HNHacker News
TopNewBestAskShowJobs

trail-system

56 karma · joined May 7, 2020

submissionscomments
trail-system··on The CIA's Deadly Deceits and the Vietnam War, with Ralph McGehee (1986)
The stability and success of a nation in the modern world basically requires an active approach in achieving national security.

Complex obstacles require a complex approach towards solutions so it makes sense to have multiple communities working together.

And sure, horrors occur but we don't get to know what horrors are avoided.

trail-system··on Swarm satellites probe weakening of Earth’s magnetic field
I'm not in the industry. Just a fan of anomalies.
trail-system··on Swarm satellites probe weakening of Earth’s magnetic field
From NOAA (https://www.swpc.noaa.gov/phenomena/aurora)

When space weather activity increases and more frequent and larger storms and substorms occur, the aurora extends equatorward. During large events, the aurora can be observed as far south as the US, Europe, and Asia. During very large events, the aurora can be observed even farther from the poles.

trail-system··on Swarm satellites probe weakening of Earth’s magnetic field
"It's not often mentioned but these pole reversals aren't sudden/instantaneous across the planet. They can take a few thousand years to complete."

I've actually seen that fact mentioned quite often within articles and news regarding pole flips as a reassurance to the reader.

"The magnetic field will not vanish completely, but many poles might form chaotically in different places during reversal, until it stabilizes again."

The field would not vanish completely but most of the world would lack protection from massively dangerous cosmic radiations and solar particles.

trail-system··on Swarm satellites probe weakening of Earth’s magnetic field
This has been happening for 180 years.
trail-system··on Swarm satellites probe weakening of Earth’s magnetic field
"Over the last 200 years, the magnetic field has lost around 9% of its strength on a global average. A large region of reduced magnetic intensity has developed between Africa and South America and is known as the South Atlantic Anomaly."

The South Atlantic Anomaly is interesting. In past years satellites are being made to shutdown while passing the regions to avoid damage from the lack of protection from harmful particles.

trail-system··on The Web Is Becoming Unusable
It will come down to people committing to working a little harder to do things "right" in their computing.

Bad technology like this exists in part because people are using it.

We don't need legislation we need public awareness to translate into public action.

trail-system··on Governments will always suck but we need them
This article approaches a few correct points on some very obvious ideas while saying a lot of other things that I find crazy.

My personal experiences with the government have been either frustrating, inefficient, meaningless, or detrimental. At some point, you inevitably start questioning why such a large government exists and why we need it.

The authors is listing words with very specific negative emotional subtext. It barely makes sense in the context of the sentence.

"The first thing to understand about governments is that governments and corporations are exactly the same. Both are just groups of people trying to create value in some market."

The first thing to understand is generalities can be the death of any reasonable perspective.

The authors use of language betrays the mistake of personifying the government as a cohesive and singular entity.

The truth is that most governments exist as an ecosystem for many different parts to cooperate for various reasons. A very large amount of the people within that ecosystem are genuinely passionate about being able to work for the public good and do a fantastic job of it. A large amount of people within the same ecosystem do not care and take advantage of their civil service role as a means of personal/commercial benefit. Now what about the people in between these archetypes?

The actual "thing" is too varied and complex for almost any generality to be usefully applied.

trail-system··on Windows 10 Bleeds Users While Ubuntu Linux Enjoys an Astonishing Increase
Despite this article over-hyping what's happening the author summarizes things well.

"So why is Microsoft bleeding overall market share while Ubuntu is gaining so rapidly? One reason, as WindowsLatest points out, could be the COVID-19 pandemic and a significant decrease in company-owned PCs being used at the office.

And perhaps people are exploring alternatives at home."

A lot of people have more free time lately to mess around with new technologies lately across the board so while I'm happy to see that, it doesn't necessarily mean much.

Bringing up Windows 10 here is almost just for show.