Hacker News: kaboomshebang

New comment by kaboomshebang in "EU to crack down on TikTok, Instagram's 'addictive design' targeting kids"

kaboomshebang — Wed, 13 May 2026 10:54:08 +0000

hahah, not sure what the threshold is exactly ;)

New comment by kaboomshebang in "EU to crack down on TikTok, Instagram's 'addictive design' targeting kids"

kaboomshebang — Wed, 13 May 2026 10:37:01 +0000

Why just focus on kids???? This is a massive problem for young and old. Every every day we collectively (and globally) waste so many hours on consuming posts which consists largely of unimportant content. News and opinions consists of polarized snippets of 20 sec. (You can argue: some content brings joy, or it helps brands sell products. But you can also call a friend, and the products will find us if we need them.)

(Just to clarify my point: it's not *all* bad of course, but a lot of precious time is wasted)

New comment by kaboomshebang in "Online age verification is the hill to die on"

kaboomshebang — Wed, 29 Apr 2026 19:40:58 +0000

I'm not suggesting that actually. I look at my nephews and see them buy cigerettes, vapes, etc from small dealers instead of stores. Not saying we should just let them smoke, just expecting that they will be able to circumvent online age restrictions as well.

My question is: are digital age verifications the best way to protect kids from harmfull effects of pornography? And my worry is: what unwanted side-effects will age verification have for our society as a whole.

New comment by kaboomshebang in "Online age verification is the hill to die on"

kaboomshebang — Wed, 29 Apr 2026 17:50:56 +0000

Kids will always find ways around regulation. Look at cigarettes, vapes, alcohol, weed; they will just get it from their dealers. Pornography? I expect something like: download a Torrent, get it from a classmate, share HardDrives in school, get it through an older brother.

New comment by kaboomshebang in "200 Journalists Applaud the Internet Archive's Role in Preserving Public Record"

kaboomshebang — Wed, 29 Apr 2026 13:57:16 +0000

I'm not a journalist, but I "sign" here on HN with my upvote and a comment.

New comment by kaboomshebang in "Human Existence Is Just as Wasteful as AI Data Centers, Sam Altman Suggests"

kaboomshebang — Tue, 24 Feb 2026 13:19:20 +0000

I didn't know AI can already take care of my grandma, cook meals, wash, clean-up, fix my car... ;) ;)

New comment by kaboomshebang in "Be wary of Bluesky"

kaboomshebang — Sun, 22 Feb 2026 11:07:45 +0000

Reading some of the comments here. Perhaps the key to solid decentralization is solving the self-hosting problem. If self-hosting digital tools will always be a hassle to manage/update/maintain/upgrade/etc, then we will always rely on third parties. Almost every human owns a powerful device, but almost none have the know-how to run their own services. (That's why we rely on others, which has it's tradeoffs; honestly BlueSky seems a better tradeoff then Twitter, at least for now ;)

New comment by kaboomshebang in "Welcoming Discord users amidst the challenge of Age Verification"

kaboomshebang — Thu, 12 Feb 2026 22:04:56 +0000

Same here, tried a couple of years ago. I was drawn to it because of the protocol concept. The experience was not bad, everything worked. But I remember the signup/domain/keys/backups/etc UX was a bit confusing. Happy to see there is more attention going to Matrix lately. Time to give it another go perhaps

New comment by kaboomshebang in "The Influentists: AI hype without proof"

kaboomshebang — Wed, 14 Jan 2026 22:41:21 +0000

Good article. "hype first and context later". Loads of online content has become highly sentational. I notice this on Youtube (especially thumnails and titles) Seems to be a trend. I wonder if -- collectively -- we'll develop a "shield" for this: (more critical thinking?)

New comment by kaboomshebang in "Chat Control is close to being adopted, and its worse"

kaboomshebang — Thu, 13 Nov 2025 07:14:59 +0000

This makes me feel pissed off. I used to be Pro EU, now I'm not so sure. (Suddenly I understand Trump voters.)

New comment by kaboomshebang in "The disguised return of EU Chat Control"

kaboomshebang — Thu, 13 Nov 2025 07:14:55 +0000

This makes me feel pissed off. I used to be Pro EU, now I'm not so sure. (Suddenly I understand Trump voters.)

New comment by kaboomshebang in "Show HN: NextDNS Adds "Bypass Age Verification""

kaboomshebang — Mon, 18 Aug 2025 16:01:37 +0000

Found that yearly payment option :)

New comment by kaboomshebang in "Show HN: OverType – A Markdown WYSIWYG editor that's just a textarea"

kaboomshebang — Mon, 18 Aug 2025 11:47:23 +0000

Very cool and useful!! Thanks for OSS this :)

New comment by kaboomshebang in "Show HN: NextDNS Adds "Bypass Age Verification""

kaboomshebang — Mon, 18 Aug 2025 11:29:18 +0000

On-topic: Seems like a good feature.

Off-topic: I've been reading some of the comments and I notice a bunch of HN-members are unhappy about their product. My experience: things never broke for me, never needed to contact support, ads are blocked, etc (But I also use uBlock, etc)

(P.s. - My only complaint is that -- like so many other SaaS offerings -- administrating payments is not easy enough. - No option to pay by year - So every month you have to go the website, login, go the admin, click download invoice - Instead of: click download PDF from monthly invoice email)

New comment by kaboomshebang in "Qwant and Ecosia debut Staan, a European search index"

kaboomshebang — Mon, 11 Aug 2025 05:37:44 +0000

I guess it's what excites a lot of people nowadays. Although I also feel it's way overused. Having said that, personally, my search behavior in the last years shifted from Google to LLMs almost completely, so it feels relatable.

(Furthermore: I welcome developments in new search initiatives. Even if advertised using the same AI-hyped-copy as all other companies ;) ;)

New comment by kaboomshebang in "No Hello"

Tue, 17 Jun 2025 13:35:51 +0000

If someone grabs my Slack attention by starting with "Hello" or "Hey ", and he/she doesn't immediately continues typing, a "Permission to speak" is always fun :)

New comment by kaboomshebang in "Working on databases from prison"

kaboomshebang — Mon, 16 Jun 2025 15:18:19 +0000

Inspirational story. Thanks for sharing :)

New comment by kaboomshebang in "Malware Attack and Counterattack"

kaboomshebang — Mon, 19 May 2025 19:11:22 +0000

Horrific scenario :0 Enjoyable read ;-)

New comment by kaboomshebang in ""Ensuring Accountability for All Agencies" – Executive Order"

kaboomshebang — Thu, 20 Feb 2025 21:41:49 +0000

"Hungry for the Power"

New comment by kaboomshebang in "[dead]"

kaboomshebang — Thu, 20 Feb 2025 21:15:23 +0000

As a European onlooker I'm very happy to see people push back against this idiocracy. Thanks

(https://www.oed.com/dictionary/idiocracy_n2)