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frankacteron Threads, an Instagram app

Facebook gaming is huge platform that exists within the Messaging platform. While they may have consolidated from a standalone app to a service in an existing platform, that is not a "fail" by any measure.

The same goes for Facebook Events, which is hugely popular within the Facebook platform.

frankacteron Threads, an Instagram app

>Facebook Messnger was a service named Beluga

Facebook Messenger existed prior to the acquisition. Beluga was a mobile only product that was essentially an acquihire of the 3 member team to work on the existing Messenger mobile platform.

>Facebook was all-in on Messenger as a platform. The project is gone as well.

Facebook Messenger platform is still very much alive and well in both the games and the support / chat bot / reservations space.

frankacteron The Reddit blackout will continue

It is relevant. Developers have the ability to throttle and/or monetize users based on usage to pass on those costs to power user outliers, while not impacting the majority of their users that fall into that free tier.

frankacteron The Reddit blackout will continue

I'm not aware that reddit ever presented user level API keys as an option, they'd likely instead base it on Reddit premium tiers tied to the OAuth account. But again, that's not currently a viable option on the table and if users started enmass requesting API keys intended for developers, yes that would get throttled quickly because that's not what they're intended for.

>90% of users is not a meaningless number by any measure. I'd suggest that punishing the average users due to the power use of the outliers is a terrible value proposition.

Developers hold the ability to throttle and/or price based on that.

I am a developer that has built clients and tools around the reddit API. If most apps don't bother to optimize, then that's a choice they can make.

frankacteron The Reddit blackout will continue

Reddit already has an official Android and IOS app, but it has conflicting internal goals that 3rd party clients do not have to prioritize.

Purchasing another 3rd party app won't fix this, and would still necessitate the changes they are taking now (monetizing the API) resulting in the same backlash from the community.

They have stated their goals to close the gap between their official app and the 3rd party apps, but conflicts will always exist which will limit what they are willing to do. Putting some of that financial burden on 3rd parties helps even that playing field to some extent.

frankacteron The Reddit blackout will continue

Because they have gone on public record with those numbers and as of yet, no one has refuted them.

Do you have an alternate source of user level data that breaks down average vs. outliers and that ratio that you feel is more accurate?

The free tier is 100 queries per minute for an OAuth logged in client per the public statement, and that number has also been stated by a few 3rd party app developers.

That is a lot for the average user, especially for a well optimized app.

frankacteron The Reddit blackout will continue

This is not accurate.

From the data presented, in aggregate, >90% fall well within the free tier of usage (100 API calls per minute for OAuth logged in client). The majority of the remaining fall into a $1/month tier [1].

Certainly there are some outliers that exceed those ranges and unfortunately the majority of the spotlight seems to be on the smallest of the populace.

It is also worth noting that app developers can (and should) better optimize their apps to reduce calls to API (bundling, caching, etc) which will help to reduce the number of calls required overall to take that cost down. Many apps do this already.

[1]https://www.reddit.com/r/reddit/comments/145bram/addressing_...

frankacteron Imgur Updates TOS, Banning NSFW Content

This is an often repeated myth, from the creator:

>"Yes I did" [create it for Reddit] There's some conspiracy theory going around that I actually created it for Digg. So, here's what happened. I posted it on Reddit, Digg, and a couple forums that I frequent at the same time. The server actually ended up going down and the Reddit post got spammed with "It doesn't work!!". So, I deleted the thread, corrected the problems, and posted it again the next day. I didn't bother deleting the Digg thread; that's why it has a timestamp one day before the Reddit one. I'll try to update this with links to whatever proof I have, but I don't have time right now.

https://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/9tlwi/im_the_imgur_gu...

frankacteron Twitter Suspends @Joinmastodon

https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1603181423787380737

"Any account doxxing real-time location info of anyone will be suspended, as it is a physical safety violation. This includes posting links to sites with real-time location info."

While you did not embed the link itself, that nuance is a distinction without a difference as the intent was still to share the location to a site with real-time location information, which as stated, will result in suspension/ban.

frankacteron GitHub Copilot, with “public code” blocked, emits my copyrighted code

They wouldn't. If you have it in a private repository and you are the only one with access to it, you'll likely not run into this issue.

From other comments, this developers "private" code was found in 30k+ public repositories with public attribution which is what created this issue.

Presumably your private code is not also present or leaked to any public repositories.

frankacteron Taiwan hit by widespread power outages

Agreed. I'm also in Taipei (Shilin) and equally no power issues.

The cascading outage resulted in less than a 25% overall outage across the island and for most of those impacted lasted less than 2 hours.

That said, some areas, parts of Miaoli for example, are still without power.

frankacteron Taiwan hit by widespread power outages

here you go:

https://focustaiwan.tw/society/202203030007

tl;dr it was a result of a malfunction in one of the plants that caused a cascading issue.

You can see the impact of reduced usage (in comparison to the day prior) here:

https://i.imgur.com/8gbziHJ.jpg

Here is a video from the repair crew inspecting the unit:

https://i.imgur.com/aI1tmuf.mp4

frankacteron There is no way to give a 3rd party app your location and not Google

If you are referring to Google Play services, there may be some confusion. This is not the Google Play Store app, rather Google Play services acts as a service provider for other apps you have installed on your device.

https://android.stackexchange.com/tags/google-play-services/...

frankacteron Two people killed in fiery Tesla crash with no one driving

To Op's point, the most recent snapshot before today of April 5 does not show the quote you're stating:

https://web.archive.org/web/20210405091504/https://www.tesla...

The closest I can find to it is:

"The system is designed to be able to conduct short and long distance trips with no action required by the person in the driver’s seat."

I did find what you are referring to, however.

There is a video ( https://vimeo.com/192179726 ) embedded below "Future of Driving" section of the autopilot page. When you hit play the first message presented is:

"The person in the driver's seat is only there for legal reasons. He is not doing anything. The car is driving itself"

That video with that statement is still on the autopilot page as of me writing this.

While a subtle nuance, I believe that wording is specific to the video demonstration ie. "what you are watching is completely automated, but if we filmed it without a person in the seat we would get in trouble" instead of "anyone can run Tesla without a driver, we just < wink wink > tell you to be in the driver's seat for legal reasons."

frankacteron Have I Been Facebooked?

How many years ago did you delete your phone number? This is not a recent dump of data, it is just recently been made more widely available. I believe the original leak was some time in 2019.

frankacteron Show HN: I made an alternative to Google Alerts that listens to social media

Not OP, but they stated for Twitter they use LinqToTwitter (.NET), for Facebook is a custom { hack } to acomplish.

frankacteron Free and liberated e-books, carefully produced for the true book lover

Have you tried Calibre Windows based reader app, or a browser based extension EPUB reader or a web based viewer service like Google Books?

frankacteron Ask HN: Which Software Engineering podcasts would you recommend?

TechZing Live straddles the border of software engineering and startup discussions depending on the topic:

https://techzinglive.com/

frankacteron Unable to deal with Chrome Extension Team, Kozmos is shutting down

I was surprised to see that is not the same bookmarks synced in my Chrome Browser. That's the case with https://passwords.google.com/ . Is their a webview of synced Chrome bookmarks (I couldn't find one) and what use case is google.com/bookmarks?

frankacteron New Zealand eliminates Covid-19

Taiwan is actually at 26 days of no local cases as of today.

To your quarantine question, we currently only allow citizens to fly into Taiwan and those visitors have a mandated and tracked quarantine for them and anyone in the private home they are staying. If they have symptoms or do not have a private home they can quarantine, there are quarantine hotels they can wait out their 14 days. Anyone in quarantine is given a daily stipend.

Worth noting, while Taiwan is an island, it has a population density as high as 10,000 per square/KM in some areas. Taiwan had no business, school campus or public transportation shut downs. Strictly masks, hand washing, temperature checks, and social distancing.

frankacteron Taiwan's new 'electronic fence' for quarantines leads wave of virus monitoring

If you don't have a device/sim, one is provided.

frankacteron Show HN: Toga – Create apps from Google Sheets

Hi Sam. We maintain a spreadsheet here of our COVID-19 cases and related data around them. Curious to see what kind of engagement we can do with Toga.

frankacteron Taiwan's new 'electronic fence' for quarantines leads wave of virus monitoring

"My phone, which is satellite-tracked by the Taiwan gov to enforce quarantine, ran out of battery at 7:30 AM. By 8:15, four different units called me. By 8:20, the police were knocking at my door."

https://twitter.com/MiloHsieh/status/1241540231595044864?s=1...

frankacteron LastPass stores passwords so securely, not even its users can access them

Given you use Firefox, have you considered using the built in Sync service and companion Lockwise mobile app:

https://hacks.mozilla.org/2018/11/firefox-sync-privacy/

I seriously considered Bitwarden not so long ago when I was looking for a password manager, and then realized I also need to maintain bookmarks across platforms and devices. Sadly Bitwarden doesn't offer that as a feature.

I'm curious if there is a differentiating feature of Bitwarden over Sync

frankacteron Ask HN: Do you know any good audio books for developers?

Wow! This is really natural! Great job.

frankacteron Zuckerberg doubles down on Facebook political ads policy after Twitter ban

While I've certainly heard that statement made, the publicly stated demographic statistics do not support it.

As of July 2019, 13 - 24 year olds make up 31.9% of Facebook's overall userbase. Another 32% make up the 25-34 age range.

Compare that to some of the other platform's 13-24 demographic:

Twitter 39%, Instagram 37.3%, Snap Chat 58.5%

While Snapchat has a slightly younger audience, they also only have 210 million active users, a 13% increase from previous year. Facebook on the other hand has 2.45 billion active users, a 9% increase from previous year.

frankacteron Zuckerberg doubles down on Facebook political ads policy after Twitter ban

1) OP stated they were "notifications and polls", neither of which would contain private information or pictures.

2) You make the assumption that the school does not have a private / protected group that is used for verifying group members and protecting content from non-members.

frankacteron Apple Removes HKmap.live from the App Store

As a counterpoint, I grew up with McGruff the Crime Dog, which is still used today:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/McGruff_the_Crime_Dog

Also worth noting that K9 Units are heavily utilized by police

https://www.police.gov.hk/ppp_en/11_useful_info/pdu/index.ht...

There is a historical precedent of that association.

frankacteron Apple Hides Taiwan Flag in Hong Kong

I can't verify this part first hand, but they indicate in the article that before the 2018 model iPhone XS was released, the region code of Hong Kong was “ZP,” but it was changed to “ZA” after the newer model iPhone XS was released.

So users with newer devices would be impacted.

frankacteron Apple Hides Taiwan Flag in Hong Kong

Our phones are Taiwan models and we can reproduce it. Which iPhone do you have? If it still has the ZP region for Hong Kong instead of ZA region it will not be impacted. More here on it:

https://hiraku.tw/2019/10/4855/