Hacker News Reader

sumthinprofoundon Who makes the most reliable new cars?

This has been common in the US for at least a decade now.

sumthinprofoundon Dell in hot water for making shoppers think overpriced monitors were discounted

All of my grocery shopping is done on my supermarkets website and sorting by unit price brings up the price per pound or ounce or whatever that products unit of measure is. For paper towels it returns $ per square foot, so even if the product size is different the price per unit of measure stays the same and makes it easier to comparison shop.

sumthinprofoundon Choosing a Name for Your Computer (1990)

we name devices based on the inventory asset tag we affix as a prefix + the acronym of the department the device is assigned to as the suffix. clean and consistent across thousands of devices.

sumthinprofoundon Lawsuit accuses DoorDash of charging iPhone users more than others

This happened back in 2019 with a restaurant I have a stake in. We did not enter into an agreement with Door Dash. Door Dash would call and place a pick-up order. The driver would come in and attempt to pay for the order with a debit card. The card got declined. Another (exactly the same order) gets called in, a different driver shows up - card got declined.

Staff thought it was a scam. They noticed the same type of debit card was used for both orders. Finally a driver informed us it was a door dash order. They scraped an old menu online with outdated prices, and loaded the debit card with the amount they calculated from the outdated menu.

Staff called back the phone number that placed the orders, explained the issue, and let Door Dash know there were 2 orders (sitting for over an hour, no longer saleable) that they owed [amount] for before we would take any additional orders from them, and that they needed to pay in advance over the phone before we would make any more food for them. Horrible experience, would never do business with them.

sumthinprofoundon Ask HN: How do I keep my elderly father safe on the internet?

My father (85) similar scenario falling for scam emails and phone calls. Walked in on him installing rdp software as the "Microsoft support tech" instructed him to do when he called the number in the email that told him he had a virus.

Changed his desktop pc so his account is no longer admim (can't install software). Additionally, the websites he can visit are now allow-list only with everything else blocked.

sumthinprofoundon California bill would require high schools to hand out free condoms

https://www.nyc.gov/site/doh/health/health-topics/condom.pag...

>>Free products are distributed at local businesses, community-based organizations and health care facilities. The Health Department's NYC Condom Availability Program gives away more than 30 million free safer sex products every year to over 3,500 locations throughout the five boroughs. These free products include male NYC Condoms, internal condoms (FC2) and lubricant.

sumthinprofoundon Andy Jassey Calls for Amazon to Return to Office

this has been my experience as well.

sumthinprofoundon US stalkerware developer fined $410k, ordered to modify apps to reveal spying

> some apps didn't even need to be installed on an iOS device; instead they could exfiltrate data from the iCloud account linked to the device. But to get such information as social media logs, the app buyer would need to "jailbreak" iOS devices or "root" Android systems, essentially getting around built-in protections...

sumthinprofoundon A single line of code brought down a half-billion euro rocket launch

https://militaryembedded.com/avionics/computers/optimizing-r...

sumthinprofoundon Microsoft clarifies that game activity is shared with third parties in new ToS

> ESTIMATED READING TIME: 55 Minutes; 14268 words

sumthinprofoundon Stop using app icons for political activism

I've always set custom icons using a consistent theme in my android phone's app launcher for years.

sumthinprofoundon I only care about the helpful notifications, not the promotional ones

Grubhub does this as well, so all of their notifications are disabled by me.

sumthinprofoundon How to stop junk mail

I read a story about Brave's (the browser company) use of EDDM here on HN today:

https://brave.com/usps-mailers/

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=31622128

sumthinprofoundon How to stop junk mail

Years ago I completed the permanent opt-out for everyone in my household (needing to mail in a paper form is shameful). However, very few unsolicited junk mails since. For any that get through I call that company's support line and request removal. Works ~90% of the time.

One cool free feature the USPS does offer is Informed Delivery [0]: Every morning around 7am I get an email from the postal service with scanned images of all the mail (face of the envelope) I'm receiving that day.

[0] https://informeddelivery.usps.com/box/pages/intro/start.acti...

sumthinprofoundon The last Howard Johnson's restaurant closes in Lake George, N.Y.

In high school teachers would take me to their house on my lunch break to fix their home computer then buy me a steak and cheese on the way back to school. Definitely some red flags there.

sumthinprofoundon New York state passes right to repair bill

>> Notably, the bill doesn't pertain to medical devices, home appliances, agricultural and off-road equipment, or public safety communications equipment. However, right-to-repair advocates have their eye on those areas as well. The bill also doesn't cover motor vehicles.

sumthinprofoundon Ask HN: What to get for my brother's 50th birthday?

I would not have known better to even consider this. Useful to know!

sumthinprofoundon Ask HN: What to get for my brother's 50th birthday?

I once found a 2 hour introductory flight lesson on groupon that I gifted as a birthday present. They had a great experience.

sumthinprofoundon Show HN: I built a cyberdeck just for fun

Neuromancer vibes. I like it.

sumthinprofoundon Show HN: Top Links from Hacker News, Reddit, Techmeme, PH on a Single Page

I would subscribe via RSS if a feed was available.

sumthinprofoundon Joseph Stiglitz: 'We should shut down the cryptocurrencies'

2019

sumthinprofoundon Vintage computer ads

I recall alot of advertisements in computer magazines from the late 80s featuring bikini girls and sexual innuendo.

sumthinprofoundon Walmart Anticipates a Store Manager Shortage Despite $200k-a-Year Pay

Agreed. I was considering attendance, but completion would be a much different (and meaningful) metric.

sumthinprofoundon Walmart Anticipates a Store Manager Shortage Despite $200k-a-Year Pay

from the article > Walmart last year dropped the dollar-per-day fee employees paid to participate in the company’s subsidized university degree program, a move that boosted participation by 44%

Apparently it had a significant difference.

sumthinprofoundon Walmart Anticipates a Store Manager Shortage Despite $200k-a-Year Pay

In 2020, the average wage of an hourly worker in a Walmart store was $14.76. Over a year, that $1 a day comes out to a month's car payment, or child care. I believe you can be driven to complete college courses and still not be able to afford it given the average pay at Walmart.

sumthinprofoundon Ask HN: How do you deal with rude interviewers?

Absolutely!

sumthinprofoundon Ask HN: How do you deal with rude interviewers?

Anytime I have brought colleagues in to interview a candidate, during the introduction, I'll note that "Bob from devops will be joining us, but he may get called away" based on the circumstances however I would not appreciate a coworker stepping out without an explanation for the candidate as that would reflect horribly on the organization in my opinion.

sumthinprofoundon How many Linux commands can a 7 year old learn?

As I was reading OP's story I flashbacked to my first introduction to technology at that age. I'm most grateful for them raising me intellectually curious, reading to me at a young age, and to never say no when I asked them to buy me a book.

My father (84 now) is up to date with technology, he gets the mechanics and can perform his tasks (windows, android, roku) but I don't think he has a conceptual model of how any of this works. It was fascinating to me growing up, if you gave him a budget for buying a computer he could spec out the best "bang for your buck" knowing 8GB RAM > 4GB RAM and a 1Gig HD is > 500 MB HD without actually understanding what the components were. He was never interested in that level of detail, just show him how to click and do it.

sumthinprofoundon How many Linux commands can a 7 year old learn?

At 7 I was banging on an electric typewriter and red LED calculator. My mother could explain how pressing a typewriter key triggered a typebar and left an impression with ribbon. Fascinating. She couldn't explain how the calculator worked, but she let me punch the numbers in when she was balancing the checkbook and how it all added up. Magical.

A few years later and I was typing in c64 basic programs from the back of magazines. Then it was I showing my father how to schedule and print little league baseball games, and my mother how to track her bowling tournament results.

Thanks for sharing your story. It is amazing what kids can do with just a bit of a nudge.

sumthinprofoundon Walkthrough of UHC’s claim reimbursement form game

From the way the author explains the data they are required to enter, it sounds like a HCFA 1500 form they are completing, which is a standardized form. It is not simple for first timers, and it looks like UHC's web-based implementation might overcomplicate things. Youtube has some good overviews of how to complete the form. With the actual paper form in front of you it makes more sense (the form also includes definitions and instructions on the back). Many providers will provide the completed form for you after payment for easier reimbursement, but submitting paper as opposed to filing electronically, at the expense of a quicker turn around time.