Hacker News: lynx97

New comment by lynx97 in "The just-say-no engineer was a ZIRP phenomenon"

lynx97 — Wed, 27 May 2026 05:28:24 +0000

I stopped saying No. If management wants to push stupid decisions, so be it. They are getting payed for strategic decisions. If their strategy is bullshit, so be it. If they tank the company, so be it. I am not getting payed for that kind of work. And the more bullshit I hear from upper levels, the less I identify with my company.

New comment by lynx97 in "If AI writes your code, why use Python?"

lynx97 — Tue, 12 May 2026 08:42:07 +0000

I had gpt-5.5 translate microgpt.py into a C++ version recently. I had to steer/convince it to use data oriented design to avoid excessive pointer chasing, but the end result was as expected: Now 500 LOC instead of 199, but speedup was 100x. That speedup is definitely worth doubling the line count. And frankly, modern C++ can read very nicely, even compared to Python.

New comment by lynx97 in "Google says criminal hackers used AI to find a major software flaw"

lynx97 — Tue, 12 May 2026 07:13:52 +0000

I stopped reading after "Google says". They have destroyed whatever trust I might have had in them years ago.

New comment by lynx97 in "GitLab announces workforce reduction and end of their CREDIT values"

lynx97 — Tue, 12 May 2026 04:59:02 +0000

Ahh, are we there yet? Has non-deterministic computer use eroded your mind so much that you are starting to question the binary system? You know, the insight that computers are something that flips switches on and off is rather old, and I have heard it uttered (although slightly humorously) several times already, nobody ever raising any eyebrow hearing it.

New comment by lynx97 in "Permacomputing Principles"

lynx97 — Mon, 11 May 2026 07:12:49 +0000

> When you're young you're naïve, when you're old you're cursed with a false nostalgia

How convenient! So you can dismiss any comment on the basis of them being either to young or to old. I think you're overestimating the stupidity of others to fall for your simpleton attempt of manipulating people.

New comment by lynx97 in "Permacomputing Principles"

lynx97 — Thu, 07 May 2026 07:58:18 +0000

"If you are not supporting us, you are the enemy" isn't a valid take. But it shows nicely the sentiment which turns me off regarding politics in tech. You can't even stay neutral, because someone will force you to align with their values. "My way or the highway" pretty much.

New comment by lynx97 in "Permacomputing Principles"

lynx97 — Thu, 07 May 2026 07:34:26 +0000

That is quite a condescending take. I get that you are extrapolating from my post that I might be conservative. That needs more nuance, but I get it. But to assume I always was, and used to be ignorant, is too far reaching. In fact, I used to be a lot more progressive in the past.

New comment by lynx97 in "Permacomputing Principles"

lynx97 — Thu, 07 May 2026 05:44:08 +0000

Well, yes, but no. Hacker Community projects increasingly force political agendas on participants. It gets harder and harder to just do tech stuff without having to align with some cabal.

New comment by lynx97 in "Permacomputing Principles"

lynx97 — Thu, 07 May 2026 05:39:53 +0000

anti-capitalism, while a bit strange a lable, is something I can sympathize with. But once we are talking anarchism and (intersectional) feminism in a computing context, I am definitely out. I miss the time when computing was a lot less political. It was nice hacking on projects without having to identify with something totally unrelated, or being forced to support idiologies just to be a part of it.

New comment by lynx97 in "Permacomputing Principles"

lynx97 — Thu, 07 May 2026 04:53:37 +0000

Second paragraph on the front page: https://permacomputing.net

New comment by lynx97 in "Permacomputing Principles"

lynx97 — Thu, 07 May 2026 04:43:43 +0000

from permacomputing.net:

... an anti-capitalist political project. ... anarchism ... intersectional feminism ...

No, thanks. I thought it was a tech project. Apparently not.

New comment by lynx97 in "New statue in London, attributed to Banksy, of a suited man, blinded by a flag"

lynx97 — Wed, 06 May 2026 12:13:53 +0000

Replace foreigners with cis-men, and the situation stays the same. Radicalized people are the problem. Nationalist or trans, I dont care.

New comment by lynx97 in "The Car That Watches You Back: The Advertising Infrastructure of Modern Cars"

lynx97 — Wed, 06 May 2026 12:10:58 +0000

Democracy fans would say: "All you have to do is to thank them when the next vote comes up."

P.S.: I can't even imagine how much of a distraction ads in public spaces must be. I am blind. While that is clearly a disability, whenever I read things like what you just posted, I am reminded how blessed I am. Maybe there will be a time when 100% blindness is actually an advantage?

New comment by lynx97 in "The bottleneck was never the code"

lynx97 — Wed, 06 May 2026 12:07:00 +0000

If thats true, I am sure some C-suite manager knows this already. Assuming management knows what they do, after all, they're getting payed for this. The time where engineer are trying to educate people above them should be over. Management gets payed for the big decisions. If they tank the company, so be it. I no longer care.

New comment by lynx97 in "Google Chrome silently installs a 4 GB AI model on your device without consent"

lynx97 — Wed, 06 May 2026 03:27:17 +0000

I disagree. Its a browser, damnit. Framing it as non-consentual AI is the right way. BTW, how much does Google pay you for this comment?

New comment by lynx97 in "The Car That Watches You Back: The Advertising Infrastructure of Modern Cars"

lynx97 — Tue, 05 May 2026 08:11:52 +0000

Given that some countries already move on legislation for government remote control of cars, I wonder how long this method will be actually legal.

New comment by lynx97 in "The Car That Watches You Back: The Advertising Infrastructure of Modern Cars"

lynx97 — Tue, 05 May 2026 07:10:37 +0000

Its small, but there remains the hope that progressive enshittification of cars might convince a few people not to own one. Cities with useful public transport infrastructure already see a trend of young people not owning a car, which is good.

New comment by lynx97 in "Train Your Own LLM from Scratch"

lynx97 — Tue, 05 May 2026 06:42:02 +0000

Model: 36L/36H/576D, 144.2M params

runs on a Blackwell 6000 Max-Q, using 86GB VRAM. Training supposedly takes 3h40m

New comment by lynx97 in "The text mode lie: why modern TUIs are a nightmare for accessibility"

lynx97 — Tue, 05 May 2026 05:11:50 +0000

Its more or less the same with every screen reader and browser I know. If there was a simple fix for this inherent issue, I wouldn't have to talk about it. You might get a bit of stuff out of the way if you configure less verbosity of the screen reader, but it doesn't really help with slow interactions. Problems include:

* Virtual buffer: In most systems, the DOM is rendered to a "virtual buffer" and the screen reader lets you navigate that, because cursor (caret) support was on the map for accessibility, but was never really sufficiently implemented on the browser side. So screen readers had to solve it in a separate step.

* Using the keyboard to do screen reading and navigation on a site conflicts with keyboard shortcuts from that site. So most screen reader have two modes: You switch between entering text in a field and navigating/reading the site. Its basically like vi insert mode, but less simple.

Those are the major issues from my POV. The rest of the slowness likely comes from having to go through the accessibility API of your OS.

New comment by lynx97 in "The text mode lie: why modern TUIs are a nightmare for accessibility"

lynx97 — Mon, 04 May 2026 10:31:09 +0000

Well, "better" is relative. Web UIs definitely have the advantage you are mentioning. However, they are also much slower to use, so it is a tradeoff.

I am blind and do rely on accessiblity. But I would choose a TUI over a Web UI every day simply because the web is slow as hell. Feels like running away from a "monster" in a dream. You have rich details, but you are being drowned in unnecessary verbosity and an inherently slow stack of tools working together.

The web might be accessible, but it is barely useable in practice.