Hacker News Reader

jdcon Partying like it’s 1999 – Initial public offerings are back in Silicon Valley

However unlike that period, we won't have to deal with a contracting money supply.

jdcon Btrfs Benchmarks

According to the date meta tag this article was written in 2007.

jdcon Accused spy Alexander Yuk Ching Ma evidently beat the polygraph

Sounds like they hit you with the Reid technique.

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

jdcon Can modern software be snappy? (2008)

cf. Dan Luu's page on computer latency:

https://danluu.com/input-lag/

jdcon Canada to Silicon Valley’s international talent: ‘We want you’

Working link: https://www.sfchronicle.com/business/article/Canada-to-Silic...

jdcon Trump blocks postal funds to prevent expanded mail-in voting

American democracy hangs in the balance. It's time for some very loud civil disobedience, folks.

jdcon How to stop procrastinating by using the Fogg Behavior Model

[...] procrastination is not (as is commonly believed) a time management problem but a problem with managing negative emotions.

Could there not be a catch 22 here where the negative emotions causing procrastination are in turn caused by the accumulating mess that said vice so often causes?

jdcon Valproate reopens critical-period learning of absolute pitch (2013)

Doesn't look like they had enough test subjects to suggest anything other than another direction for future research.

jdcon Microsoft President: We Need a Hippocratic Oath for Software Engineers

I'm guessing Brad Smith hasn't seen the Tethics episode of Silicon Valley.

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

jdcon Interview with Bill Gates on Covid, social media

Right - see the MedCram lectures on the topic:

How to Beat COVID-19 with At-Home, Rapid Result Testing: 5 Min. Summary by Dr. Mina (Antigen Tests)

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

Coronavirus Pandemic Update 98: At Home COVID-19 Testing - A Possible Breakthrough (~ 15 min)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h7Sv_pS8MgQ

At Home, Cheap, COVID-19 Tests with Results in 15 Minutes: How to Fix Testing with Dr. Michael Mina (~ 1 hr)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cP-MHKU_cQE

jdcon Electric cooker an easy, efficient way to sanitize N95 masks, study finds

Sounds like wetting the towel first would be the way to go.

jdcon Wheat yield potential in controlled-environment vertical farms

With some more lab automation and approachable exposition we'll be all set.

jdcon Google speakers are listening to more than just voice commands

Nope, its high compression comes at the cost of similarly high CPU and memory usage.

jdcon Epic Systems workers are organizing

I agree with more or less everything you've said. However I still think adding a union to the balance of power is the lesser evil in a good number of cases.

> I personally believe unions are long overdue for reform and modernization.

Are you thinking legislative or otherwise? Also, what do you think of the German model (labour representation on the board, etc)?

jdcon Epic Systems workers are organizing

Employers will try to paint organization as a hostile maneuver to justify their own hostility toward workers who try it.

jdcon Luau – A fast, small, safe, gradually typed scripting language derived from Lua

Eh the way I see it, an implementation either passes the canonical Lua test suite(s) or it doesn't.

jdcon Treating children for worms yields long-term benefits, says new study

There is a charity doing this I learned about through GiveWell.

https://www.evidenceaction.org/dewormtheworld-2/

jdcon Aquarius builds an engine others only dreamed of

According to Konigsegg they have a camless valve control system ready to go. They plan to sell 300 such engines in their new Gemera grand touring car this year.

jdcon The Uncertain Future of Ham Radio

2.4 GHz ;)

jdcon Stuck at home, scientists discover new insect species

Seeing these discoveries happening so close to home makes me wonder how the rate of speciation compares to the rate of discovery.

jdcon 30k unsuspecting Rose Bowl attendees scooped up in a facial recognition test

Maybe you can find an engineer on YouTube or Patreon that does appliance teardowns.

jdcon Amazon refuses to sell book on Covid-19 and lockdowns

Looks like the authors retracted this one!

jdcon Amazon refuses to sell book on Covid-19 and lockdowns

Then let's solve that problem!

jdcon Amazon refuses to sell book on Covid-19 and lockdowns

Healthcare professionals absolutely do wear masks. Words have meanings.

Let's make our minds up about whether the lack of papers supporting mask-wearing against the virus is reason not to wear their them.

Also I'm earnestly interested in your source on the distancing evidence.

jdcon Amazon refuses to sell book on Covid-19 and lockdowns

First, let's (not be tedious and) agree that the reason healthcare workers wear masks is to prevent airborne infections, especially of SARS-Cov-2.

Now clearly your first and second points contradict each other.

Furthermore the absence of evidence is not the evidence of absence.

Cf. Peer reviewed studies, or lack thereof, supporting the 6 ft "social" distancing protocol and, up until recently, the use of parachutes while jumping out of a plane.

jdcon Amazon refuses to sell book on Covid-19 and lockdowns

Your first paragraph is a blatant strawman on the argument presented here in the comments.

jdcon Amazon refuses to sell book on Covid-19 and lockdowns

Please elaborate on these cases in which masks have supposedly a net negative effect on the wearer.

jdcon Why So Many Police Are Handling the Protests Wrong

[...] if they are cooperative with the police, they will be arrested peacefully.

If only..

jdcon Police attacks against journalists across the U.S. since May 28

While this is very disappointing news, these matters are not black and white. That is that say that even if police attack journalists in two countries, the one where it happens less frequently still outperforms the other.

jdcon Alterations in glutamate and the experience of ego dissolution with psilocybin

[...] you're chances of getting good quality, real LSD are slim

How do you figure?