<rss version="2.0" xmlns:dc="http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/" xmlns:atom="http://www.w3.org/2005/Atom"><channel><title>Hacker News: AndyMcConachie</title><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/user?id=AndyMcConachie</link><description>Hacker News RSS</description><docs>https://hnrss.org/</docs><generator>hnrss v2.1.1</generator><lastBuildDate>Sun, 06 Sep 2026 15:13:14 +0000</lastBuildDate><atom:link href="https://hnrss.org/user?id=AndyMcConachie" rel="self" type="application/rss+xml"></atom:link><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by AndyMcConachie in "FBI Probes Service Selling 153M+ Drivers Licenses"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>> They already do that, in Europe. I assume that it works, as I don’t hear about this level of stuff, over there<p>As an EU citizen and resident I strongly recommend you not take EU privacy controls seriously. The GDPR functions well as a means of tax collection, but it really doesn't work all that well as something that actually protects people's privacy.</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Wed, 02 Sep 2026 12:11:31 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49535084</link><dc:creator>AndyMcConachie</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49535084</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49535084</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by AndyMcConachie in "I'm becoming AI-blind"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>Having just a little background in traditional linguistic discourse analysis help understand why this is.<p>The best basic explanation I've found is this video.<p><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ORgKY9AlybA" rel="nofollow">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ORgKY9AlybA</a><p>The real answer is to take a class in discourse analysis and learn how to pick apart sentences. Once you start understanding how language works in the brain you can start to see better how LLMs fail.</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Sat, 22 Aug 2026 09:43:29 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49398117</link><dc:creator>AndyMcConachie</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49398117</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49398117</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by AndyMcConachie in "The Amazon tax"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>Amazon regularly sends me spam emails.</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Wed, 19 Aug 2026 15:59:50 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49363314</link><dc:creator>AndyMcConachie</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49363314</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49363314</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by AndyMcConachie in "The federal keyword lists that canceled billions in research funding"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>As bad as this is, I don't see how it is fundamentally different to the ways in which research grants have been doled out before. Hasn't it always been somewhat political?<p>Granted, the methods used here are asinine. But I don't think USG research has ever been apolitical and there have always been special words that grant writers knew to use and not use. Part of being in research is getting grants and it has always been a silly game. This just seems to take the silly game to whole new levels.</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Mon, 17 Aug 2026 06:57:03 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49327320</link><dc:creator>AndyMcConachie</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49327320</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49327320</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by AndyMcConachie in "Software Engineering fundamentals matter more"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>No. You're simply wrong.</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Sun, 16 Aug 2026 09:15:54 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49318328</link><dc:creator>AndyMcConachie</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49318328</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49318328</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by AndyMcConachie in "Software Engineering fundamentals matter more"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>But how many times can you take a piece of Ikea furniture apart and put it back together again? I have friends who have moved apartments with the same Billy bookshelf 2-3 times and if they tried it one more time the thing would collapse.<p>Not to belabor the metaphor as heavily as my friend's Billy, but there's a maintenance corellary to be made here. Most Ikea furniture can be put together once, in one place, and left there for a long time. But once you want to change it in place it may just collapse.</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Sun, 16 Aug 2026 09:13:32 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49318316</link><dc:creator>AndyMcConachie</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49318316</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49318316</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by AndyMcConachie in "How proprietary formats have become Microsoft’s main tool for lock-in"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>Embrace, extend, destroy. This has always been MS. They basically haven't changed since 1990.</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Mon, 20 Jul 2026 06:50:08 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48975114</link><dc:creator>AndyMcConachie</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48975114</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48975114</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by AndyMcConachie in "TP-Link Kasa cameras leaked home GPS via unauthenticated UDP for 6 years"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>Why do people keep buying all this garbage and putting it in their homes?</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Sat, 18 Jul 2026 07:51:38 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48956046</link><dc:creator>AndyMcConachie</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48956046</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48956046</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by AndyMcConachie in "DNSGlobe – Rust TUI to watch DNS propagate around the world"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>>> The myth of DNS “propagation” needs to die.<p>> What's the actual issue? Are you being frustrated by people laboring under the assumption that DNS records are being sent by carrier pidgeon or something?<p>The actual issue is that some people misunderstand how DNS works, and the notion that records propagate doesn't help people understand it better. It propagates a misunderstanding of DNS.</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Mon, 06 Jul 2026 06:45:54 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48801386</link><dc:creator>AndyMcConachie</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48801386</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48801386</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by AndyMcConachie in "Google Hits 50% IPv6"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>I would expect online video games to be a more important driver.</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Sun, 21 Jun 2026 09:07:15 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48617041</link><dc:creator>AndyMcConachie</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48617041</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48617041</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by AndyMcConachie in "Finding success in industry as a chip designer"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>China doesn't seem to really care about copyright or other forms of intellectual property. We'll see how long this stuff stays closed and opaque. Not that I believe Chinese chip manufacturers have some desire to open everything up. I just imagine that at some point they'll reach parity with the state of the art and will lack a desire to lock everything up behind trade secrets and contracts, at least initially.<p>Intellectual property favors the incumbents. If they're the upstart they may want everything to be open because their margins will be better anyway. If they're always going to be the cheapest why should they care about building an intellectual property moat?<p>But I'm just random dude on the Internet theorizing about the future ;)</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Mon, 01 Jun 2026 15:28:57 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48358149</link><dc:creator>AndyMcConachie</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48358149</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48358149</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by AndyMcConachie in "Netherlands blocks US takeover of vital digital supplier"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>I know people that work as contractors for the Dutch government. The government doesn't save money by hiring them through contractors. They cost more through contractors. But contracting allows private companies to act as gatekeepers and pocket some cash for essentially supplying full time employees. It's a form of corruption by well connected private contracting companies.</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Tue, 26 May 2026 15:05:31 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48280845</link><dc:creator>AndyMcConachie</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48280845</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48280845</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by AndyMcConachie in "Show HN: We missed Winamp, so we built an audio player for macOS"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>I love Strawberry Music Player. Works great and does everything I want.</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Mon, 18 May 2026 21:34:15 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48186010</link><dc:creator>AndyMcConachie</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48186010</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48186010</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by AndyMcConachie in "Cisco workforce reductions"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>As someone who was impacted by Cisco's first ever round of layoffs, I can say with confidence that your statement was also true 25 years ago.</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Thu, 14 May 2026 10:01:05 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48133243</link><dc:creator>AndyMcConachie</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48133243</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48133243</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by AndyMcConachie in "Why TUIs are back"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>One of my first jobs was working on Telephony User Interfaces (TUIs). Everytime I see the term TUI I can't help but think of that.<p>For people who don't know this version of TUI, it's the ole, "Press 1 for X, Press 2 for Y" kind of interfaces that you use over a phone. Think voicemail text-to-speech and automated speech recognition.</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Mon, 04 May 2026 15:42:11 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48010137</link><dc:creator>AndyMcConachie</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48010137</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48010137</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by AndyMcConachie in "Do_not_track"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>The reason the DNT header failed is because there is no way to enforce it. The browser can set the flag, but there's no way to ensure it's actually respected. There are no protocol police.</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Sun, 03 May 2026 09:37:18 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47995201</link><dc:creator>AndyMcConachie</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47995201</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47995201</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by AndyMcConachie in "A report on burnout in open source software communities (2025) [pdf]"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>What pisses me off the most is that there are companies making billions of dollars off the labor of others and many of them don't even acknowledge it.</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Sat, 02 May 2026 08:50:31 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47984654</link><dc:creator>AndyMcConachie</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47984654</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47984654</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by AndyMcConachie in "The Last Quiet Thing"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>We're getting beeped at constantly by the various devices we surround ourselves with. I can't help but comapre it to changing a baby's diapers everytime it needs our attention. So I've started referring to all of these annoyances as 'digital diaper changing'.</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Tue, 07 Apr 2026 10:01:29 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47672843</link><dc:creator>AndyMcConachie</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47672843</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47672843</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by AndyMcConachie in "German implementation of eIDAS will require an Apple/Google account to function"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>You're screwed. This has been the way for a while now. You cannot exist in society without a smart phone and it's only going to get worse.</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Sun, 05 Apr 2026 09:24:40 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47647619</link><dc:creator>AndyMcConachie</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47647619</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47647619</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by AndyMcConachie in "Migrating to the EU"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>I also use mailbox.org and use my own domain for email. Not sure what issue the author ran into.</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Mon, 23 Mar 2026 12:03:44 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47488299</link><dc:creator>AndyMcConachie</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47488299</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47488299</guid></item></channel></rss>