Hacker News Reader

noragamion Browser extensions are underrated: the promise of hackable software

>should be able to have their permissions limited by domain

Does Chrome not support this? One more reason not to use it.

https://i.imgur.com/CJT8zsE.png

noragamion Siberian Fire and Flood Apocalypse

This is terrible. Russia is going to lose a pretty substantial chunk of its forests if there are no heavy rains soon. We've had very high levels of air pollution for the last few days here in Kazakhstan, with visibility levels of a few hundreds of meters. I mean, how many trees do you have to burn for the air to be so bad more than a thousand kilometers away?

noragamion Americans' plastic recycling is dumped in landfills

I honestly was not aware you can burn plastic with minimum air pollution. Where I live, many people warm their homes in winter by burning plastic junk they find on the street. I don't have to explain what sort of air it produces. Being in it feels like washing your face with sulfuric acid.

After living under these conditions for many years, it'll be hard to let go of stereotypes.

noragamion Hot weather cuts French, German nuclear power output

At first I wanted to post this particular photo, but couldn't find it, and now I can't edit the original comment.

https://d.radikal.ru/d17/1812/fd/ed5cc5dcd4c4.jpg

noragamion Hot weather cuts French, German nuclear power output

I am so jealous. Here in Kazakhstan we use coal-powered central heating. And here is the kind of air it gives us:

https://b.radikal.ru/b12/1902/bd/a6d615dba25b.jpg

https://d.radikal.ru/d15/1901/1b/ea0e8c26f8d2.jpg

It gets much worse in the evening.

These photos were taken in Almaty, but the situation is the same everywhere (if not worse).

noragamion Facebook Research Warned of ‘Tipping Point’ Threat to Core App

It's miles ahead of WhatsApp feature wise, except for properly implemented end-to-end encryption, of course. WhatsApp is a joke, I still don't understand why it became so popular.

noragamion How Weight Training Might Change the Brain

>everyone of your friends would be on it

No. Why are you talking in absolutes after spending so much time on the internet? There are always exceptions.

Muscular body requires a ton of energy and protein to maintain. Not trying to get on a soapbox here, but I am personally trying to minimize my impact on the environment. This includes eating the minimum amount of protein required to stay healthy. I definitely won't waste the additional energy to maintain useless muscles (which are absolutely useless for a desk job), which will not even be visible under the baggy shirts I prefer to wear.

noragamion How we built the Waifu Vending Machine

Do genes really matter all that much? Speaking as a typical armchair expert here. Judging from a few of the latest pop-sci books on heredity, I was under the impression that culture and nurture play a much greater role: high quality medicine, food rich in nutrients, good education available to all.

There's an interesting anecdote to support it. When the Soviet Union (with all its faults) was established, it has provided education to much broader masses of the population than ever before. You know how it turned out? When you read the biographies of the many of the brightest academics of the USSR, many of them are descendants of a typical peasant family. Some of their parents weren't able to read or write, had a lot of children, etc. This "genetic handicap" didn't stop them from getting a degree and becoming bright scientists.

noragamion How Stack Overflow upgraded from Windows Server 2012

Well, why shouldn't it? The way I see it, a FOSS technology stack should be the default, and using the proprietary and expensive one must be justified, as in saving significant amounts of money, or coming with some absolutely necessary technical advantages. The fact that SO is an exception (a high-profile site built on MS stack while not being affiliated with MS) kind of proves the point.

noragamion Click farms: a shadowy internet industry is booming in China

I don't speak any languages with less than a couple hundred million speakers, so I find salvation in some of the smaller, more niche communities, preferably with invite-only registration process, or simply less well known.

Increasing popularity never made anything better.

noragamion MITM on HTTPS traffic in Kazakhstan

Hijacking the comment for better visibility. After getting some backlash, the government has already backed down. They claim that installing the certificate is entirely voluntary.

https://rus.azattyq.org/a/30064788.html

They have been talking about this stuff for some years, though. It will get implemented at some point. I have a feeling it was one of their "test trials": can we boil the frog yet, or do we have to heat the water up a bit more?

noragamion MITM on HTTPS traffic in Kazakhstan

Tor has been blocked here for the last 10 (or so) years. You have to find and add a couple of bridge servers to get it working, until they get blocked as well, of course.