throw2016 | 6 years ago | on: Russia, after protests, tells Google not to advertise “illegal” events
throw2016's comments
throw2016 | 6 years ago | on: Understanding Docker Container Escapes
LXC had unprivileged container support since 2013 so that part is fairly mature now. 'Unprivileged' in this case means the container process itself is running as a normal user.
throw2016 | 6 years ago | on: I work in an Amazon warehouse in West Sacramento
Let Amazon workers fight for their rights, why are outsiders who do not do that work skeptical of their concerns? What is the basis?
We are always talking about free speech, democracy and protest and yet it seems when people use these rights a whole group of prosperous and well off individuals who don't have anything to do the conditions of the protestors rush to trivialize and dismiss their concerns. There is something extremely mean and smallminded about this.
throw2016 | 6 years ago | on: What's Coming in Python 3.8
Anyone making this argument should be prepared to to accept every single criticism they make in their life moving forward can be framed as 'their resistance to change'.
This kind of personalization of specific criticism is disingenuous and political and has usually been used as a PR strategy to push through unpopular decisions. Better to respond to specific criticisms than reach for a generic emotional argument that seeks to delegitimize scrutiny and criticism.
throw2016 | 6 years ago | on: PiHole-Google: Completely Block Google and Its Services
The value of these platforms are not technical, they are entirely from the human element and everybody should be able to participate without opening themselves to surveillance and abuse.
Like everything else to run a civilized society we need laws and its unfortunate that this basic first principle of organizing human society needs to be reiterated and debated right untill 2019 because of propaganda by Koch brothers and their ilk on a self serving libertarianism which is as fantastic as a disneyland version of reality.
throw2016 | 6 years ago | on: Google Chrome has become surveillance software. It’s time to switch
Privacy has a value on a one to one basis. That's why no one is going to give you their phone, yet they will make dissonant statements online. And privacy has a far higher value on a societal basis for a democratic society.
Surveillance capitalism is anti-democratic, hugely abusive and solely for the profit of a few. These are bad actors. That's why societal rule of law needs to kick in but as we know money and greed creates its own logic so that may take time. And till then there will be no shortage of apologists with a vested interest in surveillance trying to 'normalize' it.
throw2016 | 6 years ago | on: Lenovo Shipping Ubuntu Linux on 2019 ThinkPad
For those of us who have tried to get Linux working on laptops 5-10 years ago this is quite a jump so clearly people have been working on this in the background to get to this state. Was using WSL earlier but after Ubuntu worked so well may as well use it. Of course for those who use Windows only apps WSL remains a good option.
Also have an Matebook 13 and tried Ubuntu after this experience on the Zenbook and there too it worked out of the box on a hi-res screen with dual graphics but you need to use either the prime drivers to use both, or use bbswitch to put off the Nvidia card for the best battery life. So it seems for recent laptops Linux works pretty well out of the box.
throw2016 | 6 years ago | on: Asian countries take a stand against the rich world’s plastic waste
Do you have experience or exposure to the recycling, waste management and landfill industry that you can share? Have you spoken to any landfill managers, have some idea of the volume of plastic waste and the landfill industry? Or is this just speaking from the gut?
Most articles have experts[1] and researchers[2] expressing grave concern about waste and microplastics from landfills seeping into the environment and polluting animal ecosystems and even our own water and food supply that would give anyone cause for concern. Positioning that concern as 'negative emotional reactions' without providing any science or evidence about why it is so seems unscientific in the realm of wishful thinking.
[1] https://www.epa.gov/sites/production/files/2018-03/documents...
[2] https://www.theseus.fi/bitstream/handle/10024/114539/Kilpone...
throw2016 | 6 years ago | on: Asian countries take a stand against the rich world’s plastic waste
The entire comment essentially says 'nothing to see here' and positions any concern as 'unscientific' and overreaction.
You see this on HN every time in cases of nuclear power and the environment externalities. This may benefit people who make money from it but no one else and actively derails discussion and environmental concerns.
throw2016 | 6 years ago | on: Boeing seeking to reduce scope, duration of physical tests for new aircraft
This raises even more questions about the stock markets accurately reflecting business sustainability, revenue pipelines and brand damage given 737 Max orders are now essentially over. [1][2]
[1] https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-03-14/boeing-s-...
[2] https://www.wsj.com/articles/boeing-737-max-deliveries-fell-...
throw2016 | 6 years ago | on: Boeing seeking to reduce scope, duration of physical tests for new aircraft
Boeing's CEO is incredibly still in office inspite of damning evidence of incompetence which is a straight indictment the whole concept of 'shareholder interest' and accountability.
Can anyone provide one instance where shareholder interest has ensured some kind of accountability of management? Why shouldn't Boeings top management be fired for seriously damaging the company and the brand?
throw2016 | 6 years ago | on: Relicensing CockroachDB
Similarly If you do not believe in open source can you hold anyone else to account by the principles of open source? And if you are committed to open source do bad actors need to be given the same privileges that are extended to everyone else? Do they get to play the 'principle' card that they themselves do not adhere to?
Cloud providers are profitable and the work of these app developers arguably has a role in their growth and profits. AWS, GCE and others are solving all their business problems. Why should it be so difficult for them to build a mutually beneficial relationship with open source projects? Or the pipeline of projects they can use breaks down.
If they just want to take without adhering to the spirit of open source, then playing the open source card whenever confronted seems too self serving.
throw2016 | 6 years ago | on: U.S. Warns Of Spy Dangers Of Chinese-Made Drones
There is clearly one set of rules in operation for a chosen few whose companies get access to global markets without fearmongering and thus can grow uninhibited and then the real world where evidence-free scaremongering, demonization and sanctions are used to limit market access, sabotage others and destroy competition before it forms.
And citizens of the former get the privilege of articulating a set of free market values in a depoliticized context free world that don't hold in the real world. But its better this happens than it doesn't so the rest of the world can see through the self serving hypocrisy and plan accordingly. Those with this mindset will always find a way to limit others.
throw2016 | 6 years ago | on: Google’s Shadow Work Force: Temps Who Outnumber Full-Time Employees
Those who are actually concerned with the plight of disposable labour will have little issue with the press having the same concerns.
throw2016 | 6 years ago | on: Google’s Shadow Work Force: Temps Who Outnumber Full-Time Employees
Its troubling to see this immediate rush to claim persecution and victimhood by those who have power.
throw2016 | 6 years ago | on: Interview with DuckDuckGo CEO Gabe Weinberg
Our societies are shaped as much by technology as by the incessant greed of a few often couched in euphemisms like 'innovation' and 'drive' to justify their value but these only accrue to a few. Behavioral targeting and surveillance have negative externalities for everyone not making money from it, and even for them in the wider societal and long term context.
If this is the behavior we are incentivizing then either we provide strong regulations to counter greedy and unethical behavior or accept these as our fundamental driving values without fabricating a 'feel good' alternative reality as a fig leaf or feigning shock at mercenaries in our midst.
throw2016 | 6 years ago | on: Higher Social Classes Have an Exaggerated Belief That They Are More Capable
Here is a study that is not able to replicate the most referenced study on subsaharan and Africa iq [3]. The tests were done on uneducated people, handicapped people, people in remote areas and in poor conditions ie under trees which is not the recommended test procedure. Higher scores were also intentionally dumped in favour of poorer scores for vague reasons with evidence of data massaging.
This kind of 'science' is extremely damaging especially when cherry picked results and sweeping conclusions that these kind of studies do not and cannot support are widely cited outside the scientific context by bigots and racists to construct a narrative that dehumanize others. The nobel laurette James Watson expressed 'gloom about Africa' on the basis of these studies.
There are a lot of well known funds like the pioneer fund [1] and volker fund that have spent tens of decades on 'race' science and that formed a lot of basis for Charles Murray's bell curve. There are not hundreds of heavily funded organizations in Africa and Asia trying to prove others are somehow lower iq or 'inferior'. This effort has been ongoing for over 250 years, first it was brain size and now its iq and evolutionary psychology. What exactly is iq measuring, can we measure something that we don't understand?
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Replication_crisis
[2] https://www.vox.com/science-and-health/2018/8/27/17761466/ps...
[3] http://www.iapsych.com/iqmr/fe/LinkedDocuments/wicherts2010....
throw2016 | 6 years ago | on: Maker of US border's license-plate scanning tech ransacked by hacker
There is so much cognitive dissonance and denial in the tech community and their role not just in building but also defending and whitewashing narratives that its becomes difficult to see movies and read about surveillance dystopia and be expected to feel creeped out and then return to current reality where its sort of normalized and ok.
throw2016 | 6 years ago | on: Dstat project ended due to RedHat replacing it with its own dstat tool
Are you saying anyone running a Python2 project can expect to have Redhat reimplement it in Python3 secretly and have people defend it on HN? This kind of behavior is simply indefensible.
It's obvious there is a culture clash of open source developers sponsored or working for corporates conflating heavy activity on Github that they are paid to perform as their day jobs as the only open source model. But open source was traditionally about people having other jobs and using their spare time to develop open source without profit motives because they believed in the movement. They certainly did not face corporates and paid developers analysing their frequency of contributions to dismiss their efforts and justify an unethical takeover.
throw2016 | 6 years ago | on: Dstat project ended due to RedHat replacing it with its own dstat tool
Why should repo activity without context be used as an indicator of anything in discussion instead of focusing on what Redhat has done?
This is openly hijacking an open source project by a billion dollar company because it can and makes a mockery of not only open source colloboration culture but basic professional behavior. Has Redhat reached out to the author, made any requests, tried to work out some way forward, offered to pay for the brand name? Cmon this is simply indefensible.
Now suppose Russia already has a history of meddling in US internal affairs and funding coups within the US, will Russian youtube with videos on US protests be really even allowed to operate here? Would anyone here even be making arguments about democracy, freedom and enlightenment?
There is always a kind of dissonance and double standards in these discussions. You can't let the harassment and persecution of whistle blowers like Assange, Snowden, Manning, the protestors at Standing Rock and immigrant activists and other brazen attacks on democracy go unchallenged and then claim to be 'concerned' about democracy in far off Russia or China. That is politics, not concern for values.
These values if they are to have any meaning can only apply to actions not actors, and using them to to demonize some and excuse others renders them meaningless, and in many ways this has already happened with the widespread abuse of human rights and democracy by some to achieve other objectives.