Hacker News: Ginden

New comment by Ginden in "I paid people to try and follow my README"

Ginden — Sun, 11 Oct 2026 15:34:39 +0000

Now we have new ways to solve this problem: send Haiku or Luna to do task using computer use, but without access to code. If it can't complete it, or takes too long, docs are bad.

New comment by Ginden in "Navier-Stokes – Tristan Buckmaster [pdf]"

Ginden — Wed, 09 Sep 2026 10:10:22 +0000

This requires keeping history if, at the time, Buckmaster's account had a certain flag set, because just because the account has the flag now doesn't mean it had the flag at a certain moment in the past. And even if they had such history, it's not obvious whether they just load all data as-is into training.

A totally reasonable pipeline may be unauditable for this purpose.

New comment by Ginden in "Navier-Stokes – Tristan Buckmaster [pdf]"

Ginden — Wed, 09 Sep 2026 10:05:39 +0000

And, of course, you can train a model to start with repeating prompt in chain of thought!

New comment by Ginden in "No, it doesn't cost Anthropic $5k per Claude Code user"

Ginden — Tue, 10 Mar 2026 07:30:26 +0000

My employer bought me a Claude Max subscription. On heavy weeks I use 80% of the subscription. And among software engineers that I know, I'm a relatively heavy user.

Why? Because in my experience, the bottleneck is in shareholders approving new features, not my ability to dish out code.

New comment by Ginden in "The Age Verification Trap: Verifying age undermines everyone's data protection"

Ginden — Mon, 23 Feb 2026 19:00:14 +0000

"Age-restriction laws push platforms toward intrusive verification systems that often directly conflict with modern data-privacy law" - when you make rules contradictory, someone always violate these laws, and you can use selective persecution to "convince" companies to favor you, the incumbent politician. You don't even have to use such power, just a "joke" may be enough to send have any rational CEO licking your shoes.

European proponents of "anti-big-tech action" make it pretty explicit - broad discretionary power should be given to executive branch, because otherwise "international corporations" will use "loopholes" (and these "loopholes" are, in practice, explicitly written laws used as intended).

New comment by Ginden in "The RCE that AMD won't fix"

Ginden — Fri, 06 Feb 2026 13:18:16 +0000

You need only a device on network to spam DHCP messages with malware DNS. So you don't need "shady hotspot", only compromised device within network.

New comment by Ginden in "Iran Is Hunting Down Starlink Users to Stop Protest Videos from Going Global"

Ginden — Tue, 13 Jan 2026 17:11:53 +0000

> easily solved

Asynchronous (you don't know when and where you will get Internet/local network connectivity) mesh (there is no gov infrastructure to be trusted) networking in presence of malicious (gov operated) and unreliable (destroyed by gov) nodes is probably among hardest problems known to computer science.

New comment by Ginden in "The mineral riches hiding under Greenland's ice"

Ginden — Wed, 07 Jan 2026 11:09:24 +0000

Mining in Arctic is a technical nightmare. Typical alloys become brittle in these temperatures, darkness severely limits operations and/or workplace accidents, transport requires ice-breakers, permafrost is fundamentally unstable (heat from buildings melts it, causing sinking), and you need to pay people a lot to work there.

New comment by Ginden in "OpenAI's cash burn will be one of the big bubble questions of 2026"

Ginden — Wed, 31 Dec 2025 10:41:54 +0000

There are multiple tech companies with quadrillion-deep pockets.

New comment by Ginden in "OpenAI's cash burn will be one of the big bubble questions of 2026"

Ginden — Wed, 31 Dec 2025 00:17:35 +0000

Because almost everyone involved in AI race grew up in "winner takes it all" environments, typical for software, and they try really hard to make it reality. This means your model should do everything to just take 90% of market share, or at least 90% of specific niche.

The problem is, they can't find the moat, despite searching very hard, whatever you bake into your AI, your competitors will be able to replicate in few months. This is why OpenAI is striking deal with Disney, because copyright provides such moat.

New comment by Ginden in "Date bug in Rust-based coreutils affects Ubuntu 25.10 automatic updates"

Ginden — Thu, 23 Oct 2025 23:11:41 +0000

Oh, you mean specifically GPL v3 license, not any GPL license.

Yeah, broad tivoisation and patent clauses make it a problem, because making any patent litigation on unrelated grounds has potential to lose ability to ship the entire OS.

New comment by Ginden in "Date bug in Rust-based coreutils affects Ubuntu 25.10 automatic updates"

Ginden — Thu, 23 Oct 2025 22:30:12 +0000

So what? Standalone binaries don't infect other things with copyleft anyway.

New comment by Ginden in "Scientist exposes anti-wind groups as oil-funded, now they want to silence him"

Ginden — Wed, 27 Aug 2025 11:16:49 +0000

> given support to these fake public interest groups in attempts to sue wind projects out of existence.

Remember - that's the core issue. Development of housing or green energy projects or industries with low externalities should be by-right.

New comment by Ginden in "Start your own Internet Resiliency Club"

Ginden — Mon, 16 Jun 2025 12:22:56 +0000

Electricity is not really an expensive resource for communications. You need like a single rooftop to provide WiFi for the entire village.

New comment by Ginden in "Did Sandia use a thermonuclear secondary in a product logo?"

Ginden — Fri, 06 Sep 2024 12:26:49 +0000

This is merely an engineering problem.

The hardest part of building nukes is acquiring weapon-grade enriched uranium, because it's controlled as hell and you will get bombed if you try to make your own.

If you spend hundreds of millions of dollars on enriched uranium, paying salaries for team of engineers is the easy part.

New comment by Ginden in "Ladybird browser spreads its wings"

Ginden — Fri, 21 Jun 2024 10:03:45 +0000

Conflict of interests is a real thing to worry about. I wouldn't trust scientist working in tobacco company on cigarette harm, even if I have no evidence of wrongdoing.

New comment by Ginden in "Bees and chimps can also pass on their skills"

Ginden — Tue, 12 Mar 2024 12:46:13 +0000

This, but unironically. Humans have the best daylight eyesight in mammals, and only birds of prey come close.

New comment by Ginden in "Alaska 737 cockpit voice recorder data erasure renews safety debate"

Ginden — Mon, 08 Jan 2024 23:14:49 +0000

Asymmetric cryptography isn't a rocket science. Airline keeps encrypted recording and public key, certain government institution keeps private key, you need both to decrypt.

New comment by Ginden in "People cough more during classical concerts"

Ginden — Fri, 13 Oct 2023 12:47:21 +0000

Title "People cough more during classical concerts" implies that people are more likely to cough during classical concerts than non-classical concerts. Article implies that people cough more in classical concerts than at home.

There are numerous biological, physical and neurological factors that can affect cough rate, and implication "it's voluntary" seems to be rather ridi... far-fetched.

Paper link BTW: https://ideas.repec.org/p/cue/wpaper/awp-05-2012.html

New comment by Ginden in "The midwit home"

Ginden — Fri, 13 Oct 2023 12:37:38 +0000

I was already running home server, so for me, setting up smart home was relatively simple:

- Buy Zigbee USB dongle - Install Home Assistant and Zigbee2MQTT in Docker on server - Initial configuration

It requires basic technical knowledge, but after initial configuration it just works.

There were three major pains:

- Configuring camera (ONVIF is pure pain) - it works initially, but I physically plug-in cameras only when I'm going on holiday - Configuring voice assistant - Finding good ZigBee remotes - Price of Hue Wall Switch (DIY approach is possible by gutting cheap button)

Cameras and voice assistant troubles were arguably result of my "keep as much as possible within local network" approach.

Minor pains:

- Binding remotes to light bulbs, so they work even if server is down - Finding instructions how to bind certain ZigBee accessories (they have "just open our proprietary app and it will explain what to do" manual)