Hacker News: dpkirchner

New comment by dpkirchner in "Plunging test scores are a slow-moving catastrophe"

dpkirchner — Sat, 26 Sep 2026 19:43:04 +0000

Hell, let's just reduce the Medicare eligibility age (alllll the way down) so everyone can afford the care they need or would benefit from.

New comment by dpkirchner in "'We hacked the FBI:' Hackers say they have data on all FBI employees"

dpkirchner — Wed, 23 Sep 2026 14:25:58 +0000

I kind of feel sorry for the people who were hired the day after that policy took effect. (Only kind of because they decided to work for Patel.)

New comment by dpkirchner in "Two Git ignore files nobody told me about"

dpkirchner — Wed, 23 Sep 2026 14:13:10 +0000

New comment by dpkirchner in "NASA’s Mars Sample Return mission is dead"

dpkirchner — Mon, 21 Sep 2026 21:54:22 +0000

They wouldn't bother -- those people are obviously fully endorsed by the mainstream of their party.

New comment by dpkirchner in "ER visits for gambling disorders doubled after expanded online gambling market"

dpkirchner — Wed, 16 Sep 2026 18:44:41 +0000

The key word is *as*. It's a lot, it's shocking, it's not *as* shocking as my I thought on first read.

New comment by dpkirchner in "ER visits for gambling disorders doubled after expanded online gambling market"

dpkirchner — Wed, 16 Sep 2026 18:31:17 +0000

That figure seemed way off to me (gut response) so I did a tiny bit of digging: Ontario claims income (primary household income) for 2024 was $791B. ~10% isn't as shocking as I expected.

New comment by dpkirchner in "Claude Cowork and chat are now one Claude"

dpkirchner — Wed, 16 Sep 2026 17:30:07 +0000

Perhaps we could see a Yahoo Pipes style interface and feature set, handled by LLM (when simple transforms aren't an option).

New comment by dpkirchner in "Hackers Got Inside a Flock Camera"

dpkirchner — Wed, 16 Sep 2026 17:27:23 +0000

Assuming the point of these cameras is security (and not just surveillance for stalker cops), being able to upload replacement footage would subvert that entirely. This has been a feature of many spy and cops/robber movies.

New comment by dpkirchner in "Dario, Please"

dpkirchner — Tue, 15 Sep 2026 16:22:18 +0000

I'd argue that normies understand rates and per-capita figures. The people that don't are a noisy minority (and are disproportionately powerful).

New comment by dpkirchner in "Dario, Please"

dpkirchner — Tue, 15 Sep 2026 00:25:06 +0000

Don't worry, plenty of people are willing to talk about vaccine safety, even if they have no idea what they're talking about and don't understand rates or per-capita figures (lots of crossover there!)

New comment by dpkirchner in "Why is Google still serving dodgy ads?"

dpkirchner — Mon, 14 Sep 2026 01:11:08 +0000

Pin it on Google, Meta, X, etc, and also on the sites that display malware ads to clients. They're all culpable.

New comment by dpkirchner in "Why is Google still serving dodgy ads?"

dpkirchner — Sun, 13 Sep 2026 18:32:58 +0000

I think the obvious answer is they aren't held to account by regulators. If a few execs were sent to prison for defrauding their users (and investors for taking on so much risk) things would change overnight.

New comment by dpkirchner in "Why is Google still serving dodgy ads?"

dpkirchner — Sun, 13 Sep 2026 18:31:18 +0000

Have you tried reaching out to companies offering relevant products? Sometimes they have referral plans and don't require the same level of tracking.

New comment by dpkirchner in "Getting 50 GB/S Back from the Apple Neural Engine"

dpkirchner — Sun, 13 Sep 2026 01:17:00 +0000

I think this rule is quite unfortunate. Wouldn't we all be better off if sites that hijacked back buttons were just banned or at least had their posts hidden until they're fixed?

Sure, they're somewhat common issues, but so are ads for malware served by Google. Surely we should call those out?

New comment by dpkirchner in "LG denies TV spying claims, says tracking and snooping concerns 'not true'"

dpkirchner — Sat, 12 Sep 2026 17:30:11 +0000

I don't know, but I suspect the battery drain would be substantial. I wonder if there is a different explanation: maybe one of your friends searched for information on the topic while you were on the same hotspot/in the same location and that (along with existing relationship graphs?) allowed them to target you? That's how I'd do it, I think.

New comment by dpkirchner in "The EPA is planning to scrap public review rules for data center pollution"

dpkirchner — Sat, 12 Sep 2026 00:29:28 +0000

The Republican party looks about the same as it has my whole adult life -- the leader is a lot louder and the racism is less hidden, that's about it.

New comment by dpkirchner in "Claude is only available to people over 18 years"

dpkirchner — Fri, 11 Sep 2026 19:26:17 +0000

> Now, that still leaves open the question of who you can trust. If you can trust a business run by people then that allows you to trust a bank, sure, but it also allows you to trust a tech company

Banks are subject to much stricter regulation than any tech company is or ever will be (IMO, I could end up surprised).

I trust my bank to know who I am and keep track of my money. I trust big tech to lose or misinterpret my data, to close my account for no reason, etc, and to face zero consequences for those failures -- not even fines.

New comment by dpkirchner in "Claude is only available to people over 18 years"

dpkirchner — Fri, 11 Sep 2026 13:55:29 +0000

> You may trust them with your money, but does not equate to trusting them with any other personal information.

How do you expect that they will give you your money when you walk in to a branch and ask for a withdrawal? Or that they'll replace a lost card? Surely you'd expect them to verify your identity.

New comment by dpkirchner in "A/I shuts down"

dpkirchner — Sun, 06 Sep 2026 19:36:24 +0000

Worse, Substack promotes nazi content via push notifications to people that haven't subscribed to those nazi accounts.

New comment by dpkirchner in "A/I shuts down"

dpkirchner — Sun, 06 Sep 2026 18:54:31 +0000

This is the new Republican mainstream, the same mainstream that brings us AI generated videos of the Obamas as apes. They have no shame and are likely irredeemable (certainly their behavior is inexcusable).

And ultimately these statements aren't for the normal citizens. They're for the truly strange, the racists, and the trolls.