Why does HN not allow people to question things like this? Any attempt to bring some non hyperbolic view to the topic is continually voted into the ground.
I think it is useful to know that these exploits just might not be as bad as they are being made out to be.
Ice talked to a number of people that don't seem to understand that there are limits on these: somebody cant just start reading data from random programs.
I know what you mean, and I've felt your frustration before.
But as I've learned more about how this community works, I understand that "Why does HN [do this thing I don't like]?" is not a valid question.
HN is a vast community of many different people who think and behave differently.
Sometimes a few more people will downvote your comment than will upvote it, either because they disagree with your point or they dislike the way you expressed it.
But when you complain about downvotes, you lose multiple times over: you fail to contemplate and reflect on how your answer could have been better, you come across like a bad sport, and you break the site guidelines [1].
In this case, it seems like people just disagree with your claim and have explained why in replies.
No big deal, all you need to do is reply politely to demonstrate the correctness of your point.
It is a relatively recent issue. HN was a lot of our escape for Slashdot. But HN has developed the same bandwagony, anticorporate, managers suck, other people are stupid angst.
In the last few months it has become a monoculture similar to Slashdot. The general view has become if you don't agree you must not know what you are talking about (this is seen upthread).
Stories like these allow people to dislike Intel, say it is run by dumb managers, and just generally complain.
You're still making the mistake of extrapolating the entire community's nature from a small sample of comments and votes. It's a common reaction when we feel like our own opinions are being attacked or undervalued but it means we fail to appreciate and value the side that is worthy of our support and appreciation, and we fail to take responsibility for the role we all have in making the site better.
Comments lamenting how much better HN "used to" be have been a constant from not long after it began:
I think it is useful to know that these exploits just might not be as bad as they are being made out to be.
Ice talked to a number of people that don't seem to understand that there are limits on these: somebody cant just start reading data from random programs.