Call of Duty gaming community points to ‘swatting’ in deadly Wichita police shooting
A worldwide community of online gamers might be a key in finding out why a 28-year-old man is dead after being shot by police Thursday evening.
Hasnain says:
This is so sad and messed up on so many levels.
Two people had a fight over a bet of a dollar in call of duty, one guy gave out a fake address, the other guy swatted him, and so cops got called on a random person and proceeded to shoot him as he opened the door.
I don't even..
Posted on 2017-12-30T01:57:42+0000
The Rendering of Middle Earth: Shadow of Mordor
Middle Earth: Shadow of Mordor was released in 2014. The game itself was a great surprise, and the fact that it was a spin-off within the storyline of the Lord of the Rings universe was quite unusu…
alice maz - minecraft
digital girl in an analog world
Hasnain says:
This was a really engrossing story even if you don't know Minecraft. Talks about market manipulation.
"Most of the people in the top tier I knew their stores better than they did. It wasn't uncommon, for instance, for Zel to tell someone in chat, "I sell X item for P marbles," only for me to interject, "You sell X for Q but you've been out of stock for a week. Market East, second left, third shop on the right sells for R." One time I caught someone who had been using a hopper to siphon emeralds out of one of Victoria's shop chests. I didn't witness it or anything, I just noticed her supply had steadily dropped over the course of a week at a rate that was highly unusual given how the emerald market normally flowed. Summoned a mod to check the history of the blocks underneath, and my suspicions were confirmed. Victoria hadn't realized anything was even missing."
Posted on 2017-12-29T08:44:56+0000
Bitcoin exchange chief kidnapped in Kiev
Reports say Pavel Lerner was snatched in Kiev by men in balaclavas.
MoviePass Adds a Million Subscribers, Even if Theaters Aren’t Sold on It
Users can go to the movies once a day for $9.95 a month. While multiplexes doubt that’s sustainable, the chief executive, who slashed the price, says, “We seem to have hit a nerve in America.”
Hasnain says:
This is basically an advertisement for movie pass but some of the data and industry trends are interesting
Posted on 2017-12-29T01:20:40+0000
'Honour' killings in Karachi shock Pakistan's largest city
Murders of teenagers show that poor communities in cities are becoming more entrenched in conservative values
Hasnain says:
This is extremely sad. Including the first two paragraphs here, but not the next two because they should come with a little bit of a trigger warning.
"The night Ghani Rehman was condemned to die, his father asked if they could share a last meal together. But Ghani excused himself, preferring to wait in his room. His sisters came to see him, and he gave them each a small token to remember him by: a plastic-wrapped mint drop.
The 18-year-old boy knew what was coming. Less than 24 hours earlier, the neighbour’s 15-year-old daughter Bakhtaja, with whom Ghani had tried to elope from Ali Brohi Goth, their poor neighbourhood of Karachi, had been tied down and electrocuted."
Posted on 2017-12-28T22:39:50+0000
WHO to recognize gaming disorder as mental health condition
In 2018, the World Health Organization will include "gaming disorder" in a list of mental health conditions in the 11th International Classification of Diseases.
Hasnain says:
Why is it always gaming and not, say, TV? Because TV has been around longer / is more socially acceptable?
Posted on 2017-12-28T20:49:30+0000
From inboxing to thought showers: how business bullshit took over
The long read: Vacuous management-speak is easily laughed off – but is there a real cost to talking rubbish?
Hasnain says:
This was a very engrossing read, and no I'm not just saying it because I used it as a distraction from writing reviews.
"Still, these explanations did not seem to fully account for the conquest of bullshit. I came across one further explanation in a short article by the anthropologist David Graeber. As factories producing goods in the west have been dismantled, and their work outsourced or replaced with automation, large parts of western economies have been left with little to do. In the 1970s, some sociologists worried that this would lead to a world in which people would need to find new ways to fill their time. The great tragedy for many is that just the opposite seems to have happened."
Posted on 2017-12-27T23:22:34+0000
The World Might Be Better Off Without College for Everyone
Students don't seem to be getting much out of higher education.
A Tech Pioneer’s Final, Unexpected Act
Upon receiving a diagnosis of brain cancer, Eric Sun set out to achieve some lifelong musical goals.
Hasnain says:
A sad but very worth reading human interest story.
I only got to meet Eric once, and his advice and humbleness stands out to this day.
Posted on 2017-12-26T20:30:55+0000
Battle Scars
Amir Rajan tells the success story of his mobile game called "A Dark Room", which hit #1 on the App Store and grossed over $800,000.
Nicky Case
Who are you. What are you doing on my website.
Hasnain says:
This was a great short story about today's fast paced lives
Posted on 2017-12-26T04:51:08+0000
How NOT following my dreams enabled me to build a startup with 3.2 million users
Follow your dreams and the money will follow
Leaping into the future: Red goes blockchain!
Here we are, ready to leap into the future. This is a new page opening in the Red history book. It is a great day for us to finally be able ...
Hasnain says:
I saw Red the other day and liked their approach to simple GUIs; but I don't know how I feel about a programming language having an ICO
Posted on 2017-12-25T17:58:39+0000
‘I hope I can quit working in a few years’: A preview of the US without pensions
The way major U.S. companies provide for retiring workers has been shifting for about three decades, with more dropping traditional pensions every year.
AP FACT CHECK: Tax plan shows 2 things can be true at once
Two things can be true at once. President Donald Trump's tax overhaul is slanted to the rich, as Democrats say and Republicans like to ignore. It also comes with tax cuts for average people, which Democrats bypass in slamming Trump's "betrayal" of the middle class. Trump's signing of the...
Hasnain says:
I learnt a bunch about the tax plan after reading this
Posted on 2017-12-24T00:48:51+0000
Growing One's Consulting Business
How I got started consulting and the advice which changed my (business) life.
Hasnain says:
"How I went from $100-an-hour programming to $X0,000-a-week consulting."
This was a great read
Posted on 2017-12-23T18:28:58+0000
Long Island Iced Tea Soars 500% After Changing Its Name to Long Blockchain
There’s a new leader in the sweepstakes for the zaniest name change in the crypto craze.
Google Maps’s Moat
How far ahead of Apple Maps is Google Maps?
Hasnain says:
This is such an amazing, in depth, pleasant analysis of mapping technology
Posted on 2017-12-20T07:25:18+0000
Silicon Valley Is Turning Into Its Own Worst Fear
We asked a group of writers to consider the forces that have shaped our lives in 2017. Here, science fiction writer Ted Chiang looks at capitalism, Silicon Valley, and its fear of superintelligent AI.
Older Adults' Forgetfulness Tied To Faulty Brain Rhythms In Sleep
As people get older, brain waves that occur during deep sleep become less synchronized. This appears to disrupt a system that saves new memories.
Hasnain has not yet written a summary for this.
Posted on 2017-12-19T05:40:27+0000
Kaffer: 8 years into tests of abandoned rape kits, Worthy works for justice
Freep columnist Nancy Kaffer talks to Wayne County Prosecutor Kym Worthy about the progress of testing 11,000 rape kits abandoned in Detroit.
Hasnain says:
"In 2009, 11,341 untested sexual assault kits — the results of an hours-long process that collects evidence from the body of a rape victim — were found during a routine tour of a Detroit police storage warehouse, some dating back to 1984. "
"Ten thousand rape kits tested. One hundred twenty-seven convictions won, 1,947 cases investigated, 817 serial rapists identified. "
...
"One of the reasons we have these untested rape kits ... and I can use Detroit as an example, 86% of our victims in these untested kits are people of color."
:(
Posted on 2017-12-19T01:49:11+0000
Seattle train crash: at least six dead in Amtrak derailment
Train was heading south on new high-speed rail route that opened on Monday when it derailed near Tacoma in Washington state
‘We feel like our system was hijacked’: DEA agents say a huge opioid case ended in a whimper
Investigators wanted a $1 billion fine and criminal charges brought against McKesson. Instead, they got a $150 million fine and no charges.
Hasnain says:
It does not surprise me that the DEA would lightly enforce on things that could actually stop the epidemic.
"Schiller said DEA lawyers would repeatedly ask: “Why would you go after a Fortune 50 company that’s going to cause all these problems with Ivy League attorneys, when we can go after other [DEA registration holders] that are much lower, that are going to put up no fight?
“And I said, ‘That’s exactly why you want to go after McKesson. They’re the prize. They’re the ones that are going to send a message to the thousands of mom-and-pops, to other big distributors, to the manufacturers, that this is no longer acceptable.’ ”"
Posted on 2017-12-18T05:48:40+0000
2 Navy Airmen and an Object That ‘Accelerated Like Nothing I’ve Ever Seen’
What began as a training mission took a bizarre turn in 2004, an encounter that caught the attention of a Pentagon program investigating U.F.O.s.
Hasnain has not yet written a summary for this.
Posted on 2017-12-18T03:55:51+0000
Glowing Auras and ‘Black Money’: The Pentagon’s Mysterious U.F.O. Program
The shadowy program began in 2007 and was largely funded at the request of Harry Reid, the former Senate majority leader, who has had a longtime interest in space phenomena.
Hasnain has not yet written a summary for this.
Posted on 2017-12-18T03:55:25+0000
Memory Matters: A special RAM edition of Dirty Coding Tricks
Here we have a host of stories from devs across the industry (and across the years/platforms) about less-than-righteous methods used to fit levels, textures, & entire games into their required spaces.
Uproar Over Purported Ban at C.D.C. of Words Like ‘Fetus’
The Department of Health and Human Services played down a report that officials at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention were told not to use several words in budget documents.
Hasnain says:
“It’s absurd and Orwellian, it’s stupid and Orwellian, but they are not saying to not use the words in reports or articles or scientific publications or anything else the C.D.C. does,” the former official said. “They’re saying not to use it in your request for money because it will hurt you. It’s not about censoring what C.D.C. can say to the American public. It’s about a budget strategy to get funded"
Posted on 2017-12-17T16:54:31+0000
The FCC Is Blocking a Law Enforcement Investigation Into Net Neutrality Comment Fraud
In addition, the agency told me there was nothing it could do after someone hijacked my identity to claim I falsely supported killing net neutrality protections.
Hasnain says:
How do they plan on avoiding the inevitable lawsuits?
Posted on 2017-12-16T21:08:02+0000
A journey through a land of extreme poverty: welcome to America
The UN’s Philip Alston is an expert on deprivation – and he wants to know why 41m Americans are living in poverty. The Guardian joined him on a special two-week mission into the dark heart of the world’s richest nation
E Pur Si Muove
Earlier this year, I noticed something in China that really surprised me. I realized I felt more comfortable discussing controversial ideas in Beijing than in San Francisco. I didn’t feel...
Hasnain says:
This is a very solid point.
"I don’t know who Satoshi is, but I’m skeptical that he, she, or they would have been able to come up with the idea for bitcoin immersed in the current culture of San Francisco—it would have seemed too crazy and too dangerous, with too many ways to go wrong. If SpaceX started in San Francisco in 2017, I assume they would have been attacked for focusing on problems of the 1%, or for doing something the government had already decided was too hard. I can picture Galileo looking up at the sky and whispering “E pur si muove” here today."
Posted on 2017-12-15T04:12:16+0000
F.C.C. Repeals Net Neutrality Rules
In a 3-to-2 vote along party lines, the agency scrapped Obama-era rules meant to protect an open internet.
Generation Screwed
Why millennials are facing the scariest financial future of any generation since the Great Depression.
Hasnain says:
One of the most depressing things I've read in a long time, but this is an amazing read. Don't know what to pick out and share, just read the whole thing. It's worth it.
Posted on 2017-12-14T23:54:07+0000
The Silicon Valley paradox: one in four people are at risk of hunger
Exclusive: study suggests that 26.8% of the population qualify as ‘food insecure’ based on risk factors such as missing meals or relying on food banks
We messed up. We’re sorry, and we’re not rolling out the fees change. - The Patreon Blog
Creators and Patrons, We’ve heard you loud and clear. We’re not going to rollout the changes to our payments system that we announced last week. We still have to fix the problems that those changes addressed, but we’re going to fix them in a different way, and we’re going to work with you to...
The Merge
A popular topic in Silicon Valley is talking about what year humans and machines will merge (or, if not, what year humans will get surpassed by rapidly improving AI or a genetically enhanced...
Hasnain has not yet written a summary for this.
Posted on 2017-12-08T03:54:03+0000
Coinbase: The Heart of the Bitcoin Frenzy
The San Francisco start-up has been at the center of the virtual currency boom. But like any young company, it is experiencing growing pains.
Hasnain has not yet written a summary for this.
Posted on 2017-12-07T16:55:27+0000
"Red Blob Games: Hexagonal Grids"
"Guide to math, algorithms, and code for hexagonal grids in games"
"Cinemark announces $8.99-a-month subscription service to fill more seats \u2014 and take on MoviePass"
"Cinemark, the nation's third-largest theater chain, on Tuesday said customers who pay the monthly fee of $8.99 will get a credit for one movie ticket a month, plus additional tickets for $8.99 each. The deal also includes a 20\u0025 discount on food and drinks."
Hasnain says:
all I can say is: "lol".
not sure how this takes on movie pass since this is $8.99/mo for *one* ticket...
Posted on 2017-12-07T05:20:21+0000
Why are America's farmers killing themselves in record numbers?
The suicide rate for farmers is more than double that of veterans. Former farmer Debbie Weingarten gives an insider’s perspective on farm life – and how to help
Hasnain has not yet written a summary for this.
Posted on 2017-12-07T04:33:15+0000
Millions Are Hounded for Debt They Don’t Owe. One Victim Fought Back, With a Vengeance
Andrew Therrien wanted payback. He got it—and uncovered a conspiracy.
Hasnain says:
America continues to disappoint me. Sad that this had to ever happen.
"The two men started talking and texting a few times a week. “I think he has a mental illness that allows him to think he did nothing wrong,” Therrien told me. (Tucker didn’t respond to most of my emailed questions and kept putting off interview requests. “Lies are not stories,” he wrote in one email. He said that any debt he’d sold was legitimate.)"
Posted on 2017-12-07T04:27:37+0000
Is there data on the quality of management decisions?
A statement I commonly hear in tech-utopian circles is that some seeming inefficiency can’t actually be inefficient because the market is efficient and inefficiencies will quickly be eliminated. A contentious example of this is the claim that companies can’t be discriminating because the market ...
Hasnain says:
This a great read and analysis. So much good stuff.
"If we think about the general case, what’s happening is that decisions have probabilistic payoffs. There’s very high variance in actual outcomes (wins and losses), so it’s possible to make good decisions and not see the direct effect of them for a long time. Even if there are metrics that give us a better idea of what the “true” value of a decision is, if you’re operating in an environment where your management doesn’t believe in those metrics, you’re going to have a hard time keeping your job (or getting a job in the first place) if you want to do something radical whose value is only demonstrated by some obscure-sounding metric unless they take a chance on you for a year or two. There have been some major phase changes in what metrics are accepted, but they’ve taken decades."
Posted on 2017-12-07T02:59:31+0000
Senate Republicans Appear to Have Made a $289 Billion Mistake in Their Tax Bill
This is what happens when you pass handwritten legislation at 2 a.m.
Hasnain says:
This is what happens when you push a 2am hotfix to prod without peer review
Posted on 2017-12-07T01:53:49+0000
"Bitcoin\u2019s insane energy consumption, explained"
"One estimate suggests the Bitcoin network consumes as much energy as Denmark."
I Made My Shed the Top Rated Restaurant On TripAdvisor
And then served customers Iceland ready meals on its opening night.
Hasnain says:
""Generally, the only people who create fake restaurant listings are journalists in misguided attempts to test us," replies a representative via email. "As there is no incentive for anyone in the real world to create a fake restaurant it is not a problem we experience with our regular community – therefore this 'test' is not a real world example.""
Not sure they understand the mindset of a fraudster..
This is an amazing story though, especially when people actually show up
Posted on 2017-12-06T16:44:21+0000
Debugging an evil Go runtime bug
I’m a big fan of Prometheus and Grafana. As a former SRE at Google I’ve learned to appreciate good monitoring, and this combination has been a winner for me over the past year. I’m using them for monitoring my personal servers (both black-box and white-box monitoring), for the Euskal Encounter...
Hasnain says:
One of the most interesting debugging stories I've read in ages. This person deserves a medal
Posted on 2017-12-06T04:05:49+0000
The Trouble with Politicians Sharing Passwords
Yesterday I had a bunch of people point me at a tweet from a politician in the UK named Nadine Dorries. As it turns out, some folks were rather alarmed about her position on sharing what we would normally consider to be a secret. In this case, that secret is
Hasnain says:
I'm still baffled that an MP thought it was totally ok to be sharing passwords
Posted on 2017-12-04T16:29:26+0000
Stanford University data glitch exposes truth about scholarships
Stanford Business School officials are admitting that for years they have given steep price breaks to preferred applicants while claiming the scholarships were only for needy students - and say they will close a glitch that allowed public access to thousands of confidential student financial aid rec...
CoderPad on Indie Hackers
Vincent Woo's online interviewing platform CoderPad brings in $170,000/mo. Read how he built it and made ordinary sales calls to find his first customers.
Hasnain says:
The story of coderpad's rise to success. It's a great product.
Posted on 2017-12-01T05:56:37+0000