Hacker News Reader

tryingagainbroon Secret Service Agent Sentenced In Scheme Related To Silk Road Investigation

24 Months for this is crazy

No it isn't. It's USA, snatch a chain (not trivial considering the trauma to the people but still...) while having a gun and you may get 99 years (Texas). Steal millions or billions and get a sentence of months.

tryingagainbroon Secret Service Agent Sentenced In Scheme Related To Silk Road Investigation

Let me explain: people who have a chance to steal (or another word) will do so. Of course will I get caught, chances of that, possible stealing...will be calculated.

Some steal little, some steal as much as the can. Some will get caught, others will get medals

tryingagainbroon Secret Service Agent Sentenced In Scheme Related To Silk Road Investigation

Hmmm...someone in ancient Egypt--via state connections--had the chance to steal xx kg ok gold simply by using his position and did it...

tryingagainbroon Secret Service Agent Sentenced In Scheme Related To Silk Road Investigation

It will be newsworthy even 5000 years from now just as some things from 5000 years ago are news worthy today. Power. Corruption and all.

tryingagainbroon Secret Service Agent Sentenced In Scheme Related To Silk Road Investigation

(Almost) everyone has a price. Show a suitcase containing $5 mil to a border agent making $90k a year, and he'll let you pass 10 tons of cocaine...and maybe even ask his wife to sleep with you (if you request it). Humans and all...

tryingagainbroon DOJ: Strong encryption that we don’t have access to is “unreasonable”

100000000000000% wrong. Store a file from your offshore account--showing that you avoided $1.78b in taxes--at home and IRS can raid it at any time with a court order. The same applies to all your documents, papers.

The 4th amendment doesn't mean you can do every illegal thing in the world and never fear the state...simply the state cannot engage in fishing expeditions. If 5 kids are reported missing from your neighborhood, and a day later you have a backhoe digging on your backyard, be ready to answer a few questions--that may lead to other questions and warrants.

>>The risk of the government abusing it's power in a completely legal way

No such thing in a western /democratic society. After you go all the levels, you must obey. Sometimes it sucks, but...

tryingagainbroon DOJ: Strong encryption that we don’t have access to is “unreasonable”

And do what with an encrypted one? They want the contents, not the phone. Frankly, they might even return it after making a copy of it /fingerprints etc.. Spend $1m on a zero day for each case? What if they run out of zero-days?

tryingagainbroon What is a Bitcoin fork?

Until it's on again. Didn't they fork a few months ago too (Bitcoin Cash)?

tryingagainbroon DOJ: Strong encryption that we don’t have access to is “unreasonable”

His comment makes sense to 99% on non-tech people, and if it was possible it would make sense to all. Would we want to open Bin Laden's iPhone?

He wants you to have your home with 100 locks, guard dogs and armed guards. BUT if a court orders you, you have to let the police in to check x, y and z. Now I don't think that a secret key can be somewhere and stay safe for a long time. It will be leaked or hacked. This places hundreds of million innocent people at extreme danger of having everything personal revealed.

So, IMO, giving the cops a master key opening all our doors "if needed" doesn't work. TSA does that, but presumably while cameras are running, and this is stuff we know it will be searched. So encryption is the best option.

tryingagainbroon Sean Parker unloads on Facebook “exploiting” human psychology

Facebook cares about EARNINGS, every quarter. The same thing that made Sean Parker super rich. Not "exploiting human psychology" isn't in their 10k report or mission statement. Yeah, they care about the world being connected or whatever, so they can serve ads.

tryingagainbroon Segwit2x Bitcoin Fork Suspended

Bitcoin will do very well...until it doesn't.

tryingagainbroon Too poor to retire, too young to die (2016)

Leave USA...$1000 a month goes a long way in a lot of countries, in USA you'll starve. https://www.kiplinger.com/article/retirement/T037-C000-S002-...

tryingagainbroon Alcohol and tobacco kill far more people than opioids

at the risk of being called a heartless idiot:

doesn't the body get used to opiods so x months or weeks later they no longer work as before? If so, seems like a losing game

tryingagainbroon Saudi Money Fuels the Tech Industry. It’s Time to Ask Why

Saudi Oil Fuels Our cars and Industry. It’s Time to Ask Why.

At least we're getting some of the money back in investment.

But yeah, a major investor, especially in hard times can have clout and can influence a lot of things. With one suggestion...

tryingagainbroon How Apple sidestepped a 2013 crackdown on its Irish tax practices

It's not evasion. They're paying everything they're legally required to pay. If the state proves that they didn't pay what was required by law, they'll pay it, with penalties.

tryingagainbroon How Apple sidestepped a 2013 crackdown on its Irish tax practices

USA can make it illegal probably but they will not (treaties? And /or a total breakdown of the current system.)

Should Apple pay 35% if they can legally pay 5%, with some maneuvering?

Then we can ask: Why not pay 50% since they're really profitable?

tryingagainbroon How Apple sidestepped a 2013 crackdown on its Irish tax practices

I'm with Apple on this one. The government can make it illegal if they wanted to. But it's not so Apple of John Doe should not be bothered for doing legal things when it comes to taxes.

If what they're doing is illegal, slap them with a fine too (like EU did...it's currently on appeal i think)

tryingagainbroon The sound of the dialup, pictured (2012)

I used a 14.4 modem for about a year

"No one will need more than 14.4 kb /s. 14.4 kb /s ought to be enough for anybody."

tryingagainbroon Alcohol and tobacco kill far more people than opioids

Overeating also kills. Lack of exercise kills and so on.

Opiods are different, IMO, because they are generally issued by doctors, and they can kill you pretty quickly. Alcohol and tobacco, while dangerous, do give quite a bit of time to change and be saved.

Obviously the govt should do anti-smoking campaigns, but opiods are different.

tryingagainbroon Twitter employee deactivates Trump account

read the comment I replied to https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15617061 he offered $10 to the next employee. My guess is that anyone who disables Trump's account because they can will be fired.

tryingagainbroon Twitter employee deactivates Trump account

Now that's FU money, because they'll need it. "Great resume. So, you were at Twitter. And you got fired for what exactly...?

tryingagainbroon What I Learned from Losing $200M (2015)

If that $3k were paying a mortgage debt, it would be servicing more than $600,000!

Sadly, $600K is nothing in healthcare costs, at least retail price. A snake bite can cost $153K https://www.cnbc.com/2015/07/21/hospital-appears-to-charge-1... https://www.cbsnews.com/news/rattlesnake-selfie-results-in-a...

tryingagainbroon Twitter employee deactivates Trump account

someone has to do it...they can't have a board meeting each time they deactivate any random account. I'm sure for VIP accounts safeguards will be put in place.

Why was the employee allowed access after being fired /leaving is the question.

tryingagainbroon Stack Overflow reducing headcount by 20%

Let's say that the law requires a 90 day notice. Maybe you can fire them today--as long as you pay them for 90 days while they sit at home. The spirit of the law is that you have sometime to look for another job so it's all covered.

My point is that we don't know the details, a tweet is way too short.

tryingagainbroon What I Learned from Losing $200M (2015)

peaked at about $36K/year

So leave USA for a while or forever, if you need to pay $3000 a MONTH for insurance. WTF?

Unless you have a very, very specific disease everything will be solved in many other countries, at a lot less. By paying cash if needed.

tryingagainbroon Why Timber Towers Are on the Rise in France

It's still wood, granted full of glues and chemicals.

tryingagainbroon What I Learned from Losing $200M (2015)

2 mil was all you had, more or less? Must've been devastating.

You could live like a king in a lot of places with $2mil...almost for life. Not in NYC but the world has a lot of countries

tryingagainbroon TransferWise announces $280M investment

Plus they'll be able to increase the fees by x% little by little...judging competition

tryingagainbroon 'Big Void' Identified in Khufu's Great Pyramid at Giza

100% agree. Let's wait, been waiting for millennia already. Otherwise, next year another team has another curiosity that requires just a small hole...and 2000 years later the thing is crumbling.