Hacker News: npongratz

New comment by npongratz in "Scorched Earth 2000 – Web"

npongratz — Thu, 14 May 2026 14:52:08 +0000

Just remember: "NO KIBITZING"!

Sadly, it appears ChatGPT 5.5 did not implement this crucial feature for this javascript port.

New comment by npongratz in "New research suggests people can communicate and practice skills while dreaming"

npongratz — Fri, 01 May 2026 22:12:36 +0000

That's awesome! I had a somewhat similar experience (shared previously [0]):

> I proved a topology theorem in a dream once.

> Before I went to sleep, my inability to prove it had been bugging me all day long, and I suspected it'd be featured on the next morning's (way too early) final exam for my university course. I solved it in my dream, woke up, wrote on my whiteboard what I remembered and sure enough, it was correct. I worked it a few more times to cram it into my memory before running to my exam.

> To my great delight, the ability to prove that theorem was featured heavily in one of the exam's questions, and helped me do quite well on the exam overall.

[0] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40651913

New comment by npongratz in "Uber torches 2026 AI budget on Claude Code in four months"

npongratz — Fri, 01 May 2026 17:02:50 +0000

That's just a straight-shooter with "upper management" written all over him.

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

npongratz — Wed, 22 Apr 2026 20:09:34 +0000

> The PTO shaft is a spindle on the back of the tractor which drives things like your flail mower, wood chipper, etc.

... and kills/maims anyone with lose clothing trying to step over it!

New comment by npongratz in "Dr. Dobb's Developer Library DVD 6"

npongratz — Thu, 09 Apr 2026 12:43:10 +0000

I believe you mean r/datahoarder: https://old.reddit.com/r/DataHoarder/

r/datahorde is different, and a ghost town.

New comment by npongratz in "Systemd BirthDate Merge: Conflicts of Interest"

npongratz — Fri, 03 Apr 2026 17:10:43 +0000

Mirror here: https://isoc-sig.freifunk.net/systemd/systemd%20birthDate%20...

(confirmed still up at the time of writing this post.)

Systemd BirthDate Merge: Conflicts of Interest

npongratz — Fri, 03 Apr 2026 13:26:32 +0000

Article URL: https://tboteproject.com/systemdfindings/

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47626445

Points: 23

# Comments: 23

New comment by npongratz in "Why the US Navy won't blast the Iranians and 'open' Strait of Hormuz"

npongratz — Wed, 01 Apr 2026 13:45:07 +0000

It might be mere semantics, but the 1814 burning of Washington has been depicted as an invasion.

https://archive.org/details/burningofwashing00pitc

New comment by npongratz in "No right to relicense this project"

npongratz — Thu, 05 Mar 2026 15:05:12 +0000

> And that error is that they look for technical compliance when so much of the law is subjective and holistic.

I know it sounds like an oversimplification, but "got off on a technicality" is a common thing among the well-connected and well-heeled. Sure, us nerds probably focus too much on the "technicality" part, since we are by definition technical, but the rest is wishy-washy, unfair BS as far as many of our brains work much of the time.

New comment by npongratz in "Dyson settles forced labour suit in landmark UK case"

npongratz — Fri, 27 Feb 2026 15:03:43 +0000

Poor performers get put on PIPs, right? Did that person's poor performance "ruin it for everyone" and put the rest of the working plebs (the entire company or department or whatever) on PIPs? No, of course not. The poor performer gets singled out, which is just fine.

So instead of punishing everyone for some lying asshole's poor judgment, I propose management puts that lazy jerk on their own SDIP (sick day improvement plan).

EDIT: As an alternative, sure, update the handbook's sick policy while that liar is working for you. Since there's now precedent for handbook updating, should be an easy thing to revert it back to the normal, "no sick day policy" after they leave (by whatever means).

New comment by npongratz in "Predicting OpenAI's ad strategy"

npongratz — Sun, 18 Jan 2026 15:27:46 +0000

Regulation is theater, effectively, thanks to regulatory capture.

New comment by npongratz in "Predicting OpenAI's ad strategy"

npongratz — Sun, 18 Jan 2026 15:23:07 +0000

The progression of the cable TV industry shows many people are more than happy, or apathetic enough, to allow the industry to double-dip.

New comment by npongratz in "Hacker News front page now, but the titles are honest"

npongratz — Fri, 19 Dec 2025 18:25:19 +0000

pingfs has similar inspiration, where storage capacity scales with latency.

https://code.kryo.se/pingfs/

Discussed in 2015:

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9844725

New comment by npongratz in "Syntax highlighting is a waste of an information channel (2020)"

npongratz — Fri, 17 Oct 2025 14:00:22 +0000

Previous discussions:

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=39884821 195 points | 2 years ago | 66 comments

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23902124 196 points | 5 years ago | 100 comments

New comment by npongratz in "Electromechanical reshaping, an alternative to laser eye surgery"

npongratz — Mon, 18 Aug 2025 15:08:52 +0000

Same results for me. Absolutely awful, vision consistently began failing by becoming noticeably blurry about 8 to 9 hours after taking night lenses out, and I couldn't drive at night because of headlight and streetlight halos even after "topping off" with those uncomfortable lenses during the day. As an enthusiastic night sky observer, trying to use those lenses was depressing.

I gave up after extended tries with three different lenses (I think it was six to nine months total), with my highly experienced doctor consulting with different manufacturers and researchers from around the country. Turns out my pupils naturally open up too wide, made worse by corneas that apparently are not thick enough to retain the reshaping all day. These issues, incidentally, make me ineligible for the popular cut-n-burn style of eye surgery.

On the bright side, it was indeed completely reversible and I've suffered no effects of any kind after about two days of non-use. That was a bit over a decade ago.

New comment by npongratz in "29 years later, Settlers II gets Amiga release"

npongratz — Wed, 13 Aug 2025 19:51:17 +0000

Not completely unheard of but I get your point :). Babylon 5's pilot's animations (and I believe opening credits) was rendered in 1993 on sixteen souped-up A2000s, each with 32 MB of RAM.

https://www.generationamiga.com/2020/08/30/how-24-commodore-...

New comment by npongratz in "Open AI announces $1.5M bonus for every employee"

npongratz — Thu, 07 Aug 2025 15:24:12 +0000

> The AI race seems more defined by spending more money than the other guy, regardless of results.

Reminds me of the much-vaunted, then widely maligned and derided, burn rate metric of the dot-com bubble.

New comment by npongratz in "Google suffers data breach in ongoing Salesforce data theft attacks"

npongratz — Wed, 06 Aug 2025 18:27:55 +0000

> You can always get a plugin if something is missing.

To my great consternation, I have not found this to be true in the cloud version:

https://jira.atlassian.com/browse/JRACLOUD-72631

Special thanks to Matt Lachman for keeping up the good fight every (business) day.

New comment by npongratz in "Claude Code weekly rate limits"

npongratz — Tue, 29 Jul 2025 14:40:47 +0000

Words mean things. Please don't call it "unlimited" if you limit it.

New comment by npongratz in "Ukrainian hackers destroyed the IT infrastructure of Russian drone manufacturer"

npongratz — Wed, 16 Jul 2025 16:15:08 +0000

> (After 8 months they told me to pick up all my gear, they found nothing, but thanks for traumatising my kids)