Hacker News: glitchc

New comment by glitchc in "Civic Hygiene – avoid building technologies that could be used by a police state (2013)"

glitchc — Wed, 19 Aug 2026 18:17:25 +0000

Yup, it was a utopia... until the Soviet subsidies ended.

New comment by glitchc in "Civic Hygiene – avoid building technologies that could be used by a police state (2013)"

glitchc — Wed, 19 Aug 2026 17:45:21 +0000

It's good in theory, I wonder if they talk about the practice..

New comment by glitchc in "Being ambitious and being a dad"

glitchc — Wed, 19 Aug 2026 14:42:28 +0000

I think the OP's logic applies. Every author is hoping their book is a best-seller and/or wins awards i.e. the approval of others.

New comment by glitchc in "Norway should buy OpenAI"

glitchc — Tue, 18 Aug 2026 19:44:58 +0000

Nothing special about OpenAI to deserve a buyout.

New comment by glitchc in "I used to be excited about new tech, but I rarely am anymore"

glitchc — Tue, 18 Aug 2026 15:18:22 +0000

Short answer is yes. Most grandparents resisted computers, internet, cellphones or online banking until the network effect left them with little choice but to participate. You also see them glom onto popular platforms (Faceboook, WhatsApp) and not experiment much with alternatives (Discord, Snapchat). Driven by the same effect, they're only there because that's where their families and friends are.

New comment by glitchc in "India has paved the way for charging merchants a fee on UPI transactions"

glitchc — Mon, 17 Aug 2026 22:07:52 +0000

> The only route for a tourist to use UPI is via third party apps, which charge a markup for loading money (3%).

Or a credit card.

New comment by glitchc in "ChatGPT Desktop (Codex Desktop) for Linux"

glitchc — Thu, 13 Aug 2026 14:05:26 +0000

Yes, except it only worked some of the time on some of the distros (mainly Ubuntu/Debian variants of a certain vintage).

New comment by glitchc in "Solving the Shortest Vector Problem in $2^{0.6039n}$ Time via Mid-Point Hessian"

glitchc — Thu, 13 Aug 2026 14:01:47 +0000

Faster solutions to SVP impact the security of all lattice-based schemes.

New comment by glitchc in "Solving the Shortest Vector Problem in $2^{0.6039n}$ Time via Mid-Point Hessian"

glitchc — Thu, 13 Aug 2026 14:01:16 +0000

> people assume SVP is much easier to solve, closer to 2^{.29n + o(n)}.

Since when? Can you cite the relevant paper(s)?

New comment by glitchc in "Mark Zuckerberg attacks 'closed' AI rivals as Meta returns to open models"

glitchc — Tue, 11 Aug 2026 04:32:06 +0000

Isn't open source not the ingredients but the recipe?

New comment by glitchc in "Stop Killing Games: It's time to sue Sony, join us"

glitchc — Tue, 11 Aug 2026 04:06:06 +0000

It's not a monopoly in the console market. There are two other competitors all of whom have roughly equal market share. And they are all walled gardens so Sony is not doing anything differently from its competitors.

New comment by glitchc in "Stop Killing Games: It's time to sue Sony, join us"

glitchc — Tue, 11 Aug 2026 04:03:41 +0000

I don't see the point. It's a private, for-profit entity that controls a walled garden platform that they invented, developed and commoditized. It was always a walled garden, never advertised as anything otherwise. All video games have been a license to play since the days of Pong, unless explicitly indicated otherwise. We never owned the actual software and by buying the game, we agreed that our access to the software could change at any point in the future. Does this lawsuit hope to upend ~60 years of contract law?

New comment by glitchc in "Mars Bar from 1991 found – and it's 20g bigger than today's"

glitchc — Mon, 10 Aug 2026 19:33:07 +0000

100% beef is a trademark.

New comment by glitchc in "Taxi drivers rarely die of Alzheimer's"

glitchc — Sun, 09 Aug 2026 18:19:52 +0000

They are likely studying individuals that retired without getting fatally stabbed or shot on the job.

New comment by glitchc in "Tom Stanton's supersonic trebuchet breaks sound barrier with gravity alone"

glitchc — Sun, 09 Aug 2026 18:17:15 +0000

One possibility is to mount the trebuchet on a tiltable platform and tilt it to a suitable elevation, say 45 degrees.

New comment by glitchc in "The Gargantuan Lie That Is Collapsing the Climate"

glitchc — Fri, 07 Aug 2026 12:30:07 +0000

Can we say for certain that doing so would not have an unintended side effect, given how complex the biodome is? If not, then likely no.

New comment by glitchc in "The Gargantuan Lie That Is Collapsing the Climate"

glitchc — Fri, 07 Aug 2026 12:26:20 +0000

Why would they be when they see the hypocrisy of the chattering classes? How many celebrities or billionaires have curtailed their own lifestyles while pitching for climate change? Has the number of luxury jets and superyatches gone up or down over time?

The average person may seem stupid but they are paying attention to the actions, and it all sounds like "I got mine, screw yours" to them.

New comment by glitchc in "Unions Can Save Tech Workers and Tech Work"

glitchc — Thu, 06 Aug 2026 20:04:23 +0000

Nothing wrong with stating the sources up front. They are clearly pro-labour and pro-union. It helps to know where the authors stand. Would you rather the authors were buried under seven layers of shell companies?

New comment by glitchc in "Taste Is All That's Left"

glitchc — Thu, 06 Aug 2026 19:53:09 +0000

Hemingway wrote the same way. Here's a famous example from the Old Man and the Sea:

Every day is a new day. It is better to be lucky. But I would rather be exact. Then when luck comes you are ready.

The reason is simple: Short sentences are punchy. They hit hard, carry emotional weight.

P.S. As evident, clearly I'm having some fun with this, but the point stands.

New comment by glitchc in "Show HN: I spent 2 years designing a mechanical Magic Keyboard"

glitchc — Thu, 06 Aug 2026 17:20:21 +0000

What you are referring to is called the pre-travel distance. There are mechanical key options with very short pre-travel, such as the Cherry MX and Kailh Silver switches. They're mainly used for gaming.

https://keychron.ca/blogs/news/kailh-mechanical-switch-guide