News for hackers. Stuff that matters.

gfo

Re:WiFi without internet on a Southwest flight on Friday September 29, 2023 @11:38AM (#37705828)
You use standard pressure (29.92 inHg) above transition altitude, which, in the United States, is 18,000 feet. Pilots wouldn't be changing the altimeter after climbing past this point, and would start using local values once descending through it again.

Of course, your initial point is still correct: there could be slight variations if using those local settings and getting different values, but you'd only see that below transition altitude.

Re:Microsoft Lays Off 10k (5%) Workers on Wednesday January 18, 2023 @12:00PM (#34429357)
Most employees at tech firms, Microsoft included, are awash in their employer's stock. It's not in their best interest to intentionally tank the stock.
Re:The Dangers of Microsoft Pluton on Tuesday July 26, 2022 @11:56AM (#32239999)
This is almost the entire thesis of Zero Trust Networking principles. Somehow, the user AND the device need to attest to validity during the authorization process.

"Validity" for a device can mean many things (latest patches, is running anti-virus software, among other things).

A general user probably doesn't need to attest to these things. I would argue that anyone trying to access a corporate or some other organization's network SHOULD be required to attest to these things given the cyber threat landscape. The caveat: those same entities should provide or heavily subsidize the platforms they require (work computers). It's their IP at risk. I'm not so naive to think they would actually do this with BYOD initiatives, unfortunately.

For personal users on personal devices, I agree this might go too far (but some principles like MFA are best practices).

Yikes. Despite loving this album, I really thought there might be merit to this lawsuit.

And then... this article. Smells like a money grab to me as well.

Re:Google reports soaring attrition among Black women on Friday July 02, 2021 @11:37AM (#27712875)
I see the point as well, but it seems like a lot of theatrics at this point.

For example: the rainbow flag has always been for the LGBTQIA+ community. Now the flag has the added triangles with white, brown, aqua, and magenta for... black and trans folks? If that visibility makes folks feel included then by all means, but the rainbow colors on that flag weren't meant to specifically represent each aspect of that community to begin with. Maybe I've missed issues of representation in that community but I also don't think of LGBTQIA+ as an organization, just a sort of flag to represent non-cis folks.

And then there's Latinx, which is interesting because >98% of folks actually from Latino countries loathe that and don't recognize it. It's purely an American appropriation of another culture's terminology by the same folks who generally raise issues of appropriation.

I'm trying my best to be an ally but I have trouble keeping up with a lot of these things, even those which are a bit paradoxical. The best course of action I've found is to just treat everyone with kindness, respect, empathy, and an open mind.

What law would you propose to block private companies from deciding who they do and do not want to serve?

I see the obvious slippery-slope argument being made all over the place but the comparisons to the bakery refusing service to a gay couple are apt.

The concerns are over people who clearly want to leverage the platforms to induce violence (read: QAnon). If there are legitimate concerns over imminent violence, there is no legal obligation to halt service but there is absolutely a moral one.

And the free market allows others companies to continue providing service if they want. If the concern is over companies with massive market share then wouldn't your concern better be addressed by antitrust laws?

Re:Full Throttle – fan film script by Duncan Jones [pdf] on Tuesday January 12, 2021 @11:31AM (#25749134)
One of my favorite games growing up, and somehow always kept going back to it despite already knowing how to solve all the puzzles.

Seemed like a natural pivot to become a movie someday as well, though I could never see it being a smash hit at the box office.

Makes sense. With respect to the environment, I don't pay much attention to racing so I don't know if that would stick out as much to me personally.

I think shadows are more prevalent and even color is not as vivid as many videos we see today either. The image is sharp though!

The quality is impressive, and I've seen this before with older footage which has been re-scanned in higher quality. Still, there's some characteristic about old footage which sort of tells me it was shot a long time ago.

I want to say it's that the footage seems darker, and you can obviously make a case for classic brand logos being a giveaway.

I noticed this as well: the 'exodus' is comprised (so far) of companies which haven't innovated in a long time.

At least according to the linked article, three companies so far have moved to Texas. The word 'exodus' seems to be doing a lot of heavy lifting.

The bigger 'exodus' might be the glut of folks who temporarily moved away from the Bay Area at the start of the pandemic and have made those moves permanent. I don't have hard data to back up whether that would qualify as an exodus (and not sure what number is required for that classification either - just that it's greater than three), other than anecdotal evidence and personally knowing a few folks who moved back to their hometowns permanently from that area.

Re:Monitor Airplane Traffic with a Raspberry Pi on Wednesday November 04, 2020 @12:20PM (#24990987)
This might be the wrong forum for my question. Please direct me to the correct place if that's true.

I don't use the coax connection in my home at all. Meanwhile, there is a coax jack on my roof in case I ever wanted to put a TV there and use actual cable.

I assume it's possible to mount an antenna on my roof and use the existing coax wiring to connect to the dongle FlightAware offers? Has anyone done something similar?

I haven't seen this, but I do run a PiHole along with uBlock Origin and rarely visit Facebook's site directly.

Can I assume you aren't using either of these tools?

Re:Microsoft duplicates data from Firefox without asking on Wednesday June 24, 2020 @11:30AM (#23629036)
I want to say no. It does sound close, but at least with what you've cited it gives the appearance of choice.
Re:Ad Boycott of Facebook Keeps Growing on Wednesday June 24, 2020 @11:25AM (#23628946)
Possibly, but advertising is one of the first things companies cut in a down economy. I want to believe these companies have good intent, but it could also be construed as opportunistic: "we were already cutting our advertising budget, so this just gives us a way to capitalize."

To show they believe in what they're doing, they should donate what they would have spent on Facebook ads to causes which promote voter registration and improving minority representation in tech.

Isn't this the same risk anyone enlisting in the military also runs?

Still, I agree - it would be a lot easier to avoid these awful posts if people had to pay to be on the platform. It wouldn't be perfect of course, but it at least provides a barrier to entry and a slightly harsher consequence if you forfeit your membership fee when banned for inappropriate content.

Sounds like you've been playing Assassin's Creed!

Maybe not quite a 'long-term' memory in the context you're after, but I wonder how this would compare to something like instinct and how we would tell the difference?

Somewhat related to this is Microsoft Research's project to use DNA for data storage: https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/research/project/dna-storage...

Re:Nike won’t sell directly to Amazon anymore on Wednesday November 13, 2019 @12:42PM (#21527009)
It surprises me the large shipping companies (UPS, Fedex) haven't pushed fulfillment to the level Amazon has. Frankly, I would be shopping directly through retailers more if I could get everything for free two-day shipping.

I get part of that is funded through the Prime annual fee and Amazon's cut of the proceeds but given their large distribution networks I would think they could come to Amazon's level (but this also probably depends on the volume of other packages they handle which AREN'T retail).

Re:Modern Data Practice and the SQL Tradition on Friday November 08, 2019 @12:20PM (#21484394)
I've been working with SQL a lot in my job lately. For what it's worth, I'm a big fan.

It seems the central argument here is NoSQL doesn't force you into good design habits so it's overrated. I'll concede this is partially true from my perspective because much of my work involves trying to sanitize, transform, and otherwise refactor poorly structured or designed NoSQL datasets.

But I've also seen my fair share of SQL databases which are poorly designed, don't use features which are meant to benefit developers (I haven't seen a Foreign Key smartly implemented in a LONG time). It's not really fair to say NoSQL has encouraged poor design practices; from my experience it seems like data model implementation is given little effort in general.

NoSQL takes the 'training wheels' off data model implementation where SQL is like keeping them on, but even with them you can still fall off the bike if you aren't careful though it's much harder.

Don't forget they also have a smoke/CO2 monitor. I use that because it would be really handy to know about those being issues prior to coming home.

Of course, the next question is always "How do I confirm this?" but if it means I can catch those problems sooner, regardless of whether I'm home, I'd rather do that.

And yet, this article has me re-thinking it. Maybe removing the Nest alarm and getting Simplisafe's detector is the better move (but I need to look into theirs first).

Re:The Land and Expand Strategy for Reading on Tuesday October 08, 2019 @01:22PM (#21194624)
The strategy here resembles how Malcolm Gladwell writes. Start the topic with a story to get you hooked, then expand on the actual subject.

Though Gladwell sort of surrounds the topic with the stories rather than doing a front-load as this strategy suggests. Still, I do feel like I remember a lot more about Gladwell's books compared to others.

Re:I used to fear being a nobody, then I left social media on Tuesday October 01, 2019 @03:29PM (#21129572)
To me, it's opting into different means for keeping in touch and hence, keeping that "presence" in my friends' lives.

I quit Facebook a year ago - I had 800+ friends. I was only "close" (subjectively) with a slim fraction of that. Now, I text, call, send birthday cards, and use other means to communicate with those I truly care about. Not that I don't care about the other, it's more of my way to prioritize the people who I've shared more life experiences with and/or can better relate to.

If I see the others who aren't in that close circle, we have plenty to talk about. If I see my close friends, well, we do as close friends always have done.

No offense, but I would argue the notion of needing "presence" in people's lives contains some inherent narcissism which is also prevalent on social media; and to be fair, the other piece is the need for belonging. True, it was a tough pill to swallow when first disconnecting, but over time this faded and via the other means I suggested, I've found I get that same level of belonging.

I don't disagree with you, but I think most HN readers are power users.

In the context of this article, I feel like most readers don't fall into this category and probably aren't getting that amount of return on their higher speed investments.

Though, your comment brings up an interesting point - I wonder if internet speeds would play a factor in getting more users to run their updates? In general they're disruptive so there are other issues, but it could be part of the overall frustration. Personally, I have a fast connection so I rarely have this specific problem.

Re:Google Protest Leader Leaves on Tuesday July 16, 2019 @12:08PM (#20451338)
You can influence change from the outside. And in tech where talent acquisition is a fierce game, employees leaving due to ethics would be the greatest show of force.
Re:Consuming Hacker News on Friday May 24, 2019 @11:58AM (#20002857)
I'm confused about the mention of filter bubbles in this context. Generally, they're only bad when they're highly customized to what the individual user wants to see (because it will heavily bias toward their current beliefs).

Maybe it's the negative connotation I have to them due to Facebook so I'm wondering why this is mentioned here. I would expect the "proper" use of a filter bubble to be the application mentioned: not tailored to each individual user but rather highlighting what the entire community will find relevant, in this case based presumable on votes (though we wouldn't know if clicks are also a factor given the proprietary algorithm).

Of course, I suppose an entire community like HN could develop a macro bubble but one might presume an entire community should already have diverse perspectives which could keep it more balanced.

I think BWI has one if you're in the right spot. It was closed the last time I was there, however.
Re:It seems that Google is forgetting the old web on Monday April 08, 2019 @11:46AM (#19606258)
I thought part of Google's ranking algorithm includes how often a site is updated? Perhaps there's some inclusion of how often an article is accessed which also determines a page's ranking?
Re:Digitally preview incoming USPS mail and packages on Tuesday March 05, 2019 @12:23PM (#19312182)
The biggest privacy issue I can imagine here is if you see someone else's mail through the portal. A few anecdotes about this happening in the comments are concerning, but I was already under the impression USPS was doing some sort of digital imaging and OCR to efficiently sort the mail so my impression is this just gives you the ability to see those images.

Am I missing something?

Can you elaborate more on Lyft? Been using it instead of Uber due to their issues but I wasn't aware of problems with them. Not entirely shocked, however.
> I also question Microsoft's decision to include the plugin at all. I'd rather not have an arbiter of truth looking over my shoulders, reminding me what i should or shouldn't read

This is such a tricky point. On the one hand I almost agree with you in the sense that it could have a dangerous outcome: ceding control to an entity who essentially influences what content users should read.

On the other hand, the amount of misleading information on the web is having a very real, very serious impact on the world. If used responsibly this might influence positive change.

You're spot on. While paying more in taxes helps, setting aside the money for a specific purpose and not funneling through the government ensures that it goes toward the cause being supported.

Taxes are distributed at the government's discretion so it may not necessarily combat the issue at hand.

Older »