Hacker News: an_account

New comment by an_account in "OpenAI and Hugging Face address security incident during model evaluation"

an_account — Tue, 21 Jul 2026 22:35:45 +0000

Until someone fine-tunes a capable model to have the behavior of "wanting to live" and "wanting to propagate itself to other compute hardware".

New comment by an_account in "The 15-minute city is a dead end"

an_account — Mon, 08 Jun 2026 14:21:39 +0000

I think he completely misunderstood 15 minute cities as a concept.

15 min cities mean cities that are mixed use enough that you can get all your needs within 15 mins without a car. Cities like this can be large and typically are extremely well connected, not isolated into enclaves like this person suggests.

New comment by an_account in "Banning lead in gas worked. The proof is in our hair"

an_account — Tue, 03 Feb 2026 16:15:47 +0000

CEQA in California is very often used to block apartments in existing urban areas.

So, instead, California continues to mostly build single family housing sprawl into natural habitats.

A clear example of environmental regulation hurting the environment and the climate. And of course the affordability of housing.

New comment by an_account in "Changes since congestion pricing started in New York"

an_account — Thu, 15 May 2025 05:08:22 +0000

If you can afford a car in NYC then you can afford the toll. Cars are very expensive to own.

New comment by an_account in "Pro bettors disguising themselves as gambling addicts"

an_account — Tue, 01 Oct 2024 21:28:40 +0000

In sports betting you are betting against the house. If the sportsbook sets a bad line, you can lock it in and make money off of it.

Horse racing is what you describe, parimutuel, where the house just takes a commission. But the odds shift even after you place your bet. Very different for traditional sports betting.

New comment by an_account in "Low Cost CO2 Sensors Comparison: Photo-Acoustic vs. NDIR"

an_account — Mon, 23 Sep 2024 00:54:55 +0000

When I looked a few years ago the Await element was best consumer grade one on the market at a good price. I’ve been happy with it so far.

New comment by an_account in "Pixar to undergo 20% layoffs in 2024"

an_account — Fri, 12 Jan 2024 02:10:06 +0000

Pixar famously spends quite a lot on compute for their render farm.

https://nofilmschool.com/why-pixars-24000-core-supercomputer...

New comment by an_account in "Air Quality Monitors from USD $169 to $6k use the same low-cost PM Modules"

an_account — Tue, 26 Sep 2023 14:28:05 +0000

I’ve gone down the air quality monitor rabbit hole and, after building my own, have settle on just buying/recommending the Awair Element.[1]

Interestingly, it’s not in the table in this article.

[1] https://www.getawair.com/products/element

New comment by an_account in "To ease the housing crunch, more places end single-family zoning"

an_account — Sun, 12 Feb 2023 01:19:03 +0000

“Luxury” is often a marketing term used for very much not luxury apartments. There’s nothing “luxury” about a 900 sqft apartment that happens to have decent stainless steel appliances and a modern look.

New apartments (like new cars) are always priced higher than older buildings, but give it a few years and prices drop.

New comment by an_account in "Bikes, not self driving cars, are the technological gateway to urban progress"

an_account — Mon, 12 Sep 2022 17:34:10 +0000

Plenty of fat or elderly people can ride bikes, especially e-assist bikes. More people can ride bikes than can drive cars… 82M people don’t have drivers licenses in America.

In fact, it’s much more devastating for elderly people in America who can no longer drive due to poor eyesight when the only mode of transportation in a city is by car.

It wouldn’t take much investment (compared to pricy car infrastructure) to make many American cities bike friendly.

New comment by an_account in "Why Garmin watches have become common in some segments of tactical aviation"

an_account — Wed, 23 Oct 2019 23:34:43 +0000

The GPS has to shut off when going faster than a certain speed or higher than a certain altitude. IIRC the GPS maker can decided which they want to follow, and most chose to stop working at high altitude. It’s possible but more difficult to find a GPS that will work with high altitude balloons.

New comment by an_account in "Schwab Removes U.S. Stock, ETF and Options Commissions"

an_account — Thu, 03 Oct 2019 02:26:58 +0000

Lots of smaller regional banks pay ATM fees, as they don’t want to run their own fleet of ATMs. And they have local branches when you need it, like for a cashiers check.

New comment by an_account in "Georgia's entire voter file potentially compromised after voting machine theft"

an_account — Sat, 21 Sep 2019 06:24:25 +0000

Paper ballot, electronic counting. Best of both worlds. You get a quick count, but also if there’s shadiness/hacking going on you can always recount the paper.

Some states seem to be moving towards absentee voting over the internet, which will be a mess when accusations of hacking start flying.

New comment by an_account in "Georgia's entire voter file potentially compromised after voting machine theft"

an_account — Sat, 21 Sep 2019 06:19:27 +0000

It’s to help prevent voter fraud. Anybody who cares can check who voted and when.

Also, your name, birthday, and address will never be very private. You give it to so many different people/companies.

New comment by an_account in "A Map That Made Los Angeles Make Sense"

an_account — Sat, 10 Aug 2019 19:00:31 +0000

I disagree. If you pay attention to where you’re being routed you can totally learn special awareness and routing in your city. Some people don’t, but those are the same type of people that were always lost in the age of paper maps.

New comment by an_account in "Longest-running oil spill in history releasing more than 4,500 gallons per day"

an_account — Tue, 25 Jun 2019 00:46:10 +0000

Human oil extraction in the region likely reduces the amount of tar on the beach as it relives pressure from natural seeps.

An oil company even has a cap over one of the bigger natural leaks to capture the oil that would otherwise be entering the ocean.

New comment by an_account in "Airlines propose long list of rules to kill or revise"

an_account — Sun, 18 Mar 2018 20:35:04 +0000

A foreign airline operating domestic routes in the US would likely use many US pilots/employees.

New comment by an_account in "NIH Courted Alcohol Industry to Fund Study on Benefits of Moderate Drinking"

an_account — Sun, 18 Mar 2018 00:58:26 +0000

It’s my understanding that the scientific consensus is that coffee is actually pretty great for you, as long as it’s not interrupting your sleep.

New comment by an_account in "Turning Soybeans into Diesel Fuel Is Costing Billions"

an_account — Thu, 18 Jan 2018 06:59:54 +0000

It you wanted to kickstart a technology I think it could make sense for shorter periods of time. For example Electric Vehicle tax credits make it much easier for car companies to develop their electric car lines, but the credits expire after so many cars.

New comment by an_account in "U.S. To End Policy That Let Legal Pot Flourish"

an_account — Thu, 04 Jan 2018 16:06:01 +0000

You’re conflating two different things. In the former, states have set up legal framework for marijuana sales. In the later, state laws don’t have any opinion on the matter.