Live data from Hacker News

A determined 'hacker' decrypts RDS-TMC

windytan.blogspot.fi

41–50 of 50 posts

Re: A determined 'hacker' decrypts RDS-TMC

#41
post #27
post #22

It was funny/sad that people commenting on her blog assumed she was male due to the topic.

Or people did not know, and were indifferent to, her gender and used the male pronoun because that is the correct grammatical structure when the gender is unknown. I certainly never pay the slightest bit of attention to the gender of people I read. Does it make any difference?

> used the male pronoun because that is the correct grammatical structure when the gender is unknown.

According to the prestige dialect, yes. Not according to most of the more common dialects of English.

Re: A determined 'hacker' decrypts RDS-TMC

#42
post #36
post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You're talking about the same Finland where the police force: - writes its own search warrants - raids gardening stores because their equipment "could be used" to grow illegal drugs - tries to charge people with wiretapping for recording them during a home visit - conducts body & home searches in the middle of the streets based on inaccurate drug dog detections - falsely blocks informative sites about our internet bl…

Wow. Has it always been that way or did it change in recent history? I guess I am thinking of Norway with the 20-year maximum murder sentence.

That part's true; Finland does have relatively short prison sentences and heavy use of parole and prison alternatives, in line with the rest of the Nordic countries.

Re: A determined 'hacker' decrypts RDS-TMC

#43
post #41
post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Or people did not know, and were indifferent to, her gender and used the male pronoun because that is the correct grammatical structure when the gender is unknown. I certainly never pay the slightest bit of attention to the gender of people I read. Does it make any difference?

> used the male pronoun because that is the correct grammatical structure when the gender is unknown. According to the prestige dialect, yes. Not according to most of the more common dialects of English.

Oh? And what is the correct pronoun in that case?

Re: A determined 'hacker' decrypts RDS-TMC

#44
post #39
post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

On someone's personal blog, if you're going to comment, and the person's name and photo is right there, it's about the same as addressing a female in person as "Sir" (or in this case, "dude")

"Dude" works for women. How else are you going to call a female person in her late twenties? "Woman" is way too formal for many settings, "girl" can imply that you think she's not mature, and "gal" is just... no. If anyone has a better alternative, do tell. I'm not too pleased with "dude" either.

Your choices are: dudette, dudess, or dudine.

Re: A determined 'hacker' decrypts RDS-TMC

#45
post #39
post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

On someone's personal blog, if you're going to comment, and the person's name and photo is right there, it's about the same as addressing a female in person as "Sir" (or in this case, "dude")

"Dude" works for women. How else are you going to call a female person in her late twenties? "Woman" is way too formal for many settings, "girl" can imply that you think she's not mature, and "gal" is just... no. If anyone has a better alternative, do tell. I'm not too pleased with "dude" either.

Miss.

Re: A determined 'hacker' decrypts RDS-TMC

#46
post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well it's funny/sad if the commenters are not finnish, because 1919 windy@pentti~/koodi/redsea ) ./redsea.pl | grep TMC Pentti is a finnish males' name not a womans' name, I was really confused when I found out in comments she is she not he.

Pentti is my computer.

What's Finnish for "horde of stalkers because I'm female and write about tech"?

Re: A determined 'hacker' decrypts RDS-TMC

#47
post #43
post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> used the male pronoun because that is the correct grammatical structure when the gender is unknown. According to the prestige dialect, yes. Not according to most of the more common dialects of English.

Oh? And what is the correct pronoun in that case?

'They', even in the singular.

Re: A determined 'hacker' decrypts RDS-TMC

#49
post #14

Man, her blog is full of awesomeness. All kinds of cool little projects on there.

I get a seriously bittersweet feeling reading her blog since some of the things she's doing are eerily similar to little "just for the hell of it" projects I did in college many, many moons ago. (Transmitting data with IR LEDs driven by my sound card, using audio tapes to store data, playing with signal processing using audio from FM radio stations captured with my WinTV card, writing everything in Perl [5.005], ...)…

You may want to look in other areas. I was "collecting" watches[1] for years before I realized that I wanted to make watches. Because there was a 'purpose', I found myself with a desire to do more electronics projects to support my hobby.

My knowledge in that area (and software) gives me the leverage to make cheap-but-adequate tools that would cost $15-50k or more from watchmaker tooling companies.

[1] Basically, using my annual watch "budget" to buy a watch that had some unique or unusual attribute, not really collecting in the traditional sense.

Re: A determined 'hacker' decrypts RDS-TMC

#50
post #36
post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You're talking about the same Finland where the police force: - writes its own search warrants - raids gardening stores because their equipment "could be used" to grow illegal drugs - tries to charge people with wiretapping for recording them during a home visit - conducts body & home searches in the middle of the streets based on inaccurate drug dog detections - falsely blocks informative sites about our internet bl…

Wow. Has it always been that way or did it change in recent history? I guess I am thinking of Norway with the 20-year maximum murder sentence.

That is a bit misunderstood. Norway does indeed have a maximum prison sentence of 21 years, which is called "life in prison", but preventive detention can be used to effectively keep convicts incarcerated for the rest of their lives if deemed necessary for the safety of the public.
Post reply on HN