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halviti

1,202 karma · joined December 6, 2012

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halviti··on Aristotle’s (apocryphal) advice to Alexander the Great on Persian elites (2013)
In Iceland during WW2 we were occupied by the British first, and then the Americans. Aside from some strongly worded objections, we just kind of rolled over and took it.
halviti··on Sweet obsession: China’s manuka madness
The concentrations are actually known, there are rating scales, with UMF being the most popular where the honey is tested for its bacterial killing properties, and each honey is labeled accordingly.

Yes, the testing isn't perfect, but at least it's something, and for many people with diseases like ulcerative colitis, where the doctor's recommendation is to remove the entire colon, this honey has offered many an alternative way to manage their disease and keep their colon.

Now, if it were me, personally I would try the honey first, even if it's never been through clinical trials, before removing my entire colon. I mean worse case I eat a bunch of honey.

I get where you're coming from, but until the science is there, there's no reason not to try foods that we already consume regularly.

halviti··on Sweet obsession: China’s manuka madness
I think that phrase was just mostly meant for the average reader of the article.

If you read the study they link, it explains the immune boosting/modulating functions of the honey.

Example: Furthermore, the ability of honey to reduce ‘reactive intermediates release’[23] may well limit tissue damage by activated macrophages during wound healing. Thus, the immunomodulatory property of honey is relevant to wound repair.

I've seen this stuff work for wound repair first hand, and I've read enough first hand accounts of people successfully treating gut-related diseases with the help of this stuff.. so maybe don't dismiss it just yet, but if this gets very popular, I don't think NZ will be able to keep up.. the prices on the stuff are already a bit much for any average shopper.

halviti··on U.S. developing sanctions against China over cyberthefts
The US has been involved in some similar activity, so it will be interesting to see if anything actually comes of this.

http://www.forbes.com/sites/kenrapoza/2013/06/22/u-s-hacked-...

halviti··on Ashley Madison founder steps down
Anyone competent who wanted to boost their numbers could just pay someone under the table to buy a bunch of vps's or vpn connections and fake all of this.

You're just creating hoops, but you're not stopping anyone.

halviti··on Apps like Tinder are a symptom of gender imbalance in the dating market
I was referring to the fact that there was no attempt to generalize or say "on average".

The people I was responding to were saying "Women use Tinder for sex" (implying everyone), and "Everyone knows what Tinder is. It's a hookup app." (implying everyone)

My comment was to point out that you can't say things like this without implying that 100% of people feel this way, which is not the case.

halviti··on Apps like Tinder are a symptom of gender imbalance in the dating market
I know several women that have used Tinder to get into serious relationships, as that was their goal from the beginning.

I'm sure the vast majority use it for hookups, but you can't generalize everyone.

halviti··on Employee arrested for theft of trade secrets from Machine Zone, Inc
It doesn't matter, he got called out on having sensitive data, admitted it, and then tried to blackmail the company with it.

The computer forensics part is pretty much a moot point after that.

halviti··on Employee arrested for theft of trade secrets from Machine Zone, Inc
If you read the affidavit, he already left the country, but had come back, they were just lucky to get him the second time through.

Also, the affidavit makes it sound like the FBI didn't even get involved until after the company confronted him about the data they knew he kept, and him trying to use the data as leverage to get a better severance package. At that point it's really more extortion than 'hacking'.

halviti··on Employee arrested for theft of trade secrets from Machine Zone, Inc
You're missing some important points:

- He is confirmed to have accessed a whole bunch of stuff he had no business accessing leading up to being let go.

- He wiped his laptop and moved sensitive company data BACK to the laptop from an external device after having wiped it

Many people wipe their laptops.. most people don't try to make it look like they didn't wipe their laptops, and when they're called out try to use the external drives as leverage for a better severance package.

The degree to what he was up to is definitely up for debate, but no doubt in my mind this dude fucked up several times.

halviti··on Employee arrested for theft of trade secrets from Machine Zone, Inc
I always enjoy entertaining conspiracy theories, but in reality if you have a problem employee and evidence of them downloading your company's important info, and have legitimate concerns that they are going to take it elsewhere, would you not call the authorities/FBI?

Regardless, if you want to know the whole story, you can read the affidavit from the link which contains literally all of the details of exactly how this played out.

tl;dr - there's really not much more to the story, the summary is exactly what happened.

halviti··on How companies make millions off lead-poisoned, poor blacks
Victims that likely don't use the internet or understand what a settlement is aren't likely to find such a service very beneficial.
halviti··on A Renegade Trawler, Hunted for 10,000 Miles by Vigilantes
Yes, but this still does not mean the web form is to blame, nor will a screenshot tell you the root cause of the problem, 99.9% of the time the numbers are fed directly to the payment processor, so it's not like there's anything to mess up.

This is why I suggested calling the card company, because they have the ability to see what went wrong and they will be able to tell you.

halviti··on A Renegade Trawler, Hunted for 10,000 Miles by Vigilantes
Honsestly, if this is something you are interested in, you should read the article. It's quite good and covers all the details of how the ship is wanted by Interpol and where these activists get the legal authority for what they do out there.
halviti··on A Renegade Trawler, Hunted for 10,000 Miles by Vigilantes
This sounds like user error. If you want to be sure, you can call the number on the back of your card and they can tell you for certain if you were messing up the payment.

I had the exact same problem yesterday, I was reading my CVV upside down.

halviti··on Filmmakers fighting “Happy Birthday” copyright find their “smoking gun”
By your logic there is no justice system, and I'm not sure that everyone agrees with that.
halviti··on What is the most ridiculous aircraft design?
Looks like they had a working prototype. Pretty impressive.

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

halviti··on Dear Google Mail Team
On top of that, how many of those thousands of threads are unique individuals.

I would venture a guess that many or most of them are coming from similar people, or at very least similar domains, or even the same mail server.

halviti··on Feds bust through huge Tor-hidden child porn site using questionable malware
I agree, but that is not the issue.

The issue was how the case was decided.

He incremented a number in a URL, and that was his ultimate crime.

Do you honestly think it's right to send someone to jail for several years because they were messing around with a URL?

Of course he likely deserved to be charged with something, but not what he was charged with, and it hurts the rest of us when things like this set a bad precedent.

halviti··on Significant Flash exploit mitigations are live in v18.0.0.209
Chrome has the option built in.

Settings -> Advanced -> Privacy / Content Settings

halviti··on How I optimised my life to make my job redundant
It looks like Troy works from home, so he's got an advantage there.

Really the majority of the article is about time management, and he does make some good points, not that I agree with all of them.

For me, I had never heard about RescueTime before, so I think overall my life has been improved by checking this out.

halviti··on Feds bust through huge Tor-hidden child porn site using questionable malware
I'm not sure if you're unfamiliar with the Weev case, or trying to make it sound like it was more complicated, but if you look at the reasons why he was originally convicted, it was specifically for typing in a URL and "gaining access" to data that was publicly available on a website.

https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20130929/15371724695/dojs-...

Unless you're saying that because he changed his browser user-agent, that makes it 'more complicated', but I think most everyone here would disagree.

halviti··on Buenos Aires Censors and Raids the Technologists Fixing Its E-Voting System
e-voting does not necessarily mean "100% digital"

it's a relatively trivial matter to use a printer attached to a voting machine to create a paper-trail.

even something like "choose your candidate, get a receipt, verify it yourself, and put it in the box"

the election results would be instantaneous, and the paper trail would still exist for irregularities.

halviti··on An Identity Thief Explains the Art of Emptying Your Bank Account
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human_rights_in_Belarus#Opposi...

Belarus is subject to US sanctions for “undermining democratic process and constituting an unusual and extraordinary threat to the national security and foreign policy of the United States”.[25] It is also subject to sanctions imposed by the European Union for human-rights violations.[26] Belarus has been determined to be a habitual violator of international human-rights laws and accepted norms of international behavior by the UN, the US, the Organization of Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly, the Council of Europe, the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, the European Council, the European Parliament, the European Commission, and the NATO Parliamentary Assembly. As stated by the UN Special Rapporteur on Belarus, “it is impossible to believe that all these people are wrong or biased.”

halviti··on Toyota ad hijacks Siri to switch off iPhones while driving
A navigation device can be messed up for any number of reasons, but none of them are responsible for causing accidents.

The only thing that would cause an accident would be if the driver diverted his or her attention from the road instead of stopping the vehicle in a responsible manner.

halviti··on Denmark’s wind farms generated 140% of the country’s electricity needs yesterday
serious question: Why focus on conservation if you're generating more than can be consumed, and it being relatively unharmful to the environment?
halviti··on The Uber Economy Requires a New Category of Worker
"Gee, I'm so excited to drive for Uber today! I don't need the extra money, I just love it!"

I've never taken an uber, but I've met many uber drivers, and I've actually heard this several times.

It's not like they are being forced to work, and many like the random interaction with people better than sitting at home.

I know one retired guy that drives for Uber on occasion. He sold his family business to his son and has more money than I wold know what to do with, but drives Uber just for fun.

Anyway, I have no real point, but these people exist.

halviti··on Tell HN: If your HN submission doesn't get any upvotes, don't worry about it
This is just how things on the internet work.

Think about it logically. Not every person is going to see every single new submission. It takes time for the submission, if it is any good, to gain momentum and rise to the level that more people will see it. The more people that see it, the more votes it will receive.

Unless your submission is really popular or noteworthy for some reason, 8 hours seems fairly typical for an average submission.

halviti··on The military tested bacterial weapons in San Francisco in 1950
If you're curious about the chemtrail crowd, I'd recommend the "documentary" 'what in the world are they spraying'

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jf0khstYDLA

It's one of the many conspiracy type videos out there, and I don't endorse the content in any way.. I just find this stuff fascinating

halviti··on Ask HN: Is shareware dead?
Shareware is not dead, but I would say the term 'shareware' is.

These days it's just software. You have free software that gives you a limited user experience or timed trial to decide if you want to buy the full thing.

Look at any app store and look at the free rankings. It's practically full of nothing but "lite" versions that only exist to give you some features to help you decide whether you want to pay for the full version.

If anything 'shareware' is more alive than ever although it goes by different names these days, 'lite', 'freemium', etc.

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