5 ms·

I hate to be that guy, but is this relevant?

by pokoleo 13y ago

rabino 13y ago
Hopefully people will, you know, stop dying and we hackers can go back to do real relevant things like instagram clones and settle once and for all which one is the better Lisp.
- 0X1A 13y ago
  Cmon, you can't really expect an audience base that is probably mostly introverted and cynical to actually find joy in reading about a positive find in a third world country could you? In all seriousness though, I think this can be well developed if it isn't exploited by privatization. Since, ya know, most things that would be greatly beneficial to developing countries usually are.
  - tankbot 13y ago
    It's true. My first thought when reading "if it is managed properly" was "yeah, right." We humans tend to fuck things up. You see? Cynical.
  - vacri 13y ago
    Aren't startups all about finding a need and filling it? Isn't that what has happened here?
  - Dylan16807 13y ago
    There's a difference between caring about something and thinking it's intellectually stimulating. There's no need to insult people because they think HN is a bad place to post good news that has no takeaway value. (I feel dirty for using the word 'takeaway' but I can't think of anything that fits better to mean an overly-broad version of 'learning'.)
  - nikatwork 13y ago
    > I think this can be well developed if it isn't exploited by privatization. Careful, you'll wake the Randroids.
- biot 13y ago
  Some other suggestions along the same lines as you suggest: Interrupt a court case so that the courtroom can appreciate the plight of dying African children before they get back to quibbling over legal wording. Speak at a conference for accountants so that they can appreciate the plight of dying African children before they get back to fiddling with spreadsheets. Share this in sexual abuse groups so that they can appreciate the plight of dying African children before they get back to discussing their own troubles. Visit schools and interrupt classrooms so that they can appreciate the plight of dying African children before they get back to learning about math, English, or history. --- Or... how about we keep human interest stories that would otherwise be covered by major media off of HN unless there is a component of the story which is particularly hackerish and gratifies one's intellectual curiosity? As it stands, this story is little more than "large underground aquifers exist" which is unlikely to gratify anyone's intellectual curiosity any more than "large deposits of coal exist". If finding this aquifer was accomplished via innovative new technology, let's see the story on that. How about a discussion on Alain Gachet's WATEX publications which I understand to be the technological basis that enabled this find: http://fr.linkedin.com/pub/alain-gachet/0/71a/93b#profile-publications http://fr.linkedin.com/pub/alain-gachet/0/71a/93b#profile-pu...
  - rabino 13y ago
    Here's a novel idea: Post that WATEX publication and let's see how many upvotes it gets vs. this one here. Let's allow democracy to do its thing.
    - biot 13y ago
      I think there's a very good reason why pg and the editors actively curate HN (eg: blocking certain sites from submission) and don't let democracy do its thing: it doesn't stand a chance against Eternal September. (Besides which: those publications, like this story, aren't all that interesting from an intellectually gratifying perspective.)
  - crusso 13y ago
    Ultimately, he's a hypocrite for being here to dole out sarcasm rather than actually working on resolving the plight of dying African children that he implies outweighs others' petty concerns.
mattm 13y ago
If you really hated to be that guy, you wouldn't have said anything.
has2k1 13y ago
(if (< hate-to-be-that-guy urge-to-be-that-guy) (be-that-guy) (not be-that-guy))
- saraid216 13y ago
  Lesson learned. Never use hyphenated names. They're bloody unreadable.
- Dylan16807 13y ago
  You're ignoring the 'think it's important that the point is raised' factor. If there was a user-visible flagging mechanism, then a hate-to-be-that-guy would use it and never feel any urge to make an annoying post, win-win. I strongly doubt that most people claiming to 'hate to be that guy' are lying.
  - r00fus 13y ago
    You do realize that users with sufficient karma can flag articles here, right?
    - Dylan16807 13y ago
      I do realize that, which is why I said 'user-visible'. Flagging as HN currently has it can be used for moderation purposes, and for downvotes in extreme situations. But a user-visible flag would provide a warning to users that an article is fluff or otherwise problematic, and possibly attract more discriminating attention.
frozenport 13y ago
I would like to voice my support of this question. There are plenty of other places for this news, but few places for computer science stories. Perhaps www.reddit.com/r/worldnews/‎ ?

I hate to be that guy, but is this relevant?

by pokoleo 13y ago

I hate to be that guy, but is this relevant?

Hopefully people will, you know, stop dying and we hackers can go back to do real relevant things like instagram clones and settle once and for all which one is the better Lisp.

0X1A 13y ago
Cmon, you can't really expect an audience base that is probably mostly introverted and cynical to actually find joy in reading about a positive find in a third world country could you? In all seriousness though, I think this can be well developed if it isn't exploited by privatization. Since, ya know, most things that would be greatly beneficial to developing countries usually are.
- tankbot 13y ago
  It's true. My first thought when reading "if it is managed properly" was "yeah, right." We humans tend to fuck things up. You see? Cynical.
- vacri 13y ago
  Aren't startups all about finding a need and filling it? Isn't that what has happened here?
- Dylan16807 13y ago
  There's a difference between caring about something and thinking it's intellectually stimulating. There's no need to insult people because they think HN is a bad place to post good news that has no takeaway value. (I feel dirty for using the word 'takeaway' but I can't think of anything that fits better to mean an overly-broad version of 'learning'.)
- nikatwork 13y ago
  > I think this can be well developed if it isn't exploited by privatization. Careful, you'll wake the Randroids.
biot 13y ago
Some other suggestions along the same lines as you suggest: Interrupt a court case so that the courtroom can appreciate the plight of dying African children before they get back to quibbling over legal wording. Speak at a conference for accountants so that they can appreciate the plight of dying African children before they get back to fiddling with spreadsheets. Share this in sexual abuse groups so that they can appreciate the plight of dying African children before they get back to discussing their own troubles. Visit schools and interrupt classrooms so that they can appreciate the plight of dying African children before they get back to learning about math, English, or history. --- Or... how about we keep human interest stories that would otherwise be covered by major media off of HN unless there is a component of the story which is particularly hackerish and gratifies one's intellectual curiosity? As it stands, this story is little more than "large underground aquifers exist" which is unlikely to gratify anyone's intellectual curiosity any more than "large deposits of coal exist". If finding this aquifer was accomplished via innovative new technology, let's see the story on that. How about a discussion on Alain Gachet's WATEX publications which I understand to be the technological basis that enabled this find: http://fr.linkedin.com/pub/alain-gachet/0/71a/93b#profile-publications http://fr.linkedin.com/pub/alain-gachet/0/71a/93b#profile-pu...
- rabino 13y ago
  Here's a novel idea: Post that WATEX publication and let's see how many upvotes it gets vs. this one here. Let's allow democracy to do its thing.
  - biot 13y ago
    I think there's a very good reason why pg and the editors actively curate HN (eg: blocking certain sites from submission) and don't let democracy do its thing: it doesn't stand a chance against Eternal September. (Besides which: those publications, like this story, aren't all that interesting from an intellectually gratifying perspective.)
- crusso 13y ago
  Ultimately, he's a hypocrite for being here to dole out sarcasm rather than actually working on resolving the plight of dying African children that he implies outweighs others' petty concerns.

mattm 13y ago

If you really hated to be that guy, you wouldn't have said anything.

has2k1 13y ago

(if (< hate-to-be-that-guy urge-to-be-that-guy) (be-that-guy) (not be-that-guy))

saraid216 13y ago
Lesson learned. Never use hyphenated names. They're bloody unreadable.
Dylan16807 13y ago
You're ignoring the 'think it's important that the point is raised' factor. If there was a user-visible flagging mechanism, then a hate-to-be-that-guy would use it and never feel any urge to make an annoying post, win-win. I strongly doubt that most people claiming to 'hate to be that guy' are lying.
- r00fus 13y ago
  You do realize that users with sufficient karma can flag articles here, right?
  - Dylan16807 13y ago
    I do realize that, which is why I said 'user-visible'. Flagging as HN currently has it can be used for moderation purposes, and for downvotes in extreme situations. But a user-visible flag would provide a warning to users that an article is fluff or otherwise problematic, and possibly attract more discriminating attention.

frozenport 13y ago

I would like to voice my support of this question. There are plenty of other places for this news, but few places for computer science stories. Perhaps www.reddit.com/r/worldnews/‎ ?