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Show HN: Hacker News' “most unique support email of 2014”

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Re: Show HN: Hacker News' “most unique support email of 2014”

#71

Post by carlob »

grandalf wrote: post #53
roywiggins wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

T-Mobile opted me in to a content filter by default. To remove it, last I saw I needed to give them my SSN (!!!). So, I live with the idiot filter, which actually scans for keywords in websites and blocks them. SSL obviously makes this sort of filtering useless, which is very useful.

Why not give them your SSN? Do you have any lines of credit?

Happened to me as well when I was visiting the US. My answer would be: because as a non-resident I didn't have one. But then again I'm not OP.

Re: Show HN: Hacker News' “most unique support email of 2014”

#73

Post by ChristianBundy »

CamperBob2 wrote: post #50
roywiggins wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

T-Mobile opted me in to a content filter by default. To remove it, last I saw I needed to give them my SSN (!!!). So, I live with the idiot filter, which actually scans for keywords in websites and blocks them. SSL obviously makes this sort of filtering useless, which is very useful.

Wow. This is in the US, I assume ("SSN")? I've never heard of this happening with a US carrier.

Yeah, social security number.

It's basically a private key we're all assigned at birth that can't be rotated. It was originally meant to be used in the state-sponsored welfare program "social security", but tons of businesses require it as a unique identifier.

Absolute stupidity on all fronts.

Re: Show HN: Hacker News' “most unique support email of 2014”

#74

Post by gknoy »

ChristianBundy wrote: post #73
CamperBob2 wrote: post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Wow. This is in the US, I assume ("SSN")? I've never heard of this happening with a US carrier.

Yeah, social security number. It's basically a private key we're all assigned at birth that can't be rotated. It was originally meant to be used in the state-sponsored welfare program "social security", but tons of businesses require it as a unique identifier. Absolute stupidity on all fronts.

I'm pretty certain you can ask them for a random number instead, as only the government is allowed (last I recall) to __require__ an SSN. I know my doctors can ask for it, but are required to accept an alternative if I don't wish to provide the SSN.

For example:

http://www.identityhawk.com/Who-Can-Lawfully-Request-My-Soci...

Sadly, it's too late in the day for me to try to parse this: http://www.justice.gov/opcl/social-security-number-usage

Re: Show HN: Hacker News' “most unique support email of 2014”

#75

Post by JoshTriplett »

frankzinger wrote: post #70
JoshTriplett wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

HTTPS does not break caches; that's FUD. Browsers can cache HTTPS pages just fine, and do by default unless told not to. Nothing forces sites to use a CDN. HTTPS, by itself, does not massively increase load. If the limiting factor of your web server is how fast you can do cryptographic operations for HTTPS, you're doing rather well; most of the time that won't be your limiting factor. Using a CDN is not wildly less s…

HTTPS does not break caches; that's FUD. Browsers can cache HTTPS pages just fine Yes, but caching by intermediaries is a very important part of HTTP caching, and HTTPS effectively breaks that, does it not?

> Yes, but caching by intermediaries is a very important part of HTTP caching

Proxies are not a common setup; approximately zero home users use them, and a subset of corporate networks do (only the obnoxious ones).

In any case, caching proxies are far less important than caching browsers, and HTTPS does not in any way break caching browsers.

Re: Show HN: Hacker News' “most unique support email of 2014”

#76

Post by thameera »

bactatin wrote: post #54
obituary_latte wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If only I had scrolled a bit first, I could have saved myself minutes. Thank you, and my support request is: please start auto-linking safe urls.

My browser does stuff like that for me. :)

Safari?

Re: Show HN: Hacker News' “most unique support email of 2014”

#77

Post by Squarel »

nhayden wrote: post #56
chrismorgan wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I would urge you to, like I realised I had to a few years ago, get over it. Language is not defined by a dictionary or by history; roots and origins are truly meaningless. A word is defined by its usage; it’s one of the delightful things in the world for which it can be said that if enough people say something is true, it becomes true. Uniqueness may once have been a boolean property (I cannot say for certain one way…

Should we accept incorrect usage of language that is more confusing than the correct usage? For instance, using "begs the question" instead of "raises the question". It causes a lot of confusion because people cannot even agree what the misusage of "begs the question" means and it is never a better choice of words than "raises the question" if that is what someone means.

I am with Stephen Fry on this one. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J7E-aoXLZGY

Language evolves over time, and I am no more confused by someone (mis)using "begs the question" than I am by someone using the modern definition of decimate.

Re: Show HN: Hacker News' “most unique support email of 2014”

#78

Post by prof_hobart »

mkempe wrote: post #28
mikeash wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My dictionary lists two definitions for "unique." One is "being the only one of its kind" and is thus a binary property as you say, but the other is merely "particularly remarkable, special, or unusual," which is perfectly amenable to modifiers like this.

"unique" comes directly from the Latin "unus", one. The modernist, American wishy-washy uses of the word to mean "unusual" are a sad travesty of thinking. One should simply use the word "unusual" if that's what one means to say.

"Say" comes from PIE, meaning to utter - in other words, to speak out loud - not to write, or to type. One should simply use the word "type" if that's what one means to say...

Re: Show HN: Hacker News' “most unique support email of 2014”

#80

Post by oneeyedpigeon »

chrissnell wrote: post #42
alfiedotwtf wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Unless you're logged in and entering data, Hacker News does not need SSL What about if you're in a country that likes to censor the news?

Why not create a non-SSL virtualhost? http://plain.news.ycombinator.com or similar.

Or just have each protocol do what it's supposed to, rather than redirecting one to another? In general, aren't advanced users supposed to like having the option to make their own decisions?
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