Hacker News: LurkandComment

New comment by LurkandComment in "Good Taste the Only Real Moat Left"

LurkandComment — Tue, 07 Apr 2026 16:35:00 +0000

Think about moats in long term vs short term:

Speed and distribution aren't a long-run moat because they are something AI can canabalize in a platform. Eventually they will coexist on your distribution base and offer it at a lower cost than you. Its a mote if it holds up before you exit at a high valuation... which a lot are setup to do.

Taste: that's interesting. There is an argument there. It's hard to keep in the long-run and requires a lot of reinvestment in new talent

Proprietary data: Yes, very much so.

Trade Craft: Your new shiney system will still have to adhere to methods of of old clunky real world systems. Example, evidence for court. Methods for investigations. This is going to be industry specific, but you'd be surprised how many there are. This is long-term.

Those who have the moat should focus on short burts of meaningful changes as they will rely heavily on gaining trust in established systems. In those places its more about trusting whats going on than doing it faster and better, so you want trust + faster and/or better.

New comment by LurkandComment in "Microsoft: Copilot is for entertainment purposes only"

LurkandComment — Tue, 31 Mar 2026 15:53:46 +0000

I thought a year ago when I bought a new laptop with 365 and Copilot integrated that they would make better use of AI and its integration. I can't think of when I actually used it and cancelled any subscription associated with it. On the otherhand, I use ChatGPT all the time.

New comment by LurkandComment in "Government agencies buy commercial data about Americans in bulk"

LurkandComment — Thu, 26 Mar 2026 15:40:19 +0000

I am a big personal privacy advocate. However, I'm also well aware of how much crime is happening online and on signals that don't sit clearly in public and private channels. If you worked with this stuff like I do, you'd understand gov't and le needs more regualted and responsible access to this data. At the same time, if you're in Brazil (FE) there is no need for Facebook to comply to your warrant request. So how do you stop romance scams, coordinated trafficking, everything that happens there (BTW META is a HUGE platform for this stuff) So sometimes, your only way access data is through purchasing it.

New comment by LurkandComment in "How Invisalign became the biggest user of 3D printers"

LurkandComment — Sat, 21 Mar 2026 20:36:18 +0000

1) Currently on invisign - mould 24 of 42

2) For 5k (Cdn) - I get 42 moulds, a method used to scan and submit my progress for each mould duration, feedback and advice from a dentist, a scan test to see who they fit

3) Considering the cost of braces and the flexibility these allow (as long as you are disciplined in wearing them) it's well worth it

4) My teeth were really misaligned. At 42 I just decided to do it so I could smile more in pics. Not confidence issue, just sometimes in life you have to do things for yourself

5) You can see the 3d printing lines and its pretty detailed given how lightweight and accurate the shape is for each tooth

6) There are little mounts they install on your teeth for the moulds to latch on to as well, so its not just a fit on the teeth but the mounts as well

7) Each individual mould has a unique number on the package in comes in as well as on the mould. Each package has my name, the dentist and the mould number out of 42.

8) I could see changes starting with mould 6

9) If look even close to mould 42, I will be extactic

10) it also comes with an attachment for your phone that alows you to submit self exams each mould. Its really cool. its very impressive

New comment by LurkandComment in "The Case for Apolitical Tech Spaces"

LurkandComment — Tue, 03 Mar 2026 01:24:36 +0000

Apolitical Tech, is the goal we give machines that gets rid of humanity. That's the only way you make anything apolitical. Where there are two people, there is a struggle for a balance of power.

New comment by LurkandComment in "A plastic made from milk that vanishes in 13 weeks"

LurkandComment — Mon, 02 Mar 2026 15:39:11 +0000

Is this going to drive up the price of milk? Corn went up when we started making ethanol from it for gasoline.

New comment by LurkandComment in "Sam Altman would like to remind you that humans use a lot of energy, too"

LurkandComment — Mon, 23 Feb 2026 17:47:30 +0000

Yes that's why we want to work from home. We agree. Let us work from home and lot of that energy is reduced.

New comment by LurkandComment in "AI is destroying open source, and it's not even good yet [video]"

LurkandComment — Mon, 23 Feb 2026 17:41:08 +0000

My guess is that this is going to be everything other technology that's democratized. You see a flood of low quality output because you have a lot of new non-technical devs. Some of these are good enough to crowd out some of the prexisting tools. The volume creates noise which also makes the good stuff harder to find. Eventually an ecosystem starts forming around these low hanging products which fill the gaps between pros and amatures (think of what happened to video editing and Apple). Eventually you have more people creating a better product in the long run. There is a bit of a feedback loop here as AI gets better, it makes the products it outputs better, which inturn can benefit AI as it learns from improvements.

New comment by LurkandComment in "Listen to Understand"

LurkandComment — Thu, 05 Feb 2026 16:23:25 +0000

That is so useful. Thank you for sharing your advice.

New comment by LurkandComment in "AI needs to augment rather than replace humans or the workplace is doomed"

LurkandComment — Wed, 04 Feb 2026 20:01:50 +0000

But we all went back to the office 5 days a week? Surely we are too valuable to replace!

New comment by LurkandComment in "The Palantir app helping ICE raids in Minneapolis"

LurkandComment — Thu, 15 Jan 2026 15:42:37 +0000

This exactly hits in on the head. You're trying create a forum absent of politics. In fact, you're just enabling one political view over another. This hides social issues and in the end comes back to undermine your pure "technical view". It's not apolitical, it's disassociation from reality.

New comment by LurkandComment in "Ozempic Melted Away Weight–and the Idea of 'Body Positivity'"

LurkandComment — Fri, 09 Jan 2026 14:58:50 +0000

That's the worst attitude I've ever heard. I feel like you work for a pharma. If I google your name will I find that you do. It's weird unbalanced position you take. You put words into people's arguments. Your account was recently created. This sounds like pharma PR.

New comment by LurkandComment in "Ozempic Melted Away Weight–and the Idea of 'Body Positivity'"

LurkandComment — Fri, 09 Jan 2026 14:55:38 +0000

Where did I say it was cosmetic? At best you'll lose weight on it, but without forming good habits and lifting weights you're a candidate for muscle loss and related injuries (Example. Falling in tub and shattering hip). Once you're off ozempic, if you didn't form good habits, the weight gain is significant. You'll also put back on a lot of weight with a lower muscle mass. Again, I'm not sure where i said it was cosmetic.

New comment by LurkandComment in "Ozempic Melted Away Weight–and the Idea of 'Body Positivity'"

LurkandComment — Mon, 05 Jan 2026 14:42:53 +0000

Ozempic is another quick fix. You're going to be thin, but if you don't put in the work lifting weights and eating protien you're just a younger old person with advanced sarcopenia. One fall and your hip shatters. It won't address any other inactivity related illnesses and comes with its own issues. Ex. Bladder not being able to handle bile etc. I get it for advance stage diabetics who have enough nerve issues to be at risk for sepsis and amputation, I don't think it's great for average joe who just wants an easy way to lose weight.

New comment by LurkandComment in "AI helps ship faster but it produces 1.7× more bugs"

LurkandComment — Thu, 18 Dec 2025 17:17:53 +0000

Sorry guys I'm having trouble here:

Is it: AI builds product faster but with more bugs in production (Adds overall time to acceptable production)

Is is: Al helps us build faster, enough though we have to fix more bugs before production. (over all less time to acceptable production, but specifically fixing bugs takes longer)

New comment by LurkandComment in "AI will make formal verification go mainstream"

LurkandComment — Wed, 17 Dec 2025 16:46:29 +0000

Open-banking will make formal verification go mainstream.

New comment by LurkandComment in "In Re: 23andMe, Inc. Customer Data Security Breach Litigation"

LurkandComment — Mon, 01 Dec 2025 02:18:49 +0000

What if you're Canadian?

New comment by LurkandComment in "Ford Considers Scrapping Electric Version of F-150 Truck"

LurkandComment — Fri, 07 Nov 2025 18:04:26 +0000

I loved the idea of this vehicle, but I'm never going to buy a pick-up. The idea of charging a construction site or a house during black out sounds amazing to me. However, I'm not sure of the pick-truck audience likes the idea of electric. It could also be a cost thing. I'd love to hear more about the demographic that normally buys trucks.

New comment by LurkandComment in "Tesla's ‘Robotaxis' Keep Crashing—Even With Human ‘Safety Monitors' Onboard"

LurkandComment — Tue, 04 Nov 2025 15:02:01 +0000

For a fraction of Musk's bonus he could buy Waymo

New comment by LurkandComment in "Amazon strategised about keeping water use secret"

LurkandComment — Mon, 27 Oct 2025 14:58:28 +0000

Useage is one issue and should be monitored, but I think you have to understand that in some cases the tech company purchases the water supply and towns become dependant or placed at will of the tech company's interest. On top of that, there is a cost increase to utilities even if the water is moving around a closed loop.