Hacker News Reader

lostInTheWoods3on Increased acidity found in schizophrenia and bipolar patients’ brains

Yet another reason to stop drinking Soda, one of the most acidic things that can be in a person's diet.

lostInTheWoods3on JavaScript Conquered the Web, Now It’s Taking Over the Desktop

And don't forget JavaFX

lostInTheWoods3on Technical debt as an opportunity to accumulate technical wealth

Agreed. Cleaning and correcting a code base is only part of the solution. Putting in place the policies and culture to make sure the code stays clean is the other part.

lostInTheWoods3on Special projects

The people on top desperately want us gone

This is a cynical view of the world. Maybe the people "on top" simply want to improve their company's efficiency in order to return value to investors, etc. My point being its economics, not some evil intent.

Software engineers need to recognize this common threat and organize (labor) sooner than later

And the point of that would be what? To protect our jobs by demanding that industry ignore and no longer pursue innovation? That seems like heresy for anyone in Tech.

If the day does come that AI starts writing code, the lost of our fat salaries and stock options will likely be the least of our problems; or perhaps the world will be void of problems altogether.

lostInTheWoods3on Catching a Flight? Budget Hours, Not Minutes, for Security

I had a wine opener confiscated because of the 1 inch knife ... can't imagine how someone might use a wine opener to hijack a plane

lostInTheWoods3on The 1% hide their money offshore, then use it to corrupt our democracy

Depends on where you get your news from. If all you do is watch the evening news, you will never get the full picture. Most of what is on television is so dumbed down as to be useless.

lostInTheWoods3on German government to use Trojan spyware to monitor citizens

Are we headed for civil war in cyber space? This is the kind of bs that starts to wake people up.

lostInTheWoods3on Introducing OpenAI

"just, wow" > "wow", denotes staggering astonishment. Or put more simply: minds were blown.

lostInTheWoods3on SVG Mask Artwork of the Intel 4004

"The purpose of art is to ...." Um, no, Art can have any purpose its creator bestows, including none at all.

lostInTheWoods3on China to begin two-child policy

a billion more potential farmers yes, but land and water are finite resources

lostInTheWoods3on Thimble – An online code editor

Shouldn't people who want to learn web development use the workflow and tools of professional web developers? And since these tools are free, I don't see the case for Thimble.

lostInTheWoods3on YC Backs Portable Coffee Stand Called Wheelys (YC S15) to Take on Starbucks

Starbucks customers go there for the customer experience, not for the coffee

Actually we go for the coffee. But there is something to be said for the store experience of Starbucks, it is high-class and delightful, compared to something like Dunkin Donuts.

there is better and cheaper coffee elsewhere, even McDonalds

People who can't taste the difference between McDonalds' coffee and Starbucks, are not in Starbucks demographic. For the price, you can't get a better cup of coffee, unless you're willing to roast the beans yourself.

With that said, the key issues with Starbucks, are long lines, high prices and the wi-fi squatters. I seriously doubt that a cart based coffee stand can address all of these issues.

lostInTheWoods3on Payola – A Rails engine for Stripe

It's not that the name is offensive. The definition of the word Payola, is not something you should want your product to be associated with.

lostInTheWoods3on Ask HN: 21-year-old coder recent grad has no idea what to do with his life

It sounds like you're burned out. Possibly, from spending way too much time in front of your computer. You need to find some other interests, there is more to life than writing code.

lostInTheWoods3on What was your best passive income in 2014?

You've got to consider the inflation rate which is currently hovering around 2-3%.

lostInTheWoods3on Use of Drones for Killings Risks a War Without End

To quote Walter White: We are not in danger, we are the danger. And would we want it any other way? Could we as a nation accept being second best at the delivery of death and destruction?

lostInTheWoods3on Inter IKEA Systems BV called me

The female version of guy is gal, I believe. You could write guy/gal. The word "person" is probably the only gender neutral substitute available.

lostInTheWoods3on Ask HN: How exactly does Hacker News 'points' work?

Obfuscation of the rules is clearly a key component of the voting system on HN. The less we know about the rules, the less we can game the system.

lostInTheWoods3on Introducing Avocado: A new toolbox for interaction designers

Avocado ... Also called alligator pear. a large, usually pear-shaped fruit having green to blackish skin, a single large seed, and soft, light-green pulp, borne by the tropical American tree Persea americana and its variety P. adrymifolia, often eaten raw, especially in salads.

What does this product have to do with Avocados? I know you had to call it something ... but why Avocado? Enough with the trendy product names!

lostInTheWoods3on 5-year-old Ocean Beach boy exposes Microsoft Xbox vulnerability

Sounds more like a bug than a backdoor. I would think spaces aren't an allowed character. Likely their validation regex didn't expect a series of spaces, and this edge case not being caught, somehow allows access.

lostInTheWoods3on Steve Jobs's response after getting a Google employee fired.

Make a public example of this termination

WTF? When did this become feudal Japan?

lostInTheWoods3on Steve Jobs's response after getting a Google employee fired.

He didn't demand the termination

He didn't have to. And learning of the consequence, he didn't seem to care.

a power play by the heads of HR who seem to be the real bad guys here

Really? Blame the minions? They offered someone's head to save their own.

lostInTheWoods3on Ask HN: How do I become more careful?

- Make small changes, frequent commits

- Make testing habitual

- Keep a record of everything you do

- Have a backup. Be ready and able to revert.

- Automate what you can

- Create procedures (checklists) for common tasks

- Slow down. Never rush to commit code.

If your problem is focus, identify what the distraction is and deal with it.

lostInTheWoods3on New dutch political party wants € 1,000 basic income for everyone

> Better to have rent control and other cost-of-living regulation.

Rent control is another government program that messes with the natural order of things (aka the free market). It kills the incentive of developers to build affordable housing. Why build a building if you can't turn a profit? It keeps people from moving. Why move if your rent is 50% below market? Which in turn causes a shortage of new housing stock, which drives rental prices up.

lostInTheWoods3on New dutch political party wants € 1,000 basic income for everyone

Giving out "free" money is the equivalent of the government printing money. You don't have to be an economics major to realize that printing money (or dropping it out of an airplane) cheapens the value of that money. Hence, you end up with higher prices (inflation).