It definitely is. I was bookmarking them once. There's even a snarkier version -- a kicktroll bids at the final second to $1 of funding a failing project. Yes, there is a project that got $49,999 of a $50,000 goal, with a very large troll donation in the last seconds. The owner of Kicktraq (who might read these boards), has a good knowledge of it. He seems to be some kind of savant, and can remember so many campaigns.
You can't back out in the last 24 hours if it takes a project under funding. Trust me, this isn't new and it's been debated in circles outside HN for a long while (I could list dozens of kicktrolled campaigns). The consensus is one of the reason Kickstarter is winning the crowdfunding game is it is possible to back out -- if they change that, they change the game. This gives consumers more freedom. But I think extra large amounts need new rules -- or just forbid them (as painful as that is).
"Most of my non-technical friends have only vague ideas or know nothing about these topics." -- and yet, if they are like my friends, they probably have no feelings of regret, or sense of ignorance. They probably feel more qualified to speak about things like Obamacare and evil Profit-mongering Insurance Companies than someone who does know mathematics beyond the sixth grade.
I usually find stackexchange's discussions more than ample. There are many sites whose comment system and content could use a re-hashing by HN's nerdery, but stackexchange isn't one of them. (Unless we are playing the wayback game of re-posting a question from several years ago).
I'm always unimpressed with how these geniuses can solve all the math problems posed to them in these hagiographies (whether Bill Gates or the flavor of the month). Every math book past sophomore level is full of unsolved problems that have bested the brightest minds for centuries or longer. I'm always curious just how do these geniuses define a math problem?
Since the hypothetical brokenness of SHA256 is unknown, can we be sure there is a "correct" way to implement "other purposes"? Surely, it's conceivable a new attack could exploit an unforeseen weakness in all those uses.
Just remember that dropbox started out as getdropbox.com, istock.com started out as istockphoto.com. As long as you are free and clear on the trademark, get something close. Also technical start-ups are having great luck with .io
Seriously, the algorithmically generated headline program, could automatically stage and generate common error connections and drive the HN crowd nuts.