Hacker News: jmknoll

New comment by jmknoll in "Toshifumi Suzuki, founder of Seven-Eleven Japan, has died"

jmknoll — Tue, 26 May 2026 03:51:35 +0000

Thank you. I live in Japan and it is incredibly frustrating to hear people here talk about the exchange rate as if it is some temporary but unfortunate weather condition, rather than the downstream effect of a generation of terrible policy decisions that it actually is

New comment by jmknoll in "Mac mini will be made at a new facility in Houston"

jmknoll — Wed, 25 Feb 2026 01:42:28 +0000

I think what the person you're replying to is referring to is the fact that, in contrast to the US, many senior politicians in China literally have engineering backgrounds, or at least engineering degrees. Although this has actually been less true in the past 10-15 years. This article gives a bit of an overview - https://www.chinausfocus.com/2022-CPC-congress/chinese-techn...

New comment by jmknoll in "HN Slop: AI startup ideas generated from Hacker News"

jmknoll — Wed, 02 Jul 2025 13:26:47 +0000

Alright, but DocuQuest is actually a really good idea.

"DocuQuest: A platform that leverages LLMs to transform and simplify complex technical documentation into interactive, user-friendly learning experiences tailored for developers and engineers."

New comment by jmknoll in "WhatsApp introduces ads in its app"

jmknoll — Mon, 16 Jun 2025 23:13:22 +0000

Are you in North America? I’ve found this to be true in the US, but not in Europe or Asia.

New comment by jmknoll in "The time bomb in the tax code that's fueling mass tech layoffs"

jmknoll — Sat, 07 Jun 2025 04:15:47 +0000

I mean, the sitting President was shilling cars on the White House lawn and runs an active meme coin bribery slush fund.

This is not slightly behind Western Europe. This is miles behind any developed country. China may be corrupt, but Xi Jinping hasn’t yet sold beans or cars via press conference.

New comment by jmknoll in "Researchers develop ‘transparent paper’ as alternative to plastics"

jmknoll — Sat, 07 Jun 2025 03:49:09 +0000

What makes you think that people eat healthier and get more exercise?

In the US at least, Obesity is on the rise, people eat more meat than ever before, and life expectancy is basically flat over the past decade.

New comment by jmknoll in "What do wealthy people buy, that ordinary people know nothing about? (2015)"

jmknoll — Mon, 19 May 2025 16:43:04 +0000

I dont know if this is just baader-meinhof at work or the fact that AI is so prominent in cultural discourse at the moment, but I feel like I am seeing Diamond Age references everywhere I look

New comment by jmknoll in "Fossil fuels fall below 50% of US electricity for the first month on record"

jmknoll — Mon, 21 Apr 2025 19:11:27 +0000

If you’re convinced by the materials shared, you may want to consider editing your original content. It’s currently the most-upvoted comment, and is materially incorrect.

New comment by jmknoll in "Middle-aged man trading cards go viral in rural Japan town"

jmknoll — Tue, 08 Apr 2025 14:57:00 +0000

This is such a cynical, keyboard-warrior take. Why do you feel the need to drag down someone else's positive and impactful contribution? No one is stopping you from creating a card game with women as the heroes.

New comment by jmknoll in "Tennis great Steffi Graf got bitten by pickleball's 'fun factor'"

jmknoll — Sat, 15 Feb 2025 15:20:03 +0000

It’s the sweatpants-at-work of sports

New comment by jmknoll in "Y Combinator and Power in Silicon Valley"

jmknoll — Tue, 03 Dec 2024 15:05:30 +0000

Either thinking they can build something better internally, thinking the new thing doesn't matter, or realizing that it does matter but not having the ability to move fast and commercialize it.

e.g. Microsoft circa 2000 didn't think they could build a better internet. They just thought that the internet didn't really matter that much. Google in 2022 knew that LLMs mattered, and had spent a ton of money, but OpenAI just got a better product to market faster.

New comment by jmknoll in "Tip pressure might work in the moment, but customers are less likely to return"

jmknoll — Tue, 03 Dec 2024 02:11:18 +0000

Tips are mandatory in France? This is news to me. I’ll sometimes round up to the nearest 5, but nothing like the US.

New comment by jmknoll in "An oral history of "We Built This City," the worst song of all time (2016)"

jmknoll — Thu, 14 Nov 2024 14:04:24 +0000

With a promotion like "terrible, terrible Jefferson Starship video," I needed to go watch it.

That really was just a completely incoherent mess. But the guys with eyeballs on their heads were there.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oqLnVgR7fLw

New comment by jmknoll in "I Was Illegally Fired by Amazon for Speaking Out About a Coworker's Death (2023)"

jmknoll — Sat, 10 Feb 2024 18:56:40 +0000

There's probably a lot of noise in the data. Off the top of my head, climate (whether roads are exposed to freeze-thaw cycles) and population density/clustering (how many miles of road do you need to maintain per person), are probably more strongly correlated with quality than taxation levels.

New comment by jmknoll in "Walmart, Delta, and Starbucks are using AI to monitor employee messages"

jmknoll — Sat, 10 Feb 2024 18:49:52 +0000

Did you mean to write LLMs instead of ML? Aren't traditional NLP techniques a subfield of ML?

New comment by jmknoll in "Show HN: Startup funding simulator"

jmknoll — Wed, 24 Jan 2024 21:35:52 +0000

Hahaha I’m glad I’m not the only one. I can’t find it now, but I’m sure I’ve seen a snarky PM game here on HN before. Thought it might be the sequel

New comment by jmknoll in "A Writer's Ruby"

jmknoll — Fri, 05 Jan 2024 18:52:11 +0000

Should have used a linter

New comment by jmknoll in "Gemini AI"

jmknoll — Wed, 06 Dec 2023 20:15:36 +0000

> It's particularly great if I'm walking around the house doing chores and want to learn something I would otherwise turn to Wikipedia for (say, the successors to Genghis Khan and the various Khanates).

This sounds like a great use case. What is your setup for this? Do you have ChatGPT connected to a smart speaker?

New comment by jmknoll in "Waymo Layoffs"

jmknoll — Wed, 18 Oct 2023 02:15:01 +0000

I only know Curb as a booking app for regular taxis. It’s generally less expensive than Lyft/Uber in Manhattan.

I’m not aware of any connection it has to Waymo though.

New comment by jmknoll in "An Indiana police department has been using Clearview AI for a year"

jmknoll — Fri, 14 Jul 2023 16:50:10 +0000

Two questions:

1. Can you point me to where NPR said “snitches get stitches”

2. Which police departments precisely were defunded?