Hacker News: altacc

New comment by altacc in "Canada to order military plane fleet from Sweden in shift from US suppliers"

altacc — Thu, 28 May 2026 06:56:49 +0000

I have heard at least one interview with Steve Bannon where he says that Trump isn't delivering what many political operatives and financiers want but they see him as laying the ground for the next administration, who will restructure the government & US more efficiently.

New comment by altacc in "Spain blocks prediction markets Polymarket, Kalshi over lack of gambling licence"

altacc — Wed, 27 May 2026 07:22:08 +0000

They need "normal people", or rather they need normal people's money to funnel to the small number of people who make most of the winnings on these sites. Gambling companies' profits rely largely on addicts who spend big and to get those addicts hooked you need a lot of people to have a go.

New comment by altacc in "Spotify will start reserving concert tickets for fans"

altacc — Fri, 22 May 2026 10:05:32 +0000

This doesn't solve the problem and selling on the internet has become easier in the last 8 years. As we've seen recently with the Swatch Watch Riots and Pokémon Cards, professional and have-a-go scalpers are happy to stand in line for hours and resell on the internet for massive markups.

Three Things about Data

altacc — Mon, 18 May 2026 21:09:43 +0000

Article URL: https://www.undermanager.com/three-things-about-data/

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48185676

Points: 2

# Comments: 0

New comment by altacc in "Brazil's Pix payment system faces pressure from Visa and Mastercard"

altacc — Fri, 08 May 2026 07:39:29 +0000

The censorship is a massive issue though as it effectively means that private companies can overrule the law if they effectively monopolize critical infrastructure. Private companies are even less accountable to individuals than governments are when there is no real market choice.

New comment by altacc in "Over 8M Thermos jars and bottles recalled after 3 people lost vision"

altacc — Mon, 04 May 2026 10:15:21 +0000

If it's a forceful opening and you're not holding the top tightly, then I imagine the top could launch upwards. I know from experience this can also happen if you put just a bit of boiling water in and seal it. The air expands under heat and will push the top out whilst you're unscrewing. A version of this top comes with a metal spoon & raised holder built in, providing some edges to hit you with and an extra projectile.

New comment by altacc in "Southwest Headquarters Tour"

altacc — Mon, 04 May 2026 08:02:53 +0000

The surprise for me here is the social media command center. I know businesses have staff dedicated to social media but hadn't expected a company to have them at a scale & operational level that necessitates a command center setup, with desks facing screens on the walls.

New comment by altacc in "Musicians are manufacturing sold-out shows"

altacc — Wed, 22 Apr 2026 13:01:52 +0000

In short, the author thinks it's the same reason that a half empty club will keep a line waiting outside: it inflates demand. Reality is probably that's one of the reasons only some of the time.

New comment by altacc in "SpaceX says it has agreement to acquire Cursor for $60B"

altacc — Wed, 22 Apr 2026 07:28:25 +0000

Tellingly, from his full post: "Mostly because I do not yet see an equivalent uptick in productivity or revenue..."

https://x.com/chamath/status/2029634071966666964

I suspect that as the value a company provides is more than its code, then increasing code churn does not lead to an equivalent increase in revenue. Even for a tech company, a business' concept, connections, knowledge, assets, non-coding staff, etc.. are a significant value and increasing code doesn't increase the throughput of that value. For non-tech companies code is the grease in the gears, not the gears themselves.

New comment by altacc in "Most people can't juggle one ball"

altacc — Mon, 13 Apr 2026 09:27:42 +0000

This is one of the nice things about the juggling community: it's one of the open, sharing communities where people are willing to freely share and teach. It's no cost/low cost entry. The juggling community has been a really important part of my life, so I see it as giving back to teach others.

New comment by altacc in "Most people can't juggle one ball"

altacc — Mon, 13 Apr 2026 07:12:01 +0000

Go to a juggling club and you'll find that a Venn diagram of juggler, nerd & technology has a lot of overlap.

New comment by altacc in "Miscellanea: The War in Iran"

altacc — Thu, 26 Mar 2026 15:35:11 +0000

In the case of Israel, destabilisation and creation of a region of neighbouring failed states is absolutely it's aim as that is an exploitable situation. Iran was the only real opposition to Israel's long term colonial expansion and ethnic cleansing and more recent outright genocide. It was also opposed to Israel's existence and funded terrorism, etc... (whatever caveat the reader needs to understand I'm not a cheerleader of Iran) but historically it is not alone in this and is not the only country ever to be hostile to another. The majority of such situations resolve over time through diplomacy and reason, and yes, significant amounts of violence but it is rare to resolve such an international dispute purely through war. Israel, its government and military have long been clear that they don't seek a status quo, but a chaotic forever war they use to justify their literal bulldozing of surrounding nations.

New comment by altacc in "Miscellanea: The War in Iran"

altacc — Thu, 26 Mar 2026 08:24:47 +0000

This is nothing new, history repeats. Prior to the invasions of Afghanistan & Iraq there were numerous regional experts warning that the result would be chaos, failed states, a rise in extremism and long term instability in the region and indirectly the rest of the world. Millions of us marched through the streets, asking our governments not to make what was obviously a massive mistake.

The US & UK governments were convinced that they would recreate the liberation of Europe, with cheering crowds, flowers in their hair, Mission Accomplished banners and then simply totally dismantle a government & civil service and recreate a new one to their favour. Groupthink is a powerful thing.

New comment by altacc in "Mystery jump in oil trading ahead of Trump post draws scrutiny"

altacc — Tue, 24 Mar 2026 16:07:55 +0000

Elections are already being used for collectively applying "justice", just not the type that stops corruption. Instead it's right wing mob "justice" against the woke and immigrants and all the liberal tears are the prize the braying mob that voted for autocracy wants and they're happy to accept corruption as long as they don't think it affects them. Democracy is the worst form of government, except for all types we've tried.

New comment by altacc in "How to Spot a Liar: Kate White on the Techniques of Deception in Mysteries"

altacc — Tue, 24 Mar 2026 09:38:49 +0000

Good liars are able to avoid these tells and I reckon no system is perfect but the last point, trusting your gut, is probably the best as it combines a lot of conscious and subconscious observations into a judgement. I'm often unable to articulate why I trust or distrust a person but feedback from my close friends is that they'll look to me for signs about a new person we meet. You do also need to be willing to constant reevaluate and change opinions as more evidence is gathered.

New comment by altacc in "Show HN: Will my flight have Starlink?"

altacc — Thu, 19 Mar 2026 07:55:54 +0000

Free (for now). Introducing or raising costs for a previously free or cheap service is normal practice for start ups.

New comment by altacc in "Bus travel from Lima to Rio de Janeiro"

altacc — Mon, 16 Mar 2026 07:41:38 +0000

Now I've got small children, we fly instead of taking the long bus, train or boat journey. But the long bus, train and boat journeys and the places we experienced along the way are half of what my wife and I talk about when we reminisce about our travels. In the UK at least we call it "going travelling", which to me acknowledges that the actual travelling is important, not just destination hopping.

New comment by altacc in "Statement from Dario Amodei on our discussions with the Department of War"

altacc — Fri, 27 Feb 2026 09:24:43 +0000

Trump/Miller/whomever don't need to be actively involved in every decision. They have defined an approach to strong arm problem solving and weaponisation of the government that anyone that works for them is implicitly allowed to use. The supposed controls that were meant to prevent this have crumbled or aligned.

New comment by altacc in "Show HN: Respectify – A comment moderator that teaches people to argue better"

altacc — Thu, 26 Feb 2026 08:38:11 +0000

Hmm, I'm in 2 minds about this. The best online communities I've been in have been small & come across more human and the thought of "this is a person you're replying to" was innate. On larger forums a nudge towards that humanity might be good but I think this at times goes beyond a nudge and is more of an opinionated telling-off, which a lot of people aren't going to react so well to.

I wonder how this would be as a light touch plugin for the browser that would review a comment in context and possibly help test and refine the content.

New comment by altacc in "Man accidentally gains control of 7k robot vacuums"

altacc — Mon, 23 Feb 2026 13:01:46 +0000

I'm obviously wondering which company this is but understand the anonymity. I have a LIDAR vacuum to avoid cameras and from connecting to its debug socket could see the point cloud enough to know that it was very granular.