Hacker News: B1FF_PSUVM

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.

New comment by B1FF_PSUVM in "Apple sues OpenAI, accuses ex-employees of stealing trade secrets"

B1FF_PSUVM — Sat, 11 Jul 2026 22:52:22 +0000

> my identity got stolen

I've seen it argued that "identity theft" is the way businesses with poor fraud detection make that your problem.

I.e. there's no "identity theft", there's fraud, and the company that was defrauded tries to weasel out like it's not their laxity at fault.

New comment by B1FF_PSUVM in "Snails' teeth beats spider silk as nature's strongest material (2015)"

B1FF_PSUVM — Sat, 11 Jul 2026 11:52:48 +0000

Not Mary Berry, then. Or anyone else who ever baked a cake. Or cooked, really.

I hate sugar in food, but some recipes use sugar to balance acidity (e.g. tomato ketchup).

New comment by B1FF_PSUVM in "Snails' teeth beats spider silk as nature's strongest material (2015)"

B1FF_PSUVM — Sat, 11 Jul 2026 11:45:04 +0000

> imagine the possibilities!

Space elevator?

Does a 35,786 km "strand of [slug-tooth] spaghetti" hold its own weight?

New comment by B1FF_PSUVM in "Meta pulls new AI image feature after days of backlash"

B1FF_PSUVM — Sat, 11 Jul 2026 02:00:02 +0000

"They trust me, the dumb fucks"

New comment by B1FF_PSUVM in "Electric anti-aircraft interceptor drone breaks world air speed record at 434mph"

B1FF_PSUVM — Mon, 06 Jul 2026 18:23:30 +0000

> this form-factor

"It must be pointy".

The photo is so murky you only notice the shiny propeller cones.

New comment by B1FF_PSUVM in "Holes"

B1FF_PSUVM — Fri, 03 Jul 2026 21:30:25 +0000

It was erroring out 12h ago.

New comment by B1FF_PSUVM in "The best response to AI slop and online noise is from Robin Williams"

B1FF_PSUVM — Sun, 28 Jun 2026 10:59:54 +0000

Toss P.K. Dick's "We Can Remember It for You Wholesale" at that essay.

(Hey, sixty years of publication. And it may not even be the first "implanted memories" story around, googles give an 1892 precursor.)

New comment by B1FF_PSUVM in "The Permission Slip"

B1FF_PSUVM — Sat, 27 Jun 2026 12:44:29 +0000

> scale will solve

I have a bad feeling about this, and it's about us, not AIs ...

(I fear that we're #$&@%!## most of the time, and just oblivious about it)

The Permission Slip

B1FF_PSUVM — Sat, 27 Jun 2026 01:29:43 +0000

Article URL: https://www.cringely.com/2026/05/28/the-permission-slip/

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48694267

Points: 22

# Comments: 12

New comment by B1FF_PSUVM in "45°C cooling design cuts data center water use to near zero"

B1FF_PSUVM — Thu, 25 Jun 2026 14:14:20 +0000

They're also missing the winter bit, where an AC heatpump needs three ou four times less energy than a resistive heater ... oh well.

New comment by B1FF_PSUVM in "Dostoyevsky isn't difficult"

B1FF_PSUVM — Thu, 25 Jun 2026 11:43:39 +0000

You're doing it wrong. I bumped into this 'Short Guide to Russian literature':

"Russian literature consists of suffering. Either writer suffers, or protagonist, or reader. If all three suffer simultaneously--then it is a masterpiece. In every difficult situation always read Russian classic literature--it is even worse in there."

New comment by B1FF_PSUVM in "Volkswagen started blocking GrapheneOS users"

B1FF_PSUVM — Wed, 17 Jun 2026 21:06:25 +0000

> cared for the environment

It wasn't "more CO2" grade, it was "more NOx" grade. This in urban settings will actually kill more people with respiratory problems.

VW's "clever hack" probably, statistically, killed people.

New comment by B1FF_PSUVM in "Claude: Elevated errors across many models [resolved]"

B1FF_PSUVM — Wed, 17 Jun 2026 18:17:26 +0000

> Europeans from 5am-2pm PST

Well, the EU is putting the kibosh on that PDQ. The precious stays at home.

New comment by B1FF_PSUVM in "A calculator that doesn't round"

B1FF_PSUVM — Mon, 15 Jun 2026 23:25:04 +0000

Read. Guy knows what he's doing.