Hacker News: etrautmann

New comment by etrautmann in "WH proposes rules giving political appointees final approval on research grants"

etrautmann — Sat, 30 May 2026 04:36:49 +0000

Plenty of scientists can and will work in industry roles or quit entirely. It’s already a crazy proposition and should not be made any harder. Finding funding can be a brutal and continuous challenge that demotivates many.

New comment by etrautmann in "FBI Arrests CIA Official with $40M in Gold Bars in His Home"

etrautmann — Thu, 28 May 2026 04:41:51 +0000

MKUltra would have been a bizarre horror to experience

New comment by etrautmann in "Why Do We Sleep Under Blankets, Even on the Hottest Nights? (2017)"

etrautmann — Mon, 25 May 2026 15:16:04 +0000

I can't disagree with that, myself included. I've gotten MUCH better about caffeine discipline but that's only a start.

New comment by etrautmann in "Why Do We Sleep Under Blankets, Even on the Hottest Nights? (2017)"

etrautmann — Mon, 25 May 2026 10:52:37 +0000

That would result in insanity for me. Is there any argument other than it seems like cave people must have?

New comment by etrautmann in "Spotify will start reserving concert tickets for fans"

etrautmann — Fri, 22 May 2026 15:02:03 +0000

so this is a price discovery mechanism in an early tranche of tickets?

New comment by etrautmann in "Spotify will start reserving concert tickets for fans"

etrautmann — Fri, 22 May 2026 04:34:04 +0000

How does resale help the artist? By inflating expectations for ticket prices for the next show?

New comment by etrautmann in "How diamonds are made"

etrautmann — Mon, 18 May 2026 02:28:54 +0000

Yes I agree. My point was more generally that the discussion around whether other people can tell ignores how one feels themself. I don’t often hear that point made, that you can’t lie to yourself IF it’s important to you that it’s natural or whatever. It’s way easier to actually not care or prefer lab grown and then move forward feeling great.

New comment by etrautmann in "How diamonds are made"

etrautmann — Sun, 17 May 2026 18:52:44 +0000

That can be the right call (and is the one I would make) but for situations like this, it may be as much about how you think about something yourself rather than how others view it. If spending more makes it mean something different to you, then that can be a primary function. That being said, blood diamonds are a huge problem, DeBeers is a cartel, and we’d be better off investing our money in other ways that serve a relationship, family, etc.

New comment by etrautmann in "Someone Shared a Real Monet Painting as AI and Asked for Critiques"

etrautmann — Sat, 16 May 2026 11:23:38 +0000

I love deeply observing paintings and also love taking a photo while in a museum. It helps me remember the details and review like spaced repetition the things I saw, or spend more time observing nuance later. Are many people ticking boxes? Probably, but the issue is the too many people. Even with people just looking, I feel uncomfortable spending time if there’s a line.

New comment by etrautmann in "Microscale Thermite Reaction"

etrautmann — Sat, 16 May 2026 05:42:25 +0000

I suspect you would need much more kinetic energy to get a thermite reaction going than the aluminum powder in a sand blaster.

New comment by etrautmann in "Have a Coherent AI Policy"

etrautmann — Fri, 15 May 2026 03:49:15 +0000

many of these leaderboards were built internally by curious ICs and taken down by leadership (for obvious reasons).

New comment by etrautmann in "Casio S100X Japanese Lacquer Edition (JP Page Only)"

etrautmann — Sun, 10 May 2026 11:54:47 +0000

This is such an under appreciated point. I feel the same about wine but have ruined myself for coffee, bread, cheese, etc.

New comment by etrautmann in "Casio S100X Japanese Lacquer Edition (JP Page Only)"

etrautmann — Sun, 10 May 2026 11:53:48 +0000

I have almost exactly the opposite reaction. By not caring so much about the minute details of physical things, or having the very best croissants or whatever, frees you up to enjoy anything or focus on interactions with people, ideas, anything else.

New comment by etrautmann in "Motherboard sales 'collapse' amid unprecedented shortages fueled by AI"

etrautmann — Thu, 07 May 2026 20:21:42 +0000

I had to provision a 1U server in grad school. Turing that thing on in the office was a joke. Completely impossible to work with it on if you were anywhere in that part of the office.

New comment by etrautmann in "Auto Polo"

etrautmann — Fri, 01 May 2026 12:35:31 +0000

Fun to see this here. I had the good fortune of participating in the first match of motorcycle polo in Rwanda back in 2007. This continued on for a while and eventually got a writeup in the NYT: https://www.nytimes.com/2012/05/09/sports/motorized-polo-gai...

New comment by etrautmann in "New mechanical panoramic film camera from Jeff Bridges"

etrautmann — Fri, 01 May 2026 03:26:47 +0000

Only the ridiculous ones. You can get an M6 for 2500 or an M3 for 1200. Lenses are 400-2k unless you go for crazy glass.

New comment by etrautmann in "Opus 4.7 knows the real Kelsey"

etrautmann — Fri, 01 May 2026 02:20:55 +0000

This raises a good point. Most people who aren’t public writers might be misidentified based on the prevalence of others work in training data sets. Kelsey Piper might have a very different experience with this than a mostly offline normal user?

New comment by etrautmann in "Blaster Beam (Musical Instrument)"

etrautmann — Wed, 29 Apr 2026 22:24:55 +0000

This is a more useful link https://youtu.be/CEjew239bUU?si=L-nskdaoGq_24fgt

New comment by etrautmann in "Irony as Meta staff unhappy about running surveillance software on work PCs"

etrautmann — Wed, 22 Apr 2026 12:22:43 +0000

I think it can be radically more pedestrian than this. Just affording basic life in a high COL area is insane. Getting an apt in NY and paying for childcare for two kids can already be a 16k/mo endeavor, no porche entering the equation.

New comment by etrautmann in "Brands got worse on purpose"

etrautmann — Tue, 21 Apr 2026 21:18:58 +0000

How can a t-shirt possibly be worth $100? Is that truly better than alternatives?