Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Demon-Haunted World

locusmag.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

221–230 of 289 posts

Re: Demon-Haunted World

#221

Post by pjc50 »

nonamechicken wrote: post #107
zaroth wrote: post #17

Why do our phones, which certainly felt damn snappy the day we bought them, inevitablely seem to slow down to the point of unusability after a couple dozen months? Even after a factory reset and installing no apps at all... I know it didn't take that long to open/close the built in apps when I bought that iPhone 4, 5, 5s... The only thing I can think of is the flash drive is slowing down as it wears. Or, the CPU cloc…

Someone posted about this issue here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15037960 I've got a Galaxy S3, an S4 couple first generation Moto Gs, a 2012 and a 2013 Nexus 7, a Note 2, I think? 2 Note 3s, and a One Plus One in various states of: loaned to cousins, used as house phones, backups in a drawer, backups in cars, or lying on my desk. They were all either broken, at yard sales, given to me my clients / contacts…

Yup. My wife is very fond of her Nokia 1020, which is now four years old. Gorilla glass means the screen is still in mint condition, but the whole thing is being let down by software and Flash issues. The camera app now crashes frequently and there are frequent pauses when trying to save photos or other things.

Re: Demon-Haunted World

#222

Post by collinmanderson »

jcbrand wrote: post #184
computator wrote: post #168

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Whenever someone refuses to show source code I always think, "what are you hiding in there?" There's usually something. There's a dilemma that developers face when deciding to release source code that's bigger than fear of software theft or the desire to hide something evil in the code. It's a fear of being scrutinized, ridiculed, or humiliated over the quality of their code. Imagine 2 programs that do something us…

I'm skeptical that this is actually as big a reason people don't want to open-source their code as you assume. In any case, there are good solutions for it. Firstly, if you know from the start that you're going to open source the code, then you'll make more of an effort than (perhaps) usual to ensure that the code is well-organised, well-tested and elegant. At least within your current level of competence, but that's…

If it's a library, you also need to start guaranteeing backwards compatibility. (Or even command line interface for a utility)

Re: Demon-Haunted World

#223

Post by meerita »

computator wrote: post #168
jordigh wrote: post #145

There is so much "Stallman was right" in all of these examples... non-free software always manages to eventually sneak in malicious anti-user features, where the user has no recourse. At least with free software there's always the fundamental freedom to fork. You think systemd is a Red Hat plot to destroy Linux, then go use Devuan. You don't trust what Google could be doing with Chrome, take your pick of alternatives…

> Whenever someone refuses to show source code I always think, "what are you hiding in there?" There's usually something. There's a dilemma that developers face when deciding to release source code that's bigger than fear of software theft or the desire to hide something evil in the code. It's a fear of being scrutinized, ridiculed, or humiliated over the quality of their code. Imagine 2 programs that do something us…

> There's a dilemma that developers face when deciding to release source code that's bigger than fear of software theft or the desire to hide something evil in the code. It's a fear of being scrutinized, ridiculed, or humiliated over the quality of their code.

But there are really few examples in the world made by one developer. Where's the fear of being scrutinized when you have a team of developers who are "supposedly" doing "code review" all the time?

Re: Demon-Haunted World

#224

Post by majewsky »

ConfucianNardin wrote: post #204
executesorder66 wrote: post #183

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The project with open source code can be improved by anyone. The project with closed source code can remain terrible forever even if there are programmers willing to improve it. Here's an example: Looking for a WebExtention alternative to greasemonkey on Firefox. (I know a port is being worked on, but let's ignore that for now) Your options are tampermonkey (closed source), and violentmonkey (open source) Tampermonke…

And here I thought Tampermonkey was open source, but apparently they went closed since I started using it...

Yeah, thanks for calling that out. I removed it just now.

Re: Demon-Haunted World

#225

Post by majewsky »

bitL wrote: post #211
jordigh wrote: post #145

There is so much "Stallman was right" in all of these examples... non-free software always manages to eventually sneak in malicious anti-user features, where the user has no recourse. At least with free software there's always the fundamental freedom to fork. You think systemd is a Red Hat plot to destroy Linux, then go use Devuan. You don't trust what Google could be doing with Chrome, take your pick of alternatives…

> Whenever someone refuses to show source code I always think, "what are you hiding in there?" I think it's mainly just laziness, most devs don't want to be always under review and can live easier lives if they can allow themselves a bit of a mess in their own projects without consistenly dealing with complaints. And many open source users are super obnoxious, bombarding devs with insane questions/requests all the ti…

> And many open source users are super obnoxious, bombarding devs with insane questions/requests all the time, then acting super hostile when they don't get what they want right away.

As if this were any different for users of closed-source apps.

Re: Demon-Haunted World

#226

Post by felipesfaria »

captaincrowbar wrote: post #14

Doctorow mentions the cases where a printer company has made their software lie about how much ink was left in a cartridge to make consumers replace them more often. I always wondered why a manufacturer would want to do that. I mean, I understand the motive of making consumers buy ink more often, but from the manufacturer's point of view, why would they want to throw perfectly good ink away? Colour ink isn't as expen…

If the company simply puts less ink in the cartridge there will be a difference in durability to third party ones. By simply cutting of the cartridge at a certain point they guarantee that their cartridges last as long as third party's and neither last long.

Re: Demon-Haunted World

#227

Post by mathattack »

HP is an egregious cheater, and this kind of cheating is in the DNA of any company that makes its living selling consumables or service at extremely high markups – they do their business at war with their customers.

This is a very strong statement. Asking for high margins puts you at war with your customers?

Re: Demon-Haunted World

#228

Post by Filligree »

jabl wrote: post #217
captaincrowbar wrote: post #14

Doctorow mentions the cases where a printer company has made their software lie about how much ink was left in a cartridge to make consumers replace them more often. I always wondered why a manufacturer would want to do that. I mean, I understand the motive of making consumers buy ink more often, but from the manufacturer's point of view, why would they want to throw perfectly good ink away? Colour ink isn't as expen…

Sorry to hijack the thread, but what is considered a good printer brand nowadays? My requirements: - Someone who doesn't treat their customer as a criminal (e.g. no DRM in cartridges games, please) - Works on Linux/MacOS/Windows. In particular, I'm looking for a printer for my home. I don't print very much, so an inkjet is probably out if the cartridges still have a habit of drying up in a few months.

It's going to be a compromise. This stuff changes all the time, so I can't name any specific brands, but some general advise:

- If the printer is cheap, chances are they make money off cartridges. Expect to pay at least a thousand, but try to get something that will last for that.

- "Pro" lines are less likely to have issues like this. Separately, ditto laser printers. Get a laser printer, color if you must, but greyscale means simpler mechanics, lower price and better reliability.

- Laser printers use ink powder, and won't dry out. Uh, just be careful when refilling.

- Laser printers suck for photo printing, and quality in general is meh. This is something you will have to live with, as an inkjet printer that goes mostly unused will break rather quickly.

- Some brands (at least used to) have refilling the cartridges as an explicit feature. I think that was Brother? No clue if that's still the case.

- Pretty much everything works on all OSs these days, but your experience will generally be better on Linux. Yes, this is quite a change. That said, you might like a network printer better, especially one that can connect to Google's cloud print system. This will be listed on the feature set.

Re: Demon-Haunted World

#229

Post by LyndsySimon »

freehunter wrote: post #78
SubiculumCode wrote: post #10

This is what I think about at the pump. More and more I see gas pumps ask if you want a receipt BEFORE the gas is dispensed. This seems risky. If you decline the receipt and then dispense gas, the pump could cheat on the amount of gas dispensed with less risk, as a papered record of the purchase amount and price is not produced. If on the other hand, the pump waits to ask if you desire a receipt until after the gasol…

The hard part with that is, see the sticker on the outside of the pump? That certifies that this pump meets your state's regulations and that someone has inspected it recently. In order to have a coverup like that, you'd need the government to be in on it too.

I don't know about that - all that proves is that the pump hasn't been opened since inspected. While I suspect even that isn't foolproof, there's nothing stopping someone from modifying the pump through external means, whether through a remote firmware update or mechanical means, like a magnet placed on the outside of the pump that engages some hidden mechanism.

Re: Demon-Haunted World

#230

Post by pixl97 »

mathattack wrote: post #227

HP is an egregious cheater, and this kind of cheating is in the DNA of any company that makes its living selling consumables or service at extremely high markups – they do their business at war with their customers. This is a very strong statement. Asking for high margins puts you at war with your customers?

Yes. Normally in a functioning economy competition drives out high margins, unless innovation is occurring. To protect against competition HP uses things like DRM in printer cartridges. Anti-consumer behavior occurs when your ink cartridges stop working because you didn't use them fast enough and are forced to buy a new set.
Post reply on HN