Hacker News: eastof

New comment by eastof in "Sometimes powerful people just do dumb shit"

eastof — Tue, 14 Apr 2026 06:14:57 +0000

You are still falling for the evil genius trap. The truth is all of us treat our fellow humans this way, see Singer's drowning child. We're simply not wired to care as much about even large groups of people when they are not people we regularly interact with.

New comment by eastof in "How China built its ‘Manhattan Project’ to rival the West in AI chips"

eastof — Thu, 18 Dec 2025 23:14:12 +0000

We haven't always been awful at keeping secrets, see the actual Manhattan Project. I like the optimism of your proposal, but how would those US companies continue the same level of R&D investment without those extra profits? If the government just directly invests, then you've just become the enemy.

New comment by eastof in "How China built its ‘Manhattan Project’ to rival the West in AI chips"

eastof — Thu, 18 Dec 2025 23:04:56 +0000

Is there any other way to see it than just we are too divided and 50% of our own people just think we are the bad guys? What you describe is so obvious but one political side in the US at least pretends this isn't happening and actively does anything they can to hamper any response to it. I would love to be convinced otherwise because I am also part of the division, I truly don't understand the other side at all.

New comment by eastof in "Ensuring a National Policy Framework for Artificial Intelligence"

eastof — Sat, 13 Dec 2025 02:33:59 +0000

In a parallel universe tobacco is critical to the national security interest of the state. I feel you and other commenters in this thread are ignoring the fact that the outcome of the next war will likely be decided on the cyber front.

New comment by eastof in "Alignment is capability"

eastof — Mon, 08 Dec 2025 16:47:57 +0000

Interesting, I understood the dictatorship on the moon as having been based primarily on the AI since the regime didn't have many boots on the ground.

New comment by eastof in "Alignment is capability"

eastof — Mon, 08 Dec 2025 16:38:48 +0000

Just moves the goal posts to overthrowing the goal of the AI right? "The Moon is a Harsh Mistress" depicts exactly this.

New comment by eastof in "A Weekend at the Immersion Larp Festival"

eastof — Wed, 28 Aug 2024 14:51:27 +0000

Doesn't Hamas do the same?

New comment by eastof in "China's total wind and solar capacity outstrips coal"

eastof — Mon, 12 Aug 2024 01:54:01 +0000

The reason it's a bigger issue for solar is that you don't get to choose where the best place to put it is, and it might be really inconvenient. Coal plant you can intentionally put it outside the city, but not too far and where a flat road can connect them. Solar is usually best placed in a desert, and usually people don't live anywhere near deserts, and usually they're separated from where people live by mountain ranges (i.e. the Mojave to LA).

New comment by eastof in "Data Formats: 3D, Audio, Image"

eastof — Wed, 17 Jul 2024 14:00:15 +0000

This is awesome! I haven't found this detailed of a description of the vox format in one place anywhere. This will help me a ton on my hobby project for which I wrote my own vox library to write files.

New comment by eastof in "Komorebi: Tiling Window Management for Windows"

eastof — Mon, 24 Jun 2024 22:28:38 +0000

This is not the same thing. "Dappled light" refers to the pattern on the lit objects, while this is referring to the visible beams of light themselves a la https://live.staticflickr.com/3342/3663701610_a5f8e10d7a.jpg

I've heard people call it "sun rays" or "sun beams" in English, but it's definitely not a well defined concept.

New comment by eastof in "Komorebi: Tiling Window Management for Windows"

eastof — Mon, 24 Jun 2024 21:44:24 +0000

There is also a word for this in Icelandic I believe. I remember seeing an interview with the Icelandic band Sólstafir, and they said this is the meaning of their name. I can't find the link now though.

New comment by eastof in "New York Establishes Stringent Protections to Safeguard Kids on Social Media"

eastof — Thu, 20 Jun 2024 23:09:19 +0000

> New Dork Establishes the Nation’s Most Stringent Protections To Safeguard Kids on Piles of Dry Tinder

Governor Kathy Jochul today signed nation-leading legislation to combat match sales to protect kids. Sale of matches to children under the age of 18 is now prohibited. This historic legislation helps parents ensure their children can't self-immolate.

New comment by eastof in "Operation Triangulation: What you get when attack iPhones of researchers"

eastof — Thu, 28 Dec 2023 07:20:56 +0000

Maybe more likely they just have people inside Apple?

New comment by eastof in "A closer look at the Tabula Peutingeriana"

eastof — Mon, 25 Dec 2023 23:52:15 +0000

They were going crazy by the end, their collapse made space for the Islamic Golden Age, which is the main reason we have any surviving texts from the classical era. They were much more open to foreign ideas and had a focus on translation at a time when orthodoxy and nativism prevailed under Rome's rule.

New comment by eastof in "A recent software update was not successful. Your vehicle cannot be driven"

eastof — Mon, 25 Dec 2023 22:06:01 +0000

Except it's not going to ever leave your car inoperable...

New comment by eastof in "The Closing of the Bulgarian Frontier"

eastof — Thu, 21 Dec 2023 16:25:48 +0000

I think the two groups are separable. Most real scientists and engineers I know are mostly focused on methods and data. They don't waste their time with cosmopolitan ideas and they recognize their own ignorance in areas like politics.

New comment by eastof in "Rite Aid banned from using face recognition software after false ID shoplifters"

eastof — Wed, 20 Dec 2023 14:51:12 +0000

Does this mean I can log into 8/10,000 iphones?

New comment by eastof in "Suspects can refuse to provide phone passcodes to police, court rules"

eastof — Sat, 16 Dec 2023 08:47:35 +0000

IANAL but what's stopping the "that's not my phone and I don't know the passcode" defense?

New comment by eastof in "OpenAI Announces $10M Superalignment Grants"

eastof — Thu, 14 Dec 2023 18:57:50 +0000

Aren't those terms totally meaningless in terms of modern "AI" though? AGI is nowhere near being able to play a violin solo, their fine motor skills are abysmal. The list goes on and on, they also aren't running a bakery, collecting field data for ecological studies, or playing literally any sport any time soon either. The concept of a disembodied system even being "smart" doesn't make sense to me.

New comment by eastof in "Apollo astronaut Frank Borman has died"

eastof — Fri, 10 Nov 2023 07:44:31 +0000

Russia seems to be moving ever so slightly to the west and south as of late.