decasia

30 ms·

121.
by decasia 7y ago
Question: OK, so I know how to test — manually — that a few randomly chosen files are correctly backed up in my backup systems. But what if there are larger classes of systemic error in the process I haven't thought of testing? What i
122.
by decasia 7y ago
I always wish HN was more interested in anthropology as a field of relevant inquiry. I have an anthropology PhD and it's not just something that's useful for observing end users — a lot of it is thinking about how to organize conc
123.
by decasia 7y ago
Most of these points (like the crucial importance of context/looking around, of users, of figuring out what you're not doing, etc) are important parts of software development. But the problem is, unless you already have the requi
124.
by decasia 7y ago
I was hoping this was going to be an analysis of design patterns used within the Linux kernel codebase itself, but the "everything is a file" concept is undoubtedly worth talking about. There could have been more discussion of the
125.
by decasia 7y ago
Consumer-facing question: Does anyone know if the higher European voltage at the socket produces statistically more severe or more frequent injuries among consumers? The 240v plugs themselves are designed differently (wider spacing between
126.
by decasia 7y ago
I generally support regulations that protect privacy, as I'm sure most of us do. But they can come at a very real human cost, as in this case. Especially when it comes to regulations that affect people who aren't able to express t
127.
by decasia 7y ago
I mean, it's the usual story with these things — "accidentally stored internal data — including other companies' security sensitive data — in a public file share" (or in this case, S3). Not much to learn from the story t
128.
by decasia 7y ago
It's impossible to overestimate the power of expectations to create trust (even in the face of contrary indications). This just almost happened to me this week: A couple of days ago I wrote an email to a friend I hadn't been in to
129.
by decasia 7y ago
There's a weird little history of the military trying to learn from mass culture. Somewhere I read a good story about a general coming to tour the Star Trek next gen bridge set. But this time it seems more like their inspiration is the
130.
by decasia 7y ago
I mean, this is a great example of how complex systems exhibit unpredictable, emergent behavior. You think you are doing some process X (say, printing), but it turns out that X relies on some more generic layer Y (a file utility layer) whic
131.
by decasia 7y ago
FWIW I was super lucky to grow up on an abandoned farm with a huge patch of woods, streams, and swamps. It was sad to eventually figure out that there was just no way to make that experience scale to the whole US population (even if they wa
132.
by decasia 7y ago
One of the big things that comes to my mind is that kids who grow up in cities are literally, tangibly cut off from wild natural environments. They often end up not even knowing how to recognize practically any species of plants and animals
133.
by decasia 7y ago
Care to say more about the Redis case? I haven't followed it carefully enough to make sense of their organizational trajectory.
134.
by decasia 7y ago
I agree with your first point — like other structural problems, loneliness adds up over time. But on the second point, I'm really not sure that online social networks are just a "surface-level mirage." I met my spouse online,
135.
by decasia 7y ago
Well, I still write diaries on paper. But I worry that one day they might get lost or destroyed and I wonder if I should scan them all, at least for the sake of having an offsite digital backup for the time being :)
136.
by decasia 8y ago
I'm curious — is it not normal to add in-line explanatory comments in the Rails codebase? I'm thinking if I were writing this code in an application, and it looked this cryptic, I might at least add a comment noting what it was fo
137.
by decasia 8y ago
OK, I totally get the argument that YAML is for data and not programming. But I'm not sure the line between them is always clear. For example: I used to use YAML to define field mappings between external data and internal models in a R
138.
by decasia 8y ago
Absolutely, this is useful context, thanks! I completely agree there's a lot of danger of ad hominem analysis in these kinds of cases. From my perspective, I probably would not post about this sort of thing at all, if it were a more mu
139.
by decasia 8y ago
So… My first instinct when I read debunking efforts like this is to try to check out who is doing the debunking. I'm not an ecologist, so I don't have the necessary background knowledge to evaluate the merits of the studies in que
140.
by decasia 8y ago
Still an important story. But the title should read (January 2018) or something to indicate that it is not breaking news.
141.
by decasia 8y ago
"my daughter discovering she can’t use music from a streaming music service in a home video" Can you say more about where the DRM applied in this case? I would expect it to kick in, say, if you upload a home video to YouTube that
142.
Technical issues create long lines at Gwinnett precincts(ajc.com)
3 points by decasia 8y ago|0 comments
143.
by decasia 8y ago
So, the OP argues that SPAs introduce unnecessary frontend state: "I think this is a very underappreciated aspect of SPAs. Stateful software is always more difficult to work with than stateless. The frontend state is added on top of th
144.
by decasia 8y ago
The obvious mystery is why you would keep flying for so long after an incident like this...
145.
by decasia 8y ago
It's a good question. I guess I would say that in my limited experience, co-operatives that fund by providing products and services (food, housing) seem to accumulate less organizational bloat and overhead, because their continued fund
146.
by decasia 8y ago
I think this is exactly right. Users expect a really nice, contemporary-feeling UX. And for something that cost money it would have to be above and beyond. That said, the fact is that the mainstream alternatives are handicapped by their own
147.
by decasia 8y ago
A cautionary tale for sure. My thought is that something new would need to not replicate the UX of existing social software, but would need to think of better alternatives. Competing with existing giants on their own terms, but with a dif
148.
by decasia 8y ago
This looks excellent, I'm really glad to see this out there and will explore!
149.
by decasia 8y ago
Ha no, of course I think that is impossible. It's more like: we could build nicer, community-funded, sanely run social software, and alongside them we could support XMPP type features for hackers who are able to use them, or to interop
150.
by decasia 8y ago
Yeah, from the perspective of starting something cooperatively funded from scratch, I think it's basically about "what would it cost to get something running and keep it worth using," balanced against "what would people

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