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penguindev

233 karma · joined June 13, 2013

Fuck the downvoting sheep; try some critical thought.
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penguindev··on Ask HN: I was let go for writing about my depression. What should I do?
- I went through clinical depression myself 10 years ago. I think the OP deserves a second opinion.

- I would tell someone with type 2 diabetes to stop taking drugs and instead stop eating the carbs (of course the politically correct pharmaceutical / govt response is to take drugs which only treat the symptoms - funny how financial interests work). Again, first hand experience with this.

penguindev··on Ask HN: I was let go for writing about my depression. What should I do?
I had to think about your question for a while. However, I think the issue is the premise: you imply "has it better" = "how you feel". Whereas Dr. Frankl says (and has observed) "you always have the power of choice, that's the one thing nobody can take away".

So no, I would say you can look to either people "having it bad" or "having it good" and finding in both cases they have the power to make choices.

penguindev··on Ask HN: I was let go for writing about my depression. What should I do?
Have you read "mans search for meaning"? That guy lived in a concentration camp, so you probably don't have it that bad...

Hope you find something better than pills and/or paying a shrink for the rest of your life. I know you can.

penguindev··on Microsoft takes .NET open source and cross-platform
So when are they going to stop suing android for having the nerve to try to interoperate with their shit FAT filesystem?
penguindev··on If money doesn't make you happy, you probably aren't spending it right (2010) [pdf]
>If I ever again have quite some money to spend

Sounds like voice of experience from both sides... ?

penguindev··on Even with 2FA, Google accounts can be hacked with just a phone number
This article is conflating two things:

- two factor login (you need password + sms text)

- account recovery (using only a phone) THIS IS DUMB.

I only use an alternate email for recovery (my wife and I cross). Thus, each recovery account is still 2FA secured.

There's already been a story floating around about a young kid charging his dad's credit card because of the phone recovery option (he had the android phone in this case). This is NOT the same as 2FA auth.

penguindev··on The Raft Consensus Algorithm
To me it's clearly simpler. Paxos involces special client numbers (to guarantee ordering), but you still have to fall back to randomized delays to avoid livelock; raft just starts with randomized delays up front.

If you can read the raft paper and come away also knowing how group membership changes (wow) and log compaction works, in additional to the "basic" log replication consensus, that's huge.

edit: I'm sure it's still 'hard' to implement, like bringing a brand new replacement machine up from scratch (copying the full data set over, to warm him up, and then starting replication efficiently), i.e. there's still a lot of coding to do

penguindev··on The Raft Consensus Algorithm
hmm, actually watching the paxos video posted above - even basic paxos needs randomized delays to avoid livelock with multiple proposers. ouch. so why would people choose it over raft?
penguindev··on The Raft Consensus Algorithm
This is pretty awesome and I think only real hardcore folks who need time-guaranteed leader failover (like, I don't know, a heart pacemaker or something) would stick with paxos. (Assuming paxos can provide that).
penguindev··on HTTP Origin-Bound Authentication
horrible intro; tl/dr. Someone tell me specifically WTF I give a shit about this, what the pros/cons are. And write a concrete intro.
penguindev··on Four Banks, Including JPMorgan, Fined in Europe Over ‘Cartel’ Behavior
One puppet (WH) appointing another puppet (fed chair) IMHO. We all know it.

Re: BIS, I haven't looked into that much; I'm afraid I'm depressed enough already :-)

penguindev··on Four Banks, Including JPMorgan, Fined in Europe Over ‘Cartel’ Behavior
I would like to offer a small historical perspective on the power of banks:

Legal Tender Act, 1862 [1]:

"Thaddeus Stevens, the Chairman of the House of Representatives Committee of Ways and Means, ... denounced the exceptions, calling the new bill "mischievous" because it made United States Notes an intentionally depreciated currency for the masses, while the banks who loaned to the government got "sound money" in gold."

Banks always get the first class life boats, and set their own rules (think about it, they buy influence, it's not that hard when you're a bank). I think Europe just missed some kickbacks the old fashioned way.

1. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Note

penguindev··on Four Banks, Including JPMorgan, Fined in Europe Over ‘Cartel’ Behavior
I disagree about the federal reserve being a government entity. It's owned by banks - a "self regulating" private cartel by charter. Even congress can't "audit" the fed. The fed controls the government much more than vice versa.

Sure they will spin some line like 'profits' from the fed go to the government (profits above which are distributed to the private bank shareholders, of course!) but that's like saying I get reward points for every dollar I charge on a credit card. If you really think banks are "giving up" a lot of profits, you might want to check the total % of profits that go to the financial sector in the US economy. What are "profits" anyway when you can just print money - what is profit measured by?

Furthermore, even your 'small banks' that "loan" money under fractional reserve rules are, if you squint, awfully close to counterfeiting as that can raise the money supply 9 fold.

So I recommend you keep digging and follow the money.

penguindev··on Four Banks, Including JPMorgan, Fined in Europe Over ‘Cartel’ Behavior
> this is nothing compared to the banks getting caught fixing the LIBOR rate a few years back

It's really nothing compared to the fact that banks can print trillions of dollars of credit out of thin air - and not go to jail for counterfeiting. Heck, counterfeiting used to be a capital offense in this country.

So the lesson is always: rules don't apply to rich people.

penguindev··on A Brief, Opinionated History of the API [pdf]
Man, if you thought there were too many lawyers in programming already... just wait until we have retroactive protection of (corporate owned) APIs (and instruction sets?). Talk about a 'submarine' attack.
penguindev··on Is reheated pasta less fattening?
as far as cravings - that's a bit strong of a word but here are some things I missed and was glad when I found a substitute:

* there's a really good pizza recipe that is just cheese for the crust. amazing. Its better than regular pizza, really.

* lasagna/spaghetti you can use zuchini or spaghetti squash as noodles, and can eat in a bowl (just a tad more soupy), still tastes great (again, I love italian)

* I went through a phase where I ate cheese crisps (microwaved cheese, super yummy like crackers) and made flaxseed wraps (like bread). I don't make either any more, just pointless work.

* Pork rinds are amazing - good with soup, like a cracker, like croutons for a salad, with guacamole, nachos, hummus, or peanut butter. (note that the last two are easy for me to indulge on, I just have to watch)

* I Make 24 eggs at a time as a fritatta, make a pork shoulder in the oven, braised chicken thighs, oven roasted whole chicken, big batches that have many servings.

* I used to eat cereal every day, I but got over that quickly enough - now it's just 2 eggs each morning (slice of fritatta).

* I like hamburgers, but usually just eat them plain with a few pickles on top. less messy, and frankly you taste the meat more.

* I gave up beer completely, which I used to drink with pizza. Now its just red wine once in a while.

I don't go out to restaurants much because frankly we have better food at home and admittedly they're not usually low carb oriented. But you can always get a burger without the bun. Or a gyro plate. Mexican fajitas (hold the tortillas and chips) are a winner too.

I started off reading the wheat belly blog, and after I lost 10 pounds I bought his book. I also recommend "The art and science of low carb living". There's also great vids on youtube of atkins & LCHF stuff. I also read william banting's old pamphlet for inspiration.

penguindev··on Is reheated pasta less fattening?
Congrats on such a long time sticking with it.

I've been on low carb 2 years, no wheat, down from 225 to 180 with 0 exercise, and I'm 34. In the middle of that stretch, I had a regression due to eating too much fat (fat bombs, sour cream, heavy cream, butter, etc.) and I bounced up.

So I decided to just eat protein and what fat comes naturally with it, and not add any extra pure fat, for as long as I'm trying to burn my own fat. And that's worked well - basically meat, eggs, cheese. In fact, I'm probably about done with the loss phase now. Yay!

And I don't get 'hangry' as my wife would say, due to blood sugar crashes, so mentally I'm much better.

penguindev··on Is reheated pasta less fattening?
So low tar cigarettes are not as deadly as regular. Let's all have low tar cigarettes, because they're healthy.

Yeah, that's shamelessly ripped from Dr. William Davis, but it shows the logic problem.

I have to shake my head at people trying to run around the problem of carbohydrate intolerance by insisting theres a 'healthy way' to consume them. Any other food would have people advising you to stay the hell away from it if you're intolerant. But you know why carbs are different? Because they're so cheap, and governments for whatever reasons seem to want a large population (in more ways than one) rather than smaller, healthier ones.

Anywho, good luck to everyone doing the exact opposite of what the government funded "science" and corporate "health care" tell you what to do. It would be hard to do any worse...

penguindev··on Is reheated pasta less fattening?
That's how I was until I hit my 30's. Insulin problems take a while to develop.

I've been on low carb, no wheat for 2 years now. It's been a miracle, really...

penguindev··on Making the HTTPd run 20% faster with qrintf-gcc; a sprintf-optimizing compiler
1. nothing generic is as fast as making your own custom solution

2. a lot of libc is lowest common denominator / tons of bloat. printf/sprintf probably does extra locale, multibyte charset, and thread locking shit you don't want.

penguindev··on Prison Bankers Who Profit from the Inmates
Amateurs. We're all prisoners to ZIRP, QE, 'collectible' taxes on gold, and central banking which is all legalized counterfeiting for the .01%
penguindev··on Ask HN: What important truth do very few people agree with you on?
I totally agree; many drugs are a racket these days, made only for profiteering "sick care", and the government is totally on board with it.

Two examples I can personally testify to: treating people who don't yet know their life's purpose with mental drugs / electroshock, and treating people who are carbohydrate intolerant with.. more carbs.

penguindev··on Adobe joins the Chromebook party, starting with Photoshop
I should have said "all credentials". The local one may unlock all of the other remote ones. Or you just enter the remote ones directly. Point being, theres a lot to protect. Is a keepassx password a "local credential"?
penguindev··on Ask HN: What important truth do very few people agree with you on?
That overpopulation isn't binary, it's qualitative, and having more than two kids/family is reducing the well being of the rest of us.
penguindev··on Welcome Back to C++ (Modern C++)
As a 15 year vet, I agree, surely its time for something with new design goals.

- safe by default: you have to opt in to extra magic / conversions. c++ is totally broken here. sure, we'll let you easily use uninitialized data/classes with auto generated constructors, and do conversions on your arguments, that was what you meant, right? I mean really, the shortest and quickest thing to do should always be the safest. make the speed freaks opt in to the 'leet / magic stuff'.

- still keep the option to use exceptions for stuff that, you know, is actually exceptional in your project.

I'm actually looking at modern java and finding it not horrible, but there are some issues in java that don't exist in c++ like 1) nulls 2) type erasure of generics 3) stupid object.equals() defined by default and not typesafe. Sigh.

penguindev··on Adobe joins the Chromebook party, starting with Photoshop
You'd be preventing your local credentials from being phished / stolen, keyloggers installed, your machine from being in a botnet...
penguindev··on Adobe joins the Chromebook party, starting with Photoshop
A comprehensive post. Just to add to 2) Chromebooks are DRM friendly, and chromecasts are locked as well. Google bought wildvine DRM and my guess is DRM can be pretty much expected to win for media/software, since hardware makers are on board and they've had enough tries to get the crypto implemented right. Even intel cpus have DRM on board (intel insider). The only threat to DRM now is it relies on human beings keeping secrets [edit: and having as few people / companies who know the master secret as possible], so if the economic value in breaking it is high enough, someone will get paid off / extorted to leak it... whereas 1) is probably safer from attack, and 3) can get hit by adblock+ right now...

Definitely fun watching the battle play out, and as a programmer with a family to feed I must admit I'm hoping for a way to value virtual creative goods that isn't $0.00 :-)

penguindev··on Everything you need to know about the Shellshock Bash bug
It appears they are talking about requiring prefixes for these vars (finally). Still, you look at the c code / macros that parse this shit and have to shake your head. This is what they mean by "attack surface". http://www.openwall.com/lists/oss-security/2014/09/25/13
penguindev··on Adding strlcpy() to glibc
I agree with drepper on this; it's a solution in search of a problem. You should either know WTF you can accept or use a higher level construct that can resize. Silent truncation seems bad - truncation attacks are a real attack vector that SSL, for example, tries to prevent.
penguindev··on A Single Div
maybe this will actually work in more browsers than svgs do. I tried about 15 inkscape-made svgs the other days, really simple clipart, and out of 3 (current!) browsers most of them rendered differently :-( One svg was different in all 3 :-(
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