Hacker News: badpun

New comment by badpun in "Tell HN: Anthropic no longer allowing Claude Code subscriptions to use OpenClaw"

badpun — Thu, 09 Apr 2026 07:56:56 +0000

In Poland, factories' light installations ran on non-standard voltage, so that, if you stole the lightbulb, it'd be useless in your household. Unfortunately, they couldn't figure out similar solution for toilet paper and many other household items.

As for motivation, beyond the obvious one, people also stole because many items were not available in stores (having a guy who has a connect on toilet paper was a thing back then), and also, since Communism in Poland was actually a Russian dictatorship, the idea was that if you steal from communist factories you're fighting the system and making it fall faster.

New comment by badpun in "OpenAI closes funding round at an $852B valuation"

badpun — Wed, 01 Apr 2026 20:14:16 +0000

A lot of investments gets amortized over many years so even if you're investing all your free cash you'll still show a lot of profit.

New comment by badpun in "People inside Microsoft are fighting to drop mandatory Microsoft Account"

badpun — Fri, 27 Mar 2026 18:32:09 +0000

One of the first things to do on a fresh install is to disable the Web search results in Start menu search. There's a setting in the registry to do it.

New comment by badpun in "Wine 11 rewrites how Linux runs Windows games at kernel with massive speed gains"

badpun — Wed, 25 Mar 2026 13:21:55 +0000

For games, part of that mere „output” is 3d graphics, so replicating the internals of Direct 3D exactly right and getting the Linux GPU drivers to cooperate. That’s a hardcore task.

New comment by badpun in "Overcoming the friendship recession"

badpun — Tue, 24 Mar 2026 20:24:50 +0000

I have plenty of such scenes in my city still, but these people are usually either pensioners, or local unemployed drunks who have an entire day to fill. People with jobs don't hang outside, unless they're with their kids.

New comment by badpun in "Oil nears $110 a barrel after gas field strike"

badpun — Wed, 18 Mar 2026 18:37:21 +0000

Putin is not a mad dictator ruling against everyone’s wishes. He’s a leader of a large establishment elite which shares his views and gets very rich. If you replace Putin, most likely outcome is his replacement will not be very different (and probably worse, since the country will be even more anti-Western after the assassination)

New comment by badpun in "Honda is killing its EVs"

badpun — Sun, 15 Mar 2026 20:06:59 +0000

Car tires are made with synthetic rubber, which is made from oil.

New comment by badpun in "US private credit defaults hit record 9.2% in 2025, Fitch says"

badpun — Thu, 12 Mar 2026 20:00:04 +0000

If it wasn't in his power to toughen regulation, why did he promise it in his campaign?

New comment by badpun in "US private credit defaults hit record 9.2% in 2025, Fitch says"

badpun — Thu, 12 Mar 2026 17:17:14 +0000

Frank-Dodd wasn't nearly as strict as the post-1929 regulation (Glass-Steagall act) that actually prevented such crisies for half a century.

New comment by badpun in "US private credit defaults hit record 9.2% in 2025, Fitch says"

badpun — Thu, 12 Mar 2026 13:54:57 +0000

Consequences would be nice, but actually forbidding it for the future would be enough. Obama promised to do it, but didn't, and everybody kind of forgot and moved on.

New comment by badpun in "The engine of Germany's wealth is blocking its future"

badpun — Mon, 09 Mar 2026 16:34:28 +0000

"It's funny because it's true". Parts of the German green movement (esp. the anti-nuclears) were actively funded by the KGB.

New comment by badpun in "Ask HN: What Are You Working On? (March 2026)"

badpun — Mon, 09 Mar 2026 12:23:08 +0000

I get a lot of "UFO: Enemy Unknown" vibe from the art.

New comment by badpun in "Elite Overproduction"

badpun — Fri, 06 Mar 2026 12:57:37 +0000

Have you looked at the Wikipedia article? China is specifically addressed there, with elite (as in - highly educated people) overproduction and unemployment reaching such levels that government is now suggesting they should seek manual labor jobs.

New comment by badpun in "iPhone 17e"

badpun — Tue, 03 Mar 2026 10:58:36 +0000

Luckily, hearing all the complains early adopters of 26 had, I disabled auto updates on my SE. Since you can't go back to previous iOS version, leaving it on is a bit risky in general.

New comment by badpun in "The three year myth"

badpun — Sun, 15 Feb 2026 12:17:36 +0000

Part of the profits come from employment of capital. Almost no company relies solely on labor, they typically rely on both labor and capital (machines, buildings etc.). Owner of capital wants compensation for their investments, and he gets it via profits. Meanwhile, workers want compensation for their work, and they get it via wages. The exact split between compensation for capital and for work is a subject of negotiation (and often laws).

New comment by badpun in "The EU moves to kill infinite scrolling"

badpun — Fri, 13 Feb 2026 21:16:24 +0000

Would it affect HackerNews? The list of topics on the main page is a form of infinite scroll.

New comment by badpun in "Stay Hungry, Stay Foolish (2005)"

badpun — Wed, 11 Feb 2026 17:26:34 +0000

Luck was required, but not sufficient. What are the odds that, while bumming around, you'll meet a guy who singlehandedly built an awesome home computer, and needs someone to market it? Jobs took initiative he wasn't the only one who knew Woz, but was the only one to use that opportunity. But, on the other hand, if he never met Woz, there'd be no Apple - so, lots of luck was required.

New comment by badpun in "U.S. government has lost more than 10k STEM PhDs since Trump took office"

badpun — Tue, 27 Jan 2026 20:16:38 +0000

Did you get a local job, or are you taking advantage of geoarbitrage via a foreign remote job?

New comment by badpun in "Poland's energy grid was targeted by never-before-seen wiper malware"

badpun — Sun, 25 Jan 2026 08:41:30 +0000

Poland is frequently listed by Putin and his crew as one of Russia’s greatest enemies.

New comment by badpun in "VW is bringing physical buttons back to the dashboard with the ID. Polo EV"

badpun — Sun, 04 Jan 2026 15:21:48 +0000

Tesla is also „bound by GDPR”.