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octosphere

Re:Show HN: I made a no-bullshit image host on Monday November 25, 2019 @11:44AM (#21629926)
What if I need absolute surety my image(s) is not going to be subject to bit rot and not be available in a few years time? What if I do 'multi-posts' and share the same image across 10,000+ bulletin boards? Your bandwidth will run out very quickly if you saw the types of posting that I do (I use automation software to post to 10,000+ boards). And those posts last for decades. I am not sure I can rely on this service for my needs.

This is why I self-host my own image server and have it hooked up to a well-provisioned CDN for peace of mind. Then I have full control and can renew the domain for ten years each time to keep the images online.

Re:Bye Bye Microsoft Office, Hello LibreOffice on Monday November 25, 2019 @11:37AM (#21629842)
Any other show stopping bugs you have encountered? I'm thinking of making the switch myself, but I hear nothing but anecdotes of people having a bad time getting proprietary Microsoft Office .docx files to play nice in LibreOffice
Re:The Hidden Life of an Amazon User on Monday November 25, 2019 @11:34AM (#21629809)
> Amazon has never done that

Well maybe they do? I know Amazon's algorithms are opaque to the user, but after several purchases on Amazon I noticed this trend of items I researched showing a small uptick in the price after a few days when I go to buy it. The price uptick is there for all users, but Amazon knows only one specific person will buy it, so the price is adjusted for that person and no-one else. After buying, the price goes back to its default in a few days.

Re:The Hidden Life of an Amazon User on Sunday November 24, 2019 @12:33PM (#21621888)
Never liked when Amazon increases the price a few days later after witnessing you researching something to buy. This is why I only purchase items 'on-the-spot' in a small window of time which allows me to escape such a practice.
Re:Show HN: Hacker News Title Edit Tracker on Sunday November 24, 2019 @12:27PM (#21621854)
> I feel like the list should be longer

Isn't there a small window of time to edit a submission before it gets committed permanently to HN? I imagine the list would be bigger if the grace period lasted much longer.

Re:The Web Began Dying in 2014 (2017) on Sunday November 24, 2019 @12:23PM (#21621820)
Thanks for recommending that :)
Worse still is the threat of quantum computers that will make cracking his vault trivial. Apparently in 20-30 years people will be able to fit a quantum computer into a laptop form factor and break certain types of crypto at will, regardless of the keysize or key complexity.
Re:Windows 10 features we’re no longer developing on Sunday November 24, 2019 @12:09PM (#21621706)
Sad to see Windows To Go being deprecated. It's the only way to have Windows running off a USB device. I hope it doesn't break the devices I own with WTG on them.

I wish Microsoft devs would add the option to install Windows on a USB drive during the initial install procedure.

Re:The Web Began Dying in 2014 (2017) on Sunday November 24, 2019 @11:49AM (#21621553)
> Google is not dying any time soon

One way to kill it is blocking all their domains either in /etc/hosts or using pi-hole. But I imagine using the web would be slightly broken as Google host various font libraries and javascript libraries which if blocked, could break many sites.

Re:Tell HN: Phishing Scheme for Cracked Passwords on Sunday November 24, 2019 @11:44AM (#21621516)
I never use a password, but I do use a passphrase like something similar to the one used in XKCD 936[0]. There's a few open source diceware[1] generators on Github that you should look at.

[0] https://www.xkcd.com/936/

[1] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diceware

This is why I don't give registrars (or other actors) enough time to register a domain behind my back, so when I want a name, I do no prior research in advance of buying the domain, and buy it 'on the spot'. The same idea can be applied to something like Amazon where shoppers often research the items they want to buy, only to realize a week later the prices have all been hiked when they go to buy.
Re:Ask HN: Best Web Dev Talks? on Sunday November 24, 2019 @11:35AM (#21621451)
My personal favorite speaker on this topic is Chris Heilmann[0]. He's been in the trenches for a long time and highlights a lot of issues in webdev that are often overlooked, like accessibility, and a common thing: over-engineering.

https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=christian+heilm...

Re:Why Some People Are Impossibly Talented on Sunday November 24, 2019 @11:28AM (#21621395)
Oops, my bad. You are right, I didn't read the article fully and presumed it didn't talk about spreading oneself thinly. Thanks for pointing it out ;)
Re:Ask HN: How do you get into mental flow? on Saturday November 23, 2019 @01:04PM (#21615463)
> but I’m always looking for another trick to hold the flow for longer.

Flow is usually something not to be sustained for long periods, because sustained flow is actually not practical - there must be an intermittent ebb to every flow state (usually in the form of breaks).

I noticed you mentioned Spotify and I commend that. Music makes everything seem epic even though you are doing very mundane tasks.

My only tip for making a flow state last longer is getting natural nootropics in your system like coffee, walnuts, omega-3 fish oil, MCT oil, and blueberries, which are all brain-boosting foods.

Re:Why Some People Are Impossibly Talented on Saturday November 23, 2019 @12:58PM (#21615421)
Yeah but the article overlooks the many polymaths who spread themselves thinly across a variety of different fields, never achieving true mastery of a particular field. The phrase 'Jack of all trades, master of none' springs to mind. There are however polymaths who achieve mastery of all the fields they choose to pursue, although I imagine they are rare.
Re:Open Source LibreTorrent Client Kicked Out by Google Play on Saturday November 23, 2019 @12:55PM (#21615404)
I'm probably a bit naive, but who torrents on their phone or tablet? Like, who does that?
Re:Do we have a potential VPN criminal conglomerate? on Saturday November 23, 2019 @12:53PM (#21615392)
The TL;DR of most VPN reviews is use Mullvad
Seems like only high-profile accounts get sim jacked. I would love to see some stats to see how prevalent sim porting attacks happen to ordinary low-follower-count accounts that have little influence on the network.
Re:Mastercard Bans Automatic Billing After Free Trials on Saturday November 23, 2019 @12:47PM (#21615346)
Yeah but as per the parent post - Paypal makes revoking a recurring fee easier, as sometimes there is not an option within a particular SaaS product/service to disable recurring fees. Also it is impossible to login to Mastercard's systems to ban/revoke a particular service from charging your card.
Recycled comment from an article a few weeks back about Former FBI General Counsel Jim Baker Choosing Encryption over Backdoors[0]

[0] https://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2019/10/former_fbi_ge...

You can read the discussion on HN here:

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21377093

_________________________

This is why Tor and onionland is a lawless wild west. All so that journalists can report and trade documents, and so that repressive regimes can't easily censor access to news and information. This is the cost of encryption: you get all sorts of scoundrels in the mix in the name of privacy and security for the masses. Some might say this cost is too high: that scoundrels are running rampant and won't stop their criminal actions. But without this we get a broken backdoored Internet where no such privacy/security exists and could actually cause more damage to society since spying would be rampant.

Re:The “Melissa Worm” Through the Eyes of the FBI on Saturday November 16, 2019 @11:43AM (#21553518)
Got it. Thanks for elaborating!

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