Hacker News Reader

screwedupon Hacker Says He Printed Anti-Semitic and Racist Fliers at Colleges Across U.S.

If you don't feel like reading the article: the guy wasn't printing bigoted content just to bring attention to the lack of security on printers, he seems to actually believe in this stuff.

screwedupon Why I'm leaving the R community

It's usually not considered wrong or sinful in the USA either.

screwedupon Introduction to Statistical Learning, with Applications in R

No, it's an introduction to Machine Learning (without much neural network stuff).

screwedupon China Cracks $64B ‘Underground Bank’ Moving Money Abroad

Is it really true that Chinese money prefers SF? Chinese money definitely loves LA, perhaps its impact is just more pronounced on a smaller city like SF? My knowledge on this is purely anecdotal, I'd love to see some data.

screwedupon San Francisco Firefighters Become Unintended Safety Net for the Homeless

Ideally, our government would be user-friendly enough to make this service simple.

screwedupon At Silicon Valley Bank, risky tech startups are lucrative business

Unless your whole portfolio is correlated...

screwedupon At Silicon Valley Bank, risky tech startups are lucrative business

> the bank has outperformed bigger rivals, not just by lending to fledgling firms but by taking small ownership stakes in them to help offset their higher risks

Doesn't taking equity in a company that you've already loaned money to _increase_ your risk, not offset it? Am I not understanding what's going on?

screwedupon In Atlanta, Schedule Future Lyft and Uber Rides

I've gotta ask - if people are going so far out of their way to request you in particular, why schedule the ride through Lyft or Uber? Is there some regulatory issue that keeps you from cutting out the middlemen?

screwedupon Match Group Buys PlentyOfFish for $575M

A dating site is only worthwhile if other people are on it. Obviously it's possible, but you need people on it to attract more people.

screwedupon Same-Sex Marriage Is a Right, Supreme Court Rules

The other 40% are not necessarily against it completely - they may want gay marriage but want to call it civil unions.

screwedupon Apple removes Civil War game from App Store until it removes Confederate flag

Neither does the US...

screwedupon Apple removes Civil War game from App Store until it removes Confederate flag

I don't think PaulHoule was saying it isn't a racist symbol.

screwedupon Apple removes Civil War game from App Store until it removes Confederate flag

I'm very comfortable with games that display the Nazi flag, why shouldn't the Confederate flag be different?

screwedupon On the front lines of humanity’s high-tech war on rats

Anecdotally I've been told that Alberta has some rats, they just keep on telling outsiders that they don't.

screwedupon The Price of Nice Nails

Probably because there aren't many Vietnamese-Americans in NY, at least compared to Texas and California.

screwedupon Eating Too Much Rice Almost Sank the Japanese Navy in 1882

There's a lot of emphasis in this article on how that era's ideas of what constituted science and medicine blinded them from the truth and cost them lives.

What analogous contemporary ideas will people be laughing about in the 22nd century? What parts of how we view science and medicine are costing lives?

screwedupon A Field Guide to the American Sandwich

LA's "sandwich shops" are burrito trucks. As a Texan who used to live in LA, I much prefer them to any east coast sandwich shop.

screwedupon Tinder Cuddles Up to Instagram in Latest Update

Goddamn engineers, always counting from 0...

screwedupon Key West Declared a Faux War on the United States in 1982

Did anybody else initially read this as "Kanye West Declared..." and then get really confused when they got to "...in 1982"?

screwedupon Living with a Computer (1982)

Perhaps I'm just glorifying an age I don't remember, but I'm somewhat jealous of a time when computers weren't black boxes - everybody who owned one had to buy separate components, do bits of physical maintenance, and write code.

screwedupon The 1980 Math Olympiad Program: Where are they now?

I imagine that's true once you get tenure, but not before.

screwedupon Algorithms Every Programmer Should Know: Reservoir Sampling

Clever, but that gives you every nth row - you might want a truly uniform sample.

screwedupon Wait ages for a bus and then two come along at once

I'd imagine that the platform on most light-rail trains is built so that a ramp is unnecessary?

screwedupon Canadian 'freezeway' could let residents skate to work

Ya but those ideas are boring. Here in North America we prefer whimsical to practical.

screwedupon Many McGill Education Students Cannot Calculate an Average

Partly because it's important to society.

Partly because programmers love to talk shit about their peers who studied non-STEM subjects and had a lot more fun in college.

screwedupon ‘Anti-petroleum’ movement a growing security threat to Canada, RCMP say

".. concludes the report which is stamped “protected/Canadian eyes only”

I smell a Canadexploitation ripoff of James Bond...

screwedupon Machine Learning at Stack Exchange

I think you neglected to fix the last picture.

screwedupon Internships Abroad: Unpaid, with a $10,000 Price Tag

I guess that's legit if the purpose is language immersion. The article made it sound like she was paying to find out how much she'd enjoy selling clothes.

screwedupon Internships Abroad: Unpaid, with a $10,000 Price Tag

To be fair, paying for an internship might have higher returns than paying for classes. Although that doesn't mean an internship abroad is worth a whole lot more than an internship at home.

screwedupon Internships Abroad: Unpaid, with a $10,000 Price Tag

>...a junior majoring in history and French at the University of Michigan, had an eight-week internship at a bridal boutique in Paris arranged by Global Experiences. Ms. Friedberg said that the internship, which cost $10,000, was a great learning experience but the grunt work, like serving tea and coffee to customers, got repetitive, convincing her she did not want to work retail.

Do French majors really think their best post-grad option is to be a store clerk in a France?