Hacker News Reader

Depending on your political leanings, you may pick and choose which of these you consider "awful".

Didn't find anything in my five-minute scan for Old Dominion.

bsammonon Building an HTML-first site doubled our users overnight

That would be "60 year olds who have been office workers most of their working life"

60-year-olds who worked blue-collar for a significant part of their life, this is not so obviously true for.

Also probably not true for 60-year-olds who worked in other non-office jobs, like acting or sports.

There have been a variety of well-paid jobs that didn't use computers that a 60-year-old might have done over their life, meaning that this can't even be broken up along class/income lines.

bsammonon Changing how we develop Ladybird

Okay, I'll bite: How many time has that happened? I'm definitely not an avid follower of such things, but I've never heard of that happening. I'm not arguing that it doesn't happen, but I'd like to hear/read details.

I've heard of people within the argument directing SWAT raids at each other, or contacting employers, but I've not heard of it being driven by uninvolved observers.

Now... I've heard of people posting things on social media that others found offensive, and losing jobs/gigs over it, so that sorta supports what you're saying, but even in these "edgy" social media cases (which weren't "arguments" per se, in the cases I've heard about), I've not heard of SWAT/police reactions.

bsammonon A Man Who Reads Books for a Living

sorta piling on here, but it's also worth noting that this problem goes away (and the article is quite readable) in a browser with javascript turned off (and no adblocker).

bsammonon Preparing for KDE Plasma's Last X11-Supported Release

Is that "reactionaries" in the "we object to certain technology decisions" sense, like the anti-systemd crowd, or in the "software compatible with our political views" like the xlibre project?

A quick search (in which I found no evidence of heated controversy) suggests to me that it's the first one.

bsammonon The real cost of owning a home

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

The USA (and other countries?) equivalent appears to be "Eminent Domain": https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eminent_domain

bsammonon Googlebook

When I was actively hacking my chromebook, there was tons of advice like this, and 90% of it didn't work on both arm and intel-based chromebooks, and the advice-givers never mentioned which category it worked on. Sometimes it was buried 5 paragraphs into the webpage you were sent to for downloads, sometimes not.

Has any of this changed?

Also, I tend to take with a grain of salt any comment that starts with "it's easy/simple/obvious", especially if it doesn't provide details or a link.

bsammonon Canadian fiddler sues Google after AI Overview claimed he was a sex offender

His wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ashley_MacIsaac) mentions (with citation) a particular kink he has self-reported.

bsammonon PC Gamer recommends RSS readers in a 37mb article that just keeps downloading

Actually, this is based on my personal experience. I don't use a smartphone for internet. Many of the places where I've tried it, the "free wifi" doesn't work. Maybe the wifi is there, but the uplink is 2G speed, or it has a web sign-in that doesn't work any more. Or maybe an employee accidentally unplugged the router. Days/weeks ago. And "no one complained about it".

I've traveled Greyhound and Amtrak recently. They both advertise free wifi, but it's quite clear they no longer prioritize keeping it working.

Libraries are (probably/hopefully) an exception. But, seeing as Starbucks has been wanting to discourage people from hanging out in recent months, I wouldn't count on Starbucks wifi being reliable.

bsammonon PC Gamer recommends RSS readers in a 37mb article that just keeps downloading

I think you may be a bit out of date. There was free WiFi in basically every town. Now it's frequently a vestigial, no-longer-maintained free WiFi that works like crap, because there's no maintenance, because "everyone has cellular data nowadays".

bsammonon Playing Arcade Mahjong at Home? Or is it just a Mirage?

If the sibling comment isn't enough detail, see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SuperGun

bsammonon Tiffany lamp coveted by Steve Jobs sells for $4.4M

Ah... okay, some quick research says the Apple IPO was in 1980, so he was (at least somewhat) rich in 1982.

bsammonon Tiffany lamp coveted by Steve Jobs sells for $4.4M

The article says that Jobs owned a lamp like this in 1982.

Questions that come to mind:

Was Steve Jobs rich in 1982?

In 1982, was the cost of a "real" Tiffany lamp within the reach of someone at Jobs's 1982 wealth/income level?

What are the chances that the item Jobs owned was a knockoff or a mass-produced item?

I imagine that Steve Jobs was the kind of person who would buy a $5000 lamp even if he was only making $20,000 a year.

bsammonon Tiffany lamp coveted by Steve Jobs sells for $4.4M

This headline sounds like "this specific (one-of-a-kind?) item that Steve Jobs owned/wanted to own" when the article is really about "this lamp that is the same design as one Steve Jobs owned"

So not the "someone paid $4million for an (specific) item with a celebrity connection" that I thought it was.

bsammonon A 4k-Room Text Adventure Written by One Human in QBasic No AI

However, it should be playable on Linux or OSX, both of which are (reportedly) supported by QB64.

bsammonon Ruby core team takes ownership of RubyGems and Bundler

A very specific denial. "I didn't propose this specific type of monetization". Would be better if he followed up with "Yes, I proposed monetization, but what I had in mind was this more specific, benign form of monetization:"

bsammonon Gem.coop

I think a lot of people don't know why being Danish is relevant. Is there some reason why controversial views on immigration might be less suprising coming from a Dane?

bsammonon The 16-year odyssey it took to emulate the Pioneer LaserActive

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Satellaview (for anyone who's interested)

bsammonon Toronto’s network of pedestrian tunnels

Why aren’t there pedestrian metros in Manhattan...

While there is nothing nearly as extensive as the Path, there are a few isolated underground plazas that each connect to a handful of adjacent high-rise buildings. The ones that immediately spring to mind are the Penn Station complex under Madison Square Garden (and Penn Plaza office building among others), and Grand Central Terminal. I think i've seen others, but I can't remember details.

I don't think they're as commonly thought of as a "I'll use this to walk from point A to point B while avoiding traffic/weather" option, but for people in the connected office buildings, they provide (somewhat overpriced) options for lunch/shopping as well as public-transit access without the need to go outdoors.

bsammonon Mkosi – Build Bespoke OS Images

Or "something that nix already solve, but with documentation"

bsammonon Bruteforcing the phone number of any Google user

Are you saying it's as simple as clicking the "proceed without a google account" button and I've just failed to notice the option each of those times?

If there's a non-obvious workaround, why not post a link to it?

"Just Google it" isn't as easy as it used to be...

bsammonon Bruteforcing the phone number of any Google user

Their own policies place a limit on how "demanding" they can be.

Initializing a new (or power-washed) android/ChromeOS device _requires_ a Google account, so if you don't have one (or claim not to) they device initialization process will generate a new Google account for you. Even if there's no phone number or SIM card in the device.

I've had a number of Android/ChromeOS devices over the years, and I've had each one generate a new Google account. None of these accounts have phone numbers associated with them.

I generally don't use these accounts for much more than downloading free apps from the Google Play store -- maybe more extensive use would trigger a "You must add a phone number to this account to proceed"?

bsammonon A senior Apple exec could be jailed in Epic case

I realize you're probably referring to PC gaming specifically here, but it's interesting to note that Portal and Portal 2, at least, (haven't checked on the others) are available on the Nintendo Switch store.

bsammonon Bocoup Is Now Worker-Owned

According to their Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/REI), REI is a "consumers' co-operative". This is a different thing than a "workers' cooperative". My understanding is that most grocery co-ops are organized as consumers co-ops, or something close to it.

The grocery co-op near me has occasionally faced the prospect of the formation of an employee/worker union. I imagine that unionization is a thing that doesn't happen (or get seriously discussed) in a workers' co-op.

I find this distinction vaguely fascinating, but (apparently) not enough for me to actually get informed about it.

bsammonon Debugging: Indispensable rules for finding even the most elusive problems (2004)

Alternatively, I've found the "Maybe it's a bug. I'll try an make a test case I can report on the mailing list" approach useful at times.

Usually, in the process of reducing my error-generating code down to a simpler case, I find the bug in my logic. I've been fortunate that heisenbugs have been rare.

Once or twice, I have ended up with something to report to the devs. Generally, those were libraries (probably from sourceforge/github) with only a few hundred or less users that did not get a lot of testing.

bsammonon Pelicans on a bicycle

I'd have to agree here that success at this drawing test/challenge is strongly correlated with experience repairing/maintaining (one or more) bicycles, a lot more than it is correlated with riding them.

I also suspect it strongly correlates with knowing the term "diamond-frame". In addition to bicycle-repairers probably knowing the term, it's also used among people who like/know other frame styles--in my case recumbent bicycles.

bsammonon Replacing my $8000 Mac Pro with a $1400 Mac mini [video]

That anandtech article is from 2014. And the wikipedia article contains a similar claim, but un-citationed, as far as I can see. Do you have any links to recent articles that confirm that this is still the current state of things?

I have a chromebook that doesn't have video-out ports, but a relatively basic USB-C hub with HDMI-out port sufficed to get it connected to my HDMI monitor. Not sure if that's a counter-example, or something else entirely, but it may be relevant either way...

That Plugable adapter is interesting -- the page doesn't claim it's an "active adapter", and it only costs $15. In my mind, "active adapter" always translated to "costs $50 or more".

bsammonon The Fediverse is getting its own TikTok competitor called Loops

> A good example of this may be https://joinmobilizon.org/en/,

AKA "Meetup but not tied to Meetup" (and French!)

bsammonon Battleships Logic Puzzle

An important detail is what kind of ship piece was pictured in the freebie square. It could be an entire-size-one-ship (a circle), the end of a ship (which would indicate what direction the rest of the ship would continue in), or the middle of a ship (which indicates a size 3 or 4 ship).

I decided to go with the assumption that it was a middle-of-a-ship square, thinking you would more likely have mentioned if it was one of the other two types. Then, based on the numbers around the outside, you can quickly determine whether the ship is horizontally or vertically oriented, and fill in two more squares as a result (and rule out a few more squares as a result of that). the rest of the solution proceeded quickly after that.

I used to do these Battleships puzzles regularly around 15 years ago, when I regularly bought/read Games magazine, which included them. My process, especially for harder puzzles, involved darkening (or otherwise tagging) the boundary between pairs of squares, as I determine that a 2-or-longer ship could not span that particular boundary. Usually based on a logic of "Well, if there was a 2 or longer ship there, there'd be a problem for the next row/column over" or just "there can't be a 2 or longer ship because I'm only allowed to darken one more square in that row/column"

This web-app version doesn't appear to have a mechanic for marking boundaries -- I frequently find electronic versions of traditional puzzles to (understandably) lack the flexibility to support the ad-hoc annotative solving process I developed over the years of solving these kind of puzzles on paper.

bsammonon Internet Archive: Security breach alert

(For both Android and ChromeOS) I thought it would be significantly easier to let it use a Google account, than it would be to make it proceed without one. Was I wrong? Serious question.

Links to information would be appreciated, even/especially if it's a complex task to do this.

(I never put a lot of effort into this, because having the Google account be anonymous/fake-named was generally tolerable for my privacy standards)