Hacker News: gpvos

New comment by gpvos in "Two high-speed trains collide near Toledo, Spain"

gpvos — Thu, 29 Oct 2026 10:49:14 +0000

There is also the issue of recognition software that doesn't have too many false positives, and properly tuning it for each crossing, in all light situations. The amount of time and work needed can really be very large. I'm not against it though. Some pilot projects would be a good idea.

New comment by gpvos in "Spain train crash: What we know after two trains crashed with dozens feared dead"

gpvos — Thu, 29 Oct 2026 10:39:50 +0000

My thoughts as well. It appears that such signal failures happen so often that the controllers regularly let trains run through red under verbal authorization. I don't know the exact protocols, but I would expect a driver to ask for confirmation, as happened here, and then trust the control centre. However, there is clearly a huge systemic problem, with added complexity for the controllers, and there should at least be double checks in the control centre.

New comment by gpvos in "Two high-speed trains collide near Toledo, Spain"

gpvos — Wed, 28 Oct 2026 22:59:41 +0000

In common parlance, "high-speed train" refers to the type of train, not their current speed.

New comment by gpvos in "Two high-speed trains collide near Toledo, Spain"

gpvos — Wed, 28 Oct 2026 22:57:00 +0000

Depending on where, there can be lots and lots of small crossings. The cameras themselves might not be that expensive, but keeping them in working order is very nontrivial.

New comment by gpvos in "Spain train crash: 'At least 10 dead' in high-speed collision"

gpvos — Wed, 28 Oct 2026 16:32:09 +0000

Train controllers (dispatchers, signallers) existed way before liberalization.

There is merit to your arguments, but I still don't think it's the main issue in this case.

New comment by gpvos in "A philosopher of war changes his mind on Gaza"

gpvos — Wed, 28 Oct 2026 16:07:41 +0000

https://unwall.app/www.newyorker.com/culture/persons-of-inte...

A philosopher of war changes his mind on Gaza

gpvos — Wed, 28 Oct 2026 16:07:41 +0000

Article URL: https://www.newyorker.com/culture/persons-of-interest/a-philosopher-of-war-changes-his-mind

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50275958

Points: 3

# Comments: 1

New comment by gpvos in "Two high-speed trains collide near Toledo, Spain"

gpvos — Wed, 28 Oct 2026 14:05:33 +0000

By now, I'd ask which short-distance trains...

New comment by gpvos in "Spain train crash: 'At least 10 dead' in high-speed collision"

gpvos — Wed, 28 Oct 2026 13:47:46 +0000

"Directly" is way too strong. Yes, it may have been a factor here that the train that remained standing still was from another operator, but there are many more important factors at play, the main one being apparent lack of safety mindset of the controller. In other European countries with even more operators, the safety record is not commensurably worse.

New comment by gpvos in "Spain train crash: 'At least 10 dead' in high-speed collision"

gpvos — Wed, 28 Oct 2026 13:43:59 +0000

Proper training focuses specifically on those exceptional situations (like it does for airplane pilots), with strong emphasis on always falling back on safe procedures. Even so, you can't cover 100% of possibilities.

New comment by gpvos in "Two high-speed trains collide near Toledo, Spain"

gpvos — Wed, 28 Oct 2026 13:34:09 +0000

When on verbal authorization, controller discipline is probably more important than driver discipline. And I really hope they don't do that at 300 km/h.

New comment by gpvos in "Two high-speed trains collide near Toledo, Spain"

gpvos — Wed, 28 Oct 2026 13:23:16 +0000

This route is the last of the Spanish high speed lines that still has an older train protection system. There has been a similar accident in 2002 in Germany where LZB was also used: https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linienf%C3%B6rmige_Zugbeeinflu... . Now after 24 years you might think they had mitigating procedures in place...

New comment by gpvos in "Two high-speed trains collide near Toledo, Spain"

gpvos — Wed, 28 Oct 2026 13:20:21 +0000

64 already. Those trains are quite long and sturdy. But there will be lots of severely wounded.

New comment by gpvos in "What Happened to the Neanderthals?"

gpvos — Wed, 28 Oct 2026 10:07:23 +0000

That is an interesting factoid, thanks.

New comment by gpvos in "What Happened to the Neanderthals?"

gpvos — Wed, 28 Oct 2026 10:05:57 +0000

As far as I know, the discussion is ongoing and H. neanderthalensis is still a current classification. But yes, the consensus is moving in the direction you describe.

We'll probably never know how they were perceived in society back then, if it was e.g. like Asians versus westerners now.

New comment by gpvos in "What Happened to the Neanderthals?"

gpvos — Wed, 28 Oct 2026 09:48:24 +0000

(In fact, the Neander valley, where they were first found, is just east of Düsseldorf, only about 60 km from the Dutch border.)

New comment by gpvos in "What Happened to the Neanderthals?"

gpvos — Wed, 28 Oct 2026 07:47:30 +0000

Yeah I misread that too at first.

New comment by gpvos in "Wikipedia's Cleanup of AI-Generated Content"

gpvos — Tue, 27 Oct 2026 19:20:32 +0000

Indeed, Wikipedia has been battling similar problems before, see e.g. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:List_of_citogenesis_...

New comment by gpvos in "Microsoft offers mass buyouts for roughly a quarter of its workforce"

gpvos — Mon, 26 Oct 2026 20:10:16 +0000

For non-Americans: IC = Independent contributor = employee without people reporting to them

New comment by gpvos in "Microsoft offers mass buyouts for roughly a quarter of its workforce"

gpvos — Mon, 26 Oct 2026 20:04:33 +0000

That's $320/week, to be clear.