Hacker News: falaki

New comment by falaki in "Benchmarking coding agents on Databricks' multi-million line codebase"

falaki — Thu, 09 Jul 2026 17:36:08 +0000

Yes exactly.

New comment by falaki in "Benchmarking coding agents on Databricks' multi-million line codebase"

falaki — Thu, 09 Jul 2026 00:27:44 +0000

Also they suggest every company should build their own benchmark and repeat these tests with new models instead of relying on the SWE bench.

New comment by falaki in "Benchmarking coding agents on Databricks' multi-million line codebase"

falaki — Thu, 09 Jul 2026 00:25:31 +0000

1) Many models are now competitive at the top tier, including open source. 2) GLM 5.2 in particular was a major step forward in open source coding agent performance, 3) Harnesses make a huge difference in cost-performance. 4) Cheaper per-token does not imply cheaper per-task.

New comment by falaki in "The Dynamo and the Computer: The Modern Productivity Paradox (1989) [pdf]"

falaki — Wed, 10 Jun 2026 18:38:00 +0000

The paper has some insights that may apply to AI coding: 1. The first companies that benefitted from the Dynamo were electrical light manufacturers. They were more intimately aware of the potential benefits and since they were new, they built the factories to take advantage of Dynamos. Think who is benefiting most from AI coding these days.

2. Existing manufacturing operations didn't realize that their factory layouts and processes were unsuitable for Dynamos. They would replace the power source but see no benefit from it. It took many years for old pipelines to depreciate and be replaced with new ones that were able to benefit from distributed mechanical power generation.

New comment by falaki in "Ancient DNA reveals pervasive directional selection across West Eurasia [pdf]"

falaki — Thu, 16 Apr 2026 16:08:38 +0000

Absolutely worth reading.

New comment by falaki in "Apple's latest attempt to launch the new Siri runs into snags"

falaki — Thu, 12 Feb 2026 00:17:36 +0000

I worked at Siri (post acquisition) 13 years ago as one of the early data scientists. Let's just say I am not a bit surprised.

New comment by falaki in "90M people. 118 hours of silence. One nation erased from the internet"

falaki — Tue, 13 Jan 2026 18:51:01 +0000

There are a lot of Iranian-Americans in Silicon valley, and the broader tech. These people have family and relatives in Iran and not being able to contact has been extremely hard on them. If you have an Iranian colleague, please understand that they may not be able to perform and work as their usual. Hopefully this collective nightmare will end.

New comment by falaki in "Iran has now been offline for 96 hours"

falaki — Mon, 12 Jan 2026 19:24:25 +0000

Some personal observations as I am in touch with a few folks inside Iran through Starlink.

1. The jamming/disruption is local to large cities most notably the capital, Tehran.

2. Even in Tehran it is not complete and my friends are able to send and receive messages. Uploading videos is harder.

3. The regime is now raiding homes that they suspect have Starlink terminals. I don't know how they identify them but I do wonder if they are using technology to locate them.

New comment by falaki in "Iran is likely jamming Starlink"

falaki — Mon, 12 Jan 2026 19:13:20 +0000

Some personal observations as I am in touch with a few folks inside Iran through Starlink.

1. The jamming/disruption is local to large cities most notably the capital, Tehran.

2. Even in Tehran it is not complete and my friends are able to send and receive messages. Uploading videos is harder.

3. The regime is now raiding homes that they suspect have Starlink terminals. I don't know how they identify them but I do wonder if they are using technology to locate them.

New comment by falaki in "Iran is likely jamming Starlink"

falaki — Mon, 12 Jan 2026 19:11:51 +0000

I left the comment on starlink on that thread. I should note some personal observations as I am in touch with a few folks inside Iran through Starlink.

1. The jamming/disruption is local to large cities most notably the capital, Tehran

2. Even in Tehran it is not complete and my friends are able to send and receive messages. Uploading videos is harder.

3. The regime is now raiding homes that they suspect have Starlink terminals. I don't know how they identify them but I do wonder if they are using technology to locate them.

New comment by falaki in "Cloudflare CEO on the Italy fines"

falaki — Fri, 09 Jan 2026 21:15:24 +0000

Except that in the common law system of the United States, a judge can throw out the regulation.

New comment by falaki in "Iran Goes Into IPv6 Blackout"

falaki — Thu, 08 Jan 2026 19:25:13 +0000

Yes, there are NGOs and organizations that sponsor these and pay for them. Here is an example: https://www.forbes.com/sites/cyrusfarivar/2024/12/18/inside-...

New comment by falaki in "Iran Goes Into IPv6 Blackout"

falaki — Thu, 08 Jan 2026 18:32:49 +0000

I hear after the Ukraine war, Starlink became very good at thwarting jamming. I am confident the Iranians are not as sophisticated as the Russians in than front.

New comment by falaki in "Iran Goes Into IPv6 Blackout"

falaki — Thu, 08 Jan 2026 18:17:27 +0000

Fortunately, the government cannot enforce complete blackout because thousands of startlink terminals are active inside the country. They have been complaining about it [1] to no avail. Using these terminals activists and journalists continue to upload videos of demonstrations to social media which has enabled analyses that show demonstrations are very wide spread [2] and continue to grow.

[1] https://www.itu.int/en/ITU-R/conferences/RRB/Pages/Starlink....

[2] https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cre28d2j2zxo

New comment by falaki in "Iran Goes Into IPv6 Blackout"

falaki — Thu, 08 Jan 2026 18:03:03 +0000

In recent years they have been trying to build a nation-wide Intranet that can function while international gateways are blocked. It is not perfect and every time they block the Internet, many issues happen but for the most port critical network services (such as payments) continue to function.

New comment by falaki in "Australia begins enforcing world-first teen social media ban"

falaki — Wed, 10 Dec 2025 18:20:00 +0000

Alcohol, tobacco and many other products have age restrictions, so do cars and many other products of the modern society. Social media can and should have age restrictions.

New comment by falaki in "Australia begins enforcing world-first teen social media ban"

falaki — Wed, 10 Dec 2025 02:10:03 +0000

I really hope other nations, including the United States, copy this. Australia proved that it is possible. I think the results will be so overwhelmingly positive that others will take notice. Good job Australia!

Reading "Anxious Generation" is a must for all parents in this day and age.

New comment by falaki in "Corporation for Public Broadcasting ceasing operations"

falaki — Fri, 01 Aug 2025 17:46:27 +0000

Every government program should have an expiration date attached to it when signed into law.

New comment by falaki in "The Etymology of "Farvahar""

falaki — Wed, 25 Jun 2025 16:06:42 +0000

Many in the west wrongly assume the symbol they know as Farvahar is a representation of Aura Mazda, the Zoroastrian great god. Some even call the symbol Ahura Mazda. The real story is much more fascinating.

The Etymology of "Farvahar"

falaki — Wed, 25 Jun 2025 16:06:42 +0000

Article URL: https://medium.com/@falaki/the-etymology-and-iconography-of-farvahar-fd19760b9ff7

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44378846

Points: 2

# Comments: 1