Hacker News: _kb

I Fixed a $500 Robot, Now You Can Control It [video]

_kb — Thu, 29 Oct 2026 00:39:00 +0000

Article URL: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jorcg0Bx3Cw

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50282930

Points: 2

# Comments: 0

New comment by _kb in "Single Propeller Drone"

_kb — Sun, 18 Oct 2026 07:23:06 +0000

Video with further detail: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ndftcft6XhU

Single Propeller Drone

_kb — Sun, 18 Oct 2026 07:23:06 +0000

Article URL: https://github.com/jyjblrd/single-propeller-drone

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50138740

Points: 2

# Comments: 2

New comment by _kb in "The Folders Programming Language"

_kb — Fri, 16 Oct 2026 08:46:50 +0000

If you enjoy that, allow me to introduce you to the displeasure of WORST and Malbolge.

https://esolangs.org/wiki/WORST https://esolangs.org/wiki/Malbolge

They’re both a truly bottomless pit of malaise.

New comment by _kb in "Jev meets the Trolley Problem"

_kb — Fri, 16 Oct 2026 04:52:01 +0000

That absurdity doesn’t need modern AI. All it takes is any statistical system that automates human interaction.

See Robodebt (Australia - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robodebt_scheme), which lead a number of people to suicide, as an example.

New comment by _kb in "`123456' password used in Danish CPR data breach"

_kb — Sat, 10 Oct 2026 10:53:10 +0000

hunter2

New comment by _kb in "Reasons to Dislike AI Coding"

_kb — Wed, 07 Oct 2026 10:18:44 +0000

Or more generally: it’s perhaps not the best idea to make the entirety of your reasoning ability dependant on something external to you. Doubly so if that’s a tool with a subscription model.

Reliability Lessons from SQLite – Richard Hipp – SSW 2026 [video]

_kb — Mon, 05 Oct 2026 11:54:01 +0000

Article URL: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V_qzqY1bb7I

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49963663

Points: 6

# Comments: 0

New comment by _kb in "How our vibe coded website looks like a designer made it"

_kb — Wed, 30 Sep 2026 03:57:28 +0000

What a jerk.

New comment by _kb in "AI companies in race to demonstrate their model most threatening to humanity"

_kb — Mon, 28 Sep 2026 12:00:19 +0000

The only thing that can stop a bad guy with a god is a good guy with a god.

New comment by _kb in "When did Google get so weird?"

_kb — Mon, 28 Sep 2026 07:56:08 +0000

You just need to partake in some strong psychedelics with the dog first.

New comment by _kb in "When did Google get so weird?"

_kb — Mon, 28 Sep 2026 03:11:10 +0000

The similar comparison I enjoy is “a golden retriever on LSD”.

If you apply the dogs on acid mental model it helps establish appropriate levels of trust.

New comment by _kb in "US criticises Australia's proposed algorithm opt-out laws as 'censorship'"

_kb — Wed, 23 Sep 2026 03:48:43 +0000

For context: personally strongly in favour of legislation that will kneecap algorithmic feeds in almost any way.

A big concern with these (and other associated laws) being pushed through is it grants the eSafety Commissioner powers to edict what’s allowed.

That position is appointed, not elected.

New comment by _kb in "Telstra outage: The night a network decided the year was 2006"

_kb — Fri, 18 Sep 2026 03:18:10 +0000

Direct link to the analysis report: https://www.telstra.com.au/content/dam/tcom/dynamic-media-pr...

New comment by _kb in "Doing Everyone Else's Job"

_kb — Thu, 17 Sep 2026 02:32:09 +0000

Similar environment, identical experience.

Fixing something that’s visibly and publicly broken (or able to be sold) gets immediate praise. Preventing that issue before it occurs is thankless and invisible.

There are people doing that invisible work in every org. They normally become visible around a week after they quit.

New comment by _kb in "Show HN: Macros with a Behringer FCB1010 MIDI Pedalboard in macOS"

_kb — Tue, 15 Sep 2026 02:51:07 +0000

This is like vim pedal (https://github.com/foxweb/vim-pedal) on steroids. I love it.

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

_kb — Mon, 14 Sep 2026 09:47:44 +0000

Nand2Tetris is great. Definitely one of, if not the, most impactful bit of education I’ve ever done it terms of knowledge imparted.

New comment by _kb in "LG denies TV spying claims, says tracking and snooping concerns 'not true'"

_kb — Sun, 13 Sep 2026 07:51:43 +0000

I've spent a fair chunk of career designing/building installed audiovisual systems. Displays devices are what terrify me most from a security perspective (and it's a low bar in that world).

They should never be network connected. Ever.

It doesn't matter if they are a domestic or commercial device.

Consider their usage in emergency response centres, situation rooms, infrastructure monitoring, meeting rooms in government offices, boardrooms at publicly listed companies, trading desks, or peoples homes as their source of news.

They have access to every pixel shown. They'll also likely have a full audio feed even if audio is passing through another system. You can have all the security control that you like on upstream systems, strong integrity guarantees, and comprehensive validation of that. This is the device where you are most open to exfil or tampering before it's shown to someone.

Even if the vendor isn't the one trying to actively exploit you they're almost universally running some form of incredibly dated, unpatched, and unhardened OS that is riddled with nightmare material vulnerabilities. Don't even put them on your IoT/untrusted network. If you need to control them, use CEC/DDC or a serial connection. Preferably unidirectional.

New comment by _kb in "Apple iPod Engraver (2019)"

_kb — Sun, 13 Sep 2026 07:28:08 +0000

That depends entirely on where you are. This is explicitly not allowed within Australian Consumer Law, for example. Impeding resale is an entirely legal and effective dark pattern this provides though.

New comment by _kb in "OpenAI agents carried out an undisclosed attack on RubyGems"

_kb — Sat, 12 Sep 2026 07:13:26 +0000

See: philosophy ~> determinism.