<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: dotBen</title><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/user?id=dotBen</link><description>Hacker News RSS</description><docs>https://hnrss.org/</docs><generator>hnrss v2.1.1</generator><lastBuildDate>Mon, 03 Aug 2026 23:38:33 +0000</lastBuildDate><atom:link href="https://hnrss.org/user?id=dotBen" rel="self" type="application/rss+xml"></atom:link><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by dotBen in "How Hollywood stopped making movies in Hollywood"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>Stagecraft is just one implementation but you don't think that the Unreal 3D worlds that are used behind it are beginning to be generated with AI?<p>You're right that my relative probably isn't going to be at the top of the list to be hired for that work. He doesn't work in Hollywood level stuff and I also think that he knows he's going to have to fight to stay relevant and compete for the work that's available to him. Fortunately he's at the end of his career and his kids are adults. I think he can see the writing on the wall for his career either way.<p>Color management and maintaining context across multiple renders is actually the conversation we were talking about and the software that he is using has mechanisms to define context across a rendered shots and even across multiple projects. He just wasn't using them as it's an alien concept to him. My point is all of that is possible and solved and will become easier as the market matures.<p>I also have a friend who was significantly involved in Odyssey and I think the reason why so many films are made with film at the moment is because the industry is clinging on to what it believes is authentic when being pushed towards a commoditized race to the bottom.<p>As people stop paying to go to the cinema and Netflix demands tighter and tighter budgets for work, I think we will sadly see the end of this means of production because fewer and fewer people will want to pay for it.<p>The end goal of all of this is actually customized content where the film that I see and the film that you see is different because it's rendered to our tastes. There's a whole school of thought there around a collective experience versus an individual experience, but the technology will allow it if it's completely digitally created and one would assume that will be where it will go.<p>In other words, I might want Odyssey but framed as a horror filmed in noir and you might want Odyssey framed as a rom-com and the AI will just generate the version for us based on the original directors prompt. I actually think that's kind of sad, but that doesn't mean that isn't where things are going.</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Mon, 03 Aug 2026 19:45:01 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49160498</link><dc:creator>dotBen</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49160498</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49160498</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by dotBen in "How Hollywood stopped making movies in Hollywood"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>An interesting read but also feels like the rearranging of the deckchairs on the Titanic given the forthcoming disruption from generative AI in this industry.<p>I spent some time last month with a relative in the industry (camera operator and producer) and he already uses some very sophisticated AI to map out scenes and shots in gen ai full video before they shoot IRL. It's mostly a cost saving exercise as well as occasionally helping to improve the quality of the deliverable.<p>He is totally expecting that the next shift will be that gen ai video will become good enough to be considered the master (ie no need to film) and he is already transferring his skills as a camera operator into prompting and AI assisted scene design.<p>He knows that many different disciplines he works with will all compete for that prompting work and there obviously won't be enough work for everybody to go around.<p>The first part of this is using human actors in front of 360 video stages like The Volume [0] to display the sets (which was pioneered by The Mandalorian) and then ultimately the actors themselves will be AI rendered.<p>And at this point it doesn't matter where this is filmed.<p>I grew up close by to Pinewood Studios 30+years ago - I can't imagine them putting a lot more investment and development into that lot given where this is all going.<p>[0] <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/StageCraft" rel="nofollow">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/StageCraft</a></p>
]]></description><pubDate>Mon, 03 Aug 2026 16:11:33 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49157710</link><dc:creator>dotBen</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49157710</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49157710</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by dotBen in "Building an HTML-first site doubled our users overnight"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p><i>"Old people don't have that because they didn't grow up with computers."</i><p>You know, it's time to stop this trope.<p>People who are 60 today were born in 1966, they probably entered the workforce in the mid 80's.  They probably are not even retired yet.  They know how to use computers, they own a smartphone (or if they don't, it's probably for economic reasons unrelated to their age).<p>As a founder and product manager, this kind of thinking is unhelpful as we design the future.  In many ways it's actually ageist to imply that old people are unable to utilize everyday technology.<p>I was building public service websites (BBC News website) back in the early 2000's where accessibility was a real and important consideration.  Technology progresses, and the bar for accessibility has moved up.<p>My father is about to turn 80 - he checks his heart with his Apple watch, video calls his grandson from his iPad, and asks ChatGPT questions from his iPhone and MacBook Pro.  Maybe he's more unusual for 80yo's but it's time to stop this lazy trope that old people are technically illiterate.<p>(also, shit, I'm only 15 years away from being 60 myself :/ )</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Wed, 10 Jun 2026 15:57:29 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48478294</link><dc:creator>dotBen</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48478294</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48478294</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by dotBen in "Guy Goma's Accidental BBC Interview Lives on After 20 Years"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>I'm familiar with the beef he has with CF, but why put up the fake cloudflare interstitial to me the end user who is just trying to use his service.  I remain confused...</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Mon, 11 May 2026 16:43:26 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48097373</link><dc:creator>dotBen</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48097373</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48097373</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by dotBen in "Pgbackrest is no longer being maintained"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>It's funny how developer time is considered free, but tokens are not.<p>In other words when it comes to FOSS contribution, developer time can be donated but tokens can't - so as we move into agentic code era all FOSS development carries a cost unless it is purely done by hand (which more often it isn't).<p>Not saying this is what is going on here but it's presumably a factor if the author was looking for an employer to sponsor development with his labor (and tokens).</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Mon, 27 Apr 2026 14:56:51 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47922493</link><dc:creator>dotBen</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47922493</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47922493</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[Ask HN: Are startup job titles evolving in the agentic era?]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>I’m curious if founders and engineering leaders feel that traditional job titles no longer accurately describe what an early team actually does in an AI-native workflow.<p>For those of you who have started companies recently, or are radically pivoting toward agentic workflows:<p>Are you sticking to the classics (CTO, VP Eng, PM)? Or are you finding yourselves drawn toward titles that reflect a more "orchestration-heavy" reality?<p>How are you redefining "Manager"? If a lead’s primary "reports" are a fleet of autonomous agents or specialized LLM pipelines rather than a dozen humans, does the title "Engineering Manager" still make sense?<p>The "Full-Stack" Evolution: Are we seeing a shift toward titles like "System Architect" or "Inference Engineer" even at the seed stage?<p>I've noticed that as the ratio of "output per human" shifts, the traditional hierarchy feels a bit clunky. I’d love to hear from anyone who has intentionally renamed roles to better reflect this new reality - or if you think sticking to standard titles is still better for recruiting and clarity.<p>I've returned to operating mode, recently founding a company for thr first time in 15 years, and facing this challenge right now.</p>
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<p>Comments URL: <a href="https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47865757">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47865757</a></p>
<p>Points: 1</p>
<p># Comments: 0</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Wed, 22 Apr 2026 16:20:19 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47865757</link><dc:creator>dotBen</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47865757</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47865757</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by dotBen in "Ask HN: How to solve the cold start problem for a two-sided marketplace?"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>Airmule. (There may have been others).<p>From my recollection the issues were that it is against the terms and conditions of many carriers to bring packages for other people.<p>What was being shipped was also dubious - sure it wasn't drugs but it was often ASIC chips, strange hardware from China etc.<p>I don't think I would want to take any packages in this way, but I certainly would be worried about export control stuff.<p>This is not a viable startup to be honest.</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Mon, 20 Apr 2026 19:56:41 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47839709</link><dc:creator>dotBen</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47839709</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47839709</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by dotBen in "Turning a MacBook into a touchscreen with $1 of hardware (2018)"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>I wouldn't want a touchscreen MBP even if it was free, anyone else feel similar?<p>I don't get the draw - we already optimize for keyboard commands to avoid living our fingers over to a touchpad.  Why would I want to start clicking on my screen?<p>If you're using your computer for tasks (rather than entertainment) and you're not a visual designer, I don't get why Apple are apparently going to be putting them into the new MBP line later this year.</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Mon, 30 Mar 2026 20:46:33 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47579511</link><dc:creator>dotBen</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47579511</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47579511</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by dotBen in "Running Tesla Model 3's computer on my desk using parts from crashed cars"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>Up until v recently cars were not remotely accessible and part of a command-and-control network which Teslas are <i>(perhaps other modern cars are too, I only know Tesla because I have one)</i>.<p>I know that the car reports practically all user events to Tesla in real time over the cell network (eg, open door), and I know it has root access.  I don't know if that root is available remotely and I don't know if foundational commands like steering, acceleration and brake are accessible via the CLI (they are computer controlled actions locally)<p>THUS I would not want to drive a Tesla if there was the possibility of all cars being rooted and remotely controlled by an unauthorized actor.</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Thu, 26 Mar 2026 17:49:14 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47533518</link><dc:creator>dotBen</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47533518</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47533518</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by dotBen in "Cloudflare flags archive.today as "C&C/Botnet"; no longer resolves via 1.1.1.2"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>People are painting this as a mutually exclusive ideological decision.  Yet two things can be true:<p>1) The act of archive.today archiving stories (and thus circumventing paywalls) is arguably v low level illegal (computer miss-use/unauthorized access/etc) but it is up for interpretation whether a) the operator or the person requesting the page carries the most responsibility b) whether it's enforceable in third party countries neither archive.today or the page requester reside in<p>2) DDoSing a site that writes something bad about you is fundamentally wrong (and probably illegal too)</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Sun, 22 Mar 2026 20:11:34 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47481624</link><dc:creator>dotBen</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47481624</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47481624</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by dotBen in "Fix the iOS keyboard before the timer hits zero or I'm switching back to Android"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>Just use Android (Google stock not Samsung). Come over, the water is great.<p>Yeah he's right - my Pixel 10 is not as sexy as an iPhone but not only is the keyboard great but the AI integration is first class citizen.<p>iOS will never have first class citizen AI even if Apple finally develop their own model because Apple doesn't control the user's data.</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Fri, 13 Feb 2026 19:42:17 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47006848</link><dc:creator>dotBen</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47006848</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47006848</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by dotBen in "Waymo seeking about $16B near $110B valuation"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>It makes particular sense for vertically integrated conglomerates like Amazon-Whole Foods which owns Zoox.<p>I buy Whole Foods French fries shipped to the store via Amazon logistics and purchase those at Amazon owned Whole Foods, at a discount via my Prime membership on my Amazon credit card which is processed on AWS infrastructure and I ride home on an Amazon owned Zoox that also runs on AWS infrastructure.<p>Amazon owns so much of the profit margin across that stack that they can afford to give rides away for example.</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Mon, 02 Feb 2026 17:24:41 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46858565</link><dc:creator>dotBen</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46858565</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46858565</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by dotBen in "Waymo seeking about $16B near $110B valuation"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>Well, given that it is an equity sale, split still feels like it is the prorated amount so that alphabet continues to own its percentage - not more not less.<p>Obviously you're entitled to your view, but I don't think it's that kind of finance model right now - it's far too speculative and the upside too unknown to be adjusting for small amounts on risk models.</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Mon, 02 Feb 2026 17:19:20 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46858494</link><dc:creator>dotBen</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46858494</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46858494</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by dotBen in "Waymo seeking about $16B near $110B valuation"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>I guess that's semantics. If you <i>opt in</i> then yes I guess they could do anything. I think the point was that enshitification would occur if they forced you to do that.<p>You could opt in to have blood or plasma taken on every ride if you so wanted I guess.</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Mon, 02 Feb 2026 16:07:00 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46857590</link><dc:creator>dotBen</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46857590</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46857590</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by dotBen in "Waymo seeking about $16B near $110B valuation"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>/cries into my Uber shares and the deletion of the Uber ATG repos when the parts were sold to Aurora.</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Mon, 02 Feb 2026 16:05:20 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46857559</link><dc:creator>dotBen</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46857559</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46857559</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by dotBen in "Waymo seeking about $16B near $110B valuation"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>What I'm talking about is that is still considered an external capital raise for the purpose of the markets and where those assets sit on the balance sheet.<p>Also, keep in mind the Alphabet doesn't fully own Waymo. I don't know the percentage ownership of hand, but that also feels like it's probably a prorated investment based on ownership so Alphabet doesn't reduce its voting control.<p>That's what I'm talking about.</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Mon, 02 Feb 2026 16:03:31 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46857525</link><dc:creator>dotBen</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46857525</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46857525</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by dotBen in "Mozilla is building an AI 'rebel alliance' to take on OpenAI, Anthropic"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>Sure and my time is limited.<p>The last I heard was that the Google rev-share agreement was on the skids and they stopped developing projects like Thunderbird and Fake Spotter because they were capital constrained.<p>If you know otherwise then you're better informed than I am I guess</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Mon, 02 Feb 2026 16:01:54 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46857496</link><dc:creator>dotBen</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46857496</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46857496</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by dotBen in "Waymo seeking about $16B near $110B valuation"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>They already will be selling your ride data and there is no way they could monitor conversations in the car for commercial purposes (at least in Western countries).<p>Ads in cars, partnerships with alternative destinations, etc. definitely would feel like enshitification for a demographic comparable to the hacker news one here. But these are all per session/user settings just like most of us have a paid Spotify account and never see advertising and those who don't get a very different monetized experience.<p>What is exciting about monetization like this is the possibility for rides to become very cheap or even free. If my dentist offers free rides to the office in return for my loyalty, I'm quite happy to take that.</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Mon, 02 Feb 2026 15:57:31 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46857443</link><dc:creator>dotBen</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46857443</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46857443</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by dotBen in "Waymo seeking about $16B near $110B valuation"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>It's a very capital intensive operation given the amount of vehicles that need to be carried on the balance sheet.<p>There are many reasons why a conglomerate like Alphabet doesn't want to hold all of that directly on the balance sheet, which is why Waymo is run as a subsidiary with its own sources of capital.<p>When I was at Uber 10 plus years ago and we were ideating autonomous vehicles. The general consensus was that we would run the technology platform and private equity would own fleets of cars built and operated to our specification.<p>Waymo has concluded either we are too early in the journey to decouple the tight vertical integration or they want to go very big and own all of the capital expenditure for what will presumably be a global rollout ultimately.<p>For anyone like me with a finance and technology crossover interest I actually think this is as interesting, maybe more interesting, than the private equity play around data centers at the moment because all of that is constrained against chip delivery and power constraints.</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Mon, 02 Feb 2026 15:53:15 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46857387</link><dc:creator>dotBen</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46857387</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46857387</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by dotBen in "Mozilla is building an AI 'rebel alliance' to take on OpenAI, Anthropic"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>The concern, I think, is that their spare cash is dwindling and thus financial prudence might be beneficial - especially for those who rely on the core Mozilla propositions like Firefox.</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Thu, 29 Jan 2026 17:21:22 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46813232</link><dc:creator>dotBen</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46813232</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46813232</guid></item></channel></rss>