Hacker News Reader

NovemberWeston Why You Don't “Fucking Love Science”

My ex was career military. People in the military bitch constantly about the "low pay" while oblivious to the dollar value of a long list of benefits. I wonder how those high civilian salaries compare to the academic salaries if you figure out benefits. I am not seeing any reason to believe this is an apples to apples comparison.

NovemberWeston 5.3-magnitude earthquake hits Japan's Fukushima

Wow, really? These questions are like criticism of people who live in flood zones. Yeah, we should all avoid water like the plague. We don't need it to drink or grow crops or foster basic transportation. Have you ever looked at a map of "disasters"? You cannot escape them. It is a case of pick your poison. Which type of risk scares you less?

Japan is a densely populated, urbanized, modern country. It requires substantial electricity. That electricity has to come from somewhere.

NovemberWeston TrueVault – HIPAA compliant data storage

If the data is stored on their device and you have zero access to it, I do not see any problem. Individuals have the right to do as they see fit with their own PHI.

Background: I paid insurance claims for over five years. Thus, I received HIPAA training annually. Feel free to email me.

NovemberWeston Ask HN: Help? Despite years of trying, I cannot learn to program.

I would suggest you get assessed for a learning disability. The pattern you describe is extremely typical for someone who is 2xE -- I.e. both bright and learning disabled. Identifying and addressing a previously undiagnosed disability is typically life changing in the most wonderful way.

For this specific issue, I suggest you go to programmer meet-ups and make friends in person. Find someone you hit off with. Ask them to do a little hand holding and explaining. You might have to try this a few times before you find someone that clicks with you in the right way. Once you get over that initial hump, you will likely be fine.

NovemberWeston My Friends and I Bought an Island

A quick google suggests micro hydro can be done for as little as $1k. And once yiu have your own power plant, you won't have monthly electric bills. Here is some info: http://www.alternative-energy-news.info/micro-hydro-power-pr...

Poverty is often very expensive and often involves the cheapest upfront cost but frequently leads to high lifetime costs. So I think your argument is ridiculous. Energy independence is often more about mindset and lifestyle choices than budget. I hsbe never been in a position to pursue it, but I never viewed that as being about dollar cost per se.

NovemberWeston How to fake courage

My default personality is very risk averse. I do lots of things that look crazy to other people. Different knowledge base, different goals, basically.

I agree with the first point of setting a clear goal so you know what you are actually trying to accomplish.

Also, learn about statistics. Most folks make logical errors when they "bet." Flipping a coin, the odds are always about 50/50, no matter what the last flip or last ten flips were. But people tend to think "The last three were heads, so we are overdue for tails." Nope. It is still about 50/50 (with, I think, a slight skew towards heads).

Get the facts or hard data. Be very skeptical about data that comes from iffy sources or processes. Trying to decide on hazy info sucks so bad. Good info leads to better decisions. "Garbage in, garbage out."

Get a sounding board, preferably one who has different strengths and weaknesses from you, not a "yes man" and not someone biased in the same way you are. My oldest son is very opposite me in some important ways. When we both vome yo the,same conclusion from very different directions it tends to be a very sound decision.

Anyway, real work calls or I could possibly drone on.

NovemberWeston Ask HN: What forums/communities do you frequent aside from HN?

Funny, I have spent years trying to escape the small town/small-minded feel of most online communities. I favor larger sites these days, where there is somewhat less entrapment or entrenchment due to personal politicking.

That being said, I currently spend more time on MetaFilter than on HN. I sometimes don't show up here for months at a time. As an openly female member, I have found this boys club in many ways less than welcoming. Possibly not a good thing to admit.

NovemberWeston Starting a Company Can Turn You into a Psychopath

My understanding is this is the direction of flow. My oldest son has such traits. I have told him since he was little that he needs to plan on starting a company, he will never make a good employee. I have seen crime shows indicate serial killers are more likely to be self employed, in part because it gives them more freedom to cover their tracks, to come and go as they please.

NovemberWeston The Five Year Itch

Thank you for the upvote and have one in return, but, oh, boy, are you opening up a can of worms that I am sure all of hacker news does not want to get into.

In a nutshell, the military was my ex's dream job that he thought I would not support. He pursued it anyway. (Reality: I supported it. It was his mother who was against it.) He liked to play the martyr card and act like deploying was some huge personal sacrifice for the good of the family -- while telling me I could not go off to college as it would destroy the marriage -- but it absolutely was not true. He loved that shit and taking care of his family was not a super high priority of his.

Second, most heterosexual relationships go (physically) where he wants to go/where his career takes him. That is the norm. That is not some aberration on the part of the OP.* It is part of why it has been relatively easy post divorce for me to keep telling attractive men that I found hot to take a fucking hike. I want a life. I am not interested in moving back in to some fucking gilded cage. I know the stats. Most marriages are strongly skewed towards supporting male privilege at female expense. Men and women alike are typically oblivious to the degree that this is true, so I get a lot of hatred when I start talking about such things.

Anyway, that's the short version. I have done lots of reading over the years related to such issues, so I know for a fact it is not peculiar to my (former) marriage. We can just agree to disagree here and not pursue some ugly bloodbath that will only make me a lightening rod for controversy, a role I loathe.

Have a great day.

* Edit: Which the OP states he did not do anyway, so let's not give me shit over that. It suggests he's less of a selfish asshole than your average guy, possibly not a good observation to make in a predominantly male forum, exactly why I don't really want to open this can of giant, writhing worms. Ugh.

NovemberWeston I'm Gen Y, and I Don't Feel Special or Entitled, Just Poor

I wasn't passing judgement on you. This being said, fuck you for abusing me on the basis of information you hadn't yet shared.

It is noted here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5908105 & on my blog etc. Not exactly a secret.

NovemberWeston I'm Gen Y, and I Don't Feel Special or Entitled, Just Poor

On the one hand, it would take a miracle or three. On the other, things have been very, very slowly improving. I cannot tell if things are about to crash and burn or finally start coming together.

I am sorry you suffered. Thank you for the well wishes.

NovemberWeston The Five Year Itch

As a former mitary wife, I am kind of personally offended that this is the top voted comment here. Being rooted in place like a plant is not the only means to raise healthy, secure kids. Ugh. I really wish this were downvoted to hell. I am so annoyed at feeling compelled to reply to this shit.

NovemberWeston I'm Gen Y, and I Don't Feel Special or Entitled, Just Poor

I am currently homeless. So, like, fuck you.

NovemberWeston I'm Gen Y, and I Don't Feel Special or Entitled, Just Poor

I am not gen Y. I also don't feel special or entitled, just poor.

NovemberWeston My Friends and I Bought an Island

Then hydro, which is very do-able on a small scale. Do I seriously need to list all possible options here?

NovemberWeston Stop Forcing Your Kids To Learn Musical Instruments

I can't get this to open. I will note there is a known correlation between teaching classical music and math ability. Also, not everything worthwhile in life is about a paycheck.

NovemberWeston The Norwegian prison where inmates are treated like people

Surgeons cut on you in cold blood. I could not be a surgeon. Having a particular trait is not inherently evil nor inherently maladjusted. Geez.

NovemberWeston My Friends and I Bought an Island

Oh, you cannot be serious. Generator. Wind power. Solar. This is increasingly easy to provide on a small scale in the middle of nowhere.

NovemberWeston Suggest HN: Good lifestyle type business

Look, I am probably an idiot, but I simply do not see how you would determine in advance who might want to pay you later for your upfront cost of keeping their data. But, hey, people do stupid shit all the time. I certainly do. I am just wondering out loud what the business model is here. I do not see a viable business here. But since I am not exactly rolling in dough, maybe that is just my own stupidity. Regardless, my suggestion is that there needs to be a payoff for doing this and if you are going to get someone else to seriously consider putting their time, money and effort into your off the cuff suggestion, it might help to point out the stupidly obvious means to rake in the dough with it.

Best of luck.

NovemberWeston The Norwegian prison where inmates are treated like people

Speeding fee or speeding tax or speeding fine is kind of a matter of semantics. Some people would view it exactly that way. I knew a doctor who got three speeding tickets in one month and thus had to go traffic school, which he viewed as ridicilously stupid stuff. He had nothing but contempt for the entire thing, tickets, class, all of it. So I guess you and I shall continue to disagree.

Thanks for the discussion.

NovemberWeston Suggest HN: Good lifestyle type business

And where is the money in backing up sites from other hosts? I don't really see it.

NovemberWeston The Norwegian prison where inmates are treated like people

I don't think speeding fines are really punishment. It is a cost that you are not willing to pay without good reason. If you had sufficient reason to be in a rush, you might decide it was an acceptable cost. But the occasional fine doesn't really have pain and suffering attached, like loss of your license, damage to your reputation, jail time, etc.

Cost benefit analysis makes sense. "I am going to hurt you and make you suffer" rarely does. There are exceptions but it is generally a desperate ploy, not one focused on a goal. It is generally an admission that we don't know how to accomplish a civilized environment. We don't know how to design an effective society. We are too stupid, collectively, as Americans to achieve civil solutions. So we are sfimply going to hurt you.

NovemberWeston The Norwegian prison where inmates are treated like people

I don't really know how to effectively comment on this. I raised a son for whom punishment would absolutely not have worked. I know there is a place for it in the world but most of the time it comes from a place of a) spite and b) not knowing how to get good results. Those are usually poor reasons to do a thing.

NovemberWeston The Norwegian prison where inmates are treated like people

Off the top of my head: Jail is local and generally short term. Prison is regional and longer sentences. Penitentiary...I think federal (national rather than state level) and higher security.

NovemberWeston CDC Threat Report: ‘We Will Soon Be in a Post-Antibiotic Era’

Yay. This is what our current healthcare system is giving us. And it is impossible to talk about alternatives. You morons are going to die of hubris. Basically.

NovemberWeston The Norwegian prison where inmates are treated like people

Well, America still doesn't deal with non-inmate populations humanely, so we have quite a ways to go.

NovemberWeston Ask HN: How to securely and safely blow the whistle?

Whistleblowing is never safe. It is always risky. And I am truly baffled why you thought this Ask would get any serious traction on HN.

NovemberWeston Only the Lonely

I don't deal well with being alone, but I am also an extrovert. Loneliness and being alone are very much different things. I was much, much, much lonelier in a marriage where love had died than since my divorce, though I was romantically "alone" a long time (however, my sons still live with me so I have rarely been literally alone).

NovemberWeston Ask HN: How do you re-invent yourself?

I write about that endlessly on my blog. (Link in profile if you care.) I usually manage to post daily, sometimes twice daily. I can't possibly reduce that ongoing process to an off the cuff comment on HN.

Best of luck.

NovemberWeston No One Is Innocent

Anecdata: I know someone who, as a kid, picked up a package from the street addressed to someone else and ended up with a (criminal) record that created problems for them in early adulthood. I did not know them at the time of the incident, so details are sparse.

Messing with the mail is a serious offense and charges related to it do apparently sometimes get out of hand.