Hacker News: bensmoif

New comment by bensmoif in "Scanwheel is a drum style mechanical television you can build yourself"

bensmoif — Sat, 25 Jul 2026 18:40:07 +0000

It's stunning. The video speaks for itself. Please scale this up, like way up back of a truckbed size. This would be delightful to see spinning and running IRL.

Then get a grant and make one as wide as a city street

New comment by bensmoif in "Private healthcare makes industries less innovative. It's time for change"

bensmoif — Thu, 23 Jul 2026 14:39:30 +0000

1000%

New comment by bensmoif in "Mechanical light bulb from 1675 [video]"

bensmoif — Wed, 22 Jul 2026 23:59:55 +0000

Brother, no he did not liberate a single one of his own slaves. Some escaped and he did not pursue, but his final slave died under Benjamin Franklin's enslavement 9 years before Franklin himself died.

Them facts you were looking for: https://share.google/J4zlTt102nc81Fhay

I think it's a sound analysis, he was a thoughtful and philosophical man who considered the nature of slavery heavily, and he benefitted from it greatly, and dearly understood its terrible nature, and continued it's cruelty, and freed no one.

New comment by bensmoif in "Mechanical light bulb from 1675 [video]"

bensmoif — Wed, 22 Jul 2026 21:53:31 +0000

I'll accept your conceit but answer this: why didn't he liberate his slaves? If it's a wash, why keep humans in slavery at all?

I think it's because, in his own calculus, he believed he needed to desecrate human beings, destroy their families, and humiliate their dignity to maintain his greatness.

New comment by bensmoif in "Mechanical light bulb from 1675 [video]"

bensmoif — Wed, 22 Jul 2026 21:45:56 +0000

My brother: trolls troll out of cynical cruelty, there are many children's books that can illustrate this clearly.

Franklin's ability to speak plainly about the evils of slavery, in between his own acts of unspeakable cruelty, and robbing families of their dignity and humanity, requires a level of disconnect and pride that is worth significant mention whenever we do justice to his great legacy.

This talk of human utility sounds like a lot of chump shit.

New comment by bensmoif in "Mechanical light bulb from 1675 [video]"

bensmoif — Wed, 22 Jul 2026 19:08:12 +0000

In this century we have a word for that kind of talk by slaveholders who professed some longing for abolition (Franklin. Jefferson, Washington, John Jay) but did not really wanna be inconvenienced: trolling.

New comment by bensmoif in "Mechanical light bulb from 1675 [video]"

bensmoif — Wed, 22 Jul 2026 19:03:24 +0000

I don't think it's irrelevant that a brilliant man like Benjamin Franklin may not have been able to achieve as much as he unmistakably did WITHOUT the heavy assistance of forced slave labor in his life, from cradle to grave.

Pretending like these things can be separated is ignorance. Ignoring its brutality does a disservice to our history and that man's legacy

New comment by bensmoif in "Lift4D: Harmonizing Single-View 3D Estimation for 4D Reconstruction In-the-Wild"

bensmoif — Tue, 23 Jun 2026 17:38:36 +0000

Really interesting, and a link to your GitHub with a "code coming soon". Please get us the tool already!

New comment by bensmoif in "Building a CLI for All of Cloudflare"

bensmoif — Mon, 13 Apr 2026 16:20:09 +0000

Oh yes to this! I spent yesterday morning working this out when it smacked me in the face

New comment by bensmoif in "If AI replaces workers, should it also pay taxes?"

bensmoif — Mon, 15 Dec 2025 13:39:44 +0000

The tax is his shares, those shares become public assets, the government and (ostensibly) the citizens finally get a say in what the hell is happening with that guy.

New comment by bensmoif in "If AI replaces workers, should it also pay taxes?"

bensmoif — Mon, 15 Dec 2025 13:36:40 +0000

The solution is obvious and simple: Tax wealth not work.

New comment by bensmoif in "Ask HN: Hearing aid wearers, what's hot?"

bensmoif — Mon, 24 Nov 2025 03:20:46 +0000

Following... My audiologist had the big talk with me last week and I guess I'm due to take care of my hearing...

New comment by bensmoif in "Show HN: Rebels in the sky – Terminal game about space pirates"

bensmoif — Fri, 22 Nov 2024 16:37:13 +0000

Please tell a story about the music ya'll chose for this, it's incredible.

New comment by bensmoif in "Why use metaphors in conflicts? Because understanding is remembering in disguise (2009)"

bensmoif — Sat, 14 Sep 2024 18:11:42 +0000

Am I going to be the first to bring up "Darmok and Jalad at Tanagra"?

New comment by bensmoif in "Strandbeest"

bensmoif — Sun, 25 Aug 2024 14:01:20 +0000

Bought one of these miniature kits years ago and kept it on my desk at work and goddamn is it cool and fun and works great! Really encourage any model machine nerds to get one.

New comment by bensmoif in "Ties between Google's Project Nimbus and Israel's military"

bensmoif — Mon, 15 Jul 2024 22:54:46 +0000

Many people believe what you're describing is the problem.

New comment by bensmoif in "Ties between Google's Project Nimbus and Israel's military"

bensmoif — Mon, 15 Jul 2024 22:52:31 +0000

Everyone who cares about the use of technology to conduct warfare, especially the corporate power leveraged to enhance the killing power of the state.

New comment by bensmoif in "Show HN: Drop-in SQS replacement based on SQLite"

bensmoif — Mon, 01 Jul 2024 04:07:50 +0000

This is an absolutely unhinged project idea. Great work