Hacker News: hagbard_c

New comment by hagbard_c in "Astronauts told to return to ISS after sheltering over air leak repairs"

hagbard_c — Fri, 05 Jun 2026 22:52:49 +0000

Yes, well, that and by aerobraking in the atmosphere where all that potential energy the capsule gained during launch has to be shed. There's plenty of reentry videos from Starship tests which show what happens to vehicle parts which are less protected by heat shields.

New comment by hagbard_c in "What happens if Japan takes in zero immigrants?"

hagbard_c — Fri, 05 Jun 2026 17:17:10 +0000

I thought this site catered to those a bit more discerning when it comes to discussing complex subjects but I seem to be mistaken. You do know the English language offers more than the few words you employ to have nuanced discussions?

Quite a fitting name you chose for yourself by the way.

New comment by hagbard_c in "What happens if Japan takes in zero immigrants?"

hagbard_c — Fri, 05 Jun 2026 09:37:39 +0000

Xenophobes, not racists. There is no race called 'muslim'. That this thread attracts comments from those who have migration-related problems high on their agenda is not that strange since it is dealing with the problems of the (absence of) migration. This subject has been polarised - not in the least by people calling anyone who does not agree a 'racist' - so some of the comments are extreme as well, viz. the grandparent comment about muslims and Indians.

Drop the knee-jerk 'muslims and indians are !"!"#%#¤', drop the 'racist! racist! racist!' and maybe, just maybe we can discuss the subject in a more productive manner. It does need discussing because neither 'close all the borders for anyone who does not look, speak, think or believe like me' nor 'open all the borders and welcome anyone who comes in' is a viable solution. Countries which do the former end up in the backwaters of history, those which do the latter end up as a footnote.

New comment by hagbard_c in "Dear Microsoft, enough is enough"

hagbard_c — Fri, 05 Jun 2026 09:16:20 +0000

Yes, competing browser vendors want to compete on what is still the biggest 'desktop OS'. It would be more remarkable if this had been written by, say, the Sierra Club or the National Federation of Piano Tuners. That Google/Chrome is part of this group comes as no surprise nor does the fact that they'd most likely act the same as Microsoft does if and when they're in the position Microsoft is.

New comment by hagbard_c in "Dear Microsoft, enough is enough"

hagbard_c — Fri, 05 Jun 2026 09:10:17 +0000

Yes, any default browser just as long at it uses the WebKit engine. This is comparable to how the Ford Model T could be ordered in any colour just as long as it was black.

New comment by hagbard_c in "Dear Microsoft, enough is enough"

hagbard_c — Fri, 05 Jun 2026 09:08:06 +0000

Data. Every move, every click, every visited URL, dwell time on sites, etc. Also, the competition does not get these data, at least not as easily.

New comment by hagbard_c in "The Pentagon is running an AI propaganda mill targeting Latin America"

hagbard_c — Fri, 05 Jun 2026 08:57:08 +0000

It is an arms race just like any other. Country A says "we're the best", country B says "Country A is a bunch of liars, look at us", country C says "in contrast to the clear propaganda coming from A and B the truth is that we've found the answer to every question", A counters with "B does nasty things to ${ethnic_group}", B says "C stole every answer from us", C says "A and B are ruled by geriatric know-nothings", etc. Propagandists are going to propagandise no matter whether they're in a representational republic, a democracy, a constitutional monarchy, an oligarchy or a dictatorship. Some of the propaganda is closer to the truth than other but it is still propaganda.

New comment by hagbard_c in "Ask HN: High school student – is learning programming still worthwhile?"

hagbard_c — Thu, 04 Jun 2026 22:37:16 +0000

Yes, it is worth learning if only to know what it is that makes computers work.

Developers who know assembly have more insight in the capabilities and workings of computers than those who don't.

Developers who know and use (compiled) low-level languages have more insight in the capabilities and workings of computers than those who only use (interpreted) high-level languages

the next addition will be something like 'Developers who know programming languages have more insight in the capabilities and workings of computers than those who only use natural languages'

Learn to program even if you don't intend to do much of it later on.

New comment by hagbard_c in "American Wealth, Sliced Up"

hagbard_c — Thu, 04 Jun 2026 20:35:41 +0000

They are voting it up because posing as 'champagne Marxist' has become popular among the demographics which frequent sites like HN so publications which seem to fit this narrative are gaining traction, factuality be damned.

Does this mean there is no problem when such a large fraction of a country's wealth is concentrated in so few hands? Nope, it certainly can be a problem and has been shown to be so when these few hands use their influence to further their own interests to the detriment of those of the country. The same is true for places where the narrative pushed by the armchair revolutionaries is enacted, the difference is that instead of a few monied interests pulling the strings there tend to be a few politically well-placed individuals doing so. Trying to solve the problems related to extreme wealth concentration with the dissolution of private property - which is what the narrative comes down to - is just as silly as trying to solve the problem with an ulcerated toe by chopping off your foot. That 'highly educated' 'intelligent' people keep on falling for this narrative time and time again notwithstanding all the evidence showing its corrupt nature is flabbergasting.

New comment by hagbard_c in "The Public Should Own Half of the Big A.I. Companies"

hagbard_c — Wed, 03 Jun 2026 19:05:53 +0000

That was then but this is now and now American 'progressives' have caught up and in some cases out-'progressed' their European counterparts. There isn't anything 'moderate' about current American 'progressives'.

New comment by hagbard_c in "My Students Can't Read"

hagbard_c — Wed, 03 Jun 2026 11:03:32 +0000

> I can't imagine what they would do if faced with a 20-page article.

They'd feed it to a chatbot and glance over whatever summary it came back with and believe it represents the contents of the article.

New comment by hagbard_c in "Gmail thinks I'm stupid, so I left"

hagbard_c — Tue, 02 Jun 2026 23:02:25 +0000

It is all part of a ploy to bring about AGI, not by increasing the intelligence of the models but by bringing down that of the users.

Do I need to add some sarcasm tag? Hope not as it would prove my point.

New comment by hagbard_c in "Review of the MoErgo Glove80 Keyboard (2024)"

hagbard_c — Tue, 02 Jun 2026 22:07:34 +0000

Someone who wants to sell keyboards which 'fix' the 'problem' of keyboards which 'force' you to hold your hands at such a crippling angle.

New comment by hagbard_c in "What are locusts and what happened to them?"

hagbard_c — Sat, 30 May 2026 12:57:16 +0000

Put them under a microscope at 10-40 times magnification and you've got your demons. Claws and hooks and fang-like attachments everywhere, faceted eyes, crusty exterior. The western image of demons was partly derived from insectoid creatures by painters like Hieronymus Bosch so it makes sense for insects to look demonic.

How to prevent ideological capture of sites like Wikipedia, HN

hagbard_c — Wed, 27 May 2026 06:14:33 +0000

Someone submitted a link [1] to an article on Wikipedia's whitewashing of Mao titled Wikipedia Whitewashes Mao – The Anatomy of Ideological Capture [2], a topic which in a more generalized form is of interest to the current average HN denizen given the prevalence of Wikipedia in LLM training data. It did not take long for the flaggers and down-voters to take down the article which has only managed to get a few comments, the top one claiming the article to be 'a pretty political take on a Wikipedia article'. I think the subject deserves more discussion since it points out a clear problem with sources like Wikipedia but also because of the way this article was quickly flagged to death. The flagging and down-voting mechanisms make sites like HN vulnerable to the same type of ideological capture as what is discussed in the linked article in that a relatively small group of motivated users can suppress 'unwanted' subjects while boosting those which fit some desired narrative.

[1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48287775

[2] https://www.tracingwoodgrains.com/p/how-wikipedia-whitewashes-mao

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48290346

Points: 4

# Comments: 2

New comment by hagbard_c in "The memory shortage is causing a repricing of consumer electronics"

hagbard_c — Fri, 22 May 2026 11:46:39 +0000

1920's: Hard times create strong men.

1950's: Strong men create good times.

1980's: Good times create weak men.

2010's: Weak men create hard times. There you are, wishing for hard times. May I suggest finding yourself the socialist paradise where they do as you wish and move there? You should be happier and we will be as well as long as your wishes don't come true.

New comment by hagbard_c in "Starship V3"

hagbard_c — Wed, 13 May 2026 11:39:47 +0000

They'll remain behind as long as they keep copying SpaceX's concepts since they need to wait and see before they can copy.

New comment by hagbard_c in "Starship V3"

hagbard_c — Wed, 13 May 2026 11:37:07 +0000

The planet cannot die since it doesn't live. Planet life isn't dying either.

New comment by hagbard_c in "Starship V3"

hagbard_c — Wed, 13 May 2026 11:34:51 +0000

Those "insane storms and winds" in an atmosphere with 2% of the density of earth's atmosphere won't be much of a problem.

New comment by hagbard_c in "New York state set to ban law enforcement, including ICE, from wearing masks"

hagbard_c — Fri, 08 May 2026 08:11:59 +0000

Those who go through the official migration paths - in the U.S.A. or elsewhere, doesn't matter - are not "illegal aliens" so that word play with "as yet undocumented immigrants" doesn't hold. People who are waiting for their paperwork to go through the official channels will have some form of proof of their application status. If they were told they could await the results while in the U.S.A they're not illegal aliens, if they were told to await permission outside of the U.S.A they are. Those who cross the border with the intent to stay without legal permission are "illegal aliens" and are in violation of whatever laws cover migration - 8 US code § 1325 in the U.S.A, artikel 197 Wetboek van Strafrecht (for those declared unwanted) and artikel 61-67 Vreemdelingenwet in the Netherlands, etc. Some of these illegal aliens violate other (criminal) laws which makes them "criminal illegal aliens" but everyone who stays in a country - any country - without legal permission has violated whatever laws cover migration into that country.