Hacker News: bloat

New comment by bloat in "Using AI to negotiate a $195k hospital bill down to $33k"

bloat — Tue, 28 Oct 2025 18:09:47 +0000

Why is the man's wife worried about being sent to collections? She owes nothing to the hospital, the dead man's estate owes money. Let the hospital line up with the other creditors. She shouldn't be paying her late husband's hospital bills out of her own funds.

New comment by bloat in "Gmail will no longer support checking emails from third-party accounts via POP"

bloat — Thu, 02 Oct 2025 08:52:28 +0000

This isn't the same thing. Yes Gmail provides IMAP so you can read it from other clients. The issue here is that Gmail cannot use IMAP to ingest email from other accounts, as it can (or could) using POP3.

The 1960s schools experiment that created a whole new alphabet

bloat — Sun, 06 Jul 2025 11:22:38 +0000

Article URL: https://www.theguardian.com/education/2025/jul/06/1960s-schools-experiment-created-new-alphabet-thousands-children-unable-to-spell

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44479743

Points: 14

# Comments: 0

New comment by bloat in "My AI Skeptic Friends Are All Nuts"

bloat — Mon, 02 Jun 2025 21:30:16 +0000

Seconded. I am very much still in the mode of copying from the chat window and then editing. I would like to have whatever she is having.

New comment by bloat in "My AI skeptic friends are all nuts"

bloat — Mon, 02 Jun 2025 21:25:27 +0000

So we replace the task of writing tedious boilerplate with the task of reading the AI's tedious boilerplate. Which takes just as long. And leaves you with less understanding. And is more boring.

New comment by bloat in "How to program a text adventure in C"

bloat — Sun, 27 Apr 2025 09:53:28 +0000

The Inform Designer's Manual is mostly about Inform 6 programming, but has a lot of material on game design.

https://www.inform-fiction.org/manual/DM4.pdf

Crimes Against Mimesis was a famous tract in its day. I don't know how things have moved on since then.

https://www.rickandviv.net/index.php/2004/08/18/crimes-again...

Tuning Out the Algorithm at WFMU

bloat — Wed, 23 Apr 2025 14:02:43 +0000

Article URL: https://jacobin.com/2025/04/wfmu-radio-counterculture-spotify-punk

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43772346

Points: 2

# Comments: 0

New comment by bloat in "How to win an argument with a toddler"

bloat — Tue, 15 Apr 2025 16:24:06 +0000

"You are a total wimp for wanting gloves in this weather! Here they are though, you weakling."

Russia UK agreement to tend war graves transcends bitter international relations

bloat — Sun, 23 Mar 2025 12:55:24 +0000

Article URL: https://www.theguardian.com/global/2025/mar/23/russia-uk-agreement-to-tend-war-graves-transcends-bitter-international-relations

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43452574

Points: 1

# Comments: 0

New comment by bloat in "Vanishing Culture: Preserving Cookbooks"

bloat — Tue, 01 Oct 2024 11:43:26 +0000

New Complete Vegetarian by Rose Elliot is a well used book in our kitchen.

New comment by bloat in "Global EV Charging Points with Open Charge Map"

bloat — Thu, 26 Sep 2024 22:32:05 +0000

I invested in a Chargemap pass for my trip to France this summer. One card which works in nearly every French charger. Plug in, tap the card and it starts charging. Tap the card again to stop. That's it. Cost 20 euros for the card, and I think the rates are a little more than the native apps. But not enough to bother me. Highly recommended. You still have to deal with idle charges though.

New comment by bloat in "Bum Farto"

bloat — Thu, 22 Aug 2024 08:59:40 +0000

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dick_Bush

New comment by bloat in "Proposal to change default annotation processing policy in JDK 23"

bloat — Wed, 29 May 2024 10:14:30 +0000

Lombok has come up a bit in this discussion. Are there any other popular Java libraries or frameworks that are affected?

New comment by bloat in "Why Make Art in the Dark?"

bloat — Mon, 13 May 2024 10:37:16 +0000

Many of these places weren't homes. The vast majority of prehistoric people did not live in caves. And many places with art are nearly inaccessible, and completely dark.

New comment by bloat in "Why Make Art in the Dark?"

bloat — Mon, 13 May 2024 10:34:02 +0000

Many caves with art in are extremely inaccessible. You need to explain why someone would risk their life and crawl through tiny openings in the pitch black to reach a specific location in order to make their art.

I can not believe that educated people think you can explore and explain human culture without considering "spiritual" stuff.

New comment by bloat in "The Man in Seat 61"

bloat — Fri, 08 Mar 2024 14:36:19 +0000

This site helped me take the family from London to Rome via the beautiful Bernina Pass between Switzerland and Italy. Invaluable!

https://tickets.rhb.ch/en/pages/bernina-express

New comment by bloat in "WWII: Failed novelist becomes a spy for Germany, makes up a fake spy network"

bloat — Fri, 08 Mar 2024 14:31:01 +0000

And then Our Man In Havana inspire le Carré to write the Tailor Of Panama. It's a story that keeps on giving!

New comment by bloat in "Clouds vanish during a solar eclipse"

bloat — Wed, 28 Feb 2024 07:49:43 +0000

They certainly didn't vanish for me in Cornwall in 1999. I hope you have better luck in the US in April!

New comment by bloat in "Baruch Spinoza and the art of thinking in dangerous times"

bloat — Fri, 09 Feb 2024 00:01:58 +0000

https://www.routledge.com/Why-Its-OK-to-Eat-Meat/Shahar/p/bo...

Why It's Ok To Eat Meat

By a philosophy professor at the University of New Orleans.

New comment by bloat in "A parliament of owls and a murder of crows: How groups of birds got their names"

bloat — Mon, 29 Jan 2024 09:40:53 +0000

Interesting that the list of fowls and beasts also includes (if I'm reading it right):

A bevy of ladies, A herd of harlots.