Debug_Overload

Special pleading is a hell of a drug.

I'm a bit surprised that this username wasn't already taken.

I was actually using their free tier for awhile (the Pro version didn't have any extra feature that I personally needed anyway). But when they pulled this bullshit counting on how useless the free tier will be and basically forcing the upgrade, I replaced them in like 5 minutes.

The linked DNI report [PDF]: https://www.odni.gov/files/ODNI/documents/assessments/Assess...

Lol. But the author is also using Fathom on that same site, not sure I understand the need for both The Beast and Fathom.

Tools like this also make me uncomfortable and I said as much last time an issue like this was discussed [1].

But I don't think the "it can be abused" argument is compelling. Most of the tools we have today can and have been abused. As you point out, we know bad actors use infosec tools and run the same POCs that researchers produce when they find new exploits and vulnerabilities (after disclosure); they check the same CVEs and read the same papers. But this information has to be released and these tools have to be out in the open. Security through obscurity is a disaster.

Besides the other intended goals of these tools, I am hoping they will raise awareness and get many people to realize how easy it is to identify and deanonymize them online.

[1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26082504

The narrating is really annoying. Just let the guy talk, goddamn.

You can tell it's very insightful because OP felt the need to repost it so the wisdom doesn't go to waste.

> Simply put, they're power hungry online weirdos that just want to be "in charge" of a community.

It's funny, I actually think that this is true for most of the mods we see online, be it Reddit, SO and the whole SE network, or any other forum.

Comparing SO to Yahoo! Answers is a bit much, though.

I'm not sure how many times this needs repeating, but Snap wasn't an "alternative" to Flatpak; the latter didn't even exist when the former was created. Many people arguing about this issue don't seem to get this.

Thank you guys for the great work! VLC is just great.

PR damage control > actual damage control and being honest.

Almost every SEO "guru" and "expert" is a glorified snake oil salesman. I look at that whole industry the same way I look at the traditional woo-woo peddlers.

I've been using it for the last few weeks, and it's been pretty good so far. It doesn't suspend music tabs when they're not playing (which TGS did automatically), but nothing much to complain about.

Mentioning the author deleted it out of fear and then posting his Twitter handle might not be a great combination here.

Also, the term "sophisticated" is almost meaningless here, and that's usually the case when talking about these kinds of issues. Pretty straightforward Nigerian prince style scam is now "sophisticated" phishing attack.

We already had enough issues in infosec with companies claiming they're all attacked by "APT" and "state-sponsored actor". It just seems an easy way to dodge embarrassment and looking silly.

Of course, there are real cases where the person/company may actually be a victim of a sophisticated phishing attack (or APT/state-sponsored attack, etc) but the terms lose their weight when they are being thrown around like this.

The book is amazing! The technical analysis by Symantec [1] also makes for a very good complementary read.

[1] [PDF] https://www.wired.com/images_blogs/threatlevel/2010/11/w32_s...

This is just not realistic, and not how the world works. "Oh, you expect me to be available on the app we used to communicate regularly and most people in our circle use? Too bad, I just dumped it and got on this new app, so you guys better install it just to have the privilege to communicate with me."

Umm, no. I use both WhatsApp and Signal (way before this hysteria began) but the "just leave" mentality isn't realistic. Most people don't care about this stuff enough to install a new app and start using it. Even for people who will join it, it takes time. The network effect is still there.

Being on HN too much and/or having social circles full of people who think like you misleads people.

Taking into account anything conspiracy nutjobs have to say about this stuff is an exercise in futility. They will not not find another wild excuse to declare conspiracy.

That was awesome. Security is often an afterthought for many companies. Anyway, it's good that they fixed it in the end.

> The majority of the accounts following him have 0 posts, very low amount of followers and follow thousands of other people.

There's also the issue of "follower farmers". Basically, some spam accounts start following tens of thousands of people hoping at least some will check their profiles, maybe follow them back or click on their spam.

I noticed this mostly on Twitter, and after some digging, it turns out to be a common tactic used by spammer bots (or umm, "marketting teams"). I don't know how common that issue is on Instagram though but it could be same.

I think having a good introduction before reading the big books suggested here is a good idea. For an introductory book, Think: A Compelling Introduction to Philosophy is pretty good. It's short, and covers the important topics and how philosophers thought about them. You can then move on to reading the classics.

r/askscience might be the closest one in terms of strict moderation and not tolerating off-topic/joke/anecdotal (or otherwise unscientific, obviously) stuff; you'll mostly find high-quality answers submitted by the verified panelists of the sub.

> This website is using a security service to protect itself from online attacks.

Oh, boy. This early? The link is on HN for less than an hour and the site already panicked.

The write-up was great, actually. The whole point of sharing the article is to read about the process and the technical details, I don't know why people insist on these cheap TL;DRs.

Regardless of whether the argument of the commenter is valid or not, appeal to authority isn't very compelling.

For me, it's Dark Reader. I can't browse the web without it.

> Another contributing factor is the 'appalling' UI

This was actually my only quibble with HN. I love the simplicity and the fact that HN doesn't suffer from the "obesity" that plagues modern websites, but I felt it could use some features.

For instance, the ability to filter it by time (it does have that filter already for days, months and so on, but not hours), or have an official app for the site could be awesome. Or a notification system. I already solved the first two of these issues by using 3rd party solutions (hckrnews.com and Materialistic) but supporting them officially would be great. I didn't find a solution for the 3rd issue, though; at least not one that I felt was useful.

But others don't feel the same way. When I googled around to see why these issues weren't addressed, the consensus seemed to be that there's no need for it for one reason or another. Oh, well. Other benefits of HN outweigh these minor issues, though. So overall, not that big of a deal for me.

> You have to at least click on the thing to up vote it or not.

I always thought this was a good idea. I've seen exactly one platform try it (Quora) and they dropped it for some reason. Their version was especially good because you had to read the full answer to even see the vote buttons.

Other forums implement some other form of quality control that's based on the user's reputation but I think this is better, as it can be enforced on every post, regardless of the user's reputation.

> I wrote the "num command" tool entirely in gawk

That's pretty cool! It's really packed with features.