Hacker News: fhood

New comment by fhood in "Rust data structures with circular references (2021)"

fhood — Tue, 26 Mar 2024 19:25:27 +0000

I think it's best to think of this as a good toy example, and not get caught up in the specific utility of a "parent" node.

New comment by fhood in "Don't Join Threads – Make Threads Join You"

fhood — Thu, 06 Jul 2023 19:57:17 +0000

And here I was, innocent, excited to read about a new paradigm for thread management, and wondering why I never knew that wired ran articles that technical.

Now I am cynical and jaded. My disappointment is immeasurable and my day is ruined.

New comment by fhood in "The Curse of Recursion: Training on Generated Data Makes Models Forget"

fhood — Wed, 14 Jun 2023 00:44:54 +0000

I am in way over my head here, so I wasn't able to tell if the authors addressed this, but my intuition is that this should be somewhat mitigated so long as people are providing the filter between which results are discarded and which might end up back in the training pool.

I would think that the human selection process would help to head off this conversion, both by selecting against incorrect results, and also by introducing variance outside of the model. On the other hand since a person can only act as a filter, I can also see how that would be of limited value long term.

New comment by fhood in "A Good Fountain Pen Lets You Enjoy the Finer Things in Life (2022)"

fhood — Tue, 13 Jun 2023 23:16:46 +0000

I used to love fountain pens, they feel amazing to write with, and the variable line thickness makes everything look awesome.

They are also a massive pain, the higher end ones use gold alloys for the nib, making it delicate, if they aren't used enough the ink dries in the nib, they tend to get ink everywhere, and they can be really inconsistent.

New comment by fhood in "Mercedes EVs can go faster for $60 a month"

fhood — Thu, 04 May 2023 19:37:17 +0000

Mercedes, Audi and BMW destroyed their reputation for anyone paying attention a long time ago by producing expensive, unreliable cars that aren't even remotely cost effective to keep running.

Plastic timing chain guides, FFS.

If purposefully building engines that grenade themselves at 80k miles wasn't enough, then it's hard to imagine what would be.

New comment by fhood in "The stick shift might survive the electric revolution"

fhood — Fri, 18 Nov 2022 22:47:31 +0000

It's really stupid, but you can't tell me that the idea of a manual electric doesn't appeal to the less rational parts of your subconscious.

New comment by fhood in "“Negative/hate tweets will be max deboosted and demonetized”"

fhood — Fri, 18 Nov 2022 22:45:58 +0000

Could we avoid participating in this? The price hikes were pretty brutal, but tesla and their charging infrastructure are still at or near the top of the list when it comes to electric cars that you can actually purchase, at least from the perspective of someone looking to replace their ancient mazda in the next year or so.

Also people don't deserve to be judged by their car unless it is a modern german luxury car in which case they obviously are the kind of person who makes bad life choices.

New comment by fhood in "“Negative/hate tweets will be max deboosted and demonetized”"

fhood — Fri, 18 Nov 2022 22:37:36 +0000

I'm actually really pleased with how well youtube avoids serving you rage bait once you have made it clear to the algorithm you aren't interested.

New comment by fhood in "Leaked documents outline DHS’s plans to police disinformation"

fhood — Mon, 31 Oct 2022 19:47:17 +0000

As a rule, can we avoid dealing in absolutes? Implying that the FDA should have no input whatsoever on laws regarding food safety regulation seems a little odd given that they would represent 90% of the relevant experts.

New comment by fhood in "FCC: TikTok is unacceptable security risk and should be removed from app stores"

fhood — Tue, 19 Jul 2022 17:46:59 +0000

Who would you rather give a theoretical copy of all of your digital information? Assuming both have equal access to non-digital you.

New comment by fhood in "FCC: TikTok is unacceptable security risk and should be removed from app stores"

fhood — Tue, 19 Jul 2022 17:44:32 +0000

Certain adversarial govts have happily participated in the past/ are happily participating

New comment by fhood in "FDA to order Juul e-cigarettes off U.S. market"

fhood — Wed, 22 Jun 2022 17:59:43 +0000

Still a massively irritating addiction though, so I'm perfectly happy to have both be villianized. Also seems embarrassing for a grown man to emit a cloud of strawberry mango scented smoke, but to each their own.

New comment by fhood in "FDA to order Juul e-cigarettes off U.S. market"

fhood — Wed, 22 Jun 2022 17:54:54 +0000

I can definitely see how there could be some overlap, although I've never actually had nicotine sober. Still, seems hard to believe it could be as effective for significant ADHD considering the standard suite of amphetamines is a bazooka by comparison.

Still, the symptoms that get grouped together as ADHD are so diverse that I could see it helping people. Biggest issue is probably relative addictiveness, since after 15 years of adderall use I feel absolutely no desire to take it on weekends or vacation, and that's probably not totally the same for nicotine.

New comment by fhood in "Ask HN: How can I best assist my wife with a career transition?"

fhood — Thu, 14 Apr 2022 19:45:23 +0000

Seconded, the main draw is a better work environment and free tuition.

New comment by fhood in "Ask HN: How can I best assist my wife with a career transition?"

fhood — Thu, 14 Apr 2022 19:44:32 +0000

If money isn't important, finding a good private school might provide a much more pleasant alternative. It may not be the most morally satisfying thing to transfer a good teacher from public to private education, but I went to public elementary and highschool and a private middle school and the contrast is shocking. Small class sizes, vastly better behaved kids, and a social hierarchy dictated in part by academic success, as well as much nicer school supplies and transportation, largely funded through donations from the wealthier families.

New comment by fhood in "Americans’ views on the war reveal a striking generational divide"

fhood — Thu, 14 Apr 2022 19:33:29 +0000

This is a crucial and under-represented perspective. I don't necessarily agree with the conclusion, but it is hard to ignore the inherent callousness of arguing over a conflict that will have no direct impact on me or my family.

New comment by fhood in "Americans’ views on the war reveal a striking generational divide"

fhood — Thu, 14 Apr 2022 19:28:29 +0000

While I tend to agree, reading through the various nuclear close calls as far as I can tell, there were far more on the Russian side than the American one, and while American nuclear incidents tended to be headed off with everyone following orders and working within established systems, Russian ones usually involve one guy literally refusing an order. It's hard to know how accurate all of this is, but it does imply deterrent through incompetence. The concern is not limited to intentional nuclear strikes, every time Russian forces get put on alert the threat of an accident grows. Putin likely knows this, and NATO is also very wary of it.

New comment by fhood in "Americans’ views on the war reveal a striking generational divide"

fhood — Thu, 14 Apr 2022 19:16:48 +0000

China's government, like Russia's uses the west as a tool to consolidate power. The western world, and specifically NATO (which is really just another world for America in this context) serve as a looming enemy. We have now clearly seen that the actual actions of the West do not matter. China and Russia suffer from intense corruption, low overall standards of living, and the massive income and power gaps that arise from these types of governments. Western democracy ain't perfect, but there is a good chance that given the ability to accurately compare their options the Chinese and Russian populace would start to push back against the power structures. You can see this in the case of Hong Kong, and in Ukraine's westward trajectory.

Thus the people in power need to control information and unify the population in order to stay in power. If the west doesn't directly provide ammunition for this information war, they will just make it up. And they already do this. I have come to realize over the last 5 years or so that China and Russia have ZERO information in maintaining a truly friendly relationship with western (there needs to be a word for this that doesn't ignore Japan and Korea) democracies. They will continue to act in whatever fashion preserves the power structure, and that will include simply inventing threats. Such as Ukraines doomed bid to join NATO.

New comment by fhood in "Americans’ views on the war reveal a striking generational divide"

fhood — Thu, 14 Apr 2022 19:04:13 +0000

Why do you find that hard to believe? Targeting civilians doesn't mean wiping out the population. And if there wasn't such a large body of prior evidence I might be tempted to agree that some of what we are seeing is isolated, or simple incompetence. But it now seems undeniable that Russia is intentionally targeting civilian infrastructure. And although that may have been effective in Syria, I have no idea what they hope to accomplish with it in Ukraine.

New comment by fhood in "Americans’ views on the war reveal a striking generational divide"

fhood — Thu, 14 Apr 2022 18:57:30 +0000

Assuming no direct western intervention, I think the crucial next steps for a Ukraine victory will center around whether NATO can transition from providing soviet surplus to modern western arms, and get Ukrainians the training required in time. F-16s or even 35s and modern air defenses could play a huge role in making russian territory gains largely impossible, but the operational training would be measured in multiple weeks at a minimum.