Hacker News: cillian64

New comment by cillian64 in "Who owns the code Claude Code wrote?"

cillian64 — Tue, 28 Apr 2026 12:34:27 +0000

To look at it another way, just because some code I work on at my job is derived from open source MIT-licensed code doesn't mean I personally have the right to distribute it if my company doesn't want me to. I'd guess this comes under some generic "confidential information" clause in the employment contract.

New comment by cillian64 in "Solar panels at Lidl? Plug-in versions set to appear in shops"

cillian64 — Wed, 01 Apr 2026 12:54:33 +0000

It'll be the same as larger inverters for roof-top solar - they are constantly monitoring the mains cycle and will shut off if the voltage (or probably frequency too?) goes out of range, let alone drops out entirely. The relevant standards in the UK are G98/G99.

New comment by cillian64 in "The Appalling Stupidity of Spotify's AI DJ"

cillian64 — Sun, 15 Mar 2026 09:12:04 +0000

If you weren't aware, the HN guidelines now include:

> Don't post generated comments or AI-edited comments. HN is for conversation between humans.

New comment by cillian64 in "MacBook Neo"

cillian64 — Wed, 04 Mar 2026 16:05:15 +0000

Two advantages for me: It's nice that you don't break the connector if you trip over the cable or put the laptop down on a soft surface, and it's nice being able to charge while still using both USB-C ports (although I guess 3x USB-C would also solve that).

I don't really see any downside to a proprietary connector if you also have the option to charge over USB-C as well.

New comment by cillian64 in "Ubiquiti SFP Wizard"

cillian64 — Tue, 28 Oct 2025 15:19:27 +0000

Isn't this exactly the same as flexoptix and FS have been doing for years?

Raspberry Pi 500 plus

cillian64 — Thu, 25 Sep 2025 07:04:59 +0000

Article URL: https://www.raspberrypi.com/products/raspberry-pi-500-plus/

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45370021

Points: 19

# Comments: 4

New comment by cillian64 in "I bought the cheapest EV, a used Nissan Leaf"

cillian64 — Fri, 05 Sep 2025 09:37:52 +0000

The trick with neutral in the leaf is that you have to hold the gear selector in the neutral direction for about a second. No relation to brake pedal timing as far as I can tell. No idea why neutral has that delay given none of the other “gears” do.

New comment by cillian64 in "In a first, Google has released data on how much energy an AI prompt uses"

cillian64 — Thu, 21 Aug 2025 15:28:23 +0000

One random preprint I found (https://arxiv.org/html/2505.09598v2) estimates inference is 90% of the total energy usage. From some googling around, everything seems to agree that inference dominates (or is at least comparable to) training on the large commonly-used models.

I was less surprised that inference dominates training after I read that chatgpt is serving billions of requests per day.

New comment by cillian64 in "How to teach your kids to play poker: Start with one card"

cillian64 — Tue, 12 Aug 2025 08:18:32 +0000

Matt Levine is “known for his humorous, witty, deadpan writing style” - I’m pretty sure that’s a joke.

New comment by cillian64 in "LibreLingo – FOSS Alternative to Duolingo"

cillian64 — Tue, 29 Apr 2025 14:49:47 +0000

> Because duolingo is designed for addiction

For people who have trouble keeping up hobbies, that's a feature. Even if duolingo isn't the ideal way to learn, it's a lot better than something I give up on or forget about after a week.

New comment by cillian64 in "How Core Git Developers Configure Git"

cillian64 — Thu, 27 Feb 2025 13:34:42 +0000

I have a load of these shell aliases as I spend a frankly ridiculous amount of time messing with git. `g` is `git status`, `d` is `git diff`, `gad` is `git add`, `ds` is `git diff --staged`, `gg` is `git grep`, `gbv` is `git branch -va`

New comment by cillian64 in "It is not a compiler error (2017)"

cillian64 — Mon, 24 Feb 2025 17:37:19 +0000

Compared to the amount of code that people compile and the number of bugs seen and fixed in that code, that is a tiny number of bugs. I wouldn't say it's "never" a compiler error but when you find a bug in your program, it's almost certainly not the compiler's fault.

New comment by cillian64 in "PCBs, copper pours, ground planes, and you"

cillian64 — Thu, 30 Jan 2025 09:10:49 +0000

That article says that they only add copper in the handling/bridging parts of the panel, not to the actual finished PCB.

New comment by cillian64 in "Apple AI alert falsely claims Luke Littler has won darts final"

cillian64 — Fri, 03 Jan 2025 18:26:21 +0000

Other examples from the article but not in the headline:

Meanwhile, a separate AI summary told some users of the BBC Sport app that "Brazilian tennis player, Rafael Nadal, comes out as gay".

Apple AI alert falsely claims Luke Littler has won darts final

cillian64 — Fri, 03 Jan 2025 18:23:58 +0000

Article URL: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cx27zwp7jpxo

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42588139

Points: 10

# Comments: 3

New comment by cillian64 in "Replace Philips Hue Automation with Home Assistant's"

cillian64 — Mon, 09 Dec 2024 11:33:43 +0000

Yep, for me the reason to go with Hue is that the bulbs have good CRI, good colors, and the colors match between all the different types of fixtures. I've also not had a single Hue bulb fail in the 6 years I've been using them.

New comment by cillian64 in "Raspberry Pi CM5 is a faster, drop-in upgrade"

cillian64 — Wed, 27 Nov 2024 11:28:10 +0000

There is quite a bit of variation between SD cards, browser taking several seconds is surprisingly bad.

On Pi 4 I use a 2.5" SATA SSD (WD blue) on a startech USB3 adaptor and the performance seems to me much better than even good quality microsd cards.

New comment by cillian64 in "Hack GPON – how to access, change and edit fibre ONTs"

cillian64 — Wed, 25 Sep 2024 07:49:32 +0000

In some places it sounds like the ONT is integrated with the router (like with DOCSIS), and being forced to use the ISP’s router is a problem.

But in cases where the ONT just looks like a media converter and you have a separate router I really can’t see any reason for the customer to provide their own ONT. Especially given PON is a shared medium so a misbehaving ONT can affect other customers.

New comment by cillian64 in "Microsoft Word just fixed its default paste option"

cillian64 — Tue, 14 May 2024 06:38:13 +0000

In many contexts Ctrl+Shift+V will paste without formatting, but I’m still a bit hazy on exactly when it does/doesn’t work

New comment by cillian64 in "Firefox Webserial Addon"

cillian64 — Fri, 03 May 2024 13:55:17 +0000

If that’s the argument against, it could just be denied by default and require the user to go into settings to allow. The annoyance isn’t too bad given webserial is probably only used on occasion, and it means no concerns about consent spam or fingerprinting.