HNHacker News
TopNewBestAskShowJobs

liberal_098

27 karma · joined November 5, 2017

submissionscomments
liberal_098··on How Silicon Valley destroyed Parler
IF we proceed from the hypothesis that X is "a hate site, filled with conspiracy theories, radicalization and racism"

AND we want to ban the whole platform X,

THEN it would be logical to ban also all the layers down the technological stack: AWS, Google Play Store, Telecoms that transported the traffic etc.

Indeed, X platform has approximately the same responsibility as other platform layers and hence they all should be punished.

Another idea is to punish them proportionally to their ability to check the content published on the platform so that telecoms probably will not be punished at all because they are not able to read encrypted traffic.

liberal_098··on Nothingness (2017)
The question can be reformulated as whether non-existence (nothingness) exists which is obviously a contradiction. Nothingness is the opposite of existence and hence it does not exist by definition.
liberal_098··on Turkey determined to control social media platforms, Erdogan says
> Freedom of speech is specifically freedom from the government interfering with your speech

Yes, it is an important point but somewhat old. Nowadays it can be generalized: freedom of speech is a protection of the stage from monopolization by anyone (being it a government, company or private person). I would say, now it is more important and much more difficult to protect the communication channels from giant companies which are much stronger than most governments (and in many cases actually control the governments).

liberal_098··on Turkey determined to control social media platforms, Erdogan says
> The government controlling social media platforms is vastly different from a collection of companies controlling social media platforms that they built

If the difference is measured by the effect produced then in many cases it is zero, that is, there is no any difference. For example,we frequently see collective censorship which effectively means the absence of freedom of speech.

In fact, there exist also other interesting forms like collective (or democratic) racism or collective (democratic) totalitarism. For normal people, the origin of these rules does not really matter.

liberal_098··on George Floyd Protest – police brutality videos on Twitter
> brutality is kind of a global phenomenon

I am afraid that it is not limited by police. You can see it everywhere. For example, downvoting a post with an alternative opinion and trying to have one opinion is a sign that you will be a good policeman. People like diversity only if it is a minor deviation which in this sense only confirm the dominance of one opinion. And this behavior is visible almost everywhere: police, governments, protests against police, forum moderation etc.

liberal_098··on Lidl to Launch Rival to AWS
> If Hetzner ( Also from Germany ) cant / isn't competing with AWS, why does Lidl thinks they can?

Probably they want to repeat the success of AWS and apply the same pattern. Their retail businesses will provide base load for the cloud. Their own services can be developed in such a way that they can sell them to other retailers as cloud services. Or they develop a market place and switch to platform business.

liberal_098··on We Chat, They Watch
> Downvotes don't mean censorship.

Good question. I think it does if downvotes result in inability to express an opinion (as opposed to simply having downvotes shown).

If downvotes are used to suppress freedoms then downvoting is a means of censorship. In other words, there is no big difference between prohibiting something by one person (dictatorship) or by 10 persons (collective dictatorship) (if it is not prohibited by law of course).

liberal_098··on We Chat, They Watch
> Yeah I agree that most in China don’t think much of it (or often don’t even realize censorship is happening on their exchanges). But it’s still tragic.

Hm... Why is it tragic? Simply rephrase it: most Americans do not even realize there is censorship". Is it tragic? If yes then for whom? Probably not for them but rather for external observers.

liberal_098··on Moscow Publishes Photocopies of Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact, Secret Protocols
> USSR took back territories that Poland took from USSR in the 1919-1921 Polish-Soviet war

Essentially, Poland was occupying these territories between 1921 and 1939. Also, Poland had a dictatorship (quite typical in Europe at that time) and they were highly aggressive with respect to their neighbors: Polish-Ukrainian War (1918–19), Polish-Lithuanian War (1920, culminating in Żeligowski's Mutiny), Polish-Czechoslovak border conflicts (beginning in 1918).

liberal_098··on Moscow Publishes Photocopies of Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact, Secret Protocols
Not only a smart move but also quite typical for that time. Note that Pilsudski was a kind of dictator and the Polish government was rather aggressive with respect to all its neighbors. Therefore, the war between Germany and Poland was a collision of two dictators - Hitler and Pilsudski.
liberal_098··on New variety in the chip market, and trouble for Intel (2017)
I think it is all about future and whether Intel will be able to adequately respond to new challenges in order to avoid the fate of Nokia or Kodak.
liberal_098··on Estonia plans to become a free public transport nation
You ask as if it were some criminal activity. Actually, I find using external funds not bad at all whether they are used directly or indirectly (feasibility studies, investments in infrastructure like roads etc.)

I just wanted to say that without having significant financial support from EU Estonia would hardly be able to carry out such experiments with "free" services.

liberal_098··on Estonia plans to become a free public transport nation
The main question is who will really pay for a "free" service, which is obviously not free but rather is a kind of flat rate.

In the case of Estonia the expenses could be directly or indirectly covered from EU budget (which is filled by NL, DE etc.) and also the experiment is possible due to relatively low salaries. I cannot imagine such an experiment in NL.

liberal_098··on Estonia plans to become a free public transport nation
> World's First Entirely Tax-Funded Public Transport Nation

World's First Entirely EU-Tax-Funded Public Transport Nation

Estonia gets quite significant subsidies, subventions, grants and whatever other aid from EU so they can afford such experiments.

Interestingly, EU officials are also happy because they see the impact as opposed to having money simply disappeared - which is not an exception. Only EU tax payers and donor countries might not be happy because they have to pay for this fun and for their own transportation too - but who asks them :(

liberal_098··on Fieldbook is shutting down
> The flagship feature was a way to link sheets of data to create a relational structure.

It is also the most difficult feature to implement from the theoretical point of view and non-obvious feature for the users to understand. Therefore, we still have the relational world and the spreadsheet world existing separately almost in isolation.

liberal_098··on Ask HN: Best way to build a data collection pipeline?
Kafka is probably the best option in this case.
liberal_098··on Ask HN: Which dual pane file manager do you use on Linux?
Midnight Commander: http://midnight-commander.org/
liberal_098··on IoT Sensors Monitor a 1,400-Kilometer Canal in China
They solved the problem of connectivity but there are also many other problems many related to the data they receive from the sensors. It is probably not enough to simply store or monitor this data. Analyzing such amounts of data could be the next challenge.
liberal_098··on CIA created code to impersonate Kaspersky Lab: WikiLeaks
> Did they manage to trick Thawte into issuing real SSL certificates for Kaspersky's internet domains?

Most probably something really simple with the goal to trigger some resonance in media when nobody will ask about SSL certificates and then forget about it.

liberal_098··on Ask HN: Does your Amazon Echo talk to you without being asked?
Voice recognition systems can be activated without saying a word by sending commands at very high frequencies (ultrasound). It is because of the ability of microphones to detect these frequencies. This could be used for jokes when an assistant like Alexa will say something while nobody has heard anything. Or by hackers, for example, to unlock a phone.

https://techcrunch.com/2017/09/06/hackers-send-silent-comman...