Hacker News: kayo_20211030

New comment by kayo_20211030 in "AWS: Inaccurate Estimated Billing Data – $1.7 billion"

kayo_20211030 — Fri, 17 Jul 2026 15:38:57 +0000

What an `effin disaster. The alert almost gave me a heart attack.

New comment by kayo_20211030 in "Teen hackers who live streamed cyber-attack on TfL jailed"

kayo_20211030 — Thu, 16 Jul 2026 14:33:29 +0000

When I see this it makes me depressed.

> gained access to the data by tricking a phone help desk worker.

The whole edifice was built on a helpful, possibly overworked and possibly harassed help desk worker? The end result is that two kids end up in jail. It could have been so different, and better. What they did was wrong for sure, and has real-world consequences for those whose information was leaked. But, when I look at the contingencies that led to the outcome, it really does depress me.

"all for the want of a nail"

New comment by kayo_20211030 in "SpaceX stock erases all its gains and slides below IPO price in intraday trading"

kayo_20211030 — Thu, 16 Jul 2026 13:26:03 +0000

It's all a bit of a mess with the consolidation of multiple businesses.

> SpaceX is a pretty important company not just for "the market" but also for many other things (see Russia/Ukraine war)

Starlink, which was rolled in to SpaceX, is/was profitable and it is a factor in Ukraine.

The rocket division is not profitable, but I sense that there might be a path to a profitably operating business.

As for the X/xAI piece, who knows? Long-term it seems like a moon-shot. I appreciate the irony that it's in the wrong division.

New comment by kayo_20211030 in "Who Is America's Homer?"

kayo_20211030 — Wed, 15 Jul 2026 21:29:15 +0000

I'd go with Ogden Nash as the most American "American" poet. He's my horse in the race.

New comment by kayo_20211030 in "My midlife crisis Corolla is fast, furious, and modded"

kayo_20211030 — Wed, 15 Jul 2026 19:06:22 +0000

I get it - the enthusiasm - I totally get it. I think I'd sell my soul for an 1980's BMW M3.

New comment by kayo_20211030 in "Stripe and Advent have made a joint offer to acquire PayPal – sources"

kayo_20211030 — Wed, 15 Jul 2026 18:53:11 +0000

Wow! TIL. Totally ignorant is I.

New comment by kayo_20211030 in "The Death of the Creator Middle Class"

kayo_20211030 — Tue, 14 Jul 2026 14:41:22 +0000

Super piece. Well worth reading. I keep wondering if there's some structural economic fundamental that disperses money the way it does. Is the dispersion purely a consequence of the attention economy? Probably, but I'm guessing. Engagement and outrage always sell, but so does visibility, and how one becomes visible. I guess that's come down to advertising, brand, and the platform algorithms that present the content and create or amplify the brand. I get why OC finds it tiring and depressing.

New comment by kayo_20211030 in "LinkedIn, a mass grave of ghost jobs, is now becoming a dating app"

kayo_20211030 — Mon, 13 Jul 2026 14:47:34 +0000

ROFL. If LinkedIn could now establish some adjacency to gambling or prediction markets they might be onto some thing huge :-)

New comment by kayo_20211030 in "Sam Neill has died"

kayo_20211030 — Mon, 13 Jul 2026 14:21:29 +0000

Sam Neill did a super podcast with Marc Maron a few years ago. He came across as a really stand-up bloke - genuine, funny, smart and kind; and every obit I've seen today seems to echo all that. It's well worth a listen. https://www.wtfpod.com/podcast/episode-1202-sam-neill

New comment by kayo_20211030 in "Lessons from the Vasa Shipwreck"

kayo_20211030 — Sun, 12 Jul 2026 14:10:25 +0000

I no longer have access, but this I remember being a good paper on the Vasa in the context of product design and project management https://www.hbs.edu/faculty/Pages/item.aspx?num=31396

New comment by kayo_20211030 in "The Restraint Problem"

kayo_20211030 — Sat, 11 Jul 2026 12:58:28 +0000

A super piece, with a lot of really good insights. The "judgement" mentioned is maybe what differentiates between the quick and the dead in business terms. Building the ineffective thing brilliantly and quickly won't move the business' needle.

New comment by kayo_20211030 in "Good Tools Are Invisible"

kayo_20211030 — Fri, 10 Jul 2026 22:24:40 +0000

> try to design the internal tools in such way as to make the users fall into a pit of success.

Yes. I couldn't agree more. The tools have to make it quick and easy for the users to succeed - as invisible as possible, and transparent to what a user wants to achieve.

New comment by kayo_20211030 in "Maxwell's Equations Were Discovered [video]"

kayo_20211030 — Thu, 09 Jul 2026 17:11:41 +0000

Only because it made to the HN front page.

A lot of stilted dialog first. Fine, fine, fine, I get it. Not everyone is a natural presenter.

Then I got to

> How copper and metal plates were combined

and I stopped.

"metal plates"? Copper's not a metal? Some details would be helpful. Zinc maybe?

New comment by kayo_20211030 in "The glass backbone: Why the Army's logistics will break in the next war"

kayo_20211030 — Thu, 09 Jul 2026 16:37:55 +0000

Yes. I agree, although careerism in the military is maybe not that strong an influence; it is, for sure, but not that strong yet. Careerism in the political class is probably exactly as strong as you claim it is. However, I do hope there are sensible people within that group too, and they heed the underlying message.

New comment by kayo_20211030 in "The glass backbone: Why the Army's logistics will break in the next war"

kayo_20211030 — Thu, 09 Jul 2026 13:40:16 +0000

A very insightful, and correct, piece.

I'll quote in full the following, which I think gets to the heart of the matter. If you have no push, you can't apply pressure to the point.

> The notion that amateurs talk tactics and professionals talk logistics is frequently discussed in military academies and war colleges, yet it is rarely reflected in the Army’s budget requests or modernization priorities. The outdated concept of the tooth-to-tail ratio, which implies the logistical tail is a bureaucratic waste that must be minimized to support the combat teeth, must be fundamentally reexamined. In modern warfare, the tail is the primary target. If the tail is severed, the teeth are rendered useless.

New comment by kayo_20211030 in "I Quit My PhD"

kayo_20211030 — Tue, 07 Jul 2026 14:50:45 +0000

This is a really cool piece. It's well written and I enjoyed it immensely. Thanks for posting it.

New comment by kayo_20211030 in "Road to Elm 1.0"

kayo_20211030 — Mon, 06 Jul 2026 12:51:06 +0000

I'm glad it's back. Elm had such a remarkable elegance I was always rooting for it.

New comment by kayo_20211030 in "How to ask for help from people who don't know you"

kayo_20211030 — Thu, 02 Jul 2026 21:18:14 +0000

Good piece. However "can I pick your brain?" isn't great unless you lay out the boundaries. About what? Be clear.

OTOH,

> make it easy to say no

is the best piece of advice amongst many other pieces of good advice

New comment by kayo_20211030 in "Zero Mostel's Testimony Before the Committee on Un-American Activities"

kayo_20211030 — Mon, 29 Jun 2026 19:42:40 +0000

This bloke was a good bloke.

Zero Mostel's Testimony Before the Committee on Un-American Activities

kayo_20211030 — Mon, 29 Jun 2026 19:42:40 +0000

Article URL: https://www.nypl.org/events/exhibitions/galleries/literature-and-film/item/17519

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48724130

Points: 2

# Comments: 1