Hacker News Reader

cholanteshon An oral history of "We Built This City," the worst song of all time (2016)

I think there are songs that wear listeners out from being overplayed, some that require repeated listens to appreciate, but there are ones that start out bad and do not get redeemed either by repeated listens or context. Lift Yourself (https://youtu.be/8fbyfDbi-MI?t=117), Gucci Gang (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4LfJnj66HVQ), and Beautiful Things (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Oa_RSwwpPaA&pp=ygUQQmVhdXRpZ...) all exist as examples of this, I think. All fairly recent, I'll confess.

cholanteshon An oral history of "We Built This City," the worst song of all time (2016)

Yes; it is named for the mistaken belief that Mandela died in prison during the 80s.

cholanteshon Nearly 70% of Gaza war dead are women and children, UN says

So higher than the IDF.

cholanteshon I Will Always Be Angry About Software Engineering

I think eventually, most people just choose what kind of clownfuckery they're willing to tolerate. I've worked with startups/small shops and F500s and at least at this stage of my life, I would readily choose the drudgery and petulance of the latter over the instability and dehumanization of the former (I will concede that this could be my bad luck and not an essential characteristic). I haven't gone down the consultancy path or entrepreneurship because as you say, it's a different kind of stress that I don't care for.

cholanteshon YouTube in Android introduces UI bugs

and SmartTube (https://github.com/yuliskov/SmartTube) if you have an Android TV.

cholanteshon Grim Fandango

The tank controls also put me off of it for years.

cholanteshon Switch 2 will be backwards compatible with Switch

Are you aware of a case where the practice of emulation has ever been found, in court, to be a case of IP infringement? Because that's actually the pertinent claim here, not that IP infringement is a real thing that exists.

cholanteshon Switch 2 will be backwards compatible with Switch

If only anyone been able to establish this as a credible defense in court.

cholanteshon Google employees pressure execs at all-hands meeting for clarity on cost cuts

>You can ask why Singapore and Japan have harsh fines, and India does not.

Sure, and you can also ask why drawing conclusions from the ether is superior to relying on examining actually measurable parameters.

cholanteshon Google employees pressure execs at all-hands meeting for clarity on cost cuts

>Im not interested in steel-manning the position that cultural acceptance of trash translates to bad code

Okay, but quite obviously OP is.

>I am defending the fact that humans do in fact have cultures, and those cultures have real world impacts. You would not see scenes like that in Japan or Singapore, or at least much more rarely.

Indians are such a major presence in Singapore that Tamil is one of its official languages. Littering is also a part of both countries' criminal codes, with hefty fines and, in SG's case, jail time being prescribed. It seems pretty clear, then, that cultural essentiality is at least insufficient as an explanation in these contexts.

cholanteshon Google employees pressure execs at all-hands meeting for clarity on cost cuts

Where would OP's implied correlation with software quality emerge, exactly?

cholanteshon Google employees pressure execs at all-hands meeting for clarity on cost cuts

How?

cholanteshon Google employees pressure execs at all-hands meeting for clarity on cost cuts

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p5AeGKSDVdE

Are there any essential characteristics of American culture responsible for this?

cholanteshon Google employees pressure execs at all-hands meeting for clarity on cost cuts

Such a sophisticated breakdown; I specifically appreciate the revelatory non-sequitur at the end that makes it clear what your analytical lens is.

cholanteshon What is the point of an online conference?

The CEO must regularly yell at chat to keep with the traditional divorced dad/estranged kid dynamic at play on Twitch, though.

cholanteshon Morsing of the Dead [video]

Huh; I thought this might have been a seasonal post since Halloween and Diwali coincide this year (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Morsing). I do love that this utterly batshit moment in gaming history is inspiring even more wildness!

cholanteshon Critique of Freakonomics interview with psychologist Ellen Langer

The cop-out in question is not the complaint but the rote and glib response that a podcast isn't an academic venue. The two things are not at cross purposes, and quite a lot of popular media, including outlets in which Gelman has relayed his concerns about Langer, where the goal is quite specifically to critique dubious claims. And even otherwise, people form their view of the world based on the media they consume. Levitt knows this and leverages this, along with being an academic, to boost his platform, which in turn is used to boost the profile of his guests. The argument that he bears no responsibility at all for what and how he presents to his audience is dubious.

>It not like there can only be one Podcast. If you see that the world is missing something, create it! Nobody else is going to do it. If they would, you already wouldn’t have found it lacking.

I would have thought the past decade would have put this marketplace of ideas hokum to rest, but here we are.

cholanteshon Critique of Freakonomics interview with psychologist Ellen Langer

This is an utter cop-out that is a hair's length away from "this interviewer was combative and biased". In fact, it is entirely possible to thread the needle of being engaging without also being a total rube.

cholanteshon Teens Want Less Sex in Movies and TV Shows, Study Finds

I agree with the second sentence here; a teen is very unlikely to have the space to consume media in total privacy from their peers or their families, and so sex scenes represent a forced break in immersion. But I don't think this is an iron-clad rule any more than dining is an obligatorily communal experience.

cholanteshon Mathematics for Computer Science [pdf]

>1059 points by lainon on March 6, 2017, 154 comments

I wonder what was so special about this particular instance, other than it being the only Monday on the list.

cholanteshon Microsoft fires employees who organized vigil for Palestinians killed in Gaza

'''Context''' from yet another body that deliberately conflates anti-Zionism with anti-semitism? No thanks.

cholanteshon Microsoft fires employees who organized vigil for Palestinians killed in Gaza

I think that, at least in part, this meme is how parties excuse their inability to deliver once they secure power. In Obama's case specifically, I don't know how a guy who had been a community organizer since the 80s, who'd been a senator since the late 90s was so caught off guard by the legislature once he had executive power at his disposal.

cholanteshon Microsoft fires employees who organized vigil for Palestinians killed in Gaza

>Bill Gates is no longer at Microsoft. Neither of the Cheneys hold any political office.

Yes, certainly lobbying and policy advocacy don't exist, so there's no actual way to be involved in politics other than holding public office and voting.

>None of this wishy washy treatment that Israel, a U.S ally has received from the current administration.

Providing the bulk of weaponry and auxiliary infrastructure to a country actively engaged in a conflict whilst offering full-throated moral support is 'wishy washy' now.

cholanteshon Israel’s Secret Stealth Drone

>It's a lot better for a ruthless dictator personality to be in the role of Steve Jobs or Bezos or Musk, instead of getting redirected to politics and doing things along the lines of Stalin or Mao.

This is a rather bizarre thing to say given the trajectory both Bezos and Musk's lives (and arguably even Jobs') have taken.

cholanteshon Google is cracking down on ad blockers, but here's how you can fight back

They are profoundly untrustworthy: https://old.reddit.com/r/privacy/comments/191yu33/why_is_bra...

cholanteshon AI will use a lot of energy. That's good for the climate

Nah, just an advert.

cholanteshon AI will use a lot of energy. That's good for the climate

>Step 2: We build a lot of solar+batteries, geothermal, nuclear

But will we actually?

cholanteshon When Dark Mode for YN?

Dunno if it's perfect but ironically, the minimalism is really nice compared to reddit's. New Reddit is obnoxious and Old Reddit's various elements eventually collapse on each other and make it an unreadable mess.

cholanteshon Gorhill pulls uBlock Origin Lite from Firefox store

They already did? In this specific context, acknowledging the mistake and reinstating the extension is materially all they can do. Maybe it is necessary to reform the extension review process, but getting UBOL back onto AMO would then just be a positive side effect of a much longer-term project.

This is reductive. It is the best a user can get on desktop Chrome, which isn't great compared to UBO proper on Firefox. There's maybe a reasonable argument for UBOL on Firefox mobile, where it is more performant than its big brother. There is no Chrome equivalent, because Chrome on mobile doesn't have an extension ecosystem or native ad blocking.