Hacker News: _0ffh

New comment by _0ffh in "Why Pendulum had to write the most cursed "+" operator in all of Python"

_0ffh — Wed, 07 Oct 2026 22:33:26 +0000

Funny, my logging module for Python does the same (if requested with an optional keyword argument). It fetches the call stack, removes it's own functions, replaces Python library function chains with a single [...] and prepends it to the log output (together with usual date and time).

New comment by _0ffh in "We are going to kill "unalive""

_0ffh — Tue, 06 Oct 2026 08:45:48 +0000

Quite often these advertisers are also doing this primarily to appease, or at least are triggered into action by pressure groups.

New comment by _0ffh in "We are going to kill "unalive""

_0ffh — Tue, 06 Oct 2026 08:17:43 +0000

Nobody is getting "muted or silenced by mindless, heartless algorithms"!

They are getting muted or silenced by busybodies who try to control language, and are either in a position to install these algorithms, or are part of pressure mobs that aim to influence the former.

New comment by _0ffh in "Alan Kay's answer to “Did the ENIAC have a BIOS”?"

_0ffh — Mon, 28 Sep 2026 08:16:21 +0000

Hmm, I have read contradicting accounts.

They say the term did not originate from the steam condenser. Quite the opposite, it became deprecated because of the ambiguous meaning of steam condenser.

New comment by _0ffh in "An agent used DNS to reach an external chatbot"

_0ffh — Sun, 27 Sep 2026 07:32:00 +0000

Yes. Also, while the model having a certain instruction once in it's context might count as the agent "knowing" about it, I'm almost certain that repeating those instructions - especially right at the position in the context where it counts - should almost certainly make a difference. Of course I can't know how much of a difference exactly, but that's what experiments are for.

New comment by _0ffh in "An agent used DNS to reach an external chatbot"

_0ffh — Sun, 27 Sep 2026 07:25:28 +0000

I think this is a really excellent idea!

I'm almost sure that should at least lower the inclination of the model to try and "fix" the access problem, and I want to see this implemented and systematically evaluated.

I wish I could highlight this more than just with a vote and a reply, but I'll just have to be content with doing what I can here.

New comment by _0ffh in "Why Backprop Goes Backward (2018)"

_0ffh — Mon, 21 Sep 2026 12:10:15 +0000

True, though the timeline was more the other way around. Error backprop was used as a method for training before using AD to automate the implementation work became the norm. Previously you had to write the backward pass by hand, now we use AD to derive it from the forward pass.

New comment by _0ffh in "Deterministic Core, Non-Deterministic Shell"

_0ffh — Mon, 21 Sep 2026 08:52:49 +0000

Easily circumvented: Generate a random seed in the shell and pass it to the core.

New comment by _0ffh in "GLM Built Its Own Inference Infrastructure"

_0ffh — Thu, 17 Sep 2026 11:11:12 +0000

Well, there's essentially two major ways to use these models: Pair programming or fully autonomous fire-and-forget code generation. The second strategy needs essentially zero input, so the number of tokens you can blow is practically only limited by API speed.

New comment by _0ffh in "Why LLMs keep failing their Big Five personality tests"

_0ffh — Mon, 31 Aug 2026 20:37:07 +0000

Arrogant, pseudo-intellectual drivel.

New comment by _0ffh in "The Harness Is the Thing"

_0ffh — Thu, 27 Aug 2026 12:53:02 +0000

That's what I though. I've got a harness that uses landlock. Might not be perfect, but should be good enough for almost all cases.

New comment by _0ffh in "RISC-V: They Should Have Known Better"

_0ffh — Sat, 15 Aug 2026 19:44:17 +0000

Inadvertent touching is fixable, ARM for example did it with the S bit (though on AArch64 it's slightly more complicated).

I regard it as a mistake of RISC-V. The flag register was invented for good reasons, and dropping it is a trade-off I personally do not think is worth the downside.

New comment by _0ffh in "RISC-V: They Should Have Known Better"

_0ffh — Sat, 15 Aug 2026 17:22:41 +0000

>absolute distain for flag registers

It's worst aspect maybe.

New comment by _0ffh in "The Dunning-Kruger effect may just be a data artefact (2020)"

_0ffh — Tue, 04 Aug 2026 00:16:44 +0000

Damn, I remember I worked through the whole damn thing some years ago when I read this article for the first time, and it didn't hold up to it's claim. I was actually contemplating to do a write-up, but it wasn't really important to me so I didn't. Seeing the same article re-appear on HN for the second time now I really wish that I did. Unfortunately I've forgotten the details by now.

New comment by _0ffh in "Why we write our own C and C++ inference engines"

_0ffh — Mon, 03 Aug 2026 14:13:58 +0000

In "biometrics that match insightface bit for bit" - the "bit for bit" thing is also something I have encountered more than once.

New comment by _0ffh in "Don't be a meat proxy"

_0ffh — Mon, 03 Aug 2026 07:27:07 +0000

Yes, stupid and lazy people will be stupid and lazy.

AI is just another tool they can use to be stupid and lazy while pretending to contribute.

New comment by _0ffh in "Nerd culture is murdering intellectuals"

_0ffh — Sun, 02 Aug 2026 08:28:05 +0000

Could have been put in a few short sentences, most of which would be wrong.

New comment by _0ffh in "RamenHaus"

_0ffh — Sat, 01 Aug 2026 18:01:40 +0000

I know chashu is the pork, but I don't remember the broth type. Sure it wasn't miso, I think maybe salt or soy sauce type.

New comment by _0ffh in "RamenHaus"

_0ffh — Sat, 01 Aug 2026 10:44:07 +0000

I've been to Japan - the first cheap buy-and-nuke-at-home ramen from the konbini around the corner I ate there completely blew me away (†)! It was decisively better than what I would realistically expect to get in a restaurant in the west. I don't know how they do it, but I learned never to underestimate the Japanese people’s dedication to their craft.

(†) For the curious, it was chāshū ramen.

Edit: To avoid confusion, I do not mean instant ramen, but a plastic bowl of chilled, pre-prepared take away ramen soup.

New comment by _0ffh in "AI's top startups are barely publishing their research"

_0ffh — Thu, 30 Jul 2026 10:36:42 +0000

I don't see that, where do you read that?

Also, what kind of papers do they publish at all?

When I look at the recently (say, last 1-2 years) published practical improvements in the LM space, they're not even close to what the Chinese are publishing.