Doctor Strangelove - Doomsday Machine

liberalartist60 HN recommenders · 2020–2023
1.4M views · comedy · evergreen · Uploaded 2010-07-31

The Doomsday Machine scene from Stanley Kubrick's 1964 film Dr. Strangelove, in which the Soviet doomsday device is explained.

HN mostly uses it as a joke about secrecy or as an illustration of mutually assured destruction.

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4 comments from Hacker News

@OliverJones2020 · in “CIA hacking unit failed to protect its systems, allowing Vault 7 disclosure”

How does somebody exfiltrate 34 TERABYTES from a secure facility without getting noticed? To misquote Dr. Strangelove, "ze whole point of ze secret hack is lost if you don't keep it a secret." [VIDEO] Oh, maybe they have a firewall built on a RaspberryPi somebody ordered online. Seriously, WTF? This is as insecure as having contract sysadmins with root privilege spread all over the globe. And when will these state actors with unlimited funding figure out that NOBODY can keep secrets forever, not even them?

@0823498723498722020 · in “Comparative advantage and when to blow up your island”

If I understand correctly, one reason there seem to be so many results for zero-sum games is that they have defined solutions, whereas in other situations, a mathematically valid strategy is to be a jerk ("blow up the island") and attempt to take the lion's share[1] of the surplus for oneself. One of the early game theory papers considers two people with radios, parachuted onto a grid, who must rendezvous. It derives a theoretical strategy: broadcast one's location, then destroy one's radio, forcing the other player to do all the walking. Bonus clip: [VIDEO] @ 3:42 whew, still there: [LINK] all OK, Boomers! @ 3:55 unlike the House of Windsor during '14-'18, Kongo-Müller didn't bother to change his name: [LINK] (esp. 53:40-56:15) Those who prefer their skulls virtual are advised to avoid 30:10-33:30 and instead regard [LINK] [1] [LINK]

@ethbr02022 · in “Multiple assertions are fine in a unit test”

> ... where this is not only possible, but the common case. Couldn't not read that in Peter Sellers' voice [VIDEO] > ... to find a 630 lines long test "case" with 22 nondescript assertions along the way. This is where tech team managers are abrogating their responsibility and job. It's the job of the organization to set policy standards to outlaw things like this. It's the job of the developer to cut as many corners of those policies as possible to ship code ASAP. And it's the job of a tech team manager to set up a detailed but efficient process (code review sign offs!) that paper over the gap between the two in a sane way. ... none of which helps immediately with a legacy codebase that's @

amp;@'d, though.

@0823498723498722023 · in “Ask HN: What happens if a nuclear missile is air-destroyed before detonation?”

The essence of MAD is that a strike is never "the" nuclear missile. It will consist of many missiles, more warheads, and yet more decoys. [VIDEO]