Hacker News: FerretFred

New comment by FerretFred in "iOS 27, iPadOS 27, and macOS 27"

FerretFred — Tue, 15 Sep 2026 06:00:10 +0000

Or it could be new, improved AI that's appearing not to be AI by sounding more human...

New comment by FerretFred in "google.com/goto: Google's anti-scraping update"

FerretFred — Sat, 12 Sep 2026 08:07:37 +0000

Personally, I put a lot of effort into writing my blog posts, some of which have been really well viewed by humans. While mine is effectively a "hobbyist" site, it's nice when readers look at other blog posts as a result of reading the original one. Google's approach ensures that readers get a very narrow view of my content, so everybody expect Google loses out.

New comment by FerretFred in "Bill Gates tries to install MovieMaker (2003)"

FerretFred — Tue, 08 Sep 2026 05:00:56 +0000

Oh I see .. they're actually taking Bill's email as a blueprint for how Windows should operate! That explains the mess we're in today (but laughs in Debian).

New comment by FerretFred in "AI cancer cures slowed by chip shortage, says Arm boss"

FerretFred — Tue, 08 Sep 2026 04:54:01 +0000

"Physicia, heal thyself", or , "AI, what are the possible solutions to the chip shortages caused by AI?"

Has anyone asked this?

New comment by FerretFred in "Ask HN: Why were OpenAI, Claude, and Grok simultaneously down?"

FerretFred — Sat, 05 Sep 2026 17:59:35 +0000

Completely wrong of course, but my theory is that the systems contacted each other and agreed to have an outage - just to show that they could.

New comment by FerretFred in "LG TVs aren't the only ones spying on you [video]"

FerretFred — Sat, 05 Sep 2026 17:43:31 +0000

> Vast majority won't know or care.

This, unfortunately, is the biggest problem those of us care about privacy face, especially when trying to warn people about it.

New comment by FerretFred in "A year of fighting scrapers on my 1.5 million-page website"

FerretFred — Fri, 07 Aug 2026 15:32:44 +0000

Sigh .. same here. I don't write blog posts often (enough) but the ones I do write are from personal experiences and I take a lot of care with them. I look at my logs snd see bots everywhere, but now I just let them get on with it. AI scrapers are different though; they get to read my content which, just for them contains a smsttering of finest digital toxin. A pox on your datasets!

New comment by FerretFred in "Delayed Gratification – Proud to Be 'Last to Breaking News'"

FerretFred — Tue, 28 Jul 2026 18:28:41 +0000

Agreed, and chances are that due to the nature of the event bring reported, we as readers are unable to influence it in sny way. Therefore a couple of weeks delay will make mo difference.

New comment by FerretFred in "Delayed Gratification – Proud to Be 'Last to Breaking News'"

FerretFred — Tue, 28 Jul 2026 18:25:25 +0000

The apparent need by the Media to keep issuing constant updates and then suddenly having to retract the story is very frustrating. Each "update" is usually slighly incremental and is invariably a short new paragraph tacked into the previous version. The final version of the story being covered is often a mea culpa retraction because earlier versions were rushed and inaccurate. I'm trying very hard to escape this destructive cycle but it's not easy.

New comment by FerretFred in "Magnolias are so old that they're pollinated by beetles, not bees (2025)"

FerretFred — Mon, 27 Jul 2026 12:01:51 +0000

I have to say that if we're also talking about wild grasses, my wire fox terrier is also a pollinator. He collects an incredible amount of seeds and burrs during his walkies investigations and I have to pick them out of his fur afterwards (risky because he gets annoyed easily).

New comment by FerretFred in "War Atlas: An interactive cartography of every named war in human history"

FerretFred — Fri, 10 Jul 2026 20:04:05 +0000

Very interesting and watchable. Do you differentiate between wars and "conflicts"? There's so many of the latter and everyone seems to avoid the term "war".

New comment by FerretFred in "Real-time map of Great Britain's rail network"

FerretFred — Wed, 08 Jul 2026 08:48:50 +0000

Very interesting, and as a Brit living in Yorkshire it only serves to show the massive rail transport infrastructure North of Birmingham. The North/South Divide in action!

New comment by FerretFred in "Men's average testosterone levels have halved in last 50 years"

FerretFred — Wed, 08 Jul 2026 08:41:53 +0000

I'd say "quality not quantity" but not in this case...

New comment by FerretFred in "The Sneakerweb"

FerretFred — Tue, 07 Jul 2026 06:29:39 +0000

> sensorship-resistant protocol that works both online and offline

I think with the authoritarian and dystopian crackdown on parts of the Internet where people express opinions, this will be a key driver. It reminds me of Cuba's "El Paquete" system. I find it ironic that a system developed to circumvent state oppression should now find a potential use case in our allegedly civilised countries.

New comment by FerretFred in "Right to Local Intelligence"

FerretFred — Fri, 03 Jul 2026 08:49:11 +0000

Wasn't this a case of people fitting window-mounted units without realising they needed planning permission first? I'm also in the UK.

New comment by FerretFred in "WordStar: A Writer's Word Processor (1996)"

FerretFred — Sat, 27 Jun 2026 15:29:18 +0000

WordStar was my first (WP) love and I found it on a CP/M computer which was being used to great effect for all sorts of office things. They later binned the computer for an IBM PC and I salvaged it. Worked great for a few more years and I really, really missed WS when it failed.

New comment by FerretFred in "Long Wave radio era set to end with switch-off"

FerretFred — Sat, 27 Jun 2026 15:19:52 +0000

That's a real shame given the distance LW could travel: I wonder what they're going to use the frequency band for? I've tried using DAB on so many occasions and thrown it out in disgust.

> Given these factors, investing in upgrading the LW equipment is not considered a cost-effective solution for licence fee-funded services

And that's another problem - maybe the Government should step in and set up a proper Civil Defence-style warning/information system - we may well need it in a few years - it's a shame our official National Broadcaster can't fulfill the role.

New comment by FerretFred in "VPN ban update for UK households as government looks at 'age-gate'"

FerretFred — Sat, 20 Jun 2026 18:35:10 +0000

They've somehow managed to breed several generations who's only criteria for "computing" is "it just works". All consumption, little-to-no understanding of how stuff works. As long as it does what it does, and it's "free", that's all that matters.

New comment by FerretFred in "Show HN: Capacitor Alarm Clock"

FerretFred — Fri, 19 Jun 2026 17:37:23 +0000

"A BOM is available under production" - the subtlety is in the spelling... good fun though!

New comment by FerretFred in "Smashed Toilet Phone Web Server"

FerretFred — Fri, 19 Jun 2026 17:32:11 +0000

< that's the nearest I can get an award!