Hacker News: NishanStepak

New comment by NishanStepak in "Ask HN: What's the AI Revolution "Model T Ford"?"

NishanStepak — Fri, 14 Aug 2026 23:11:30 +0000

Bill Gates is invested in Terrapower which is Natrium nuclear reactors. He is also invested in Commonwealth Fusion. Nvidia and Google are also invested in Commonwealth Fusion. Sam Altman is invested in Helion Energy. Helion Energy broke ground on a planned fusion reactor. https://www.cleanenergyexcellence.org/helion-breaks-ground-o... Tech has been quietly investing heavily in fusion, nuclear, wind and solar power. There has been a lot of research lately in how to use AI to stabilize plasma. https://www.energy.gov/science/fes/articles/ai-tackles-disru... I would invest but it is way more money than I have.

New comment by NishanStepak in "Ask HN: Do you know how much head hunters cost?"

NishanStepak — Fri, 14 Aug 2026 23:03:06 +0000

Create an employee referral program for hires, it can be cheaper and more reliable than recruiters in the private sector.

New comment by NishanStepak in "Ask HN: What browser do you use?"

NishanStepak — Fri, 14 Aug 2026 15:16:01 +0000

I use multiple browsers depending on what I am doing. I have four browsers at home Firefox, Microsoft Edge, Chrome, and Comet which is an AI Browser. They all have their different uses.

New comment by NishanStepak in "Ask HN: New Reddit also requiring login?"

NishanStepak — Fri, 14 Aug 2026 00:04:27 +0000

You might want to add a projects section. Both Metafilter and Hackernews have it.

New comment by NishanStepak in "Ask HN: How can you tell a site/app is vibe coded?"

NishanStepak — Fri, 14 Aug 2026 00:02:08 +0000

It matters because AI produced material cannot be copyrighted. You need to be able to prove there are significant human edits to protect intellectual property.

New comment by NishanStepak in "Ask HN: How are you finding the job market in 2026?"

NishanStepak — Thu, 13 Aug 2026 00:50:56 +0000

I find myself in a strange position. I have the option of retiring from the New York State Retirement System. I can take early retirement. There is a rule which says that I can take a full time job and collect a pension if it is not part of the system. I am finding it nearly impossible to find anything that is not part of the system right now. I got a bunch of minor certifications, but I am finding that my profession is contracting right now. I look at the positions that are listed and they are very technical, often with advanced skills. They are also seem to be constantly relisted every few months. They get filled and three months later they are relisted. I don't know if they are expecting magical unicorns to fill the positions.

I also go to meetups and see there are a lot of people starting businesses or startups. The barrier to entry is dropping for business, there are a lot of people with lots of experience who are starting because there are very few regular jobs being listed. They are also advertising themselves as consultants. Some of the people I talk to are extremely experienced. The barrier for finding a job is very high. I can sit and watch things because I have patience and can wait for the right opportunity. They way things are going, it could take a few years.

New comment by NishanStepak in "Ask HN: How's Everyone Feeling Today?"

NishanStepak — Wed, 12 Aug 2026 20:53:37 +0000

Relaxed and full after a nice cup of iced ovaltine.

New comment by NishanStepak in "Ask HN: How do you learn with LLMs?"

NishanStepak — Tue, 11 Aug 2026 23:28:48 +0000

I have done a variety of projects with LLMs. This incldues looking up articles on AI and libraries, then checking their quality. It also includes learning vibe coding, by doing it. I learned to write my prompts first in the free engines like Claude and Gemini, then put the prompts into the paid engine I am using. I also learned how the audit tools work in Claude, Gemini, and Replit to make the application I am working on more stable. One engine can be used to check another. I also have learned how to use Claude and Gemini to fix Windows 11 problems, they have pretty solid basic PC support information. You can use the phone if your computer is not working to troubleshoot with AI.

New comment by NishanStepak in "Production Imminent: 40 Solar-Charging Aptera EVs Coming Soon"

NishanStepak — Sun, 09 Aug 2026 20:08:46 +0000

Maybe for local transport. Looks perfect for golf courses, industrial sites, parks, malls with a need for a car to move around in a confined space. The kind of thing where you need to manage a site.

New comment by NishanStepak in "A permanent freezing in of wealth is just one of many possible ASI scenarios"

NishanStepak — Sun, 09 Aug 2026 20:01:26 +0000

There is no permanent freezing because wealth can be generated with energy. This is point of bitcoin, the more energy and compute you have the more wealth you can generate. If there was a caveat to this, it is the rep rap printer, which says raw materials (garbage or stuff that is good that can be used to make things), compute, and energy creates wealth in terms of material production. There is a conflict right now between generating wealth via energy versus generating wealth via debt (the traditional method).

New comment by NishanStepak in "Ask HN: What paid tools have you now replaced with personalized AI-coded tools?"

NishanStepak — Thu, 06 Aug 2026 00:54:53 +0000

I don't actively seek out AI coded tools. I continue what I am doing because AI is now added to almost everything. A good example is Overdrive which is a library ebook app. It has added more AI. Also, search engines like Google, AI is added automatically. Eventually the tools get added. Your refrigerator if it has the internet of things is probably a fusion tool with AI. Excel has Microsoft Copilot 365 now.

New comment by NishanStepak in "AI's Arctic Land Grab"

NishanStepak — Wed, 05 Aug 2026 09:32:46 +0000

AI's Arctic Land Grab. There has been a lot of recent data center construction in the Arctic.

AI's Arctic Land Grab

NishanStepak — Wed, 05 Aug 2026 09:32:46 +0000

Article URL: https://www.arctictoday.com/ai-arctic-land-grab/

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49180508

Points: 4

# Comments: 1

New comment by NishanStepak in "Wind and solar overtake fossil fuels in Germany for the first time"

NishanStepak — Tue, 04 Aug 2026 17:23:32 +0000

You are correct Polar Night is in Finland. Denmark is working on molten salt batteries. https://www.warpnews.org/energy/denmarks-first-molten-salt-b...

New comment by NishanStepak in "Wind and solar overtake fossil fuels in Germany for the first time"

NishanStepak — Mon, 03 Aug 2026 16:45:06 +0000

Part of this is about a new way to store energy. In the Netherlands, they have started storing heat energy with sand, in Germany, they are using bricks. This has some advantages. It allows the direct use of heat for industrial processes and heating industrial and commercial facilities. They can either convert energy into electricity or use the heat directly. This technology can be used with a wide variety of energy sources. This includes nuclear because it allows thermal storage of excess heat from nuclear energy. This kind of setup is supposed to be more stable for the grid and more reliable for storing energy.

New comment by NishanStepak in "Ask HN: What are the viable alternatives to DuckDuckGo?"

NishanStepak — Mon, 03 Aug 2026 15:39:54 +0000

I had a little money invested in Presearch through Wefunder, but it went bust a few days ago. I thought it was interesting. Maybe someone can buy out the technology.

New comment by NishanStepak in "Ask HN: What are you working on? (August 2026)"

NishanStepak — Mon, 03 Aug 2026 15:34:48 +0000

I continue working on Babel Nexus https://babelnexus.com Explore classic books and big ideas in a whole new way — a discovery system for the public domain. A three-floor knowledge graph: 21 science hexagonal galleries on Level I, 23 literature hexagonal galleries on Level II, and 8 wisdom hexagonal galleries on Level III — 52 hexagonal galleries holding 773 primary works (books, papers, and reports, every one in the public domain), plus an AI Oracle (powered by Google Gemini) that answers free-form questions about the Archive. I have added public domain audiobooks to some of the titles, worked on my first AI created youtube video, added some testimonials, and learned quite a bit more. I have a lot more to do. The project could keep going for a long time with a lot more titles and content. I can add public domain films, public domain comics and other public domain media to existing records. My coding is not great, but the idea at this point has become a proof concept and is moving towards something viable even though it is vibe coded.

New comment by NishanStepak in "Ask HN: Have LLMs Plateaued?"

NishanStepak — Mon, 03 Aug 2026 15:22:47 +0000

In terms of the amount of information in the current LLMs, I think the largest is 5.6 trillion bytes of memory, it is miniscule to what is actually out there. There are over 13 zettabytes of information on the internet. Part of the capacity is about absorbing information. It has a lot further to go. If there are emergent properties with additional knowledge in LLMs, it is scratching the surface. I wonder what will happen with zettabyte computing.

New comment by NishanStepak in "Ask HN: What did you learn last month? (July 2026)"

NishanStepak — Sun, 02 Aug 2026 14:31:41 +0000

I spent some time learning about healthspan, how to stay healthy as you age. It is something which I have had an interest in for a long time. I am focusing on staying ten years ahead with my health.

New comment by NishanStepak in "Ask HN: How are you using AI to learn?"

NishanStepak — Sun, 02 Aug 2026 13:54:18 +0000

I am building a vibe coding project. As part of the project, I am reading books on each step of the process. This means first reading on how artificial intelligence works, then reading about how to vibe code, then about how prompting works, how context engineering works, how AI project management works, how basic machine language works. Then project advances, I am learning about how to market SAAS, learning how SEO and GEO work. Before this I took classes from the Verizon Skill Forward program which is free to anyone older than 17 in the United States, https://www.verizon.com/about/responsibility/human-prosperit... It covers many classes and certifications in EdX which is an online training program. I am using AI to apply what I am reading. Things like joining Github, and joining other places related to what I am reading or taking classes on. Through my library I also have access to LinkedIn training, so I am applying what I am learning through AI. This includes things like using AI for basic investing and other things. You can test anything you learn about AI with AI. There are a ton of new books on AI. I like the ones from O'Reilly Media, and the For Dummies books by Wiley give just enough content to learn a little bit.