<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: ggm</title><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/user?id=ggm</link><description>Hacker News RSS</description><docs>https://hnrss.org/</docs><generator>hnrss v2.1.1</generator><lastBuildDate>Wed, 19 Aug 2026 18:57:32 +0000</lastBuildDate><atom:link href="https://hnrss.org/user?id=ggm" rel="self" type="application/rss+xml"></atom:link><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by ggm in "Why it might be time to rethink the human family tree"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>I liked the illustration highlighting the hedge around where some subgroups in the hominids branch. In the group, not sure when.</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Wed, 19 Aug 2026 09:59:02 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49359307</link><dc:creator>ggm</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49359307</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49359307</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by ggm in "Universal health coverage could save $1T and 114k lives a year: study"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>I was responding to a thread I thought implied economic downside in employment, as a fellow Australian I'm a strong believer in national health.</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Wed, 19 Aug 2026 09:22:58 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49359053</link><dc:creator>ggm</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49359053</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49359053</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by ggm in "UK ATC Partners with Google to Avoid Contrails"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>TIL. Yes, contrails reflect sunlight so in daytime reduce insolation but night time contrails reflect IR back groundwards and have a stronger effect so they are not net beneficial over 24h.<p>Unless they encourage them daytime and deprecate them night time.</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Wed, 19 Aug 2026 08:53:09 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49358852</link><dc:creator>ggm</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49358852</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49358852</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by ggm in "Universal health coverage could save $1T and 114k lives a year: study"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>Is there any reason to believe less healthcare professionals would be employed under a universal system? Insurance claims adjusters and call centre scripted finance deciders, sure. But actual health delivery agents?</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Wed, 19 Aug 2026 07:34:17 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49358201</link><dc:creator>ggm</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49358201</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49358201</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by ggm in "Memory prices climb 500% in 12 months"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>I would be very surprised if the cost of the inputs being hoovered up by AI drops after this. Without ever forming a real cabal, I think the functional behaviour of the disparate people in this supply chain are going to hold on to the profit margin because there isn't a clear basis to stop them.<p>Sure, some imaginary perfect market would drop. This one is far from perfect, and it may drop by marginal percentages. It won't drop back to what it was before it went up 4x in price.<p>I would be very surprised if a market for older, superceded chips takes off, not because it isn't a brilliant idea, but because in order to use them, you have to make boards and systems which can consume them, and right now, the people who do that for a living are making a good living selling stuff as inputs to the people making a good living selling memory at inflated prices to the AI factories.<p>It's turtles all the way down.</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Wed, 19 Aug 2026 04:07:04 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49356647</link><dc:creator>ggm</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49356647</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49356647</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by ggm in "Scientists stunned by children's lung recovery in ultra low emission zone"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>s/stunned/pleased/</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Wed, 19 Aug 2026 03:59:34 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49356567</link><dc:creator>ggm</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49356567</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49356567</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by ggm in "Meta's blockbuster trial draws parallels to big tobacco"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>If we set the barrier to entry in prediction markets to an equivalent of an age/height check on entry, it would be well north of "yes, I am a mom-and-pop first time investor, I have never been here before, I know nothing except what some spammer told me and claude"<p>Somehow the "you can afford to lose your entire stake, you aren't leveraged, this isn't a con you fell into" is missing.<p>(thats aside from "you aren't an inside trader with privileged knowledge because of family ties to the WH, are you")</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Wed, 19 Aug 2026 03:57:47 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49356553</link><dc:creator>ggm</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49356553</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49356553</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by ggm in "The Amazon tax"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>Not identical problem, but similar. If I have just read "Dombey & Son" and want to read more Dickens, I search "Dickens" and get Monica Dickens? ok, more fool me. But if I search "Charles Dickens" and get "in the style of charles dickens" or "based on charles dickens" then I am very unhappy, especially if that "search" was actually clicking the blue highlight link under the specific volume of dickens I just read.<p>I asked an Amazonian about this once, and they said the algo worked for them in sales, because enough people go to the "in the style of" or actually want that and so I am SOL.<p>You would think there could be a search setting "specific author name == author, no extras" or something, if they wanted to maximise utility and choice.</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Wed, 19 Aug 2026 00:23:45 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49354910</link><dc:creator>ggm</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49354910</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49354910</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by ggm in "Ask HN: Good IMAP Email Clients?"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>I use mbsync, to Maildir and then NMH Maildir to folder/file format.<p>I step over the OAuth with email-oauth2-proxy.<p>There are X frontends to NMH like Sylpheed or claws. They make sense.</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Tue, 18 Aug 2026 23:11:09 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49354162</link><dc:creator>ggm</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49354162</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49354162</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by ggm in "git git git git git"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>Do the exec() tail call?</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Tue, 18 Aug 2026 08:04:11 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49342806</link><dc:creator>ggm</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49342806</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49342806</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by ggm in "An update on leaving Gmail for Fastmail"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>A shout out to the fastmail management who acquired pobox.com and kept the domain going, leveraging the fastmail infra.<p>I was really pleased my decades long investment in @short.name paid off, and I have been able to keep a short @pobox.com instance, which I undoubtedly would lose in the migration into @fastmail.com<p>Aside from the vanity aspect, the distinction between a real mail provider and a stable forwarding service is a useful one. Thank you Bron (and others) for keeping things going.</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Tue, 18 Aug 2026 03:03:05 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49340751</link><dc:creator>ggm</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49340751</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49340751</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by ggm in "Judge sets framework for Nine PBS to retrieve archival data"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>love the use of "solid" when both numbers (50, and the other 50) are pure unobtanium pulled out of an orifice.<p>"a lot" would be less rhetorically satisfying, but probably more appropriate.<p>I suspect the number is in fact, far less than 50%. In mining engineering, I'd be amazed if a significant majority of the rules don't stem from a significant accident or death, or forseeable need to avoid them. In medicine, the stakes are equally high. Building codes? It depends. The cost of tunnelling in NY isn't because of government compliance.</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Mon, 17 Aug 2026 23:00:08 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49338874</link><dc:creator>ggm</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49338874</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49338874</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by ggm in "Understanding the HEIC Format"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>Understanding that vendor-by-vendor, your Windows 11 PC may, or may not be able to handle these images because for a $1 bundling licence fee, some people cheaped out.<p>And hand-installing the algo code is a tiresome one time process with if-but-maybe (no, it is not as simple as clicking on and paying for the licence frobs on the MS Store)<p>The comment flows online about this are classic. "Apple did this to us all" against "Why should I buy s/w licences I don't need" (as if you don't have a tonne of licences in your soft and firmware as-is to a variety of people) against "This format isn't any better anyway" against "Isn't this just about the video streams" against "Is this what those motion video sequences are from Apple" (no, thats different, even if encoded in HEIC...<p>Guys, enough already. Just pay a one-time somewhere in Redmond, and put this logic back into an update so we can move on with our lives.</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Mon, 17 Aug 2026 04:41:18 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49326615</link><dc:creator>ggm</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49326615</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49326615</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by ggm in "TSMC Uses Old Fabs to Make New Chips [video]"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>I always wondered why there wasn't more visible "second string" production. In the current market, I get that for a given purity of silicon you make more money sending it out the door as AI chips, but the demand side for memory and other things surely would justify taking a fab line on granularity generation -2 or -3 and churning out older, but high yield things.<p>It has been pointed out to me when I say this that you cannot just switch a fab designed for VLSI gates in CPU into giant RAM making machines: The fabs all have their own peculiarities. They need to be tuned. Nothing is free, nothing is quick. The number of layers, the reagents, the specific dopands, they all vary. And contamination would be a real problem at this scale so purging a line made for process-A chemicals to become process-B must be quite an exercise too.<p>I believe current RAM and SSD stuff is very multi layered too. The older lines might just not "do" that amount of stacking.<p>(Not a VLSI engineer or a brain surgeon)</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Mon, 17 Aug 2026 00:14:40 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49325162</link><dc:creator>ggm</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49325162</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49325162</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by ggm in "The Iran War Is a Whole New Level of Quagmire for the US"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>I'm down for a good political rant as much as the next guy but I can't make an HN moment in this.<p>Is it about department of war using AI instead of people to decide things? Or Amazon's material losses in DC assets?</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Sun, 16 Aug 2026 06:29:43 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49317423</link><dc:creator>ggm</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49317423</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49317423</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by ggm in "This Hi-Fi Tape Recorder Changed Radio Forever"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>I have been told (perhaps incorrectly) that the Phillips cassette tape dimension is based on being able to source the full track tape stock and split it.<p>The same story is told about Eastman Kodak and 35/70mm film stock, as well as 16mm and 8mm with and without sound track.</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Sat, 15 Aug 2026 08:11:06 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49308745</link><dc:creator>ggm</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49308745</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49308745</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by ggm in "I close SSH port 22 (and what I use instead)"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>A scheme like this is in the process of being standardised by Peter Gutmann who knows what he is doing. To give that statement more context he's an NZ cryptographer and has also worked in standardisation before. So, he is promoting this model with knowledge of cryptography, risks and the standards process.<p><a href="https://datatracker.ietf.org/doc/draft-gutmann-ssh-preauth/" rel="nofollow">https://datatracker.ietf.org/doc/draft-gutmann-ssh-preauth/</a></p>
]]></description><pubDate>Sat, 15 Aug 2026 05:02:31 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49307793</link><dc:creator>ggm</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49307793</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49307793</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by ggm in "Nine PBS sues Iron Mountain over blocked access to archival data"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>Intermediaries. When it's not the DNS it's the anomalous status of intermediaries.</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Thu, 13 Aug 2026 21:47:12 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49292269</link><dc:creator>ggm</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49292269</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49292269</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by ggm in "Google's newest Pixel Watch monitors blood pressure and insulin resistance"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>It's an abstraction over an indirect measurement technique which is subject to many if-but-maybe issues. I'm not saying don't trust it but .. I am saying don't trust it without some alternate cuff/sphygmomanometer to calibrate and be aware even amongst cuffs, arm may be rated "better" than wrist.<p>I still don't see how a non invasive glucose level works tbh.<p>(Not a doctor or a medical scientist or an FDA)</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Thu, 13 Aug 2026 08:21:07 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49283097</link><dc:creator>ggm</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49283097</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49283097</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by ggm in "AI Hype Is Running into Reality"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p><a href="https://archive.is/Rh0SA" rel="nofollow">https://archive.is/Rh0SA</a></p>
]]></description><pubDate>Thu, 13 Aug 2026 03:04:02 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49281342</link><dc:creator>ggm</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49281342</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49281342</guid></item></channel></rss>