<rss version="2.0" xmlns:dc="http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/" xmlns:atom="http://www.w3.org/2005/Atom"><channel><title>Hacker News: firethief</title><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/user?id=firethief</link><description>Hacker News RSS</description><docs>https://hnrss.org/</docs><generator>hnrss v2.1.1</generator><lastBuildDate>Sat, 25 Apr 2026 08:49:55 +0000</lastBuildDate><atom:link href="https://hnrss.org/user?id=firethief" rel="self" type="application/rss+xml"></atom:link><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by firethief in "Researchers hack electronic shifters with a few hundred dollars of hardware"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>> “We cannot share details on the exact fix at this moment, for obvious security reasons.”<p>This seems a bit disingenuous. To people with a bit of understanding of cybersecurity, they are admitting that they haven't solved it; but to most of their customers, it will sound like they fixed it and are being cautious.</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Sun, 18 Aug 2024 18:41:40 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=41284354</link><dc:creator>firethief</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=41284354</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=41284354</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by firethief in "Exactly-Once Payments at Airbnb"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>It sounds like their architecture enables them to solve much more interesting problems than would usually be encountered in meeting their business requirements.</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Sun, 18 Aug 2024 18:14:25 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=41284104</link><dc:creator>firethief</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=41284104</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=41284104</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by firethief in "Welcome to the Login.gov Developer Guide"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>ID.me also seems to be the only way to interact with the IRS online, and has arbitrarily decided my identity is unverifiable.</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Sat, 17 Aug 2024 19:47:17 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=41277371</link><dc:creator>firethief</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=41277371</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=41277371</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by firethief in "Windows TCP/IP Remote Code Execution Vulnerability"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>Apparently surfraw has an elvis for it: <a href="https://gitlab.com/surfraw/Surfraw/-/wikis/current-elvi" rel="nofollow">https://gitlab.com/surfraw/Surfraw/-/wikis/current-elvi</a></p>
]]></description><pubDate>Wed, 14 Aug 2024 22:21:28 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=41251144</link><dc:creator>firethief</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=41251144</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=41251144</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by firethief in "In Japanese You Need a Dictionary to Count Things"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>All languages have redundancy; it serves as a form of forward error correction. I recall some sort of study (sorry, no link) finding that information density was (by some metric) similar across different languages. So it's not just inefficiency; it's part of the language's <i>necessary</i> inefficiency.<p>Of course, some forms of redundancy would be better than others--in cases where people aren't sure which particle to use, it probably isn't doing much good. However, language evolution is able to achieve some optimizations, and I suspect the particles people know tend to be the most important. For example, the many sushi or shellfish particles might sound particularly silly, but if you're in those industries, maybe they are helpful in maintaining important distinctions in a noisy kitchen/market, or in written records. If you're a customer you probably don't know them, and you don't need to.<p>Epistemic status: Wild-ass guessing from my armchair.</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Sun, 11 Aug 2024 20:45:29 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=41219205</link><dc:creator>firethief</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=41219205</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=41219205</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by firethief in "How far should a programming language aware diff go?"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>Interesting idea. I've just tried it with a couple of languages:<p>- TS with Vue: SFC are not really working (it's showing a style change as if the whole stylesheet were replaced with a mostly-identical stylesheet).<p>- Rust: It doesn't seem semantic at all. It's showing a lot of character-level insertions and deletions that seem worse than how git-diff or GitHub would break down the changes.<p>It doesn't seem ready yet for what I'd like to use it for.</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Sat, 20 Jul 2024 15:58:51 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=41017395</link><dc:creator>firethief</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=41017395</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=41017395</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by firethief in "Automerge: A library of data structures for building collaborative applications"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>I can't picture how that would work. While collaborative features require that some objects are shared and synchronized, efficiency and programmer sanity rely on the fact that some objects are not. If synchronization is opt-in, how would a language integrate it any more fundamentally than a library can?<p>Also, CRDT's don't provide synchronization for free. They ensure that all concurrent modifications will be merged <i>somehow</i>. If the data being synchronized has any structure, it requires careful CRDT-aware data model design to ensure the merging is semantically reasonable (or that, in the worst case, incompatible changes produce a <i>detectably</i> broken state).</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Sat, 20 Jul 2024 15:13:47 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=41017040</link><dc:creator>firethief</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=41017040</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=41017040</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by firethief in "Cardio fitness is a strong, consistent predictor of morbidity and mortality"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>I don't know what kind of computer weenies you know but speaking for myself: needing to interact with someone to get exercise would add a major hurdle for me. OTOH, I'm really getting in to minmaxing myself in Garmin...</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Sat, 04 May 2024 04:14:25 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40254759</link><dc:creator>firethief</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40254759</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40254759</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by firethief in "Cardio fitness is a strong, consistent predictor of morbidity and mortality"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>I went through the same paradigm shift with cycling. I used a cheap bike that was slow and heavy because higher efficiency wouldn't allow me to get exercise any faster. Then I got a nice road bike, and it's so much more fun to ride, so I'm riding a lot more.</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Fri, 03 May 2024 21:55:46 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40252844</link><dc:creator>firethief</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40252844</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40252844</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by firethief in "SSDs Are Worse for the Planet Than HDDs"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>Well yeah. SSDs are worse than HDDs in every way when the denominator is capacity. The headline would be the opposite if they were comparing per IOPS. The shocking conclusion: Use SSDs when you need fast random access; use rotating media for bulk storage.</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Sat, 13 Aug 2022 16:15:41 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=32451224</link><dc:creator>firethief</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=32451224</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=32451224</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by firethief in ""Widevine Dump":Leaked Code Downloads HD Video from Disney+, Amazon, and Netflix"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>I have an Android TV and streaming subscriptions. If I want to stream something I have to find out what service carries it, open the right app, and attempt to type the title with the arrow keys on the remote. For me, it's much easier to torrent.</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Mon, 27 Dec 2021 20:48:49 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=29706614</link><dc:creator>firethief</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=29706614</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=29706614</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by firethief in "A Review of the Zig Programming Language (Using Advent of Code 2021)"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>`for` is a foreach. If you want to increment a number through a range like a typical C `for`, you have to use a `while` loop. I don't really see the draw.</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Mon, 27 Dec 2021 17:06:25 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=29704256</link><dc:creator>firethief</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=29704256</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=29704256</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by firethief in "LG’s new 16:18 monitor"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>> do black-and-white code editing<p>You've piqued my curiosity. No syntax highlighting?</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Wed, 22 Dec 2021 21:58:55 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=29655977</link><dc:creator>firethief</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=29655977</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=29655977</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by firethief in "Giant 555 Timer"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>Well I assumed it would be an electron app because getting it done with a shedload of giant 555 timers wouldn't be as funny :)</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Tue, 21 Dec 2021 19:54:22 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=29641350</link><dc:creator>firethief</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=29641350</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=29641350</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by firethief in "Giant 555 Timer"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>Oops. It's 40ms!</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Tue, 21 Dec 2021 19:49:01 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=29641296</link><dc:creator>firethief</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=29641296</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=29641296</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by firethief in "Giant 555 Timer"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>It would take an electric signal about 40ns to travel from the center to one corner and back, and a signal certainly needs to do more than that in a clock cycle, so the physical limit on its operational frequency would be well below 25 kHz. If you want comparable computing power to a regular M1, you'd need to build a tower of them at least 100,000 high. On the plus side, you could build a city on the stack and no one would need heating in the winter. The cluster should be powerful enough to coordinate the traffic lights. Synergy!</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Tue, 21 Dec 2021 01:20:43 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=29632688</link><dc:creator>firethief</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=29632688</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=29632688</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by firethief in "Derek Lowe: Omicron Update (Dec 17)"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>It's not <i>mutations</i> that are the threat, it's <i>mutated COVID-19</i>.</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Mon, 20 Dec 2021 03:17:27 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=29621214</link><dc:creator>firethief</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=29621214</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=29621214</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by firethief in "Derek Lowe: Omicron Update (Dec 17)"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>We are talking about the relative evolutionary fitness of different variants, so until we have the ability to decide whether to avoid someone based on what variant they have (and may not be showing symptoms of), I don't see how behavioral response enters the picture.</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Mon, 20 Dec 2021 03:12:59 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=29621188</link><dc:creator>firethief</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=29621188</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=29621188</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by firethief in "Thread Safety in C++ and Rust"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>That's only a problem if you use code that is unsound. Well-written crates do not incorrectly mark functions safe.</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Sun, 19 Dec 2021 05:31:58 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=29611631</link><dc:creator>firethief</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=29611631</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=29611631</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by firethief in "Ask HN: Is it me or are we entering an ARM era?"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>It depends on how high up the software stack you work. For most people it won't make much difference, but for some people it's huge. I do a lot of SIMD optimization, and x86 is 128/256/512-bit short-vector SIMD. Arm is 128-bit/long-vector. Even short-vector on Arm uses a different programming model from x86 (the intrinsics are more abstracted from the operations in order to support endian-agnostic operation), and of course long-vector is worlds apart.<p>I'm not complaining though; we're entering a new golden age for people who like learning the intricacies of ISA's and microarchitectures!</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Sat, 18 Dec 2021 21:36:18 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=29608760</link><dc:creator>firethief</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=29608760</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=29608760</guid></item></channel></rss>