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foxfluff

2,864 karma · joined July 29, 2021

another abandoned account
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foxfluff··on Google Analytics 4
Ok, here's proof for whoever downvoted me.

I made a new account, wrote a message, upvoted it with my current account.. and no change in points. I never see any message become black or "less grey" after upvote + refresh. It is a no-op for me.

https://i.imgur.com/ettYnxX.png

foxfluff··on C Isn't a Programming Language Anymore
C23 removes K&R declaration lists.
foxfluff··on Google Analytics 4
> Everyone on HN can uovote

I don't believe that's true. I'm pretty sure it's a no-op for me.

foxfluff··on A New E-Bike Drive System Ditches the Classic Chain Design
> High-quality drivetrains in bicycles can have an overall efficiency of up to 95%, can this system beat that?

It almost definitely cannot. I tried researching efficiency of suitably small generators some time ago but it was surprisingly hard to find useful numbers; however, I'd assume combined generator + motor efficiency won't be better than 70%. Add in conversion efficiency (for charging the battery), it's even worse.

However, that's not necessarily a problem if you consider the battery to be the primary power source and pedal power as something like a opportunistic range extender. If your battery can take you there and back, then does it matter if pedal power is only 50% efficient? I would consider such a tradeoff for the joy of not ever having to clean or replace a chain (or listen to it squeak), put it back on when it drops, or getting jeans stuck in it...

foxfluff··on A New E-Bike Drive System Ditches the Classic Chain Design
If it's an electric bike, one might care a lot less than on a bike that runs on meat power only. You may consider the battery to be the primary energy source, and pedal power a supplement.
foxfluff··on DuckDuckGo “down-rank sites associated with Russian disinformation”
> Searching google for war in ukraine returns over 2 billion results.

Google always lies about the number of results. You'll see the real number once you dig in. First screenshot shows what you get by default, second shows what you get after you enable "omitted results."

https://imgur.com/a/pgiTYuV

foxfluff··on Why offer an Onion Address rather than just encourage browsing-over-Tor?
Exit node is where the tor-encrypted path ends and traffic goes to the clearnet.
foxfluff··on Ukraine warns Chernobyl nuclear plant suffered power outage
I recall there being lots of "experts" around during the Fukushima disaster, explaining that there's nothing to worry about (because insert explanation of safety mechanisms in a modern reactor that either weren't there at all or were not working).

I hope the experts this time around actually know what they're talking about. It's hard to tell armchair experts and real experts apart.

foxfluff··on Quicker and easier ways to get more light
> I've been thinking about this myself, having seen a few articles posted recently along similar lines.

"Efficiency Drives Energy Use"

https://solar.lowtechmagazine.com/2015/10/can-the-internet-r...

foxfluff··on Doubling Down on Double Standards
I think this is an important topic to discuss, but not right now, if only because whataboutism and deflecting criticism of Russia's aggression to aggression by the US has been part of Putin's rhetoric for a long time now.

Releasing such an article at this time is a good way to get people to roll their eyes and dismiss it as yet another mouthpiece of Putin's trolls. It's also borderline insensitive. At this moment, the western world doesn't want to hear these complaints, there's something more pressing to deal with.

foxfluff··on Russians are trying to flee – data from Google Trends
> So far the Russian protests are pretty anemic (I mean in numbers, not in passion, and I greatly respect those currently protesting)

Well I don't know about passion. I've seen videos where there are a lot of people protesting but when the police come grab a girl, everyone just stands around watching and filming. When the police come running at a crowd, the crowd runs away and it fizzles out. There's none of the Maidan passion.

foxfluff··on Russians are trying to flee – data from Google Trends
Ukraine is not accepting volunteers from Russia. https://twitter.com/KyivIndependent/status/15001175130399825...

I think it's the right call, given that they have a problem with Russian saboteurs who snuck into the country before the war started. They're currently discouraging the use of the Russian language (many Ukrainians speak both Ukrainian and Russian) to avoid suspicion. Tension is extremely high right now, checkpoints everywhere around Kyiv, guards on the edge, and there's a huge risk of escalation if you're suspected of being on the wrong side.

There's been many videos of alleged saboteurs getting arrested, and the rumor is that your ability to pronounce a Ukrainian word correctly is used as a test to find out where you're from.

foxfluff··on Russians are trying to flee – data from Google Trends
> A Russian teenager unable to play XBox is maybe slightly less important than the indiscriminate shelling of hospitals and nuclear power plants.

And straight up shooting civilians on the street with assault rifles... this is literally happening in Ukraine :(

foxfluff··on Russians are trying to flee – data from Google Trends
The sadder truth may be that Russians might not be interested in removing Putin. Decades of propaganda, murdering of opposition, and authoritarian response to protests has grown a people that largely believes in their leader and is also afraid to openly oppose authority.
foxfluff··on Russians are trying to flee – data from Google Trends
There's also people who see it this way: world war 2 ended Hitler, world war 3 may be needed to end Putler. A war might be the only way to take out a genocidal dictator-terrorist who threatens the entire world with nukes.
foxfluff··on Yandex warns of bond repayment and supply risks
Can you say what exactly here is a straight up lie? That the Snake Island defenders were thought dead after contact with them was lost following the attack? That Ukraine claims there were 13 defenders while Russia claims there were 82?

There's a ton of things we don't have good video coverage of, including the Snake Island events, so it's very hard to verify any claims. This lack of certainty affects the belligerents too so -- unless you have conclusive evidence to show that deliberately false statements have been made -- I think it's quite arrogant to say "straight up lies" concerning statements that may have been made in confusion and without a full picture of the situation.

foxfluff··on Yandex warns of bond repayment and supply risks
> And Ukrainans believe there's a "ghost plane" in the sky that destroyed half russian air force.

No, not a ghost plane. Just a nickname given to a pilot (though it could be multiple pilots) who allegedly shot down a handful of Russian planes in the first days of the war. "Ghost of Kyiv." There's uncertainty and a lot of speculation going on about this pilot's accomplishments (and identity), but that doesn't mean the Ukrainians are being told lies.

It doesn't have to be myth or lies and propaganda to be given a nickname. See also The White Death.

foxfluff··on Who Says C is Simple?
> However, there may still be a number of corner cases of the language like undefined behaviors. This is why people frequently fall into C's traps.

I don't think that's true; the UB that is relevant for day-to-day programming is easily learned.

It's just that a sucker is born every minute and there's always someone who's been taught that C is a high level assembler. Now and then someone slips a piece of code that assumes as much in a project and disproportionately big noise is made about it.

Most UB-related bugs in C code are not there because the author didn't know it's UB, but because they simply coded it wrong. People fall into simple buffer overflows, double frees, etcetra all the time and no-one thought it's ok to overflow a buffer.

foxfluff··on Full consensus for disconnecting Russia from SWIFT achieved, process has begun
UNSC vote from last night: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:UN_Security_Council_Resol...

Half the world seems about right, and I'd assume a fair proportion of the grey would be green too if they were participants.

foxfluff··on Advice to civilian resistors in Ukriane, especially Kyiv
> I think the best advice would be to surrender and avoid pointless loss of life.

Everyone gets to decide how much they value the independence of their country for themselves. If Ukrainian choose to fight, so be it.

foxfluff··on Advice to civilian resistors in Ukriane, especially Kyiv
1) You don't fight an army the same way you protest your government. Yes there was gunfire, fighting and massacre during Euromaidan, but fighting riot police (most of whom were not shooting the protestors with live ammunition) is nothing like fighting an army that's coming in with assault rifles, tanks, apcs, air strikes, etc.

2) That's a massive accomplishment by the armed forces of Ukraine, but it is still useful to advise civilians and make them better prepared in case the fight gets to that point. They weren't handing out assault rifles to civilians for the lulz. I'm sure there are a lot of people among them who have no fighting experience.

foxfluff··on Tell HN: YouTube is banning accounts that support Ukraine
I can't verify the claim that r/youtube was deleting reports but having regularly used ceddit, I wouldn't be surprised.

However, there's no need for me to argue about the first sentence. Please take a look at https://www.reddit.com/r/youtube/ and it is literally filled with reports of account bans from the past few hours. 95% of the hot stories. You look in the comments, you find dozens more.

Saving screenshots for posterity (those termination/strike threads on r/youtube are all relevant): https://imgur.com/a/ekqk3B7

foxfluff··on Tell HN: YouTube is banning accounts that support Ukraine
> If something becomes a net negative "at scale", don't allow it to be "at scale".

I've taken to thinking of this sort of scaling as being the digital equivalent of race to the bottom (i.e. cheap mass-produced garbage products).

foxfluff··on Tell HN: YouTube is banning accounts that support Ukraine
One report came to me personally from a small local IRC channel (less than 100 people) from a person who's been around for years. I trust them 100%.
foxfluff··on Tell HN: YouTube is banning accounts that support Ukraine
Those are not usernames, but auto-generated ids of the linked comments/posts. The rest of the url is just a human readable title, which you can erase and still get to the same post.
foxfluff··on Tell HN: YouTube is banning accounts that support Ukraine
On a live stream there's chat and in the "..." menu you can click to see participants.
foxfluff··on Ukraine calls on hacker underground to defend against Russia
Youtube is banning accounts that support Ukraine or watch live streams from Kiev.

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=30467384

foxfluff··on On the removal of Come Back Alive
Youtube banning people and channels that support Ukraine or watch live streams from Kiev. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=30467384
foxfluff··on Tell HN: YouTube is banning accounts that support Ukraine
Again, simply watching or having watched live streams from Kiev might net you a ban.

> If you watched any Kiev livestream it may have been the reason for your termination. It happened to a lot of us too, it seems some Russian bots have been mass-reporting every single person that watched them

> Yes, yesterday night I watched a livestream. Im shocked

> I also watched a Livestream yesterday night. How i wish I didn't now since my account got terminated.

https://www.reddit.com/r/youtube/comments/t1445p/this_accoun...

foxfluff··on Understanding the War in Ukraine
> Objectively speaking, it's justified from Russia's point of view

That is such absurd wording. It almost sounds like you're trying to make an argument but you aren't really.

You can always put it like that. "I see Russia as a security concern. Objectively speaking from my point of view Russia is a threat and we should pre-emptively nuke Moscow. It's justified from my point of view."

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