Hacker News: fredophile

New comment by fredophile in "SpaceX to buy Cursor for $60B"

fredophile — Tue, 16 Jun 2026 16:03:29 +0000

I also saw a quote from Musk saying that he expects SpaceX to hit $1 trillion in revenue by 2031. Given his track record of predicting performance I think it's safe to ignore such future looking statements from him or companies he controls.

New comment by fredophile in "In a first, wind and solar generated more power than gas globally in April 2026"

fredophile — Thu, 04 Jun 2026 17:26:26 +0000

Are you saying that they chose bad locations inside of Germany for wind and solar or that Germany doesn't have any viable locations and they shouldn't build wind and solar in Germany at all?

New comment by fredophile in "Wind and solar generated more power than gas globally in April 2026"

fredophile — Thu, 04 Jun 2026 15:57:00 +0000

It's not like other forms of power generation don't have similar problems. Solar PV cells lose efficiency and need to be replaced. Nuclear has very long term storage concerns. Coal and natural gas plants have finite expected lifetimes before the whole plant needs to shut down.

New comment by fredophile in "In a first, wind and solar generated more power than gas globally in April 2026"

fredophile — Thu, 04 Jun 2026 15:45:20 +0000

I spent a good chunk of my life in the Pacific Northwest. You get very long stretches of cloudy skies through most of the winter that are poor for solar. However, there are alternatives in that region like hydro that may be more suitable choices.

New comment by fredophile in "In a first, wind and solar generated more power than gas globally in April 2026"

fredophile — Thu, 04 Jun 2026 15:30:42 +0000

Can you point to large scale solar or wind projects that were shoved into places that have extended periods of low sunlight or wind?

New comment by fredophile in "Anthropic acquires Stainless"

fredophile — Tue, 19 May 2026 00:00:02 +0000

The $1.3 million doesn't mean much. The article stated he could've switched to a significantly cheaper option and cut the bill to $300k. That's still a lot but since he worked for the company that sells the tokens it isn't as though they were paying the retail cost.

New comment by fredophile in "A message from President Kornbluth about funding and the talent pipeline"

fredophile — Thu, 14 May 2026 22:11:08 +0000

You're looking at students at a top tier university in a field that pays extremely well. The numbers are going to be at the high end for what a grad student can make. A quick search for PhD salaries suggests that $20-35k/year is more common.

The median wage number you cited is also for the total population. According to this graph the median wage for college graduates is around $7k/mo. I'm fortunate to make very good money but I'd still notice a $2k/mo pay cut.

New comment by fredophile in "Driver accused of DUI tracks missing laptop to Illinois State trooper's house"

fredophile — Mon, 11 May 2026 15:27:56 +0000

There's another relevant saying about apples you should check out.

New comment by fredophile in "Driver accused of DUI tracks missing laptop to Illinois State trooper's house"

fredophile — Mon, 11 May 2026 15:16:30 +0000

Are you seriously trying to equate people exercising their right to peacefully protest to the power to detain and shoot people?

New comment by fredophile in "FCC Funding Application Notes Paramount Will Be 49.5% Foreign-Owned Post-Merger"

fredophile — Tue, 28 Apr 2026 19:47:43 +0000

> You can not have a for-profit system and a government subsidized one

Have you told Australia? They seem to think they've been able to do this for a while now.

New comment by fredophile in "FCC Funding Application Notes Paramount Will Be 49.5% Foreign-Owned Post-Merger"

fredophile — Tue, 28 Apr 2026 19:39:42 +0000

> Democrats advocate for things like healthcare and cancelling student loans -- never happens

Democrats passed the ACA under Obama. Republicans have been trying to get it repealed with only moderate success ever since.

Biden announced student loan forgiveness in 2023. The Supreme Court struck it down in 2023.

Democrats have been able to get done at least some of the things they said they would.

New comment by fredophile in "3.4M Solar Panels"

fredophile — Wed, 22 Apr 2026 15:56:44 +0000

You have to replace everything you own on some cadence. Eventually I'll need to replace the battery on my solar system. I'll also need to replace the panels at some point and even the roof the system is installed on.

My solar system uses a Tesla powerwall. I'd expect its real world performance over time to be about the same as what you see in batteries for Tesla vehicles.

New comment by fredophile in "I went to America's worst national parks so you don't have to"

fredophile — Mon, 13 Apr 2026 14:32:40 +0000

I've been to most of the places he said were bad and I totally agree that you can ignore what he says. Shortly after talking about how bad Zion is for the crowds he says that Capitol Reef is also terrible. I thought Capitol Reef was great. It's a lot like Zion but without the crowds.

He also dismissed a few parks that I think are ideal for families with young children. Petrified forest has lots of interesting short hikes that you can do with small children. They also have a really nice ice cream shop with great views. The fact that you can do short hikes to amazing views is part of what makes Arches nice. If you want a longer hike drive next door to Canyonlands which is also fantastic.

New comment by fredophile in "Hard-braking events as indicators of road segment crash risk"

fredophile — Mon, 09 Feb 2026 22:20:09 +0000

Where I live travelling at that speed will get you passed by every cop and state trooper driving on the same road. A lot comes down to local norms and enforcement.

New comment by fredophile in "Doge 'doesn't exist' with eight months left on its charter"

fredophile — Mon, 24 Nov 2025 23:14:11 +0000

DOGE "failed" because cutting the budget wasn't their real goal.

Here are a few outcomes they were able to achieve: (1) Cutting funding for agencies and organizations that were investigating companies run by Elon Musk. (2) Cutting funding for organizations, like NOAA, that have high economic returns for every dollar the government spent on them. (3) Copying information from multiple government databases.

(1) had immediate benefits to Musk. (2) leaves openings for someone with enough capital to fill in the gaps left behind and make a profit charging for what used to be a government service. (3) provides numerous long term benefits to Musk and anyone else with access to that data.

New comment by fredophile in "Using AI to negotiate a $195k hospital bill down to $33k"

fredophile — Wed, 29 Oct 2025 03:49:16 +0000

I don't understand the obsession some people have with keeping your existing plan. Lots of people can't keep there plan under the current system. Insurance companies update their plans regularly. Sometimes they remove plans or exit markets entirely. An existing plan will get small changes over time. If Theseus has an insurance plan for 10 years and the insurance company makes changes every year can we still call it the original plan of Theseus?

If M4A plus supplemental insurance gives me about the same coverage I have now for a reduced total cost that sounds like a win to me. Even if it ends up costing me the same amount the net improvement from everyone having access to basic health care would still be a win.

New comment by fredophile in "Using AI to negotiate a $195k hospital bill down to $33k"

fredophile — Tue, 28 Oct 2025 21:23:54 +0000

Why does Medicare for all mean I can't keep private health insurance? There are countries that have systems like this in place.

New comment by fredophile in "AI Is Too Big to Fail"

fredophile — Mon, 13 Oct 2025 15:56:06 +0000

Pension funds should be diversified and have a mix of asset classes that includes more than the stock market. Ideally, most of these assets will move independently so if one is doing particularly badly the others can balance it out to reduce overall volatility. If your pension fund is too heavily weighted to the market, that's a management problem with your fund.

New comment by fredophile in "“No Tax on Tips” Includes Digital Creators, Too"

fredophile — Thu, 11 Sep 2025 03:01:48 +0000

> I primarily blame Democrats for the current situation for they have been doing just an awful job of getting anything done or standing up to opposition, they are ineffective cowards and invited the current situation with their incompetence.

I agree with you that Democrats have been ineffective in opposing Republican policies but I think you've come to the wrong conclusion. When someone gets robbed I don't primarily blame them for being ineffective at securing their home, I blame the person who robbed them. Why wouldn't you primarily blame Republicans for pushing bad policies instead of Democrats for being bad at blocking them?

New comment by fredophile in "The Storm Hits the Art Market"

fredophile — Tue, 09 Sep 2025 01:52:47 +0000

I think it depends on the piece. I have a piece that I love and spent about $5k on. It's relatively large and has a lot of detail. I wouldn't be surprised if that is the equivalent of a month's work full time for the artist so the price seems reasonable to me.