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bshastry

40 karma · joined February 28, 2013

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bshastry··on Amazon device recorded private conversation, sent it out to random contact
you just described a smartphone
bshastry··on Bitcoin Gold Hit by Double Spend Attack, Exchanges Lose Millions
how the heck did he acquire majority hash? Afaiu, this requires massive computational resources that no individual has access to
bshastry··on Facebook is America’s scapegoat du jour
BTW, how does Google fare on these counts? I am sure they have as much data, or perhaps more, on all of us.
bshastry··on Facebook is America’s scapegoat du jour
I like the critical thinking in this article. Problem is, I am critical about it's critique. Just because Ted Cruz made use of the same platform and did not win, does not mean there is no problem with what Facebook is doing. They are still thieving people's data and selling it for a nice sum.
bshastry··on Derek Sivers: Books I've Read
> If you are not reading a regular amount of classics, you are doomed to be historically parochial.

Precisely. Often, I cannot relate to classics, and therefore end up feeling let down and questioning the hype. But the reason it is a classic is because it stood out from peers at the time. It is this quality of classics that I believe you are referring to.

> Pop social science and business self-help books are like chocolate - healthy in small doses, as part of a balanced diet.

I suppose it's more like sugar for the brain. Too much of it is bad. But I see what you mean.

bshastry··on Regular meditation may be more beneficial than vacation
Nice try, capitalist hawks!
bshastry··on Disclosing vulnerabilities to protect users
We sell your data and in return make browsing safe for you so we can sell more of your data. Clever Google. Really clever...
bshastry··on Replacement Samsung Galaxy Note 7 phone catches fire on Southwest plane
Why the heck would the article end with the information that the owner has replaced it with iPhone 7. When did the verge start"native" advertising?
bshastry··on College grad hacks ICSE, ISC results, shows up India’s cyber flaws
If he stated so, it is clearly not in line with the title of his blog post [1]. Come on, the media preys on keywords like hacking, so if you don't see it coming be careful the next time is my advice to the "hacker" in question. [1] http://deedy.quora.com/Hacking-into-the-Indian-Education-Sys...
bshastry··on Amazon India is now live
Hmm...Does using SSL help? Right now the amazon india domain does not get redirected automatically to https://www.amazon.in (on Chrome v.25)
bshastry··on Google Buys Wavii For North Of $30 Million
Thanks for the link to your analysis. Should give it a read :)
bshastry··on Why Young Americans Should Work Overseas
> How old are those numbers?

Numbeo says it is up to date (April, 2013 for Houston data and May 2013, for Bangalore data). I feel that the (Bangalore) housing numbers are reasonably accurate because: 1. Data being crowd-sourced with no real incentive for contributors to lie; 2. Going by personal experience

> If you check out a property listing site: <http://www.magicbricks.com/propertyDetails/3-BHK-3000-Sq-ft-..., it says INR.60,000 which works out to approximately $1153.84 (around 52 rupees to a dollar). Obviously, numbeo.com has got the most important (housing) numbers wrong.

This is a texas sharpshooter argument. It is based on a single data point---which happens to be a 5-floor multi-storey apartment---which is hardly a representative sample of (single floor) 3-BHK apartments in central Bangalore. Claiming that numbeo has got housing numbers wrong by this one data point alone is ridiculous.

bshastry··on These people applied to go to Mars
The application fee varies from country to country [1].

[1] http://mars-one.com/en/faq-en/29-faq-registration-fee/408-wh...

bshastry··on Why Young Americans Should Work Overseas
http://www.numbeo.com/cost-of-living/compare_cities.jsp?coun...
bshastry··on India is drowning in its own excreta
> That is not a logical fallacy, that's basic decisionmaking.

No. The parent had this to say---"Instead, the average Indian believes he lives in a super developed city, wears his / her goggles, pulls up the car window, turns on the AC and listens to Bollywood or American music. Simple, problem solved (at least for the day)."

Clearly, there is no decision making issue here. The issue is that there are several problems (the plate being full) but the onlooker (the more privileged in the quote) is not doing anything---it's not as if he/she chooses to tackle a part of the problem e.g., sanitation, he/she does nothing. That's why I said the reasoning amounts to false cause---it's not because the plate is full that people are not doing anything. More likely cause is that they simply don't care.

bshastry··on Get that job at Facebook (2012)
> If you don't feel it's necessary to ever practice for an interview, well, ok. This advice is not for you.

It is wrong to conclude that the person whose comment you replied to, feels that way. Excerpt: "Needing to "prep" and "practice" coding questions in the way encouraged seems rather odd to me." [emphasis added]

bshastry··on India is drowning in its own excreta
> the reason that people don't care enough is because they have so much on their plate.

This is the 'false cause' fallacy[1]. It is akin to saying, because I have too much work stacked up, instead of making progress, I'd rather cool my heels and not do anything at all, ever.

[1] https://yourlogicalfallacyis.com/false-cause

bshastry··on How to eat healthily on £1 a day
Here's a more realistic experiment about being poor (in India): http://www.thehindu.com/opinion/columns/Harsh_Mander/barefoo...

Appendix: Rs. = Indian rupee; 1 USD ~ 55 Indian rupees

bshastry··on Google Buys Wavii For North Of $30 Million
This [1] makes one feel if Google is really interested in acquisitions like these or just tossing some money around.

[1] http://thenextweb.com/apps/2011/09/02/google-closes-aardvark...

bshastry··on Bing doesn't support SSL
The post does not explain why Akamai's cert is being used. If bing over SSL were working correctly in the past---which I believe to be true---and given that Bing were using Akamai in the past, why the problem now?
bshastry··on Tizen 2.0 Magnolia SDK and Source Code Release
The novelty is in supporting native as well as HTML5 apps. So, it's a hybrid between Firefox OS and Android/iOS on the other. I'm only unsure if it is novelty worth having.
bshastry··on The PyCon Incident
By far the best critique of her actions---her own action.
bshastry··on Researcher sets up illegal 420,000 node botnet for IPv4 Internet map
Agreed, I just happened to skim over the paper to spot any similarities but there appear to be none; in fact the paper's authors have used EC2 instances---a legal means. Also noteworthy difference is the paper's limited attention to SSH/TLS ports.
bshastry··on Researcher sets up illegal 420,000 node botnet for IPv4 Internet map
Hmm...I wonder if this has anything to do with https://factorable.net/weakkeys12.extended.pdf
bshastry··on Ask HN: Why doesn't Microsoft update website use SSL/TLS?
Thanks for pointing out. If the updates site does use some sort of certificate pinning for IE, I wonder why the browser pops up the following warning before running the Microsoft update add-on: "If you trust this website...click here..."