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Issue #235 - September 10, 2023
If you are looking for work, check out this month's Who is hiring?, Who wants to be hired? and Freelancer? Seeking Freelancer? threads.
Here are the top threads of the week, happy reading!
1. Ask HN: I’m an FCC Commissioner proposing regulation of IoT security updates
Top comment by SimingtonFCC
Thank you so much everyone for the interesting, high-quality discussion so far. My team and I are looking forward to continuing to engage with you for at least a few more hours.
Just a reminder: As fun as discussing this in here with you is, the best way to influence what the FCC ends up doing is to file an official comment by September 25th at https://www.fcc.gov/ecfs/search/docket-detail/23-239 . Click to file either an ‘express’ comment (type into a textbox) or a ‘standard’ comment (upload a PDF). The FCC is required to address your arguments when it issues its final rules. All options are on the table, so don’t hold back, but do make your arguments as clear as possible so even lawyers can understand them. If you have a qualification (line of work, special degree, years of experience, etc.) that would bolster the credibility of your official comment, be sure to mention that, but the only necessary qualification is being an interested member of the public.
Finally, I'd like to extend a special thanks to dang and the rest of the HN team for their help putting this together. They have been a pleasure to work with.
2. Ask HN: YC company copied our product, what can we do?
Top comment by anigbrowl
Stop talking about it and call a law firm. Your local Bar Association will be able to give you a list of firms/attorneys that practice in this area, or your existing lawyer may have a recommendation. Many law firms will give you a short consultation for free. Bring a succinct written summary of the facts with you that briefly describes the product, how you discovered the issue, and what you found when you investigated, with dates. Include a list of evidence items you have already collected. Litigation is difficult and expensive, but if you have a strong case (and it sounds like you do) then the law firm may take it on contingency in return for a larger portion of the settlement/judgment.
EDIT: I wouldn't trust the opinions of the 'just execute better' posters here, considering your competitors' employees already infiltrated your slack channel.
3. Ask HN: Does Instagram suspend accounts just to get their phone numbers?
Top comment by Fervicus
I have never had an Instagram account but decided to make one while I was traveling. The second I finished signing up, I got a notification saying I violated community guidelines and the only way to get my account unbanned was to share my phone number. I uninstalled the app immediately.
4. Ask HN: Is there a news source you read everyday? If so, what is it?
Top comment by caterama
5. Ask HN: Will Google delete inactive gmail accounts that forward email?
Top comment by arbuge
All those people in this thread saying to just login to these accounts to reactivate their deletion timers are off track.
It is virtually impossible to login to an old Google account for which you never set a recovery phone number - and completely impossible if you did set one but no longer own it.
And there is no human support of any kind at Google that you can discuss it with.
6. Ask HN: Why is home property information so public?
Top comment by blatzguzzler
Lawyer here. Land ownership has to be public because the only way to establish your right to property is the publicly recorded and government maintained "chain of title": who you are, who you got it from, who they got it from, etc., going back to the original survey of your state (or at least 50 years, where I am). Otherwise it would be chaos with everyone waiving around 100-year-old bogus deeds claiming the right to kick you out of your house. Tax records too, as someone else mentioned - everyone can verify whether or not the assessed tax is valid and the property valuation isn't made up to punish you for stepping on the toes of some county official. There are ways to obfuscate the individuals who actually own a particular piece of land (trusts, LLCs and such), but the chain of title needs to be available to anyone.
7. Ask HN: In person industry tours and site visits?
Top comment by vogt
Yes, practical exposure to any industry - particularly ones the teenager has an interest in - is a great thing.
I went to what was called a “vocational” high school in the US. In schools like this you rotate between a week of academic class and a week of your chosen specialization. Every week for four years. I was in the “graphic design and publishing” shop so I was learning Photoshop, Illustrator and running offset lithographic printers (small ones lol) with actual industry vets. Other students had auto body, facilities management, electrical, cosmetology, nursing. Freshman year is called your “exploratory” year, where you select something like ~8 of the available trades the school has on offer, with the end goal being you try them and figure out which to commit to. I remember going through Culinary Arts and nearly spilling a bowl of hot soup all over a table of elderly people. That line of work was never in the cards for me.
I’m not in graphic design anymore and “desktop publishing” barely exists as it did then, but the path certainly lead me to where I am today. I have NO clue what I’d be doing without that education.
8. Ask HN: Looking for a resource on Linux kernel module development
Top comment by westurner
- "The Linux Kernel Module Programming Guide" (2023)
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=35782630
- Still trying to find the How To Build a Formally Verified Kernel Module from Zero tut
Edit:
- /? Kernel module https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=true&que...
- "Linux Kernel Module written in Scratch (a visual programming language for kids)" (2022) https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=31921996 (EduBlocks does Scratch with Python blocks and/or text code)
9. Ask HN: What are some well-designed websites?
Top comment by Y_Y
https://www.mcmaster.com/ is a hardware retailer. Their website is a joy to use.
10. Ask HN: Is there a data loss bug lurking in MS365 backup solutions?
Top comment by nottheengineer
Possibly related: A few weeks ago I was told to use the autosave option of MS word. The login dialog went through, but then nothing happened. Classic Microsoft. I reinstalled Onedrive, autosave said it's on and I go ahead with my work. That was friday 3PM. Come monday, I find that the last 2 hours of friday are gone and spend about half an hour looking for it. I Ctrl+S about every 5 seconds so I can't imagine that there's no copy of it anywhere. But there wasn't one, it was just gone.
What happened was that onedrive was stuck trying to upload my VMs (I had those in my _local_ documents folder, which onedrive claimed ownership of during reinstallation without telling me). Onedrive never showed my excel file in the list of files it was uploading, so it could have either tried to do the VMs first and never got to the excel file or quietly errored out on that without ever uploading it.
In any case, I'm still dealing with the fallout of the fatal mistake I made: Trusting a microsoft product to do the absolute fucking basics.
Maybe I'll learn this time.