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blakes

275 karma · joined December 9, 2015

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blakes··on 250M Microsoft customer service and support records exposed on the web
I want to know how many answers are sfc /scannow
blakes··on Inside the digital clock from a Soyuz spacecraft
Here is the video where they open up this very clock for the first time: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JBIhzEZkWEA
blakes··on The cognitive costs of air pollution
Did you get an IQAir? I bought the GCmultiGas and I get the kind of stale air, I think it is just hyper sanitized or something. That filter cleared up my sinus issues in like two days.
blakes··on Risky Mortgage Bonds Are Back and Delinquencies Are Piling Up
Same experience here. Constant small business loan offers. Not as many as you, mostly we get mail offers. At least 1-2/week.
blakes··on Laser-Based Audio Injection Attacks on Voice-Controllable Systems [pdf]
If you'd actually read the paper, you can see that they were able to inject commands through double pane glass from 75 meters away.
blakes··on Are Aerospike Engines Better Than Traditional Rocket Engines?
Here's an interesting interview the author did with Elon Musk: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cIQ36Kt7UVg

Fun to see how interested Elon is with the engineering of rockets, looks like he could talk for days if he had the time.

blakes··on The SR-71's predecessor used cesium-laced fuel to create radar-absorbing exhaust
Apparently in some aircraft, the radar cross section of the exhaust is easier to spot than the aircraft itself.
blakes··on Cosmic Crisp Apple Launch
Been waiting for this apple for years! I've yet to try it but it sounds super interesting. I love honeycrisp, this seems like exactly what can replace it.
blakes··on Police fine pedestrian for disorderly behaviour after he tried to cover his face
I wonder if there should be reasonable cause to take a photo and match it first?
blakes··on Balloon Pirate Radio (2007)
You may enjoy his classic: http://idlewords.com/2007/04/the_alameda_weehawken_burrito_t...
blakes··on Best Buy Is Thriving in the Age of Amazon
All depends on how close to a warehouse you are. I'm in Seattle and most items I order from Amazon are free same day shipping.
blakes··on Microsoft is now worth more than Alphabet
Exactly. Honestly I've been telling people for the last year to buy MS stock. They are going for recurring revenue with all their business facing products, and it's working. The business world, outside of SV apparently, runs on MS products.
blakes··on Amazon device recorded private conversation, sent it out to random contact
I've made plans for essentially this, but using infrared sensors to track occupants rather than cameras.

There are many methods for occupancy tracking without cameras. IR sensors, antennas in the walls, NFC (bleh), proximity sensors.

blakes··on Apple faces class action lawsuit over failing MacBook butterfly keyboards
Mostly because their monitors very rarely have issues. I've personally deployed/managed probably over a thousand Dell ultrasharp monitors and over the course of nearly ten years, I've only seen one go bad. And I do remember it was not easy getting it replaced, a relative ordeal compared to ProSupport on the PC. Their PC support is seriously unmatched, I tell everyone to get the Pro support and accidental coverage for laptops, I have many stories of Dell asking no questions and sending brand new replacements. My favorite is the 3k precision laptop that fell off a crane and we sent back essentially a box of whatever was left and two days later had an exact replacement.
blakes··on AMD’s Zen Family Moves into the Long-Life Embedded Market
Well it's not really up to AMD which motherboards get manufactured. Besides the fact the EPYC processor is better suited to database and storage solutions with high core counts and support for massive amounts of RAM.

The high core counts, high ram, and lots of PCIe lanes make EPYC CPUs perfect for flash based storage arrays and databases.

blakes··on Hundreds ‘Rickrolled’ in Campus Prank at Cornell
If you get the bits directly from China and put them together yourself, you could probably make them for a few dollars a piece in quantity.
blakes··on The free and open CA Let's Encrypt is hiring another sysadmin
Let's Encrypt is a part of the Internet Security Research Group and is literally a Public-Benefit Organization in California.

Still a subjective measure in some way I suppose, but they are not for profit and I think it would be hard to argue that the organization is not a benefit to the public.

blakes··on United States Senate Committee Testimony of Twitter's Acting General Counsel
So I assume that no reference makes even less an argument?
blakes··on Ask HN: Why does my credit union check if I'm logged into Steam and Reddit?
Qubes OS pretty much solves this problem!

https://www.qubes-os.org/

blakes··on The Depression Thing
I'm probably biased (my wife is a therapist), but I disagree with you.

Therapists require a lot of training (depends on state/specialization). Thousands of hours of supervision and a Masters degree in the field. I would not say that is minimally trained. Less so than a psychologist however.

Therapists are trained in understanding systems and the why/how something is. You are very much right about psychologists understanding neurological conditions far better than a therapist. Therapists with a bachelor degree in psychology (like my wife) mostly agree that it is useless for a lot of therapy.

Depression is a tough one. I'd just see both a therapist and a psychologist. Probably go for a therapist first and try to get some understanding of what is going on. It may help a lot! Or maybe not at all, with the nature of depression. Then see a psychologist and get some medication.

blakes··on Zillow forces McMansion Hell to delete posts
I think of architecture a little bit like art, and that some art is "bad" and some is "good".

I feel like there are certain rules or techniques in say, painting, that if one follows, can contribute to the art being perceived as "good". When you combine rules or techniques and it is poorly executed, the art may be perceived as "bad". Seems to be the same with architecture.

Seems to me that Kate is an art critic of sorts. A very specific one.

blakes··on The US has forgotten how to do infrastructure
What do you do for work online, out of curiosity?

I know there are a lot of options for basic online work that isn't developer based, but I'm not sure what is available that truly pays a decent living wage.

blakes··on The end-to-end refresh of our server hardware fleet
I am using the Fractal Design Define XL R2 (what a name) for my Supermicro dual CPU mobo, I drilled one extra mounting hole and the mobo mounted just fine.

Very quite and solid.

blakes··on Instacart Closes Latest Funding Round at $3.4B Valuation
Funny, my wife and I are the same way. We love grocery shopping together, we get a nice solid hour or so of walking together looking and talking about food. What's so bad about that?
blakes··on Uber drivers in Norway must pay back all earnings and lose their license
That's interesting, because anecdotally I have had essentially the opposite experience.

Taxis in my area (Seattle) drive fast and loose, at least they did 4 to 5 years ago. No signals, always about 10MPH over the limit. Music always on, not loud, but usually always on.

Lyft/Uber drivers in the area were/are a little more gentle (the ones that weren't taxi drivers before). Interestingly, sometimes I'll get a Lyft driver that asks if I care about how fast I need to get to my destination and how I'd like them to drive.

Also, I took taxis in Prague during vacation, and that system is amazing and I'd choose those taxi services over Uber/Lyft any day. Clean, quick, stupid simple, and the drivers were pros.

blakes··on Ask HN: What're the best-designed things you've ever used?
Ah!

The other day I was trying to remember the brand of computer speakers that I had from the 90's that were so, so, so solid. Great sound (for computer speakers), and extremely robust. Dropped off the desk all the time and never had a problem.

Now to eBay to see if I can't find them.

blakes··on Mark Zuckerberg's manifesto for Facebook offers a social dystopia
I agree, "essential" is maybe too strong of a word.

But I do like to ponder the thought of all Google services, or all Amazon services shutting down for 2 weeks. Clearly not as essential, but the impact on the daily life of at least most of the US would at least be noticeable.

I believe these are still the early days of "internet giants". They seem giant now, but with MS, Google, Amazon, and other "giants" aiming to provide much of the structure of not only the internet, but also some of our daily lives (delivery, web, phone, internet access, information/news), I can imagine twenty years from now the reach of these "giants" to be far closer to "essential" then we feel they are now.

Who knows, maybe we will forever be in a cycle of "giants" growing, evolving, and failing without ever becoming essential. I don't know how it will work haha, but interesting to consider.

blakes··on Ask HN: What's your top growth strategy that helped grow your startup?
This is good stuff.

I feel like a lot of these strategies could be used with small bootstrapped businesses with some tweaking. Especially #5, appearing legit is too often ignored in smaller businesses.

blakes··on Our continuing commitment to your privacy with Windows 10
Thanks for the info!

My most painful hurdle will be passing PCIe through to the Win VM, as I do enjoy some CS:GO in my life.

blakes··on Capitalism Is Collapsing and Nothing Is Rising to Replace It
A more open, free, and transparent version of capitalism will be the cure I think.

Transparency is key, we need to start requiring openess in all aspects of government and business.

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