Hacker News: jjulius

New comment by jjulius in "As AI eats the web, the internet’s collective memory is disappearing"

jjulius — Tue, 11 Aug 2026 00:16:13 +0000

Are they profiting from these subscriptions yet?

New comment by jjulius in "As AI eats the web, the internet’s collective memory is disappearing"

jjulius — Tue, 11 Aug 2026 00:08:33 +0000

And I've spent the last few days irritated that everything I ask Gemini is answered with something that's blatantly wrong and I'm not even a subject matter expert. A quick Google search for the same questions gives plenty of results that counter what the LLM gave me.

YMMV.

New comment by jjulius in "Why Can't You Pack a Bag? (2024)"

jjulius — Mon, 10 Aug 2026 20:39:27 +0000

That's just relative, no? Surely people with children pack more, but the concept is the same - you pack a lot the first time you travel with them, and then narrow it down the more you travel with them.

(Said as a parent)

New comment by jjulius in "Reddit signals ominous upcoming "changes" for old.reddit.com"

jjulius — Wed, 05 Aug 2026 22:31:07 +0000

>Old reddit is the only "discussion forum" experience you could get on web.

Not really. I visit multiple hobby/niche-specific discussion forums daily that are either still running on phpBB, or are setup in a similar style. They're out there, and they've still got a much better experience than anything Web 2.0 and beyond.

New comment by jjulius in "A Sick People"

jjulius — Wed, 05 Aug 2026 16:55:07 +0000

Who is "we"? What of the people who are already very comfortable and happy living humble lives without keeping up with the current cutting edge of technology? The person content to sit on the shore and fish at a slow pace? To wander off into the woods and read a book for a few days?

Must they "accelerate" and "keep up"? Do they truly suffer if they don't? If they're happy doing so now, will they be unhappy in the future if they continue down their chosen paths?

New comment by jjulius in "A Sick People"

jjulius — Wed, 05 Aug 2026 16:53:27 +0000

What do these "dark ages" look like to you?

New comment by jjulius in "A Sick People"

jjulius — Wed, 05 Aug 2026 14:46:24 +0000

Europe is guaranteed to "slip into the dark ages" if they don't keep up at exactly the same pace, or faster?

New comment by jjulius in "A Sick People"

jjulius — Wed, 05 Aug 2026 14:39:08 +0000

AI will accelerate everything? Does everything need to be accelerated? If so, why does everything need to move faster?

New comment by jjulius in "A Sick People"

jjulius — Wed, 05 Aug 2026 14:26:02 +0000

There is far more to the world than AI.

New comment by jjulius in "A Sick People"

jjulius — Wed, 05 Aug 2026 14:23:17 +0000

I never said it's wrong to want life to be better. Life is life. If someone finds enjoyment in a different way or pace of life, that's fine. The world's gonna do what the world's gonna do - some people want to be at the forefront, while others want to go with the flow or chill out.

That's okay. :)

New comment by jjulius in "A Sick People"

jjulius — Wed, 05 Aug 2026 14:14:53 +0000

Why do we always need to be innovating? What's wrong with being content with what is?

New comment by jjulius in "A Sick People"

jjulius — Wed, 05 Aug 2026 14:13:48 +0000

Not to defend the down votes, but it's not just one thing. The article praises the attitudes of Mexicans and French folk, both of which are also capitalist countries.

It's capitalism to an extent, sure, but it's also the culture of a country.

New comment by jjulius in "I am retiring from fulltime writing (& pseudonymity) to launch Guardian Angel"

jjulius — Wed, 05 Aug 2026 03:21:21 +0000

Agreed, re: placing value squarely on productivity.

The thing is, we're all eventually irrelevant. That's the way the universe works. Every single one of us, after enough time. Claiming we're "doomed" to it is just ego talking.

New comment by jjulius in "Google kills Earth AI generator after one day"

jjulius — Sat, 01 Aug 2026 13:38:53 +0000

YMMV, but nearly every one I read has a glaringly incorrect comment. I frequently research off-trail mountaineering routes and the incorrect bullshit it confidently spouts at the top of a list of results (results which very much counter the AI overview) is liable to end up getting someone hurt, lost, or worse.

New comment by jjulius in "The American Grilled Cheese Sandwich Essay (2024)"

jjulius — Fri, 31 Jul 2026 12:33:27 +0000

They bother with that effort when eating other things, but they keep it simple and go kraft-and-white-bread when making a grilled cheese. They're essentially saying, "While I love putting a lot of effort into cooking most things, when it comes to a grilled cheese, simple and cheap wins out."

New comment by jjulius in "Google will expand age checks on Android worldwide till the end of the year"

jjulius — Thu, 30 Jul 2026 21:00:46 +0000

Standalone Garmin for nav and Bluetooth for music is all anyone should need.

New comment by jjulius in "The lost civic life of movie rental stores"

jjulius — Thu, 30 Jul 2026 15:53:44 +0000

Indie rental shops in many areas did, in fact, have those kinds of fees.

New comment by jjulius in "The lost civic life of movie rental stores"

jjulius — Thu, 30 Jul 2026 15:51:12 +0000

Every era can be romanticized, and every era has its downsides. Just today, I could ramble on about the ever-increasing costs of streaming services as they reduce their available catalogs, ads forced upon users who have purchased the "ad-free" streaming bundle, UI/UX patterns designed to make cancelling difficult, things you've "purchased" no longer being available to you because the service no longer carries that studio's titles, paying up to $24.99 to "rent" a movie on Amazon for a mere 48 hours, the endless cycle of a service starting out "great" only to be enshittified, etc.

New comment by jjulius in "Writing by hand is good for your brain"

jjulius — Fri, 24 Jul 2026 13:20:16 +0000

FWIW, I'm picking up a very aggressive tone from the majority of your responses here. I'm not at all justifying the personal attacks, but I would posit that the tone perhaps invites them to a degree.

If there's no aggression intended, that's great, but I'm struggling to not see it when I read them.

New comment by jjulius in "How much energy do data centers and artificial intelligence use?"

jjulius — Thu, 23 Jul 2026 16:23:10 +0000

>Democracies don't handle nuance well.

Especially when modern discourse revolves around 140-character hot takes.