Hacker News Reader

aljoneson Why American Elections are Flawed, and How to Fix Them

On July 19, 2010, Shirley Sherrod was fired from her appointed position as Georgia State Director of Rural Development for the United States Department of Agriculture.[1][2] Her firing was an administration reaction to media reports on video excerpts from her address to an event of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People in March 2010 and commentary posted by conservative blogger Andrew Breitbart on his website.[3] Based on these excerpts, the NAACP condemned Sherrod's remarks as racist and U.S. government officials called on the official to resign. But, after a longer version of her address was reviewed and her remarks were understood to be about the importance of overcoming personal prejudices, the NAACP and White House officials apologized. In addition, United States Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack apologized for the firing and offered Sherrod a new position.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Firing_of_Shirley_Sherrod

aljoneson Shame on Y Combinator

pg: Several of those companies send people to Demo Day, and when I saw the list I thought: we should stop inviting them. So yes, we'll remove anyone from those companies from the Demo Day invite list.

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3382765

aljoneson Ecuador Says It Still Backs Assange, but WikiLeaks Says It Cut His Internet

I don't think him providing a reason for not releasing the documents makes what I said misleading. You find his explanation to be reasonable? I do not. Sometimes he is an editor and sometimes not. Why is he even comparing these things to what comes out of his mouth? Which side of his mouth? As if there aren't questions about what Trump may actually believe or want or do. Personally when I hear what Trump says I think it only provides more reasons to wonder what he may actually say when not performing in public.

aljoneson Ecuador Says It Still Backs Assange, but WikiLeaks Says It Cut His Internet

Is it actually true that more are correct now than in the past?

aljoneson Awesome .NET – A collection of .NET libraries, tools, frameworks, and software

I have had good experiences with PdfiumViewer and PdfSharp. Admittedly I used them in very simple ways.

https://github.com/pvginkel/PdfiumViewer

http://www.pdfsharp.net/MainPage.ashx

aljoneson Ecuador Says It Still Backs Assange, but WikiLeaks Says It Cut His Internet

He recently said they have info on Trump but won't release it.

http://thehill.com/blogs/ballot-box/presidential-races/29345...

aljoneson Ecuador Says It Still Backs Assange, but WikiLeaks Says It Cut His Internet

Seems like they're being purposely vague.

aljoneson Shame on Y Combinator

Hopefully their information doesn't come from talking to people. There are better sources.

http://fivethirtyeight.com/features/the-mythology-of-trumps-...

aljoneson Wikileaks: Julian Assange's internet access 'cut'

https://www.theguardian.com/media/2016/sep/14/date-set-quest...

Swedish prosecutors said the questioning would take place on 17 October and be conducted by an Ecuadorian prosecutor.

Note: Today is 17 October.

aljoneson Barack Obama on A.I., Autonomous Cars, and the Future of Humanity

Yeah, people are generally able to solve a problem only when they understand the problem. Direct experience is a valuable form of learning. Of course it isn't sufficient, but we shouldn't pretend it doesn't matter either. Obviously almost any statement concerning race is a generalization.

aljoneson Why we are suing Apple for better HTML5 support in iOS

Their financial statements are pretty clear. Hardware is highly lucrative. Services, like the app store, are only recently consistently profitable. They definitely wouldn't intentionally make their devices less desirable to customers to increase service revenue.

aljoneson Why we are suing Apple for better HTML5 support in iOS

Apple has a monopoly on Apple branded devices. Well, ok.

aljoneson Why we are suing Apple for better HTML5 support in iOS

Do you believe this makes them a monopoly?

aljoneson Why we are suing Apple for better HTML5 support in iOS

When you develop in X you usually have problems with not X. Even when Safari and Chrome were working together on WebKit there were still differences.

aljoneson Why we are suing Apple for better HTML5 support in iOS

Does the HTML5 standard specify which video formats browsers should support now? Is webrtc part of the html5 spec now? Seems misleading for them to say they just want the HTML5 standard when what they are asking for isn't in the standard.

aljoneson Qt Quick Controls 2.1 and Beyond

React Native doesn't bundle a web browser. It uses native widgets.

aljoneson TypeScript Seals My Penchant for JavaScript

You also don't use integers!

aljoneson How Palantir Is Taking Over New York City

Since pigmentation doesn't cause crime, we should find the root cause.

aljoneson All New Amazon Echo Dot

They're punting though. After a triggering phrase is said it hands off a string to the API associated with the phrase. So, no natural language processing unless the API does it. Users have to be trained to say particular triggering phrases.

aljoneson Swift Playgrounds – Learn to code on your iPad

Hopefully it is because they want to update it often.

aljoneson The iPhones 7

Why does it require a case? Its a matter of taste, which obviously makes it not required.

aljoneson VotePlz – The Easiest Way to Vote

I guess it qualifies as universal voter registration. The voter roll is a separate thing is what I meant. There are forms for registering, but it can be updated automatically by other government data sources. The important thing is updating your primary residence.

No photo id is required to actually vote.

aljoneson VotePlz – The Easiest Way to Vote

It is not common sense to think that the amount of patience someone has for waiting in line on a particular day is a good heuristic for how informed they are.

aljoneson VotePlz – The Easiest Way to Vote

also not true in australia

aljoneson VotePlz – The Easiest Way to Vote

I don't see a connection between voting in person and being informed. What do you mean?

aljoneson Show HN: Carbide – A New Programming Environment

There is an examples section which also has a link to create a new empty notebook.

http://alpha.trycarbide.com/new

aljoneson How AI and Machine Learning Work at Apple

up to 40%

aljoneson Google Duo, a simple 1-to-1 video calling app

I think there are plausible reasons that could have changed their plans for them. Who knows if they would have actually followed through with the original plan or what their true reasons are. I don't know. That they changed their implementation to relay all video through their servers is known. They said so in court.

aljoneson Google Duo, a simple 1-to-1 video calling app

The patents forced them to route through their own servers instead of peer to peer. Seems like a logical reason not to make that an open standard to me.

aljoneson WikiLeaks offers $20,000 for information on former DNC staffer's murder

"the media" is a bunch of individuals, many of which are not as you describe. They could find trustworthy and thorough reporters to work with if they wanted to. They did before.