Hacker News: _DeadFred_

New comment by _DeadFred_ in "Diesel Margins Top $100 a Barrel to Reach Record High as Supply Crunch Grows"

_DeadFred_ — Wed, 19 Aug 2026 14:38:31 +0000

No, that is why you vote for the person who isn't the fascist. But that was too much to ask in the last election. Just not voting for the fascist isn't enough. You need to support/improve/give energy to the alternative. Instead too many chose to just not vote for the better alternative and now here we are.

New comment by _DeadFred_ in "I used to be excited about new tech, but I rarely am anymore"

_DeadFred_ — Wed, 19 Aug 2026 14:34:15 +0000

Telling that op didn't respond to this simple question.

New comment by _DeadFred_ in "First human trials of designer protein therapies stun US neuroscientists"

_DeadFred_ — Wed, 19 Aug 2026 05:13:34 +0000

You bring up murder and atrocities in order to.... just wave away murder and atrocities? Gross. Keep sweeping for horror.

New comment by _DeadFred_ in "As Wisconsin cities flee Flock, its shared camera network loses value"

_DeadFred_ — Tue, 18 Aug 2026 14:33:20 +0000

Bob is the town mayor. The police want XYZ. The police request from flock a detail breakdown of everywhere that Bob went in the last 5 years (this example is after flock has been around a while) and then feeds that into AI looking for patterns. The police find a mistress. The police now get everything they want for the rest of mayor Bob's term.

New comment by _DeadFred_ in "As Wisconsin cities flee Flock, its shared camera network loses value"

_DeadFred_ — Tue, 18 Aug 2026 14:27:52 +0000

This has always been how the dystopian sci-fi future works. If you can get just get to 'the zone' you are outside the big brother tracking.

It's also why a big brother system will always become full on/more and more big brother, because it needs to suck up and remove all the dead ends.

New comment by _DeadFred_ in "Google has acquired the data of failed US airline Spirit"

_DeadFred_ — Tue, 18 Aug 2026 14:20:10 +0000

In the United States legal system, when you take a plea because the Government was threaning you with a 20 year sentence the judge requires in court and under oath for you to state that you were not coerced/pressured in any way to take the plea (because pleas wouldn't be valid if the Government pressured you into them and into signing away your rights).

Before you push back at your work you have to consider possible loss of work and therefore housing/medical insurance/food.

The entire US system is designed around baked in blackmail of the individual into conforming. Not surprising at all to see the airline turn the no fly list into that pressure, it's the main technique we know to motivate people in the USA.

New comment by _DeadFred_ in "The Iran War Is a Whole New Level of Quagmire for the US"

_DeadFred_ — Sun, 16 Aug 2026 15:00:37 +0000

Look at the quality of discussion here. It's all just 'America is dead/dying'. Nothing of note. No talking about the crazy inflation in Iran, the government officials discussions on how they can't afford replacing their naval routes with land routes. The current distress in Iran about raising the subsidized gas prices, and how Iran is using more gas than they are creating/importing. No awareness/comparison/context of understanding of Vietnam and it's much greater impact on the Nation/it's understanding of self/understand of it's ability to project power.

These is zero serious discussion on HN Iran threads, and anyone that posts not in line gets voted dead so just gave up on posting to them yet the people that complain about topics getting flagged dead never once complain when an entire view/side/political thought just get's voted dead instead of discussed nor raise the quality level of the discussion to make it no longer flag worthy.

This thread's content/quality level totally 100% deserves to be flagged.

New comment by _DeadFred_ in "The Iran War Is a Whole New Level of Quagmire for the US"

_DeadFred_ — Sun, 16 Aug 2026 14:41:38 +0000

Did you miss the 1970s and the impact of Vietnam (that lasted through to the 90s for that generation)? The malaise about American from the 70s through the 80s? The corporate raiders of the 80s and the destruction of so many Americans lives in that period? The rust belt? Many many Americans of older generations losing their pensions because of Wall Street firms bs destruction of companies? The brain drain from the majority of the US into a few metro areas?

These are all things huge parts of the USA has dealt with for generations at this point.

New comment by _DeadFred_ in "First human trials of designer protein therapies stun US neuroscientists"

_DeadFred_ — Sun, 16 Aug 2026 00:21:21 +0000

What? Tiananmen Square was not more benevolent. When I worked in the bay area we had a ton of Chinese Americans who happened to be college students when Tiananmen happened who then stayed instead of going home. Do you people no longer work with them? Never talk to them? What is going on.

Also

https://www.google.com/search?q=china+execution+van

is pure dystipia.

New comment by _DeadFred_ in "First human trials of designer protein therapies stun US neuroscientists"

_DeadFred_ — Sun, 16 Aug 2026 00:19:00 +0000

So much better https://www.google.com/search?q=china+execution+van

New comment by _DeadFred_ in "Deutsche Bank becomes first foreign yuan clearing bank in Europe"

_DeadFred_ — Thu, 13 Aug 2026 14:19:55 +0000

But China is already in decline before reaching this ascendancy.

I think new models will result in new structures, not just a switch from the US to China.

New comment by _DeadFred_ in "Woman pulled over twice after Flock-linked software connected her to homicide"

_DeadFred_ — Wed, 12 Aug 2026 14:37:53 +0000

As sophacles put it so well:

"Flock amplifies existing bugs. Sounds like Flock is the error."

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49262204

New comment by _DeadFred_ in "Woman pulled over twice after Flock-linked software connected her to homicide"

_DeadFred_ — Wed, 12 Aug 2026 14:36:27 +0000

http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49262204

"Flock amplifies existing bugs. Sounds like Flock is the error."

New comment by _DeadFred_ in "As AI eats the web, the internet’s collective memory is disappearing"

_DeadFred_ — Tue, 11 Aug 2026 13:46:38 +0000

No, cheap books came from the invention of cheap printing. But the quality of works was going down because printers were just printing with zero copyright protections. Copyright is what brought the wealth of works worth reading that were then printed using cheap printing. If the only money is in private works for private libraries, that is where the quality stuff is going to go.

Making the avenue of creating for the average person also the avenue for the most income was huge in creating our modern literature landscape.

New comment by _DeadFred_ in "As AI eats the web, the internet’s collective memory is disappearing"

_DeadFred_ — Tue, 11 Aug 2026 13:45:32 +0000

Disagree. The printing machine was killing the industry allowing copies where people earned nothing. Copyright was created to ensure quality works existed to be copied.

New comment by _DeadFred_ in "As AI eats the web, the internet’s collective memory is disappearing"

_DeadFred_ — Tue, 11 Aug 2026 02:02:00 +0000

Actually no. The original copyright laws were created in part because of the realities of needed profit motive to have high value writing done, time consuming compilation work done. It was even titled "An Act for the Encouragement of Learning". The thousands of years writing you are talking about was often funded by patrons, who kept the output in their private libraries to show off (and maybe lend out) for prestige. It was a horrible limitation of knowledge and ideas. Much worse than the profit motive, copyright based system that came after that spawned a new age of knowledge in which everyone had cheap access, and those that didn't had access to the (no longer just private) libraries.

I'm sure the billionaire class would love a return to patronage based libraries, NDAs on authors of books, and the elitism they would feel with a return to private libraries locking away all kinds of knowledge that would happen if patronage become the only way authors could make money (such as with AI just regurgitating their works, or if the stupid 'do away with copyright' people got their way).

New comment by _DeadFred_ in "Georgia police officers fired after Flock camera misuse"

_DeadFred_ — Mon, 10 Aug 2026 14:47:56 +0000

One California town found Flock's license plate cameras were wrong 71% of the time

https://www.techdirt.com/2026/08/06/california-town-says-flo...

New comment by _DeadFred_ in "Poland now 6th-largest EU economy, ahead of Switzerland and Belgium"

_DeadFred_ — Mon, 10 Aug 2026 14:47:07 +0000

Bankruptcies normally impact whole families. So 530,000 bankruptcies could easily be 4,000,000 people impacted, per year. Over the last 20 years that is over 20% of the population.

New comment by _DeadFred_ in "Why do we assume everyone should be working?"

_DeadFred_ — Mon, 10 Aug 2026 14:37:59 +0000

This was tried and we ended up with intellectual property rights because encouraging the creation of works was more important than having zero/poor quality works but a free for all.

New comment by _DeadFred_ in "Poland now 6th-largest EU economy, ahead of Switzerland and Belgium"

_DeadFred_ — Mon, 10 Aug 2026 03:42:24 +0000

Yeah, us American's don't even want lower Childbirth mortality, longer lifespan-healthspan, lower murder rates, paid vacations, lower worked hours per year, job security, etc. Those things are just for crappy countries.

You sure defended the heck out of our big, beautiful, great again, rapidly declining shit sandwich. Not sure the euros will buy it (it's a shit sandwich after all) but we can feel less bad about our declining numbers/values/social contract. All we need is this lamp. And that's it. And this deck of cards. But that's all we need. We don't need those other things. And this, this paddle game. This lamp, and this deck of card, and this paddle game. That's all we need. None of those other things listed. We don't need none of that. What do you think we Americans are, some kind of jerk or something?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4VbI5zcB8Ac