Hacker News Reader

davmaron Sergey Brin: The Facebook phenomenon is a problem (2007)

capitalism cannot differentiate between efficiency and exploitation

davmaron Show HN: I’m Building a Nerf Dart Missile Defense System [video]

this is awesome. so awesome that it's the first time i've hit the "bell" icon to get notified of new videos.

davmaron Antarctic sea ice hits lowest minimum on record

i think it's inevitable...

davmaron Tell HN: I let my 6-year-old daughter design my website

i love it. love love love it.

davmaron Expanded Child Tax Policy Slashed Child Poverty

So you're saying that if we did live under perfect capitalism, these problems wouldn't exist. But it's impossible to live under perfect anything, so it seems that instead of trying to become more capitalist, we ought to pick the system that works best while imperfect. Today I handed out survival kits at a homeless encampment. People are cold, tired and hungry. Child poverty, homelessness....this system is not working.

Anyway agreed on China. They've pulled 800 million people out of poverty.

davmaron Expanded Child Tax Policy Slashed Child Poverty

If the capitalist mindset you described were accurate, then we would have the kind of society you described because we’ve had a very capitalist economy from the start. But that’s not what we see, so unfortunately what you assert cannot be true.

However, you’re right that we live in capitalism. And it creates child poverty.

davmaron Satoshi leaked his Los Angeles IP address (2016)

So I went to https://anarchapulco.com/ in 2018. There I met a guy who claimed to know who Satoshi is. He said Satoshi was from LA, and that the keys to the wallet that hold all those unclaimed bitcoins are buried in a backyard in LA. Would be worth billions now.

No idea if true.

davmaron Why Are Topre Keyboards So Expensive?

same here. do you have the extra attachments? i've got the track ball and i can't live without it.

davmaron Memory leaks are crippling my M1 MacBook Pro

i have an older macbook pro (only for another week until my new one arrives), and i found switching from iterm2 to kitty improved performance of my computer drastically. i think i have some other HD corruption issues going on, but kitty extended the lifespan of my computer such that i was able to wait for the new pros.

davmaron The Concept of “Cultural Appropriation”

Really happy to read this accurate comment.

Also, I appreciate how this scholar rebrands "cultural appropriation" to "racial plagiarism" so the term is more precise: https://twitter.com/minh81/status/950892912866406400

davmaron I Got a 'Mild' Breakthrough Case

https://pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/acsnano.0c05025

"Materials were microimaged and tested against size selected NaCl aerosol with particle mobility diameters between 50 and 825 nm. Three of the top five best performing samples were woven 100% cotton with high to moderate yarn counts, and the other two were woven synthetics of moderate yarn counts"

This image in particular: https://pubs.acs.org/na101/home/literatum/publisher/achs/jou...

You can see N95 non-woven performs the best, but cotton twill does provide protection.

Cool analogy tho.

davmaron I Got a 'Mild' Breakthrough Case

I agree with you on that point. Fauci told a noble lie about the N95 masks and it really harmed credibility. Perhaps I did miss your point.

My intention was to say that, outside of Fauci, the science around mask efficacy was well-known because you said that it wasn't.

davmaron I Got a 'Mild' Breakthrough Case

Not all cloth masks function the same way. If you read the studies, it depends on the weaving and the material. Cotton vs. denim, for example, is studied.

None are as effective as a non-woven material. But they are still more effective than no mask.

Edit: > asbestos dust or second hand smoke

You have to know what size of particulate matter that you're looking to filter is in order to determine whether that mask material works for the given application. What you're saying is too broad to be useful and isn't very insightful.

davmaron I Got a 'Mild' Breakthrough Case

> It started with masks. The studies that we had about masks really were not great, but they did a risk-reward calculation behind closed doors: worst case scenario, the surgical masks don't impact the spread and it changes nothing; best case scenario, we reduce community spread. The problem with this is that if they told the public that this was how they were thinking about the problem, they wouldn't get people wearing the masks, so they overstated their confidence in it when speaking to the public. A good amount of people truly believe that the science was clear. But it wasn't.

Inaccurate and dangerously wrong conjecture. Research published long before COVID-19 proved the efficacy of masking in blocking particulate matter. That's why terms like N95 even exist.

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-020-72798-7

That study came out last year, but there are similar studies published many years ago. I don't have time to google for them all right now, but they are out there for those who want to find them.

The science on masking was clear and your statement is irresponsible.

davmaron GNU nano is my editor of choice

+1 for vim. I also spent a lot of time resisting it. Now it's all I use because it's just so much better.

davmaron Twitter's new font, Chirp, is apparently giving some users headaches

I don't think this is accurate.

If they're just specifying a font (e.g. 'Helvetica') in their CSS, it's loaded from the users' machine and doesn't cost anything.

Otherwise every site on the internet would be paying fees for fonts.

I could be wrong. Please inform me if I am.

davmaron Apps Getting Worse

We can only blame ourselves for Spotify's bad UI! (jk) Spotify uses an internal experimentation platform that guides which features they determine are successful, based upon how our usage moves their metrics: https://engineering.atspotify.com/2020/10/29/spotifys-new-ex...

So, basically, the bad UI is improving their metrics. Or something. Maybe this is a case of experimentation gone wrong.

davmaron The Lost Cat Art of Ithaca, NY

i love it. this is brilliant.

davmaron Ask HN: Hacker News like forums for other niches?

If you rent, you can't put an anchor screw in the drywall. Who rents vs. who owns is political!

davmaron Scientists develop ‘cheap and easy’ method to extract lithium from seawater

Well, my used 2016 Nissan Leaf was $11k so while you're correct that Telsa appeals to the well-off, not all EVs have the same market.

davmaron The metabolic face of migraine

I have the exact symptoms as you - no headache but visual aura.

I think my triggers are a lack of food/hydration and bright lights.

davmaron Survival Capsule

Well, if there's a nuclear attack I want to be the first to die. Can you imagine what the world would be like after a nuclear war? Count me out.

davmaron Ask HN: Does anyone else find the AWS Lambda developer experience frustrating?

I use this companies services (seed.run as well). Frank and Jay are doing something truly special in this space.

Also, this guide they put together is definitive: https://serverless-stack.com/#guide

Had I found that years ago, I would have saved SO MANY headaches. I've implemented local debugging (hell, and doesn't actually replicate AWS). I've followed the CloudWatch logs, just like you, painful.

The SST local debugging with lambda is the best way forward. Deploying micro services on seed.run is also the way forward.

davmaron Netflix lost 9% of the market share as competition increases

You're quite welcome! Do you have any Bollywood films to recommend? I'll google Aamir Khan in the meantime.

davmaron Netflix lost 9% of the market share as competition increases

Yeah it's a legal site from Rakutan. They have an app and everything. Not that having an app always means it's legit, but maybe it's some kind of signal? Anyway I subscribe to it.

Don't know what you mean by "just stream it", but if you do decide to go elsewhere, I can't vouch for the quality of subtitles. The translations on the viki site are good from what I've been told. As compared to some other dramas that are on netflix (The Untamed, for example), which have comparatively poor translations.

davmaron Netflix lost 9% of the market share as competition increases

Ok, I want to give my highest recommendation to this non-netflix show: https://www.viki.com/tv/22943c-nirvana-in-fire

It's one of the best shows I've ever seen. From the plot, the acting, the music, the visuals, it's exceptional.

Previously I used to watch only netflix & hbo, but the world outside of western entertainment is rich (as one would expect), but I was only familiar with a limited set of choices.

This is my invitation to you to expand beyond netflix, hbo, amazon, disney, apple, etc.

davmaron Addiction to Outrage (2020)

100% spot on. i would like to be your friend IRL

davmaron Addiction to Outrage (2020)

yeah, this was my reading of the article as well.

davmaron The F-35 may be unsalvageable

"Weapons, not food, not homes, not shoes Not need, just feed the war, cannibal animal"

-Rage Against the Machine, Bulls on Parade

davmaron Other challenges to SV’s preeminence are more fundamental than the tech diaspora

LOL @ rabois being a harbinger of things to come.