Hacker News Reader

Avoiding war is never a waste and overall technological progress was faster during the Cold War..

737minon After criticism, Apple to only seek abuse images flagged in multiple nations

China will easily get multiple countries to flag content as problematic. Values are not reflected in UN votes, either.

737minon The Cost of Undoing the Travel Ban

The author’s analysis and the topic can - and should be debated - but this is a great exposition of potential for unintended consequences in policy-making

737minon Mahatma Gandhi's killer venerated as Hindu nationalism resurges in India

Thank you for the link & the warning!

737minon NSA Recommends How Enterprises Can Securely Adopt Encrypted DNS

Exactly right. Many security problems are due to forgoing the simple things in favor of exotic.

737minon Twitter shuts down account of Sci-Hub

This really seems like an overreaction that is overshadowed by weightier events. Hope they reconsider..

737minon Intel CEO Bob Swan to step down, VMware CEO Pat Gelsinger to replace him

Great to see a technologist back in charge of Intel. This was a company that was founded and CEO’ed by top-tier engineering elite. AMD’s CEO is an MIT PhD with long track record of technical achievement earlier in her career. Intel needs the same.

737minon Addressing the threat from investments that finance CCP military (2020)

That claim has very little evidence. And the imcoming administration has been very clear om China being the #1 adversary already.

737minon Lifting Self-Imposed Restrictions on the U.S.-Taiwan Relationship

Good analysis

737minon James Gunn (1923-2020)

It is so wonderful he was able to keep working til his last days at 97 years old.

737minon Stop Blaming Foreigners

Sorry, trouble parsing, are you saying the Solarwinds breach is not the work of one of those adversaries?

737minon Being good at coding competitions correlates negatively with job performance

Cool headline but not really data or a serious article. Obviously it’s a mix of factors, but some of the best I know are also very good at coding interviews, contests, etc.

737minon MDMA-assisted couples therapy investigated in pilot trial

Have you known anyone who died from MDMA overdose? I have - a very special human. It can happen. So please be careful.

737minon Suspected Chinese spy targeted California politicians

This needs to be upvoted & discussed, possibly people here have even more details to report..

737minon Iran’s Top Nuclear Scientist Killed in Attack

Are you aware of what Iran has been up to in the region? Lebanon, Syria, Yemen, Iraq, Gaza..

737minon DEA Pursues Vast Expansion of Patient Surveillance

If the DEA feels it needs all this to find more opiate addicts, they could save time & money by walking the streets of San Francisco instead.

The privacy implications are horrifying.

737minon Why I Left IBM to Work on CockroachDB

There are plenty of unpleasant names in tech. I don’t think this is going to make a difference.

737minon China / Hong Kong issue arrest warrant for US citizen

Better link since old one stopped working

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/hong-kong-issues-arrest-w...

737minon UCDavis researcher, suspected spying, hiding in consulate now in custody

Not all research results in a publication, especially if the postdoc’s goal is espionage instead of academic credibility..

737minon We Don’t Need to Work So Much (2015)

Here’s an observation: employees, companies & countries that are winning tend to work harder. Those that are merely coasting or declining - eg in a situation where there is nothing to win with more effort - work less hard.

Elon Musk - “no one changes the world working 40 hr weeks” - is trying to win in a global competition. Your uncle Bob who is Director of QA at Oracle? Probably not playing to win.

Countries like Japan or SKorea or China are trying to win. US is trying to win. Denmark or Italy are no longer trying to win a world-wide competition.

No one has shown that individuals, companies or countries can wim while working less than the competition.

737minon Public asked to report receipt of any unsolicited packages of seeds

https://www.defenseone.com/ideas/2019/08/chinas-military-pur...

Some possibly biased but interesting references on Chinese government efforts in this area.

737minon UCDavis researcher, suspected spying, hiding in consulate now in custody

Exactly- it’s unclear why this is not reported..

737minon Chinese researcher w. link to military in hiding in consulate in San Francisco

It’s real, SyneRyder got the right link, also on SFgate, etc

737minon Chinese researcher w. link to military in hiding in consulate in San Francisco

Thank you, added it above but couldn’t edit

737minon Chinese researcher w. link to military in hiding in consulate in San Francisco

Working link - sorry about that - https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/world/2020/07/23/chinese... Thanks SyneRider!

737minon My Enlightenment Fanaticism

This topic and post needs more attention. The comments so far show how badly this dialog is needed here on HN, and elsewhere.

Scott Aaronson is smart, left-of-center and thoughtful. It’s well worth reading

737minon Bonhomme Richard, fate uncertain, would be one of largest ships Navy has lost

Wow; quite the downvotes for even thinking it could be sabotage? the USN investigators will consider it as a possibility, even if unlikely.

737minon Bonhomme Richard, fate uncertain, would be one of largest ships Navy has lost

Do we know if this was possibly not an accident, but a hostile act by one of our adversaries? Taking one of the 8 USNavy’d mini-carriers without a fight is certainly something China dreams about...

737minon Censoring Ray Bradbury

Ray Bradbury had an astounding ability to envision the future. No need to agree with every position to appreciate the genius.

737minon Hong Kong: books by pro-democracy activists disappear from library shelves

It is special in the same way as other cases of smaller, more free places being taken over by stronger, less free regimes. US and “the West” supporting freedom and civil rights in such circumstances is both the right thing to do and the usual policy. The fact that oppression of Hong Kong (in violation of agreements, btw) not more of an issue for the US public is the only special thing here - it should be.