Hacker News: B1FF_PSUVM

Stallman: Thousands Dead, Millions Deprived of Liberties (2001)

B1FF_PSUVM — Thu, 17 Sep 2026 17:20:14 +0000

Article URL: https://news.slashdot.org/story/01/09/17/1758231/stallman-thousands-dead-millions-deprived-of-liberties

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49743756

Points: 154

# Comments: 106

New comment by B1FF_PSUVM in "Inception-style curved map for turn-by-turn directions"

B1FF_PSUVM — Fri, 28 Aug 2026 14:48:04 +0000

Does it come with barf bags, or at least a discount coupon?

New comment by B1FF_PSUVM in "A Man Who Saw Humanity from Two Billion Years Away"

B1FF_PSUVM — Wed, 26 Aug 2026 19:36:39 +0000

Progress (as in The Pilgrim's Progress) used to mean just moving along in some travel, no positive or negative connotation to it.

It was only after the XVI century (when they still debated if the ancients or moderns were greater) that it acquired its present quasi-religious meaning, because on a short-term scale "historical progress" meant improvements in living conditions.

New comment by B1FF_PSUVM in "Science fiction is a serious matter"

B1FF_PSUVM — Wed, 26 Aug 2026 19:03:56 +0000

Not a great piece, but the comments and the perspective are interesting (and first-hand, instead of retold)

Science fiction is a serious matter

B1FF_PSUVM — Wed, 26 Aug 2026 19:03:56 +0000

Article URL: https://vz.ru/opinions/2026/8/22/1444483.html

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49454130

Points: 2

# Comments: 1

New comment by B1FF_PSUVM in "How credit card rewards became a $9.2B wealth transfer"

B1FF_PSUVM — Wed, 26 Aug 2026 09:58:10 +0000

It's a bullshit guilt-trip piece, already paraded here last month. Might as well be talking about supermarket coupons.

Just the 150 billion from "interchange" (merchant fees) would be enough reason to fund the 15 billion (estimated) rewards.

New comment by B1FF_PSUVM in "Where did all the public bathrooms go?"

B1FF_PSUVM — Tue, 25 Aug 2026 01:25:18 +0000

Cafes/restaurants are required by law to provide toilets to customers, afaik

New comment by B1FF_PSUVM in "Where did all the public bathrooms go?"

B1FF_PSUVM — Tue, 25 Aug 2026 01:19:35 +0000

> boot marks

"So, Inspector Lestrade, ..."

New comment by B1FF_PSUVM in "Show HN: A puzzle I couldn't solve for a year – cubers cracked it in an hour"

B1FF_PSUVM — Tue, 25 Aug 2026 01:10:01 +0000

Darn, got to https://skimmiq.com/about/ (the making of) it's a good story too.

New comment by B1FF_PSUVM in "Show HN: A puzzle I couldn't solve for a year – cubers cracked it in an hour"

B1FF_PSUVM — Mon, 24 Aug 2026 20:26:08 +0000

Hit the r/Cubers page, thing is humbling ...

New comment by B1FF_PSUVM in "Xiaomi: New CPU matches Apple cores single threaded, much faster multithreaded"

B1FF_PSUVM — Mon, 24 Aug 2026 18:07:10 +0000

"Two bald men fighting for a comb", both in demographic collapse and set afire for the usual reasons.

New comment by B1FF_PSUVM in "[dead]"

B1FF_PSUVM — Sat, 22 Aug 2026 00:48:28 +0000

"He who pays the piper calls the tune." A known known.

New comment by B1FF_PSUVM in "John C. Lilly on solid state intelligence and the elimination of man (1978)"

B1FF_PSUVM — Mon, 10 Aug 2026 01:01:25 +0000

> stewards of the planet

The 99.99% of the planet that isn't the surface bio film rejects this unwarranted arrogance ;-)

In other news, Terry Bisson's 1990 story "They're Made Out of Meat" is a similar take.

New comment by B1FF_PSUVM in "Tom Stanton's supersonic trebuchet breaks sound barrier with gravity alone"

B1FF_PSUVM — Mon, 10 Aug 2026 00:45:21 +0000

Not to be that guy, but this recent XKCD is suspiciously relevant: https://xkcd.com/3276/

New comment by B1FF_PSUVM in "Who Is America's Homer?"

B1FF_PSUVM — Mon, 20 Jul 2026 02:03:22 +0000

> the real answer might very well be a musician or filmmaker, not a writer.

Walter Disney, obviously.

Well, it will probably take at least another century for the fact to hit.

New comment by B1FF_PSUVM in "Credit Card Points Are a Transfer from the Broke to the Comfortable"

B1FF_PSUVM — Sat, 18 Jul 2026 01:15:49 +0000

> make a lot of money off of interest

Looking at the debt numbers (something like 150 billion over 90 days delinquent) that may not even be the case, if you cover unpaid defaults with interest paid.

The mentioned idea of capping interest at 10% would probably mean credit cards not being issued to a large swath of the population.

New comment by B1FF_PSUVM in "Credit Card Points Are a Transfer from the Broke to the Comfortable"

B1FF_PSUVM — Sat, 18 Jul 2026 00:58:04 +0000

Bullshit guilt-tripping logic. Just the 150 billion from "interchange" (merchant fees) would be enough reason to fund the 15 billion (estimated) rewards.

What next, supermarket coupons as a wealth transfer mechanism?

New comment by B1FF_PSUVM in "I also filed the corners off my MacBook"

B1FF_PSUVM — Thu, 16 Jul 2026 09:18:50 +0000

And car engine control software.

Bosch developed the "experimental" ECU software that VW used in the Dieselgate vehicles.

New comment by B1FF_PSUVM in "Nokia's 14 Years of Mobile-Phone Supremacy Ended in an Afternoon"

B1FF_PSUVM — Mon, 13 Jul 2026 18:24:22 +0000

> In September 2008, the first Android phone went on sale—the HTC Dream,

Excursion: HTC would later sell the HTC HD2 with WindowsMobile (a predecessor of WindowsPhone), which could be "dual-booted" with Android ROMs from the XDA-developers forum or similar.

The 2009 HTC HD2 was basically the modern glass slab, except for a discrete bottom line of physical buttons, which hadn't yet been eaten by software at the time.

New comment by B1FF_PSUVM in "Nokia’s years of mobile-phone supremacy ended in an afternoon"

B1FF_PSUVM — Mon, 13 Jul 2026 17:57:27 +0000

Not far. Not even MS had the clout to impose a third alternative in phones, and it was needed.

And WindowsPhone was actually a good design for user interaction, with the exception of some underlying clunkiness of settings.