HNHacker News
TopNewBestAskShowJobs

ashleyw

1,067 karma · joined June 1, 2008

Developer at IN-PART. We connect industry and academia to help bring cutting-edge new tech to market.

Based in Sheffield, UK.

hi@ashleyw.co.uk

submissionscomments
ashleyw··on Mac OS Catalina: more trouble than it’s worth (Part 2)
You can effectively do that by disabling SIP. I did it a few weeks ago while debugging an issue with my WiFi card (because apparently we’re no longer allowed to view the logs on our own computers..)

I haven’t reenabled it yet, and I don’t think I will be doing for the time being. Apple’s gone too far here. Protect me, sure. Make me take an extra step to run an unsigned binary. For critical modifications like installing kernel extensions, make me run a terminal command, that’s fine. These measures would assist me in maintaining my own security, and they certainly shield my computer illiterate mother. But treat me like a hostile actor on my own computer and strip me of my superuser privileges? No.

I’d rather be a pirate than join the Navy.

ashleyw··on Amazon has proven unable or unwilling to effectively police third-party sellers
Yes! The first thing I did was check Fakespot. This doesn't even seem that sophisticated. Same phrases, same reviewers, I don't know how Fakespot missed it. I thought those were key markers it uses to determine the validity of reviews!
ashleyw··on Amazon has proven unable or unwilling to effectively police third-party sellers
I nearly bought a book in Audible last week, but hesitated because something seemed off with the reviews[0]. After a little digging I realised ALL the reviewers had only reviewed this book and another about Keto. And looking on Amazon for the same author "G.S. Hook" I noticed one of the books had reviews which while all unique, were basically all following the same template containing the same exact phrases[1].

I spoke with customer service and gave them specific examples to investigate. They didn't care in the slightest. It's made me realise that their reviews cannot be trusted. "Verified purchase" means nothing. I always chose Amazon over eBay and AliExpress because I thought it was worth the slightly higher prices to have peace of mind that the reviews were policed and what I would receive was genuine and safe. But that's clearly no longer the case.

[0] https://www.audible.co.uk/pd/Communication-Skills-Training-T...

(The reviewers have since reviewed other books. But you'll still see the same pattern of the same books being reviewed.)

[1] https://www.amazon.com/COMMUNICATION-MARRIAGE-effective-comm...

(One recurring phrase "which made her realize she had a problem too"

ashleyw··on Lyft Files S-1
They received $2B in revenue but spent close to $3B.
ashleyw··on Tell HN: Udacity is deprioritizing its app and will eventually remove it
I read it as more "students tend to prefer sitting at a real computer to learn".
ashleyw··on Bash FAQ (2017)
Cached version: https://web.archive.org/web/20180517123320/https://mywiki.wo...
ashleyw··on Bids in 300MW Saudi solar tender breach two cents
USD0.01786
ashleyw··on Ember Fastboot
@tomdale explains how fastboot runs concurrent instances here: http://youtu.be/xFTDNGZExuU?t=1h21m40s
ashleyw··on Windows 10 for Raspberry Pi 2
Internet of Things: https://dev.windows.com/featured/Windows-Developer-Program-f...
ashleyw··on What I Like About PHP
Because there are nicer, faster and more sturdy languages available. Ruby, Python, Go, and JavaScript, to name a few. The age-old "PHP is so easy to deploy!!1" rhetoric doesn't really hold true anymore when it basically refers to shitty, oversold shared hosting. PaaS offerings like Heroku make virtually ANY language stupidly simple and cheap to deploy these days.
ashleyw··on Alaskans vote to legalize marijuana
Another thing to consider is that, at least in Europe, cannabis + tobacco joints are very popular. So not only could big tobacco quickly gain traction in the cannabis world if it were legal, but it'd also help hold onto its crashing tobacco sales.
ashleyw··on Studies find fast traders get data from SEC seconds early
Indicates a new account (<1 month?)
ashleyw··on Go 1.4+ Garbage Collection Plan and Roadmap
I tried, but stopping the world hurts. Reusing stacks helps, but you're fighting the language from the very beginning. It wouldn't be a wise choice for even soft real-time IMO, you may as well just use Python or Ruby if you don't care about stopping the world..
ashleyw··on Let's change the HN title bar to #663399
I've used #5ce7ff so long I sometimes forget the default is orange..
ashleyw··on Ask HN: Is it me or ...?
Sounds completely normal. You're joining ambitious companies who want to be the next billion dollar hit. But that kind of success isn't formulaic, it's extremely rare and 9/10 attempts will end up flailing around until they either make it by chance or ultimately die. The management each so dearly want the company they're part of to be a big success for their own sakes, they'll try anything and everything to make it happen when things are starting to look south. It isn't pretty.

This isn't unique to technology companies, it's human nature whenever there are high stakes in play. Don't worry about it, just get better at predicting it, and jump ship when necessary.

ashleyw··on Docker 0.8: Quality, new builder features, btrfs, OSX support
Thanks! I solved the issue—it was due to CrashPlan using port 4243 (doh!)

https://github.com/steeve/boot2docker/issues/48

ashleyw··on Docker 0.8: Quality, new builder features, btrfs, OSX support
I've followed and refollowed those steps on OS X 10.9.1, but this is what happens:

  » docker version
  Client version: 0.8.0
  Go version (client): go1.2
  Git commit (client): cc3a8c8
  2014/02/05 23:10:55 unexpected EOF
Yet the docker server is definitely up:

  docker@boot2docker:~$ docker version
  Client version: 0.8.0
  Go version (client): go1.2
  Git commit (client): cc3a8c8
  Server version: 0.8.0
  Git commit (server): cc3a8c8
  Go version (server): go1.2
  Last stable version: 0.8.0
Tried both `export DOCKER_HOST=tcp://` and `export DOCKER_HOST=localhost` (as per boot2docker README), before re-init.
ashleyw··on Bayer CEO: Nexavar cancer drug is for "western patients who can afford it.”
No, a more accurate comparison would be that Germany declares that a software algorithm cannot be patented.

I think we have a lot of support for that here. :)

ashleyw··on New jailbreak available for iOS7 by the evad3rs
Same. It's funny that the primary reason I haven't upgraded to iOS 7 is because I like my screen red at night. F.lux is the one tweak that I can't live without, and probably would consider a switch to Android if I couldn't make it happen on iOS.

Apple should just implement f.lux-like behaviour in OS X and iOS, maybe with an API to allow it to be disabled temporarily (for Photoshop, etc.)

ashleyw··on Digital physics
No I haven't seen that, it's fantastic -- Thanks!
ashleyw··on Digital physics
I'm certainly not qualified in this field, but I think it's inevitable that we as a species will eventually simulate a universe. And if that's the case, we've really got to ask whether we're a simulation ourselves. At the macro level this seemingly arbitrary universe makes a lot of sense, which makes me wonder if our universe is one in a long 'family' of simulated universes, each making modifications along the way, deliberate or otherwise, evolving towards the universe we have before us today (and beyond.) After all, once you have the computational power to simulate one universe, it'll not be long before you can simulate 10,000 simultaneously (..and only keep the fittest!)
ashleyw··on Server-side view or client-side MVC?
I think they just render the initial page on the server, then from there the client takes care of it. It makes sense, since it's common to include the data payload in the HTML to save a request anyway, and it's not much more work to just render the HTML too using the same templates as the client uses.
ashleyw··on F1 Indian GP in real time with Google Maps
You don't actually need then sports package to watch Sky Sports F1, just the HD pack.
ashleyw··on Michael Arrington and MG Siegler Return to TechCrunch
If Michael Arrington returning to TechCrunch isn't HN-worthy news, I don't know what is!
ashleyw··on Why does pinging 192.168.072 return a response from 192.168.0.58?
I don't have a large network, so it's not too hard to remember. It's nice to know how to reach my Raspberry Pis from any machine, regardless of what I'm using them for or what hostname they have at the time (XBMC, AirPlay server, etc.)
ashleyw··on Why does pinging 192.168.072 return a response from 192.168.0.58?
I stumbled upon this by accident a couple of years ago. Setup your internal network to start at 10.0.0.1 (or should I say…10.1), and you'll never need to type out a bunch of zeros again! My NAS has a static IP of 10.2. :)
ashleyw··on How not to launch your company
I agree. HN certainly isn't the worst place for a Minecraft-related venture, but I bet reddit.com/r/minecraft would have been a lot better for business, and would have practically guaranteed a top position regardless of other news. They could have even targeted ads at that specific sub-reddit.
ashleyw··on [dead]
I would assume every data centre in the land placed huge orders as soon as a shortage became a possibility. Most individuals on the other hand wouldn't have rushed out to Best Buy even if they were aware of the situation!
ashleyw··on Show HN: I built a stock market game based on the top 50,000 websites
Looks similar to Urladex (http://www.urladex.com), which uses the Alexa API.

I used to have a lot of fun designing my own naive trading algorithms and terminal based dashboards, so I'd love to see an API!

ashleyw··on MiLifePlus: Bluetooth Health Sensor For iPhone and Android
Kickstarter doesn't allow "Exercise and fitness products", "Health and personal care products", or "Medical and safety-related products".

http://www.kickstarter.com/help/guidelines?ref=footer

Page 1 of 17Next →