Hacker News Reader

MrZongle2on Microsoft makes Zork open-source

The cynic in me believes that this only took place after numerous meetings during which the question "is there any way we can still make money from this" was repeatedly answered with "no".

MrZongle2on Final report on Alaska Airlines Flight 1282 in-flight exit door plug separation

Well done. No notes.

MrZongle2on Curtis Yarvin's Plot Against America

benevolent, competent dictator

Choose one.

MrZongle2on Venezuela's Supreme Court certifies Maduro's claims he won presidential election

Interesting. In the past few years, I heard about how expanding the US Supreme Court was a reasonable approach to take. I wonder if proponents were aware of this case in Venezuela.

MrZongle2on FCC votes to restore net neutrality rules

Funny how they seem to rack up most of these high-profile accomplishments in election years....

MrZongle2on FCC votes to restore net neutrality rules

Exactly this.

Regardless of the winners of said election, expect a return to business as usual afterward.

MrZongle2on How US intelligence agencies hid their most shameful experiments

That we know of.

MrZongle2on Is Babylon 5 secretly the most influential TV show of the past 25 years? (2021)

No. But certainly one of the best science fiction series in the last 25 years.

MrZongle2on Evernote to be acquired by Bending Spoons

I switched to Joplin a couple of years back and don't regret the move. Was able to import all my Evernote stuff as well, which was one deciding factor.

MrZongle2on Harrison Bergeron (1961)

That's an unnecessary large brush. There are 300 million of us. Are we all the same?

MrZongle2on Congress' push to regulate Big Tech is fizzling out

"...we should probably do something, but in terms of priority which everyone here should understand, it's lower on the list"

Spoiler alert: nothing on the list will get addressed. Business as usual for DC.

MrZongle2on I stopped cosmonauts from carrying guns (2014)

Go read up on the Soviet Almaz station from the 1970s, and reconcile that with the Space Force from the 2020s.

MrZongle2on I stopped cosmonauts from carrying guns (2014)

Go read up on the Almaz.

The Soviets mounted a 23mm cannon on one of their early stations.

Long before the Space Force.

MrZongle2on FTC acts against private equity firm’s acquisition of veterinary clinics

And that is, of course, to put kittens to sleep.

(I joke, your point is well taken)

MrZongle2on The case for expanding rather than eliminating gifted education programs (2021)

It's always worse in (US) election years, and I think it's inevitable for all online discussion sites. When people conflate their identity with their political beliefs, everything becomes political.

That said, HN has historically done a very good job in policing this through the vigilance of its admin team. I wouldn't be surprised if this discussion pales in comparison to the stuff they've axed.

MrZongle2on How can I get my boyfriend to stop digging his tunnel?

Gnomes, if you're on a budget.

But elves? That's just nonsense.

MrZongle2on Swapping two Numbers without Temporary Variables

The important takeaway from the article:

"Please never use this in any production code. The less we have to think about a piece of code, the better it is. It's a fun thought experiment nevertheless!"

MrZongle2on OneWeb will resume satellite launches with SpaceX as the launch provider

"...or whatever dictator follows him."

This phrase saddens me, but it seems the most likely outcome.

When the power brokers in Moscow acknowledge that Putin has become a liability, they'll replace him so they can return to the kleptocratic status quo.

I highly doubt there will be a popular uprising against him, which at least would allow for a chance for democratic progress.

MrZongle2on US Senate votes unanimously to make daylight savings time permanent

I can understand the concern of other posters about going to DST as opposed to standard time... but at this point, I just want the switching to end. It is such an unnecessary disruption and fixing it seems so trivial.

MrZongle2on IRS Will Soon Require Selfies for Online Access

And millions of Americans will gleefully comply, "because of the convenience".

MrZongle2on Judge orders FDA to hasten FOIA release of Pfizer vaccine docs

Wait, how is anybody using technical documentation to support their position a bad thing? As opposed, say, to simply faith?

Doesn't this mean that such positions can be more readily confirmed or rejected, based upon the validity of the source material?

MrZongle2on Progressive Caucus’ Endorsement of 32-Hour Workweek Act

A 40-hour workweek doesn't bother me.

Shitty healthcare and the rising cost of everything, does.

MrZongle2on How to build a second brain as a software developer

I was disappointed that Joplin (https://joplinapp.org/) wasn't included in the app list.

Having used both Evernote and OneNote, I've found Joplin to be a better choice, especially when I'm bouncing between platforms. It doesn't lock you to a particular ecosystem or cloud service, and the open source app is free for use.

For what it's worth, I'm not affiliated with Joplin, I'm just a user.

MrZongle2on New Zealand council ends contract with wizard after 23 years of service

The real head-scratcher is how, up until now, paying $16,000 a year to a cosplayer was considered a responsible use of taxpayer funds.

MrZongle2on The Facebook whistleblower is heroic and terribly wrong

You're not the only one. I have absolutely no proof to counter taking everything at face value. But my gut tells me that there's something not quite right with this whole thing, and I find it unsettling. I'm not willing to wave the flag for either the whistleblower or Facebook at the moment.

MrZongle2on Telling the Bees

Say what you want about bees; they know how to keep a secret.

MrZongle2on John Stossel sues Facebook for allegedly defaming him with fact-check

It's soft censorship with extra steps.

MrZongle2on Census Bureau’s Survey Shows Significant Increase in Homeschooling Rates

We homeschooled our two kids through their middle-school years, after it was clear that the supposedly superior charter middle school in the district was failing.

We found local homeschooling groups and it turned out that the kids ended up with more socialization than when they were in traditional school. There were more field trips, PE activities, band (yes, there was a full bad of homeschooled kids) etc. -- partially because with an unparalleled student-to-teacher ratio, a day's worth of lessons can be completed in a much shorter time.

Everyone's mileage may vary, of course, but homeschooling doesn't mean condemning your kid to a shut-in, anti-social experience by any means.

MrZongle2on Three Stanford professors on the sensible regulation of Big Tech

In the United States, people were denied services and jobs for being not visibly anti-communist enough.

In the early 1970s? I'd like to see some citations of that.

MrZongle2on My university sacrificed ideas for ideology, so today I quit

There's nothing "liberal" or "progressive" about that kind of activity, though.

I'd choose another term, but those seem to all be used (and abused) by those kind of people when they talk about their ideological opponents.