Hacker News: layla5alive

New comment by layla5alive in "US national level OS-level age verification bill proposed"

layla5alive — Wed, 15 Apr 2026 16:59:23 +0000

This is such a bad decision - its infuriating. Incredible overreach of state power. This decision laughs at values such as liberty and freedom.

New comment by layla5alive in "AI overly affirms users asking for personal advice"

layla5alive — Thu, 09 Apr 2026 23:12:25 +0000

This has also been my experience - asking it to take the devil's advocate of the other side of the coin and assume the persona of 'X relevant highly rational type with deep knowledge in the field' both have a lot of utility. You can do this in more than one dimension, too.

New comment by layla5alive in "AI overly affirms users asking for personal advice"

layla5alive — Thu, 09 Apr 2026 23:09:33 +0000

Exactly all of this - I didn't have my popcorn out, I was genuinely curious about the nature of the risk being discussed. I find the post basically worthless without context - a wood stove is dangerous if you place your hand on top of it while its hot, but not in the same way a grenade is dangerous if you accidentally remove the pin without understanding the consequences..

New comment by layla5alive in "AI overly affirms users asking for personal advice"

layla5alive — Sat, 28 Mar 2026 16:22:49 +0000

Its not that LLMs are stochastic parrots and humans are not. Its that many humans often sail through conversations stochastic parroting because they're mentally tired and "phoning it in" - so there are times when talking to the LLM, which has a higher level of knowledge, feels more fruitful on a topic than talking to a human who doesn't have the bandwidth to give you their full attention, and also lack the depth and breadth of knowledge. I can go deep on many topics with LLMs that most humans can't or won't keep up on. In the end, I'm really only talking to myself most of the time in either case, but the LLM is a more capable echo, and it doesn't tire of talking about any topic - it can dive deep into complex details, and catching its hallucinations is an exercise in itself.

New comment by layla5alive in "AI overly affirms users asking for personal advice"

layla5alive — Sat, 28 Mar 2026 16:07:50 +0000

Many other humans are .... Not very available - certainly many shut down when conversations reach a certain level of depth or require great focus or introspection..

New comment by layla5alive in "AI overly affirms users asking for personal advice"

layla5alive — Sat, 28 Mar 2026 16:05:15 +0000

Any more context you're willing to share?

New comment by layla5alive in "Student beauty and grades under in-person and remote teaching"

layla5alive — Tue, 24 Mar 2026 18:24:28 +0000

This comment is Dunning-Kruger. Some overweight people are very unhealthy. Some thin people are very unhealthy. Some overweight people have genetics that prefer to store fat subcutaneously where its not very harmful. Some thin people have genetics which preferentially store fat in and around organs or muscles which is incredibly damaging, leads to chronic inflammation and eventually T2D and atherosclerosis, among others. Lets just say you can't judge a book by its cover and biology is complex. Unless you know a person, keep your mouth shut and your mind open!

There are sedentary thin people who live on doritos and active heavy people who eat salads. There are ALL KINDS!

Over 3 gigabases is a lot of room for genetic diversity, don't you think?

New comment by layla5alive in "Some things just take time"

layla5alive — Sun, 22 Mar 2026 06:56:41 +0000

Are you being cute impersonating an LLM, or are you an LLM posting?

New comment by layla5alive in "Things Linux Can Do That Windows Still Can't"

layla5alive — Tue, 17 Mar 2026 02:15:11 +0000

Name normal files on disk things like AUX or CON or PRN:

https://devblogs.microsoft.com/oldnewthing/20031022-00/?p=42...

New comment by layla5alive in "Canada's bill C-22 mandates mass metadata surveillance"

layla5alive — Mon, 16 Mar 2026 02:16:59 +0000

+1, democracies really need to start establishing some serious red lines that are not to be crossed. Mass surveillance of citizens by any means (including purchasing it from corporations or obtaining it from other governments). Corporations should not have the rights of citizens, monopolies should be dismantled, and politicians should be able to be ejected and tried for crimes when they're committing them in office (qualified immunity should not only not be an excuse - but we should hold anyone working for the government to a HIGHER STANDARD, not a lower one!). As a start!

New comment by layla5alive in "Canada's bill C-22 mandates mass metadata surveillance"

layla5alive — Mon, 16 Mar 2026 02:16:10 +0000

Seriously, and more than that, "by the people and for the people" are increasingly becoming hollow words contrasted with the reality of daily life. Corruption is increasingly rampant, and it's "rules for thee but not for me" everywhere you look (where thee are normal citizens, and me is corporations and government).

New comment by layla5alive in "Canada's bill C-22 mandates mass metadata surveillance"

layla5alive — Mon, 16 Mar 2026 02:14:00 +0000

Government overreach isn't far-fetched dystopic speculation and privacy is important to freedom.

New comment by layla5alive in "Canada's bill C-22 mandates mass metadata surveillance"

layla5alive — Mon, 16 Mar 2026 02:03:25 +0000

Why... would you think this is unlikely? Have... you seen videos of ICE agents claiming to have warrants when they don't?

New comment by layla5alive in "Airbus is preparing two uncrewed combat aircraft"

layla5alive — Sun, 15 Mar 2026 04:59:42 +0000

Cylons

New comment by layla5alive in "Bumblebee queens breathe underwater to survive drowning"

layla5alive — Sun, 15 Mar 2026 04:57:59 +0000

They are pretty docile so won't be as aggressive towards stinging, but certainly can sting. You might be thinking of honey bees - which also can and do sting, but which die if they sting, so they're heavily disincentivized to sting.

New comment by layla5alive in "Google Fiber will be sold to private equity firm and merge with cable company"

layla5alive — Sat, 14 Mar 2026 18:31:38 +0000

I'm getting so tired of seeing "the law doesn't allow" x thing that is good for citizens but bad for corporations. We are supposed to have a representative government by the people and for the people and by gosh what we actually have is so far from that! When will we collectively say "enough is enough!" And rewrite the laws to actually be by the people and for the people!?

New comment by layla5alive in "Yann LeCun raises $1B to build AI that understands the physical world"

layla5alive — Fri, 13 Mar 2026 04:37:33 +0000

Even*

New comment by layla5alive in "We are building data breach machines and nobody cares"

layla5alive — Fri, 13 Mar 2026 04:23:01 +0000

How about pay the user whose data has been collected. It's their data. If we are the product, we should get paid for being used! And we should get paid a whole lot more (multiples) for the exposure of a leak.

New comment by layla5alive in "The dead Internet is not a theory anymore"

layla5alive — Fri, 13 Mar 2026 03:40:50 +0000

That's not a bad idea, sending mail could simply be an authorization for a $1 or $10 charge. And if the receiver said the message was unwanted, then the charge would go through.

There's just the pesky problem of incentives on the other side of the coin - who gets the $? The spammee? But there would be enshitification issues like:

1. Those who are incentivized to take as big a cut as possible.

2. Those who would put it in their EULA that you must accept their spam and not chargeback or else you lose access to something you value like their services (EULA Ransom... not much different to today "accept our EULA or lose access to what you've already paid for!")

I'm sure there are many other perverse incentives which would creep in..

New comment by layla5alive in "The dead Internet is not a theory anymore"

layla5alive — Fri, 13 Mar 2026 03:33:56 +0000

Sounds like a horrible system where you retain many of the problems of email (you still need to deliver notifications) and new surveillance and persistence and mutability problems layered on top..