HNHacker News
TopNewBestAskShowJobs

8372049

366 karma · joined August 31, 2021

submissionscomments
8372049··on The Fennel Programming Language
Lua isn't made for embedded devices, it's made to be embedded into other programs and systems. It is widely used as a scripting language in games. There's even APT malware that has used Lua as a scripting language.
8372049··on In ‘The Book Against Death,’ Elias Canetti rants against mortality
> I would think that if someone gave me a wearable FM radio that I could turn on/off at will, I would think that I certainly would accept that.

In this way it is an apt analogy, since many deaf get CI. The implant process removes any residual hearing, so the moment they turn it off everything is completely quiet. It's nowhere near a fully qualified hearing, however, so it's useful as a supplement to sign language, not as a replacement.

I don't know of a good analogy for it, but sign language obviously also carries with it some advantages and disadvantages that vocal communication does not. You need a flashlight to talk in darkness, but you can talk (sign) as much as you want in a library, through a soundprood window or in a noisy environment.

The conversation dynamics are also completely different. Often everyone will sit in a big circle with multiple conversations going on at once, and you can "opt in" to the one you want by watching whoever is speaking.

8372049··on In ‘The Book Against Death,’ Elias Canetti rants against mortality
> Deaf people not considering it as a disability is a coping mechanism.

No, it's not, and this claim just shows your ignorance and prejudice.

> If there was a cure for deafness, nearly all deaf people would take it

This is pure conjecture, and I frankly think you are wrong.

> almost no one intentionally seeks to become deaf

Do you genuinely not understand that this has more to do with culture, language, habits and the familiar, not to mention ignorance of what it means to be deaf/Deaf, than an accurate judgment of the qualities of hearing vs. silence?

8372049··on In ‘The Book Against Death,’ Elias Canetti rants against mortality
Life in itself is worthless. The only reason why life is valuable is because it is a canvas, a vessel through which you can find happiness, meaning and so on.

This means that if you have a life that isn't worth living, you are not at risk of losing anything of value, and so the potential loss is still bounded. Sure, there is the potential that life can change in the future, but whether you have 10, 100 or 1000 years left of potential life, you don't really care much about that if your life is an agonizing living hell.

Don't ask me how I know.

8372049··on In ‘The Book Against Death,’ Elias Canetti rants against mortality
> accessing the entire repository of human knowledge

I know this is a common trope, but just think about how far it is from the truth. And not just because of business secrets, classified information, privacy rules and so on—think of the signal to noise ratio, the vast quantities of "fake news", propaganda, misconceptions, not to mention how hard it is to find reliable and detailed information about niche stuff. Information is vastly more accessible than ever before, but we still have a very long way to go.

8372049··on In ‘The Book Against Death,’ Elias Canetti rants against mortality
The primary reason the Deaf community "hates on hearing aids" is mostly because it comes at the expense of sign language.

If you're deaf and live in a Deaf community (i.e. with sign language), you will function normally in virtually every way. If you're deaf and live in a hearing community with hearing aids, you'll be forever impaired. With hearing aids and/or CI you will still be hard of hearing, you will still struggle with group conversations, at the beach or in a swimming pool, in noisy environments and so on.

Secondly, the Deaf community strongly objects to the notion that lack of hearing is a handicap and instead consider it a cultural difference. Somehow, when (we) hearing people think of the deaf we consider it a disability to e.g. have to use a vibrating wakeup alarm, but we don't consider our own inability to fall asleep in a noisy place a disability.

(For reference, deaf=impaired hearing, Deaf=sign language user)

8372049··on Breakthrough a step toward revealing hidden structure of prime numbers
If we're going to extremes like that, airgapped networks aren't truly safe either
8372049··on User returns after 100k-hours ban to continue conversation that got them banned
The joke is that he is pretending to be stuck in time 11 years ago, while we in 2024 know perfectly well what actually happened in 2016.
8372049··on User returns after 100k-hours ban to continue conversation that got them banned
I think that the time between ban and new post, which is 100,018 hours, was less than the other user's claim about how long 100,000 hours is.

In other words, if 100,018 = x, then 100,000 can't be greater than x.

8372049··on What is the significance of the character "j" at the end of a Roman Numeral? (2013)
This applies to the entire EU/EEA, too.
8372049··on What is the significance of the character "j" at the end of a Roman Numeral? (2013)
Getting a prescription for 90 pills instead of 100 would presumably raise suspicion.
8372049··on Letsencrypt Supports Wildcard Certificates
On an airgapped network (if possible)
8372049··on Show HN: Resurrecting a dead Dune RTS game
Calling it an RTS is a stretch. It's more of a 4X game. It has a low pace and combat isn't particularly important.
8372049··on Zed on Linux Is Here
And dark mode! And tabs! I love notepad.exe of the future. What a time to be alive
8372049··on SimSig: Railway Signalling Simulations
Nowadays you can do virtual ATC work in VATSIM and IVAO, controlling airspace for flight sim players.
8372049··on SimSig: Railway Signalling Simulations
Or OpenTTD

https://www.openttd.org

8372049··on The Programmers' Identity Crisis: how do we use our powers for 'good'?
> no killing people with my code

Talked to some CNE boys about that many years ago. They were remarkably conscious about it. They took specific steps and deliberate care to avoid that some poor sysadmin in their target country would be thrown in jail or worse for their access. Sounded almost like the technical equivalent of WW2 resistance fighters in France, Norway etc., using British uniforms to avoid reprisals against the civpop.

8372049··on Pattern of brain damage is pervasive in Navy SEALs who died by suicide
> Navy SEAL who's entire job description revolves around being trained to deliver rapid and precise attacks under extreme pressure

You'd be surprised how much time SOFs im general spend lying in a bush, peeing on bottles and radioing in updates. Although US SOFs may have been doing it less than others during GWOT. Not everything is DA.

(That doesn't change your general point though, and SOF training is extremely rigorous and demanding and does include a lot of shooting. But not all day every day.)

8372049··on Pattern of brain damage is pervasive in Navy SEALs who died by suicide
The FN Minimi (M249) fires 5.56. The others fire 7.62, not 7.52.
8372049··on Pattern of brain damage is pervasive in Navy SEALs who died by suicide
> The US military has pretty rarely used shoulder fired weapons, since they very rarely have to worry about tanks or aircraft. SEALs in particular wouldn't be doing that.

Do you know that, or are you thinking "these are AT weapons so they wouldn't be used"?

I haven't worked with US forces on a tactical level, but I have served in Afghanistan with my own country's SOFs. We used M72s extensively, even though we never engaged any armor.

I wasn't around for this picture, but it illustrates the point:

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/BwDn4ryCEAApiYS.jpg:large

8372049··on Weekend projects: getting silly with C
> if they didn’t use the syntax if (1==x) rather than if (x==1). The former will not compile if you accidentally use variable assignment instead of equality operator

No need for Yoda notation. clang will warn of this by default and gcc will do so if you compile with -Wall, which should also be your default.

8372049··on Imhex: A hex editor for reverse engineers
This applies to the entire EEA, fortunately!
8372049··on Batteries as a Military Enabler
Don't know about JTRS specifically, but backpack type radios and their batteries are very heavy, so it's plausible. Weight is indeed a big issue for infantry, SOF, etc.
8372049··on Batteries as a Military Enabler
In absolute numbers, the US is the #1, but immigrants as percentage of population has the US as #65 (Canada #41).

Still way higher than Russia or China. While a little over 15 % of the US population are immigrants (defined as not born in the country), only 0.07 % of the Chinese population are immigrants. Roughly 7 % of Russian population is immigrants.

Source: https://worldpopulationreview.com/country-rankings/immigrati...

8372049··on Batteries as a Military Enabler
Let's also not forget that only 538 people have actual voting rights in US presidential elections. It's mostly a formality, but one of many flaws in the US democracy.
8372049··on Start presentations on the second slide
Rule of thumb for Youtube videos is to hit 3 to get to where the video actually starts.

Obviously not meant to be taken literally, but surprisingly often could be.

8372049··on Microsoft AI spying scandal: time to rethink privacy standards
> Calling this espionage is just a misuse of language because espionage is done with malicious and intent and without knowledge of the subject.

State-based intelligence is not "malicious", and so you are misusing language yourself. State-based intelligence can be roughly divided into three sectors: Civilian, military and counter-terrorism. In peacetime, strategic civilian intelligence is by far the biggest, and is used to back trade agreements, various political decisions and so on. It's simply about preserving the country's interests.

With "malicious" out of the way: Most technological espionage is absolutely done with intent and without the knowledge or at least informed understanding of most subjects.

8372049··on Microsoft AI spying scandal: time to rethink privacy standards
Well, there's the EU...
8372049··on Microsoft AI spying scandal: time to rethink privacy standards
Yes, but it's also more nuanced than that. Russia is actively feeding these trends to undermine and destabilize western countries, for example. The internet is a tool for this as much as a cause of it.
8372049··on Microsoft AI spying scandal: time to rethink privacy standards
Occam's razor is probably a good match for this story.
Page 1 of 7Next →