crumpled (u/crumpled)

crumpled commented on CIA to Sunset the World Factbook abc.net.au/news/2026-02-0... · Posted by u/kshahkshah

elzbardico · 5 days ago

Trusting domain experts is precisely what I like in Britannica. I want an environment where real domain experts are not drowned by a mob of midwits.

crumpled · 5 days ago

Arguably, you get more and better domain experts in Wikipedia. I have a set of Britannicas, it's severely lacking in citations and definitely out of date, no matter how new.

The question of article quality has been studied from the very beginning. Wikipedia almost always wins.

crumpled commented on Top downloaded skill in ClawHub contains malware 1password.com/blog/from-m... · Posted by u/pelario

paodealho · 5 days ago

Back in the XP days if you let your computer for too much time on the hands of an illiterate relative, they would eventually install something and turn Internet Explorer into this https://i.redd.it/z7qq51usb7n91.jpg.

Now the security implications are even greater, and we won't even have funny screenshots to share in the future.

crumpled · 5 days ago

I recognize that screenshot. The office managers just wanted smilies in their Outlook email.

crumpled commented on Top downloaded skill in ClawHub contains malware 1password.com/blog/from-m... · Posted by u/pelario

wat10000 · 5 days ago

Yes? I assume this is a rhetorical question but I don't know what rhetoric it's intended to convey.

crumpled · 5 days ago

I'm not the commentor, but you could get different results from the same curl command depending on what the server wants to give you at the time. The bash script can make additional curl calls or set up jobs that occur at other times.

I'm sure both of you understand this. I'm guessing it's just semantics.

crumpled commented on CIA to Sunset the World Factbook abc.net.au/news/2026-02-0... · Posted by u/kshahkshah

elzbardico · 5 days ago

I really wish more people funded Britannica or some other traditional encyclopedia.

Most volunteers on Wikipedia do an excellent job, but sometimes the absence of traditional editorial structures shows its limitations.

crumpled · 5 days ago

Wikipedia is Creative Commons. Someone could conceivably publish a dead tree version that goes through an editor / editorial process.

Imagine being an editor of Britannica. Without having domain knowledge into absolutely everything, you are forced to trust domain experts.

Wikipedia has a marked advantage when it comes to building that trust, as the articles have been written under public scrutiny and with a great deal of discussion.

What else are you looking for with "traditional editorial structures"? Consistency in quality and completeness, which Wikipedia lacks. However, whenever an article has lower standards, Wikipedia is happy to point that out to the reader, and allow further refinement. A more traditional encyclopedia would simply omit the article entirely.

I'm not really seeing what a traditional editorial structure would be gaining anyone, seems like it would just be a smaller encyclopedia.

crumpled commented on FBI couldn't get into WaPo reporter's iPhone because Lockdown Mode enabled 404media.co/fbi-couldnt-g... · Posted by u/robin_reala

frereubu · 6 days ago

How many people do you think see those tweets, how many minds do you think you have changed, and at what mental cost to yourself?

crumpled · 6 days ago

What's the point of these questions? Seems like, "what's the point of dissent if the cards are stacked against you?"

crumpled commented on Steve Bannon Proposes Using ICE in Elections newsweek.com/steve-bannon... · Posted by u/SilverElfin

tptacek · 6 days ago

This wouldn't be on-topic for HN even if it wasn't running in "Newsweek" --- even if a sitting senator had said it, mere proposals are explicitly off-topic --- but I always feel like it's useful to call out the fact that "Newsweek" is a grift publication. The Newsweek your parents read went out of business a decade and a half ago, and was purchased by a cult and run as an SEO farm.

https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=false&qu...

crumpled · 6 days ago

I would change that classification from "mere proposal" to "credible threat".

I'm honestly disappointed to see this flagged. What's the saying, "Even an SEO farm is right twice a day"?

crumpled commented on Steve Bannon Proposes Using ICE in Elections newsweek.com/steve-bannon... · Posted by u/SilverElfin

ramuel · 6 days ago

"Flood the zone"

crumpled · 6 days ago

What's happening on the media landscape is an enormous problem, highly manipulated and coordinated on the right-wing side. Flooding the zone is happening, among other things that weaken trust in journalism, weaken/defund/discourage investigative reporting, burying the lede information etc.

However, using the goon squad to illegally intimidate and disenfranchise voters is a problem large enough that calling it a would-be distraction from the Epstein files is doing everyone a disservice.

We have to pay attention to more than one thing. Saying <blank> is just a distraction from <blank-2>, means that you're too distracted by <blank-2> and need to step back and look around at all the other horrors.

crumpled commented on Steve Bannon Proposes Using ICE in Elections newsweek.com/steve-bannon... · Posted by u/SilverElfin

A_D_E_P_T · 6 days ago

Steve Bannon is all over the Epstein files. He'd probably say anything outlandish to deflect attention away from that.

> https://www.jmail.world/messages/steve-bannon

crumpled · 6 days ago

It's not deflection. They're just doing multiple evil things at the same time.

crumpled commented on Steve Bannon Proposes Using ICE in Elections newsweek.com/steve-bannon... · Posted by u/SilverElfin

crumpled · 6 days ago

The Project 2025 crew is so obvious about what they are doing, and the counter-measures seem to be along the lines of, "well, let's see how it goes."

crumpled commented on We can’t send mail farther than 500 miles (2002) web.mit.edu/jemorris/humo... · Posted by u/giancarlostoro

raegis · 12 days ago

I immediately did a "apt install units". Very cool!

crumpled · 12 days ago

I did as well. I found a bug right away. If I use "units" the resulting calculations are reversed.

You have: 1 mile You want: kilometers * 1.609344 / 0.62137119

You have: 1 unit You want: 1.609344 units * 0.62137119 / 1.609344