Hacker News Reader

chestnut-treeon Why Britain has ‘ghost trains’

Deutsche Bahn actually runs train services in the UK (as do Dutch operator Abellio and French operator SNCF). Sadly, their arrival hasn't brought with it the cheap, reliable travel that we view enviously on the continent. Instead, we get the same expensive, poor-to-mediocre service as every other train operator.

http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2014/oct/12/rail-privati...

chestnut-treeon Yanis Varoufakis' first interview since resigning

Numerous news articles, including this one, state that the new bailout package is harsher and more severe than the one proposed before the referendum. It makes no sense. The Greek government appears to have completely capitulated to the demands of the creditors.

Who wants to be a cheerleader for the EU after all this? This crisis has cast a pall over the whole European project. It's shown that the odious, un-caring, self-centred politics we all despise in our national politics is just as rampant and alive in the heart of European Union politics.

chestnut-treeon If you've nothing to hide, you've got nothing to fear

"...tech corporations like Google who collect personal data for living"

I agree. The largest and potentially most-revealing information about you is captured by technology companies like Google and Facebook.

The Amsterdam registry recorded "Name, Date of birth, Address, Marital Status, Parents, Profession, Religion, Previous Addresses and Date of Death"

Create a Google account and you are asked to provide: Name, Gender, Date of birth, Location, Mobile phone number.

This is some of your most private and personal information and it's tied to your actual behaviour on the web. Google's ability to track you across the web and across devices is simply unprecedented.

Google omits basic facts in their privacy policy about the data they collect about you. Things like: how long they keep your data (presumably forever), whether the data is anonymised, whether your searches or activity are disassociated from your identity, and who sees your data inside the company.

Does Google use your mobile number solely for two-factor authentication and absolutely nothing else? Google doesn't tell you. Do they really need your date-of-birth? And is it only used for age verification? Could they simply ask if you're 16 or over? Sure they could, but date of birth tied to your online activity is so much more valuable when it comes to crunching all that big data on user behaviour.

The amount of information that Google captures about you is gargantuan. They know more about your online (and possibly offline) behaviour than you know about yourself. Just to be clear, I don't believe Google does anything nefarious with your data. But even if you trust them, why is it considered perfectly acceptable for them to track you to such a relentless degree?

chestnut-treeon Slavoj Žižek on GReferendum: The Greeks are correct

"...only a new “heresy” (represented at this moment by Syriza) can save what is worth saving in European legacy: democracy, trust in people, egalitarian solidarity."

I'm glad the Greeks voted No. The zeal with which austerity politics has been unflinchly pursued has caused enormous hardship for people in Greece and across Europe. But do people in Europe really feel a sense of solidarity with each other?

I'm from the UK, a country often lambasted for it's aloof and isolationist attitude to Europe. I used to be embarrased by the scepticism shown by British MPs towards closer EU integration. Now, however, I'm just a bit indifferent. The reason? I've seen clearly that self-interest among European countries (almost) always trumps a greater collective good. Yet the press and politicians continue to pretend otherwise. I don't blame individual countries for doing this, but I wish they would drop the pretence that they are pursuing a greater collective goal for Europe when in fact they are often pursuing a best-for-my-country approach. And who can blame them when it will always be to their own electorates that they must first appeal?

The migrant crisis in the Mediterranean really amplified this for me. I was ashamed of the UK response, but no other country was willing to share fairly the number of migrants rescued either. And even the rhetoric around Greece is rarely about solidarity and common European humanism, but instead about keeping the integrity of the financial system in place.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-33132595

chestnut-treeon The Battle of Waterloo, as it happened on June 18, 1815

"When people talk about Napoleon plublicly (on TV for example), it is still very political"

There is a short piece on the BBC News website about how France views Napoleon. Do you feel it's an accurate description?

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/blogs-eu-33169050

chestnut-treeon Buzzword Ipsum

Excellent. When you put these buzzwords together like this, you realise how ludicrous and inflated they sound (and often meaningless too). And let's face it, the tech world is as guilty as any other when it comes to inflated language over plain speaking. Related article on corporate guff (from 2014)

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-25652101

chestnut-treeon UK government quietly rewrites hacking laws to give GCHQ immunity

In case anyone hasn't seen this image on Twitter already:

"What David Cameron said actually seems perfectly reasonable if you're a comic book supervillain."

https://twitter.com/BrigonChomhgail/status/59882827345232691...

chestnut-treeon The last male northern white rhino

"The Guardian article is written by someone who is most likely a freelance writer"

The Guardian writer, Jonathan Jones, is the art critic for the newspaper. Hence, the links to art history and a very descriptive interpretation of the rhino in the picture ("His head is a marvellous thing. It is a majestic rectangle of strong bone and leathery flesh, a head that expresses pure strength").

The article is part of a series called 'Framing the debate' which the site describes as follows:

"A great photograph doesn't only say more than a thousand words, it can also create a hundred different reactions. In this series we take a close look at contemporary and historical photographs and videos that divide opinion"

http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/series/framing-the-...

chestnut-treeon Narrowing a residential street – McAllister

I'm not a fan of very narrow streets for residential housing. People need a sense of space, and narrow residential roads often mean you're overlooked by homes opposite the street. There needs to be enough space between each side of the street so that residents don't feel hemmed in or claustrophobic.

Here is a random Victorian residential street (in a very expensive part of London) that I think has a good scale and width. The road is not too wide, but not too narrow either. Cars are parked on the street rather than in garages; and the houses are of fairly high density too.

https://www.google.co.uk/maps/@51.556208,-0.165162,3a,75y,36...

chestnut-treeon How I Got Converted to G.M.O. Food

I'm not sure what to make of GMO foods to be honest. Safety is a concern, as are concerns about crop patents.

My opposition to GMOs was softened somewhat by an incident a few years ago (2012) in the UK. Scientists at Rothamstead Research (an agricultural research institution) wanted to grow genetically modified wheat to deter aphids.

http://www.rothamsted.ac.uk/our-science/rothamsted-gm-wheat-...

I thought the scientists put forward a good case for the research. But a campaign group opposed to the trial planned to destroy the crop. It prompted the scientists to make a public plea to the campaigners to not destroy the crops. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I9scGtf5E3I

I'd like to hear more from the scientific community on the topic of GMO. In Europe, there is a strong anti-GMO movement which skews the debate against GM crops.

chestnut-treeon Losing focus: Why tech is getting in the way of work

This link might be useful to a few. It's one hour of audio (and video) of birdsong. If you need some calming background audio to block out external noise, this might help:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b05ttkx2

If you're not in the UK, someone has also uploaded it to YouTube

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DNDtIwNLbao

It's part of a BBC season of 'go slow' TV programmes inspired by Norway's 'slow TV' concept.

chestnut-treeon Dawn chorus: the sounds of spring

Some soothing background audio if you just want to listen to the sounds of nature (or watch). It's part of BBC Four's 'go slow' season (inspired no doubt by the 'slow TV' concept from Norway)

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p02q34z8

For those not in the UK, someone's uploaded the programme on YouTube

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DNDtIwNLbao

chestnut-treeon BIER – Berlin’s no-brand beer

The Japanese retailer Muji also has a no logo or no brand approach to their products. Somewhat ironically, their 'brand' appeal (and company recognition) is due in large part to their minimal, unbranded design.

chestnut-treeon Passport Index – How much power does your passport have?

Swiss graphic design is very well known all over the world (at least by Graphic Designers). Words often used to descrbe it are: modern, clean, minimal, unfussy, neutral, rational. (People who dislike the style might also sometimes describe it as cold or even bland.)

chestnut-treeon Passport Index – How much power does your passport have?

I personally found looking at the visual design of the passport covers to be much more interesting than the 'power ranking'.

It would be interesting to know what each passport image depicts or represents. I really like Sweden's passport cover. Maybe it's partly because the passport image isn't centred that makes it a bit less stuffy and official.

Others I liked: UK, Malta, Mauritius - all old-fashioned but still quite nice. In fact, all of the passports look old-fashioned with their historic emblems (although El Salvador has an outline of the country, rather than an emblem). The Swiss one is the only one that looks modern in this regard.

chestnut-treeon Ask HN: Do you still purchase physical books?

Yes, I still buy book physical books. Consider that physical books come in so many shapes and sizes, while e-readers mostly come in just one size. For this reason, I feel an e-reader is mostly only suitable for paperback-sized books. They can't accomodate the huge variety of book sizes or the variety of layouts (e.g. something as simple as a double-page spread).

Perhaps things might change if we get larger, colour e-readers. I don't find reading books on a tablet comfortable for long periods.

chestnut-treeon Europe v Google: Nothing to stand on

"There's probably plenty of reasons why no European PhD dropouts started a successful search company, but cross border e-commerce isn't one of them."

For digital goods and services, cumbersome VAT rules do make cross-border e-commerce more difficult. The recent new rules on digital goods where VAT is applied based on the location of the buyer means merchants now have to deal with different VAT rates for 28 EU nations. I can see the rationale for such an approach, and it is meant be fairer...but in practice it's cumbersome and bureaucratic. Users now have to supply their address details for simply downloading software (in order for the merchant to confirm their location). There is no benefit to the user other than having to give more of their personal info away to merchants. Plus, now merchants have to retain all that personal data for many years for accounting and auditing purposes.

Harmonising VAT on physical goods will probably never happen, but the EU could have proposed a single VAT rate for digital goods and services which might actually have gained traction. Did they ever pursue this? If not, why not?

The people from the European Commission who are helping shape the "Digital Single Market" don't always inspire confidence even if they have the best of intentions: https://ec.europa.eu/commission/2014-2019/ansip/blog/euvat_e...

chestnut-treeon LinkedIn to Buy Online Education Site Lynda.com for $1.5B

For design software and design-related topics, there is skillshare.com. SkillShare has really grown in popularity over the past year. The quality can vary, as you'd expect. But then I've found that to be the case with Lynda.com too. It's inevitable given the huge number of courses.

I'm a subscriber to Skillshare and think it's good value (just $9.99 a month, or $8 a month if you subscribe yearly).

Other sites that cover similar design topics and design software are: digitaltutors.com and tutsplus.com (I've not used either of these though).

chestnut-treeon Minimalist Living: When a Lot Less Is More

There is something very appealing about owning a small number of material possessions and living a "minimalist" lifestyle. But I'm well aware of the messy contradictions surrounding such an issue. Living minimally is a choice you can make when you live in relatively rich country. It's not a choice for many millions of others around the world who make do with little because of their circumstances. What's more, our economies (certainly "Western" economies) are geared to the production and consumption of goods, if not for our own populations then for export to other countries for them to consume. So can only a small number of us choose to live minimally as long as everyone else decides not to? How else are we going to buy the expensive laptop essential to our minimalist life? (Am I being too cynical?)

And does minimal living always equate to sustainable living? If you're jetting all over the world in a plane, is that environmentally friendly? Wouldn't the locals prefer you spend some of your tourist money on their goods and services so they too can live a comfortable life? Many environmentalists believe the huge amount of resources needed to rear and feed animals is unsustainable. Giving up meat or reducing our consumption could be considered sustainable, but it's not what people would consider as part of a minimal lifestyle.

And finally, is it really a choice between a consumer/material lifestyle and a minimal lifestyle? Or more realistically, a choice between excessive material consumption (e.g. 70 shirts as stated in the article) or just a more modest material lifestyle?

chestnut-treeon How Hong Kong's subway turns a $2B annual profit

It's interesting to read this from a UK perspective. National rail services in the UK have been privatised for many years and all national rail services are run by private companies. Most of the UK rail franchises are European owned (Deutsche Bahn, Nederlandse Spoorwegen, Abellio, SNCF). MTR own 50% of of the London Overground rail franchise - one of the better run rail services.

Overall, privatisation has been a disaster for the UK rail industry (in my opinion). Despite the fact that we have some of the highest rail passenger numbers in Europe, we also have the highest fares in all of Europe and poor to mediocre services.

Our rail services are incompetently (and greedily) run and the political will to change this is depressingly weak (across all political parties).

chestnut-treeon Paternoster

For some people, a regular lift (elevator) is always going to be more convenient e.g. someone in a wheelchair, someone on crutches, someone with a mobility impairment, someone who's blind or has a guide dog. Even someone with luggage or carrying a box who can't see the floor in front of him.

A Paternoster is probably fine as long as there is also a regular lift somewhere in the building for people who can't use the Paternoster easily.

chestnut-treeon Satire, sewers and statesmen: why James Gillray was king of the cartoon

We tend to think that as history progresses, more and more taboos are broken and we're freer today to publish or lampoon ideas, people and events than in the past. One thing that's surprised me about satirical images from the 18th century is how bold they sometimes are.

For example, here's an anonymous cartoon from 1740 mocking Thomas Walpole - a prominent British politician and banker.

http://images.library.yale.edu/walpoleimages/dl/000000/lwlpr...

Here is a quote from a BBC documentary explaining the image: "There was a new force at work in Georgian society: satire. One of the Georgian age's most notorious images is Walpole's huge naked bottom blocking the way into the Treasury. To get on in 18th century government, this is what you had to kiss" [1]

[1] https://youtu.be/-EDmxfSydCw?t=50m18s

chestnut-treeon Reasons not to use Facebook

"...in tech circles this was and is mainstream."

Things are different now. Take online tracking and privacy for example; many people in the tech community are perfectly fine with the online tracking carried out by Google and Facebook. They consider it relatively benign and useful. Some people (many?) are even happy to defend these companies over their tracking practices, are after all they are private companies, not government agencies.

The degree of tracking by these companies is unprecendented and often it's not even anonymous. Google, for example, has an entire OS that tracks you by default. It's tied to your identity, so it's not anonymous. If you have a Google or Facebook account, these companies probably already know more about your online behaviour than you know yourself.

At some point in the future, Google and Facebook may well be able to track you from cradle to grave. Does that sound far-fetched? Perhaps. Even now, Google's push into education means they hoard vast quatities of data about the online behaviour of students.

Even if you trust these companies, why is it considered perfectly acceptable for them to track you to such a relentless degree?

I can understand how the general public may be unaware of the privacy implications of such pervasive online tracking, but what excuse does the tech community have for not highlighting these issues and their privacy implications? Most of the reaction from the tech community over online tracking is equivalent to a "yeah, so what?" shrug of the shoulders.

chestnut-treeon 2015 Chromebook Pixel

"the problem with ChromeOS, imo, is how limited it becomes once you pull out the net connection"

The other problem with ChromesOS is that it's a gigantic privacy sinkhole.

Everything you do in the OS is tracked and recorded by Google. Even printing to your desktop printer. None of this tracking is anonymous either since you must sign in with your Google account to properly use ChromeOS. (Just a reminder that a Google account equals your name, gender, email, date-of-birth, location and mobile phone number).

Google fail to state in their lengthy privacy policy how long they keep your data (presumably forever) or whether your activity is disassociated from your identity when viewed by Google. In my view, this is simply unacceptable when you consider the gargantuan volumes of private date collected and the unprecedented degree of tracking.

The reaction on this site to an entire OS that tracks you by default has mostly been: "Yeah, you're being tracked. So what? Get over it." Presumably everyone happy to recommend ChromeOS would be equally happy to switch on their Mac/Windows/Ubuntu machine and have it track everything they do, have that information sent back to the OS manufacturer, and for none of that data to be anonymous?

chestnut-treeon Ableton Live Developers at Work [video]

"This style of video is the future of marketing"

Not just for companies, but for cultural organisations and public bodies too.

For example, the Royal Opera House in London has an active and popular Youtube channel. They are a publicly-funded organisation but opera and ballet are still seen as somewhat elitist and expensive. Their Youtube channel gives them an opportunity to showcase their productions and behind-the-scenes footage. The videos are well-made and informative. And it undoubtedly helps bolster their reputation.

https://www.youtube.com/user/RoyalOperaHouse/videos

Another example: a well-known supermarket retailer in the UK (Waitrose) who also have a very polished Youtube channel (of mostly recipes)

https://www.youtube.com/user/Waitrose/videos

I think audiences are savy enough to know when a video has an element of promotion in it. What turns them off is if it feels like a self-congratulatory puff piece. Or if it feels too scripted and fake.

chestnut-treeon Penguin launches Little Black Classics series – 80p each ($1.20/€1.10)

The top 10 best-selling titles according to The Guardian [1]

  1. The Communist Manifesto - Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels
  2. The Beautifull Cassandra - Jane Austen
  3. The Tell-Tale Heart - Edgar Allan Poe
  4. Aphorisms on Love and Hate - Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche
  5. How Much Land Does a Man Need? Leo Tolstoy
  6. The Great Fire of London - Samuel Pepys
  7. Socrates' Defence
  8. Circles of Hell - Dante
  9. Lord Arthur Savile’s Crime - Oscar Wilde
  10. The Night is Darkening Round Me - Emily Brontë

[1] http://www.theguardian.com/books/2015/mar/04/communist-manif...

chestnut-treeon Paperspace – A full computer you can access from any web browser

Thanks for stopping by to answer questions. My question is about privacy...

Since you must sign-in to use Paperspace (and everything you do is saved or performed online), do you track user activity in any way? For example, apps used, tasks performed, sites visited.

If you do track, what kind of data do you collect? Is the tracking data tied to individual accounts? Or disassociated from them? How long do you keep this data? Is it anonymised?

chestnut-treeon Privacy is at a crossroads. Choose wisely

"...health web sites share your search queries with 3rd parties..."

For anyone looking for health information (in English), I recommend the NHS website. (Start your search from there rather than Google if you're worried about being tracked). It may not be the best-looking website, but the info is written by medical professionals and there are no commercial interests since the NHS is funded by the UK taxpayer.

They have an A-Z of conditions, a symptom checker, videos and much more. (I presume this is all available to anyone outside the UK)

http://www.nhs.uk

chestnut-treeon The Tyranny of the Forced Smile

Slight digression, but speaking of fake smiles...I'm reminded of a quiz on the BBC website called Spot the Fake Smile.

There are 20 short clips of people smiling. Can you spot which ones are fake and which ones are genuine? (The test takes about 10 mins)

http://www.bbc.co.uk/science/humanbody/mind/surveys/smiles/

chestnut-treeon Does Gentrification Cause a Reduction in Laundromats?

"And yes, UK people, having the washing machine in the kitchen is crazy"

Yes, I agree this isn't great. The kitchen is a place to prepare food, not the place to handle laundry. However, most flats (and houses) in the UK don't have space in the bathroom for a washing machine. And most don't have dedicated utitility storage space; so the kitchen is the only place left. In an open-plan kitchen/living area, this is even less ideal. New build flats tend to have a utility cupboard for the washing maching (often in the hallway). But most blocks of flats don't have communal laundry facilities, and I suspect they wouldn't be particularly appealing to many flat dwellers. Even in a studio flat, I'd rather have my own washing machine.

One thing I have noticed about the US is that front-loading washing machines are very expensive. In the UK, the cheapest front-loading washing machines start from about £160 (approx $240 or €215) and then go up. At the £200 - £350 price range, there's a large number of models to choose from. What's keeping prices so high in the US?