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victorf

192 karma · joined June 14, 2013

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victorf··on Dogescript
I'm not concerned. This was my response to the claim that it is "very much in the hacker spirit". I find it neither utile nor humorous. I think compiling it to Javascript is trivial and not worth our attention.
victorf··on Chip designers see dollar signs in Bitcoin miners
Yes. But you're not too late to make strawman comparisons to perishable commodities with low inherent value. That market is still quite strong.
victorf··on Dogescript
I recall when LOL Cats were actually pretty funny, way back around "I has a flavor". Then people who didn't understand the language [1] overran the Internet with cats that had incredible vocabularies and immaculate grammar (they just didn't know how to spell and were evil).

The only thing that bothers me about Dogescript is that the joke is too forced. The typical Shibe pictures are just "wow", "such X", "very Y", "wow"; when one adds in the "shh", "plz", and "rly", and (even worse) starts crafting a coherent sequential story, it removes the humor from the doge meme.

[1] http://itre.cis.upenn.edu/~myl/languagelog/archives/004442.h...

victorf··on Fake femme fatale dupes IT guys at US government agency
But the queen bee is surrounded by female bee laborers.
victorf··on KitKat’s primary interface is Google Search
Depends on the user, of course. Can't an Android user swap those out? And install ad blockers on their browser as well? You'll never get me to agree that the walled garden isn't user-hostile, but it is true that some users are unprepared or unwilling to make their way in the wilderness outside of it.
victorf··on Linkedin's Response to My "Phishing with Intro" Post
Backgrounding the app closes all its sockets, or you cannot rely on them to stay open except for VoIP apps.
victorf··on Linkedin's Response to My "Phishing with Intro" Post
Except VoIP apps, since we want all apps with that capability to start on boot even if we only use them once a month, and we don't want any others to start on boot even if we use them daily. iOS regulations are so stupid.
victorf··on Why Does Windows Have Terrible Battery Life?
My EeePC is still doing quite well. Everything else I have ever bought has been a massive lie on the order of "* battery tested by doing nothing with the wireless and screen turned off."
victorf··on PredictionIO – A machine learning server
I got an unsolicited email to check out a Github project once and I didn't mind it. I ended up looking at the new project and it was neat. What made this one so irritating?
victorf··on Who exactly is crawling my site?
Add a time limit to robots.txt and block anyone who violates it. Maybe also add a nonexistent honeypot (I disallow /wpadmin on my static website haha). I've been fail2banning a lot of shitbirds and my traffic logs before and after are quite different.
victorf··on You’re infected—if you want to see your data again, pay us $300 in Bitcoins
iOS is fantastic if you aren't smart enough to use a computer. Most HN users know better than to run arbitrary apps from email, so for them it is a restriction that only prevents them from using their own device as they wish to use it.
victorf··on f.lux has been updated to a new version
45 MB is ridiculous. Opening the App Store and browsing the front page only takes 100 or so.
victorf··on Full archives of Game Developer magazine
I'd like to know this too; where are the best software and software development periodicals of any format? I don't even know where to ask.
victorf··on Microsoft pays $100K bounty to hacker
After I read that she donated the money from her YouTube to a charity to help Japan, she became my favorite pop artist of 2011. I do concede that you're right in general.
victorf··on Foxconn using forced student labor to build Sony’s PS4
Just add points to arbitrary tasks and people will do them for free and with unexpected ability. Did you know there are amateur human protein folders and they pretty much outperform computational folders?
victorf··on MTurk + Google News API = press
Cognitive bias is human nature. The example I read is you'd get many more lawyers working pro bono for charity than you would offering a low wage. This of course extends to our perception of other people doing it.

I for one think we should remove minimum wage entirely but give everyone adequate food and healthcare. If people didn't go bankrupt after a serious injury and had enough food to wait out crappy offers, an appropriate wage would appear naturally.

victorf··on SQRL - Replacement for usernames and passwords
That looks awesome. It works everywhere that OAuth does? Can it be used with a password as a 2FA?
victorf··on Fingerprints are Usernames, not Passwords
Certain Japanese cigarette vending machines had photographic age detection algorithms. Japanese children used photos of Bruce Willis to buy cigarettes. Getting a photo of your face would be much simpler than getting your prints.
victorf··on Why I gave up my US passport
But not if you explicitly renounce to avoid taxes, there's a checkbox for that in amongst the "have you ever committed acts of terror?" questions.
victorf··on Why I gave up my US passport
Obviously you are incorrect, the GP is claiming that the tax burden costs more than the worth of any privileges he's getting. I bet it's more a problem of choosing where to go permanently that isn't equally awful in a different way. Your assertion is ridiculous, as if everyone thinking about it who doesn't immediately renounce is getting fat off "entitlements" and is loving it.
victorf··on Programming is a Terrible Job
That's a shitty employer; 1. it's sadistic to require programmers not enjoy their work 2. if you've got a bunch of bored programmers you're going to lose your top-tier men and women to more interesting jobs.
victorf··on Microsoft's Surface 2 will replace paper manuals on all Delta aircraft
MS PR is weird, though, like all TV shows are set in this bizarro world where everyone uses a Surface and Windows Phone. I don't think people will care about this unless the pilots end up enjoying it and recommending it.

Maybe there's a more extensive deal; limited free wifi on Delta flights for Surface users? Plane-local wifi with access to movies via a Surface app?

victorf··on Spaced repetition for study and learning
Wow it sure does. Only slightly more plausible than "one weird trick".
victorf··on This hacker might seem shady, but throwing him in jail is bad for everyone
Oh, I see the problem now; you have no conception of how the law works and no inclination to learn it.
victorf··on JustFab.com JustFabulous Class Action Lawsuit (2011)
I always thought PandoDaily is a good name, because they are pandering to the stakeholders daily. Online "journalism"! Even CNN is more concerned with celebrities than actual wars.
victorf··on Born of Reddit, Imgur now dwarfs the ‘front page of the Internet’
Most of Reddit is a cesspool, but I always get really excited when there's something new in /r/dependent_types.
victorf··on An nginx configuration for security
This might be a good place to ask; is there a good way to get fail2ban and nginx to work nicely together? I keep getting shitbirds pecking away at /wpadmin on my website.
victorf··on Troll-Killing Patent Reform One Step Closer
No it won't. There's a reason patent trolls all use shell companies and it's because they can be totally financially independent. Declaring insolvency of one such company is nothing to the patent troll.
victorf··on Why Your Startup Can’t Find Developers
I have a lot of respect for your no-bullshit attitude towards VC-funded companies. I don't see why that would appear as a downside to employees. Most of what I've read is you talking about what a shitty deal it is for the employees; obviously you're imagining some kind of fairer compensation and I think that's nothing but a plus.
victorf··on Why Your Startup Can’t Find Developers
Surely the TX labor laws are worse for the employee than CA's, though? It might make sense.
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