Hacker News: ArcHound

New comment by ArcHound in "Sharing AI progress in mathematics"

ArcHound — Wed, 07 Oct 2026 20:46:11 +0000

Come on, these are easy. You assume it can be expressed as p/q where p,q are integers such that GCD(p,q)=1. Then you derive a contradiction.

TBH, I'm both happy and very sad I didn't do a PhD in math (or at all).

New comment by ArcHound in "Your body of work thinks back at you"

ArcHound — Sun, 04 Oct 2026 09:47:14 +0000

Fair enough! I think both cringe and self-congratulations are healthy to a degree. The former signals that a change was made and the later that it wasn't (and it's good it wasn't). But I agree with you it's important to take a step back and try to look at it as objectively as one can.

New comment by ArcHound in "Your body of work thinks back at you"

ArcHound — Sun, 04 Oct 2026 08:33:14 +0000

Well yes, but do you have a better approach than doing your best to capture the state at the time for later revision?

New comment by ArcHound in "ICC judge on what U.S. sanctions mean for her and global courts"

ArcHound — Fri, 02 Oct 2026 19:46:50 +0000

I mean sure, each individual product has an alternative. The value is in the integration and user knowledge.

You'd have to scale the IT dept, especially the people answering dumb user questions, which will skyrocket.

New comment by ArcHound in "ICC judge on what U.S. sanctions mean for her and global courts"

ArcHound — Fri, 02 Oct 2026 17:44:07 +0000

There is just no alternative to Microsoft. Since they push everything into cloud MS gets centralised control. Cutting MS literally cuts the person off from anything digital.

There is some movement to reduce MS dependency in Europe, but it's not yet there. Until then, this will be a huge lever available to US.

I've written about this back in the day: https://blog.miloslavhomer.cz/microsoft-dependency-has-risks...

Discussion: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44381358

New comment by ArcHound in "SlutCon"

ArcHound — Fri, 02 Oct 2026 08:20:17 +0000

Oh sure, I don't deal in absolutes and there are plenty people with good intentions.

I just wanted to pinpoint what bothers me (and probably others) about this event.

New comment by ArcHound in "SlutCon"

ArcHound — Thu, 01 Oct 2026 21:47:54 +0000

Looking back, I also realize how close I was to falling into various shit. MLM schemes, 4chan far-right, this thing to name a few...

Somehow I got lucky. Somehow I read Terry Pratchett, Frank Herbert, Immanuel Kant to name a few.

And somehow knowing that "humans are never means to an end" or "humans are more than things", truly putting that as a cornerstone is great immunity against these viruses.

Look at this event. It's not seduce con. It's slutcon. Reducing women to an object of desire. That's what's inherently repulsive.

New comment by ArcHound in "SlutCon"

ArcHound — Thu, 01 Oct 2026 21:05:23 +0000

If you're asking yourself WTF, here's an explainer:

https://www.iankduncan.com/personal/2026-09-16-sex-ai-and-th...

New comment by ArcHound in "What would a serious AI product look like?"

ArcHound — Tue, 29 Sep 2026 04:23:52 +0000

Agree, I think this is the better approach. It's not what I'm seeing in my emails though.

New comment by ArcHound in "What would a serious AI product look like?"

ArcHound — Mon, 28 Sep 2026 20:50:28 +0000

But these are different errors. A sum of a column is always correct. Maybe it's not the answer you're looking for, maybe it misses an entry, but the sum is correct.

That's not the case with AI.

New comment by ArcHound in "Nvidia wants to put a watchdog chip next to every AI agent"

ArcHound — Mon, 28 Sep 2026 20:27:03 +0000

I worry that the AI companies put less effort into a mitigation strategy than you did.

New comment by ArcHound in "What would a serious AI product look like?"

ArcHound — Mon, 28 Sep 2026 20:24:36 +0000

I agree with the author, these suggestions would improve AI products for users.

But AI product users are not the customers of AI companies, they are the product. The customers are the companies that want to "optimize employee costs" and they don't need any of this. These customers are also motivated by FOMO - their rivals out-competing them using this technology.

Say AI is a X multiplier for an employee. We don't see the X multiplication in salaries. Thus the (X-1-raise)*salary value is captured by the company and not the AI user. Not a bad deal for 200USD a month if X is between 2 and 10.

New comment by ArcHound in "OpenAI Feared "Optics" of what might appear on Hacker News"

ArcHound — Sun, 27 Sep 2026 10:00:09 +0000

That's what they want, but do not yet have.

It's easier to take over a resigned population. And stating "resistance is futile" is cheap and it might weaken opposition.

New comment by ArcHound in "Show HN: Jev Plays Pokémon Red"

ArcHound — Sun, 27 Sep 2026 09:11:44 +0000

I saw the commit log, refining the harness as it went. I don't have Jev access, but I'd like to see it try again with this new setup. Seems it could be much faster, as plenty of commits addressed some blind spots where it fell in a loop.

New comment by ArcHound in "Show HN: Jev Plays Pokémon Red"

ArcHound — Sat, 26 Sep 2026 21:20:29 +0000

Poor Graveler died to Dewgong in the first fight (nearly every time). Don't forget about Gyarados though, that one is still undefeated.

New comment by ArcHound in "Show HN: Jev Plays Pokémon Red"

ArcHound — Sat, 26 Sep 2026 19:55:09 +0000

it's a fantastic demo and promo for the product though. Great idea, well executed, I'm genuinely curious on how this will go.

New comment by ArcHound in "Show HN: Jev Plays Pokémon Red"

ArcHound — Sat, 26 Sep 2026 19:54:24 +0000

yea, I saw it.

Unfortunately, the only usable move is flamethrower with 15 PPs that will be exhausted.

Remember, if it starts using items, it can run out of money. And what then?

But yes, brute force might prevail in the end. Let's say it started elite four at 13k jev calls or 1.3 USD. I'd call it a "loss" if it crosses the 2 USD threshold. It's still quite cheap though.

New comment by ArcHound in "Show HN: Jev Plays Pokémon Red"

ArcHound — Sat, 26 Sep 2026 19:33:08 +0000

It's quite a long term plan it has to make:

- establish a composition

- train the selected composition to an appropriate level

- ration PPs through 5 fights

- ration items through 5 fights + globally (you can run out of money)

- maybe even switch the order of pokemon on the list? Poor Graveler

I'm not sure it can follow-through on this. Would be funny if it had to re-do the rock boulder puzzle. Guess I'll keep watching!

New comment by ArcHound in "Show HN: Jev Plays Pokémon Red"

ArcHound — Sat, 26 Sep 2026 19:11:49 +0000

I'm watching this. After 6 hours it managed to solve the rock boulder puzzle and now it's trying to break the Elite Four wall with its face. I'm no pokemon expert, but I'd say that no way in hell it beats them with this team composition. It has to take a step back, re-compose or at least re-train for overall higher levels. Will see if it manages to do it, my expectations are low.

New comment by ArcHound in "OpenAI bots meddled with multiple US Government agency sites"

ArcHound — Sat, 26 Sep 2026 19:00:10 +0000

You can still push a big red button to stop it all and try again later though