<rss version="2.0" xmlns:dc="http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/" xmlns:atom="http://www.w3.org/2005/Atom"><channel><title>Hacker News: devnullbrain</title><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/user?id=devnullbrain</link><description>Hacker News RSS</description><docs>https://hnrss.org/</docs><generator>hnrss v2.1.1</generator><lastBuildDate>Tue, 19 May 2026 21:20:56 +0000</lastBuildDate><atom:link href="https://hnrss.org/user?id=devnullbrain" rel="self" type="application/rss+xml"></atom:link><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by devnullbrain in "Mozilla to UK regulators: VPNs are essential privacy and security tools"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>OK. Is it a sensible thought? Did VPNs exist in 1949?<p>No, it's trite and useless. You don't need to refer to popular literature to talk about authoritarianism, there are plenty of examples in real life.</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Mon, 18 May 2026 00:19:34 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48174366</link><dc:creator>devnullbrain</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48174366</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48174366</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by devnullbrain in "iOS 27 is adding a 'Create a Pass' button to Apple Wallet"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>In addition to the sibling comment: I really dislike opening my Photos app in front of other people.</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Tue, 05 May 2026 23:59:53 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48030417</link><dc:creator>devnullbrain</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48030417</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48030417</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by devnullbrain in "LLM Wiki – example of an "idea file""]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>Aw, I missed it</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Sun, 05 Apr 2026 22:40:04 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47654684</link><dc:creator>devnullbrain</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47654684</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47654684</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by devnullbrain in "LLM Wiki – example of an "idea file""]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>I don't see why this wouldn't just lead to model collapse:<p><a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-024-07566-y" rel="nofollow">https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-024-07566-y</a><p>If you've spent any time using LLMs to write documentation you'll see this for yourself: the compounding will just be rewriting valid information with less terse information.<p>I find it concerning Karpathy doesn't see this. But I'm not surprised, because AI maximalists seem to find it really difficult to be... "normal"?<p>Rule of thumb: if you find yourself needing to broadcast the special LLM sauce you came up with instead of what it helped you produce, ask yourself why.</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Sun, 05 Apr 2026 02:05:27 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47645480</link><dc:creator>devnullbrain</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47645480</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47645480</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by devnullbrain in "Samsung Magician disk utility takes 18 steps and two reboots to uninstall"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>You seem to be blaming the OS for how you broke it?</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Fri, 03 Apr 2026 15:39:41 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47628019</link><dc:creator>devnullbrain</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47628019</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47628019</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by devnullbrain in "C++26 is done: ISO C++ standards meeting Trip Report"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>I'm not the PC but I think you miss most of the pain points due to: 'personal' projects.<p>There's not a compatible format between different compilers, or even different versions of the same compiler, or even the same versions of the same compiler with different flags.<p>This seems immediately to create too many permutations of builds for them to be distributable artifacts as we'd use them in other languages. More like a glorified object file cache. So what problem does it even solve?</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Sun, 29 Mar 2026 21:23:46 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47567487</link><dc:creator>devnullbrain</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47567487</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47567487</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by devnullbrain in "C++26 is done: ISO C++ standards meeting Trip Report"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>Source of quote:<p><a href="https://youtu.be/tzXu5KZGMJk?t=3160" rel="nofollow">https://youtu.be/tzXu5KZGMJk?t=3160</a></p>
]]></description><pubDate>Sun, 29 Mar 2026 21:14:45 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47567391</link><dc:creator>devnullbrain</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47567391</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47567391</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by devnullbrain in "Rob Pike's 5 Rules of Programming"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>How would you have minimised migration costs for std::map?</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Wed, 18 Mar 2026 15:29:58 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47427014</link><dc:creator>devnullbrain</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47427014</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47427014</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by devnullbrain in "Rob Pike’s Rules of Programming (1989)"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>>1. Somebody verifies with the users that speed is actually one of the most burning problems.<p>Sometimes this is too late.<p>C++98 introduce `std::set` and `std::map`. The public interface means that they are effectively constrained to being red-black trees, with poor cache locality and suboptimal lookup. It took until C++11 for `std::unordered_map` and `std::unordered_set`, which brought with them the adage that you should probably use them unless you know you want ordering. Now since C++23 we finally have `std::flat_set` and `std::flat_map`, with contiguous memory layouts. 25 years to half-solve an optimisation problem and naive developers will still be using the wrong thing.<p>As soon as the interface made contact with the public, the opportunity to follow Rob Pike's Rule 5 was lost. If you create something where you're expected to uphold a certain behaviour, you need to consider if the performance of data structures could be a functional constraint.<p>At this point, the rule becomes cyclical and nonsensical: it's not premature if it's the right time to do it. It's not optimisation if it's functional.</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Wed, 18 Mar 2026 14:27:54 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47426232</link><dc:creator>devnullbrain</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47426232</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47426232</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by devnullbrain in "Rob Pike’s Rules of Programming (1989)"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>> and the missing context is essential.<p>Oh yes, I'd recommend everyone who uses the phrase reads the rest of the paper to see the kinds of optimisations that Knuth considers justified. For example, optimising memory accesses in quicksort.</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Wed, 18 Mar 2026 12:41:30 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47425034</link><dc:creator>devnullbrain</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47425034</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47425034</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by devnullbrain in "My “grand vision” for Rust"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>A state machine is a perfect example of a case where you would benefit from linear types.<p>Some things just need precise terminology so humans can communicate about them to humans without ambiguity. It doesn't mean they're inherently complex: the article provides simple definitions. It's the same for most engineering, science and language. One of the most valuable skills I've learned in my career is to differentiate between expressions, statements, items, etc. - how often have you heard that the hardest problem in software development is coordinating with other developers? If you learn proper terminology, you can say exactly what you mean. Simple language doesn't mean more clear.<p>I wasn't born knowing Rust, I had to learn it. So I'm always surprised by complaints about Rust being too complex directed at the many unremarkable people who have undergone this process without issues. What does it say, really? That you're not as good as them at learning things? In what other context do software people on the internet so freely share self-doubt?<p>I also wonder about their career plans for the future. LLMs are already capable of understanding these concepts. The tide is rising.</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Mon, 09 Mar 2026 12:22:25 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47308121</link><dc:creator>devnullbrain</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47308121</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47308121</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by devnullbrain in "My “grand vision” for Rust"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>...a far better place than 2011.</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Mon, 09 Mar 2026 12:03:56 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47307961</link><dc:creator>devnullbrain</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47307961</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47307961</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by devnullbrain in "Fix the iOS keyboard before the timer hits zero or I'm switching back to Android"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>Come on, the 6th word after 5 English words is obviously going to be a rare word in your second keyboard language, not another common English word.</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Sat, 14 Feb 2026 07:53:39 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47012575</link><dc:creator>devnullbrain</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47012575</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47012575</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by devnullbrain in "Art of Roads in Games"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>>You see, the shapes of roads in real life come from an underlying essential fact: the wheel axles of a vehicle. No matter how you drive a car, the distance between the left and right wheels remains constant. You can notice this in tyre tracks in snow or sand. <i>Two perfectly parallel paths</i>, always the same distance apart <i>maintaining a consistent curved shape</i>.<p>Emphasis mine - that's not really true<p>- Cars have differentials, so the wheel speed can differ between wheels<p>- Steering geometry isn't parallel! The tyres turn a different amount when you turn the wheel<p>- Unless you're going in a straight line, cars don't go where the tyres point! Tyres 'pull' the car towards their slip angle<p>What you will actually see in tracks in snow or sand is non-parallel tracks, describing curves of different radii. You can also see this in racetracks, where the path more closely resembles the limits of car physics without care for passenger comfort or tyre wear. The example 'fail' image looks not dissimilar from a hairpin turn.</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Mon, 09 Feb 2026 14:00:37 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46945282</link><dc:creator>devnullbrain</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46945282</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46945282</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by devnullbrain in "Retiring GPT-4o, GPT-4.1, GPT-4.1 mini, and OpenAI o4-mini in ChatGPT"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>Is your take that the way we view sexuality today is not meaningfully different from the Victorian era?</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Fri, 30 Jan 2026 11:31:43 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46823186</link><dc:creator>devnullbrain</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46823186</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46823186</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by devnullbrain in "Tesla ending Models S and X production"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>> Do they have ABS sensors that can detect wheel lockup/speed status? Because I don't.<p>You should fix that. Go out on a rainy day and slam the brakes hard enough for it to kick in. There's an obvious vibration and knowing what it feels like might save your life.</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Fri, 30 Jan 2026 02:43:33 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46819973</link><dc:creator>devnullbrain</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46819973</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46819973</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by devnullbrain in "Tesla ending Models S and X production"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>It's his favourite joke, see Space Sex.</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Thu, 29 Jan 2026 18:53:29 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46814700</link><dc:creator>devnullbrain</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46814700</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46814700</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by devnullbrain in "There is an AI code review bubble"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>This is how you end up with O(n^2) algorithms that 'work' until you run it with production-size data.<p>If the context your code runs in is small enough to be in a test, you're probably not working on anything serious anyway.</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Thu, 29 Jan 2026 00:46:51 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46804104</link><dc:creator>devnullbrain</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46804104</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46804104</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by devnullbrain in "Proton spam and the AI consent problem"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>I have the desktop app open right now. In the top-right corner is a nag saying 'Share your plan'. It's an ad for Proton Duo.<p>I just clicked 'Don't show again'. I get a toast saying you won't show me <i>that</i> offer again and it's immediately replaced with a nag saying 'Refer friends'. It has its own 'Don't show again'.<p>In August 2024 I sent Proton support an email with this text:<p>>I pay 95.88 € a year for Proton and every time I open the webapp or the desktop program, I see this:<p>><a href="https://imgur.com/a/3kE6zJI" rel="nofollow">https://imgur.com/a/3kE6zJI</a><p>>Is there a tier of Proton that doesn't have ads?<p>The support reply told me I can remove the button by clicking on it, then "Don't show again". If I was frustrated enough to email you about it, I'm guessing I clicked it.<p>I have expressly opted out of ads for Proton Duo. You're interpreting this as me opting out of a single ad for Proton Duo. Changing the copy doesn't mean I have opted into comms about it. So I disagree you take this seriously.</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Sat, 24 Jan 2026 00:13:45 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46739692</link><dc:creator>devnullbrain</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46739692</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46739692</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by devnullbrain in "Proton spam and the AI consent problem"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>I had the same problems with Bridge 5 years ago - what platform is  it still needed on?</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Fri, 23 Jan 2026 23:57:17 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46739592</link><dc:creator>devnullbrain</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46739592</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46739592</guid></item></channel></rss>