Hacker News: csb6

New comment by csb6 in "The AI zombification of universities"

csb6 — Thu, 14 May 2026 21:26:35 +0000

In the United States, "college" and "university" are generally used interchangeably. I absolutely agree with your second point and the shift has been going on so long that people are genuinely baffled by the idea that college should not just be "white-collar vocational school"

New comment by csb6 in "How do I deal with memory leaks? (2022)"

csb6 — Fri, 08 May 2026 19:27:54 +0000

The FAQ was mostly written before C++11 with some updates since then. I don't think he is rewriting every code snippet to match modern styles. It is an enormous FAQ and not meant as an introduction to the language.

New comment by csb6 in "In Blow to Democrats, Virginia Court Strikes Down House Map"

csb6 — Fri, 08 May 2026 19:12:06 +0000

This whole gerrymandering war really shows the tremendous dysfunction of the American political system. A state legislature's ruling party has such a strong incentive to gerrymander that it is extremely hard to pass reforms such as independent redistricting commissions. (my state is lucky enough to have citizen ballot initiatives that can bypass the legislature, but not all states have that process)

In a functioning system the U.S. Supreme Court would step in and check the power of all legislatures to gerrymander, ending the tit-for-tat redistricting, but this Court has instead chosen to fan the flames by reducing barriers to gerrymandering. (whether racial or political party based)

I wouldn't be surprised if they strike down independent redistricting commissions in a future case given their recent decisions on independent agencies. The 5-4 decision in Arizona State Legislature v. Arizona Independent Redistricting Commission likely wouldn't be decided the same today given the changes in the court's composition since 2015. So it goes.

New comment by csb6 in "This Month in Ladybird – April 2026"

csb6 — Sun, 03 May 2026 21:27:41 +0000

I've never understood that stance because surely the mere threat (even implied) of a sponsor removing thousands in funding would be enough to exert influence on the project.

The sponsor money is used to pay developers to work on Ladybird so a major sponsor pulling out could mean laying off core developers, which the project would obviously be motivated to prevent.

GNAT: The GNU Ada Compiler (2004) [pdf]

csb6 — Mon, 27 Apr 2026 02:24:15 +0000

Article URL: https://www.adacore.com/uploads/books/gnat-book.pdf

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47917062

Points: 3

# Comments: 0

New comment by csb6 in "Sergey Brin Confronted Gavin Newsom"

csb6 — Sun, 26 Apr 2026 22:20:45 +0000

I am skeptical billionaires will actually leave their mansions in Malibu or Santa Barbara in any significant numbers just because of higher taxes they can easily afford to pay.

New comment by csb6 in "Ada, its design, and the language that built the languages"

csb6 — Fri, 17 Apr 2026 15:26:51 +0000

Ada 83 did have generics - maybe you meant OOP support? That wasn't added until Ada 95.

New comment by csb6 in "Sports bets on prediction markets ruled to be "swaps," exempt from state laws"

csb6 — Tue, 07 Apr 2026 23:21:31 +0000

If profit is the measure of utility, then gambling is just as useful: a winning bet makes you a profit or reduces your overall losses (depending on how you view it). But fundamentally you are making a bet that some future dice roll will go your way. It is still gambling.

New comment by csb6 in "Sports bets on prediction markets ruled to be "swaps," exempt from state laws"

csb6 — Tue, 07 Apr 2026 22:16:15 +0000

The key contradiction is that financial speculation and gambling are a distinction without a difference. Financial speculation is just now more accessible and widespread than ever due to the accessibility and aggressive promotion of gambling/stock trading/crypto trading apps/websites.

Rather than reigning in financial speculation and gambling our institutions seem to have resolved the contradiction by reclassifying gambling as a legitimate "market".

New comment by csb6 in "The house is a work of art: Frank Lloyd Wright"

csb6 — Sat, 04 Apr 2026 21:20:38 +0000

A house can be aesthetically appealing and matched to its surroundings without being leaky or damp. A house that is ugly and out of place can also be leaky and damp (they often are because those architects often are also prioritizing form over function, but an ugly form instead of an appealing form).

New comment by csb6 in "The house is a work of art: Frank Lloyd Wright"

csb6 — Sat, 04 Apr 2026 15:40:53 +0000

> They should be trying to mesh with and improve the neighborhood they are in. They should be rooted in time and place.

I take it you are not familiar with FLW's philosophy? He believed buildings should mirror their environment using local materials and forms that fit into the landscape. He definitely wasn't in favor of the houses you seem to be describing, which don't fit their environment or local nature. That doesn't mean his buildings can't be considered beautiful or art. Art can fit into and mirror its environment.

New comment by csb6 in "Miscellanea: The War in Iran"

csb6 — Wed, 25 Mar 2026 07:12:32 +0000

There is no evidence Iran has an active nuclear weapons program or has had one since the early 2000s, which even the article's author seems not to know. They have enriched uranium that could be further processed and used to make weapons, but there is no evidence they are doing so or have the capability to do so (and no, Israeli government/military sources are not reliable. They have every interest to lie about Iran having/nearly having nuclear weapons)

New comment by csb6 in "Forget Flags and Scripts: Just Rename the File"

csb6 — Wed, 18 Mar 2026 16:40:59 +0000

It just doesn't seem that hard to send someone a message stating: "Run foo.exe --bar from command prompt/the terminal"

New comment by csb6 in "Forget Flags and Scripts: Just Rename the File"

csb6 — Wed, 18 Mar 2026 05:25:14 +0000

Seems a lot easier to have a --help flag that lists all of the options and their function. That is self-documenting (assuming the descriptions are useful) and helps with discovery. Changing the name of the file to foo--bar.exe doesn't seem any easier than writing foo.exe --bar

New comment by csb6 in "Separating the Wayland compositor and window manager"

csb6 — Sun, 15 Mar 2026 20:58:13 +0000

Interpreters for Python, Lua, etc. can be embedded so using them does not require a separate process.

New comment by csb6 in "Separating the Wayland compositor and window manager"

csb6 — Sun, 15 Mar 2026 20:15:25 +0000

I was responding to this comment in the article and wondering about the historical context:

> Although, I do not know for sure why the original Wayland authors chose to combine the window manager and Wayland compositor, I assume it was simply the path of least resistance.

New comment by csb6 in "Separating the Wayland compositor and window manager"

csb6 — Sun, 15 Mar 2026 20:07:32 +0000

Yeah, that makes sense. It seems like instead of introducing another IPC protocol like this project does, there could be a compositor that loads different window managers as plugins. Then everything is in the same process and there is no need for async communication. Of course a crash in the window manager would take down the compositor, but this is already true for Wayland compositors that combine both.

New comment by csb6 in "Jeff Bezos wants Washington Post’s newsroom budget halved, productivity doubled"

csb6 — Sun, 15 Mar 2026 19:58:42 +0000

> Was it moral or good for the American republic? Again, he is not an elected official so it doesn’t matter.

Not sure where you have gotten this idea that morality or "doing the right thing" only applies to elected officials. The choices people make can be criticized even if those choices were legal or beneficial for their investors.

Destroying the credibility of a leading newspaper for some lucrative government contracts seems to be a net loss for society, but hey, at least Amazon's investors are happy and Bezos' tremendously unprofitable space company has some more cash.

New comment by csb6 in "Separating the Wayland compositor and window manager"

csb6 — Sun, 15 Mar 2026 19:47:34 +0000

Wasn't one of Wayland's key design features combining the window manager and compositor? I am not too familiar with its history but surely there have been presentations or papers about the Wayland designers' reasoning for doing so.

New comment by csb6 in "Jeff Bezos wants Washington Post’s newsroom budget halved, productivity doubled"

csb6 — Sun, 15 Mar 2026 07:52:57 +0000

> Who cares anyway today about newspapers and tv

Maybe the subscribers of the Post? They (reportedly) left in droves after Bezos interfered to stop the opinion board from endorsing a candidate and more recently fired nearly all international reporters. (including those in warzones)

He owns the paper and can do what he wants within the bounds of the law, but anyone is also free to criticize the decisions he makes, and subscribers are free to unsubscribe.

Criticism is about what someone ought to do, not what they can do. (these are very different)