roadkillon101
|
7 years ago
|
on: AWS Drives More Than Half of Amazon's Operating Income
AWS is a byproduct of Amazon's e-commerce business, that became a viable service of it's own. It was a brilliant move to monetize the excess compute power Amazon had to have on hand for it's e-commerce business. Without the e-commerce business, AWS wouldn't exist.
roadkillon101
|
7 years ago
|
on: Why isn't the internet more fun and weird?
The internet these days is alot more accessible than it use to be. Back in the 90's you had to be more tech savy and you needed to be able to code because no one has written the software that could do that thing and there was even less documentation. Now these days, you get a web hosting account. run C-panel and install WordPress in just one click (Wix if you know even less). Heck, you don't even have to code the HTML, just select a template you like. Probably 50% of the static sites are CMS. The point is, as the software and platforms become standardized commodities where you don't have to learn anything to use it, the less innovation you will see from individuals as most people don't want to learn, they want the benefits without paying their dues.
roadkillon101
|
7 years ago
|
on: DOJ: Hackers broke into an SEC database and made millions from inside info
I'm more curious about how they hacked into the SEC database? Did they use an email trojan? Exploit an existing flaw or backdoor? If they did this via e-mail, who did they send the mail to?
roadkillon101
|
7 years ago
|
on: A Colombian I.T. Guy Helped U.S. Authorities Take Down El Chapo
I guess you need to be selective about who your clients are. Just because they can pay you very well and buy any equipment or service you suggest, doesn't mean you should have them as a client. You don't want a client who will hunt you down and kill you if the network goes down. :(
roadkillon101
|
7 years ago
|
on: The engine for Amazon earnings growth has nothing to do with e-commerce
It's interesting that Amazon Web Service (AWS) makes them profitable, NOT the e-commerce business. Like many others, I buy plenty of stuff there, but without their cloud infrastructure, there would be no Amazon. In fact, they found a way to monetize their excess cloud capacity for their e-commerce platform which is probably the most expensive resource to build and keep idle is a stroke of genius in hindsight.
roadkillon101
|
7 years ago
|
on: Sears has another chance to avoid closing down
Brick and Mortar retail has to adapt and change with the technology and the times. Sears COULD have integrated retail with online shopping IF they remembered to focus on what ONLINE couldn't deliver. Brick and Mortar retail isn't going away for those who understand it's real value. It has to focus on what the online business can't do... customization of products, personal service and relationship building. If their salespeople became consultants and the products they sold were better suited for customization, they would have built a LOYAL customer base that needed their expertise.
roadkillon101
|
7 years ago
|
on: 75% of med students are on antidepressants, stimulants, or both? (2017)
Dr Wible who wrote the article on med students on medication (antidepressants and/or stimulants) did a TEDMED talk on "Why doctors kill themselves"
http://www.idealmedicalcare.org/why-doctors-kill-themselves/
which refers to the problem with the medical system itself.
If the healer is mentally ill (and most of them are), how can we expect the best medical care? The fact that med students take medication is just the tip of the iceberg.
roadkillon101
|
7 years ago
|
on: Analyzing Core I9-9900K performance with Spectre and Meltdown mitigations
How would you write a program to use these exploit? Unless I'm mistaken, I'm under the impression you have to talk directly to the processor through the kernel in order to do any of these exploit. You would have to write the code in assembler or use a special library to do predictive branching?
roadkillon101
|
7 years ago
|
on: Marble Marcher: ray-traced real time game on the surface of evolving fractals
roadkillon101
|
7 years ago
|
on: Does AI make strong tech companies stronger?
Depends on what model you use for the AI and in what field.
With ML you have a model that dictates your constraints and how it applies what it learns.
If you have an AI that models let's say Hannibal and his tactics on a battlefield, well you may do well against many opponents in a battle simulation. On the other hand if you modeled "Bevis and Butthead" and had that AI run a restaurant, you may have a colorful but disastrous result.
You would have to find an appropriate context for the model to be useful.
roadkillon101
|
7 years ago
|
on: An Apology and an Update
While "banning by ip" will work for discouraging most users, a VPN service or a Proxy service (Socks, ssh, etc)
would make it irrelevant if someone wants to use a service like slack, facebook or google...It just inconveniences those
who do want to use it bad enough. To me, it's a "band-aid of compliance" to whatever agency has requested them to do a ban on certain countries IPs.
roadkillon101
|
7 years ago
|
on: China hacked HPE, IBM and then attacked clients
True, nothing is "unhackable" and it reminded me of Oracles corporations challenge about 10 years ago... they placed a billboards and marketed that they had an "Unbreakable" system...within hours they were "hacked" after doing this announcement.
What these companies can do is change their premise for guarding their customers information. Instead of putting a singular firewall around their information system, they "compartmentalize" their customers info so they may get one or two customers info not hundreds or thousands at a time. Further, the critical info of each customer can be further "compartmentalized" to make the information difficult to access.
This is how they approach Cardholder Information Security Program (CISP) with cardholder data.
This approach ASSUMES the information at some point will be compromised, so with this assumption, when there is a breach, the damage will be limited not massive as it was the case with IBM and the other companies involved.
They could have done something like that, however based on the media play they are doing now, I'm guessing there are hundreds if not thousands of companies involved.
roadkillon101
|
7 years ago
|
on: John Giannandrea named to Apple’s executive team
Ease of use and friendliness of the user interface is what the spirit of Apple Computers is all about. If I were to guess Jobs might be focusing on if he were alive would be the convenience and ease of use of Apple products. I think voice communications would be something he would use. That is based on his various biographies about him.
Whether this is ethical or morally right to have tech go this direction is another matter. Ease of use is the trend.
roadkillon101
|
7 years ago
|
on: China hacked HPE, IBM and then attacked clients
This is an example of the "tail wagging the dog". Whether a "State Sponsored" organization hacked IBM or someone in their mothers garage, IBM and other companies ARE responsible for keeping their customers data safe. While it's true a state sponsored entity would have more resources than a kid in a basement, IBM has the resources to pay for full time IT security professionals and for the amount of money they charge for their products and services, they should have more than enough resources to pay for decent 3rd party Security products and services. They KNOW they have a target on their back, it's their responsibility.
roadkillon101
|
7 years ago
|
on: Internal Tensions at Facebook Are Boiling Over
roadkillon101
|
7 years ago
|
on: Ask HN: What are your “brain hacks” that help you manage everyday situations?
Being able to install a good habit and replace a bad habit is really the "ultimate" brain hack.
On forming a habit:
Basically you start with a very small habit that doesn't take a whole lot of willpower to do and consistently do it...like do 1 sit up, and do it EVERY DAY.
I like how this idea is outlined in mini habits.
https://minihabits.com/about-mini-habits/
Once you have a habit formed, it's AUTOMATIC and you don't have to think of it anymore.
When you learn to CHAIN related habits together, even small ones, the changes are LIFECHANGING.
Making big complicated techniques for managing yourself is just plain tiring and your working against your own human nature.
Keep it small and simple and you will see significant changes over a short period of time.
roadkillon101
|
7 years ago
|
on: Unknown Civil War Faces are Being Identified Through Facial Recognition App
