Recent submissions

Comment · 2 years ago
Is there any mention of what kind of radioactive decay this is powered from? Based on the name, one might assume beta? This would also track with the "research done in the 20th Century" bit considering beta radiation is just electrons.

My point being - what impact does this have on the safety of the device? Any more than certain light sources containing mercury, for example.

Comment · 2 years ago
My partner's uncle and aunt have a holiday home right on that beach, just down from these pictures. We have of course enjoyed the privilege of staying there. We arrived in the dead of night, and there are no lights on the beach, so finding the house and then the keyhole was difficult to the point the woman next door thought we were trying to break in.
Comment · 2 years ago
I feel sorry for the people that have to use it to commute every day. Surely their hearing must be being damaged.
Comment · 3 years ago
>I just wish people would remember that they've already told me a story before.

I always get paranoid they'll remember half way through the story that they've told me it before, and then ask why I didn't say anything.

Comment · 3 years ago
I have always found it amusing that CSS does not accept both "color" and "colour" even though it accepts both "gray" and "grey"
Comment · 3 years ago
It seems to be taking a while for the framework to propagate to more independent arms of the government; as well as your example, for the (e.g.) DVLA a lot of the top level information-only pages are in the new framework (and also reside on www.gov.uk), but if you click any link to a form you get taken to the DVLA subdomain (motoring.dvla.gov.uk) and the difference is stark.

For the DVLA the site isn't so bad, but I definitely get that slightly disconcerted feeling that something is going to go wrong while you're filling out this important, official form? Which I don't get at all in the new framework.

Comment · 3 years ago
Not even close.

The specific case I know you're talking about is the woman who was in an exclusion zone that was in place to stop people harassing women entering an abortion clinic.

If she doesn't want "praying silently in her head" to be interpreted as harassment, maybe she should think about the behaviour she and her cohorts have engaged in that might have lead to this interpretation.

Sure, you can disagree with that as well, but she wasn't arrested for praying. She was arrested for intimidation and harassment. She doesn't get a special pass just because of the method.

Comment · 3 years ago
>I don't understand the cult following around Svelte.

What I don't get is how I never (at least on HN) see any criticism of it. Like... never ever. And sure I've probably missed the odd negative post about it, but as someone who has never used it and whose entire knowledge of it is based on what I've read on here, I couldn't tell you a single supposed downside of using Svelte. And sure, it could just be That Good, but... I dunno? There's something off about that.

Comment · 3 years ago
It depends what you mean by data. Metadata maybe, but I'd think they're meaning that once your passwords data is encrypted (on your device), it is no longer your data without the encryption key?
Comment · 3 years ago
You can find ones with glass lids.

Here in the UK we're lucky that Pyrex is still borosilicate glass, and there are some I've seen with glass lids that are advertised as "zero plastic".

Comment · 3 years ago
I'm not really well-versed in this kind of thing to make any particular comments, but this made me rage:

>Please reply to this message by 05.10.2023 to let us know that you received it and intend to make the applicable changes.

How effing arrogant do you have to be to say something like this? No "please respond and we can talk about it", it's "please confirm you know we're the big guys, and you're going to do what we say".

Comment · 3 years ago
I found this to be successful too. It took a few times though because it kept telling me about restaurants in New York.
Comment · 3 years ago
This wouldn't work in the same way in Japanese because characters can have different readings depending on the context. Could that be overcome with font ligatures? Still, even if we could overcome that massively complex task, some groups of characters (i.e. the aforementioned context) can still have multiple ways of reading them.
Comment · 3 years ago
I don't know the contract law in the relevant (presumably US) jurisdiction, but surely an asterisk in the contract that's basically:

Lifetime perpetual licence!*

*but we can cancel any time without any penalty lol teehee

is not enforceable? I don't think it would fly in court where I live, it doesn't matter if it was in a signed contract if it's preposterously unfair.

edit: and I don't even necessarily think a lifetime licence is something a company should offer, they are quite unfair on the developer. It's a big commitment to say you'll support some software in perpetuity. But the solution to that is to not offer a lifetime licence. It's not to just outright lie and say you are when you aren't. And if you're one company looking to buy another, you buy those contracts along with it and should take that into account in your due diligence.

Comment · 3 years ago
I mean, yes, it is a very impactful book; I enjoyed it very much.

What I'm meaning, though, is that if you were to go against your duty as the head of NASA, Carl Sagan isn't going to rise from the grave and smite you for your transgression. Whereas I believe that is exactly the point of swearing over a bible.

I'm not meaning to say it's meaningless to swear over an important book (or that it doesn't make some kind of point), rather that an important element of what it means to swear over a religious text is lost. The whole point of rationalism is that the universe isn't sentient and won't and cannot judge your actions.

An oath is a promise to someone that you will act for the greater good, and you do so with your hand over a representation of who will witness and judge you for that.

I don't really know if I'm trying to say anything in particular. It's just some thoughts I had when reading.

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