Hacker News: nyanmatt

New comment by nyanmatt in "What's wrong with EU age verification? (Nothing)"

nyanmatt — Wed, 01 Jul 2026 15:28:39 +0000

Let's point out the absurdity that saying "all information must be accessible" is synonymous with "all information must be disclosed". These are not congruent statements.

New comment by nyanmatt in "The KIDS Act would require age checks to get online"

nyanmatt — Mon, 29 Jun 2026 07:15:25 +0000

If it has nothing to do with children, then why is it named the KIDS Act? Are we being bamboozled? And you are IN SUPPORT OF that? Am I taking crazy pills?

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

nyanmatt — Mon, 08 Jun 2026 22:45:14 +0000

You could make any flag out of non-vegan materials, sure. But that this flag was designed with the basis of cruelty (silk) makes it also conceptually non-vegan.

What a great way to unite the world in a practice of cruelty to its inhabitants

- 1worldforhumansonlyflag - 1worldindifferenttosufferingflag

The whole idea falls flat on its face because of this for me.

New comment by nyanmatt in "The real cost of owning a home"

nyanmatt — Tue, 26 May 2026 20:22:25 +0000

Again, you are truly blessed. I've lived in multiple places (California) where the rent increases by the maximum allowed amount every year ($100-$200). None of your friends refer to their houses as "units", do they? You can't compare your situation with theirs lol

New comment by nyanmatt in "Where to buy a non-Apple, non-Google smartphone"

nyanmatt — Sun, 17 May 2026 05:12:50 +0000

Walking into a hotel lobby to get a map printed seems like a much greater surveillance risk than looking up directions on my phone. The cameras, the printer, the hotel staff, the other hotel guests; they’re all third party to your private information. Is that really any better than Apple or Google telemetry?

New comment by nyanmatt in "Mahjong: A Visual Guide"

nyanmatt — Sun, 26 Apr 2026 04:35:17 +0000

One important note I didn’t see here:

- For league play, the scoring hands change every year!

New comment by nyanmatt in "Youth Suicides Declined After Creation of National Hotline"

nyanmatt — Wed, 22 Apr 2026 17:51:39 +0000

I don’t see how. Have you ever tried calling one of these lines in a suicide emergency? Things I’ve learned in California:

- an ambulance will not be dispatched unless you physically witness someone trying to kill themselves

- otherwise, they send the police

- the police arrive without training and severely escalate the situation

- the person having an emergency will be taken into custody and stripped of rights until being medically evaluated (not arrested)

This is the program of an allegedly progressive state. After 2 experiences like this, adding trauma to already traumatic situations, I would never recommend these hotlines.

New comment by nyanmatt in "Ask HN: What Are You Working On? (April 2026)"

nyanmatt — Mon, 13 Apr 2026 06:56:48 +0000

Mame Sama - A free Android/iOS app for finding vegan resources (primarily within, but not limited to, Japan). Essentially it's Instagram with a location requirement. While not-yet-open-source, that is the plan. I wanted to build something without any intention to monetize it, while relying on the community to contribute to its success and maintenance.

Backend is zig, frontend is in Flutter. First foray into zig and I'm really enjoying it.

- https://apps.apple.com/us/app/mame-sama-%E3%81%BE%E3%82%81%E...

- https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.mamesama&h...

New comment by nyanmatt in "A $20 drug in Europe requires a prescription and $800 in the U.S."

nyanmatt — Sat, 06 Dec 2025 02:17:10 +0000

Not only drug costs. I’m being charged 1300$ for an STD test because my insurance company and my doctor can’t agree on a “code”.

It’s totally fucked.

New comment by nyanmatt in "What Americans die from vs. what the news reports on"

nyanmatt — Wed, 15 Oct 2025 09:17:17 +0000

The claim is anecdotal and thus insufficient for statistical analysis, as expressed by the previous response. What did they miss exactly?

New comment by nyanmatt in "Tampa FL hits 100 degrees for first time in recorded weather history"

nyanmatt — Tue, 29 Jul 2025 11:17:07 +0000

I really appreciated this little topography lesson; ty friend

New comment by nyanmatt in "For polyglots, there's something special about their native tongue"

nyanmatt — Tue, 12 Mar 2024 21:47:26 +0000

I've noticed something else particular to my native tongue. It lacks emotion. I just don't really know how to express myself in English. I can speak very technically and logically, but I'm stumped when it comes to matters of the heart.

My Japanese, on the other hand, isn't fluent, but I'm able to tap into way more emotion. It feels as if I'm singing when I nail a great sentence in nihongo. It really lands with the listener and I feel emotionally connected in that moment.

Could this be related to the increased brain activity required for foreign language?

New comment by nyanmatt in "Maybe Functions"

nyanmatt — Mon, 11 Mar 2024 12:50:18 +0000

I use maybe functions a lot for things like "maybeShowReminderDialog". The conditions for displaying the reminder are wrapped in this maybe function.

Surely that's simpler than specifying those conditions before every call to show this dialog, resulting in plenty of duplicated code. And if those conditions change, there is only one place I need to update it.

Of course I can make a single operation to check those conditions like "shouldShowReminder", but that too is doubling the surface area of this code.

I see the merit of the argument here but disagree with the absolutist stance against "maybe" functions.

New comment by nyanmatt in "Ask HN: What do you use to replace incandescent lights?"

nyanmatt — Fri, 17 Nov 2023 14:47:29 +0000

Can you list some of those shops? I'm hard pressed to find one that isn't selling items that were drop-shipped to them from Aliexpress/baba and then marked up. It may not be direct from the manufacturer, but going from N-middlemen to 1-middleman is about the best you can do right now.

New comment by nyanmatt in "American birds and dozens more will be renamed, to remove human monikers"

nyanmatt — Thu, 02 Nov 2023 14:03:18 +0000

Anna wasn’t a birder though. She was royalty given tribute by Rene Lesson. Anne d'Essling‘s only connection to ornithology is through marriage. So why does she get a bird?

This is the only example referenced of which I know its origins. However it illustrates an issue with names that have no connection to the science of birds. The naming as tribute was surely transactional in some way (to curry favor perhaps) and really should be replaced.

New comment by nyanmatt in "People with autism less likely to succumb to bystander effect, research finds"

nyanmatt — Mon, 30 Oct 2023 21:22:45 +0000

> And yet, the clinical standard has been to use the "with" terminology for a long time now. For exactly the general reason that you present, just with your grammatical paradigm inverted.

If that's the clinical standard, why didn't the cited paper use it that way? From the research paper:

> autistic individuals

> autistic employees

> autistic participants

The peer reviewed research paper uses this standard. Only using "with" in reference to diagnoses.

It is "Science Daily", a news site, who skirts the standard by changing the paper's wording.

New comment by nyanmatt in "People with autism less likely to succumb to bystander effect, research finds"

nyanmatt — Mon, 30 Oct 2023 11:49:48 +0000

Your community may not be the problem. There are other communities (such as Autism Speaks) which do view it as a disease. And the popularity of this viewpoint is evident by the number of jigsaw puzzle piece bumper stickers around.

New comment by nyanmatt in "People with autism less likely to succumb to bystander effect, research finds"

nyanmatt — Mon, 30 Oct 2023 11:40:11 +0000

That’s a totally false comparison. Brown hair is something you physically have.

New comment by nyanmatt in "People with autism less likely to succumb to bystander effect, research finds"

nyanmatt — Mon, 30 Oct 2023 11:34:37 +0000

“With autism”

A large portion of the autistic community is very against this phrasing. Autism is not a disease you carry, or something you “have”.

It should be used as an adjective to describe a person:

“Autistic people less likely to succumb to bystander effect”

Edit: If you follow through to the actual paper referenced you can see they use the correct phrasing.

New comment by nyanmatt in "US halts exports of most civilian firearms for 90 days"

nyanmatt — Sat, 28 Oct 2023 13:52:13 +0000

> "risk of firearms being diverted to entities or activities that promote regional instability, violate human rights, or fuel criminal activities."

The hypocrisy of the United States government saying this...