Hacker News: boznz

New comment by boznz in "SimPolitics: America’s quest to solve politics with computers"

boznz — Fri, 10 Jul 2026 00:07:38 +0000

Thank you for this, I'm going to give it a read.

I am unfortunately very bearish on politics in general. All politicians think short term, look after themselves, their families, their friends, and their interests first; Facts, and working simulations just get in the way. (I am still looking for a politician that is an exception to this rule) Human nature is unfortunately real, and the only way I can see to "solve politics" is to remove human's entirely, but that comes with a whole new set of issues and is another book I guess.

New comment by boznz in "What does Jeff Bezos think is going to happen?"

boznz — Tue, 07 Jul 2026 00:02:23 +0000

Yes unfortunately any system can be gamified once the incentives are there: Best wine, best movie, best album, best keyboard, best monitor, the list goes on. Hugo or Nebula winners, and any other "winner" for that matter are usually actively sponsored and artificially pushed onto the nomination lists by their publishers/influencers/etc, there is just no way the judges can read the 1000's of novels that come out each year.

Occasionally indie authors beat the system like Andy Weir with the Martian, but that took both good writing and a lot of traction from his online community for it to go viral and for it to get recognition.

New comment by boznz in "Home made 8192 Core RISC-V Cluster [video]"

boznz — Mon, 06 Jul 2026 22:57:29 +0000

Totally amazing. Deserves a second look

Home made 8192 Core RISC-V Cluster [video]

boznz — Mon, 06 Jul 2026 22:57:29 +0000

Article URL: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qMR3IXF2sWw

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48811572

Points: 10

# Comments: 2

New comment by boznz in "Linux on the Atari Jaguar"

boznz — Mon, 06 Jul 2026 21:05:47 +0000

Still occasionally bring out my old jaguar for Alien vs Predator to try and remember what the excitement was all about, but as to putting Linux on it, amazing effort, but I think I'm going to pass :-)

New comment by boznz in "What does Jeff Bezos think is going to happen?"

boznz — Mon, 06 Jul 2026 20:49:58 +0000

But how do you know the books you want to buy in the first place? That's the Indie creators dilemma, sometimes good creators are terrible marketers, or have no budget, and their creation is undiscovered from the others that spend, market or game the system.

New comment by boznz in "What does Jeff Bezos think is going to happen?"

boznz — Mon, 06 Jul 2026 20:38:01 +0000

Many of us do. But the majority of ebook readers will: a)never find us and b)just want to click buy now not download epub (from a site they have never heard of) then transfer to kindle manually. So best to cover your bases and give them the Amazon option too.

New comment by boznz in "Netflix Viewers Are Abandoning Shows After One Season"

boznz — Mon, 06 Jul 2026 01:32:02 +0000

Easy solution, make a show that lasts exactly one season, put all the good plot elements in it, and give it a proper ending, so it doesn't become a fucking never-ending soap opera.

New comment by boznz in "Return of the Nigerian Prince Redux: Beware Book Club and Book Review Scams (2025)"

boznz — Sun, 05 Jul 2026 21:51:41 +0000

Vive la révolution :-)

New comment by boznz in "Return of the Nigerian Prince Redux: Beware Book Club and Book Review Scams (2025)"

boznz — Sun, 05 Jul 2026 01:03:15 +0000

With the whole ecosystem stacked against new and indie authors, and AI getting so good I can see why some people could easily fall for this. I made the tough decision at the start of my Sci-Fi novel writing career to work 100% on the book and 0% on the marketing. It meant I got zero traction and attention in the market (except by word of mouth), and I had to keep my day job, but totally took away all the stress and anxiety.

When I retired last year I took the next logical step and now I give my eBooks away for free, being content with the fact I've achieved something good and I'm giving back to the community.

New comment by boznz in "Memoirs of Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds (1852)"

boznz — Wed, 01 Jul 2026 05:02:44 +0000

>Gutenberg might be ugly, but it was fast to load, had all the data I needed and I was downloading the ePub within 5 seconds.

That wasn't a defense, that was me saying it worked well for me. Looking at it again in light of your comment, I might even not even use the "ugly", it is actually quite a clean layout, easy to use, doesn't waste screen space, and I would double-down on it being perfectly fit for purpose. each to his own I guess.

New comment by boznz in "Antares achieves criticality of Mark-0 reactor"

boznz — Tue, 30 Jun 2026 20:42:11 +0000

The Rolls Royce modular reactor update page [1] leaves me scratching my head as to where they are, it seems they've passed some really hard UK regulation though, maybe the official source is not the best:

[1] https://www.rolls-royce-smr.com/our-progress

New comment by boznz in "Memoirs of Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds (1852)"

boznz — Tue, 30 Jun 2026 20:34:03 +0000

Gutenberg might be ugly, but it was fast to load, had all the data I needed and I was downloading the ePub within 5 seconds. That's a winning formulla these days in my book (no pun intended)

New comment by boznz in "Memoirs of Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds (1852)"

boznz — Tue, 30 Jun 2026 20:28:42 +0000

The book has aged, but humanity hasn't

New comment by boznz in "Show HN: DRM-Free Books"

boznz — Mon, 29 Jun 2026 02:14:10 +0000

Add both my Sci-Fi/Techno-Thriller ePub books to this list DRM Free, and Free as in Beer if you download them off my website. https://rodyne.com/

New comment by boznz in "Samsung demonstrates 3D stacked FETs with triple nanosheet channels at 42nm"

boznz — Tue, 23 Jun 2026 22:09:47 +0000

I take your point, but an IC is not pure silicon

New comment by boznz in "Pre-2022 Books"

boznz — Sun, 21 Jun 2026 01:05:58 +0000

There are still plenty of us writing the book start to finish with all our own words and plots, it is very tempting to use AI to get the cover art correct, but going to a cover artist will these days likely get you the same "AI assisted" creation.

I do have one freely downloadble Sci-Fi book from 2022 which took 10 years in total to write so it might safely pass all your standards, but if a fixed cut off date is your criteria for a good book then there really is no hope for writers like me continuing.

New comment by boznz in "W Social, public institutions and the theater of European digital sovereignty"

boznz — Fri, 19 Jun 2026 04:28:20 +0000

And get confirmation bias on whatever they write from like-minded cronies, without the usual anonymous piss-takers.. kinda sad really!

New comment by boznz in "W Social, public institutions and the theater of European digital sovereignty"

boznz — Thu, 18 Jun 2026 21:31:23 +0000

Yeah, based on the people and organizations moving there, RedSky would be more appropriate.

New comment by boznz in "Why I email complete strangers"

boznz — Tue, 16 Jun 2026 00:33:54 +0000

I receive a dozen or so emails a year from people who read my free sci-fi books. they are generally to say thanks, or to point out spelling errors or something factually incorrect that I have usually fixed. Most are shocked I reply. I guess quite a few also get zapped by my aggressive spam filters, which with the amount of spam I get is going to make it a real problem in the future.