Hacker News Reader

burgerbrainon Startup dudes: Cut the sexist crap

She likely is referring to the tone of speech, not a tone as in note or frequency.

burgerbrainon Startup dudes: Cut the sexist crap

Quite so. It is rather interesting how often heterosexual men underestimate the degree to which they consider the physical attributes of other men.

burgerbrainon Startup dudes: Cut the sexist crap

"But imagine this. A woman walks by - your colleague Bob knows her and waves. You say, "Bob, who was that?" He says, "That's Stacy from Accounting. She has a great sense of humor." Do we think Stacy is great at her job? Probably not."

I don't think that's quite fair. If I'm not in accounting, chances are I don't care if she's good at her job or not (hell, chances are Bob doesn't even have the knowledge to say if she is or is not). On the other hand, her personality is much more relevant.

If I'm in the same department, her boss or coworker, this of course changes.

burgerbrainon Tesla Model X Launch, Tonight 8pm PST

"allowing a highschool or college student to buy one for relatively cheap and people will still think "expensive."

Indeed, I got mine for 2.5k so that I could pick up "classy chicks". ;)

Surprisingly it worked, to some degree.

burgerbrainon Tesla Model X Launch, Tonight 8pm PST

I drove a BMW in highschool^. BMWs and Audis are not "luxury or premium class" cars. Luxury and premium class BMWs and Audis are "luxury and premium class".

^A 3 series almost as old as myself.

burgerbrainon You Can’t Copyright Porn, Harassed BitTorrent Defendant Insists

I only said technically because the case for fair use would be so strong that in practice I doubt I could actually be sued successfully.

burgerbrainon You Can’t Copyright Porn, Harassed BitTorrent Defendant Insists

Technically yes, I believe so. I suspect it would be rather hard to win that case however.

burgerbrainon You Can’t Copyright Porn, Harassed BitTorrent Defendant Insists

I don't believe that the materials used in art need have artistic value of their own.

burgerbrainon You Can’t Copyright Porn, Harassed BitTorrent Defendant Insists

"That's a self-defeating statement. By copying it, you've acknowledged its value."

I've just copied your comment, but I nevertheless think that it is of low value (as evidence against your hypothesis, I present the case of myself copying your low value comment...).

Proof by recursion!

burgerbrainon What Happens When You Swear At Your Users

Men don't like to be called that either though...

Interestingly enough, going by industry statistics, chances are in this case whoever was meant to read it were men.

burgerbrainon UK government declines to pardon Alan Turing

While I concede it is possible that was the intent of that line, I think there could have certainly been a better way of conveying that rather point. Particularly, they could have plainly stated "the law itself was unjust", and dropped that weird "While...".

burgerbrainon UK government declines to pardon Alan Turing

I must say that the leading "While Turing was dealt with under the law of the time" qualification leaves a particularly unpleasant taste in my mouth. I am forced to agree with bad_user in this case.

burgerbrainon UK government declines to pardon Alan Turing

Exactly. The law in any sufficiently just system is always asymmetric with respect to guilt and innocence, in innocence's favour. Retroactive action should be no difference.

burgerbrainon Udacity to offer entire CS curriculum, certifications to obtain a degree online

Well Google is not a school, is it?

burgerbrainon Former Zynga Engineer doing AMA on reddit

This part in particular:

"Yes, we maximize for users who spend over $10k. These users even have names. They're called "whales" in industry parlance. Why wouldn't you want more of them in your game? This is a business afterall. I feel just as bad as the next person wondering whether some of these "whales" are addicts. I don't want to be creating products for addicts. But what if these users are just rich people who have tons of money to spend off the cuff? There's no way we can know because we never get that data. All I see is what's reported in ItunesConnect."

I think the somewhat layered nature of it is what creeped me out. It kind of reads like an internal dialogue of somebody trying to justify their own actions to themself.

burgerbrainon Former Zynga Engineer doing AMA on reddit

Irrelevant perspective from an outsider: Your post sent a chill down my spine. That's how creepy it is.

burgerbrainon "I haven’t been drunk in 3 years... and I’ve been partying way more than you."

If the mere presence of alcohol improves the perceived taste, then it does tastes better. Only actual intoxication could properly be said to corrupt results, since ethanol is a legitimate source of flavor.

burgerbrainon "I haven’t been drunk in 3 years... and I’ve been partying way more than you."

If you're getting intoxicated while wine tasting, you are doing it wrong.

burgerbrainon Richard Stallman's Computer Setup

No, ubuntu specifically on that machine. The only tricky part as I can see it should be the webbrowser. You'd either have to use an old one, or a featureless one.

burgerbrainon "I haven’t been drunk in 3 years... and I’ve been partying way more than you."

They appreciate the taste of the various beverages, not the alcohol (although, to be clear, the alcohol does contribute to the various flavors). Very few people drink alcohol, rather they drink things that happen to contain alcohol.

You might be thinking that I'm being pedantic right now, but having a firm grasp on this concept is important if you wish to understand why people drink what they drink.

Consider how silly it would sound if we talked that way about baking soda.

burgerbrainon Richard Stallman's Computer Setup

I kind of doubt it. I was using my 233MHz PII up until about 3 years ago to buy things off Amazon regularly.

It's amazing what you can do with some swap and a little patience. ;)

burgerbrainon "I haven’t been drunk in 3 years... and I’ve been partying way more than you."

"I meant the positive aspects of wine ... Not any of the buzz/drunk happiness benefits"

If I may be so blunt, you honestly are now sounding like some Mormon friends I know who have never drank, but for some reason feel particularly qualified to speak on the matter.

burgerbrainon My U.S. Border Nightmare

"You have no right to enter a country where you are not a citizen, regardless of what treaties and protocols your two nations have set up."

I am a citizen, so I have a right to enter this country. Why is it that they harass me?

I suspect they just like harassing everybody. Citizenship is barely involved.

burgerbrainon Reuters totally clueless about the meaning of "hacking"

The TMRC might want to have a word with you. The usage by them dates back to the 50s at least.

burgerbrainon How Did Israel Become “Start-Up Nation”?

I've been under the impression that Israel only has liberal immigration for certain demographics. Is this not the case?

burgerbrainon Year of the storm

If you don't care about the free exchange of information, then so be it. In the mean time, I'll be glad that your opinion on the matter ultimately doesn't make a difference. You cannot stop sharing.

burgerbrainon Year of the storm

Most people use freedom of speech to talk about trivial, illegal, or irrelevant things. But so what? That is their right.

"We aren't talking about leaked government documents here"

In numerous cases, we are actually...

Listen. If information freedom isn't a particularly important issue to you, then so be it. For many people it is however, no matter how 'trivial' the bulk of the information may be. It is apparent that the Pirate Bay operators are among the group of people who think this way.

burgerbrainon Year of the storm

Demanding that those who want change seek it by throwing themselves upon a pyre is a particularly annoying way of "covertly" wishing the status quo the best.

Civil Disobedience is Not the following: The only way to seek change. The only legitimate way to seek change. Always the best way to seek change. Always effective at all.

burgerbrainon Year of the storm

Would you be distressed if I made a website dedicated to encouraging and facilitating jaywalking? That is quite illegal in some jurisdictions you know.

How about one dedicated to supporting/encouraging arson as political speech? Horror of all horrors: http://www.speedcam.co.uk/gatso2.htm !

This "some places it is illegal" == "it is immoral" attitude is rather tyring.

burgerbrainon Year of the storm

You make the mistake of assuming that "pirating" is inherently and obviously "wrong".

I, and many others, reject that premise.

If you disagree, so what? We're quite used to people disagreeing, and have gotten rather good at not caring.

PS:

"Instead they adopt the. "Ha ha ha ha ha ha you can't get us.""

This attitude makes zero sense to me. Why is it so wrong if they are extroverted?