Hacker News Reader

frabbiton I'm going to experiment by being Blind and Alone for 24 Hours

and to wamk next to him in a normal, casual way

It must have been very difficult for him too.

frabbiton How to switch an old Windows laptop to Linux

Not only those excellent points, but also why not just install Linux on the best hardware you have?

A bunch of people's experience of GNU/Linux is going to be based on running it on old hardware.

Select new hardware with freedom in mind: * no dodgy nVidia videocards * research the wireless chipset * research GPU passthrough capabilities of the CPU * install Windows (if you really need it) in a VM * profit

This is old but still good as an overview:

https://davidyat.es/2016/09/08/gpu-passthrough/

frabbiton Hyper-regional chippy traditions of Britain and Ireland

Don't please. I am salivating. One of the things that people in the UK and Ireland do not realize is how lucky they are to have varieties of potatoes. I have never seen anything other than the classifications of Red/Russet/Yellow/White in North America. Perhaps there are some regional growers of Kerr's Pink or Maris Piper but they certainly do not stock the supermarkets with them and I have never seen them in farmer's markets.

frabbiton Hyper-regional chippy traditions of Britain and Ireland

Smoked haddock and chips is delicious. Comes in just ahead of the spicebag/box, closely followed by scampi.

frabbiton Hyper-regional chippy traditions of Britain and Ireland

Pizza fritta is at least a Neopolitan tradition. I thank them for starting this wonderful trend.

frabbiton The Scientists Take Over: George Orwell Reviews “That Hideous Strength” (1945)

I have always loved the idea that the same person that wrote the Narnia stories created a dystopian neo-Arthurian fantasy involving mad scientists, lesbian Nazi police chiefs torturing Christians and interplanetary travel. There is a very good late-80s BBC Radio 4 dramatization.

frabbiton Nokia selected by NASA to build cellular network on the moon

When can we send Jeff Bezos, Bill Gates, Richard Branson and Elon Musk there so that they can chat with each other?

frabbiton Free Software Is More Reliable (2011)

"Commercial" versus "Free Software"? Really?

RedHat has been providing commercial Free Software for a long time now. And an excellent job they make of it too.

frabbiton Calla – spatial video conferencing software based on Jitsi Meet

And I have only had good experiences once we enforced _not_ using Firefox there were no problems.

'Use zoom and get screwed.'

frabbiton On the destruction of America’s best high school

Tell it to your kids. They'll be impressed.

frabbiton On the destruction of America’s best high school

These are not "left leaning activists". They're fuzzy, well-meaning liberals who may be right.

You would not like what the "left leaning activists" propose if you are upset with the mild reforms proposed by these people.

frabbiton Structural studies of the global networks exposed in the Panama papers

More like "illuminati" emerge "naturally" from the "Free Market".

frabbiton Structural studies of the global networks exposed in the Panama papers

those donations gave them some sort of stake, naming right, or voting power in community projects.

You cannot forsee the possibility that the ability to purchase voting rights might result in another "natural" problem?

frabbiton Flatpak: A security nightmare – two years later

The first two CVEs linked in the article do not even exist: whether due to rejection or something else is uncertain.

frabbiton Nuclear power: Are we too anxious about the risks of radiation?

Exactly. The only thing we can keep doing is consuming more and more energy. And who wants to get that from bombing and subverting nations around the world? Not you... you're nice. Not me... I am woke. So, the only thing to do is to build nuclear power stations everywhere.

What could go wrong? Nothing else ever has!

frabbiton Nuclear power: Are we too anxious about the risks of radiation?

Yes, exactly. More single home dwellings coupled with nuclear power and a complete absence of "snark". That's the ticket! Have you heard about the growth mindset?

frabbiton Nuclear power: Are we too anxious about the risks of radiation?

Radiation is good. Without it we would not have mutation and then there would be nothing for natural selection to operate on. Ergo, if you are against radiation you are against evolution.

QED.

Also, I have shares in companies that can build nuclear power stations in your neighborhood.

Also, because I want to keep driving and heating my uninsulated suburban single-family house while I eat beef 3 times a week and I am starting to realize that this might cause the climate destruction that those econuts warble about I might need to get my power from somewhere else.

Next question?

frabbiton How to Drive on Sand Without Getting Stuck (2017)

how to drive on a bike trail

Hint: don't.

Stay at home and do donuts in your Walmart parking lot instead. People like you created it. Enjoy it.

frabbiton Update on Firefox Send and Firefox Notes

And in nearly the same breath they announce a net nanny service to help people maintain their YouTube recommendations bubbles.

I like Firefox, but I worry about the direction the Mozilla Foundation are taking. At least it's Free Software.

frabbiton Chuck Feeney Is Now Officially Broke

There's absolutely nothing wrong in you leaving your average suburban house and penny stocks to your indebted children. Go for it. Live the dream.

frabbiton Chuck Feeney Is Now Officially Broke

What makes you think they haven't? https://www.marketwatch.com/story/its-been-almost-a-100-year...

frabbiton CNN Worked with Army PsyOps Group During Kosovo War (2000)

Are you claiming that those references support the idea that Bill Clinton's administration acted motivated primarily by humanitarian motivations unalloyed with the longstanding desire (and repeated demonstration¹) of the United States to systematically destroy all oppositions to its control of most of the world's economy?

That seems like a "fringe" opinion to anyone that has looked in even a half-objective manner at the easily available history.

1. https://sites.evergreen.edu/zoltan/interventions/

frabbiton CNN Worked with Army PsyOps Group During Kosovo War (2000)

1. 10 2. 90

https://www.amazon.com/Fools-Crusade-Yugoslavia-Western-Delu...

frabbiton Chuck Feeney Is Now Officially Broke

What giant advances has Elon Musk made in maths/science?

frabbiton CNN Worked with Army PsyOps Group During Kosovo War (2000)

it wasn't a time when there seemed to be a big ideological axe to grind

So, neoliberal intervensionism and bombing for human rights happened in a vacuum?

There has never been a time when people did not have ideological axes to grind and this period was one of the launching pads for the Project for a New American Century.

frabbiton Post-Open Source

https://locusmag.com/2020/09/cory-doctorow-ip/

frabbiton The 'brushing' scam that's behind mystery parcels

Have had similar in Canada: ordered footwear from a seemingly legit website. Some time later cheap jewellery arrived in the post with the same tracking number and Paypal was duly debited for the cost of the footwear. I reported to PayPal (who promptly refunded) and suggested they shut down or suspend the account, and also the the Canadian Fraud Center (apparently < 5% of people take the time to do this)

https://www.competitionbureau.gc.ca/eic/site/cb-bc.nsf/eng/0...

frabbiton Professor suspended for saying 那个 nà ge

even money it was done on behalf of (though not necessarily at the direction of) a foreign power.

Why on earth would you assume that? What are the relatively likelihoods of it being Satanists, alien mind-worms or Marxist-Feminists versus an agent of a foreign power?

frabbiton Professor suspended for saying 那个 nà ge

when they said "oh my god" (dildo in French)

They were probably confused because you were mixing English 'oh my' with the well known Québecois word for a small penguin (un gode).

frabbiton PicoRio Linux RISC-V SBC is an open-source alternative to Raspberry Pi board

I didn't. It was the first thing that leapt to my mind as soon as I saw Imagination Technologies mentioned:

https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2009/12/pouls...

What sort of person describes a board with a closed-source GPU firmware as "Open Source"?