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Fnoord

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Re:US boy names that became girl names and vice versa on Tuesday November 03, 2026 @02:00AM (#50348938)
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Re:US boy names that became girl names and vice versa on Monday November 02, 2026 @06:08PM (#50345412)
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Re:US boy names that became girl names and vice versa on Monday November 02, 2026 @01:59PM (#50341808)
True, good native and traditional cultutal exceptions of a rule of thumb. Speaking for myself (NL) we have a small amount of Italian names and heritage (also due to Catholicism), and say NYC would have much more Italian descendants.

Also, as someone who saw quite some football (non-US version), I ofcourse am familiar with a lot of names. For example, Andrea Pirlo. We also learn some via history at school, since Italy plays a prominent role in Europe's history. Regarding Nicola, people might be familiar with Nikola Tesla (the 'c' in this case, sounds like 'k') and it is just a variant of 'Nico', 'Nicole', 'Nicolas'. Then there's some dude at FIFA, 'Gianni' which is a variant of 'Jean', 'Jan', 'Jeanne', 'Janet', 'Jannie', 'Janine', etc. I could go on about Gianluigi Buffon...

What I just remind myself with regards to Italian is it tends to add a vowel at end of a word or name, but it often doesn't sound same in English or my native tongue (Dutch).

Re:US boy names that became girl names and vice versa on Monday November 02, 2026 @12:51PM (#50340692)
I mean, this is US-centric data, but it is probably a shortening of 'Stephanie' or 'Stefanie' [1], the female variant of 'Stephan' or 'Stefan'. It stems from Greek, apparently: Stephanos. Its variant are used entirely throughout Europe, from Portugal to Russia.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stephanie

Re:US boy names that became girl names and vice versa on Monday November 02, 2026 @12:47PM (#50340621)
My biggest WTF on this (as a foreigner) was the late Lindsey Graham. I always knew Lindsey/Lindsay as a female name.

Either way, peeking through the list, seems to me names which end with a vowel are usually feminine. However, there's a caveat: names end up shortened, and over time even those get shortened.

'Brit', 'Britney' for 'Brittany'.

'Gerry' or 'Geri' or 'Ger' for 'Gareth' (Dutch variant: 'Gerrit'),

'Pat', 'Patty' for 'Patrick', 'Patricia'.

'Pen', 'Penny' for 'Penelope'

'Ash' for 'Ashley'.

'Tash' or 'Tasha' for 'Natasha', 'Nata(s)cha' (a variant of Nathan/Nathaniel?)

'Toni', 'Tony', or 'Ton' for 'Antonia', 'Anton', or 'Antonius'.

Skimming through the quick examples I came up with, one thing stands out: if it ends with an 'a', feminine. I believe this stems from Latin? It also appears Brittany is a very British example, whereas say 'Tony' stems from a Catholic background. People with that background get very traditional names, but they're always practically shortened. Annoyingly, you'd have to mention your complete name on say a form, but otherwise you get a wider choice since you have like three names, and they're relatively long so more variety to pick from.

Re:WTF Ubuntu? on Monday November 02, 2026 @11:29AM (#50339293)
For some games like WoW I use Faugus on Ubuntu. It ensures I always run the latest and greatest Proton-Wayland.

But this is the thing I appreciate about Ubuntu. I know my LTS is from 26.04. I know all my software (with specific exceptions) is backported from that. The previous LTS were 24.04, 22.04, etc. With Debian, I won't know these out of my head. Partly cause I am into Ubuntu, but also because it isn't opaque. I mean, I don't remember from which time Potato and Woody were (but I used to run both back in the days). With Ubuntu, I remember (the codenames of Ubuntu I forgot).

Rest of games, Steam handles. I'm hooked on their ecosystem, kind if for a similar reason as Ubuntu (loyally sticked to them). As European I'd prefer a European gaming distribution platform, but Steam is just good and a fair netizen. Linux-friendly, too. I own a Steam Deck, too. Only reason I'd want non-Steam is all these free games I got on GOG/Epic/Amazon, and maybe some good ol' emulation.

Re:WTF Ubuntu? on Monday November 02, 2026 @11:24AM (#50339206)
Careful, lest someone's going to mention Arch.

I agree btw. But I've been using Linux since end of 90s (I barely made use of the 2.0 Linux kernel series). I quickly established on Debian in the Potato/Woody era. Debian, back then, was severely slow with new releases. So I ended up with Testing. Which got slower security updates than Unstable. Which sometimes broke (like any rolling release does). Back then Ubuntu got released (we talking '04 and '06). And I just sticked with Ubuntu. On servers, too. I endured it all, including the Amazon spyware, the ads in MOTD, and the switch to an inferior in-house software management for some package (which name we won't mention).

Re:WTF Ubuntu? on Monday November 02, 2026 @11:14AM (#50338995)
I was thinking of just going entirely to Nix. The last time I tried it was 2021 (on a dual boot where I also tried Arch cause my colleague was bemoaning my Ubuntu usage). Yeah, it is annoying having to look up how to configure things the Nix way, but it all makes sense and it stems from the fact every application does it 'their way'.

Either way, I just wanted to note you can use APT to include Mozilla's Firefox and Thunderbird repo. That way, you get a .deb from them.

One specific thing I like about Ubuntu: I know a new version gets released every six months (I believe OpenBSD innovated this?) and the version is recognized by date. The LTS is released every two years around april in the even years. Otherwise it is april/october.

Re:WTF Ubuntu? on Monday November 02, 2026 @11:07AM (#50338843)
Here in NL as well. I attribute it to population ageing (babyboom generation), but AFAIK that issue is much less severe in USA than other countries which suffered in WWII. China is going to have the issue severe due to the one child policy. That population is going to get reduced a lot (not taking into account migration).
Re:Ask HN: Which TV do you recommend for privacy? on Sunday November 01, 2026 @07:48PM (#50331645)
So, I have an Nvidia Shield TV Pro. I dislike how Google had to put ads on the homescreen (ads which are not suitable for my children), and I just checked: it has Android patch level Jan 2026. It is, as of today, Nov 2026. 10 months without patches. So no patch for eMudhra, no patch for Brotli, and you name it.

Other than that, I agree regarding TV, with one caveat: you might want to update the firmware right away, or at some point. The device might need to phone home for that. In order to achieve that, you can put up a temp WLAN AP with your smartphone.

With regards to my STB: I am considering cancelling all my subscription services and simply downloading everything to my NAS. This already runs Jellyfin. Then all I need is a Jellyfin client and HDMI. Perhaps a RPi 4 or RPi 5 would be suffice there.

Re:Amazon Is Gutting Its AI Division After Sustained Failure on Tuesday October 27, 2026 @10:14PM (#50268573)
Linux (the kernel) and Git have done more in this regard, but think of FOSS in general. Without it, there wouldn't be Android. Without it, Windows NT would've won server space in the same way Windows won desktop space.

It is tools which are the commons (such as FOSS) and tools such as Wikipedia. But also open standards. LLMs cannibalize on these tools.

Furthermore, no customer wants an AI as customer bot. Especially elder people who are a bit computer illiterate can't find the real support (dark patterns). Can AI help a customer support representative? Oh, absolutely. AI can help a skilled person become better/quicker at certain tasks. But it cannot replace them, and it shouldn't either. If we do, we get all these 'fantastic' tools like *claw.

So there's three types of positions here:

1) Those who gave the order (position of power). Often a chain of command.

2) Those who planned it (usually the same or merged with group #1).

3) Those who implement the plan. The engineer, the soldier, the distributor (all down to the line of the logistics driver who delivered the evil TV), etc.

For some strange reason group #1 is called executives. They do not execute much though; they order others to, but execute sounds like they work hard, I guess. Those are indeed the most liable, and we must explain the why. Think Hitler, Himmler, Stalin, Mielke, etc. Lower down the line you get the Einsatzgruppe commanders.

The soldier who executed Jews (among other minority groups, mind you) with a gun is liable, but part of a power structure. If he refuses, he can and will get in trouble. Mass murder generates trauma, so it is executed by pawns or pawns of lieutenants. NKVD solved this by using others to execute.

Ergo: the higher up the chain, the more liable these people were as they had more power to say no.

That someone else would say yes is a red herring excuse. An engineer is in a position of power. They're an educated specialist in their field, they get paid for their job (not forced to implement in West), can say no. They can even blow the whistle. If those in power cannot find a fool to do their errands, they must do it themselves (and they cannot as no expertise), or lay down the idea.

The gas used to gas people in concentration camps didnt magically end up there. They weren't lied to that they'd get a shower by people who didn't knew what would happen. They knew or could've known, but they chose not to act.

(I'm using older examples of genocide as they are established and well documented; I am aware of more recent examples, but 1) this hasn't been solved legally, 2) I leave that comparison as an exercise to the reader.)

> Rally they're just doing what we've known for a while [...]

s/we/I

Not 'we' or 'everyone' knew this. The write-up proving such, and a content creator summing it up (if done poorly and you can do better; time to compete?) was worthwhile for a significant amount of people.

> [...] that all TV manufacturers are doing.

Ah, everyone is doing immoral things. Then it is OK. Somehow?!

Some of us remember a past where this wasn't OK. Where not everyone was doing this. I still got a TV from that time.

Tell you the truth, I don't want to even pay the electricity this malware would require to function.

Market gets flooded with these devices. Someone notices they are cheap, opens a Reddit thread about what is going on. Google Search picks it up. Now people who search for this TV (new or used) see a hit about malware in this TV. Buyers need to perform due diligence. However, in EU, sellers need to inform buyers of obvious negative sides of a product. Malware appears to be one of them.
Starlink? So I guess the TV cannot be used to harm Russian citizens :>

In that case we find where the antennas are and sabotage them. Aluminium foil around your TV (it can just be covered in for example plastic or black paper), or in/around walls.

I skimmed through the list. It is a couple of brands, none of it is recent hardware. Talos II (super expensive IBM Power workstation), TPE (not to be confused with TP-Link) networking stuff (old standards, like 1 gbit, 802.11n), some rebranded IBM/Lenovo X200, some old USB peripherals. There's nothing worthwhile on this list. No monitors or TVs (the topic at hand!). No keyboards (even though there is FOSS firmware for keyboards), except for I suppose X200. Not even Stallman's old MIPS laptop (Lemote Yeeloong) is on the list.

Linking this list is like saying you can live in a world without war in some remote cave where you have to eat mushrooms growing in it. Cool that exists (or not); but it isn't relevant. There's nothing worthwhile in the cave. No treasure trove.

Re:Show HN: Steal My Bitcoin on Sunday October 25, 2026 @02:05AM (#50228777)
How so? Anyone can do this, if it fits their agenda. Especially useful way to use your stolen/extorted BTC. If I had an exploit for this right before or right after embargo was lifted, and I could do that again, then it is in my interest to have cybersecurity people get more lax. For example, any secret agency in the world could be behind such a psyop. But also any criminal group or company invested in this field. You seen recently (Shinyhunters) how people can wear double hats.

Another trick could be to increase hype. Original author could've done that, for example because they always planned to burn 1k USD in BTC on this for whatever reason.

And then there's the trick to hope others follow, after which he, ehh, magically takes the money. That's a bit akin to ICO scams.

Can I prove any of the above theories? No. But the author cannot prove their motives are sincere either.

It was used on you, you were subjected to it. You cannot avoid that. That's the entire point. Before you get born, a computer is used to assess your health. If you want to watch TV, well you can't buy a TV without a computer anymore. Anything which uses the internet contains a computer with TCP/IP stack. Going on school in my country almost guarantees you end up with Chromebook or large touchscreen in classroom.

So when someone in West says they never used a computer in 2026 (or even just this decade) I don't believe them, unless they're so old they never used a mobile phone, don't watch any TV, and live like really sheltered like a hermit in some squad. A policitian needs to communicate; they surely use computers during their endeavor. Even the very old POTS is essentially also computers, same with old CRT TVs, ATMs, or computers used during public transport.

Ergo, the point is they've almost surely used computers; theyare just not aware how omnipresent computers are in our world,and ut isn't even a recent change either (the recent chamge is that they're 'smart' ie. 'networked' (TCP/IP stack).

Trump was organizing a coup. Lula wasn't. Big difference.
Everything which contains a microchip [1] is a computer, and you used it (or: 'it was used on you') with an echoscope around when you were in womb for around 20 weeks. Computers are everywhere, and it matters in this context: some minister saying they never used a computer (any computer) is something which is so unlikely (I mean, even a traffic light contains a computer) that it matters how it gets (strictly) defined. Nowadays, it is even more complex, given smartphones, smartTVs, laptops being used on elementary school, etc.

[1] https://www.asml.com/en/technology/all-about-microchips/micr...

You've used a computer the moment you aren't even born yet.
First of all: kudos to Oz!

Better late than never. And this is very late.

IIRC Europe was on this as well e.g. Meloni regarding OpenAI.

Now that governments are banning remote LLMs controlled by authoritarian governments by proxy (CN, USA) it is time for companies to realize they shouldn't do that either.

The alternative? On-prem open models. Performance a little lower? Too bad, it ain't worth the risk. A privacy officer can value the risk, but that would be a case by case scenario and is expensive employee (lawyer), so not worth the effort.

Don't do it. You'll be liable.

Re:Verisign .com Domain Name Registry Consumer Class Action on Tuesday October 20, 2026 @09:58AM (#50166575)
Cool words which apply if you are in USA. If you are not in USA, the Trump administration demonstrated you are better off with a domain of your country (usually a ccTLD).
Re:Verisign .com Domain Name Registry Consumer Class Action on Monday October 19, 2026 @02:00AM (#50148891)
The real class action is the issue of a fascist government declaring antifascism terrorism, making all bank transfers void, seizing their domain (.org). They could do the same to ICC and ICJ, or anyone they dislike really. Most root-servers are located in America, too.

That some company is behind .com or some TLD and earning some money with that is a nothingburger.

Why does it have to be web-based? Discoverability? There's Minecraft and Lego. I discovered the CLI of MSDOS when I was a kid. It was a world to explore for sure.

There used to be pictionary online, web-based, which used Shockwave. iSketch I think it was called. There's probably alternatives these days, but I wouldn't know them. And regarding the Roblox issue: yes, some **heads were drawing ** pictures. Screw those people. This is what you get when you interact with total strangers. It brings the worst in people. How to solve that? Play with strangers-lite. Play games with people who are local to you. Yes, issues may ensue, but at the very least you can contact each other as parents.

Re:Wanted to download an ISO, ended up writing a kernel exploit on Thursday October 15, 2026 @07:46PM (#50111914)
Well, I don't think this build quality is solid [1]. With OpenWrt you have more freedom than FritzBox. But the UI is pretty idiot-proof indeed.

[1] https://borncity.com/win/2024/07/20/fritzbox-7590-router-the...

> The Dutch police imaged the drive, gave it to the Americans and gave the server back to XS4ALL which itself appears to have shutdown too I think

Xs4all was owned by KPN, but was an independent daughter company. They got merged fully merged with KPN a little less than ten years ago. The article mentions DC1 is a successor of Xs4all's DC.

If this server is Freeteam (and it probably is) then this server has been used for various left-wing activism collectives, and got confiscated by Dutch police various times throughout the years. For example, a death threat to Geert Wilders by some troll (server didn't log, as it intentionally never logged). The data was encrypted at rest, but you know how that goes. Everyone and their mother had shell access to Freeteam. (I'm someone's mother.)

A/I volunteers shutdown all their servers themselves because running an org which is sanctioned by USA as a terrorist organization isn't doable. This was one of the few servers which wasn't yet dissolved.

Re:Make Tmux the OS on Saturday October 03, 2026 @04:58PM (#49947716)
You could put it as PID 1 (with a small amount of modifications), you could put it as login shell (with a small amount of modifications), you could put it in your shell login script, or you could just do tmux a whenever you log in and tmux is already running. You can also save tmux sessions via a plugin. You can also configure each tmux window to open a specific program.

With tmux as an OS, you end up with a TUI web browser (there are several). While you can watch pictures and videos in a terminal, and vim keybinds are strong in a TUI web browser (reducing a learning curve), I wouldn't want the option to run a GUI web browser to be unavailable. So it makes more sense to have a tiling WM/DE, where with one keybind you to your terminal being fullscreen to your terminal multiplexer. But sometimes you want it floating! Then you put it (back) to floating. I also think that you can set up sway pretty much like tmux, except for the resuming/session part. Although my sway config (back when I ran sway) had an auto start of different windows with different applications.

Rooms 1986 project reminds me of Project Looking Glass [1] (or rather: the other way around). Rooms probably also inspired SGI IRIX' fsv (as seen in the movie Hackers from 1995), and Doom as a file manager. Still, I think the 3D exploration of your computer is neat. I don't know if VR glasses allow for this (they probably do), and I also don't know whether the sacrifice (it costs money, and you lose vision of your surroundings) is worth it. As such, I'm usually reminded AR is the better option, except if you want to be fully immersed. Which you very well might want to be while working.

Now, is all of this necessary? Opinion. I believe the macOS HIG is already so good (with other HIGs getting closer) that the answer is no. And for a quick terminal, you can just have a quake-like keybind (Ctrl + ~). On macOS, too, there's multiple ways to add tiling.

(There's also zellij, tmux clone written in Rust with sane defaults.)

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_Looking_Glass

Re:Mike Tomlin spent 12 years building a Minecraft city on Saturday October 03, 2026 @03:12PM (#49946875)
(I had no idea who this guy was, as I am not from USA.)

As autistic person, I am not surprised. People hyperfocus on interests which scratch their itch (people with autism tend to be better at hyperfocus). A hyperfocus on gaming (specifically physical sports) fits in an autism profile, as does a hyperfocus on building a large (virtual) world. Keeping the build to yourself is akin to writing a book, not publishing it. In this case, the book is published.

If you will, he is manager/coach and player at the same time in Minecraft. Or, from a different PoV: IRL he is the coach, IVL he is the player (gamer).

Notice how his son did setup the A/V aspect of the recording, and how he is terrible with controller. PC gamer! I'm 40+ and would be terrible with either as well, CBA with it either.

Btw, I watched the video with my kids. They're aspiring Minecraft players, and enjoyed watching it -in awe- with me.

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