Hacker News: BLKNSLVR

New comment by BLKNSLVR in "How do I permanently disable random Google Photos popup to backup photos? (2024)"

BLKNSLVR — Mon, 17 Aug 2026 10:34:14 +0000

I like this example of brigading

New comment by BLKNSLVR in "How do I permanently disable random Google Photos popup to backup photos? (2024)"

BLKNSLVR — Mon, 17 Aug 2026 10:31:51 +0000

Which part was meant to be a joke?

New comment by BLKNSLVR in "The cost to retire comfortably around the world"

BLKNSLVR — Mon, 17 Aug 2026 09:45:30 +0000

I was about to post the exact same thing. I would think that, as you age throughout retirement, healthcare costs are increasingly the primary cost of living.

$738k excluding healthcare

$10m including healthcare

New comment by BLKNSLVR in "Online forum Reddit will join the S&P 500 index"

BLKNSLVR — Mon, 17 Aug 2026 09:41:20 +0000

New comment by BLKNSLVR in "Stripe will reportedly acquire OpenRouter for $7B+"

BLKNSLVR — Mon, 17 Aug 2026 06:51:13 +0000

Didn't know there was prior art of that 30% scale, as I generally avoid as much of that shit as I can, Apple is the one I hear about the most.

I amend my prior comments (with actually being able to amend them) to Apple sucks as much as the rest of the rent seekers, and in reference to Aeolun's comment, it doubly sucks that enough people choose to lick it up that the rent seekers don't feel ashamed of their rent seekery, but in fact profit handsomely from it, thus encouraging others to follow suit.

It feels ridiculous that you can't buy directly from the software publisher - like the old internet when they were called programs. I feel I may be on the end of pointing and laughing at the old man, but the situation now is literally a gatekeeping middle-man that gets a 30% cut. WTF? Nice work if you can get it.

Makes me feel like a rube (in a significant majority, mind) for the few games I've bought off Steam. Eesh, even GOG is 30%. Epic's seems reasonable at 12% and only after the first million in revenue per year.

Software publishers need a 'donate' button on their websites where erstwhile pirates can cough launder cough their procurements.

New comment by BLKNSLVR in "The federal keyword lists that canceled billions in research funding"

BLKNSLVR — Mon, 17 Aug 2026 04:37:13 +0000

> Musk is inextricably linked

That's understating it. Musk was the lead role in the cutting, he'd have OK'd the list if not partially authored it.

New comment by BLKNSLVR in "The federal keyword lists that canceled billions in research funding"

BLKNSLVR — Mon, 17 Aug 2026 04:35:48 +0000

Testosterone-challenged mice?

Not sure if that would get additional funding or have it cut.

New comment by BLKNSLVR in "The federal keyword lists that canceled billions in research funding"

BLKNSLVR — Mon, 17 Aug 2026 04:31:25 +0000

We are _in_ the weird stage. The President is someone who has realised the nonsense, because people around him for his whole life have enabled and facilitated the nonsense in order to earn some of his dad's money. And now, instead of his dad's money backing him, he has the US' money, he's got a whole new cabal of enablers and facilitators, and a line as long as roughly 30% of the US population awaiting to fill any role they could get to feed off that fat pipe.

But, yes, when this filters down, and it has started, there's going to need to be a significant amount of legislative strength shown in order to stop the wall from collapsing entirely.

New comment by BLKNSLVR in "Stripe will reportedly acquire OpenRouter for $7B+"

BLKNSLVR — Sun, 16 Aug 2026 22:29:00 +0000

I'm still amazed at Apple's 30%, it's just so brazenly high (like: "fuck you, we're Apple, we do what we want and you'll lick it up"). Unfortunately, too, other companies follow Apple's lead, and so this massive rent seeking percentage has become normalised.

New comment by BLKNSLVR in "US oil reserves are so low, the caverns holding them could be damaged"

BLKNSLVR — Sun, 16 Aug 2026 14:51:21 +0000

Ironically, it's usually the opposite, but they've been tricked into thinking it's in their interests.

Copying what someone else said here once...

gestures vaguely to everything

New comment by BLKNSLVR in "US oil reserves are so low, the caverns holding them could be damaged"

BLKNSLVR — Sun, 16 Aug 2026 14:45:25 +0000

You don't need the (stupid) word Boomer in there.

I usually find usage of that word is a good indicator that the argument isn't well thought out enough to be worth reading. It's an "I want easy answers" word.

New comment by BLKNSLVR in "The Manual for ICE's Electric Shock Gloves"

BLKNSLVR — Sun, 16 Aug 2026 00:00:38 +0000

I'm interested to see the various items of clothing and other tools that facilitate the electric shocks being transferred back to the person wearing the gloves.

Tin foil pants instead of hats.

New comment by BLKNSLVR in "The Government Is Monitoring Anti-Flock TikTok and Instagram Accounts"

BLKNSLVR — Sat, 15 Aug 2026 23:46:22 +0000

If I'm the ex-partner of a government employee?

New comment by BLKNSLVR in "Netflix Has Peaked"

BLKNSLVR — Thu, 13 Aug 2026 06:19:57 +0000

Is Amazon Prime Video of a similar scale? Given the heft of Amazon and AWS behind it, I'd guess they have scale sorted (or at least would be able to scale relatively quickly as they have the in-house expertise and infrastructure). They've also got a locked-in userbase of Prime (delivery) subscribers that get a certain amount of content for free-ish (ad supported) as a value-add.

The user experience of Prime still sucks compared to Netflix though - but Netflix seems to be moving down to meet them...

New comment by BLKNSLVR in "Grok 4.6"

BLKNSLVR — Thu, 13 Aug 2026 01:21:53 +0000

> I think he could kill a random person in front of thousands, and by the next day we'd see articles arguing why the random person actually deserved it and why it's not that bad

Think even bigger. How many deaths is he responsible for as a result of DOGE cuts to overseas aid? This seems to be water that passed under the bridge a long while ago as far as 'societies attention' goes.

https://hsph.harvard.edu/news/usaid-shutdown-has-led-to-hund...

https://www.doge-impact.org/

New comment by BLKNSLVR in "Grok 4.6"

BLKNSLVR — Thu, 13 Aug 2026 01:11:25 +0000

Marketing Senior: We need someone to quote as saying "it's now really good at X", ideally someone who is an expert in X.

Marketing Junior: We've approached as many experts in X as we could, and demonstrated the new X capabilities to them, and no one wanted to be quoted by name saying that phrase, or even slightly watered down versions of that phrase.

Marketing Senior: How many celebrities do we have contact details for?

New comment by BLKNSLVR in "Grok 4.6"

BLKNSLVR — Thu, 13 Aug 2026 00:36:58 +0000

"this is not a criminal activity where I am"

New comment by BLKNSLVR in "CFTC declares market emergency, orders Kalshi to continue to operate in New York"

BLKNSLVR — Wed, 12 Aug 2026 01:56:03 +0000

That sounds _exactly_ like a gambling use case.

New comment by BLKNSLVR in "England set to be one of the first countries to eliminate hepatitis C"

BLKNSLVR — Tue, 11 Aug 2026 15:08:49 +0000

Trump is trying to hang Fauci. That goes in the completely opposite direction of promoting the trust of medical institutions in general society, and it's trust that will get people back to vaccinating themselves and their children.

New comment by BLKNSLVR in "The UK's war on anonymity has come to America"

BLKNSLVR — Tue, 11 Aug 2026 07:40:53 +0000

I understand there's significant motivation behind the potential of losing $800 billion in value.

I think those kinds of numbers can have more fundamental implications.