webshit weekly
An annotated digest of the top "Hacker" "News" posts for the first week of July, 2021.
Purelymail – cheap, no-nonsense email
July 01, 2021
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Some Internets experiment with disrupting Silicon Valley business practices by offering a service in exchange for money. Since the service in question is email, Hackernews picks up the megaphone and declares that only Google or Microsoft are capable of operating an SMTP service, much less arcane magic such as IMAP. The service vendors arrive in the comments to be informed that their business is impossible.
Copilot regurgitating Quake code, including sweary comments
July 02, 2021
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Somebody on Twitter is mad at Microsoft's Markov chains. Hackernews assumes the traditional vestment of the Copyright Clergy and proclaims that Sandalphon is watching, and those who do not decry the Infractor will not have their prayers carried to the Most Holy Lord of Intellectual Property. Since every single Hackernews has seen a copyright notice, they are all experts in legal matters with impeccable credentials, and we're subjected to six hundred comments' worth of the sorts of opinions you'd expect. No technology is discussed.
I do not agree with Github's use of copyrighted code as training for Copilot
July 03, 2021
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Someone[who?] is so mad about yesterday's Markov chain fiasco that drastic changes are made: a dozen small programs are removed from GitHub and put somewhere else. Microsoft's stock price immediately fell six hundred percent and all English-speaking internet users ceased to use GitHub immediately. Sorry, no, what happened is that Hackernews posted all the same comments they posted yesterday, often directly linking to those comments in the process.
Is Alexandra Elbakyan in real trouble this time?
July 04, 2021
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Someone had something to say about someone else, but I didn't bother working around the paywall. Hackernews pasted a link to such a workaround, but I couldn't be bothered to click on it. Hackernews splits its time between inventing pedantic methods for avoiding the laws of a country the person at hand does not occupy, whether or not scientific journals should be suffered to exist, or angry rants proclaiming the entire concept of science itself to be a vast conspiracy to enrich postdoctoral students.
No More Movies
July 05, 2021
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Some asshole has opinions about the film industry. We are never treated to a specific reason we should care. Hackernews insists that real cinema is only found outside of the United States, or in the pages of specific home media vendors. Hackernews has other opinions, but none of them are any more novel or valid than the original article's. No technology is discussed.
European Parliament approves mass surveillance of private communication
July 06, 2021
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The European Union wants to see your emojis. Hackernews does not want them to see your emojis, and instead questions whether "human rights" exist. Unable to get to the bottom of that quagmire -- too many dictionaries -- Hackernews turns to the question of whether "human rights" should exist. One Hackernews is mad at the BBC. The rest of the arguments are about whether encrypting the emojis will save us.
Npm Audit: broken by design?
July 07, 2021
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A webshit is mad at a program. Hackernews sympathizes, but explains that the reason the tool sucks is that the entire culture around computer security is based on the needs of hysterical attention-seeking jackals, who outnumber actual professional practitioners about a thousand to one. Hackernews then informs us that this is for the best.