Readit News logoReadit News
RRWagner commented on Jury told that Meta, Google 'engineered addiction' at landmark US trial   techxplore.com/news/2026-... · Posted by u/geox
WarmWash · 14 hours ago
...which has been known for at least a century
RRWagner · 13 hours ago
Here is an important difference. A century ago, the predator (seller) and the prey (buyer) were on equal evolutionary terms. Each generation of humans on either side of the transaction came into the world, learned to convince, learned to resist, then passed, and some balance was maintained. In this century, corporations and algorithms don't die, but the targets do. This means that the non-human seller is continuously, even immortally, learning, adapting and perfecting how to manipulate. The target, be it adult, adolescent, or child, is, and will be ever increasingly, at a severe disadvantage.
RRWagner commented on If you've got Nothing to Hide (2015)   jacquesmattheij.com/if-yo... · Posted by u/jacquesm
RRWagner · 4 days ago
It would be good to remember the Miranda warning: "Anything you say can and will be used against you in a court of law." (emphasis mine). It doesn't say, "maybe" or, "only if".
RRWagner commented on Disaster planning for regular folks (2015)   lcamtuf.coredump.cx/prep/... · Posted by u/AlphaWeaver
throwawayq3423 · 21 days ago
> History seems to indicate that in the absence of law, those with the most people inside a fortified structure and position are the most likely to survive.

Source?

RRWagner · 21 days ago
Every Roman fortification, medieval city & castle? Clarifying, compared to a single villager with a sword or even two.
RRWagner commented on Disaster planning for regular folks (2015)   lcamtuf.coredump.cx/prep/... · Posted by u/AlphaWeaver
pugworthy · 21 days ago
I've got a few high tech friends (and myself) that have slowly become more and more of the mindset to be self sufficient.

Two things probably have made me initially think more about it. First, the predictions of a major subduction earthquake here in Oregon, and knowing I'd be somewhat on my own for a while after that. And the other thing is Burning Man, which has taught me about self sufficiency and how one can actually have their cake and eat it too now and then.

Then there are guns. I've got two, and both are very much antiques. One a Krag 30-40 from 1908, the other a 1946 Springfield M1903. Both military issue, bolt action, and beautifully crafted. And both quite functional, powerful, and deadly items.

Why do I have guns? First because they are historical (used to work on a WW2 era video game). Then there's in theory hunting if I had to. Then there's protection. I can't deny that yes, I would consider using them if me and mine were truly threatened.

My only rule of thumb for any of this is never shall it say "Tactical" in the product name or the seller. Nor shall it have camo pattern.

RRWagner · 21 days ago
Do many people think that with their single assault rifle or other weap9n, that they would successfully defend against one or more truckloads of vandals looking to steal whatever they have stored up "self-sufficiently"? History seems to indicate that in the absence of law, those with the most people inside a fortified structure and position are the most likely to survive.
RRWagner commented on Computers that used to be human   digitalseams.com/blog/com... · Posted by u/bobbiechen
RRWagner · a month ago
Sometime when you're in a used bookstore, thrift store or yard sale, keep an eye out for very old dictionaries, and if found, look up the word "conputer". You will find the proof of the human occupant of this definition surprisingly recently (as in 1930s)
RRWagner commented on Presidential Immunity in the United States   en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pre... · Posted by u/pinkmuffinere
Y-bar · a month ago
My guess is that Sotomayor’s words from 2024 are becoming relevant again:

> The President of the United States is the most powerful person in the country, and possibly the world. When he uses his official powers in any way, under the majority’s reasoning, he now will be insulated from criminal prosecution. Orders the Navy’s Seal Team 6 to assassinate a political rival? Immune. Organizes a military coup to hold onto power? Immune. Takes a bribe in exchange for a pardon? Immune. Immune, immune, immune.

https://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/23pdf/23-939_e2pg.pdf

RRWagner · a month ago
It would seem now that Sotomayer was not speaking totally hypothetically.
RRWagner commented on Intricuit: A touchscreen add-on for Mac laptops   intricuit.com... · Posted by u/nvahalik
VerifiedReports · a month ago
That looks like a crappy way to work. Holding your arms out in front of you all day sucks.

The baffling thing is that Apple hasn't made the Pencil work on its laptops' (defectively) oversized touchpads: https://imgur.com/gallery/another-baffling-missed-opportunit...

RRWagner · a month ago
Pretty much every school in the US has students using touchscreen Chromebooks. It's funnyish when a young person tries to touch my MacBook screen to do a quick action, and I have to tell them that it's necessary to go to the touchpad, diddle a little to find the cursor, then do a move action to get to get to the target. Dragging is even more puzzling, touch and drag on a screen vs. move, double-tap or ctrl-click, then drag, then tap to release. I'm sure some will help me with faster touchpad methods, but that aside, I've used Mac laptops for 30+ years, and generally feel that those who perceive touchscreens as a gorilla-arm problem just haven't used a touchscreen laptop. They provide a much more efficient interface for some common actions. Touchscreens are so common now that most Windows and Chrome devices have them as the norm. Always strikes me as a bit strange that Apple-priced Mac laptops lack a feature found in low-price competitors.
RRWagner commented on State Department to deny visas to fact checkers and others, citing 'censorship'   npr.org/2025/12/04/nx-s1-... · Posted by u/seattle_spring
b112 · 2 months ago
"If you uncover evidence an applicant was responsible for, or complicit in, censorship or attempted censorship of protected expression in the United States, you should pursue a finding that the applicant is ineligible"

If that sentence from the article is accurate, the parent poster's response makes complete and perfect sense. You don't have to like the current administration, to like a specific thing they are doing.

Now is this actually what is happening? I don't know. And of course, that's a different conversation, and not what the parent poster was talking about.

RRWagner · 2 months ago
Displaying Nazi symbols is allowed (protected) in the United States, but prohibited in Germany. Does that mean that any German person involved in enforcing pr even tangentially acting on that restriction would be ineligible for a U.S visa?
RRWagner commented on Ask HN: What Are You Working On? (Nov 2025)    · Posted by u/david927
RRWagner · 3 months ago
Working with a group of friends on a "microcontroller-for-makers" kind of thing called the MakerPort. (https://makerport.fun) Sort of similar to an Arduino or micro:bit, but uses the MicroBlocks programming editor (https://microblocks.fun) created by John Maloney, who was the original team leader for Scratch at MIT for 11 years. The hardware includes an mp3 player, I2C ports, accelerometer and true capacitive touch sensors.
RRWagner commented on Montana becomes first state to enshrine 'right to compute' into law   montananewsroom.com/monta... · Posted by u/bilsbie
RRWagner · 3 months ago
I used to do presentations at educational technology conferences and many (30+)years ago I speculated that "in the future" computers that could create would be licensed. This was based on the observation that every significant past technology under user control was eventually licensed for permission to operate - radio, television, cars, the list is long.

u/RRWagner

KarmaCake day282June 8, 2012
About
Programmer from the early days of the Apple II (wrote the first book on assembly language programming for the Apple II), later developed the #1 K-12 educational application worldwide of the 90s and early 2000s(HyperStudio). More at rogerwagner.com.
View Original