Hacker News: FrankWilhoit

New comment by FrankWilhoit in "The cult of vibe coding is insane"

FrankWilhoit — Mon, 06 Apr 2026 20:49:14 +0000

Every so often, some Windows source gets leaked, and people have a lot of fun laughing at how bad it is. If the source of, say, PeopleSoft were leaked, people would have a lot of fun laughing at how bad it is. If the source of Hogan Deposits were leaked, it would kill anyone who saw it.

New comment by FrankWilhoit in "RSA WARNING"

FrankWilhoit — Mon, 06 Apr 2026 11:03:30 +0000

Five days late.

New comment by FrankWilhoit in "Right to repair: Why the US military can't fix much of its own equipment"

FrankWilhoit — Sun, 05 Apr 2026 12:46:09 +0000

Time was, suppliers were so eager to sell anything to the DOD, on any terms, that they would turn their entire business models inside out just to get Federal contracts. The idea of said suppliers having any leverage, of any kind, in contract negotiations would have been completely absurd. Has that really changed?

New comment by FrankWilhoit in "Ask HN: Why does this product exist?"

FrankWilhoit — Sun, 05 Apr 2026 11:05:14 +0000

People running on mainframe emulation, using back versions that are only seven-bit-clean.

New comment by FrankWilhoit in "[dead]"

FrankWilhoit — Sat, 04 Apr 2026 19:18:30 +0000

The article's subtitle asks "How did the GOP become a haven for slogans and ideas straight out of the Third Reich?" When the question is framed that way, the answer becomes crisply obvious: Everyone who remembers 1945 has died.

New comment by FrankWilhoit in "No One at Waffle House Remembers FEMA Official Who Says He Teleported In"

FrankWilhoit — Sat, 04 Apr 2026 15:48:26 +0000

Why would they? At Waffle House, that is just another minute between 0 and 59. But of course we are assuming that he teleported to the back of the line.

New comment by FrankWilhoit in "Boeing 777-9 Maximum Brake Energy Certification Testing [video]"

FrankWilhoit — Sat, 04 Apr 2026 15:45:41 +0000

Future archaeologists of technology will not be able to distinguish between machines such as this and the fancies of Rube Goldberg.

New comment by FrankWilhoit in "The danger of military AI isn't killer robots; it's worse human judgement"

FrankWilhoit — Fri, 03 Apr 2026 20:46:38 +0000

In long hindsight, it will be seen that the foremost effect of AI was to reinforce the mindset that everything is performance and nothing is real.

New comment by FrankWilhoit in "Ask HN: Is this type of person rare?"

FrankWilhoit — Wed, 01 Apr 2026 21:23:30 +0000

"just give me the result" means "just give me A result", never mind whether it is correct. It means "my job is to read the next line of the script, not to notice what the words say".

New comment by FrankWilhoit in "Iranian president has released an open letter to the American people"

FrankWilhoit — Wed, 01 Apr 2026 20:24:37 +0000

It is never permissible to distinguish between government and people.

New comment by FrankWilhoit in "See How Hollywood's Job Market Is Collapsing"

FrankWilhoit — Mon, 30 Mar 2026 20:41:46 +0000

Just close your eyes.

New comment by FrankWilhoit in "C"

FrankWilhoit — Sun, 29 Mar 2026 21:51:26 +0000

New comment by FrankWilhoit in "Ex-Physicist Might Be the Future of Music. He's Also Enemy No. 1"

FrankWilhoit — Sat, 28 Mar 2026 20:22:52 +0000

What this fellow does has nothing to do with my idea of music -- which may speak for itself: YouTube.com/@FrankWilhoit

New comment by FrankWilhoit in "A woman's uterus has been kept alive outside the body for the first time"

FrankWilhoit — Sat, 28 Mar 2026 13:23:23 +0000

Well, there's the cannon-fodder problem solved!

New comment by FrankWilhoit in "NASA to spend $20B to build a base on the moon"

FrankWilhoit — Fri, 27 Mar 2026 21:45:35 +0000

Per launch, how much payload mass can be orbited and then injected into a translunar trajectory? What is the minimum mass of a base worth the name? And most importantly, why is no one willing to push back on such mere and flagrant nonsense as this by asking these questions?

New comment by FrankWilhoit in "Will the Miracle of Capitalism Destroy Us All?"

FrankWilhoit — Fri, 27 Mar 2026 16:04:52 +0000

Growth is a dysphemism for reallocation. In order to see this, it is only necessary to ask whether the diameter of the Earth is increasing.

New comment by FrankWilhoit in "Why experts rarely give you a straight answer"

FrankWilhoit — Thu, 26 Mar 2026 21:58:35 +0000

The life of an expert consists of being asked the wrong questions.

New comment by FrankWilhoit in "Bitter Lessons from a Chinese Education Reformer (2022)"

FrankWilhoit — Thu, 26 Mar 2026 20:22:53 +0000

There will never be real education until parents are totally shut out.

New comment by FrankWilhoit in "How Can America Be So Miserable When It's So Rich?"

FrankWilhoit — Thu, 26 Mar 2026 17:42:23 +0000

Because the only emotional reward is violence.

New comment by FrankWilhoit in "Ask HN: Is there a secret satellite war?"

FrankWilhoit — Tue, 24 Mar 2026 22:36:47 +0000

If so, it would manifest as sabotage of satellite launches. There may, indeed, have been some of that down the years.