Hacker News: dfxm12

New comment by dfxm12 in "California farmers are struggling to sell grapes as demand for wine drops"

dfxm12 — Tue, 29 Sep 2026 01:56:01 +0000

There are definitely people who prefer it instead of alcohol

Consider that these people may not want to break the law or didn't know what their preference until they were legally able to try it.

New comment by dfxm12 in "Pirating the Pirates"

dfxm12 — Tue, 29 Sep 2026 01:34:52 +0000

What are all the "made up portions" of this work of fiction?

New comment by dfxm12 in "Neal Stephenson responds with wit and humor (2004)"

dfxm12 — Mon, 28 Sep 2026 20:40:17 +0000

Perhaps the biggest loss of cryptocurrency being branded as "crypto" is losing the Matt Blaze's thoughts on cryptography (and in turn, how this informed Stephenson's thoughts on these topics).

Anyway, in case you were curious:

Hobbs: https://web.archive.org/web/20041204055248/http://www.crypto...

Master Key: https://web.archive.org/web/20041022021127/http://www.crypto...

New comment by dfxm12 in "Musk, the Movie"

dfxm12 — Mon, 28 Sep 2026 14:01:21 +0000

Larry's son, yes.

New comment by dfxm12 in "Musk, the Movie"

dfxm12 — Mon, 28 Sep 2026 03:39:06 +0000

HBO owns the rights, and it is intended to end up on HBO/HBOMax as a four part series. Interestingly, HBO's parent company is merging with Paramount, owned by David Ellison. Ellison is asking Musk for money to invest in this new company. So, Musk might end up owning it in the end...

New comment by dfxm12 in "As A.I. Makes Law Firms More Efficient, Clients Ask: 'Where's My Discount?'"

dfxm12 — Mon, 28 Sep 2026 02:50:49 +0000

Setting aside the unreliability of AI, healthcare is already expensive and confusing. It's hard to know what's covered or not ahead of time and it sucks to feel nickel and dimed on something that is already so expensive, especially when you consider we are not trained medical professionals, so we can't really have an informed opinion on what this is really worth...

New comment by dfxm12 in "When did Google get so weird?"

dfxm12 — Sun, 27 Sep 2026 21:58:12 +0000

The more simple explanation is that the current government in power is over exposed in their AI investment. The normal conservative mainstream media was already doing a great job of propagandizing older populations.

New comment by dfxm12 in "When did Google get so weird?"

dfxm12 — Sun, 27 Sep 2026 21:52:36 +0000

And it's going to get worse over time (kinda like how Google search results got worse over time) as ads get introduced and people try to game the ai response. General purpose AI chatbots are a waste.

New comment by dfxm12 in "Allow Carriers on Planes"

dfxm12 — Fri, 25 Sep 2026 17:36:47 +0000

Do you have any evidence on this? As a personal anecdote, driving is as much a hassle if not more than flying, depending on the distance. I care more about cost first and time second. Even if you buffer in getting to the airport 2 hours early, flying is almost certainly the fastest (compared to driving and train, if available) unless you're flying from like, bos -> nyc. Security at airports hasnt felt like a hassle for me in years (at least the past six years).

I had two recent trips to the same destination. I drove once because it was so much cheaper (during the world cup when air fare was jacked up) compared to the train or flying. I flew the other time, because it was only a little more expensive and flying is faster and less of a hassle, actually.

Additionally, given the article talks about families, the cost comes down a lot with multiple people in one car vs multiple plane tickets. If we want to make travel safer by putting fewer cars on the road, make alternatives cheaper. They're already more convenient to me...

New comment by dfxm12 in "Uproar in France over award-winning author accused of using AI"

dfxm12 — Fri, 25 Sep 2026 11:36:33 +0000

It's hard to think this isn't anything but targeted

By whom?

A simpler (and easy to think of) explanation is normal systemic racism. Black writers are likely underrepresented in the training data begin with, so the models assume Black writing can't be real.

New comment by dfxm12 in "The Mafia may be keeping fentanyl out of Italy"

dfxm12 — Fri, 25 Sep 2026 11:26:19 +0000

Tell this to junk food manufacturers...

New comment by dfxm12 in "California is chasing wealth that has feet"

dfxm12 — Fri, 25 Sep 2026 02:10:12 +0000

you spend your money to just get around paying your small share

I wonder how much they spend on lobbying compared to what their tax bill would be.

Comedic article related: https://www.mcsweeneys.net/articles/i-will-pay-any-amount-to...

New comment by dfxm12 in "OpenAI is enlisting an influencer army to make it look 'good for the world'"

dfxm12 — Wed, 23 Sep 2026 14:23:23 +0000

These are all regulated in ways openai (or ai in general) isn't. Many of which have specific regulations around advertising.

New comment by dfxm12 in "Pentagon says overreliance on AI contributed to missile strike on Iran school"

dfxm12 — Tue, 22 Sep 2026 20:13:51 +0000

They'll probably be dead by then. It's nihilistic. After us, the deluge...

New comment by dfxm12 in "US troop deaths during Iran war exceed Pentagon count by at least four"

dfxm12 — Sat, 19 Sep 2026 00:04:10 +0000

It'll remain bad unless these people face the proper punishment for selling out the country.

New comment by dfxm12 in "US troop deaths during Iran war exceed Pentagon count by at least four"

dfxm12 — Fri, 18 Sep 2026 23:58:40 +0000

Trump was president before. People didn't vote for him a second time if they wanted to improve the economy.

New comment by dfxm12 in "US troop deaths during Iran war exceed Pentagon count by at least four"

dfxm12 — Fri, 18 Sep 2026 23:54:24 +0000

It's 2016. Candidate Trump rails on Bush and his decision to get involved in Iraq.

He's not just a liar. He sold out his country.

New comment by dfxm12 in "There's no point at which turning your brain off will work"

dfxm12 — Fri, 18 Sep 2026 18:11:43 +0000

If the only metrics your managers have on your Claude usage is visual inspection/conversational, I think you'll be ok...

New comment by dfxm12 in "More than 100k people in Japan are now aged 100 or older"

dfxm12 — Fri, 18 Sep 2026 00:36:56 +0000

From experience, elder care is more of a drain on the younger family members than the elder. It's not just financial either. Needing to take off from work to take the elderly somewhere, making sure they understand the medical situation, etc. Every country/situation is different though. Maybe pensioners in France can afford their own care, but I'm assuming they can't drive themselves to the doctor.

New comment by dfxm12 in "Lucasart's Afterlife"

dfxm12 — Thu, 17 Sep 2026 15:58:29 +0000

What I like about sim city 2K is that it is like an arcade sim game. It is super easy to get up and running without too much prior knowledge. You can build a successful city without reading through the manual.

I also like that there's no ending. Maybe this makes it "easy", but it promotes setting specific goals for yourself and exploration rather than going through certain expected motions to meet a preset goal. But there are the scenarios for people who like a preset challenge.