Hacker News: mc32

New comment by mc32 in "Amazon employees ask Seattle to put the brakes on new data centers"

mc32 — Tue, 09 Jun 2026 18:43:17 +0000

Build them in Tukwila or Auburn, then.

New comment by mc32 in "Surveillance is not safety: A statement on the UK's latest threat to privacy [pdf]"

mc32 — Tue, 09 Jun 2026 16:02:25 +0000

There were many reasons to deploy these solutions. Much of it from the perennial reason “we can’t have nice things”. Che was a murderous psychopath so I’m not sure what he was to do with freedom other than some college kids though he was edgy in the same way Manson’s followed though he was edgy.

New comment by mc32 in "FCC wants to kill burner phones by forcing telecoms to get all customers' IDs"

mc32 — Tue, 09 Jun 2026 15:42:48 +0000

Don’t eSIMs solve this problem for tourists?

New comment by mc32 in "1worldflag: A blue dot on a transparent background"

mc32 — Tue, 09 Jun 2026 01:41:29 +0000

Especially if this represents the Earth in the face of aliens on other planets and they happen to know the flag of surrender... It would definitely give them the wrong impression about Earth.

New comment by mc32 in "Switzerland wil have a referendum to cap population at 10M"

mc32 — Mon, 08 Jun 2026 19:57:51 +0000

It veers too close to Logan’s Run when they cap things like that. I’m sure it’s just policy action at the various thresholds but it sure sounds odd.

New comment by mc32 in "Massachusetts bans sale of precise location data in new privacy rights bill"

mc32 — Mon, 08 Jun 2026 17:59:32 +0000

This is good and all States should adopt some. Eventually I’d like to see one at the federal level that supersedes state level ones so that we don’t have to deal the the mess that is taxation across 50 states. A nice uniform privacy bill at the Fed level would be nice.

New comment by mc32 in "Lee Kuan Yew's Singapore Story (2023)"

mc32 — Fri, 05 Jun 2026 18:30:12 +0000

I was referring to the Chinese diaspora who had left China over decades and even centuries -they had become successful in SEAsia and were often responsible for commercial progress in those places. The sixties were times of conflict all over the world and in SEAsia the Chinese diaspora in those countries found themselves the targets of the frustration of “natives”. I say natives though the Chinese diaspora was born and raised in those countries but were easily identified as being “foreign” in those places.

New comment by mc32 in "Lee Kuan Yew's Singapore Story (2023)"

mc32 — Fri, 05 Jun 2026 16:32:15 +0000

In the 60s the Chinese diaspora in SEAsia experienced violence by locals who didn’t like the success of the Chinese. This happened mostly in Indonesia Burma and Malaysia and not so much in the Philippine islands.

Malaysia in particular instituted pretty harsh laws to make Chinese suppress their Chinese identity and also curtailed their economic potential by implementing in practice expropriation and barring the Chinese from certain sectors of the economy.

So it emerged not because of multiculturalism but because they were being virtually locked out of the Malaysian economy.

New comment by mc32 in "Lee Kuan Yew's Singapore Story (2023)"

mc32 — Fri, 05 Jun 2026 10:52:50 +0000

Singapore, like other ex-Colonies in SEAsia prove that having been a colony is not an excuse for not doing well. HK, Singapore, Taiwan, South Korea were heavily colonized yet after emerging as independent states were able to overcome difficulties, educate their people, take what they learned from their colonizers and have become leading economies of the world.

Governance is more important than one’s history when it come to success of a country.

New comment by mc32 in "French-Iranian author Marjane Satrapi, author of 'Persepolis', dies at 56"

mc32 — Thu, 04 Jun 2026 14:00:54 +0000

I guess kind of like Gabriel Garcia and Mexico, though I don't think Columbians would like anyone to describe him as having been Mexican (ex as Mexican-Columbian) in any way though he lived there for the majority of his life and had become very well integrated into the elite circles of Mexico city -that said, he never renounced his Columbian citizenship and I think he also considered himself Columbian and not Mexican --which makes sense, he was not born there and none of his parents were from there.

New comment by mc32 in "Artificial intelligence is not conscious – Ted Chiang"

mc32 — Thu, 04 Jun 2026 03:28:45 +0000

From a human PoV there are ants that would be considered slaves if the ants instead were human --including the queen. But ants have not naturally developed a language construct and philosophy to interpret their society as a slave society. so, though conscious the ants have absolutely no inkling that they live in a slave society. Why would using math in certain fashion such that it mimics consciousness be considered unethical and comparable to human slavery?

New comment by mc32 in "Artificial intelligence is not conscious – Ted Chiang"

mc32 — Thu, 04 Jun 2026 03:15:47 +0000

Why would using something that's not organic be akin to slavery? Is using steel under heavy stress in bridges a form slavery of an unconscious object?

New comment by mc32 in "If AI data centers are so great, why are they being built in secret?"

mc32 — Wed, 03 Jun 2026 17:49:13 +0000

Things would go over better with communities if they had assurances with regard to local impact and if those were violated they’d have recourse. Also would help if they provided some token compensation (like the Alaska fund). It wouldn’t be much but it’d be something and most people would probably take that.

New comment by mc32 in "Why China got rich and India didn't"

mc32 — Wed, 03 Jun 2026 02:43:21 +0000

Lee Kwan Yew identified this shortcoming along with the issue of many factions in India. Due to its huge diversity there is little pan-national alignment -everyone wants their own thing and prioritizes accordingly.

Here's me Lee: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QaTNpw0-wAk

New comment by mc32 in "Why China got rich and India didn't"

mc32 — Wed, 03 Jun 2026 01:20:44 +0000

According to Lee Kwan Yew[1], apparently he identified two big factors:

India's diversity is not its strength -whereas China's relative homogeneity allows for easier governance(no contending non-pluralistic factions)

India's federation is not its strength either. India's central government, unlike the Chinese, cannot unilaterally execute national plans. [in his example, they can't modernize a single international hub without having a fight that engenders delay and even kills projects]

[1]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QaTNpw0-wAk

New comment by mc32 in "A walking tour of surveillance infrastructure in Seattle"

mc32 — Tue, 02 Jun 2026 15:36:22 +0000

They could at least address that the man and woman on the street would easily identify as people who need to be put in a paddy wagon. Leave the unsure cases alone. Get the obvious ones.

New comment by mc32 in "A walking tour of surveillance infrastructure in Seattle"

mc32 — Tue, 02 Jun 2026 15:33:28 +0000

The more eyes the better the chances. Obviously it’s not total information awareness the likes one of the previous DNIs dreampt about. We see its imperfection if the fact that a very public case in an Arizona abduction case is basically cold. They basically have zero leads -which is pretty incredible in this day and age.

New comment by mc32 in "An Obsessive Focus on UX: Pilot's Pressure-Regulating Kire-Na Highlighter"

mc32 — Sat, 30 May 2026 01:09:50 +0000

...but they aren't the only ones who use logographs and those other places don't have the same legacy...

New comment by mc32 in "US's big bet on quantum computing may not be legal"

mc32 — Thu, 28 May 2026 19:24:16 +0000

The previous admin also ruled via executive order. It said it would find ways to do things even if struck down by the SCOTUS such as the school loan forgiveness, firearms controls, speech suppression via “embeds” etc.

New comment by mc32 in "EU fines Temu €200M for allowing sale of illegal products"

mc32 — Thu, 28 May 2026 15:52:57 +0000

I think thats asking much from people some of whom easily get scammed by phone banks in Eastern Europe, India etc. many people will not put in that effort.