Hacker News: ascorbic

Smaller, faster, safer: running Kimi and GLM at scale

ascorbic — Mon, 03 Aug 2026 17:08:46 +0000

Article URL: https://blog.cloudflare.com/smaller-faster-safer-models/

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49158581

Points: 183

# Comments: 42

New comment by ascorbic in "Pacing the frontier"

ascorbic — Wed, 29 Jul 2026 03:51:14 +0000

None of the previous concerns were true, largely because they came from laypeople who didn't understand the technology. A prominent exception is nuclear weapons, where their creators did worry their creations could end up destroying the world. I think most people would agree those concerns were justified, and it's not any lack of capability that means we're still here.

The motivations aren't unique here. Restrictions on the development of almost any technology benefits incumbents by providing a moat.

New comment by ascorbic in "Vehicle Motion Cues"

ascorbic — Tue, 28 Jul 2026 08:05:24 +0000

There was a discussion about this a few weeks ago, where I discovered KineStop which is an app that does the same on Android. I've only tried it a few times but it has worked every time.

New comment by ascorbic in "Who's afraid of Chinese models?"

ascorbic — Mon, 20 Jul 2026 23:03:24 +0000

The government absolutely can pass laws that ban particular contract previsions. They do that all the time. In your analogy for example while they can require you to wear red, they can't require you to be white.

New comment by ascorbic in "How Has Roman Concrete Lasted for Millennia? 1,900-Year-Old Latrine Offers Clues"

ascorbic — Sat, 18 Jul 2026 15:16:24 +0000

When we bought our house, the only plumbing was in a tiny, asbestos-filled lean-to extension added in the 1940s that contained the kitchen, bathroom and toilet. The way people use houses has changed a lot in the past 100 years

New comment by ascorbic in "EU ban on destruction of unsold clothes and shoes enters into application"

ascorbic — Sat, 18 Jul 2026 15:12:19 +0000

This is about businesses, not families.

New comment by ascorbic in "EU ban on destruction of unsold clothes and shoes enters into application"

ascorbic — Sat, 18 Jul 2026 15:11:45 +0000

Yes, clothing companies and stores will very commonly destroy clothes if they determine that selling at a discount would undermine the brand value. They do things like cutting holes in the soles of shoes before discarding them.

New comment by ascorbic in "How Has Roman Concrete Lasted for Millennia? 1,900-Year-Old Latrine Offers Clues"

ascorbic — Fri, 17 Jul 2026 06:26:51 +0000

They weren't torn down because there was better technology available. They were torn down because they were falling apart, or were no longer meeting the needs in that location. I love old buildings – my house is 250 years old – but there's no denying that generally they are less suited to current needs than newer buildings.

New comment by ascorbic in "Real-time map of Great Britain's rail network"

ascorbic — Mon, 06 Jul 2026 20:37:43 +0000

Unsurprisingly they mostly run trains to places where people live, but there is some influence the other way too. New commuter rail lines have historically lead to more development around the stations (e.g. Metro-land 100 years ago https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metro-land), and in cases where a station is built for reasons other than there being a centre of population (e.g. because it's an important junction) then that does also tend to lead to houses being built. Of course in more recent times this hasn't happened because you can hardly ever build outside of existing conurbations, but that is changing and several new towns are being planned for new or existing train stations.

New comment by ascorbic in "Real-time map of Great Britain's rail network"

ascorbic — Mon, 06 Jul 2026 20:28:59 +0000

The location of the train comes from trackside sensors and is available as a free API. It doesn't give actual lat/lon – it only shows when it went past a particular checkpoint. The part that needs location permission is the one that works out which train you are on. It doesn't use that to produce the main map, it's just to work out which train you are likely to be on.

New comment by ascorbic in "Workers Cache"

ascorbic — Mon, 06 Jul 2026 16:09:54 +0000

> I was a bit confused what this adds other than just standard CDN-Cache-Control page caching that we do now.

Until now these cache headers didn't work if you set them in a Worker, because Workers were always run in front of the cache. You could use them if you're running Cloudflare cache in front of another origin, but not if you were e.g. rendering a site in Workers. This changes that.

New comment by ascorbic in "The Free Market Lie: Why Switzerland Has 25 Gbit Internet and America Doesn't"

ascorbic — Fri, 03 Jul 2026 05:59:41 +0000

That's not what the article is about. It's about what goes in the ducts when they are connected, and who has access to the infra.

New comment by ascorbic in "Why Switzerland has 25 gbit internet and America doesn't"

ascorbic — Fri, 03 Jul 2026 05:53:27 +0000

This article isn't about coverage, it's about what goes in the duct if there is a connection. If Comcast can run a cable to your house, then they can put four strands and allow other ISPs access to them.

That said, how many of these homes have mains electricity? Landline phone service? If they can do that, then they can do fiber. Sure your cabin in Montana might not have it (though the equivalent in Sweden probably would), but the small town probably does.

New comment by ascorbic in "The Free Market Lie: Why Switzerland Has 25 Gbit Internet and America Doesn't"

ascorbic — Fri, 03 Jul 2026 05:46:15 +0000

The regulations here aren't about forcing companies to lay fiber to every home, it's enforcing a standard that when a company does lay fiber it lays four strands that any ISP can use.

New comment by ascorbic in "U.S. allows Anthropic to release Mythos AI to ‘trusted’ US organizations"

ascorbic — Sat, 27 Jun 2026 12:29:26 +0000

Deepmind is based there. Anthropic's biggest research base outside the US is there. OpenAI has just announced a big new office there.

New comment by ascorbic in "U.S. allows Anthropic to release Mythos AI to ‘trusted’ US organizations"

ascorbic — Sat, 27 Jun 2026 12:21:11 +0000

Almost like Europe isn't one entity with a single set of regulations. Germany is not Estonia

New comment by ascorbic in "U.S. allows Anthropic to release Mythos AI to ‘trusted’ US organizations"

ascorbic — Sat, 27 Jun 2026 12:15:48 +0000

Europe has ASML

New comment by ascorbic in "U.S. allows Anthropic to release Mythos AI to ‘trusted’ US organizations"

ascorbic — Sat, 27 Jun 2026 12:14:35 +0000

It also removes the potential for growth or any other upside. I doubt there'd be many AI researchers willing to work on civil service salaries.

New comment by ascorbic in "U.S. government will decide who gets to use GPT-5.6"

ascorbic — Fri, 26 Jun 2026 19:23:12 +0000

Except the frontier models are the only reason to use them. Why would they use GPT-export when they can use the latest GLM or Kimi?

New comment by ascorbic in "U.S. government will decide who gets to use GPT-5.6"

ascorbic — Fri, 26 Jun 2026 18:43:22 +0000

The FDA has incredibly detailed guidelines that need to be followed, and a clear process to be followed. This is none of that.