<rss version="2.0" xmlns:dc="http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/" xmlns:atom="http://www.w3.org/2005/Atom"><channel><title>Hacker News: MichaelRo</title><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/user?id=MichaelRo</link><description>Hacker News RSS</description><docs>https://hnrss.org/</docs><generator>hnrss v2.1.1</generator><lastBuildDate>Sun, 30 Aug 2026 00:34:19 +0000</lastBuildDate><atom:link href="https://hnrss.org/user?id=MichaelRo" rel="self" type="application/rss+xml"></atom:link><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by MichaelRo in "A society that runs on stimulants is badly broken"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>>> There’s a generational split in those numbers; among the under-35 crowd, it’s 60 percent. The older demographic still prefers coffee, and 66 percent of Americans drink that every day, too.<p>But, but! Isn't coffee consumption supposed to provide health benefits too? Like "reduced risks of type 2 diabetes, heart disease, liver conditions, and overall mortality".<p>Seems odd to lump coffee into the same bucket with energy drinks.</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Sat, 29 Aug 2026 06:00:05 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49487299</link><dc:creator>MichaelRo</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49487299</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49487299</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by MichaelRo in "Please don't rearrange our shoes when we turn up, paramedics in Japan urge"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>>> the firefighters demonstrate how paramedics leave their shoes positioned at entrances in precise spots<p>What the **?! That seems like one step too far, guy is heaving a heart attack inside and medical personnel first instinct is to take their shoes off first.<p>Seriously, while Japanese might be a bit too far, it wouldn't hurt for more of the world to adopt the habit of taking the shoes off when entering someone's home. I myself am getting "the look" when I even dare to politely ask some plumber to put a pair of disposable shoe covers that I myself provide, before dragging shit all over my floors.</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Fri, 28 Aug 2026 06:11:55 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49474940</link><dc:creator>MichaelRo</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49474940</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49474940</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by MichaelRo in "Every student is cheating with AI"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>Maybe "take-home exam" is not the proper name. During school, I had "homework". During university I had "projects". Definitely quite a few projects over the course of a semester.<p>And about cheating with AI. After you get hired, you're expected to use AI and only AI and if you don't tokenmax your AI consumption you're scolded and threatened and eventually fired. Whole fucking industry is about forbidding to use your brain anymore.<p>The fact that universities still insist on independent human thought just shows how hopelessly out of sync they are, stuck in the past and not able to produce the new generation of brainwashed idiots that the corporations expect.</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Tue, 18 Aug 2026 03:57:08 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49341085</link><dc:creator>MichaelRo</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49341085</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49341085</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by MichaelRo in "Star Just Ate a Planet, and It's Not Done Yet"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>>> Just don’t think about all the suffering you or I could ease with the money we spend on a “good time.”<p>Look man. I am not responsible for any random person or creature that suffers in this world. 
Lamentations like this ("ease all the suffering") originate in a primate brain that hasn't yet processed that we're no longer a tribe of 100 but there's 10 billion people in this world.
Objectively you don't have resources to help more than a few people. And morally, you aren't obligated either.<p>And btw, I actually do help a person in need, every month with a substantial amount of money. Unlike the occasional act of kindness, helping a complete stranger on a recurring basis is a much harder nut to swallow. Makes you progress really quickly from superficial platitudes like the one you said to the hard, cold reality of the fact that you're losing resources and resources are finite. And that on top of half my income that the state grabs and mostly hands out as welfare anyway. So don't tell me I'm not paying to ease suffering, want or not, I pay through my teeth.</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Fri, 10 Jul 2026 04:27:38 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48855746</link><dc:creator>MichaelRo</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48855746</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48855746</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by MichaelRo in "98% Isn't Much"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>>> But a restaurant where clients don’t get of food poisoning 98% of time is getting people sick on a monthly (or even weekly) basis.<p>Objectively, I think it's impossible to work in the food industry and avoid food poisoning 100% of the time. One of the reasons I never attempted several of my food industry business ideas. I'm certain they would be at least profitable enough to keep going, would be rather trivial to access EU subsidy money in the €50k, but the amount of regulations and inspections terrifies me. And I'm sure at some point, some salmonella or what else would slip through and don't wanna deal with the consequences.<p>Easier with programming computers since a "bug" won't make people expell waste simultaneously through both incoming and outgoing food orifices, like it happend to me last time I ordered sarmale from a local restaurant. Like in the food industry a "bug" is literally that.</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Tue, 07 Jul 2026 13:20:31 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48817398</link><dc:creator>MichaelRo</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48817398</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48817398</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by MichaelRo in "Apple's weird anti-nausea dots cured my car sickness"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>>> But sugar maybe?<p>Interesting observation back at you! :) Never thought of this but recently I started being a bit more careful with my sugar and carbs intake, after a blood test has shown an elevated level of glycated hemoglobin. Could be it's not alcohol per se but disruption of blood sugar after a binge drink, thanks for making the connection. Darn it, first no sugar, then no carbs now I have to cut down on alcohol too, getting old sucks :P</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Sun, 21 Jun 2026 02:48:21 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48615201</link><dc:creator>MichaelRo</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48615201</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48615201</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by MichaelRo in "Apple's weird anti-nausea dots cured my car sickness"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>Didn't know there's a "car sickness" strictly related to reading the phone while in transit, I knew there's those people that can barely survive riding a car but that was it.<p>I do get the "reading phone motion sickness" a couple of days after heavy drinking. The hangover has worn off but there's this weird after-effect which gradually fades over a few days until it completely disappears. At first I thought how the hell do I get car sickness until eventually correlated with reading the phone and having to stop or else.<p>Based on my manifestations being chemically-induced, wonder if that's also valid in general. Some level of Gaba or something, which is normally lower in most people, gets elevated by drinking and then (hopefully) cleared.</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Wed, 17 Jun 2026 05:35:56 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48566135</link><dc:creator>MichaelRo</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48566135</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48566135</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by MichaelRo in "Gmail registration now requires scanning a QR code and sending a text message"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>Don't have an online presence yet, will let you know when I add that.</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Tue, 12 May 2026 08:49:03 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48105802</link><dc:creator>MichaelRo</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48105802</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48105802</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by MichaelRo in "Gmail registration now requires scanning a QR code and sending a text message"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>> They've essentially gotten roped into maintaining a huge chunk of internet infrastructure, for free.<p>This argument would have flown 30 years ago with Yahoo.<p>Since then we had Uber pumping so much money into a losing business until it drew the competition bankrupt.<p>And now we have AI pumping so much money into a losing business until they hopefully replicate Uber, only won't work and signs are all over the wall that they just burned a trillion dollars.<p>Which opens great prospectives for incumbents WHO LEARN FROM THE MISTAKES of the powers be at the time.<p>About time to start a "Don't be evil. FOR REAL." This time.<p>If in 30 years it's necessary to start "Don't be evil. REALLY, REALLY, REALLY this time" then so be it.<p>I'm starting the 2.0 version. Fuck AI. Fuck incumbents. Long live long life and freedom of choice!</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Mon, 11 May 2026 20:21:37 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48100172</link><dc:creator>MichaelRo</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48100172</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48100172</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by MichaelRo in "LLMorphism: When humans come to see themselves as language models"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>Nothing new under the sun. When clocks and precision mechanics started in the 17th century, there was a tendency to view humans as "machines". Computers came, suddenly human brains are "computers". Now we're LLMs.<p>If scientists make green jelly that emits thoughtful judgements, humans will be compared to green jelly.</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Sun, 10 May 2026 11:29:59 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48083035</link><dc:creator>MichaelRo</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48083035</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48083035</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by MichaelRo in "Show HN: Countries where you can leave your MacBook at a random coffee shop"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>I had my phone fell from my pocket while in a dancing club at night. Someone found it, took it to the bartender and I got it back (saw the location on my computer using Google's find your phone).<p>But would I deliberately leave my phone or laptop unattended on the table at a random coffee shop that I know nothing about? Probably fine but not taking that risk. Also as others pointed out, context matters. A small indoor coffee shop while I visit the toilet? No problem. Large crowded outside terrace? I'm not stupid.</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Sun, 10 May 2026 06:40:44 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48081552</link><dc:creator>MichaelRo</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48081552</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48081552</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by MichaelRo in "The Rotary Un-Smartphone (2023)"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>>> Friends whose family also worked for the company were sort of privileged as a result.<p>Well to tell the full story, my father was an employee of the Agricultural Production Cooperative (CAP - Cooperativa Agricola de Productie - in Romanian), the national company who owned the land (forcibly nationalized in the 50s) and grew food. No individual would have been able to afford a private telephone line in the village, there were two of them, one to CAP one to the Post office. While it was possible to go to the post office and pay to make calls, it was more awkward getting them. So we hooked a phone to CAP's line, meaning we shared the calls with it's office, phone rang both at out home and in the office and everytime we made a call, someone in the office could pick up the phone and listen (and we could do the same with them). And of course not every employee of the company was allowed to hook up a personal phone to the company line ;)</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Sat, 02 May 2026 09:33:37 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47984869</link><dc:creator>MichaelRo</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47984869</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47984869</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by MichaelRo in "The Rotary Un-Smartphone (2023)"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>My first phone in the early 80s was a hand-cranked magneto phone like this: <a href="https://images.okr.ro/serve/product/572e8fdd848db2d3b02d36d2f5636318-2010766-235_235" rel="nofollow">https://images.okr.ro/serve/product/572e8fdd848db2d3b02d36d2...</a><p>Connected by 12Km of telephone wire to a manual switchboard where an operator would pick my call and connect wires for local or long distance: <a href="https://alexandrone.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/02/110620111116.jpg" rel="nofollow">https://alexandrone.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/02...</a><p>Yes, in the early 80s, Romania was still using 1950s technology. And with only 3 telephones in the village, it was a big deal to have one.<p>Then at the end of the 80s moved to a nearby town and was amazed at how much more convenient a rotary dial phone is.</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Fri, 01 May 2026 13:44:13 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47974742</link><dc:creator>MichaelRo</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47974742</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47974742</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by MichaelRo in "Maladaptive Frugality"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>>> I have a hard time spending, to the point where I would often procrastinate on buying things that I know I’ll need in the future.<p>Well, what I noticed is that I go to great efforts to avoid buying me some stuff that would make my life easier (say an electric bike or a better computer). Month starts, I get my paycheck and every day I fend off the desire to buy the stuff I want/need. And then come the bills. Like some surprise "regularization" gas or electricity bill that costs more than the item I didn't buy. If it's not that, some darn thing breaks and needs repairs. And if it's not that, kid has to go in some school trip, there's some birthday or wedding we have to attend, someone asks me to lend them some money (coze they know I save) or some other event happens and requires a ca$h infusion.<p>By the end of the month, money's gone and I haven't got nothing. At some point working just to pay bills and expenses makes Jack a dull boy. So funk it, I buy that stuff AT THE BEGINNING OF THE MONTH. And when shit arrives demanding money I can truthfully say: "I don't have any money left". But at least I got the thing, opposed to neither money, nor item.</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Fri, 01 May 2026 06:53:09 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47971927</link><dc:creator>MichaelRo</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47971927</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47971927</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by MichaelRo in "Simulacrum of Knowledge Work"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>>> With AI, we‘re cargo-culting understanding<p>We're cargo culting "the manager view". Like the critic you can read on Bret Devereaux's blog about Game Of Thrones having been written from an elite's point of view, it's utopian and sounds good ... for the elites, the people who benefit from the hard work they never have to do themselves. But like any elite bubble wildly disconnected from reality, this one will fall bad. Maybe French revolution bad, when the answer to the masses of unemployed "displaced" by AI screaming "we can't get a piece of bread to eat" is "let them eat cake instead".</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Sun, 26 Apr 2026 12:31:58 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47909807</link><dc:creator>MichaelRo</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47909807</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47909807</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by MichaelRo in "The quiet disappearance of the free-range childhood"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>My wife gave birth by C-section. That would have killed her up until very modern times.<p>She may theoretically birth another child but there's a substantial risk.<p>There are "physical aspects", just because it's all theoretical and principles to you doesn't make them go away.</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Mon, 20 Apr 2026 12:45:25 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47833488</link><dc:creator>MichaelRo</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47833488</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47833488</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by MichaelRo in "The quiet disappearance of the free-range childhood"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>I don't understand the "knowingly stunting the growth of your child" attack. What makes you conclude I'm stunting the growth of my child?<p>He's not chained to a tree. He goes to private school in a country where public schools are free and excellent. Visits his friends and play in the public park or the private yard. Spends vacations in the countryside unsupervised by me because unlike the city, chances of being run over by a retard driving a car are much lower. Still, I advise him not to wander around freely as I did in my childhood because the world has become much shittier. One thing, there are bears everywhere, thanks to the animal rights lobbyists. I feared dogs and bulls when wandering across countryside as a kid, now I have to add bears too for my kid.</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Mon, 20 Apr 2026 12:42:23 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47833449</link><dc:creator>MichaelRo</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47833449</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47833449</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by MichaelRo in "Archive of BYTE magazine, starting with issue #1 in 1975"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>>> But ok, you do you. Thanks for the insults jerk.<p>ROFL. Didn't you notice he's Dutch? And old (add insult to injury).<p>Expect extreme absence of delicacy from the Dutch, they simply lack that gene.<p>Then again, your comment was a complete, shameless plug of promoting your own crap, in total disregard of what the man said. Someone had to say it to you.<p>>> Also why did you bloviate so much about yourself here? Was it to make yourself seem more important? Because honestly you come off as a real asshole Merick.<p>I would bet on "I'm old and I don't care".<p>What I'm curious though is why would he sell the physical collection.</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Mon, 20 Apr 2026 12:28:31 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47833305</link><dc:creator>MichaelRo</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47833305</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47833305</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by MichaelRo in "The quiet disappearance of the free-range childhood"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>>> But there are no other kids out there. I'm sending him out into streets empty of kids.<p>This. It's a number's "game".<p>My father, born in rural Romania, had 8 siblings, one of them died of an accident in his childhood (yeah, during "free range stuff"). I was born in a town and have 2 brothers. Live in a city and have one kid.<p>I can't send my kid out carelessly because I don't have a backup.</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Sat, 18 Apr 2026 13:47:28 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47815913</link><dc:creator>MichaelRo</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47815913</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47815913</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by MichaelRo in "An AI Vibe Coding Horror Story"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>>> Software engineering is looking more and more like it needs a professional body in each country, and accreditation and standards.<p>Doesn't help much, accounting needs accreditation and standards, but that doesn't prevent competition level of some 100 accountants per job. Only way you prevent that is by limiting numbers, like lawyers do, case when connections and nepotism matter, you basically get a hereditary aristocratic caste.<p>I guess we better get used to going back being peasants working shit jobs barely above starvation since that's what the future of capitalism seems to bring: <a href="https://realityraiders.com/fringewalker/irreverent-humor/monty-python-holy-grail-constitutional-peasants/" rel="nofollow">https://realityraiders.com/fringewalker/irreverent-humor/mon...</a></p>
]]></description><pubDate>Tue, 14 Apr 2026 11:24:17 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47764146</link><dc:creator>MichaelRo</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47764146</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47764146</guid></item></channel></rss>