Hacker News: lachlan_gray

New comment by lachlan_gray in "Alberta startup sells no-tech tractors for half price"

lachlan_gray — Wed, 22 Apr 2026 21:14:53 +0000

Tangential, but made me think of this YouTube channel I like.

I have no plans to own a tractor but for some reason many others and I enjoy videos like this one:

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=pQO-pVxvKvA

New comment by lachlan_gray in "Gemini Robotics-ER 1.6"

lachlan_gray — Wed, 15 Apr 2026 15:44:21 +0000

Robotics/control systems is exactly what came to mind when I saw this release! What struck me is the possibility of look ahead search in real time, a bit like alphazero's mcts.

New comment by lachlan_gray in "Neovim 0.12.0"

lachlan_gray — Sun, 29 Mar 2026 20:15:16 +0000

Mentioned elsewhere, but

:term claude

In a split goes a long way for me!

New comment by lachlan_gray in "Neovim 0.12.0"

lachlan_gray — Sun, 29 Mar 2026 20:10:22 +0000

Ymmv, but I have been very happy using classic vim’s “native claude support”

:term claude

It will also expand special characters so you can do something like

:term claude “refactor %”

And Claude starts work on your current file right away. Also your buffers will update with Claude’s edits!

New comment by lachlan_gray in "Apple's intentional crippling of Mobile Safari"

lachlan_gray — Sun, 22 Mar 2026 16:29:37 +0000

According to this, notifications are possible if you add the app to the home screen, which I didn't know.

A feature more devs should use- I've been surprised how much websites behave like native apps if you just "add to homescreen" instead of downloading an official app, e.g. twitter, instagram.

When you open the shortcut, it doesn't launch as a tab in safari, but appears independently in the app switcher. They are often indistinguishable from official apps!

Seems like a great way for devs to avoid app store pains

New comment by lachlan_gray in "Big Data on the Cheapest MacBook"

lachlan_gray — Thu, 12 Mar 2026 13:01:53 +0000

Not sure about the ssd in particular but the neo is apparently pretty modular

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5k7Lv7f-5CQ

The Biggest Identity Sandpiles and How to Compute Them

lachlan_gray — Mon, 09 Mar 2026 14:18:30 +0000

Article URL: https://eavan.blog/posts/big-identity-sandpiles.html

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47309426

Points: 1

# Comments: 0

New comment by lachlan_gray in "Lil' Fun Langs"

lachlan_gray — Fri, 20 Feb 2026 21:12:40 +0000

Another crazy one is SectorLISP, 223 lines of asm

https://justine.lol/sectorlisp2/

New comment by lachlan_gray in "Anthropic tries to hide Claude's AI actions. Devs hate it"

lachlan_gray — Mon, 16 Feb 2026 17:34:30 +0000

fwiw there are more granular controls, where you can for example allow/deny specific bash commands, read or write access to specific files, using a glob syntax:

https://code.claude.com/docs/en/settings#permission-settings

You can configure it at the project level

New comment by lachlan_gray in "OpenAI to Take a Percentage from Customer AI-Assisted R&D Outcomes"

lachlan_gray — Sat, 24 Jan 2026 00:52:02 +0000

Does this mean I get to take a cut for assisting their training data?

New comment by lachlan_gray in "Fathers’ choices may be packaged and passed down in sperm RNA"

lachlan_gray — Sun, 28 Dec 2025 04:56:58 +0000

Earlier this year moving home to Canada, instead of flying I bought a van in California and drove it back with all my stuff.

I was taken aback to learn my dad did the exact same thing at my age!

New comment by lachlan_gray in "Slowness is a virtue"

lachlan_gray — Thu, 18 Dec 2025 19:52:52 +0000

What I meant is, assuming that they do find solutions. If they're not doing anything of course that's different.

In the article, "speed" is about reaching specific answers in a specific window of time, the bane of ADHD.

New comment by lachlan_gray in "Slowness is a virtue"

lachlan_gray — Thu, 18 Dec 2025 15:40:13 +0000

I think part of the message is that speed isn't a free lunch. If an intelligence can solve "legible" problems quickly, it's symptomatic of a specific adaption for identifying short paths.

So when you factor speed into tests, you're systematically filtering for intelligences that are biased to avoid novelty. Then if someone is slow to solve the same problems, it's actually a signal that they have the opposite bias, to consider more paths.

IMO the thing being measured by intelligence tests is something closer to "power" or "competitive advantage".

New comment by lachlan_gray in "Are you stuck in movie logic?"

lachlan_gray — Mon, 17 Nov 2025 17:03:44 +0000

I think what you're describing is a form of conflict aversion, where the (tiny) conflict is what would clear up your read, or the group's attitude on something, for going forward. Short sighted kindness is a nice way to put it

Britney Spears' Guide to Semiconductor Physics (2000)

lachlan_gray — Sun, 16 Nov 2025 23:15:20 +0000

Article URL: https://britneyspears.ac/lasers.htm

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45949326

Points: 286

# Comments: 87

New comment by lachlan_gray in "Structured Procrastination (1995)"

lachlan_gray — Mon, 06 Oct 2025 13:55:16 +0000

They have helped me a lot with chunking tasks, and guiding me through tasks that I can't hold in focus.

There's a prompt I used while moving out, where I had claude ask me questions, what is in each room. And then once we had this item list, organizing it.

New comment by lachlan_gray in "Covert web-to-app tracking via localhost on Android"

lachlan_gray — Tue, 03 Jun 2025 14:22:30 +0000

Is there a similar thing on iOS? I always wonder when a random app asks to “find devices on my network”

New comment by lachlan_gray in "Distributed systems programming has stalled"

lachlan_gray — Thu, 27 Feb 2025 19:29:42 +0000

This could be a fun example to work with :p

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shakespeare_Programming_Lang...

New comment by lachlan_gray in "Five Kinds of Nondeterminism"

lachlan_gray — Fri, 21 Feb 2025 01:11:31 +0000

Reminds me a lot of thermodynamics. Microstates and transition probabilities are a more “fundamental” description, but when you hit the metal, temperature and pressure are more useful in practice to human engineers

New comment by lachlan_gray in "Music and Geometry: Intervals and Scales"

lachlan_gray — Fri, 20 Dec 2024 16:53:36 +0000

I was super obsessed with this for a while! When you have a string instrument tuned in 4ths, there are 2D patterns that emerge which you can use to "derive" or "extrapolate" what a scale shape/pattern will look like across the whole neck

Using a 6-string bass as an example: https://bradleyfish.com/the-notes-on-the-6-string-bass-guita...

You can find a 2D pattern in the white notes (green notes in the pic) that you can use to understand how the pattern will extend from a given point. For example notice EF+BC always appear in the same 2x2 box shape. Also how those boxes repeat in a diagonal line, and how boxes are connected vertically by a "strip" of 3 notes ADG

The only difference for guitar is that you have to correct for the G/B strings which are separated by a 3rd instead of a 4th, by scooting the pattern on the B+E strings up by one fret