News for hackers. Stuff that matters.

ticksoft

Re:U.S. Bans Trans Fat on Tuesday June 16, 2015 @01:56PM (#9727579)
It's a relative term. First step is to eat food that's had as little processing as you can afford (which is the opposite of trans fats).

Ideally: if it's meat then non-intensive because that means less chemicals injected into the animals; if fruit and vegetables then try to source from farms that put an emphasis on re-mineralising their soils - they are less likely to rely on chemicals combined with genetically engineered varieties.

Essentially, buy food that makes the food industry as little profit as possible. The sort of food that would never be advertised on TV. The sort of food that costs a lot to produce, doesn't last long and lacks fancy packaging.

Re:Becoming a contractor programmer in the UK on Tuesday June 16, 2015 @12:23PM (#9726962)
I notice that business bank accounts are always mentioned in these sorts of lists. To me they seem like an extra overhead for no reason. You essentially have to ask a bank's permission and pay them just so they can accept your payments? So weird.

I could understand it if you had a business with employees and you sold products on a daily basis with loads of transactions, or if you plan to get into debt... but for invoicing someone every month? Personal account seems fine, and I'm sure people have several of them already.

Re:U.S. Bans Trans Fat on Tuesday June 16, 2015 @11:42AM (#9726580)
Better off just eating as naturally as possible, rather than listening to some group that's pushing something that's not.
Re:Driverless Trucks to Hit Alberta’s Oilsands on Friday June 12, 2015 @07:19PM (#9709153)
I often wonder if mental illness is a side effect of this shift from outdoor and natural forms of work, to indoor and stress driven types of work.

People have to teach themselves all sorts of coping mechanisms to stop their minds going out of control with modern work (burnout being a vague example around here).

Re:Driverless Trucks to Hit Alberta’s Oilsands on Friday June 12, 2015 @06:39PM (#9709007)
In addition to those government issues, there's less cash flowing from the non-existent workers to [local] businesses, which means that infrastructure from those businesses is no longer sustainable. The internet does that too.

Futurologists of the past speculated that salaries earned by machines would be shared out to civilisation (to allow us to stop working), but it's gone in another direction.

The ad industry gets hit hard during bubble bursts and recessions. Two of the biggest ad sales companies are now Facebook and Google, so they wouldn't be immune.
Re:Kevin Rose Moves on from Silicon Valley to Watches on Thursday June 11, 2015 @12:00PM (#9700465)
At some point those vote-driven-websites are expected to mature and turn into proper publishing businesses.

Anything that's driven by users rather than vetted and sanitised by trusted writers/editors, will scare lucrative brand based advertisers. Just look at Google Adsense's content rules to see how much advertising shapes the web's content.

I think that's what happened with Digg. I speculate that something similar is happening with Reddit but at a much slower rate - like closing undesirable sub-reddits etc.

Re:Spotify raises $526M at a $8.5B valuation on Wednesday June 10, 2015 @06:45AM (#9691095)
Expecting Spotify to make a profit is like expecting a blockbuster movie to generate a profit. Show business isn't normal business.
Re:The state of Apple Pay adoption on Friday June 05, 2015 @09:55AM (#9665496)
Cash also offers a level of freedom not offered by electronic payments, something that I think our future selves will learn to appreciate.
Re:The state of Apple Pay adoption on Friday June 05, 2015 @09:36AM (#9665385)
Probably better to support a platform agnostic solution rather than bolstering a manufacturer's specific option.
Re:Germany passes Japan to have world's lowest birth rate on Saturday May 30, 2015 @09:15PM (#9632579)
Having children (and being married) is a tool for survival in harsh environments. Conversely, it can be seen as a trap/burden from a legal and financial perspective in a 'developed' country.
Re:Direct Train to Europe: London to the Mediterranean on Saturday May 30, 2015 @09:02PM (#9632534)
Better to wait until the EU referendum to find out in what direction the public wants to proceed. Quite a few generations have grown up with no real say on the topic.
Re:Direct Train to Europe: London to the Mediterranean on Saturday May 30, 2015 @08:48PM (#9632496)
Trains have the advantage of being in city centres too where light rail and buses are concentrated.
I'm divided on these sorts of things (I didn't used to be). Sure science classes shouldn't be teaching religion, but having governments decide what's an approved view for its population is bothersome. People should be allowed to make mistakes and when the parents realise that their kids are at a disadvantage then the parents should learn to gather together and fix it themselves. Encourage people to be active in their community rather than sitting back and expecting someone from the top to take the initiative.
Re:Amazon launches same day delivery for Prime customers on Thursday May 28, 2015 @08:22PM (#9622022)
A more honest word is 'complimentary'.