mccada

Happy birthday Hacker News! It's usually the first site I pull up everyday, and even though I mostly just lurk I've learnt a lot of interesting info from the site. I appreciate the linked articles and insightful discussions on here.

On a similar note, any good mobile educational apps for kids? I found Khan Academy Kids which is quite polished and nice.

Baldur's Gate was the first RPG I played on PC. Had to play it at a friends place (he had a PC), it was a very intriguing game with the strong characterization and choices you could make in the game. Once I finally got a PC, I bought and spent many hours playing Baldur's Gate 2, which was great. This was all in New Zealand, and ironically I now live in Edmonton, Alberta where Bioware first made them. So definitely interesting to delve into the early days history of the company. Thanks for the nostalgia!

Even in places where a warmer climate might seem to give some positives, for example where I live in interior Canada, with warmer and longer growing seasons in a typically cold climate, it is hard to overstate some consequences of such a change. One thing that is already happening is the massive increase in wildfires during the summer months, and the unpredictable weather and storms. Another example would be the mountain pine beetle, because of warmer winters it is starting to decimate North American forests. Everything is interconnected in the environment, and small changes can have large effects.

Climate change is going to be a net negative for almost all humankind and life on the planet, even for those places where you think on the surface it might have a positive effect.

Thanks for your thoughtful response.

Instead of the usual doom and gloom, or abandoning all hope, are there any tangible ways a person can make a difference? Reducing consumption and consumerism, energy efficiency and habits changing surely help a little, but I'm interested in slightly longer term projects (say the next 10 years).

It seems like we're on track for a huge crisis, but as group we're slow to react.

Massage helps with loosening and relaxing the muscles, usually those muscles get tight and sore with trying to compensate for posture etc. But I've found it's just a temporary fix. Things like massage or chiropractors help a little, but if you don't fix the underlying issues the pain will keep coming back.

You need to combine with either strength training, movement and stretching, or adjust the way you are sitting to feel longer term relief.

It is interesting how the editorial talks about perspiration being a natural way for the body to excrete aluminum, while aluminum is the active ingredient in most anti-perspirants. So we are effectively blocking the release of aluminum by using aluminum.

  Location: Alberta, Canada
  Remote: Yes
  Willing to relocate: No
  Technologies: Ruby, Rails, HTML / CSS, JS, Bootstrap, Unix / Linux
  Résumé/CV: http://spirelabs.ca/files/Resume_Developer_16.pdf
  Email: mccada@gmail.com

Actually I think their long term plan will be to switch to ARM processors. Probably not just yet though. They have already made their software compile to platform independent code (I may have the terminology wrong, I'm not super familiar with it), which means all current software should be able to run on ARM. You can check out some more in-depth discussion about this topic here https://www.macobserver.com/columns-opinions/particle-debris...

I'm not sure if they use the same terminology in Canada, but the four chiropractors at the place I go to all use Dr. and DC as their title, so I'm guessing so.

I started getting chronic back pain last year after being in a desk position for quite some time. I even considered switching jobs as I was that uncomfortable sitting. Some things that have helped:

Movement. Try to get up and move around at least once every hour or so. Going for a couple of 15 minute walks on breaks helps as well. It is the lack of movement and tightening of muscles that causes most of the pain.

Decent Office Chair. The one I have can lean back quite far, and I find this more comfortable. Try to change positions in your chair to keep your body posture and muscles moving.

Chiropractor. When my back starts acting up more than usual I'll see a chiropractor. This can help loosen up really tight joints and crack your spine or ribs back into proper position.

I've heard both swimming and yoga can both work wonders as well, but have yet to try these. Goodluck!

This is fantastic. I'm hoping for some book releases in the near future now that the framework has reached version 1.

You can use LibSass which is written in C++, to avoid the Ruby dependencies. https://github.com/sass/libsass

Do you have a source for the data collecting for Win 7? Windows 8 is a slightly different story since they incorporated signing into your machine with a Microsoft account, so they have more personal identification linked to your machine (email etc).

Yes other services and companies use your data, including Google and Apple. But these are usually (as far as I know) more annonimized. Microsoft is taking personal data collecting to a new level. From their TOS:

“Microsoft collects information about you, your devices, applications and networks, and your use of those devices, applications and networks. Examples of data we collect include your name, email address, preferences and interests; browsing, search and file history; phone call and SMS data; device configuration and sensor data; and application usage.”

And also:

“If you open a file, we may collect information about the file, the application used to open the file, and how long it takes any use [of]it for purposes such as improving performance, or [if you]enter text, we may collect typed characters, we may collect typed characters and use them for purposes such as improving autocomplete and spell check features.”

There are also reports they are taking sound recordings and webcam captures. This operating system is like an NSA wet dream. If this doesn't make you feel uncomfortable, go ahead and support the new normal. I don't want any part in it.

Some people aren't comfortable with the amount of data Microsoft is collecting about them. There are a lot of privacy issues, and their terms of service are really quite jarring if you read them. Even turning all the the tracking and telemetry off, you cannot be sure they are not collecting your personal data.