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tobylane

1,094 karma · joined February 7, 2011

[ my public key: https://keybase.io/tobylane; my proof: https://keybase.io/tobylane/sigs/m7i9buvF_fegt2tXdB-7pidqnYjgizgRXDQ5fWLE7qc ]
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tobylane··on The U.S. can now set its own rates for mail from China and other countries
It was xkcd inspired, and now only the twitter feed lives on.

https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php/576:_Packages

https://web.archive.org/web/20150116084115/http://www.urlesq...

https://mobile.twitter.com/trademe_xkcd576

tobylane··on Has GitHub been down more since its acquisition by Microsoft?
Do we know it’s not there already? Can’t quickly find any installs count.
tobylane··on Why Climate Change Won't Be Stopped (2018)
I don’t see the problem there, and the hypothecated problem is consistent with many others in America. It would help if taxation was simpler and more transparent, but currently it sounds like states aren’t allowed to help their citizens file because of lobbying from the software companies providing this service.

Another solution is to take some of the extra money gathered and spend it on better educating children and adults about tax.

tobylane··on Apple: Advancements in Game Controllers
SDL2 is a layer over Metal, or Vulkan, OpenGL, D3D and others.
tobylane··on London tube map made from a working circuit board
I don't think London Underground release that level of information. Thameslink does[1], Overground should too.

https://www.opentraintimes.com/maps/signalling/tlk_core

tobylane··on How would you optimally go about verifying Apple's iPhone privacy claims?
The secure processor only does the IDing function, so while it may be able to compile information on when you used which finger and detail about that print I don't see how it could get to the main processor let alone off the device.
tobylane··on Patagonia joins growing list of companies boycotting Facebook ads
I already set out why they could be considered bad for the sacrifice.

Various oil, cigarette, opioid and arms dealers have tried to clean up their image by donating, for instance to art galleries. The Getty Wing of the National Gallery, London is because of a donation and a genuine interest in art by Paul Jr. The Sackler family had their gift to the sister National Portrait Gallery turned down, a popular decision. Both have donated to National Gallery, Washington, among others. Sacrificing money is not a good measure. There will be Bible references for this.

tobylane··on Patagonia joins growing list of companies boycotting Facebook ads
That’s a lose lose situation. They could be slammed for sacrificing income for their shareholders, or they didn’t lose out therefore it couldn’t have been a genuine act. Especially in this case where iirc the company founders bought up land for one of the biggest national parks in South America, I can believe it’s sincere.
tobylane··on The US military is getting serious about nuclear thermal propulsion
Transporting fissile material with chemical rockets is dangerous, it's making a dirty bomb and hoping it explodes in one direction. That hasn't always worked for transporting people.

If we say there's no life on the Moon, we still plan to be there. The fallout could affect the use of the Moon, which is far more important.

tobylane··on The failed rollout of Britain's covid-19 app were the result of clear errors
BBC's Panorama[1] may qualify. One recent episode includes the IT bungle[2] at the retail company connected to the recently privatised Royal Mail which lead to dozens of false fraud convictions and hundreds of jobs falsely lost by firing with supposed cause or stress over accusations. The show goes back to 1953.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b006t14n

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Horizon_(IT_system)

tobylane··on Supreme Court declines to hear cases over qualified immunity
It’s a major part of common law which was inherited from England. Pre-Revolution, even English court cases, can be persuasive in modern US courts because of this history.
tobylane··on Show HN: Collected Notes – A note-taking blogging app I made
Look up the HN launch post and read the top level comments promoting other solutions?
tobylane··on Gimp 2.10.20
I use Seashore, which appears to be on version 2.5. It’s a port of gimp to native aqua. https://github.com/robaho/seashore
tobylane··on Human Hibernation Is a Real Possibility
Lindsey’s drowning and hypothermia or the liquid breathing rat?
tobylane··on Mark Zuckerberg faces employee blowback over ruling on Trump comments
Yes, but I’m more interested in the next step. Both are within their right to enact their choices.
tobylane··on Mark Zuckerberg faces employee blowback over ruling on Trump comments
Section 230 permits the platform to decide for themselves what is violent, according to https://www.theregreview.org/2019/07/15/kosseff-correcting-p...
tobylane··on Xfce switches to GitLab
They added this (reference and comparison to old heads of a PR) at about the start of the year.
tobylane··on UK government MPs are using Signal’s automatic deletion feature
Do you have a source on the 100k figure?
tobylane··on Analysis of 200M tweets discussing coronavirus suggests 45%-60% come from bots
Probably some, and I’d also welcome the research. But when 80-90% of the population support lockdown there’s less need for bots. Apple pie is less popular than ‘continue lockdown for as long as necessary’.

https://xkcd.com/2305/

As for twitter bots, I have one running by ifttt, another by script, and three more in planning. I welcome the human/bot accounts being made clear.

tobylane··on Twitter hides Donald Trump tweet for “glorifying violence”
It’s possible to have bias without editorialising, as far as I know Twitter only hides, deletes or bans. It doesn’t edit, the fact checking is appending.
tobylane··on macOS Catalina 10.15.5
GitHub Actions is a subset of Azure Pipelines, I use Mojave there and don’t intend to move to Actions.
tobylane··on UK government advisor caught out by Wayback machine
He appears to rank higher than the head of the civil service, previously the most important unelected job. He’s not a party member and is deeply unelectable, so he’ll never be a politician. I think this is his peak.
tobylane··on California affordable housing is more expensive than luxury housing
The city was given control of limited lands. The solution is to either be involved with the democracy of the city, or be outside of the city.
tobylane··on Students are failing AP tests because the College Board can’t handle HEIC images
Rule of least astonishment would be that the file is converted unless the accept header lists the heif file. At least by the expectations Apple set up, which don’t match up with standards.
tobylane··on Organ transplants down as stay-at-home rules reduce fatal traffic collisions
As well as the great reasons already given, they don’t know what your donor status is or the quality of your organs. Your family still has the right to deny harvesting.

Wales switched to opt out a few years ago and the rest of the UK is changing now.

tobylane··on Authorities say Hobby Lobby's Gilgamesh tablet is stolen, must go back to Iraq
The museum was built 11 years ago. I'm not doubting their current ability to protect the objects.
tobylane··on Authorities say Hobby Lobby's Gilgamesh tablet is stolen, must go back to Iraq
Half of the friezes had been destroyed or severely damaged by the time Elgin went there. Some of the remaining pieces have been damaged since he went. The building originally had four walls and a roof.
tobylane··on ChromeGalvanizer – Harden your browser against extension backdoors and exploits
That's a good feature, but not applicable to my setup. What I'd like is more limitations, say Grammarly can only run on pages with textareas.
tobylane··on No One Goes There Anymore
From 2003 to maybe 2019 Medicare was explicitly forbidden from negotiating drug prices. Second bullet point in this https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Medicare_Prescription_Drug,_Im...

The first world has successfully encouraged the drug makers to sell their product cheaper in the third world. If you look on wikipedia drug articles you'll see the price for the generic in the developed and developing world.

tobylane··on A one-to-one call with his majesty (1999)
Related, sorry if it’s not related enough, I’ve been unable to find the one interview the Japanese emperor Hirohito did in 1975/7 with the American journalist Bernard Krisher, Tokyo bureau chief for Newsweek Magazine from 1968 to 1980. It sounds like an interesting but mild meeting but very rarely quoted.
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