skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
> Even in literature and art, no man who bothers about originality will ever be original: whereas if you simply try to tell the truth (without caring twopence how often it has been told before) you will, nine times out of ten, become original without ever having noticed it.

-- C. S. Lewis

Why wouldn't that hold for programming, at least if you make something you actually want and use? For me, it's about being able to make something exactly how I want it, without having all the stuff I don't need.

For example, I started out with a simple CMS that was based on text files. The next iteration used MySQL, but each "type" of page (link, text, image, audio) was it's own thing. That sucked, so I did it a third time, this time everything was a node that could have a type and a parent and children, but could also nodes "inside" it, which in turn also can also be nested and have nodes inside themselves, initially just because I thought "why not", but it's so useful, I didn't realize how much so until after the fact.

The commenting system is the same, imagine a tree like this discussion, but then every comment could have such a tree of comments inside it, as well as nested replies on the level it is on. I know it's dumb to do that for comments (but it's dumb in a way that makes me laugh so it stays in), but for content it's just awesome.

Some node types like empty, text, links, etc., then let every node decides how subnodes and nodes inside it get displayed, and that's been all I need for over 6 years now. I don't worry about my setup being no longer supported, ever, because my setup is the developer setup. And the project will also by definition not be abandoned before I stop using it. Those are huge benefits actually. I keep checking out what's available on the "shelf", and I want none of it, while my CMS contains a lot of deal breakers for anyone who doesn't have my exact setup and needs.

The point of not getting something off the shelf is not to remake the same thing, but to get something that's not "off-the-shelf", what you count as just a negative is actually also plus. You might say e.g. Drupal can do all that and much more, but Drupal is a huge, and trimming it down to exactly what I want would mean I have to do it again when it updates. Sure, it took years to get to a point where what I had was better for me than off-the-shelf, but I wouldn't have gotten there at all if I had just stuck with off-the-shelf. That also kinda limits the imagination to off-the-shelf.. how can I know I needed something that didn't exist before I made it, right?

Speaking of imagination, that wheel analogy has to die, no offense. It's always more than just "the idea that a round thing rolls", apart from the ideas being more complex the implementation details do matter.
Even if you use your phone for everything, an iPhone 6 or 7 will still be a very good phone. Those who own the 6 or 7 simply have no need to upgrade yet and there isn't a large number of people left that are in the marked for their first smartphone. My employer offered to upgrade my two year old iPhone 7 to either an 8 or XR, but there's simply no reason to, it still a good phone and I still get 3 or 4 days of battery life.

Rather than cramming more stuff into the iPhone, Apple could use the next iteration to reduce cost. There's a large number of Android users that could be convince to switch, if the price is low enough and the quality is preserved. Currently the cheapest iPhone is $610 in Denmark, that's the iPhone 7 and the iPhone XR is $1020. I'm not sure who Apple is targeting with those prices, other than people who can't or won't pay the $1350+ for the iPhone Xs. Apples desire to continually increase prices simply has to scare some customers way.
I'm in the UK and I buy my phones outright, through my company.

I pay about £15 pcm for unlimited data and more of everything else than I can use. I buy a phone when I feel like it, usually about every 18 months to two years. Currently very happy with my P20 Pro. Advantages (to me) are that I can switch network whenever I feel like it, and I own the phone from day 1.
Which is still 2x what I would even consider spending on a phone.
Complete Nonsense.

> - You can use the included adapter ..

So what. I'd prefer to not have to carry around any adapter

> - What would a normal user use NFC for ..

Off the top of my head, I can use it for topping up my travel card. Or at least I could if I had an android device ...

> - Most people couldn't care less if the port ..

Yeah that's why the EU ruled that a standard port must be used. Also why a significant selling point for Nokia handsets for years was availability of chargers.

Why is it so hard to grasp that I might be caught out from time to time without my own proprietary charger?

> - iMessage works flawlessly..

AHHHHHHH HA HA HAH HAH HA ahem HAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHAHAHAHA HA HA HA

HA HA HA

HA

I really loved iMessage around 2011 to the point that I didn't even see the sense in Whatsapp cause all my Friends and Family had iPhones.

They've lost that race big-time.
I think there are several systems like LIDAR with less a millisecond error.
G-Research's actions prior to Xu's initial conviction could be considered reasonable.

However their later actions to continue to push for additional jail time and to harass UK government entities when they didn't get the desired response seem less reasonable.

It seems like they're using the UK criminal justice system to attempt to scare people, which is not its intended function.
The price of a new, unlocked iPhone XR in the US right now appears to match the price of a new, unlocked iPhone 8 at this time last year.

It is generally the case that the standard current-year iPhone model takes over roughly the previous model's price point at release, and the now-previous-year model undergoes a price drop.

The introduction of a new tier (the higher-end, occupied last year by the X and this year by the XS) is a change, but has not done away with the iterations of "this year's model" and "last year's model" in the tiers below it.
They no longer include the adapter in the box
The price of their flagship is ever increasing though. Pointing out that their 'budget' model is now at the same price as their old flagships isn't really making a good case for the affordability of iPhones.
The classic example of the divide between social value and monetary value is volunteering. Volunteers create social value, often to the detriment of their financial standing. I know some people who would dedicate all their time to volunteering (they already dedicate at least half) if they didn't have to do gigs from time to time to make ends meet.

By retail trading, I meant that I'm not what you'd call a big-time trader. I use a broker that is available to retail clients (i.e. everyone). I didn't mean to imply that trading and speculation aren't risky. Trading is like printing money, because while you make money without producing any value, the guy next door makes money by actually producing something. Socially, it's freeloading, like stealing is freeloading. You get value, without providing value. A double-spend attack.
Uh. So... those ‘worthless iTunes cards’; you wouldn’t be interested in, say, me sending you a self addressed, prestamped box, & you sending back those cards?
The Perilous State of the University: Jonathan Haidt and Jordan B Peterson
Authority doesn’t scale the way some would like. The ramifications are far reaching.
That might be true but most phones are not running application that leverage that performance. The apps are more often than not optimised for lower performance and if you spend most of your time in Safari/Messenger/Instagram/Whatsapp A12 wont give you a lot of performance bump as compared to A11
Likely, a smaller phone in the form factor of the (now discontinued) iPhone SE.
What's even worse, every time I went to the Apple store in Italy there were customers complaining about their phone being slower, and the "genius" would always say something like "well, if you'd like to consider a newer model, we have..." like it was the only solution to the problem, taking advantage of the fact that some people think electronics wear down with use like tires.

I bought used iPhone 4 phones 2-3 times, replaced the battery, and it was brand new.
>You can call for violence, and that is already against the law.

That's mostly what he was talking about, though. The differences between freedom of speech in the US and in the EU are minimal, mostly just the result of different legal traditions and the US paying more superficial lip service to freedom of speech.

Put up some ISIS propaganda on the web and in your front yard, though, and you'll be arrested in the US very quickly. Do the same with classical 3rd Reich Nazi propaganda, and they'll be more lenient in the US.

Speech is prohibited in most EU countries mostly for direct, intentional, and credible calls for violence, especially if they actually result in actual violence.

In more restrictive countries like Germany, direct calls for acting against the constitution as well as overt intentional discrimination against whole groups of people are also restricted but generally dealt with in a more lenient way. The hurdles are high, except for the clear-cut cases like showing Nazi symbols and Holocaust denial, because in these cases the judge doesn't have to deliberate a lot about the intentions of the delinquents and whether they support the German constitution or not. It's much harder to prosecute less clear cases. (But e.g. symbols of certain rocker gangs and the gangs themselves have been successfully prohibited in the past.)

>The conflation of words with violence is dangerous.

That's a bit of a strawman. Of course, ordering and encouraging a crime can be punished, not just actually committing the crime, or else almost every mob and gang related crime boss would remain free forever. There is no significant difference in that respect between US and EU.

I personally believe that membership in a group should never be reason for punishment, and there was an extensive debate about this in the 70s when Germany introduced such "guilty by association" laws in an attempt to fight terrorism by (mostly) the RAF.
You Snooze, You Lose: Insurers Make the Old Adage Literally True
The largish one is ~$2150 AUD in Australia...
> having to go through a bus ride with nothing to stick in my ears

For my commuting experience this is nearly a health & safety requirement, like wearing a hard hat on a building site. Not taking any chances.
Eh, this is another area where construction is a factor. Flats due to low psi are usually pinch flats, which is a clincher issue. If you can bear the expense and inconvenience of running tubulars, pinch flats are no longer a concern.
Engineered wood is truly an amazing material.

While touring a newly-constructed home a few weeks ago, I saw what appeared to be floor joists constructed out of thin, cheap particle-board. It turns out that they're made of engineered wood, and are actually stronger than an equivalent sawed wood beam.

https://imgur.com/a/3AkZblF
Within the world of go-fast or go-far riding, yeah, they do, with real measurable changes and gains up through probably $6-7.5K USD.

For most riders, going above an entry level carbon fiber bike with Shimano 105 components and alloy rims is probably overkill. That price point is between $1500 and $2500US, depending on manufacturer and other options.

If you're a larger rider, getting a better grade of carbon frame is worth it. I'm about 98kg, so I took that option. My bike was $3500US, but still with alloy rims.

Wheels matter a LOT. The next step up in the Specialized line that year was exactly the same in all respects except wheels (carbon, aero) and price ($5,000US).

The other thing you see in nicer enthusiast bikes is electronic shifting. This adds, say, $800 to $1500 to the price vs. an equivalent cable-pull bike. It sounds insane, but it's really quite nice -- and never goes out of adjustment.

Disc brakes are taking over as well, but still command a slight premium. I don't have them because I live in a flat place, but if I lived in northern California or Colorado, they'd be a no-brainer -- they work WAY better on long descents or in the wet.

Oh, and if you want titanium instead of carbon, well, the whole game STARTS much higher. The most common ti frames I see are from a company called Moots; entry level for the frame alone is about $4000US -- more than my bike was originally.

Obviously, I don't see ti bikes except under fairly well-heeled riders MOST of the time (there are exceptions) -- but I see lots of normal middle class folks on $2500-$4000 (retail) bikes. That's kind of the default in the groups I ride in. Going higher is possible, but of limited utility. Going lower means you have a bit less fun, honestly. They didn't all pay full price or buy new, but that's the grade of bike around me on most rides.
One of my worst, and final freelance web development gigs was for a foot worship events website. Not porn - this was an event website featuring a calendar of upcoming foot worship parties/nights in London. I was a bit naive at the time and didn't really know what it was all about, or really anything about the BDSM scene for that matter. Definitely not kink-shaming here - everybody should be absolutely free to express their sexuality however they see fit as long as it is consensual and does not cause any actual harm - but I honestly felt really weirded out after doing it. It didn't pay well at all, and I needed the money.

The client was really flakey (bad choice of words perhaps) and late with responses and payments. The website was nothing special but was a bit of a bore to design and code.

I think it was the final nail (again, poor choice of words) for my freelancing career, and I went to join a startup which ended up working really well for me.
Tried it based on all the positive reviews here and really didn't like it. A lot of their modes had some heavy noise distortion that distracted me more than it calmed me. I am really not sure why people would choose something like this over just scouring youtube and spotify.
Geez, is that seriously the bottom end?

I paid US$500 for my current iPhone, which is about half that price, and just about the top of what I'd be willing to pay for a device with a useful life as short as that of your average smartphone. Should I seriously expect to be coughing up 100% more to replace my current phone if it craps out?

No thanks. Those sorts of hijinks make Nokia's bananaphone look more and more attractive.
Differential GPS will get you 10cm accuracy. Getting into the mm range is a whole other thing.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Differential_GPS
If by subsidy, you're implying that the transit system is receiving freebies they don't deserve, then I'd have to disagree with you.

Transportation hubs create far more value via their impact on nearby real estate values than from the fares they collect. Asia cities correctly capture the value created by public transit by having major retail hubs above or surrounding subway stations, all of which is paying rent to the transit authority.

Even this is a generous compromise, because the benefit to real estate value really radiates outward to the entire walkable radius, it's just the immediate retail hub that could attribute most of it's value to the station.

So if anything, the problem with the US is that public transit is just a massive economy handout to private landowners, leaving just the scraps (the fares) to the transit authority.
Contracts are fine. You just can't pay with your first-born, your freedom or your private data.
It doesn't really matter whether you or I agree with that position. The point is that the GDPR doesn't agree with that position -- and that has been made explicitly in the regulation: https://www.gdpreu.org/the-regulation/key-concepts/legitimat...

Even when data processing is necessary to the controller, such legitimate interests must be weighed against “the interests or fundamental rights and freedoms of the data subject”. Should data controllers justify processing without consent based on this subparagraph, they will need to be prepared to prove legitimate interests (a higher burden) relative to the implied general interests of data subjects.

So businesses will need to argue that their interest (income) outweighs the interests of their users (not to be sold out).

Specifically, when it comes to advertising itself as a legimate interest:

Where personal data are processed for the purposes of direct marketing, the data subject should have the right to object to such processing, including profiling to the extent that it is related to such direct marketing, whether with regard to initial or further processing, at any time and free of charge. That right should be explicitly brought to the attention of the data subject and presented clearly and separately from any other information.
Funny that you got downvoted and flagged for talking sense, and yet not a single reply.
It's hard for me to imagine a person who has used Apple's AirPods preferring anything else. They are game-changing. They're the Apple product that's most delighted and surprised me since I first got an iPhone. I've owned and used other Bluetooth headphones. There's no comparison.
For free ambient background sounds, check out Noisli: https://www.noisli.com/

Not affiliated, just a fan.
It's not the same thing though. A GitHub 'fork' has a different origin than a regular branch.
There seems to be a significant ethical problem of dehumanization and predation in the tech community that must be analyzed and understood.

Here are people living in a civilized world with rules and regulations and posture as civilized human beings who function in an ethical society.

But at work they seem to be operating in neolitic wild lands engaging in increasingly invasive predatory behavior that systematically reduces the entirety of the human population going about their daily lives into objects of profit lacking agency, merely tools to be stalked and analyzed for revenue, to be prodded for value in any way possible. There is a dehumanization here with no respect of personal space, privacy and basic human dignity.

This would not be as bad if there was explicit consent and self declared transparency of the all processes in play, and commitments to ethical frameworks of operation. It's the surreptitious, misleading and often deceptive communication and behavior that betrays their willful complicity that is troubling.
Petitio principii is when the premise assumes the truth of the conclusion, but since there is no argument and no conclusion it's impossible for the statement to suffer from that fallacy.
It is still far far cheaper than a car. If a bike is your main mode of transportation and you're not super-poor, and this bike gives you joy every day, I'd say go for it.
You mention Jules Verne, but the article you linked to actually explains he wasn't "future-seeing", and gives a rational and plausible explanation for what he was doing, an explanation consistent with current scientific understanding: he read a lot, surrounded himself with people who "knew their shit" (sic) and payed attention.

None of this detracts from the literary genius of Verne, of course :)
Is Bjork expert of nature and/or technology?
John Gruber thinks Apple probably refuses to allow those cases:

"But Apple wields its MFI control in other ways too. In a Twitter thread Wednesday, Nilay Patel pointed out there has never been an MFI-certified battery case with a headphone jack. This almost certainly is not because no one thought to make one, but rather that Apple will not approve them. Apple clearly thinks external battery packs (connected to iPhones via a cable) are a better solution than cases with integrated batteries. With Lightning, they can effectively control this. If the iPhone were to switch to USB-C, I don’t think they could stop anyone from making USB-C battery cases. I do not think Apple will cede this control."

https://daringfireball.net/2018/11/third_party_usb-c_to_ligh...
Still significantly more expensive than a lot of other pretty high-end devices. Though I guess it does hit Samsung in their sweet-spot.
PhotoFunia Retro Wave image macro generator
How could you do that with a case without hugely increasing the size of the device?
> physicists have poured over the footage and ruled out every other possible explanation.

This seems unlikely, to put it mildly.
It's almost £800 in Denmark. I really do prefer iOS for smartphone, but I'd never buy an iPhone with my own money. Of cause I think a fair price for a phone is closer to $50, but that's just a reflection of my usage.
Using a Content-Security-Policy on a page with  blocks controls in Safari
By the way, we specifically designed a mechanism explicitly for mass persuasion: online advertisting. We've been working diligently to integrate it into everyone's daily experience. You're welcome, hidden AI overlord!
The analysis by Kobeissi is correct, and the claims by ProtonMail are a stretch, and sometimes they don't mean anything.

For example, from their security details page [1]:

"This means we don't have the technical ability to decrypt your messages, and as a result, we are unable to hand your data over to third parties."

This is not true for the web client, as shown by the paper and because of the inherent nature of web applications and the (incomplete) verification mechanisms we have today.

In the same page, they claim:

"As ProtonMail is outside of US and EU jurisdiction, only a court order from the Cantonal Court of Geneva or the Swiss Federal Supreme Court can compel us to release the extremely limited user information we have."

I'm not a lawyer and I don't care about the details. But they are saying that there is a way for a court to get their information. If that court cannot be used as a proxy for the US or other country I don't know, and normal users can't easily verify that claim. Only a lawyer could. But I admit, it sounds great!

The hardware security section is complete nonsense:

"Our primary datacenter is located under 1000 meters of granite rock in a heavily guarded bunker which can survive a nuclear attack. This provides an extra layer of protection by ensuring your encrypted emails are not easily accessible to any third parties. On a system level, our servers utilize fully encrypted hard disks with multiple password layers so data security is preserved even if our hardware is seized."

The nuclear bunker thing is really awesome, sounds like a lot of fun. But how does this offer extra guarantees to privacy? Does it have any windows? how secure are the doors? Also, the "multiple password layers" is nonsense, what does that even mean? Are you encrypting the same thing multiple times?

The main problem with ProtonMail and services similar to it is that they keep the concept of e-mail as we know it alive, when it should be disappearing.

ProtonMail's native mobile apps can be somewhat secure yes, but at that point, conceptually, they are the same as any other secure messaging app. But instead they are using an inferior protocol than the one being used by Signal, Wire or WhatsApp.

The claim that WhatsApp and Wire both have webapps I think is valid, every messaging service should do a better work warning users about the dangers of desktop/web-based applications. But if this is their only defense, then I think they should really need to worry about their own service and stop diverting attention.

---

[1] https://protonmail.com/security-details
Qubes OS has a significant limitation in that it isn't designed to allow anything to run in dom0, so nothing can use the GPU.
A Way Out: An Activist with an ulcer asks, “Why do nonprofits exist?”
More that people will form the wrong conclusion - vegetables are naturally prone to e. coli - because they didn't point out that thus had to come from an outside source.

No need to speculate if we've not nailed which source, but we can _highlight_ the current lack of actionable info rather than let people assume one.