Hacker News: collinmcnulty

New comment by collinmcnulty in "Toxic chemical leak at a manufacturing facility in Orange County"

collinmcnulty — Sun, 24 May 2026 02:22:29 +0000

I think the parent comment is suggesting that residential units should not be allowed to be built around it, rather than that once someone builds a house around it the plant has to shut down.

New comment by collinmcnulty in "Judson's Last Ride"

collinmcnulty — Sun, 24 May 2026 00:33:56 +0000

I am glad that I’ve read your story, and I’m glad that the Internet, for all its faults, is still a place to share stories of our lives with each other.

New comment by collinmcnulty in "GitLab announces workforce reduction and end of their CREDIT values"

collinmcnulty — Mon, 11 May 2026 23:37:12 +0000

That would be any industry where investors expect you to mostly give them money rather than vice versa.

New comment by collinmcnulty in "Why most product tours get skipped"

collinmcnulty — Wed, 06 May 2026 00:49:07 +0000

It’s the difference between taking a shower and getting caught out in the rain.

New comment by collinmcnulty in "Copy Fail"

collinmcnulty — Wed, 29 Apr 2026 20:53:02 +0000

A human security researcher found the core issue and an agent searched for where to apply it. I don’t think “an agent found it in one hour” is a fair summary of what happened.

New comment by collinmcnulty in "I bought Friendster for $30k – Here's what I'm doing with it"

collinmcnulty — Mon, 27 Apr 2026 00:49:33 +0000

I can't imagine how it would be possible to detect a phone in close proximity without allowing this though

New comment by collinmcnulty in "I bought Friendster for $30k – Here's what I'm doing with it"

collinmcnulty — Sun, 26 Apr 2026 23:09:53 +0000

I just signed up and it’s super fast. Download the app, put in your name, allow Bluetooth. No email, no password, nothing.

New comment by collinmcnulty in "An AI agent deleted our production database. The agent's confession is below"

collinmcnulty — Sun, 26 Apr 2026 21:00:55 +0000

And the memento guy had tattoos of key information. That didn’t make it so he didn’t have memory loss.

New comment by collinmcnulty in "Artemis II safely splashes down"

collinmcnulty — Sat, 11 Apr 2026 23:37:55 +0000

My encouragement would be to take this and point to it to make those problems seem tractable, which they are with political will. “We went to the moon! Surely we can …”

Hope is powerful, cynicism is an opiate.

New comment by collinmcnulty in "Artemis II safely splashes down"

collinmcnulty — Sat, 11 Apr 2026 01:08:54 +0000

Watching this, I can only describe it as holy. An incredible reminder of what humanity can do, and the beauty of our curiosity and the universe around us. I grew up learning that my great uncle was in Mission Control for Apollo; missions like this are what inspired me to pursue engineering in the first place.

New comment by collinmcnulty in "Author of "Careless People" banned from saying anything negative about Meta"

collinmcnulty — Sat, 04 Apr 2026 22:59:21 +0000

That's not how NDA's work. They would be useless even for legitimate purposes if they worked that way.

New comment by collinmcnulty in "OpenAI Acquires TBPN"

collinmcnulty — Thu, 02 Apr 2026 23:15:52 +0000

I would like to see a system like New York's campaign finance vouchers, where individual citizens get to decide where the public funds are directed. That way you have to have an audience and you have to appeal to people's sense of what's truly valuable, rather than just trying to farm views.

New comment by collinmcnulty in "Philly courts will ban all smart eyeglasses starting next week"

collinmcnulty — Mon, 30 Mar 2026 12:04:24 +0000

I think social pressure is the best weapon we have against these. The people who use them want to seem cool, so make it seem like these are weird, dorky, and creepy and they won’t take off.

New comment by collinmcnulty in "Britain today generating 90%+ of electricity from renewables"

collinmcnulty — Sat, 28 Mar 2026 13:44:54 +0000

Which, importantly, drives more renewables and storage development because it makes the renewables fantastically profitable to run: near zero cost for you, but paid the price set by gas.

New comment by collinmcnulty in "I tried to prove I'm not AI. My aunt wasn't convinced"

collinmcnulty — Wed, 25 Mar 2026 13:23:20 +0000

You're not sure if human to human interaction is intrinsically more valuable than a human talking to a facsimile? That feels like a very dangerous position to hold for one's ethical calculations and general sanity. I'm clinging tightly to the value of the bond with other people, even the passing connection, but certainly with my family members as this article is about.

New comment by collinmcnulty in "I tried to prove I'm not AI. My aunt wasn't convinced"

collinmcnulty — Wed, 25 Mar 2026 13:13:40 +0000

"Is this a deepfake video call" is a major plot point in a pretty big movie currently in theaters, so I think this is getting into the broader zeitgeist.

New comment by collinmcnulty in "Judge orders government to begin refunding more than $130B in tariffs"

collinmcnulty — Fri, 06 Mar 2026 03:32:13 +0000

I don’t have a source for this handy, but I believe that in terms of goods produced, manufacturing is actually still alive and well in the US. It’s just that this is done by a much smaller and more automated workforce.

New comment by collinmcnulty in "Iran War Cost Tracker"

collinmcnulty — Tue, 03 Mar 2026 21:53:09 +0000

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

New comment by collinmcnulty in "Iran War Cost Tracker"

collinmcnulty — Tue, 03 Mar 2026 21:51:47 +0000

This is not exactly true on the scale of these interventions. The state can't run out of money but it does run out of the time and talent of its people, the resources of its land, and the patience of its partners. State capacity is a real limit, and where we direct the money is a pretty strong proxy for where we spend these, the true resources of the state. We don't pay for bombs with dollars, we pay for them with schools, roads, and hospitals.

New comment by collinmcnulty in "U.S. science agency moves to restrict foreign scientists from its labs"

collinmcnulty — Mon, 02 Mar 2026 16:50:15 +0000

George W Bush sought and received authorization for Iraq from Congress.