dredmorbius

@dredmorbius@toot.cat

Space Alien Cat / Technological Archaeologist

Supervintage

Progress, models, institutions, technology, limits, values. Interactions thereof.

https://old.reddit.com/r/dredmorbius
https://joindiaspora.com/u/dredmorbius

Administrivia:
https://toot.cat/@dredmorbius/104371572777073267

Commas: Oxford

This profile is from a federated server and may be incomplete. Browse more on the original instance.

dredmorbius, to random

There are old planks, there are bold planks, and there are cold planks.

But there are no old, bold, cold planks.

dredmorbius,

@matera Shiver me timbers!!!

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=36715624

dredmorbius,

@androcat There are old Plancks, there are bold Plancks, and there are cold Plancks.

But there are no old, bold, cold Plancks.

dredmorbius,

@androcat If concerning planks: tragic.

If concerning Plancks: Tragick.

miki, to random
@miki@dragonscave.space avatar

Why do people think that this weird UX pattern where you have to click on a post’s timestamp to see more details is a good idea? This can be excused on HN, that whole site is a UX mess, but Substack and official Mastodon do this too. Does anybody find this intuitive?

dredmorbius,

@GreenSkyOverMe HN == Hacker News

https://news.ycombinator.com/

@miki

FiXato, to random

Chocolate

dredmorbius,

@FiXato As a homeowner I approve of this.

dredmorbius, to random

The #TeamHuman podcast now has ads.

dredmorbius,

@londubh It's ... jarring.

I have an extreme aversion to advertising, and really have to schedule around my mental preparedness as well as ability to skip around them.

I've dumped podcasts strictly based on the fact of their carrying ads, most especially interrupting randomly without warning.

And yes, I really do wish that we had another funding mechanism which actually worked.

dredmorbius, to random

tired: critical thinking
wired: critter-call thinking
inspired: call me maybe

#TiredWiredInspired

pseudonym, to writing
@pseudonym@mastodon.online avatar

When the irresistible force meets the immovable object, the force wins 90% of the time, because it's more narratively interesting.

dredmorbius,

@pseudonym Use the irresistible Force, Luke!

dredmorbius, to eink

So, Pocket, the article-archival tool that keeps getting worse the more you use it, has just become immeasurably worse.

I've reverted from version 8.6.x to no, not 8.5, not 8.4, not 8.2, but 8.1.1.0 from freaking February of this year to revert these completely fucking brain-dead changes.

The TL;DR: link is https://www.apkmirror.com/apk/mozilla-corporation/pocket/pocket-8-1-0-0-release/

That's what you want to install and freeze on until Pocket catches a motherfucking clue.

I've had a long an unhappy relationship with this feature and app. Its sole claims to my continued use are that it holds nearly 5 GB of content hostage, and that it, unbelievably, seems to be the best of what is an immensely shitty application space. See my now-six-year-old rant virtually all of which remains valid: https://web.archive.org/web/20190512092903/https://old.reddit.com/r/dredmorbius/comments/5x2sfx/pocket_it_gets_worse_the_more_you_use_it/#

Most recently, Pocket has lost two features:

  • A "page flip" mode, which though itself hugely flawed, is better than scrolling through articles, especially on e-ink devices.
  • The ability to view all articles either in the (hugely preferable, very useful) view, or in-app in a "web view". The latter now revert to your device's default Web Browser app on mobile devices.

The problem with that latter is that the task of annotating and tagging articles (my principle remaining justification for Pocket) is made vastly more tedious --- and it's already more than adequately tedious in previous Pocket versions. To the point it's not even worthwhile.

Fortunately, I was able to hunt down a prior version of the app (using the APKMirror app), and I will not be upgrading Pocket beyond the most recent version I can find which still supports both Page Flip and Web View modes, as noted above 8.1.1. from 17 February 2023. (Few if any of Pocket's "improvements" over the past five years have had any value to me whatsoever, so this is little loss.)

There is of course a Relevant xkcd: "Software Updates":

https://xkcd.com/2224/

I would so like to see a useful document-management solution for tablets and e-ink devices with the ability to managed both offline and online (Web-based) content.

Boosts and re-sharing this on other platforms is strongly encouraged.

Edits: I'm updating this toot as I'm finding out more. In particular, what version(s) of Pocket are NOT affected by these changes is not yet clear.

dredmorbius,

OK, this is getting fucking ridiculous.

I've installed and reverted three versions of Pocket so far trying to find one that performs with a tolerable level of annoyance. This is hours spent managing a fucking application's brokenness instead of being able to read and research.

Hint: It's not 8.5, 8.3, or 8.2. Currently trying 8.1, from February, though I swear I'd updated since then (I usually check for updates on apps weekly). I'll update parent when I find it.

OK: 8.1.1.0 seems to revert both behaviours. That's the 17 February 2023 release here: https://www.apkmirror.com/apk/mozilla-corporation/pocket/pocket-8-1-0-0-release/

Meanwhile ... the Google Play reviews discussion is illuminating, and the natives are not happy as of April, 2023:

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.ideashower.readitlater.pro (Archived as that's a dynamic page: https://web.archive.org/web/20230708225314/https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.ideashower.readitlater.pro)

Also #ApkMirror is a motherfucking godsend for situations such as this: https://www.apkmirror.com/

#Pocket #GetPocket #MozillaPocket #ApkMirror #FuckingFuckAlreadyMozilla

dredmorbius,

I'm trying to figure out why it's taken me so long to realise that these features had gone missing. For now I'm chalking this up to:

  • Pocket sucks so much that I actively avoid it wherever possible. For the most part, Einkbro does a sufficiently good job of making content bearable, and its Save as ePub feature really is both useful and pleasurable to use.
  • Pocket doesn't announce changes. I spent a few minutes on Mozilla / Pocket's website trying to find updates and changelogs without success. ApkMirror does show changes, though you've got to click through each version individually to find those.
  • I've gotten so used to the normal bullshit Pocket throws at me that I'd somehow missed the additional bullshit that's been present for the past six months.

But anywho ...

I'd also like to add: I would really like to actually like Pocket. The app at least in theory does something I very much want and am utterly frustrated and stymied by on both mobile and desktop devices. But it keeps intentionally failing to do those things. And has for years.

I'm aware of the fact that Software (or Software-based Services) Which Continue To Fail To Do What It Is That You Might Hope They Would In Fact Do ... exceedingly rarely changes course.

I've seen far more examples of such tools dying entirely (Google+) or at least Having Software Near-Death Experiences (Slashdot, Reddit, Ello, Diaspora*) than actually Fixing Their Shit. Yes, I am Very Much Aware that this is Old Man Yells at Clouds.

I'm aware of the pattern, I've yet to fully internalise it.

dredmorbius,

I'll also note that on APK Mirror, v. 8.1.1.0 has more downloads than any release of Pocket dating back to 7.64.1.0, in September of 2022.

Which would suggest some possible level of agreement that it is in fact preferable to other releases.

#Pocket #GetPocket #MozillaPocket #ApkMirror

dredmorbius,

@ephzero Quite likely, I was pretty active there.

On Yonatan Zunger's posts especially, if you hung out there.

Also during the final days, I helped moderate the Google+ Diaspora Community.

dredmorbius,

@riiku Is that an app, a website, or ... what?

I'm seeing Apple login, which isn't something I have.

Otherwise, the website really needs a clearer description of what this actually does / where/how it runs.

dredmorbius,

@riiku Thanks.

rustoleumlove, to climate
@rustoleumlove@mastodon.online avatar

new article on lab tests of the impact of hot & humid environments on ppl.

their conclusion? a #WetBulb of only 88C is actually really dangerous. ( = ~100F at 50% humidity)

'A combo of temp. & humidity causing a person’s core temp to rise is called the “critical environmental limit." Below limit, a body can maintain a stable core temp over time. Above limit, core temp rises continuously & risk of heat illness w prolonged exposure increases'

#Climate #wx #ClimateChange

https://theconversation.com/how-hot-is-too-hot-for-the-human-body-our-lab-found-heat-humidity-gets-dangerous-faster-than-many-people-realize-185593

dredmorbius, (edited )

@rustoleumlove I suspect you've typoed that temperature.

Do you mean 38 (thirty-eight) Celsius?

88C would be quite near boiling --- it's a good temperature for brewing tea, not for human survival.

Edit: Reading the article, 31 Celsius ~= 88 Fahrenheit, which might be what tripped you up.

dredmorbius,

@rustoleumlove From where I'm sitting it reads:

"their conclusion? a #WetBulb of only 88C is actually really dangerous. ( = ~100F at 50% humidity)"

That should be either "31C" or "88F".

dredmorbius,

@rustoleumlove OK, interesting.

As I read the post here on toot.cat, it reads "88C".

If I open it on mastodon.online, it presently reads "88F".

Though I see three edits, one of which reverts back to "88C".

Edits not federating, it seems.

dredmorbius, to random

Hacker News front-page analytics

A question about what states were most-frequently represented on the HN homepage had me do some quick querying via Hacker News's Algolia search ... which is NOT limited to the front page. Those results were ... surprising (Maine and Iowa outstrip the more probable results of California and, say, New York). Results are further confounded by other factors.

Thread: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=36076870

HN provides an interface to historical front-page stories (https://news.ycombinator.com/front), and that can be crawled by providing a list of corresponding date specifications, e.g.:

https://news.ycombinator.com/front?day=2023-05-25<br></br>

Easy enough.

So I'm crawling that and compiling a local archive. Rate-limiting and other factors mean that's only about halfway complete, and a full pull will take another day or so.

But I'll be able to look at story titles, sites, submitters, time-based patterns (day of week, day of month, month of year, yearly variations), and other patterns. There's also looking at mean points and comments by various dimensions.

Among surprises are that as of January 2015, among the highest consistently-voted sites is The Guardian. I'd thought HN leaned consistently less liberal.

The full archive will probably be < 1 GB (raw HTML), currently 123 MB on disk.

Contents are the 30 top-voted stories for each day since 20 February 2007.

If anyone has suggestions for other questions to ask of this, fire away.

And, as of early 2015, top state mentions are:

 1. new york:         150<br></br> 2. california:       101<br></br> 3. texas:             39<br></br> 4. washington:        38<br></br> 5. colorado:          15<br></br> 6. florida:           10<br></br> 7. georgia:           10<br></br> 8. kansas:            10<br></br> 9. north carolina:     9<br></br>10. oregon:             9<br></br>

NY is highly overrepresented (NY Times, NY Post, NY City), likewise Washington (Post, Times, DC). Adding in "Silicon Valley" and a few other toponyms boosts California's score markedly. I've also got some city-based analytics.

dredmorbius,

The Hacker News Ratio

One concept Hacker News uses to moderate discussions is a "flamewar detector", which based on moderator comments over the years is triggered when a discussion has > 40 comments AND there are more comments than votes on the article.

That had long struck me as questionable, but it's now something I can look at and ... it seems reasonably accurate. I've calculated ratios of all 178,882 HN Front Page stories (as of 2023-6-31), and ... do I have some ratios.

Basic stats:
n: 178882, sum: 89796.9, min: 0.00, max: 21.00, mean: 0.501990, median: 0.4, sd: 0.432899

Percentiles:
%-ile: 5: 0.08, 10: 0.13, 15: 0.17, 20: 0.21, 25: 0.24, 30: 0.27, 35: 0.3, 40: 0.33, 45: 0.37, 55: 0.44, 60: 0.48, 65: 0.53, 70: 0.58, 75: 0.64, 80: 0.72, 85: 0.82, 90: 0.96, 95: 1.22

Because of how I've parsed and processed data, it's not entirely straightforward to pull up the specific posts, though I can find those by the date and story position (ranked 1--30 on the page).

And ... yeah, the stories that tend to rate high based on this metric do tend to be sort of flamey.

The most ratioed post of all time was "juwo beta is released (at last!) Please use it and help improve it!", from 18 April 2007, at 21.0:

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14253

Sometime around 2009--2010 the flamewar detector seems to have been implemented and ratios tend to be much lower, though there are still some pretty spicy discussions. One from the National Institutes on Health titled "Mental illness, mass shooting,s and the politics of American firearms", posted on 26 May 2022 (for a story originally dating from 2015) is the highest-ratioed post after the flamewar detector came into use, at 5.99:

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=31511274

I find it interesting how being able to query my archive affords insights on HN which aren't available through the standard search tools. It's possible to look for specific keywords, or submissions or comments from a specific account, but searching for contentious posts isn't really A Thing.

I'm doing some further digging to see what patterns might emerge by site, though finding a good minimum number of front-page appearances is one question I'm looking at.

#HackerNews #HackerNewsAnalytics

dredmorbius,

The 20 "spiciest" sites seem to be (using a cut-off of 20+ stories):

apnews.com                     36      14674      17512     1.193<br></br>sfchronicle.com                25       5771       6174     1.070<br></br>variety.com                    24       5479       4992     0.911<br></br>mattmaroon.com                 73       3332       3023     0.907<br></br>axios.com                      92      38075      34150     0.897<br></br>bizjournals.com                20       2183       1959     0.897<br></br>cnbc.com                      174      59983      53056     0.885<br></br>apple.com                     241      99945      88396     0.884<br></br>reason.com                     70      13143      11614     0.884<br></br>nypost.com                     28       5851       5088     0.870<br></br>markevanstech.com              22        290        251     0.866<br></br>macrumors.com                  62      18700      16162     0.864<br></br>nikkei.com                     56      17568      15174     0.864<br></br>economist.com                 829     119205     102702     0.862<br></br>thewalrus.ca                   30       6194       5199     0.839<br></br>techradar.com                  30       7227       6053     0.838<br></br>backreaction.blogspot.com      33       7209       5968     0.828<br></br>strongtowns.org                27       8279       6857     0.828<br></br>mondaynote.com                 45       7581       6268     0.827<br></br>coindesk.com                   22      10236       8355     0.816<br></br>

And the 20 least spicy sites are:

particletree.com               37        997        227     0.228<br></br>brendangregg.com               40      11135       2512     0.226<br></br>intruders.tv                   28        324         73     0.225<br></br>aphyr.com                      34       8514       1910     0.224<br></br>andrewchen.typepad.com         51        757        168     0.222<br></br>michaelnielsen.org             31       3335        723     0.217<br></br>igvita.com                     38       3626        767     0.212<br></br>startuplessonslearned.blo      24       1101        232     0.211<br></br>citusdata.com                  51       8361       1717     0.205<br></br>ferd.ca                        21       5883       1132     0.192<br></br>ocks.org                       27       6036       1120     0.186<br></br>tensorflow.org                 22       5612       1020     0.182<br></br>aosabook.org                   21       3899        669     0.172<br></br>ocw.mit.edu                    41       8793       1500     0.171<br></br>david.weebly.com               20       1364        226     0.166<br></br>jslogan.com                    24         97         16     0.165<br></br>burningdoor.com                23        149         23     0.154<br></br>linusakesson.net               26       4531        684     0.151<br></br>github.com/0xax                22       2168        121     0.056<br></br>

#HackerNews #HackerNewsAnalytics

dredmorbius,

I should have named the fields above:

  • Site name (domain, sometimes more)
  • Story count
  • Total votes across all stories.
  • Total comments across all stories.
  • Ratio (comments / votes).

And, as usual for my data-dump posts, these read better on toot.cat than instances which don't pick up Markdown formatting. Click the date stamp to view original / formatted version.

dredmorbius,

Hacker News "Ratio": political commentary sites

Continuing my look at the comments/votes ratio, a look at sites which tend to focus on political commentary and their "spiciness". These tend to be well above mean (0.63), median (0.52), and tend to be a standard deviation or more from the mean (1 sd: 0.78, 2 sd: 0.92, 3 sd: 1.06).

Stories Vote    Comm   Ratio  Site         <br></br>   2      18      57   3.167  heritage.org<br></br>   4     143     224   1.566  hoover.org<br></br>   9     473     603   1.275  breitbart.com<br></br>   8    1724    1873   1.086  cityobservatory.org<br></br>   9     364     379   1.041  mises.org<br></br>   1      56      55   0.982  adamsmith.org<br></br>   7    2488    2372   0.953  city-journal.org<br></br>   1      92      85   0.924  manhattan-institute.org<br></br>  70   13143   11614   0.884  reason.com<br></br>   5     854     722   0.845  jacobinmag.com<br></br>   1     204     153   0.750  theblaze.com<br></br>  13    1607    1202   0.748  bostonreview.net<br></br>   5    1682    1252   0.744  tribunemag.co.uk<br></br>   4     629     465   0.739  nationaljournal.com<br></br>   5    1907    1400   0.734  americanaffairsjournal.or<br></br>  12    2164    1584   0.732  alternet.org<br></br>  10    1302     871   0.669  cato.org<br></br>   5     738     493   0.668  dailycaller.com<br></br>   9    1387     844   0.609  dailykos.com<br></br>   5     759     450   0.593  rawstory.com<br></br>  10    2538    1455   0.573  rootsofprogress.org<br></br>   2     552     275   0.498  theroot.com<br></br>  30    7881    3850   0.489  rt.com<br></br>   2    1256     467   0.372  wsws.org<br></br>

Note that general news tends somewhat toward spicy, though not as much as the explicitly political sites. Of the 147 sites I'd identified as "general news", ratio statistics are:

n: 147, sum: 94.415, min: 0.092, max: comms,, mean: 0.642279, median: 0.605, sd: 0.433165

%-ile:

5: 0.234, 10: 0.341, 15: 0.4515,
20: 0.491, 25: 0.51, 30: 0.5305,
35: 0.5415, 40: 0.566, 45: 0.581,
55: 0.614, 60: 0.6285, 65: 0.654,
70: 0.68, 75: 0.716, 80: 0.734,
85: 0.7875, 90: 0.8715, 95: 1.1925

(As with other toots in this series, Markdown formatting is used, toot.cat may be better than your own instance's presentation.)

#HackerNews #HackerNewsAnalytics

dredmorbius,

HackerNews changed how it dealt with highly-active discussions around January 2009, based on evidence I see (far fewer spicy threads after that date).

I'm also seeing that spicy stories actually tend to rank slightly higher on the page (a lower "storypos", that is, story position, value), which is counter to my expectation. This may of course be due to selection bias --- moderators specifically lift limit on overheated stories, so that those stories that do survive are more appropriate to HN.

I'd like to look at semantic / sentiment elements here as well, words or phrases which seem more prevalent on high-ratio stories. Here my analytic methods work against me as the HN title of a post is often quite short and not especially descriptive, though with some examples (as with the mental health study mentioned earlier).

#HackerNews #HackerNewsAnalytics

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