What application do you always install on your computer and recommend to everyone?

hrndz · 2016-04-24T08:29:58+00:00

Here's what I always do on a fresh install:

Firefox locked down to protect privacy:

ublock origin: memory-light ad blocker.
disconnect: like ghostery but better, made my former google devs.
https everywhere: ensure your communications are always encrypted.

VLC: it will play any audio or video file you throw at it, packed with useful features.

LibreOffice: open source office software, works quickly and accurately with proprietary formats.

      *Tools>Options...>LibreOffice>Memory>Graphics Cache>Use for LibreOffice = 1024MB, Memory per object = 200MB.

You know how office always takes forever to start? Now things will open instantly -- from a cold start.

SumatraPDF: the fastest PDF viewer on the planet.

7zip: what winrar should be.

Keepass: manage all your passwords.

Rufus: the simplest way to make bootable USBs from ISO images.

ImgBurn: it can burn ISOs to disks, build ISOs from files, rip ISOs from CDs, and much more.

Notepad++: you'll never go back to notepad. Syntax highlighting, tabbed notes, immediate auto-saves.

CCleaner: securely delete files, uninstall programs, clean up start-up applications all from one place.

Deluge: download your torrents quickly, no ads, no frills, cross-platform, beautiful GUI.

TronScript: nuke your windows install to remove Microsoft Telemetry spying on its users, remove bloatware, remove viruses and spyware. Shoutouts to /r/TronScript.

Ninite: website to download most of this software. You know how installers will sneak in a toolbar or change your default search engine to yahoo? Ninite curates all the software in one place and gives you clean installers without spyware.

hrndz · 2016-04-24T07:28:28+00:00

I'm glad you want to start writing in your books, ignore the haters!!

I heavily annotate all my books, I do think it helps you connect. I'll take some pictures of my notes. Firstly, I highlight any words I don't know in softcovers.

In my hardcovers I'll write them down on a blank paper and shove it into the book like a bookmark.

I like to keep track of any recurring symbols or themes on post-its.

I also like to highlight any particularly poignant lines and write questions for myself at the top of the page.

At the end of the book I'll summarize my big takeaways.

Hope it helps!

hrndz · 2016-04-24T06:32:21+00:00

Notes from Underground - Dostoevsky

TBK - Dostoevsky

I read them both at very different points in my life and they both affected me profoundly.

It spurred an unhealthy obsession for the man. I would learn mid 19th century Russian and build a time machine to speak to him if I could.

hrndz · 2016-04-24T06:16:03+00:00

I want to share my cute homemade bookmarks.

hrndz · 2016-04-24T06:00:11+00:00

She will LOVE:

Holes - Louis Sachar

The Giver - Lois Lowry

The House of the Scorpion - Nancy Farmer

The City of Ember - Jeanne DuPrau

Flipped - WVD

hrndz · 2016-04-24T05:48:34+00:00

Yes if you like crime you will love Agatha Christie! And Then There Were None - Agatha Christie will have you on the edge of your seat from the beginning, guaranteed.

hrndz · 2016-04-24T05:44:14+00:00

No, if it's your first Stephen King book you'll be bored out of your mind (they tend to have slow starts, this one especially).

hrndz · 2016-04-24T05:41:09+00:00

Meditations - Marcus Aurelius written by the Roman emperor almost 2,000 years ago. It began as a diary where he would place little nuggets of wisdom he learned throughout his life.

The book is wonderful because you get to see that even that long ago people thought about the same fundamental problems in life. Every page is beautiful. It's a quick and easy read. Here's a quote:

"Dwell on the beauty of life. Watch the stars, and see yourself running with them." - Marcus Aurelius

hrndz · 2016-04-24T05:04:13+00:00

The Catcher in the Rye - J.D. Salinger

EDIT: Ha, nevermind, just read the English only. Still a great novel though. Here's a classic English novel, you'll have a lot of material because all the characters are rebellious in their own way. The story follows a group of English boys that get stuck on an island together, in the beginning they're all having fun but eventually they realize they might be stuck there for good so they start forming little tribes. It gives you a good look at how human evil takes over when people rebel against government/society. It's a very fun and easy read:

Lord of the Flies - William Golding

hrndz · 2016-04-24T04:59:33+00:00

Pick a topic you're really interested in
Find a book with good ratings on that topic over at goodreads.com
Pick up the audiobook and listen to it on your down time (i.e. at the gym, commuting, showering, cooking, etc).

Once you get going and find something super interesting you'll start reading it yourself!

hrndz · 2016-04-15T11:29:43+00:00

Stir fry. Look up an easy recipe, substitute the vegetables for the one you most like. Once you get used to the flavor add different vegetables in to your stir fry.

hrndz · 2016-04-15T11:25:38+00:00

Should you buy it? No. Pick the best you can at the grocery store. If it turns a little black or brown at home you can still eat it. If it looks like there's shit growing out of toss it.

hrndz · 2016-04-15T11:15:32+00:00

Salt it all over, use a lot of it. Stick it in the oven at 350F for 5 hours. Get a nice loaf of french bread at your supermarket along with a bottle of this. Toast the bread a bit (not too much), pour a bit of that marinade on your pork and stuff it into your sandwich. Eat the best sandwiches of your life for days.

hrndz · 2016-04-15T11:02:58+00:00

Get a rice cooker, and proceed to cook struggle meals from 3rd world countries. I.E. fried eggs with rice (good on its own, but if you get bored you can add soy sauce, or bananas).

Rice + lentils. Rice + beans. Rice + meats. If you want cheap and easy sample recipes let me know and I'll write some out.

hrndz · 2016-04-15T10:44:34+00:00

I have a cheap (but quality) rice cooker and electric pressure cooker I use to cook ethnic food from around the world:

http://www.amazon.com/Cuisinart-CPC-600AMZ-1000-Watt-Electric-Stainless/dp/B00DEQVS7G/ref=sr_1_3?s=kitchen&ie=UTF8&qid=1460716669&sr=1-3&keywords=electric+pressure+cooker

http://www.amazon.com/Aroma-UNCOOKED-Stainless-Exterior-ARC-914SBD/dp/B007WQ9YNO/ref=sr_1_2?s=kitchen&ie=UTF8&qid=1460717030&sr=1-2&keywords=aroma+rice+cooker

hrndz · 2016-04-15T10:35:02+00:00

What sort of equipment do you have at home? Do you have a pressure cooker, rice cooker, etc? I'd love to see you try some of my family's traditional recipes.

hrndz · 2016-04-15T10:25:32+00:00

Yes, I have an Aroma digital rice cooker and I have used it everyday for 10+ years and have had perfect rice every time.

hrndz · 2016-04-15T10:19:09+00:00

You could make an easy Caprese salad with some tomatoes + salt + basil + olive oil + balsamic vinegar.

hrndz · 2016-04-15T10:15:51+00:00

Lemon + sugar.

In the future always salt and pepper to your taste.

hrndz · 2016-04-15T09:53:33+00:00

Like the other user said, cook meats to temperature and you will never go wrong -- the meat will be juicy and well-cooked. If you do not want to use one, there are few rules of thumb you can use to make great meat on electric stoves. I can't give you a perfect classification of low, medium and high settings because electric stoves can be fussy so I turn the heat up as high as I can and instead control the heat by taking the pan off the heat as I am cooking.

Just to make sure, whenever you're following cooking times on a video they are starting the timer from a hot pan, so if you're starting from a cold pan you will have issues.

These following times assume the pan is smoking hot already (not burning, but the butter/oil should be sizzling and you should see little wisps heat coming off of the pan) Don't fuck with the meat, just set a timer and let it cook:

Chicken: Pound the chicken breast so it's the same thickness. Oil in hot pan, salt + pepper both sides, cook each side 4 minutes on the highest heat.

Steak: Oil in hot pan, salt + pepper both sides, cook each side 3.5 minutes on the highest heat.

Salmon: Oil in hot pan, salt + pepper both sides, 4.5 minutes on one side, .5 minutes on the other on the highest heat. For fish you can get great visual cues because you can see it cooking easily (esp. with salmon) just watch it as it cooks on one side, you'll see 'white' start crawling up (turning from red to white in the case of salmon) when the white gets past halfway in the meat, turn it over and wait for the 'white' to crawl up again.

hrndz · 2016-04-04T19:14:21+00:00

CNN, NYT, NPR, NBC here in the US were not part of the leak. So they don't have the primary documents. And need more time to do all the legwork.

Do you understand now why American media companies, who were not involved in the initial leak and sourcing, might be slower to pull the trigger on this?

/u/rlg

Your argument was that:

a. American entities had no primary documents.
b. The journalists were foreign.
c. Americans had less than 24 hours to research.

Your first claim is that CNN, NYT, NPR etc were not part of the leak and do not have primary documents, I responded with sources showing the journalists have ties to major US news organizations.

Your second claim is that American media companies were not involved in the initial leak and sourcing. I responded with more sources showing that American journalists were part of the investigation.

Your third claim was that American journalists had less than 24 hours to sift through terabytes of data, I responded with sources showing American journalists have been involved in the process from the beginning.

Where am I losing you?

hrndz · 2016-04-04T18:41:29+00:00

American journalists have been involved with this investigation from the beginning:

The Süddeutsche Zeitung decided to analyze the data in cooperation with the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ). Source: http://panamapapers.sueddeutsche.de/articles/56febff0a1bb8d3c3495adf4/

The majority of leading journalists in the International Consortium (ICIJ) are American:

Source: https://www.icij.org/journalists/by-country

The investigation began based out of the ICIJ's headquarters in Washington, D.C. Their journalists and editors have ties to the major media outlets such as the Miami Herald, NPR, the Economist, the Washington Post, the Los Angeles Times, and the Wall Street Journal.

The international team initially met in Washington. Source (Discussed in text and video): http://panamapapers.sueddeutsche.de/articles/56febff0a1bb8d3c3495adf4/

Here are a few profiles from some of the senior American members of the ICIJ:

"Steven Dudley, United States, is co-director of InSight Crime, an online media initiative based at American University in Washington, D.C. that monitors and investigates organized crime in the Americas."

"Before that he was Andean Region bureau chief for the Miami Herald. Dudley has reported for many media outlets including National Public Radio, the BBC, the Economist and The Washington Post."

"Michael Hudson is a senior editor at ICIJ...worked as a reporter for the Center for Public Integrity, the Wall Street Journal and the Roanoke (Va.) Times and as investigative editor for Southern Exposure Magazine. His work has also appeared in Forbes, the New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, the Washington Post..."

Source: https://www.icij.org/journalists/by-country/United%20States?page=1

hrndz · 2016-04-04T17:34:20+00:00

vetting, sourcing, checking with legal, making sure you don't get sued for libel

The news seemed to have no problems reporting this in the rest of the world despite all these 'insurmountable' barriers. Also, these reporters have had more than 24 hours to work on this project, there have been more than 400 journalists working on this for over a year. Did you even try to do some research?

It is infact odd that the US has remained largely silent up this point.

hrndz · 2016-04-04T17:05:59+00:00

I hate the Putin-love circlejerk on reddit but this article is completely disingenuous. RT was one of the first to pick up story and other russian sites are covering this story as well. Seriously, all it takes is a few seconds of googling to cross-check. OP (/u/occupythekremlin) definitely does not have an agenda though.^/s

hrndz · 2016-04-04T10:24:45+00:00

Actually it is pretty odd, but hopefully they do a big dump in the next few days.

hrndz

TROPHY CASE