Hacker News: _moof

New comment by _moof in "US citizen charged after GrapheneOS phone wipes during airport search"

_moof — Tue, 28 Jul 2026 00:16:05 +0000

Turns out immigration in other countries isn't a cakewalk either.

New comment by _moof in "Kill The Cookie Banner"

_moof — Mon, 27 Jul 2026 00:20:20 +0000

And in a truly twisted move, ad tech companies were also using Do Not Track as part of browser fingerprinting.

This industry is a paperclip maximizer, and it needs to be dealt with accordingly.

New comment by _moof in "Humans haven't stopped evolving"

_moof — Sun, 26 Jul 2026 05:26:43 +0000

I can't find the source now but an idea that really stuck with me is that evolution happens on the margins. If a 0.0001% increase in the height of a giraffe makes it 0.0001% more likely that the giraffe will survive and reproduce, then in 1 million years giraffes as a species will become taller.

As for humans: I mean, duh? The selective pressures faced by humans have changed radically in the time we've been around.

New comment by _moof in "Humans haven't stopped evolving"

_moof — Sun, 26 Jul 2026 05:19:29 +0000

Because that isn't what evolution does. Evolution is the process whereby traits that make reproduction more likely under selective pressures become more common. There is nothing in that process that necessarily implies a lack of harm to each other or the environment.

New comment by _moof in "Punch yourself in the face with reality"

_moof — Tue, 14 Jul 2026 18:04:15 +0000

No, they're actually the same thing: making an honest assessment of reality. In the first case you're doing so to prevent self-delusion. In the second you're doing so to prevent others from clouding your judgment.

New comment by _moof in "Men's average testosterone levels have halved in last 50 years"

_moof — Tue, 07 Jul 2026 22:15:22 +0000

> testosterone is linked to social status and mental well being

As well as a zillion other things. And "linked" in which direction?

New comment by _moof in "Space Shuttle Endeavour's 20-story vertical display"

_moof — Mon, 29 Jun 2026 04:51:27 +0000

There's a series of platforms where you can see it from progressively higher vantage points.

New comment by _moof in "Satellite reveals immense scale of GPS signal tampering"

_moof — Sat, 20 Jun 2026 08:43:15 +0000

> Before this, everybody in the industry thought GPS solved the aerial navigation problem.

Many people in industry believed this but no one with a brain ever did. The vulnerability of GPS has been cause for concern for a long time, and the decimation of the VOR network has always had a lot of people up in arms.

New comment by _moof in "United Airlines 767 returns to Newark after Bluetooth name sparks alert"

_moof — Mon, 01 Jun 2026 18:07:47 +0000

I'm well aware of the law. I was a full-time flight instructor for years, and the relevant regulation is the first one I taught when introducing students to the regs.

But I'm not talking about whether the captain has final responsibility and authority for the operation of the aircraft.

I'm talking about whether it's sane to escalate directly from something that is very much not an explicit threat of violence, to involving people whose primary tools are suspension of physical liberty and acts of violence.

(Also, please note: that rule says two things. The captain has final authority, yes, but they are also responsible for the choices they make. It's not a free pass to do anything they want for any reason.)

New comment by _moof in "United Airlines 767 returns to Newark after Bluetooth name sparks alert"

_moof — Mon, 01 Jun 2026 04:10:15 +0000

> Actually, I don't think it's a good idea to bring your politics into a an enclosed pace like this where people are forced to be a captive audience, notwithstanding that I agree with theparticular sentiment expressed.

That is a very, very, very different statement than "I'm calling the FBI."

You're talking about should or shouldn't. The issue here is past that point: whether it's then right to involve people who are empowered to take away your physical liberty, and worse.

New comment by _moof in "Blue Origin's New Glenn blows up during static fire test"

_moof — Fri, 29 May 2026 10:48:34 +0000

Sorry, no, I've worked on multiple launch vehicles and "full duration" doesn't mean anything consistent to anyone actually working on rockets.

New comment by _moof in "Blue Origin's New Glenn blows up during static fire test"

_moof — Fri, 29 May 2026 05:40:30 +0000

From the industry: I would expect to hear "mission duty cycle" in that case. "Full duration" doesn't have a consistent meaning (a fact which is sometimes used to the marketing team's advantage).

New comment by _moof in "Blue Origin's New Glenn blows up during static fire test"

_moof — Fri, 29 May 2026 03:24:07 +0000

They blew up LC-36.

New comment by _moof in "Blue Origin's New Glenn blows up during static fire test"

_moof — Fri, 29 May 2026 03:18:35 +0000

> TNT equivalent is defined as 4.2 MJ/kg.

It isn't this simple for liquid oxygen and methane mixtures, and there's a great deal of disagreement between industry and regulators over what the right percentage of TNT equivalence is. Naturally, industry thinks the percentage is low, and regulators are skeptical, so there's a government-run test campaign going on as we speak to collect data for proper modeling.

New comment by _moof in "Can we have the day off?"

_moof — Thu, 28 May 2026 03:52:58 +0000

So, are you getting your share of the surplus or not?

And what exactly does it mean to "compete"?

New comment by _moof in "Can we have the day off?"

_moof — Thu, 28 May 2026 02:28:06 +0000

Whenever a new way is found to improve efficiency, choices have to be made about how to distribute the new surplus.

Choices are made by people who have power and imposed upon people who don't.

The people with power under current systems don't care about the people who do the work. They care about getting rich. So if there's an efficiency gain to be had, all of that new efficiency is going to be put towards increasing output or reallocating work. None of it - under current power structures - will ever go towards allowing workers to work less, because workers aren't the ones deciding where it will go.

New comment by _moof in "NTSB pulls docket after AI recreates dead pilots' voices"

_moof — Fri, 22 May 2026 23:43:37 +0000

> it's public domain data.

Are you sure about that? Just because it's now in the custody of the NTSB doesn't mean it's public domain. The NTSB didn't create it.

New comment by _moof in "The Claude Delusion: Richard Dawkins believes his AI chatbot is conscious"

_moof — Wed, 06 May 2026 23:58:41 +0000

Dawkins doesn't know what consciousness is. He doesn't know what it is because nobody knows what it is. We can't measure it. We can't even detect it, except in onesself. Any claim, by anyone, that someone or something other than themselves is conscious is based entirely on inference or faith.

I'm using the terms consciousness and conscious in the "hard problem" sense here.

New comment by _moof in "Spirit Airlines Is Winding Down All Operations"

_moof — Sat, 02 May 2026 07:35:44 +0000

Aviation has stricter laws when it comes to customers. I don't have citations off the top of my head but it's not a normal customer-business relationship.

EDIT: 14 CFR Part 260.

New comment by _moof in "Spirit Airlines Is Winding Down All Operations"

_moof — Sat, 02 May 2026 07:34:25 +0000

Which law? 14 CFR Part 260 requires air carriers to refund tickets on cancelled flights.