Saying the truth is racist now? Are these cheap knock-offs Chinese or not? China remains the main source of counterfeit goods. This is a fact.
> Counterfeit goods are estimated to amount to approximately 12.5 % of China’s total exports and over 1.5 % of its GDP. This results in estimations that 72 % of counterfeit goods currently in circulation in three of the world’s largest markets for such products, namely the EU, Japan and the USA,have been exported from China.
It is possible to block web font request on a per-domain basis via an extension, even on Chrome. I have webfonts disabled by default for a while, and thought about building a whitelist of acceptable ones but have been too lazy to implement it yet.
uMatrix is definitely great for this. I consider it a request firewall at browser level. And it works very well at blocking everything (JS, CSS, image, any type of request really) by default, should you wish to do so.
It also allows blocking webworkers which mining sites tend to rely on.
Since you are new to HN, you may not know this, but it is considered poor form to complain about being downvoted. And more often than not, it invites even more downvotes as a result.
From the HN Guidelines (which I recommend reading):
> Please don't comment about the voting on comments. It never does any good, and it makes boring reading.
> as long as they propagate our values and don't crush us.
There's a paradox here I think. If they propagate our values, then there's a very good chance that they will crush us. How do more "primitive" people fare in our modern world? Where's neanderthal? What about our primate cousins? Or even the other animal species in general? If AI really share our values, at best we might end up in a zoo.
First time I hear about Brian May being an astrophysicist. Very surprising (to me at least). He was awarded his PhD in 2007, for his study on the formation of zodiacal dust clouds.
> BeautifulSoup is great, but it's counterintuitive (I always need to refer to documentation even for very basic aspects that I've used dozens of times before) and it's often slow and has some really weird xml bugs)
I won't argue the slowness and the occasional bugs, but unlike you I find b4 to be very intuitive. And this is mainly why I use it, despite its faults. Maybe our use case are different, but with a basic knowledge of html, I only rarely find myself reading the documentation. Care to give some examples of what you find counter-intuitive?
If you have a nvidia GPU, then it may well be the fault of the latest drivers (390.25), which have been buggy, and it's especially notable under Chrome/Chromium (video/audio stuttering, problems with vsync, general slowness, high CPU usage, etc..).
> What are kids today using to do this kind of 'make my own tinkered games' stuff -- do they go straight to Unity, or still something like QBasic?
Python, with pygame, is the modern equivalent I think. It's relatively easy and straightforward for beginners, free, and very popular (lots of resources, tutorials, etc...).
https://www.pygame.org/news
For something more advanced but still python-ish, there's also Godot, which is a real engine and adds a visual IDE to game creation. Quite easy to install/setup too (everything comes in 1 file). Overall a very cool project.
https://godotengine.org/
> I mean why would a successful, well-adjusted "gentleman" even be in a situation where the best option for him is to live in a shared apartment with a woman considerably younger than him? Sure he gave her a reason, but well, he has to come up with _something_ doesn't he?
But isn't this your logic/rational mind kicking in? I think you're making my point that trusting gut feelings (a well-adjusted gentleman) isn't reliable, and taking some time to calmly and rationally assess the situation (the quick background check the victim's mother did for example) is a much better alternative.
You're right that being in a desperate need for a roommate, for financial reasons, may have been a major factor here. But again, psychopaths are manipulative and able to choose their victims and spot their weaknesses. Bachman may well have sensed this was a great opportunity, and pushed the right buttons (immediately writing a check).
Gut reactions to psychopaths tend to be the opposite: they are charming, and charismatic. Theres's a very good chance that you will like them, from the first impression. That's one of the traits/signs of a psychopath. That's why you shouldn't trust your gut, at least not in this case.
And the experiences of the victims in the article reinforce this point, at least in the first encounters: a courtly gentleman, he was very respectful.
That's assuming that someone recognizes which strategy was responsible for failure. Blaming the competitors, or the employees, is probably much more comforting and easier for upper management.
> But, at least for me, the industry has done a decent job of competing with piracy on convenience.
It has, but the fragmentation that you mentioned is starting to seriously erode this progress. If the situation worsens on this front, I can definitely see a resurgence of piracy, again because of convenience.
I wasn't talking about economic competitors, but opponents to Google/Apple in the political area (e.g. EFF), who may lobby for changes. Therefore my note about the democratic process. Minorities may make demands, but whether they pass or not does rest on the majority. Hence the need to sway popular opinion, which I don't see happening.
> Most people don't realize how bad all sorts of things in their life are.
I'd say that most people are regularly bombarded by all these issues in the medias. If they still don't realize, then this is because they actively filter them out.
> If you think things in the world should only change because of popular opinion & sales, then things like emancipation, environmental protection, worker protection, consumer protection laws, and other such things would never have happened.
I never claimed that things shouldn't change, only that I very much doubt they will. It's on the opponents to Google/Apple, to convince the majority that there are real issues and that measures should be taken. That's how democracy works, right? And I don't see that happening in the near future. Privacy? We have nothing to hide. Low-level customizability? We only need something that just works. They are the popular answers on these issues that need to be countered.
> This is why both android and ios are NOT the mobile os of the future.
I too would like a more open OS for mobiles, but you have to realize that the majority of users doesn't care about this. They are unconcerned about most privacy issues, don't need to ever tinker at a low level with their devices, and they are the ones ultimately deciding on what the future will be. What matters is the UI, and that the various features "just work".
You are in a minority, however vocal, that has little to no say in what the future of mobile OSes should be. My take on it is that whatever will replace android and ios will be even worse on these issues.
> If you want to advocate cryonics for the masses, think about what you would do if you had to live in a world with the reanimated masses of the 18th century.
Sounds like Riverworld. I think it could be quite interesting. But anyway, whether it's a potential mess or not is something for our future descendants to decide on.
Advocating cryonics today doesn't imply that our descendants, even if they have the technology, will accept the resurrection of masses. We have immigration laws today, I'm sure the same concept could be thought up for "people outside their own time", if it ever is an issue.
From my own experience, a few months ago, on Linux mpv was still the better choice (more performant, better image quality, some more polished/reliable features like subtitles) as long as you don't mind the minimal UI (or use a front-end).
> Which is why I personally dont even consider it.
So, assuming you're a man (bear with me if you aren't): are you so open-minded and rational that you do consider female clothes in your shopping too? Do you look at women's watches and glasses too? Do you often wear pink?
Here is my guess: you don't. You may think you're completely disconnected from the social cues inherent in clothing/accessories, that you consider clothes as purely functional. But chances are, in practice, you really don't. Signalling your gender "to all and sundry" as you put it, is one of the major non-verbal cues that clothes provide. It's part of those "random pre-designated styles" and is taught from a young age, and understood by everyone. Your tastes reflect that, whether you consciously acknowledge it or not.
You don't see men in robes, for example, in modern western cultures, whatever their potential comfort/utility/beauty, they simply are not considered for men in day-to-day life. Even though, there were periods and cultures where they were perfectly fine for men to wear.
> Counterfeit goods are estimated to amount to approximately 12.5 % of China’s total exports and over 1.5 % of its GDP. This results in estimations that 72 % of counterfeit goods currently in circulation in three of the world’s largest markets for such products, namely the EU, Japan and the USA,have been exported from China.
https://www.europol.europa.eu/sites/default/files/documents/...