Hacker News: basisword

New comment by basisword in "People hooked on vapes try a new way to quit: cigarettes"

basisword — Tue, 22 Sep 2026 23:08:11 +0000

It's an idea I've considered. Quitting cigarettes was much easier than quitting vaping has been. You can vape in your home, most places and at most times. You don't have any concept really of how much you're using. With cigarettes you have to take time, go outside, and you can literally count them making it easier to track your reduction.

New comment by basisword in "Unreal Agent"

basisword — Tue, 22 Sep 2026 21:17:15 +0000

When did we just give up on the challenge of giving something a unique name? I see products launch everyday on HN now that just take a well known brand and use it as their own. I thought this would be a feature for Unreal engine.

New comment by basisword in "9 Ads per Minute: FIFA Cup 26 – "the price of the beautiful game""

basisword — Tue, 22 Sep 2026 19:10:10 +0000

TV license is 'required' for all live TV (all channels) + iPlayer. Also if you're watching live sports through e.g. NowTV's website you still need one. It's much wider reaching than just the BBC channels.

New comment by basisword in "GPT-6 Sol and Luna"

basisword — Tue, 22 Sep 2026 19:07:59 +0000

iOS development mostly. I'm using the Pro plans as it's work on personal projects outside my day job and I'm able to get just enough usage from those plans to get me through each day.

New comment by basisword in "GPT-6 Sol and Luna"

basisword — Tue, 22 Sep 2026 18:40:31 +0000

I've been using Claude Pro and recently gave Codex a try again. Both on the $20 plans. I get so much more usage with Claude. It's night and day for me. Codex runs out constantly, whereas Claude I hit limits very rarely.

New comment by basisword in "9 Ads per Minute: FIFA Cup 26 – "the price of the beautiful game""

basisword — Tue, 22 Sep 2026 15:18:16 +0000

ITV also requires the TV license so those also aren't free.

New comment by basisword in "9 Ads per Minute: FIFA Cup 26 – "the price of the beautiful game""

basisword — Tue, 22 Sep 2026 12:25:42 +0000

Why did you act like you did know in your original comment then?

New comment by basisword in "9 Ads per Minute: FIFA Cup 26 – "the price of the beautiful game""

basisword — Tue, 22 Sep 2026 12:24:43 +0000

All of those sports have about 2 hours of advertising breaks during the game. Football has one, at half time, and that also includes some analysis.

New comment by basisword in "9 Ads per Minute: FIFA Cup 26 – "the price of the beautiful game""

basisword — Tue, 22 Sep 2026 12:22:42 +0000

How are those things in anyway related? The morality around gambling is very debatable. The morality around racism is not.

New comment by basisword in "US halts flights at busy East Coast airports, says fiber line cut"

basisword — Mon, 21 Sep 2026 21:13:44 +0000

>> With low-enough engineering quality, you don't actually need saboteurs

While I agree, that’s just what they told us. Not sure I believe it anymore. The fact the first UK one happened immediately after they sanctioned Israel is also just a big coincidence.

New comment by basisword in "Singapore’s National Library Board offers micropayments to build reading habits"

basisword — Mon, 21 Sep 2026 20:38:11 +0000

Seems like a simple problem to solve for the schools. Don't accept typed work. Handwriting only. It was 25 years ago now but I remember learning cursive about age 7 or 8 and it was something we worked on for no more than a few months. And I feel like most kids were excited to be able to write like 'adults'. It's really not some insurmountable challenge.

New comment by basisword in "Disney+: New user agreement allows ads before movies in all subscriptions"

basisword — Mon, 21 Sep 2026 20:34:36 +0000

If you have time to 'consume' the 'content' on Netflix you have time for a few ads.

New comment by basisword in "US halts flights at busy East Coast airports, says fiber line cut"

basisword — Mon, 21 Sep 2026 20:32:31 +0000

The UK ATC system was down again today for the second time this month. I'm no conspiracy theorist but hard to believe those two + this are 'accidents'. I believe the Netherlands has also had several issues recently.

New comment by basisword in "macOS 27: Workaround to avoid downloading AI models and save storage"

basisword — Mon, 21 Sep 2026 15:37:46 +0000

You don't need to. Use the alternatives.

New comment by basisword in "Disney+: New user agreement allows ads before movies in all subscriptions"

basisword — Mon, 21 Sep 2026 14:48:24 +0000

Yeah I'm familiar with that. I guess it all depends on the sport and country. Ads during the sport is quite unusual in the UK for example so we get that NASCAR feed where the camera continues with no commentary during US ad breaks. We also have a cool setup for Indycar where a local UK commentator jumps in to talk over the feed while the US goes to a break. For MLB (on their own league pass product) we get a blank screen or non-ad montage thing in between innings (although as I mentioned in another comment that's its own kind of hell).

New comment by basisword in "Disney+: New user agreement allows ads before movies in all subscriptions"

basisword — Mon, 21 Sep 2026 14:45:10 +0000

1. I hate the MLB one the most. I'm international so maybe it works differently but each season they come up with these horrible clips that they play on repeat. Sometimes it's a little short history snippet or this season some stuff about food. Problem is they have minimal content and so many breaks that by day two of the season they're tortuous. I'd rather have ads.

2. It probably depends on what sports we're talking about. Again, I'm thinking internationally where they've started showing La Liga this season.

New comment by basisword in "Disney+: New user agreement allows ads before movies in all subscriptions"

basisword — Mon, 21 Sep 2026 14:42:52 +0000

I wonder if they're AB testing? I think I got 2-3 ad breaks over an hour and each was just two 30sec ads.

New comment by basisword in "Disney+: New user agreement allows ads before movies in all subscriptions"

basisword — Mon, 21 Sep 2026 12:21:14 +0000

I recently switched to the Netflix sub with ads. Totally worth it. The non-ads packages are ridiculously expensive now and the ads they show are few and far between.

New comment by basisword in "Disney+: New user agreement allows ads before movies in all subscriptions"

basisword — Mon, 21 Sep 2026 12:18:40 +0000

If you're talking about sports stuff:

1. Now you just have a blank screen. Sure some people might like that but others will think there's an issue with the stream.

2. They're purchasing the rights to show the sports stuff, not actually producing it themselves and removing the ads would make the cost of the rights astronomical.

Even when expensive linear TV packages were the norm, they still came with ads. With live TV paying has never negated the need for ads.

New comment by basisword in "Singapore’s National Library Board offers micropayments to build reading habits"

basisword — Mon, 21 Sep 2026 10:29:21 +0000

How does this work? In school if they’re forced to write in cursive surely they still have to write the same amount? And if it’s writing in their spare time that has reduced they can write non-cursive so that shouldn’t be a blocker.