Hacker News: DamnInteresting

'How I Became a Lock Picker'

DamnInteresting — Mon, 12 Oct 2026 13:54:37 +0000

Article URL: https://www.newyorker.com/culture/the-weekend-essay/how-i-became-a-lock-picker

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50056531

Points: 2

# Comments: 0

Hackers stole US Military records during months-long data breach

DamnInteresting — Wed, 30 Sep 2026 21:05:18 +0000

Article URL: https://techcrunch.com/2026/09/30/hackers-stole-millions-of-us-military-personnel-records-during-months-long-data-breach/

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49914453

Points: 6

# Comments: 0

New comment by DamnInteresting in "Ask HN: What are you reading?"

DamnInteresting — Tue, 29 Sep 2026 17:38:53 +0000

Fiction I recently enjoyed: The Ana and Din series by Robert Jackson Bennett. Sherlock Holmes vibes, with Kaiju. Also The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August by Claire North.

Currently reading and enjoying: Exit Party by Emily St. John Mandel.

Next to Read: Hollywood, Ending by John Green.

New comment by DamnInteresting in "It's Time to Investigate the AI Labs"

DamnInteresting — Mon, 28 Sep 2026 23:49:55 +0000

> See stuxnet for instance

I'll be impressed if AI agents find a way to get infected USB drives out into meatspace.

New comment by DamnInteresting in "New Jersey fines data center $1.1M after drone pics expose 62 gas generators"

DamnInteresting — Thu, 24 Sep 2026 21:21:36 +0000

> retroactively applied permit fee

This sounds like a euphemism for "bribe." And if you replace "fee" with "expense" you get a hum-dinger of an acronym.

New comment by DamnInteresting in "Meta takes down a critical video about meta AI Glasses after filming at Meta"

DamnInteresting — Thu, 24 Sep 2026 14:06:45 +0000

There's a technology that can hide an LED light, it is called "a small piece of tape."

Video: Flooded road confuses AI-driven car into an endless loop

DamnInteresting — Sun, 20 Sep 2026 16:57:01 +0000

Article URL: https://www.theweathernetwork.com/en/video/xas8vcuh

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49777583

Points: 2

# Comments: 0

There's a startup sunsetting startups – business is booming

DamnInteresting — Fri, 18 Sep 2026 16:54:05 +0000

Article URL: https://thehustle.co/newsletters/18-09-2026

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49757046

Points: 3

# Comments: 1

New comment by DamnInteresting in "I sent Google proof of a bot farm. They called it "normal user behavior.""

DamnInteresting — Thu, 17 Sep 2026 02:53:17 +0000

I received a phishing email that appeared to come from Google, that almost had me convinced. I was in a delicate place--my father was fighting cancer, and my brother had just been horribly injured in a motorcycle accident. I was distressed, and my wits were not about me. The link in the email was to a google.com url, it looked okay.

Luckily I detected the treachery before sending any sensitive data, and I sent the relevant details to the Google bug bounty. Their response was that google.com open proxies are not considered bugs, and the report was closed. Do less evil, Google.

New comment by DamnInteresting in "The worst spam emails: iLands AI agent hustle"

DamnInteresting — Sat, 12 Sep 2026 22:34:06 +0000

Update: I filed a report with the FTC. https://reportfraud.ftc.gov/

New comment by DamnInteresting in "The worst spam emails: iLands AI agent hustle"

DamnInteresting — Sat, 12 Sep 2026 22:12:13 +0000

Oh man, I run a site that publishes long-form science and history writings, and the iLands agent spam has been relentless the past week or so. All kinds of stupid story pitches couched in syrupy LLM flattery. I even had one email me to say it checked three arbitrary claims in my most recent article, and they all checked out. Thanks? What a waste of everything.

New comment by DamnInteresting in "Alan's Random Insult Generator (1999)"

DamnInteresting — Fri, 11 Sep 2026 15:34:53 +0000

I found this in a dusty corner of my code archive, and it made me laugh, and thought it might do the same for others. I wrote this when I was first learning a fancy new language called "Javascript." Apologies for the juvenile humor. Sometimes NSFW.

Alan's Random Insult Generator (1999)

DamnInteresting — Fri, 11 Sep 2026 15:34:53 +0000

Article URL: https://alanbellows.com/experiments/insult/index.html

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49660196

Points: 78

# Comments: 25

New comment by DamnInteresting in "iPhone Duo"

DamnInteresting — Wed, 09 Sep 2026 20:02:01 +0000

A stand-alone e-ink e-book reader in this form factor would be amazing.

New comment by DamnInteresting in "iPhone Duo"

DamnInteresting — Wed, 09 Sep 2026 19:57:03 +0000

From a mechanical perspective, a screen around the outside would create a wrinkle rather than a crease when opened, and that wrinkle would be substantial. The phone would need some sliding/rolling mechanism to pull the screen flat. Possibly doable, but finicky and fragile. Especially considering elements like cameras, touch ID, etc.

From an experience perspective, I imagine it's just more satisfying to open it like a book. A screen on the outside would mean the inside is almost empty, just utilities like camera lenses.

New comment by DamnInteresting in "iPhone Duo"

DamnInteresting — Wed, 09 Sep 2026 18:53:10 +0000

In the FAQ it says "Yes. iPhone Duo will work with Apple Pencil (USB-C). Coming later this year."

It kinda sounds like it's a new model of the Apple Pencil coming soon (rather than support coming soon), and older Pencil and Pencil Pros will not work at all. Which, if true, boo.

New comment by DamnInteresting in "'You Can See Everything' Review: Nathan Fielder's Doc About Elizabeth Holmes"

DamnInteresting — Mon, 07 Sep 2026 20:48:17 +0000

Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GGJSRFWALTI

New comment by DamnInteresting in "Any Human Ever – One life, drawn at random from all who have ever lived"

DamnInteresting — Fri, 04 Sep 2026 00:23:53 +0000

> I drew a woman born in 715 CE in the Yangtze Basin. It claims that 96% of women were married, the average age of marriage was 18, and 44% of women died before age 15. Clearly these facts can't all be true simultaneously.

Yeah, I got: You have drawn a girl, born in the Yangtze Basin in 1295 CE.

Typical age at marriage: 18 Ever married (of adults): 96% Children per woman: 6.5

Life expectancy at birth: 28 yrs Died before age 5: 39% Died before age 15: 44%

Very similar to your "random" draw, and the facts are suspect. There was a link to the source, but it's behind a paywall.

New comment by DamnInteresting in "Why do I lose my passion and want to do nothing?"

DamnInteresting — Mon, 31 Aug 2026 15:04:45 +0000

Speaking for myself, when I see AI being used, I see industrial-grade plagiarism. Plagiarism is when someone claims to have written something--a book, essay, software, etc--when they did not write that thing. AI is a tool that cobbles something together from other people's work and gives compensation and credit to the incorrect person.

There's a reason we as a civilization decided to create intellectual property laws. We wanted there to be an incentive for creative people--authors, coders, illustrators--to improve the world with creative works. Art and writing improve our lives. AI dismantles that incentive, and thereby makes life that much more bland.

Yes, I do use emdashes. But I don't use AI.

New comment by DamnInteresting in "Meta reaches $17B settlement over social media harms to children"

DamnInteresting — Wed, 26 Aug 2026 14:28:58 +0000

Agreed, YouTube Shorts and similar pap (e.g., Tik Tok) seem corrosive to a developing mind...the mindless content, automatic looping, serving up one shallow video after another. It's no wonder the tech CEOs insulate their own kids from this stuff[1].

[1] https://www.nytimes.com/2026/08/18/technology/silicon-valley...