genomes to lengthen their lifespans by 30 percent

Every life extension discussion derails into debates about foreverness; and therein lies the problem: humans of all backgrounds (even today) are dropping dead of health problems at 60 years of age. Thus, foreverness is science-fiction with our current understanding. Baby-steps first perhaps? Regardless, many agree foreverness is not possible - and if it was - I would not want it.

zizzleson Why 30 is the decade friends disappear

To sum up everything in this thread: Life becomes less appealing as you get older. You lose friends because "career" and "kids" and "my wife would not agree to this". The novelty and wonderment of being a child is LONG GONE, ie. your brain oxytocin, serotonin and β-endorphin receptors are all but ERADICATED from the grudges of the mundanity of your boring 9 to 5 suburban lifestyle. No time for friends and riding bikes and adventures in the forest and first-kisses under the tree and kickball, those TPS reports need to be finished as soon as possible. You are a walking zombie; living in a biological sense, but not really living. Do not fret because your life is nearing it's end surely but slowly; cell stress, telometre shortening and calcium disposition within collagen has you taking an aged "old-person" appearance as you are scientifically dying from the inside-out as the seconds on the clock tick and tock and by the way is Docker or Vagrant better for deploying a NodeJS + MongoDB app?

zizzleson FBI operated 23 Tor-hidden child porn sites, deployed malware from them

How is this different than Whonix?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whonix

zizzleson Vancouver plans to tax empty properties 1% of their assessed value

Good nationalism would have been forbidding rich Chinese investors from pricing-out average everyday Canadians from their own housing market, in the very first place. Drastic, calculated measures; that "disgusting kind" of nationalism is what ends up making the real difference. The nationalism you are proposing is just spinning the wheels.

zizzleson Angela Merkel: internet search engines are 'distorting perception'

If Angela Merkel had it her way with search engine algorithms, every news source within the first 50 pages of Google.com would paint Germany in a positive-light (especially her barbaric open-door immigration policy)

But we all know the actual reality:

https://i.ytimg.com/vi/UoJIDgTKc6k/maxresdefault.jpg

This isn't about making informed decisions or having an "expanse of information", anybody who buys that for even a split-second is under an illusion.

zizzleson Cops Have a Database of 117M Faces

Good news for people like me.

zizzleson Hyperloop One Raises $50M, Hires Former Uber CFO

How resilient will the Hyperloop be against terrorist attacks?

It is situated above ground. This means the tubing is exposed to all and everyone. In other words, it is vulnerable to homemade explosives which can perhaps obstruct the path the vessel transverses. Sounds far-fetched, but the lengths extremists go to can not be undermined as we have learned time and time again throughout history.

I am interested in the security protocols more so than anything else.

zizzleson Constraints on the Universe as a Numerical Simulation (2012)

Should we perhaps hypothesize the motive of this simulation, if any? Death seems to be a very important focal point: All living organisms are condemned to their aging bodies, eventually begin decaying, then die. Death of the universe is also inevitable, "Heat Death". Then there are other existential issues our feeble brains have to deal with. Then of course, our Earth is replete with suffering around every corner. Perhaps other terrestrial planets operate differently, for better or worse. You would think our maker(s) should have known the possible outcomes and scenarios before hitting the "start existence now" button, or perhaps it is just part of the grand plan.

You have to wonder: Are these entity/entities sadistic pranksters of some sort?

zizzleson Common prostate cancer treatment linked to later dementia, researcher says

Further proves my point: Antibiotic resistance. 300 million projected to be dead by 2050.

Tit for tat.

https://www.chemistryworld.com/news/antimicrobial-resistance...

https://www.theguardian.com/science/2016/mar/11/antibiotics-...

Although, why is my above post getting downvoted? Too cynical? I'm sorry. Next time I'll lie and say pharmaceutical industry is doing a splendid job and mother nature has taken second place and nobody is getting dementia from prostate medication.

Clearly, life is just roses and daisies here on HN.

zizzleson Common prostate cancer treatment linked to later dementia, researcher says

Not surprising.

Trying to overcome faulty genetics with medication is a double edged sword. You are almost always trading one issue for another, tit for tat. Prostate cancer medication? Enjoy dementia. Chemotherapy treatment for cancer? Enjoy having healthy cells destroyed. SSRI for depression? Linked with autism in pregnancy, heart disease, numerous other issues. Steroids for improved performance? Gynecomastia. Ball shrinkage. Acne because of raised hormones. Accutane to fix acne? Liver problems. Crohns. Finasteride to retain your hair? Lowered DHT levels, diminished sexual drive.

That's just the tip of the iceberg. Mother nature seems to be an unstoppable force.

zizzleson Brain training exercises might just make you better at brain training exercises

Could this perhaps just be a rationalization for some to play video games under a doctrine of "I'm getting smarter" when in turn it's just mindless consumption of media? I am all for FPS games improving my cognitive performance, but we should not be delusional about this.

If I wanted to (at least try) improving cognition, I would spend hours reading math textbooks and doing exercises, learning languages, perhaps reading about philosophy in my off-time; not strafing left and right with my WASD keys and trashing on kids all day in Counter-Strike.

zizzleson Fat-fueled brain: unnatural or advantageous?

Nutritional information is laughably conflicting.

Example:

Eat meat, it's essential!

Don't eat meat, it will sky rocket your cholesterol!

Buy organic, it is much healthier!

Organic is over-priced and isn't proven to be healthier, don't buy into it!

Fruit is so healthy, you should eat plenty of it!

Fructose is bad for you, don't eat too much fruit!

Every piece of information you end up reading, there is another piece of information somewhere out there that completely conflicts it. What even is FACT anymore?

zizzleson Employee #1: Coinbase

This is now a thread about lucid dreams and the galantamine/choline stack.

Galantamine is marketed as an Alzheimer treatment, and although me and others are weary of pharmaceuticals (side effects? cancer? higher-morality rates in clinical trials?) drug induced lucid dreams sound very interesting to me. Has anyone on HN experimented with this?

zizzleson Existential Depression in Gifted Children and Adults (2009) [pdf]

"Gifted children" is just a special buzzword to make parents feel good about their high-functioning-autism offspring. That's how it worked here in Canada.

My first encounter with such "gifted" students was in elementary school, they had a class right next to ours. At the time, I never knew about the concept of "gifted students" but what I remember clearly is this: They were constantly bullied for their appearance and mannerisms (ie. very bad dress sense, lack of hygiene, awkward personalities, poor motor skills) fast forward to today, none of these past gifted-students are doing anything special or noteworthy in academia and or the workforce (from my research)

This is just my experience, but perhaps I'm being too harsh.

zizzleson How the Sugar Industry Shifted Blame to Fat

Obesity as the end all be all measure of health is flawed and out-dated.

The real damage is being done silently, ie. cell damage, DNA damage, telomere shortening, endocrine disruption.

Visual cues may or may not be there.

zizzleson Lessons from a 45-year Study of Super-Smart Children

In to make a post before a bunch of narcissist HN'ers (subtly) brag about their childhood accomplishments of being math wizards and programming assembly at age 6 and a half.

Edit: Too late.

zizzleson 16-year-old British girl earns £48,000 helping Chinese people name their babies

The website isn't even loading. The influx of HN readers must be overloading the low-bandwith servers.

Edit: Finally made it on.

Clicked a few icons (for which I believe represented personality traits) and then I was asked to pay money. Who would actually purchase this unintuitive random name generator? Chinese are absolutely delusional for using this, then again they'll eat anything up that comes from the Western World.

Imagine if your son or daughter asked you how you came up with their name. Your response, "bought it for $11.99 on the internet".

zizzleson The Drug of Choice for the Age of Kale

In my eyes the VERY FACT that psychedelics like N,N-Dimethyltryptamine (DMT) even exist in the FIRST place (and take you on the experiences that they take you) can NOT be some sort of coincidence. I am not suggesting that they are some special all-knowing tool, but the sheer potency of DMT and the other-worldly-dimension-changing-states-of-mind that it yields when consumed can not be shrugged off as just another recreational drug or "you're just high bro", at least not to me.

We have consciousness. We see. We feel... but existence remains a mystery. No one on Earth can properly put into words what THIS is. It's unexplainable, at least to me. You can perhaps say "we are in the Milky Way" or "we are located in the Universe" or "we are existing" but these are just vague primitive monkey explanations.

Substances like DMT can shed light on these questions from a different vantage point.

zizzleson How to Learn Advanced Mathematics Without Heading to University – Part 3

It seems as of late ,especially since 2013, there is huge demand for learning complicated mathematics, coding, and trading algorithms. It's like the AP-math class of high school, but as of 2013 expanded to include almost everyone, not just a dozen students lol. This recent obsession with math and finance is described in more detail.....

Obsession with Math? Where do you live where people have math obsessions? Where I live STEM graduates are a massive minority (We had an HN article on the front page about this very topic just yesterday) Mathematics is some sort of taboo magic in the eyes of 99.99% of humans, not something anybody studies to gain prestige, status or global notoriety. Your average citizen can't even name one mathematician.

People observe, read headlines about high-IQ founders, venture capitalists, and coders making tons of money in Web 2.0 (Uber, Pinterest, Snaphat, Dropbox, etc.); STEM people getting tons of prestige, status, and global notoriety for their finding (Arxiv physics and math papers frequently go viral); and how the economy, especially as of 2008, rewards intellectualism and STEM in terms of higher wages and surging asset prices (like stocks (the S&P 500 has nearly tripled since the 2009 bottom), web 2.0 valuations (Snapchat is worth $15 billion, on its way to $50 billion), and real estate (Palo Also home prices have doubled since 2011)), and, understandably, many people want a piece of the wealth pie. They see that intellect - which includes STEM, finance, and also quantitative finance - is the path to both riches and social status (as embodied by wealthy geniuses like Musk, Thiel, Zuckerberg, Shkreli)....

There is NOTHING genius about narcissistic photo-sharing websites or SnapChat. These are just illusive innovations, a fools-paradise for the masses. Not only that, but the "social status" of these founders you mention has rarely left the confines of the tech-world anyway, if you want social status in our society go to acting school and move to Hollywood. I mean..... this world you mention where STEM students gain so much prestige and math papers go.... viral? Where is this world? What planet are you posting from? Which galaxy is it located in? Is this post of yours real-life or am I dreaming?

zizzleson College has been oversold (2011)

There will always be disproportionate amounts of arts/media majors vs STEM majors (more so now than ever before according to this article)

Not everyone is cut out to be a NASA astronaut space scientist engineering tech-guru UNIX kernel programming god. 1. There exists genetic limitations, and 2. Not everyone has an asperger-style of thinking. It should be no surprise to HN that your average human relates closer to the arts, music and perhaps sports than machine binary code.

zizzleson A Brief History of the College Textbook Pricing Racket

How's reading PDF textbooks on an e-reader for you? Personally, I've found them a nuisance because you are not able to skim through pages quickly as you can with a traditional textbook. Let's not forget the small screen size.

zizzleson New Digital Currency Spikes as Drug Dealers Get More Secrecy

That advent of cryptocurrency such as Monero are a god-send to the underground. It is almost bread & butter. They serve their purpose of being a difficult-to-trace decentralized currency very well. Did any of you oldies imagine that in 2016, you would be able to have recreational drugs of your choice shipped to your doorway, anonymously? Paid for with a cryptographic medium of exchange?

Although, there exists a con: Cryptocurrency as a whole is gaining a "dirtier" reputation thanks in part to it's new-found use as a black market medium of exchange. People had a vision of Bitcoin being an easy to use, mainstream currency for the general population (pipe-dream in my opinion) It is clearly not going in that direction.

Governments can very easily outlaw Bitcoin if they so please at any moment. Any legitimate exchanges would be shut-down, no LocalBitcoin, no Bitcoin ATM's, no BitPay, no NewEgg and Overstock accepting Bitcoin payments, banks ceasing operating with Bitcoin copmanies (good luck converting to fiat)

zizzleson Show HN: Things that help with depression and anxiety

Astaxanthin can be obtained naturally as well. Wild salmon. Emphasis on wild, not farmed. One of the reasons wild salmon have a bright red pigment is because of the astaxanthin.

While we're on subject, wild salmon has one of the highest VitaminD counts of all food. One 3oz serving = 500IU. Probably in the top-three healthiest foods on Planet Earth (if you can even make such a criteria)