Hacker News: jamesgill

New comment by jamesgill in "Apple reveals new AI architecture built around Google Gemini models"

jamesgill — Mon, 08 Jun 2026 20:41:04 +0000

Maybe I'm wrong, but this seems to strongly undercut Apple's claims about privacy.

New comment by jamesgill in "HP re-releases classic computer science calculator: The HP-16C"

jamesgill — Tue, 02 Jun 2026 21:44:09 +0000

Because I'm such a longtime fan of HP models.

New comment by jamesgill in "HP re-releases classic computer science calculator: The HP-16C"

jamesgill — Tue, 02 Jun 2026 21:41:32 +0000

I'm a lifelong fan of HP calculators. I have a 15c in front of me right now that I've had since the mid-ish 80s. Still works perfectly.

But the 15c 'Collector's Edition' had some issues, and I wonder about the build quality and reliability of this new one, too. Plus: my guess is you can get an original working 16c on eBay for less than this is going to cost.

Honestly, it pains me to say it but I'd recommend a SwissMicros DM16L instead: https://www.swissmicros.com/product/dm16l

New comment by jamesgill in "Shift from a leader-follower to a leader-leader approach"

jamesgill — Mon, 01 Jun 2026 03:30:24 +0000

It's not a framework, and it requires no diagram. It's just trusting and empowering people to do the job, then getting out of their way. People tend to rise to your level of trust.

I wrote about this, because after a long career I've come to see that most people have no idea what leadership is, or how it works: https://thinkhuman.com/the-leader-ship/

New comment by jamesgill in "It Will Never Be the Year of the Linux Desktop"

jamesgill — Fri, 29 May 2026 15:30:27 +0000

The thing is: it already is the year of the Linux Desktop for me. I don't care about 'OS market share' or how many people use something; I have no control over them.

I also don't care about "OS-maxxing", either--quibbling over 'Wayland', or which OS has the best window manager, arguing about 'gaming', etc.

What I do care about? Freedom and control. Linux gives me that.

So my desktop? It's Linux. The Year of Linux on the Desktop arrived for me years ago. And it can be that year for anyone, anytime. Today.

New comment by jamesgill in "I hated writing until I learned there’s a science to it (2024)"

jamesgill — Thu, 28 May 2026 23:21:12 +0000

It's not a science. At best, there are best practices--and some of the best, most famous writing has ignored them. "Writing" is broad, means a lot of things, and defies algorithms.

New comment by jamesgill in "Ask HN: What made you lose faith in God/Religion?"

jamesgill — Thu, 28 May 2026 04:34:53 +0000

Which god?

Derek Sivers' Minimal .vimrc Is Only 4 Lines Long

jamesgill — Wed, 27 May 2026 15:50:28 +0000

Article URL: https://tilde.club/~passthejoe/zola/blog/derek-sivers-minimal-vimrc/

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48296081

Points: 3

# Comments: 0

New comment by jamesgill in "Ask HN: When and why did you start believing in God?"

jamesgill — Tue, 26 May 2026 04:57:37 +0000

Which god?

New comment by jamesgill in "California moves to exempt Linux from its age-verification law after backlash"

jamesgill — Tue, 26 May 2026 00:36:29 +0000

Linux was always exempt--because it's not an operating system.

New comment by jamesgill in "Iowa to mandate students take Intellectual Freedom classes amid low enrollment"

jamesgill — Sat, 23 May 2026 19:03:22 +0000

At first, I thought the saddest part was:

"The nonprofit Common Sense Institute reported student interest and enrollment was low — with just eight students in one class. The report said enrollment is unlikely to grow unless the state mandated students take the classes, which is exactly what Republican lawmakers passed."

But despite the overtly Orwellian effort, the Democrats responded in typical ineffectual, tone-deaf fashion:

"Democratic Sen. Janet Petersen slammed that idea, arguing it will drive up costs for Iowa college students and their families."

Costs. Yeah. That's the problem.

New comment by jamesgill in "It's Not a Mystery Why Fertility Rates Are Declining"

jamesgill — Thu, 21 May 2026 23:14:29 +0000

‘Fertility’ is one of those misleading terms that sounds like it means one thing (capability) when it really means another (output).

TL;DR: People aren’t unable to have more children; they’re just choosing not to.

New comment by jamesgill in "An Apple (II) for Teacher"

jamesgill — Tue, 19 May 2026 15:08:29 +0000

"His [Wozniak's] subsequent ventures, including a stint teaching computer skills to students in the Los Gatos School District, were marked by amiability and good nature, not a will to technological power."

Woz is the kind of nerd I always aspired to be.

Musk Loses Case Against OpenAI

jamesgill — Mon, 18 May 2026 18:39:43 +0000

Article URL: https://www.cnn.com/2026/05/18/tech/openai-musk-lawsuit-verdict

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48183701

Points: 7

# Comments: 0

New comment by jamesgill in "Meta to cut 8000 employees despite $26B Q1 net income"

jamesgill — Sat, 16 May 2026 16:28:14 +0000

Americans will never quite understand what they bargained away for a government and culture based on freewheeling capitalism and a vague notion of ‘freedom’ that seems to absolve everyone of the one thing real freedom requires: responsibility.

New comment by jamesgill in "Intel's comeback story is even wilder than it seems"

jamesgill — Sat, 09 May 2026 16:26:26 +0000

I wouldn’t call it a “comeback”. By making some desperate ‘deals’ and the new CEO pulling the company hard to the right, they’ve bought some time to delay the inevitable.

But Intel’s time as anything more than a manufacturing contractor are over.

TI Calculator Monopoly Offers Lessons for Educators in the Age of Generative AI

jamesgill — Fri, 01 May 2026 20:49:57 +0000

Article URL: https://www.promarket.org/2024/04/08/tis-calculator-monopoly-offers-lessons-for-educators-in-the-age-of-generative-ai/

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47980116

Points: 4

# Comments: 0

Retrieval-Augmented Generation Is an Engineering Problem, Not a Model Problem

jamesgill — Fri, 24 Apr 2026 16:56:54 +0000

Article URL: https://www.forbes.com/councils/forbestechcouncil/2026/04/24/retrieval-augmented-generation-is-an-engineering-problem-not-a-model-problem/

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47892858

Points: 2

# Comments: 0

New comment by jamesgill in "US and Iran agree to provisional ceasefire"

jamesgill — Wed, 08 Apr 2026 03:35:00 +0000

Congratulations for rediscovering Machiavelli. “The ends justify the means” is such a winning philosophy.

New comment by jamesgill in "Trump fires Pam Bondi as attorney general"

jamesgill — Thu, 02 Apr 2026 21:39:14 +0000

I forgot: the Curb-to-Bus (CtB) transit time is measured in Scaramuccis.