Hacker News: gblargg

New comment by gblargg in "Surprise, pay $1000"

gblargg — Wed, 10 Jun 2026 22:24:27 +0000

> I mean, the dude didn't even try to say he wasn't warned:

A warning that service will be disrupted if you don't add a credit card clearly implies that service would be cut off once they used up the free time. Continuing to get service is not a disruption. Maybe you were agreeing, not sure.

New comment by gblargg in "Surprise, pay $1000"

gblargg — Wed, 10 Jun 2026 20:30:44 +0000

> In this instance, the bill is a communication in advance -- if you provide a credit card in order to keep using our services, we want to get paid for everything you used after the free limit.

That would be much more acceptable. If it worked out and you want to continue, you won't have a problem paying for the overage. If you decide it's not for you, then you can walk away and owe nothing. If it were communicated that way it would be a different situation.

New comment by gblargg in "Surprise, pay $1000"

gblargg — Wed, 10 Jun 2026 20:23:46 +0000

This story is also educating people so if they do use them, they know in advance how they bill so won't be surprised.

New comment by gblargg in "Surprise, pay $1000"

gblargg — Wed, 10 Jun 2026 20:20:43 +0000

The terms state

> Alternatively, for larger contracts, You may request to be billed via invoice.

> By providing payment information, You authorize us to charge Your credit card for usage fees or, in the case of invoice-based contracts, agree to make timely payments as specified in the invoicing terms.

And at the top there's a Try For Free button that says no credit card is required. This strongly communicates that this free trial won't incur any costs until you add a card or agree to be billed via invoice.

A simple change of the text would make people a lot less surprised. Warn them that if they go over they will be billed. In the bill clarify at the top that they don't actually have to pay if they don't want to.

New comment by gblargg in "Surprise, pay $1000"

gblargg — Wed, 10 Jun 2026 20:04:12 +0000

> we've never pursued these invoices.

Reminds me of the company Tado, who was testing to see if people would pay by making them think they would have to even though they didn't. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tfAchfFXghc

New comment by gblargg in "Chrome is looking to permanently drop MV2 extension"

gblargg — Wed, 10 Jun 2026 15:41:24 +0000

I just tested and apparently their site is extremely flaky. I tried for several minutes to get info but nothing except one time (changing store location, refreshing). Then it started working fine for a while, updating when I changed location. I cleared cookies out each time and that didn't cause/fix it. So it's not intentional to push you to the app, just a shit site (not just because of this issue, but its extreme slowness on mobile).

New comment by gblargg in "Chrome is looking to permanently drop MV2 extension"

gblargg — Wed, 10 Jun 2026 08:53:53 +0000

Well given a long enough timeline, everything will be disabled at some point.

New comment by gblargg in "Chrome is looking to permanently drop MV2 extension"

gblargg — Wed, 10 Jun 2026 08:49:01 +0000

Like Home Depot not showing the item location in store from the website, only the app.

New comment by gblargg in "Premature Optimization Is Fun Sometimes"

gblargg — Wed, 10 Jun 2026 08:33:40 +0000

If you don't align the array to a 4K boundary in memory, fitting within a page isn't as big of an optimization win.

New comment by gblargg in "German ruling declares Google liable for false answers in AI Overviews"

gblargg — Wed, 10 Jun 2026 07:55:50 +0000

Yeah, they could make it more prominent at the top. I would be fine if it said that "AI may give totally wrong answers" but that would never happen.

New comment by gblargg in "Surprise, pay $1000"

gblargg — Wed, 10 Jun 2026 06:02:48 +0000

> In order to use the Blacksmith Software Inc Service, You must set up an account. During the account setup process, You will be required to connect your GitHub account and install Blacksmith’s GitHub integration in your org, and add a valid payment method, such as a credit card, which will be processed through Stripe. Alternatively, for larger contracts, You may request to be billed via invoice.

Unless this guy had a larger contract and requested to be billed via invoice, this is a violation of terms and he should tell them to stuff it.

New comment by gblargg in "German ruling declares Google liable for false answers in AI Overviews"

gblargg — Wed, 10 Jun 2026 05:44:00 +0000

I thought Google labeled its AI summary with a disclaimer already. I don't want companies to be forced to only offer safe-for-children services.

New comment by gblargg in "German ruling declares Google liable for false answers in AI Overviews"

gblargg — Wed, 10 Jun 2026 05:10:02 +0000

To remove the choice from responsible people who can understand that LLM answers are not to be trusted with anything important?

New comment by gblargg in "If Claude Fable stops helping you, you'll never know"

gblargg — Wed, 10 Jun 2026 03:32:13 +0000

Sounds like this one just silently corrupts the results. It's more like when YouTube shadow deletes your comments without any notification, it's just gone after a few minutes.

New comment by gblargg in "If Claude Fable stops helping you, you'll never know"

gblargg — Wed, 10 Jun 2026 03:28:46 +0000

Seems like this will backfire. Now when developers encounter problems with Claude Fable, they will have an easy explanation: it did it deliberately and intentionally vaguely. There's no way to falsify it. It's reasonable to expect it to get false positives and invoke this when it shouldn't be.

New comment by gblargg in "Texas grid flags risks as data centers, crypto sites fail voltage tests"

gblargg — Tue, 09 Jun 2026 12:16:36 +0000

Reminded me of this fun video of a guy spinning up a water turbine generator and getting it synchronized with to the grid the old-style needle phase meter, then connecting it successfully:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xGQxSJmadm0

New comment by gblargg in "Texas grid flags risks as data centers, crypto sites fail voltage tests"

gblargg — Mon, 08 Jun 2026 06:33:30 +0000

The ELI5 version is you're arm-wrestling someone and they suddenly let their arm go limp, so your arm slams down on the table since you can't react that fast.

New comment by gblargg in "Texas grid flags risks as data centers, crypto sites fail voltage tests"

gblargg — Mon, 08 Jun 2026 06:32:29 +0000

Charge them the cost of installing mitigations that can pick up the load if they drop it suddenly.

New comment by gblargg in "Show HN: I Derived a Pancake"

gblargg — Mon, 08 Jun 2026 04:37:05 +0000

Maybe he needs to optimize the frying part now. Looks burned to me.

New comment by gblargg in "The curious case of low-protein diets"

gblargg — Sun, 07 Jun 2026 20:11:23 +0000

https://archive.is/c8Pep (avoid the popups)