Hacker News: dghf

New comment by dghf in "The Mushroom That Makes People Have the Exact Same Hallucination"

dghf — Mon, 27 Apr 2026 12:22:58 +0000

I was under the impression that the "machine elves" were very different from the tiny people described in this article.

New comment by dghf in "Wit, unker, Git: The lost medieval pronouns of English intimacy"

dghf — Thu, 09 Apr 2026 15:02:55 +0000

The Wannadies had to go with "You & Me Song" https://youtu.be/t_e_45Szprk?si=4JVZHZzguqm3SFHN

New comment by dghf in "The road signs that teach travellers about France"

dghf — Mon, 30 Mar 2026 09:55:27 +0000

The ones in the UK are much more minimalist: logos and symbols rather than detailed drawings.

New comment by dghf in "Apple Just Lost Me"

dghf — Wed, 25 Mar 2026 16:32:06 +0000

That mentions app stores, but I can't see anything about device-level age-verification there.

Also, does Ofcom have the power under the Online Safety Act to mandate app-store verification (or device-level verification, for that matter)? Or would it require secondary, or even primary, legislation?

New comment by dghf in "Apple Just Lost Me"

dghf — Wed, 25 Mar 2026 15:08:19 +0000

> it is fundamentally the UK’s fault by requiring such draconian measures

It would appear the UK doesn't:

> Ofcom, the UK’s communications regulator, praised Apple for the decision, especially since it’s not required to implement age verification for the iOS or its App Store under the region’s Online Safety Act.

-- https://www.engadget.com/big-tech/apple-introduces-age-verif...

New comment by dghf in "Apple Just Lost Me"

dghf — Wed, 25 Mar 2026 15:07:05 +0000

To counter your downvoters:

-- https://www.engadget.com/big-tech/apple-introduces-age-verif...

New comment by dghf in "Apple Just Lost Me"

dghf — Wed, 25 Mar 2026 15:05:53 +0000

https://www.engadget.com/big-tech/apple-introduces-age-verif...

New comment by dghf in "Is it a pint?"

dghf — Tue, 24 Mar 2026 07:31:08 +0000

Apologies, I was specifically replying to your last sentence, "Every other drink has to use in metric."

New comment by dghf in "Is it a pint?"

dghf — Mon, 23 Mar 2026 20:12:00 +0000

Many Americans do claim to use imperial units. They’re wrong, but they do claim it.

New comment by dghf in "Is it a pint?"

dghf — Mon, 23 Mar 2026 20:09:57 +0000

But that just means the quantity has to be expressed in metric units, possibly in addition to imperial, correct? E.g. I currently have a carton of milk in my fridge that’s labelled “2272ml 4 pints”.

New comment by dghf in "Is it a pint?"

dghf — Mon, 23 Mar 2026 16:39:19 +0000

This is why I get agitated when Americans claim to use imperial units. If they did, their pints would be the correct size.

New comment by dghf in "4Chan mocks £520k fine for UK online safety breaches"

dghf — Fri, 20 Mar 2026 11:13:01 +0000

I think I've heard something similar -- that subjects have duties while citizens have rights.

But of course, citizens typically also have duties -- commonly, the duty to take up arms to defend the state -- and subjects can legitimately expect a reciprocity of obligations from the sovereign (e.g. the enforcement of the "King's Peace"), which sounds quite a bit like rights to me.

(All of which is a verbose and not very coherent way of saying that I agree with you.)

New comment by dghf in "4Chan mocks £520k fine for UK online safety breaches"

dghf — Fri, 20 Mar 2026 09:36:07 +0000

This myth keeps getting repeated. It hasn't been true since 1949, when British subjects in the UK became Citizens of the United Kingdom and Colonies.

In 1983, the status of CUKC was renamed to British citizen (for those CUKCs resident in or closely connected with the UK: the situation in the remaining colonies was more complicated). At the same time, the status of British subject was officially restricted to those few British subjects who didn't qualify for citizenship of the UK or of any other Commonwealth country in 1949, and who were formerly known as "British subjects without citizenship".

So we are officially and legally citizens, not subjects.

New comment by dghf in "Afroman found not liable in defamation case"

dghf — Thu, 19 Mar 2026 13:33:47 +0000

Tip from a “confidential informant”, I believe I read somewhere.

New comment by dghf in "Afroman found not liable in defamation case"

dghf — Thu, 19 Mar 2026 13:32:08 +0000

I would’ve posted to say what I think, but I got high.

New comment by dghf in "RFC 454545 – Human Em Dash Standard"

dghf — Tue, 10 Mar 2026 16:07:44 +0000

Modern British style tends to prefer spaced en dashes over tight-set em dashes for parenthetical phrases.

New comment by dghf in "Show HN: I Was Here – Draw on street view, others can find your drawings"

dghf — Tue, 10 Mar 2026 13:01:03 +0000

> The Hakenkreuz is tilted at an angle

Not always:

* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Personal_standard_of_Adolf_Hit...

* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cross_of_Honour_of_the_German_...

New comment by dghf in "Workers who love ‘synergizing paradigms’ might be bad at their jobs"

dghf — Fri, 06 Mar 2026 14:30:06 +0000

Wouldn't that be synthesising paradigms?

New comment by dghf in "Arabic document from 17th-cent. rubbish heap confirms semi-legendary Nubian king"

dghf — Thu, 05 Mar 2026 11:23:05 +0000

Is six hundred years ago more than a few? Chaucer is still more or less comprehensible. (Though Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, from roughly the same time, not so much.)

New comment by dghf in "The beauty and terror of modding Windows"

dghf — Tue, 03 Mar 2026 11:50:34 +0000

How is it bigotry? I've never met anyone who likes, say, "Baby Shark" (well, anyone with an age in double-digits). I'd be surprised if many -- possibly any -- exist. But if they do, well, de gustibus non est disputandum. None of my business, and I bear no ill-will towards them.