webshit weekly

An annotated digest of the top "Hacker" "News" posts for the second week of October, 2017.

Thoughts on Microsoft's Time-Travel Debugger
October 07, 2017 (comments)
An internet posts a detailed design analysis of some software without even using it. Hackernews is terrified at the possibility that similar technology could be used to track people even when they're not using a web browser. Several pages of whining appear about Microsoft having the audacity to sell products and services. Several more appear about Microsoft having the audacity not to sell other products and services.

Designing Data-Intensive Applications
October 08, 2017 (comments)
An internet makes a website for a book. The book had a "beta release" instead of a "draft" because it was written by a dork. Hackernews discusses the author's ideas about the future of MySQL and how they've all already implemented all those ideas. Other Hackernews are pissed that the computer book published by a database engineer isn't about pictures.

Tracking friends and strangers using WhatsApp
October 09, 2017 (comments)
An internet describes stalking methodology. Hackernews is wayyyy ahead of them.

iOS Privacy: Easily get a user's Apple ID password, just by asking
October 10, 2017 (comments)
Apple's magical curated user experience Just Works, even for entities that are not Apple. Hackernews wants Apple to port the Touchbar to their phones. Everyone seems to agree that having a smooth route to user privilege escalation without bidirectional authentication is a user interface problem and not a fundamental architectural flaw. Some Hackernews point out that pixel-level character differences are sufficient to avoid this particular instance of the problem. Everything is fine forever.

Firefox Send: Private, Encrypted File Sharing
October 11, 2017 (comments)
Mozilla decides its users aren't sending enough data to Mozilla. Users are assured their privacy is intact because Mozilla probably won't look at the decryption keys. Hackernews decides that this is better than dropbox, worse than dropbox, unusable, and a killer feature. Hackernews suggests six thousand other webshits to "fix" filesharing, each of which solves about 80% of the problem and leaves the other 20% to rot. Someone asks why a browser vendor is horning in on filesharing, and a Mozilla shows up to link to some propaganda.

Rejecting a candidate for over-qualification results in age bias
October 12, 2017 (comments)
An internet is angry that companies won't hire old or expensive workers. Hackernews suggests that this problem could be fixed by just not doing it. Over the course of many pages, Hackernews begins to suspect that maybe other people don't have everyone else's best interests at heart.

Steve Wozniak announces tech education platform Woz U
October 13, 2017 (comments)
Steve Wozniak signs an endorsement deal with some shitty online learning app. The article namedrops Steve Jobs for no discernible reason. Hackernews debates whether Wozniak is actually involved at all, or if this is just the particular Wheaties box Wozniak chose to appear on.

The impossible dream of USB-C
October 14, 2017 (comments)
An internet is upset that the latest revision of the USB specification is inconsistent garbage, precisely like each of the other revisions of the USB specification. Hackernews can't stop destroying their hardware. Other Hackernews vent some fury about USB-C, and decide that it's basically a user interface problem and not a fundamental architectural flaw.