Hacker News Reader

zwtayloron Bitcoin banned in Russia?

There's an interesting resource on the evolving regulations in Russia on this site.

http://www.bitlegal.io/nation/RU.php

zwtayloron Dogecoin decides to allow annual inflation of 5 billion coins each year, forever

> There are currently ~40 million "dogecoins" floating around the internet.

I'm assuming you meant to say 40 billion.

zwtayloron How is Philadelphia's startup ecosystem?

Fellow Philadelphian here, while Philly has a ton going for it, its crime rate is more than double New York's.

http://city-crime-statistics.findthedata.org/compare/4852-65...

zwtayloron Snowden's Dead Man's Switch

The poor man's Vital Signs API.

zwtayloron Snowden's Dead Man's Switch

I'm very curious as to how this works at a basic level. Perhaps a 'positive-control' system in which he has to send a signal to some clandestine web service every 24 hours to prevent the keys from being released? Does he have an Arduino board strapped to his chest detecting his pulse? Or has he simply entrusted some mechanism to somebody else, who can determine whether the keys should be released depending on the nuances of the situation in which he is harmed/killed?

zwtayloron How War in Syria Turned Ordinary Engineers Into Deadly Weapons Inventors

This is no doubt interesting, but it's very obviously a PR piece written to subtly engender American support for arming Syrian Rebels. This chaotic conflict is making for very strange bedfellows of the United States and certain extremist groups.

There was a nearly identical article in The Atlantic a few months back, Edward Bernays would be proud!

http://www.theatlantic.com/infocus/2013/02/diy-weapons-of-th...

zwtayloron EFF sues the NSA Over Illegal Surveillance

Laird v. Tatum definitely bares some insight as to what the EFF is up against, the case is one of countless others in which the Supreme Court has considered the "chilling effect" of various government policies on protected expression.

If you're interested in this concept, take a closer look at Wieman v. Updegraff (where the term "chilling effect" was first used), Socialist Workers Party v. Attorney General, a case very similar to Laird, and Meese v. Keene.

The following paper goes quite deep into the matter:

http://www.bc.edu/dam/files/schools/law/lawreviews/journals/...

zwtayloron A Low-Tech Mosquito Deterrent

This is a godsend, and so blatant an alternative. It will be nice to not spend the rest of the summer duking it out with these buggers for control of the porch.

zwtayloron For NSA chief, terrorist threat drives passion to "collect it all" observers say

What were the values and priorities of someone like J. Edgar Hoover? His secret dossiers fit neatly inside a standard office cabinet, just think what he could have done with PRISM data.

zwtayloron Dijkstra: “You will be treated as grown-ups”

I was fortunate enough to have a teacher at a public high school whose methods were very similar to your's and Mr. Dijkstra's. The professional attitude and crisp procedure he brought to the classroom extended to even peripheral considerations; he wore a suit every day and addressed each student as "Mr." and "Ms.". Respect and attentiveness were obligatory, but reciprocated.

Though a chronically absentminded student in nearly every other subject, I excelled under his system and completed homework every night, an accomplishment I can say with certainty I never once again achieved in high school. While the knowledge acquired from other courses has atrophied over the years, those classes are still as lucid as ever in my mind.

It may take an initial period for students to become acclimated to this environment, there may even be some push-back, but I think a very formal, cerebral learning climate is beneficial in many cases.

zwtayloron About the Reuters article

I too immediately thought this statement was a misstep in Greenwald's otherwise discriminating journalism. The possibilities you outlined detail exactly why, but I would add a fourth, if somewhat far-fetched, circumstance to your list.

(4) Snowden has verified knowledge of an imminent death threat from the USG and is using Greenwald to convey awareness of his "dead man's switch" for his own protection. Employing Greenwald as a channel for this message, as opposed to himself, gives him some cover legally and won't further alienate Snowden from the public who might see him as blackmailing the United States if he were to outright state this in say, a new video interview.

zwtayloron Job Change Notifier is shutting down

I was under the impression that LinkedIn already does this, I constantly receive notifications from them alerting me when a connection has taken up a new job or job title. Why the need for this app?

zwtayloron [dead]

The questions surrounding citizen surveillance of police activity definitely have relevance on HN, the technology and software created by our industry have facilitated this on a wide scale.

zwtayloron The NSA Can't Tell the Difference Between an American and a Foreigner

We're living in the last decades/centuries of a doomed empire... The system they have created will not work. It will lean toward tyranny, and corruption, and there will be a long, boring, dull fizzle as it all grinds down.

This reminds me of Venkatesh Rao's idea of 'Hackstability'. Part of this concept describes how the antiquated and inefficient institutions of present could be maintained indefinitely through the continuous application of hacks and jury-rigging. This is proposed as an alternative to oft-entertained future trajectories like an apocalyptic cataclysm or technological singularity. Rao envisions our present system hobbling along for another century or so, growing incrementally more kludgey with each passing day, but persevering nonetheless.

Mr. Rao describes it far more lucidly than I, if you've never read his work you ought to check it out.

http://www.ribbonfarm.com/2012/04/18/hacking-the-non-disposa...

zwtayloron Statement Regarding Temporary Hiatus on U.S. Dollar Withdrawals

This is true, but Mt. Gox historically has the lowest exchange rate as they have far more liquidity than other exchanges. Gox is also the primary indicator against which other markets rise or fall, today is no exception.

In an unrelated note, big fan of your site.

zwtayloron Statement Regarding Temporary Hiatus on U.S. Dollar Withdrawals

That seems to be what's happening at the moment. I initially assumed this announcement would cause a panic sell-off, instead it seems as if a lot of users are now converting their USD back into BTC in light of the hiatus. The exchange rate has ticked up pretty steadily as a result.

zwtayloron Do Millennials Give A Damn About PRISM?

Additionally, Obama's approval rating amongst those under 30 has dropped significantly in the past weeks. I would imagine this is a direct result over the NSA leaks.

http://sweetness-light.com/archive/obama-approval-plummets-w...

zwtayloron CIA Deputy Director Michael Morrell Retires

Also a very plausible scenario. For someone with no opportunities for promotion this is probably a great time to exit any of the intelligence agencies, it's going to be a long hot summer.

zwtayloron CIA Deputy Director Michael Morrell Retires

In his statement, Morell said he knows how that sounds but, "when I say that it is time for my family, nothing could be more real than that."

It's difficult not to be immediately skeptical at this retirement considering the timing and circumstances surrounding the announcement. His kids are college-aged and this is quite an unusual time to resign. The fact that he is being replaced with White House lawyer Avril D. Haines (Obama's deputy council in charge of national security), seems to indicate that this is either in light of the Benghazi 'scandal' or that the Obama administration is purging intelligence officials who may not be entirely loyal in the wake of the NSA leaks. There is without a doubt far more to this story.

zwtayloron Edward Snowden 'missing' in Hong Kong

Thus far it seems like Mr. Snowden has taken the utmost precaution in maintaining OPSEC while releasing these documents. I wouldn't be surprised if he was long gone from Hong Kong days ago or never there to begin with.

zwtayloron Why Privacy Matters Even if You Have 'Nothing to Hide' (2011)

Quite the read. One part in particular struck me as highly significant to our current situation with PRISM.

"With this tech in place, the government doesn't have to put you in jail. They can do something more sinister. They can just email you a sexy picture you took with a girlfriend. Or they can email you a note saying that they can prove your dad is cheating on his taxes. Or they can threaten to get your dad fired."

With increased surveillance, the government won't have to necessarily prosecute or penalize dissidents, they can merely intimidate them extralegally. It's unlikely in the near future that we will see intelligence gathered from PRISM used in domestic courts, but it's not improbable that this collected information could be used to blackmail individuals into compliance. Think J. Edgar Hoover's secret cache of incriminating files (on such dignitaries as JFK and Eleanor Roosevelt) extended to the general public.

zwtayloron Drone.coffee: A drone noise generator using the Web Audio API.

This is neat, it reminds me of the app 'Bloom' that Brian Eno and Peter Chilvers created a few years ago. It would be nice to have some sort of interface where the user could modify characteristics of the audio as I noticed that on refresh the engine is generating different tonalities.

One thing to watch out for is the CPU load on this, my Google Renderer process was pushing 100% when I ran the generator.

zwtayloron Maps That Show How Americans Speak English Differently From Each Other

Additionally, there are still areas in Philadelphia where "youse" is more than acceptable.

zwtayloron Yahoo's Design Chief Leaves Company

That this news is being released the Sunday prior to Memorial Day is certainly no coincidence.

zwtayloron Bitcoin shoots past $150 today

New Mt. Gox users are reporting the verification queue to be at least 14,000.

http://www.thebitcointrader.com/2013/04/the-mtgox-verificati...

zwtayloron Solar-Powered Trash Cans Saved Philadelphia Almost a Million Bucks Last Year

Fellow Philadelphian here. I agree entirely, these are terribly designed and I hardly ever see anyone use these. The fact that much of Philadelphia is covered with trash is a testament to the fact that these have done very little to alleviate the issue.

The primary issue with these is that they have a user interface that increases the friction and time of throwing things away. Having to walk up and grab the handle (which is usually disgusting), throw in your garbage, and then close it, adds a small, though significant enough amount of time that most people can't be bothered to do it (many Philadelphians just throw garbage on the street). Additionally, it is difficult to throw away larger amounts of trash or loads that would require two hands to dispose of.

zwtayloron Bitcoin Tops $50USD on MtGox

This recent spike may have a lot of do with this just-issued repot from the Treasury department.

http://www.fincen.gov/statutes_regs/guidance/html/FIN-2013-G...

zwtayloron Bitcoin Tops $50USD on MtGox

If everyone took your second piece of advice and only used it for discrete transactions, then Bitcoin would be worth exponentially more than it is now, which would invalidate your first piece of advice. The number of bitcoin users is still exceptionally small.

zwtayloron How the NYT paywall is working

If you delete the entirety of the URL past the ".html" on a blocked NYT article you can bypass the paywall.