nexthash (u/nexthash)

nexthash commented on Are mental health apps better or worse at privacy in 2023? foundation.mozilla.org/en... · Posted by u/light94

cassiebender · 3 years ago

In 2023, mental health apps have significantly improved their privacy practices.Front end development has played a key role in creating user-friendly interfaces, implementing stronger authentication and encryption protocols, and allowing users to customize their privacy preferences. These efforts have resulted in apps that are better at protecting user privacy, building trust with their users, and providing valuable mental health support.

nexthash · 3 years ago

Is this a joke? How could you possibly believe in this delusion, when these apps have been shown over and over again to be gaslighting vulnerable people into divulging sensitive information about themselves to a VC-backed ad pipeline. Have you seen BetterHelp's ads on YouTube? Pure manipulation of people who are suffering.

nexthash commented on Colon Cancer Isn’t Just an Older Person's Disease Anymore bloomberg.com/opinion/art... · Posted by u/helsinkiandrew

nexthash · 3 years ago

I am taking a class in my college on environmental literature. One thing I learned is how environmental issues are consistently swept under the rug and underreported (like in this article, written by a former chemical & engineering news reporter) in society's discourse on cancer. All the blame for cancer is put on you and your habits, whether smoking or red meat. Big perps of this information campaign include the American Cancer Society. But as really good books like Silent Spring and When Smoke Ran Like Water show, environmental pollution and pesticides consistently correlate with rising cancer rates in modern society. It is ludicrous that one of two men and one of three women will be stricken with the disease in their lifetimes. Why is such a massive factor being hidden from the public? All this noise and focus on treatment... yet no focus on prevention. Because that would require economic changes that put a burden on corporations.

nexthash commented on Google just shut down our $1M business · Posted by u/jasonwen

nexthash · 3 years ago

Not the first time, won't be the last. Google is an egocentric company with a nihilistic and destructive indifference towards its customers. Fortunately people are learning to avoid Google products, as seen with Stadia's demise. Here are some other instances of Google's negligence:

1. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19124324

2. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19432702

3. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=30855065

4. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23193857

5. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=32547912

nexthash commented on Home appraised with a Black owner: $472K. With a White owner: $750K nytimes.com/2022/08/18/re... · Posted by u/guiambros

refurb · 3 years ago

If true, this sounds like an amazing arbitrage opportunity?

Buy a home at a 33% discount from a black owner, then sell it as a white owner for an instant profit.

No doubt people are lined up to do this right now.

nexthash · 3 years ago

Yes, it is called the gentrification of minority neighborhoods.

nexthash commented on PINE64 has let its community down drewdevault.com/2022/08/1... · Posted by u/Bl4ckb0ne

kaba0 · 3 years ago

Why manjaro over arch then?

I’m not trying to start some distro flamewar, but manjaro is considered quite shady compared to basically all the other distros by taking arch maintainer’s work without attribution, as well as the recent HN post about them. Sure, settle on any of the distros, but the odd one.

nexthash · 3 years ago

Manjaro is #4 on Distrowatch as of this comment, while Arch is #27. Not saying that popularity is all that matters in a distro, but widespread adoption is really important in getting non-technical benefits such as funding, clout, and people willing to devote time to the project.

About the shadiness: every project takes or is inspired by other projects, none have come up in a vacuum. Even with the sketchy reputation, Manjaro seems to have the support needed to actually turn into a Linux winner in the long-term.

nexthash commented on Why I left Pine64 blog.brixit.nl/why-i-left... · Posted by u/todsacerdoti

asdfasdf23r23r · 3 years ago

Correct. This is non-sense speak by non-developers. Greedy non-developers.

they "sell" it as "25x duplicated effort" but in reality, there's 25x little tweaks to a build system, that give thousands of people zero effort to port their known platform right away. Now those thousands of people will have REAL effort to adapt their knowledge and existing ways to fit that one holy way enforced by the device true owners.

In reality it is "25x places where i will have to hide my plan for monetize this". Just like most other projects, greed always destroy everything the community help build in good will.

nexthash · 3 years ago

I would like to disagree with your characterization. I use Linux distros regularly at work (Amazon Linux), in school (Rocky Linux, currently studying), and at home (Ubuntu) when hacking together various projects. I've seen firsthand the issues that come with trying to get a distro to interop with Bluetooth, sound, and software not quite designed for it.

This is not a zero sum game: I believe we can have both an OSS approach to Linux while at the same time having a channel of commercial development that brings more adoption (and fun, hackable devices!). This "one holy way" and the multitude of community-based distros can coexist, in the same way that commercial software companies and OSS communities have already learned to.

nexthash commented on Why I left Pine64 blog.brixit.nl/why-i-left... · Posted by u/todsacerdoti

igneo676 · 3 years ago

I think that's a huge overstatement of how much duplicated effort is involved. The process is much more akin to:

* OS 1 finds a bug in Gnome, reports it and perhaps fixes it

* OS 2 benefits from pulling in the new code as well, fixing bugs

* OS 3 writes a driver for the camera and publishes it as part of their kernel

* OS 4 finds a bug in the camera driver they started using, publishes their fix

Yes, there's some overheard to running 25 projects. There's also a huge downfall to excluding 24 projects from contributing as first class members of the project. To boot, it's also a situation where the more contributions make the fixes contributed even more battle tested and beneficial.

tl;dr - OSS development styles don't map onto commercial development styles cleanly

nexthash · 3 years ago

I guess it comes down to that: will Pine64 take an OSS development approach or a commercial development approach? I've been swimming on the question of why Linux isn't more accessible to more people for a while, and have come to believe that a commercial approach is the only way Linux can achieve the work-out-of-the-box dream.

Commercial development allows you to afford to control the hardware, make deals with other companies, and pay people to build compatibility with your system (i.e. Nvidia), which is what Microsoft and Apple did to keep their position. Server distros like Debian, Ubuntu, and Redhat already have deep foundational and corporate backing, and are a joy to use.

There are definitely drawbacks such as vendor lock-in and all the issues that come with corporate vs community control of the software. However, I believe having a single center of development and revenue (to pay for the development), while at the same time having fully open source software and hardware is possible and would have a huge impact.

nexthash commented on Why I left Pine64 blog.brixit.nl/why-i-left... · Posted by u/todsacerdoti

CivBase · 3 years ago

Can you really consider the "mass market" to be a key to power for Pine64 with their current lineup of products, though? The OS hackers seem to be Pine64's only key to power right now. And does supporting them really consume extra resources that could otherwise be better allocated?

nexthash · 3 years ago

My guess is that OS hackers could be considered as one niche, while hackers and builders who prefer not going through a custom Linux install/config for their project (i.e., a weather station or a mobile smart home dashboard) could be a larger one. Definitely not "mass market" or replacing Android levels, but at the same time a significantly larger portion of revenue for Pine64. The switch to Manjaro would provide them with a key backer that allows them to unlock this market. People have been discussing the software quality of Manjaro, so maybe it has a good foundation or connections?

Also: I've seen some hidden costs of supporting custom OS installs being discussed, i.e. procuring extra chips to allow open boot. This may have factored into Pine64's decision.

nexthash commented on Why I left Pine64 blog.brixit.nl/why-i-left... · Posted by u/todsacerdoti

ddevault · 3 years ago

This is one of the biggest strawmen I've seen on HN, a platform famous for building them. There's a lot wrong with this but the simplest is this: Pine's stated strategy is to deliver hardware and let the community deliver software. And the community did deliver working software under the earlier community model Pine was pushing, and it's thanks to these efforts that "getting the hardware up and running quickly" is even possible. Now they're adopting a different model which completely undermines what worked about the last one.

Pine64 is making enthusiast products for hackers, not mass-market devices for non-hackers. Non-hackers have access to plenty of phones which just werk. Part of the promise of Pine's platform and the appeal to the target audience is the commitment to community.

nexthash · 3 years ago

> Pine64 is making enthusiast products for hackers, not mass-market devices for non-hackers. Non-hackers have access to plenty of phones which just werk. Part of the promise of Pine's platform and the appeal to the target audience is the commitment to community.

Sounds like either Pine64 has grown past this and decided to pivot, or has been losing revenue due to a lack of customers from this niche market. Personally, as a hacker I love playing with different OSes. However, if I was to use any open source device like a PinePhone or Pine64 board to build something, I'd prefer a stable environment backed by an established foundation. Environment setup is hell, and figuring out which open-source OS works best, if it will be supported in the future, and how to install it would slow me down immensely.

nexthash commented on Why I left Pine64 blog.brixit.nl/why-i-left... · Posted by u/todsacerdoti

CivBase · 3 years ago

> When you’re trying to make a mass-market hardware product at bare-bones pricing, you have to be ruthless about simplifying the hardware and cutting costs.

But is that really what PINE64 should be trying to do? So far their support hasn't come from the "mass market". It's come from a niche market of open source hackers trying to build and support various Linux distros for mobile devices. Why does improving mass market appeal have to mean alienating your existing supporters?

nexthash · 3 years ago

You come up on your niche, and then when you have access to the broader market, you pivot to the group that will help you grow market power [1]. Similar dynamics exist in a lot of different ecosystems, and Pine seems to be responding to the challenges that have come with becoming big. It's sad that they won't be supporting OS hackers anymore, but they have to pivot if they want to bring onboard more customers (which seems to be the goal behind this decision).

[1] https://www.cgpgrey.com/blog/rules-for-rulers