Hacker News: jstanley

New comment by jstanley in "Muse Spark Open"

jstanley — Fri, 16 Oct 2026 06:26:39 +0000

I think you're just wrong about the OSI's definition of "open source AI"?

You can see https://opensource.org/ai/open-source-ai-definition

Specifically:

> A precondition to exercising these freedoms is to have access to the preferred form to make modifications to the system.

and

> The preferred form of making modifications to a machine-learning system must include all the elements below:

> Data Information: ...

> Code: ...

> Parameters: ...

Does this address your issues with the OSI definition?

New comment by jstanley in "David Rudnick on "borderline impossible" process of designing Arsenal typeface"

jstanley — Thu, 15 Oct 2026 11:58:56 +0000

That's how you know they're serious about typography.

If it just straightforwardly looked good and was easy to read then you wouldn't be sure they'd put any effort into the choice.

New comment by jstanley in "Phloem: Git history grown like a slime mold"

jstanley — Wed, 14 Oct 2026 19:45:33 +0000

The mp3 link is blocked by Cloudflare for me.

My guess based on the web design and the name of the song is that it is probably made by Suno.

New comment by jstanley in "Google is silently linking your phone number across all signed-in accounts"

jstanley — Wed, 14 Oct 2026 18:27:04 +0000

> The requirement to have a mobile device to scan a QR code to verify that you're human.

FWIW I've never seen this.

New comment by jstanley in "Hackers activate automatic defrosting in supermarket fridges across Europe"

jstanley — Tue, 13 Oct 2026 14:39:08 +0000

Are you proposing that someone who does walk around with cash sticking out of their pocket should suffer criminal charges it it gets stolen?

New comment by jstanley in "I would like the value of my home to rise, while my property taxes fall"

jstanley — Sat, 10 Oct 2026 14:23:38 +0000

I'm pretty sure people buy cars on finance all the time.

New comment by jstanley in "Decisions API is in public beta"

jstanley — Wed, 07 Oct 2026 10:31:44 +0000

"You could do this before" "No, you couldn't, this gives you something new" "Yeah but I don't want it"

New comment by jstanley in "Sharing AI progress in mathematics"

jstanley — Wed, 07 Oct 2026 10:12:11 +0000

If you're concerned with something other than the answer, then the fact that the answer is already known hasn't actually provided the thing you're concerned about, so you can still do the thing you are concerned about.

If another human was likely to get the answer before you would you also discourage them from doing it because they would rob you of the chance to do the thing you're concerned about?

New comment by jstanley in "Sharing AI progress in mathematics"

jstanley — Wed, 07 Oct 2026 09:14:54 +0000

If someone gets the answer sooner than you, that doesn't inhibit you developing your understanding of the answer privately the same way you would have done if they hadn't got the answer. I don't see how anybody loses by the answer being discovered sooner.

New comment by jstanley in "Sharing AI progress in mathematics"

jstanley — Wed, 07 Oct 2026 07:14:40 +0000

This is a really confusing take.

If someone can solve open problems in mathematics then they should do so, isn't it as simple as that?

They should let the public use the models as well, but I guess they have no real moral imperative to do so.

But asking them to stop solving problems is just weird.

New comment by jstanley in "Oracle Triggered the Implosion of the AI Bubble"

jstanley — Tue, 06 Oct 2026 14:08:26 +0000

> Okay, let’s compare it to something “normal.” Take our Sun. Now imagine its size equals the size of the economy of, say, one of the Baltic states. On that scale, the AI bubble is a star hundreds of times bigger.

Is this meant to make it easier to understand or harder?

This seems like a complicated way of saying that the AI bubble is hundreds of times bigger than the economy of one of the Baltic states.

Is the idea of a star hundreds of times bigger than the sun more "normal" than the idea of an economy hundreds of times bigger than one of the Baltic states?

New comment by jstanley in "Questions for believers in AI consciousness"

jstanley — Mon, 05 Oct 2026 19:27:43 +0000

AI consciousness proponents aren't saying LLMs are conscious, we're saying they might be but we don't yet know how to tell.

New comment by jstanley in "Cops Can Bypass iPhone's Automatic Reboot to Get into Locked Phones"

jstanley — Fri, 02 Oct 2026 09:23:49 +0000

The fact that car crashes are possible does not mean you're going to have a car crash every time you get in a car though? Suggesting that you are is FUD.

New comment by jstanley in "Cops Can Bypass iPhone's Automatic Reboot to Get into Locked Phones"

jstanley — Thu, 01 Oct 2026 17:50:59 +0000

"If you travel abroad you must unlock" is hardly the central experience. It is FUD.

New comment by jstanley in "Cops Can Bypass iPhone's Automatic Reboot to Get into Locked Phones"

jstanley — Thu, 01 Oct 2026 15:50:07 +0000

Reading this kind of stuff online made me afraid of international travel for many years. When I finally did it literally nothing happened to me.

Yes it's bad that the government overreaches, but it is also bad for your mental health to worry about it.

New comment by jstanley in "Cops Can Bypass iPhone's Automatic Reboot to Get into Locked Phones"

jstanley — Thu, 01 Oct 2026 15:29:03 +0000

It seems foolhardy to carry your life savings around everywhere, encrypted or not.

If you really want to keep this stuff on a phone at least stretch to a second phone and keep it somewhere safe.

New comment by jstanley in "Cops Can Bypass iPhone's Automatic Reboot to Get into Locked Phones"

jstanley — Thu, 01 Oct 2026 15:27:20 +0000

This is mostly FUD. I've never been asked to unlock my phone when travelling abroad.

New comment by jstanley in "Stuck in the Suez Canal – the short version (2021)"

jstanley — Wed, 30 Sep 2026 04:19:05 +0000

I mean sure but that sounds incredibly minor compared to whether or not the people from the other country want to kill you because you are from a different country.

And the point is that almost universally they don't.

New comment by jstanley in "We’re forgetting what darkness feels like"

jstanley — Wed, 30 Sep 2026 03:57:04 +0000

Being able to see it and being blown away by it are different.

I can see the milky way but I wouldn't describe it as "a new moon just smeared all across the sky" like one of the other commenters. It's more like just a vaguely higher-density strip of stars.

My location is 21 SQM according to the DarkSkySites map.

New comment by jstanley in "Best of British Design"

jstanley — Mon, 28 Sep 2026 21:10:28 +0000

Pretty cool, but it always ends on Spitfire vs Mini and I don't know how you decide.