Hacker News: befictious

New comment by befictious in "Your website is not for you"

befictious — Fri, 01 May 2026 21:45:09 +0000

If your designers are only picking colors, fonts, and spacing then you don't have designers, you have software art directors.

New comment by befictious in "The biggest insect ever was a "dragonfly""

befictious — Wed, 29 Apr 2026 04:53:32 +0000

An 18" dragonfly is terrifying

New comment by befictious in "On hacker mindset"

befictious — Wed, 15 Apr 2026 02:42:25 +0000

"The purpose of a system is what it does" ...and all that jazz

New comment by befictious in "Hallucination Risk Calculator"

befictious — Wed, 10 Sep 2025 05:43:06 +0000

>it just feels like a scam aimed at burning through more tokens.

I have a growing tin foil hat theory that the business model of LLM's is the same as 1-900-psychic numbers of old.

For just 25¢ 1-900-psychic will solve all your problems in just 5 minutes! Still need help?! No problem! We'll work with you until you get your answers for only 10¢ a minute until your happy!

eerily similar

New comment by befictious in "Proposal to Ban Ghost Jobs"

befictious — Tue, 26 Aug 2025 19:36:43 +0000

then it would just be like real estate with off market listings where companies have a black market hiring pool and then just do the legal loophole steps of registering before "officially" posting and immediately hiring their desired candidate... which would probably have the shady side effect of making the policy "look efficient" without actually solving the job search problem.

New comment by befictious in "Dark patterns"

befictious — Thu, 31 Jul 2025 23:50:35 +0000

i think they know that and are just being cheeky for affect.

however, URL dark patterns are the digital equivalent of IRL social engineering.

New comment by befictious in "On not noticing rather too many things"

befictious — Tue, 24 Oct 2023 20:24:21 +0000

What a pithy example of the human experience. I love this slice of life vignette.

I would argue, even better said than the blog post.

New comment by befictious in "What IS your vote actually worth!?"

befictious — Thu, 13 Aug 2020 23:10:28 +0000

Really helps wrap your head around how valuable those lower population states are when campaigning.

Pretty big ROI for each individual voter.

Yes I’m ignoring all the different ways it gets “balanced” at the end of the day and ignoring popular vote is still popular vote.

New comment by befictious in "“TikTok is a data collection service that is thinly-veiled as a social network.”"

befictious — Thu, 25 Jun 2020 23:02:00 +0000

From their Privacy Policy...

>We automatically collect certain information from you when you use the Platform, including internet or other network activity information such as your IP address, geolocation-related data (as described below), unique device identifiers, browsing and search history (including content you have viewed in the Platform), and Cookies (as defined below).

>We collect information about your location, including location information based on your SIM card and/or IP address. With your permission, we may also collect Global Positioning System (GPS) data.

>You can switch off GPS location information functionality on your mobile device if you do not wish to share GPS information.

The above makes it sound like you have to turn off GPS for everything. They could likely be skirting different methods for collecting this. and the only way to prevent it is turning off gps at the device level not app permission level

>We use the 'Region' you select in Settings to customise your TikTok experience. When you use the Platform on a mobile device, we will collect information about your location. In certain jurisdictions, with your permission, we will collect Global Positioning System (GPS) data and mobile device location information. If you do not wish to share your precise location with us, you can switch off location services via the settings on your mobile device

>5. Where we store your personal data. The personal data we collect from you may be stored on a server located in Singapore or the United States, outside of the country where you live. We maintain major servers around the world to bring you our services globally and continuously.

New comment by befictious in "The Mac is not an Open Platform anymore"

befictious — Wed, 24 Jun 2020 02:34:44 +0000

clickbait title. fluffy content.

New comment by befictious in "TikTok told moderators to suppress posts by “ugly” people and the poor"

befictious — Tue, 17 Mar 2020 23:11:27 +0000

Have you gone to https://www.douyin.com/ ? it IS TIKTOK...

New comment by befictious in "Peacetime CEO/Wartime CEO (2011)"

befictious — Fri, 13 Mar 2020 00:31:40 +0000

War isn't Hell. War is war, and Hell is Hell. And of the two, war is a lot worse." What is business? Lemonade.

Love this. just wanted to punch up the end.

New comment by befictious in "Ask HN: Bloated engineering titles?"

befictious — Mon, 09 Mar 2020 18:56:05 +0000

Have you worked in a tech company where the engineer's have some sort of licensure? I haven't experienced that. I'm not doubting you just curious.

New comment by befictious in "On the shoulders of the giants"

befictious — Mon, 09 Mar 2020 18:06:26 +0000

Halt and Catch Fire is SO underated! It's fun. I try and describe it as if the team that made Mad Men created Silicon Valley.

It's fun, nostalgic, and shows a fairly accurate few of the devil-may-care and slightly-charlatan approach to early (and some current) startups.

New comment by befictious in "Products I Wish Existed"

befictious — Tue, 07 Jan 2020 08:29:28 +0000

you just described facebook's feed algorithm

New comment by befictious in "Keyboard vs. The Mouse, Part 1 (1989)"

befictious — Tue, 17 Dec 2019 22:00:01 +0000

Maybe not the same, but it is a fundamental user experience principle.

"Showing users things they can recognize improves usability over needing to recall items from scratch because the extra context helps users retrieve information from memory."

https://www.nngroup.com/articles/recognition-and-recall/