News for hackers. Stuff that matters.

nvrspyx

I wouldn't say it's "pivoting", but rather expanding.
They're adding a Twitter-like feature.

https://on.substack.com/p/introducing-notes

It was also fixed with a definition update in Windows Defender some time last month, so you probably have the update since these happen in the background and don't require any restart. You can check by going to:

    C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows Defender\Definition Updates\{BUNCH-OF-NUMBERS}
Right click `mpengine.dll`, choose Properties, click Details tab, and check to see if Product Version is >= 1.1.20200.3. Mine is 1.1.20200.4 and was updated in mid/late March. If the version is less than 1.1.20200.3, you can manually trigger a definitions update in Windows Defender under Virus & Threat Protection.
Re:Dark Patterns in Substack on Wednesday April 05, 2023 @02:48PM (#35458751)
Are we just ignoring that all their front page copy mentions blog/web before newsletter/email? If everything on their front page makes it seem like newsletters are secondary to web blogs, why shouldn't the writer be able to treat it as such? I don't see anything wrong with a writer wanting an option to turn off email delivery by default when Substack is clearly trying to be both a blogging platform and a newsletter platform. They even have their own mobile app for reading blog posts. I'm not arguing that the lack of that option is a dark pattern, but why be against having it?

> A Substack combines a blog, newsletter, payment system, and customer support team — all integrated seamlessly with a simple interface. We handle the admin, billing, and tech so you can focus on your best work.

> Substack’s simple system lets you publish to the web, email, and our app simultaneously so you can find new readers and always reach your existing audience.

> Substack helps anyone set up a blog and email newsletter. No tech knowledge is required. Without ads and algorithms to get in the way, you can sustain a direct relationship with your readers and retain full control over your creative work.

It doesn't stay off for me either, but after some digging on the internet, Wingman appears to be an in-flight wifi network on planes (which may not actually exist anymore and T-Mobile are in the process of removing from devices according to this recent comment by a stranger on an old Reddit thread[1]). While it's annoying that it doesn't stay off, it doesn't seem to be something that would cause problems in practice because flights typically only have one wifi network.

1: https://reddit.com/r/tmobile/comments/7u535i/_/jcl01il/?cont...

Re:Streaming company Roku to lay off 6% workforce on Thursday March 30, 2023 @05:13PM (#35378894)
Better yet, I'm only choosing dumb TVs (if possible) in the future.
Re:Streaming company Roku to lay off 6% workforce on Thursday March 30, 2023 @12:43PM (#35375520)
> To be fair, not being webshit is part of why their UI is usable (if not great) on low-end hardware.

I have a TV with Roku built-in. It ran great when I got it in 2020, but it has gotten slower and slower to the point of being unusable. I'm not even talking about apps, but the Roku home screen itself. Apps are even slower and crash all the time, sometimes crashing the TV itself.

On the other hand, I have a Chromecast from 2016 that still runs just as well as it did when I bought it. I'd rather use my phone as a remote and have a movie playing in seconds with the Chromecast than wait 1+ minutes for Hulu or Netflix to even get to their respective home screens with the Roku. I also don't get ads with the Chromecast.

Except that posted link does not back up their position. The money went to housing for the homeless, not to any "alternative services to drug addicts". The author's entire point or claim in that article is Seattle is wasting money on affordable housing because the driver of homelessness isn't housing costs, but rather other factors like domestic violence, drug abuse, etc.
It has supported GTK3+ for years now. I'm not familiar with the specifics, but GTK3/4 applications run fine.
Re:Juice on Friday March 24, 2023 @12:07PM (#35291093)
The replacement makes much more sense to me. Thank you for the explanation.

> Same thing as the Pi at the bottom right of every page on Reddit

I'm always on Reddit and never noticed the Pi. Thanks for the trivia as well!

Re:Juice on Friday March 24, 2023 @09:45AM (#35289005)
I really like the animations. Well done.

> https://bvckup2.com/wip/r82-rabbit-hole.gif

This one does confuse me though. Why not have the sidebar display permanently instead of hiding it within a drop-down? There already appears to be white space and a column header ("More options...") dedicated to it already. Also, why is the button label pi? It's all just really confusing and feels unintuitive. I imagine some thought went into it though, so I'm curious as to the reasoning behind it.

Other than that one particular case, I like what you've done with the rest.

Re:Introduction to P vs. NP on Friday March 24, 2023 @06:51AM (#35287379)
Can't general problems be reduced to decision problems though?
Re:When Zig is safer and faster than Rust on Tuesday March 07, 2023 @04:00PM (#35061136)
I don't have a problem opening other *.dev sites. I should note that I couldn't open the link on iOS Safari over LTE.
Re:When Zig is safer and faster than Rust on Tuesday March 07, 2023 @12:56PM (#35058626)
The link is down for me. Perhaps HN hug of death? Below is link to the site on the Wayback Machine.

https://web.archive.org/web/20230307172822/https://zackoverf...

Re:AMD ymm registers are rolling back on Tuesday February 28, 2023 @11:25PM (#34978751)
Isn't the M2 Pro more power efficient than the M1 Pro? At least it is according to [1]. So isn't it further away compared to the M2 Pro, not closer? Or are you saying that the M2 Pro is closer in performance to the Ryzen 9 than the M1 Pro, rather than in power usage?

I'm not really knowledgeable when it comes to this, so perhaps I'm missing something.

1: https://nanoreview.net/en/cpu-compare/apple-m2-pro-vs-apple-...

Re:Web Push for Web Apps on iOS and iPadOS on Saturday February 25, 2023 @04:04AM (#34935121)
It could, but I won't hold my breath. I've fallen into the trap of being optimistic that some annoyance will be fixed or some obvious improvement will be implemented in iOS <next_version> multiple times and ending up disappointed. I'm even less hopeful of anything that would improve PWAs, whether in terms of API support or user experience, due to Apple's incentive to keep them second-class.
Re:My daughter's school took over my personal Microsoft account on Saturday February 25, 2023 @03:39AM (#34935006)
I didn't even notice that the dialog title, "Use this account everywhere on this device", isn't really presented as a question. Thanks for pointing that out.

Windows is full of dark patterns, so I don't really know why I had even a modicum of doubt.

Re:Argonne: Lithium-Air battery 1200 wh/kg, 1000 cycles on Saturday February 25, 2023 @03:28AM (#34934940)
I'm a little late in responding, but I want to correct my previous comment. It appears that I linked and quoted a section from a title specific to the Department of Education. Instead, [1] applies to all federal agencies. It appears that it's up to individual agencies to determine when it's appropriate to grant exclusivity, so the rules may vary between Departments and their agencies.

With that said, any exclusive license, including prospective exclusive licenses, must be published in the Federal Register. So, any exclusive licensing should be available to the public. Additionally, the agency has to give first preference to small business applicants. However, this only applies if the small business capable and have "equal or greater likelihood as those from other applicants to bring the invention to practical application within a reasonable time", both of which are at the federal agency's discretion.

I think your concern is still valid, as I share it. I just wanted to correct the misinformation I presented previously. It still appears that the "default" licensing of Government-owned patents is to be royalty-free and non-exclusive, but what I didn't previously consider is that is only the default if they choose to license it. They could just as easily not license it at all.

1: https://www.ecfr.gov/current/title-37/chapter-IV/part-404

Re:My daughter's school took over my personal Microsoft account on Saturday February 25, 2023 @02:52AM (#34934798)
I've changed things in Group Policy (e.g., disable Bing/web search in Windows search) because there's no user-facing setting to disable some things and mine says the same. If you've done similar or used any debloat/privacy tools/scripts, that's probably the cause.

Additionally, go to Accounts in Settings and double-check that you're not logged into any "work or school" accounts.

The one thing I can't stand is that if you log into a non-personal Microsoft account in an app, there's a dialog that is very confusing[1]. It asks if you want to use that account everywhere on your device, but there's a box checked by default to let the organization manage your device, a button that says "Yes", and what looks like a hyperlink that says "This app only". I always uncheck the box before clicking "This app only", but I wonder if keeping that box checked would still enable organizational device administration. It screams "dark pattern" to me.

1: https://i.stack.imgur.com/gmp00.png

Re:Argonne: Lithium-Air battery 1200 wh/kg, 1000 cycles on Thursday February 23, 2023 @02:24PM (#34915120)
IANAL, but it appears the default is the former.

> Licenses to practice inventions covered by patents and pending patent applications owned by the U.S. Government as represented by this Department will generally be royalty free, revocable and nonexclusive. They will normally be issued to all applicants and will generally contain no limitations or standards relating to the quality or testing of the products to be manufactured, sold, or distributed thereunder.

But...

> Where it appears however that the public interest will be served under the circumstances of the particular case by licenses which impose conditions, such as those relating to quality or testing of products, requirement of payment of royalties to the Government, etc., or by the issuance of limited exclusive licenses by the Secretary after notice and opportunity for hearing thereon, such licenses may be issued.

In other words, if it would be in the public interest to impose royalties, exclusivity, or conditions of use, the Government can do so. In this case since it's a high energy density battery, I suppose an argument could easily be made that it would be in the public interest for the government to impose conditions related to quality and testing.

Source: https://www.ecfr.gov/current/title-34/subtitle-A/part-6/sect...

Re:Web Push for Web Apps on iOS and iPadOS on Thursday February 16, 2023 @03:19PM (#34825339)
Not to mention that the opposite is also true where a large number of "native" apps are really just wrapped up web apps and many suffer these same issues.
Re:Web Push for Web Apps on iOS and iPadOS on Thursday February 16, 2023 @03:14PM (#34825230)
Now if only they'd create a separate folder for web apps in the App Library to put them in instead of requiring that they be on the Home Screen.
Re:Modders are using AI to put voice acting in Morrowind on Tuesday February 14, 2023 @06:07PM (#34797527)
Red Dead Redemption 2 is another example of an open-world with ridiculous attention to detail. It's certainly rare to have such a detailed open-world and a really good story.
Re:Story Structure 101: Super Basic Shit (By Dan Harmon) on Monday January 30, 2023 @11:45AM (#34582376)
For revenge/catastrophe movies, the transition from 1 to 2 is changing what the character "wants". That original desire isn't the actual desire that drives the actions of the story. For example, John Wick wants to grieve the death of his wife, but a series of events changes his desire from grief to revenge. It's that want for revenge that the rest of the story relies upon. An argument can also be made that his desire to grieve in peace is still the ultimate desire, but he can't do so emotionally until he gets his revenge.

The circle described by Harmon are just the overarching story beats, but there's plenty liberty to be had when moving from one beat to the next. There's also liberty in whether steps overlap or are combined, such as where the desire is defined/reshaped at the same time that they enter an unfamiliar situation (e.g., desire changes to one of survival at the same time as a catastrophe beginning).

In other words, the points on the circle may still exist regardless of what happens between them or if they happen simultaneously. Even acknowledging the liberty to be had, there's always exceptions to this heuristic and not every story will follow this structure.

Re:A Perceptually Meaningful Audio Visualizer on Tuesday January 24, 2023 @03:39PM (#34509967)
If you're on Windows, I've seen a few spectrogram skins for Rainmeter that uses whatever audio is being played on the device. For example, there is AudioAnalyzer[0]. Personally, I've been using a skin that shows a simple waveform of the current system audio, but also integrates with Spotify to change the color to match the primary album color. Unfortunately, I don't have the name or link on hand.

0: https://forum.rainmeter.net/viewtopic.php?t=31091

Google Translate and Google Photos are good examples, but YouTube Recommendations is absolute garbage in my experience. Heck, I'm not even sure it's using any sort of AI because it seems to mostly want to funnel me to the currently most popular videos, not anything similar to the things I actually watch. I mean, it'll recommend new videos from the channels I'm subscribed to, but almost everything else is music videos in languages I don't speak, sports clips when I don't watch any sports, local news from countries I don't live in, and videos from channels like the Paul brothers, which I abhor.

No matter how many recommendations I click "Not interested" or "Don't recommend channel" on, there's still an endless list of completely irrelevant, unwanted content and channels.

Re:Apple Unveils MacBook Pro Featuring M2 Pro and M2 Max on Tuesday January 17, 2023 @09:50AM (#34413010)
They could include both the improvement from the last Intel model and the previous Apple Silicon model, no?

EDIT: I see they actually do just that for some specific applications.

Re:Show HN: Python framework is faster than Golang Fiber on Tuesday January 10, 2023 @08:28AM (#34324521)
Sin-eck-da-key

Or at least, that's how I'm hearing it from Google.

Re:The mistake that killed Japan’s software industry on Tuesday January 10, 2023 @08:26AM (#34324485)
Another example is OpenToonz[0], which is one of the animation tools used by Studio Ghibli and developed in collaboration with Studio Ghibli, another Japanese company called Dwango, and an Italian company called Digital Video. Although, Digital Video does have a premium, paid version called Toonz[1].

0: https://opentoonz.github.io/e/

1: https://www.toonzpremium.com/

Re:Show HN: Python framework is faster than Golang Fiber on Tuesday January 10, 2023 @08:06AM (#34324233)
Off topic, but thank you for introducing the word "synecdoche" to me.

Older »