Hacker News: Silamoth

New comment by Silamoth in "Akse3D – open-source 3D modelling anyone can master"

Silamoth — Fri, 19 Jun 2026 20:10:47 +0000

Not the person you were responding to, but genuine question: How are you interacting with computers without practically ever using a mouse? And how do you expect to use CAD software without a mouse?

New comment by Silamoth in "Only 16 Percent of Americans Think AI Will Have a Positive Impact on Society"

Silamoth — Wed, 17 Jun 2026 19:39:42 +0000

Do they? And if so, by choice?

I don’t like “AI”, and I don’t use it. I read lots of stories where people are forced to use it at work but don’t use it otherwise. Do you know of people who don’t think “AI” will have a positive impact on society but still choose to use it?

New comment by Silamoth in "Fox to buy Roku"

Silamoth — Mon, 15 Jun 2026 17:54:48 +0000

That’s a pretty naive model of how laws get passed in the US. A lot of laws would be different if your model held true.

New comment by Silamoth in "Removing 'um' from a recording is harder than it sounds"

Silamoth — Fri, 12 Jun 2026 17:38:05 +0000

Regardless of American vs. British spellings, those are not the same sound. Some British people may pronounce them the same. Americans definitely pronounce them differently, though. For instance, the word “water” has a hard “r” sound at the end; Americans don’t pronounce it “watuh” like some British people do.

New comment by Silamoth in "Reading for pleasure is sharply down among schoolkids, report shows"

Silamoth — Fri, 12 Jun 2026 15:17:33 +0000

This should be entirely non-controversial. Listening is much more passive. You can zone out more easily without re-reading. You don’t have to work your brain to figure out pacing or anything like that.

I think the only people who claim audiobooks are the same as actual reading are people who have never bothered to do much actual reading.

New comment by Silamoth in "RIP software hackathons. Long live the hardware hackathon"

Silamoth — Wed, 10 Jun 2026 18:40:14 +0000

I had a similar experience in my undergrad software engineering course. One group literally took a JS facial recognition library and wrapped a halfway decent UI around it. That’s it, that was their entire project. But the grad student teaching the class and a lot of the other students were very impressed.

New comment by Silamoth in "RIP software hackathons. Long live the hardware hackathon"

Silamoth — Wed, 10 Jun 2026 18:11:11 +0000

Hackathons are about making and finishing something. That’s the whole premise: Instead of spending months working on a personal project that goes nowhere, give yourself a time constraint so you’re forced to finish something. Now you have something concrete to put on your portfolio (even if it’s still a proof-of-concept) - plus you’ve probably learned a lot.

Setting up config files for a tool is not making something. That’s like if I spent hours setting up my IDE, build processes, a CI/CD pipeline, and even unit tests. That might be cool and enhance my productivity down the line. But I still haven’t made anything.

New comment by Silamoth in "RIP software hackathons. Long live the hardware hackathon"

Silamoth — Wed, 10 Jun 2026 18:05:17 +0000

I’m all for hardware hackathons. But I think there’s still a place for software hackathons: Just don’t use LLMs. Generating an entire application with LLMs kinda defeats the point of a hackathon to begin with. It’s supposed to be about showing you can make something in a short time frame. It’s supposed to be about exploring and learning new areas with no long-term commitment. It’s supposed to let you develop your skills and build your portfolio; the time constraint forces you to actually finish something.

I can’t imagine going to a hackathon just to not write any code and outsource it all to an LLM. I wonder if any hackathons ban LLMs?

New comment by Silamoth in "Vibe coding my way to a healthy family: Introducing Gamow Labs"

Silamoth — Wed, 10 Jun 2026 13:55:42 +0000

If a couple gives birth to a baby with a debilitating condition and dies after 6 weeks, that’s an additional baby death. If instead of having that baby, a couple gives birth to a healthy baby, it will likely survive into adulthood, meaning there’s one less baby death.

It sounds like you just take issue with abortion. That’s more of a you problem than a problem with quantifying baby deaths.

New comment by Silamoth in "I'm skeptical about efforts to revolutionize schooling"

Silamoth — Fri, 05 Jun 2026 14:31:49 +0000

Did you read TFA? It explicitly mentions Bloom’s 2 sigma problem. The best quality education, based on the data, is private tutoring with mastery learning. That is unaffordable for most. Nothing about the data indicates that “ideology and politics” are having a negative effect on education.

New comment by Silamoth in "I'm skeptical about efforts to revolutionize schooling"

Silamoth — Fri, 05 Jun 2026 14:20:31 +0000

MGTOW nonsense most certainly is not the common mode of operation for young men. Where are you getting this idea?

New comment by Silamoth in "Mathematicians issue warning as AI rapidly gains ground"

Silamoth — Wed, 03 Jun 2026 19:41:59 +0000

It’s a sad state of affairs when so many think math is about “rote memorizing formulas and rules like a robot”. That’s how math is taught through freshman or sophomore material for a somewhat ‘general’ audience. But real math is nothing like that - it requires far more creativity. You need to discover formulas and rules. You invent new rules and see what the consequences are. This all requires a great deal of creativity. Nothing “rote” about it.

If you don’t believe me, crack open a text on something like graph theory (that’s pretty accessible, and if you’re a programmer, you’re familiar with graphs) and read through some proofs. Or better yet, try to prove some theorems yourself. No amount of rote memorization of formulas or rules will replace the creativity needed to write these proofs. Doubly so for discovering the facts in the first place.

New comment by Silamoth in "If AI data centers are so great, why are they being built in secret?"

Silamoth — Wed, 03 Jun 2026 18:16:23 +0000

Much of the US is in a drought. While we can generate plenty of electricity, doing so with outdated fossils fuels and ‘natural gases’ introduces a lot of pollution that harms people and the environment. We need to be careful about making these decisions.

But that’s really the problem - “we” don’t get any say in these decisions. A bunch of corrupt politicians and rich oligarchs make these decisions that screw over the rest of us.

And yes, for the record, I’m not uniquely against “AI” data centers. I’m opposed to a lot of other environmentally harmful and wasteful developments. They don’t get hyped up like “AI” does, though.

New comment by Silamoth in "If AI data centers are so great, why are they being built in secret?"

Silamoth — Wed, 03 Jun 2026 18:11:37 +0000

You say that like environmentalists support those things. We don’t. We regularly criticize golf courses as a waste of water and land. We regularly call out the water waste and ecosystem impact of manicured, uniform lawns.

New comment by Silamoth in "YouTube to automatically label AI-generated videos"

Silamoth — Thu, 28 May 2026 13:28:24 +0000

I promise most people don’t care enough about you to spread rumors that paint you in a nasty light. If someone is doing that, you need to hang out with a new crowd and make some new friends. But most people have too much going on to care about you not being “normal”, if they even recognize your existence.

New comment by Silamoth in "The Forgotten Art of the LAN Party (2023)"

Silamoth — Wed, 27 May 2026 18:00:06 +0000

Nothing about this screamed AI slop to me. What makes you think it’s AI slop?

New comment by Silamoth in "An OpenAI model has disproved a central conjecture in discrete geometry"

Silamoth — Wed, 20 May 2026 23:46:03 +0000

The problem, I’m a picky eater. I never order something that simple. I always need it with “No X” or “Only Y”. Cashiers often struggle with that, even if they understand me well (which they don’t always). It’s easier for me to see everything an item comes with and make sure I’m entering my order correctly.

New comment by Silamoth in "An OpenAI model has disproved a central conjecture in discrete geometry"

Silamoth — Wed, 20 May 2026 22:49:44 +0000

Glad someone else feels the same way! Knowing that I enter my order in correctly is the biggest win there for me as a picky eater. The cashier is just entering it into a computer anyways, so it makes sense for me to enter it in myself. I honestly wonder why more restaurants don’t do this. It’s not that hard to wrap a halfway decent UI around the system you already have.

New comment by Silamoth in "An OpenAI model has disproved a central conjecture in discrete geometry"

Silamoth — Wed, 20 May 2026 22:15:02 +0000

Hmm. I’ve never really had those issues. It’s also much faster and easier than ordering with a human. I guess it does try to upsell you, but humans often do, too. And to me, it’s worth it to just click “No” in exchange for the added convenience (mostly in getting my order right).

I have had them run out of receipts, but it’s never mattered for me. If I’m dining in, the plastic number you carry to your table makes sure I get my food. And if I’m taking it to-go, they always find me anyways.

New comment by Silamoth in "An OpenAI model has disproved a central conjecture in discrete geometry"

Silamoth — Wed, 20 May 2026 20:23:19 +0000

Out of curiosity, what issue did you have with the McDonald’s self-order kiosk? I actually think McDonald’s has the best kiosk I’ve ever encountered. The little animation that plays when you add an item to your cart is a little annoying (but I think they’ve sped that up). But otherwise, it’s everything I’d want. It shows you all the items, tells you every ingredient, and lets you add or remove ingredients. I have a better experience ordering through the kiosk than I do talking to a cashier.