Hacker News: itstriz

New comment by itstriz in "Ask HN: What was your "oh shit" moment with GenAI?"

itstriz — Fri, 12 Jun 2026 21:12:12 +0000

Another home improvement example for me: my washing machine stopped spinning. I looked online for the machine manual but couldn't find it with basic search. I had ChatGPT Pro search for the repair manual (for service technicians) and help me troubleshoot my problem. It found a PDF of the manual somewhere and pointed me in the right direction to start diagnosing. Between reading the manual and prompting for extra help, I was able to pinpoint the area of the issue, and found that a belt had come off from a wobbly pulley wheel. Tightened up the wheel, put the belt back on and fixed it (at least for now).

New comment by itstriz in "Anyone can push updates to the doge.gov website"

itstriz — Mon, 17 Feb 2025 15:45:16 +0000

Even putting the politics aside, a DOGE engineer experience on a resume would send me the message that you're the type of person who is too cowardly or corrupt to stand up against unethical and illegal assignments. Perhaps that's a good fit for some hiring managers, but it's potentially a big red flag for many others.

New comment by itstriz in "DeepSeek-R1"

itstriz — Fri, 24 Jan 2025 14:34:27 +0000

omg lol "here we go, the first 'R'"

New comment by itstriz in "Engineer eats efficiently for $2.50 a day (2016)"

itstriz — Wed, 08 Jan 2025 21:58:38 +0000

> Like the notorious B vitamin pills that vegans pop like candy

Anecdotal like a lot of this but I take a single 2000mcg B12 pill once per week and have never been deficient in 19 years as a vegan. Once a week is pretty far from popping like candy.

New comment by itstriz in "Ask HN: Have you ever heard of users demonstrating against software?"

itstriz — Tue, 18 Oct 2022 13:16:06 +0000

This might not be exactly what you're looking for but maybe 10 or 15 years ago, Defective by Design (organized by Free Software Foundation) was putting together in person demonstrations outside of Apple stores to protest against the use of DRM in iTunes.

New comment by itstriz in "Kickstarter’s staff is unionizing"

itstriz — Tue, 19 Mar 2019 20:17:05 +0000

> what would they think of unionizing the union?

I've worked for several unions and, at least in my experience, most union staff actually are unionized.

New comment by itstriz in "VPNs Are Absolutely a Solution to a Policy Problem"

itstriz — Wed, 29 Mar 2017 18:05:42 +0000

whoops. thanks!

New comment by itstriz in "VPNs Are Absolutely a Solution to a Policy Problem"

itstriz — Wed, 29 Mar 2017 16:40:12 +0000

There are no foolproof security solutions, only varying degrees of who you trust with what. There are many VPN providers who claim to keep no logs on user activity. If their claims are true, that is a better option than Comcast or AT&T since the VPN provider with no logs has no data to sell or share.

* edited for spelling error

New comment by itstriz in "How Utah Reduced Chronic Homelessness"

itstriz — Fri, 17 Mar 2017 21:03:35 +0000

Food for the hungry would be a good one too.

New comment by itstriz in "De-Location Package: Keep Your Career and Live Beyond the Bay Area"

itstriz — Fri, 17 Mar 2017 20:20:51 +0000

Has there been any response from Bay Area local governments? I would imagine it might not be their favorite idea that businesses are trying to incentivize employees to leave. If this sort of idea takes off, would local gov try to counter these incentives to leave in some way?

New comment by itstriz in "Index cards are pretty cool (2009)"

itstriz — Tue, 14 Mar 2017 18:16:20 +0000

For whatever reason, whenever I need to work out a problem on paper quickly, I find myself reaching for a post-it note or index card instead of my notebook. I'm not sure why I prefer the smaller format for scratch work.

New comment by itstriz in "Heads or Tails: The Impact of a Coin Toss on Major Life Decisions and Happiness [pdf]"

itstriz — Tue, 14 Mar 2017 14:41:24 +0000

  Individuals who are told by the coin toss to make a change are much more likely to make a change and are happier six months later than those who were told by the  coin to maintain the status quo.

I wonder if they removed the coin and just split people into groups that maintain status quo and groups that always make the change if the results would be similar. Perhaps the urge people have to consider the change in the first place is a good indicator that it is a change they actually do want to commit to.

New comment by itstriz in "I am going to eradicate the inbound Windows Support scam"

itstriz — Wed, 08 Feb 2017 16:24:51 +0000

I just lost it when he asks you to connect to the internet. Great call!

New comment by itstriz in "Introducing UberTAXI"

itstriz — Wed, 11 Jun 2014 14:06:53 +0000

In Chicago some licensed cab drivers use Uber to process their payments with the Uber Taxi service. You can call a cab with the app, pay the normal fare plus 20% gratuity and a small service fee. I don't use cabs often, but it's working out way better for me than when I used to call dispatch and maybe the cab would show up and maybe it wouldn't. It's also really nice to be able to just get in and get out without wasting time dealing with payments. The drivers that I've spoken to seem to like it as well as it gets them more fares.

Armed robber, identified by facial recognition technology, gets 22 years

itstriz — Fri, 06 Jun 2014 01:38:55 +0000

Article URL: http://www.suntimes.com/news/27895985-761/armed-robber-identified-by-facial-recognition-technology-gets-22-years.html

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7855762

Points: 3

# Comments: 1

New comment by itstriz in "Drop Dropbox"

itstriz — Thu, 10 Apr 2014 15:42:40 +0000

Since when is running a boycott campaign a "quest for ideological purity" or enforcing "thoughtcrime"? This doesn't seem like it's about ideology or what sort of things Rice thinks. It's about people being tortured and killed and her part in that. It's about actual crime not thought crime. She should be held accountable for her actions and making her a pariah in various communities is one small way of doing that.

New comment by itstriz in "Instacart Expands To Chicago"

itstriz — Tue, 17 Sep 2013 19:20:05 +0000

Where is there a Trader Joe's that just opened up a week ago?

New comment by itstriz in "Ubuntu Edge funding level over time"

itstriz — Tue, 23 Jul 2013 19:17:43 +0000

I threw together a quick version of this in Python and for Kickstarter projects instead of IndieGoGo in case it's useful to anyone. https://github.com/itstriz/kickstart_tracker

New comment by itstriz in "Why Should I Care That No One’s Reading Dzhokhar Tsarnaev His Miranda Rights?"

itstriz — Sat, 20 Apr 2013 12:50:45 +0000

I'm getting the feeling the defense is going to have a hell of a time finding an impartial jury.

New comment by itstriz in "Sexism's Double Standard: Where is the Outrage?"

itstriz — Tue, 16 Apr 2013 02:45:10 +0000

You cherry-picked one example of something which hasn't put men's desires at the top of the priority list, missing the social and cultural context of thousands of years of male-domination that would disprove said accusation of misandry. Well done.