Hacker News: kimbernator

New comment by kimbernator in "Kentucky man becomes the first humanist granted religious exemption from AI"

kimbernator — Wed, 28 Oct 2026 14:01:07 +0000

Are you implying that there's a meaningful population of people that are against reasonable accommodation for individuals' religious beliefs? There's a very big difference between prescribed religion in the workspace and an individual's beliefs requiring a slight adjustment by the employer to respect.

New comment by kimbernator in "An ad-free Android TV"

kimbernator — Tue, 20 Oct 2026 13:42:09 +0000

Do you have a suggestion for an alternative to an Apple TV which includes your criteria? That is, good interface, no ads.

New comment by kimbernator in "An ad-free Android TV"

kimbernator — Tue, 20 Oct 2026 13:38:19 +0000

But if the product originally did not do that, it's a bit of a rug pull to push a software update that includes them.

New comment by kimbernator in "New Apple TV 4K"

kimbernator — Tue, 13 Oct 2026 15:17:19 +0000

I really don't think it's fair to chalk this up to fanboyism. It's really hard to argue that a majority of the platforms natively available on smart TVs are pretty bad, and that they have made a habit of using software updates to cram in more ads. I used a TCL roku TV 10 years and recommended them to everyone looking for a decent budget TV with a good minimal interface. That same exact TV is still used on occasion; the interface has gotten awful and interactions are sluggish.

Many platforms have gone the same way: Google TV boxes are known to be broadly awful at this point, my samsung TV's built-in apps got progressively less responsive with more ads on my homescreen over the last few years. I haven't experienced it but I hear complaints about the performance and intrusiveness of LG TVs now as well.

After cycling through my options, the Apple TV is the only one that doesn't exhibit the same behavior: It is responsive, has a good interface that looks nice, has a very nice minimal remote, and it works the same today as it did yesterday (and basically as it did 2 years ago). I'm not trying to claim allegiance to any brand, it just seems that somehow Apple is the only one not participating in enshittification, at least not to the same degree. If that changes the Apple TV will be out the door and I'll probably need to roll my own out of some sort of mini PC on an open-source platform.

And as one last note, for the time being Apple still has some credibility in terms of privacy. They have revenue streams that work for them without completely ruining their product, and it's my hope they continue with that because as far as I can tell they are the only ones left among the big players.

New comment by kimbernator in "I gave Opus 5.5 one prompt and six hours to visualize Invisible Cities"

kimbernator — Thu, 08 Oct 2026 14:11:59 +0000

That's fine, I'm only making the point that it's not really relevant to coding. Programmers have been outright copying each other's code for decades to the chagrin of nobody.

New comment by kimbernator in "I gave Opus 5.5 one prompt and six hours to visualize Invisible Cities"

kimbernator — Thu, 08 Oct 2026 14:07:40 +0000

There are three main categories of AI ethical dilemmas for me:

1. IP infringement

2. Climate impact

3. Cultural impact

I think that 2 & 3 apply to all AI right now - artistic, coding, writing, whatever. However, I don't think that #1 applies to everything. Code has been openly shared for as long as it's been possible to do so. There have probably been cases where AI trained on closed-source code, but I hardly believe that was ever necessary at any point to get where we are.

My point in saying this is that your critique of AI is valid but I think a little less so here.

New comment by kimbernator in "I gave Opus 5.5 one prompt and six hours to visualize Invisible Cities"

kimbernator — Thu, 08 Oct 2026 14:03:52 +0000

Having a concept is completely different, their unwillingness to dive into implementation cannot be blamed on the "techies". I would wager that the same people who were pitching unrealistic app ideas then are still not trying to make apps using AI.

New comment by kimbernator in "I gave Opus 5.5 one prompt and six hours to visualize Invisible Cities"

kimbernator — Thu, 08 Oct 2026 13:59:54 +0000

No non-corporate tech person has ever wanted to prevent another soul from using their work or learning their craft.

The top-level comment feels a lot like the perspective of somebody who never cared to try.

New comment by kimbernator in "We're Missing a Key Reason Why Americans Hate AI"

kimbernator — Fri, 02 Oct 2026 16:04:03 +0000

I think that the reaction would be wildly different if there were trust that such a technology would be used to make everyone's lives better. If workers were collectively in charge of deciding how AI ought to change their working lives, I suspect most of them would have opted for reduced working hours & longer weekends over what we are currently seeing.

AI could have revolutionized how many people do their work. It could have given so many people the freedom to spend their lives living, but somehow we used it to make work more intense and more taxing than it ever was before. And we all know that with each leap forward, things invariably get worse for us.

New comment by kimbernator in "iPhone Duo"

kimbernator — Wed, 09 Sep 2026 20:35:01 +0000

Samsung dex really excited me when I tried it, but it still had a little ways to go. I am shocked it's not a bigger priority.

New comment by kimbernator in "Gleam Is Now on Tangled"

kimbernator — Sat, 18 Jul 2026 20:31:39 +0000

As someone who has no idea what either of these things are, this reads like a satirical headline. I get an email like this about my company's myriad platforms nearly daily

New comment by kimbernator in "Fox to buy Roku"

kimbernator — Mon, 15 Jun 2026 18:14:19 +0000

Definitely. It's un-bloated and simple in a sea of options that are progressively slower and shittier.

New comment by kimbernator in "Apple WWDC 2026"

kimbernator — Mon, 08 Jun 2026 18:23:45 +0000

"Here's what I wish the memory was!"

New comment by kimbernator in "Apple WWDC 2026"

kimbernator — Mon, 08 Jun 2026 17:59:31 +0000

I don't know why I torture myself with these kinds of presentations anymore. Aside from the obvious "It's all AI" complaint, it feels like every problem they describe as needing a solution is fundamentally basic human reasoning that they are hoping we'll replace with a non-deterministic interaction with our phones. Splitting a tab by taking a picture and letting AI split it for you? Get out a fucking calculator. Is that really a scenario they think will excite people? Their portrayal of a world where we depend on computers for such simple thoughts is not a positive one.

New comment by kimbernator in "I'm Tired of Talking to AI"

kimbernator — Wed, 27 May 2026 13:25:40 +0000

LMGTFY was an intentionally rude tongue-in-cheek response when someone was asking a question that could easily be answered by a simple search. This is about asking more complex questions that don't necessarily have a single objective answer.

New comment by kimbernator in "Shunning AI is the human choice"

kimbernator — Thu, 21 May 2026 15:23:47 +0000

I feel like there's this idea that progress is good because of economic output, but there's this much squishier and more subjective concept of how much a change impacts our satisfaction with life. I think cars have produced a lot of good in the world, but I also live in the US where we've paved so much of the world that people don't feel like being outside on their feet very much anymore. I think it's had some negative impacts on how we interact as humans.

I feel the same way about AI. Does it make me more productive? Sure. Does it make me suddenly hate the career I used to love? Definitely. Every day I'm told to move faster and to love this cool thing that takes away the math and low-level problem solving that I used to get so much enjoyment from and instead makes me a manager of a chatbot. Any attempt at moderation in the presence of upper management is met with clear threats to my job. Even better, my company (and so many others) are finding unlimited budgets for AI while putting off any sort of raises for the humans involved.

New comment by kimbernator in "Oregon school cell phone ban: 'Engaged students, joyful teachers'"

kimbernator — Fri, 20 Mar 2026 18:44:00 +0000

I tend to avoid placing the blame on individuals (parents in this case) when the problem being described is so widespread. People act as rationally as they can, so if it's that common, it's a systemic failure. Scolding the masses is a fool's errand.

New comment by kimbernator in "Oregon school cell phone ban: 'Engaged students, joyful teachers'"

kimbernator — Fri, 20 Mar 2026 17:37:13 +0000

>Students can be trusted to obey a simple "no phones in class" rule.

I'm honestly not educated on the topic right now since I haven't been in school for 15 years and have some time left before my daughter starts, but is this rule really not in place in most schools? How could any school justify not having this rule at the very least, regardless of how well-enforced it is?

I always assumed it was a lack of enforcement due to understaffing that was the problem

New comment by kimbernator in "The MacBook Neo"

kimbernator — Wed, 11 Mar 2026 20:31:38 +0000

for 99% of consumers, the question is windows vs. macOS, and that's all there is to it. Between the two on a budget-price laptop, it's no competition.

New comment by kimbernator in "WA income tax clears House after 24-hour debate"

kimbernator — Wed, 11 Mar 2026 14:59:33 +0000

Given the experience I've had with MO's legislature, I don't have a lot of trust in them to do anything that directly reflects the majority desire. Ultimately they have clearly shown a preference towards Republican dogma than democratic norms, so I fully expect the income tax removal to go through regardless of the balance sheet.