Hacker News: pdxandi

New comment by pdxandi in "Show HN: Chess-Inspired Roguelike"

pdxandi — Fri, 26 Jun 2026 00:44:19 +0000

Oh, I see that now. That makes it so much more interesting as a puzzle. I'll have to try again with that in mind. Got up near 20 but couldn't get past that. Played for like 45 minutes. Super fun!

New comment by pdxandi in "Providers, not insurers, are responsible for excess U.S. health care cost (2024)"

pdxandi — Thu, 11 Jun 2026 02:53:15 +0000

That was really not meant to be the focus of my comment, but that range definitely seems high, from all those that I know in the field. You have to also factor in the significant amount of debt they incur over the 14 years it takes to get through undergrad, medical school, residency training and then subspecialty fellowship training. Adult ICU doctors make twice as much as pediatric ICU doctors, that was really the thought behind the comment on being underpaid. That, and she works difficult hours (long shifts, nights, weekends, holidays, on-call, etc.) and the emotional toll of the work can't be understated.

New comment by pdxandi in "Providers, not insurers, are responsible for excess U.S. health care cost (2024)"

pdxandi — Wed, 10 Jun 2026 18:44:42 +0000

That's a an honestly upsetting statement. My wife is a pediatric critical care physician and there is not an evil bone in her body. She works her tail off, is (in my opinion) underpaid (like most pediatricians), and her job takes huge emotional toll. The same is true for all of her partners. Maybe I'm reading this wrong and you mean administrative or insurance or something else. But at least in my orbit, that statement is not true.

New comment by pdxandi in "Last.fm is now independent"

pdxandi — Wed, 27 May 2026 18:39:27 +0000

This is great news! I worked on the redesign and replatform with last.fm when they were part CBS Interactive. They were a lovely team of engineers and designers who cared about their product, and I appreciated their culture. Fun memories spending time in London with the team. Glad to hear they found a new home!

New comment by pdxandi in "Cats Lock – keyboard lock for cat people"

pdxandi — Mon, 18 May 2026 15:12:58 +0000

It's really hard for me to tell from the video what this does exactly. I can infer the premise but it's unclear how this works.

I've used other keyboard locking tools in the past that were free. What I'd really love is a smarter app that detects keyboard mashing or whatever so I don't have to manually lock/unlock when my cats come around.

New comment by pdxandi in "Show HN: Gemini Pro 3 imagines the HN front page 10 years from now"

pdxandi — Wed, 10 Dec 2025 04:28:50 +0000

Wow, that is incredible. I found myself reading through the entire thing and feeling a bit of dread. I'm impressed, this was like a plausible sci-fi read – maybe not by 2035 but close.

New comment by pdxandi in "Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 2025"

pdxandi — Mon, 06 Oct 2025 21:04:18 +0000

Am I understanding correctly that this Nobel prize is for work that was completed over 20 years ago? I'm not a biologist but it sounds like they discovered regulatory T cells together, which sounds relatively major. Is it typical for a Nobel prize to lag that kind of discovery for decades? Or is it only now that we understand how major the discovery was? Or maybe I'm just misunderstanding the discovery and the timeline.

New comment by pdxandi in "My Retro TVs"

pdxandi — Mon, 18 Aug 2025 19:51:41 +0000

I just realized I was listening to news of the 911 attacks in the background for at least 20 minutes. Then heard the sound of static as it changed to a different stream. Super cool, I love this.

New comment by pdxandi in "Ask HN: Is the rise of AI tools going to be the next 'dot com' bust?"

pdxandi — Wed, 13 Aug 2025 18:10:30 +0000

Isn't that true for other companies that survived the times? That the bubble created extreme highs before it burst and now the companies have grown more naturally?

For example, Intel: https://finance.yahoo.com/quote/INTC

Honest question. Not my area of focus.

New comment by pdxandi in "Intermittent fasting strategies and their effects on body weight"

pdxandi — Sat, 09 Aug 2025 15:45:55 +0000

I read that as needing funding. Somebody has to pay for the research. In order to get it funded, you have to show your research has a basis. My interpretation anyway.

New comment by pdxandi in "GPT-5"

pdxandi — Thu, 07 Aug 2025 21:11:28 +0000

Think about it. You walk into a video store, you see 8-Minute Abs sittin' there, there's 7-Minute Abs right beside it. Which one are you gonna pick, man?

New comment by pdxandi in "The Real Origin of Cisco Systems (1999)"

pdxandi — Wed, 06 Aug 2025 19:06:46 +0000

I'm 10 minutes in and find the narrator is a bit hard to understand. There isn't much in the video beyond the audio, at least in the first part, so maybe the storytelling improves. I'll keep watching later.

New comment by pdxandi in "Danish Study: No link between vaccines and autism or other health conditions"

pdxandi — Tue, 29 Jul 2025 02:40:47 +0000

I get where you’re coming from, but I don’t think the article is misrepresenting the study. The research looked at over 1.2 million children and specifically examined whether increased exposure to aluminum containing vaccines was associated with autism or 49 other health conditions, and it found no evidence of a link. Since aluminum adjuvants are one of the most commonly cited concerns in vaccine skepticism, especially in claims about autism, the study directly addresses that idea.

So while the article’s headline simplifies the finding by saying “no link between vaccines and autism,” it’s not inaccurate. It reflects the key takeaway, that within the vaccines that include aluminum, which are widely used in childhood immunizations, there is no indication of increased risk. That’s important and relevant.

It’s fair to expect transparency, and I agree that people should be encouraged to read the actual research, but in this case it seems to me that the summary is consistent with what the study actually tested and found.

New comment by pdxandi in "I built an app to backup Live Photos from iPhone to external hard drives"

pdxandi — Wed, 25 Jun 2025 20:33:44 +0000

I've been doing this for many years and am pretty happy with it. I can sync from my Android and my wife's iPhone. The Photos app is nice and smooth. Backups happen automatically in the background. It can even de-dupe and clean up old photos that have been backed up. All in all, quite pleased with it.

New comment by pdxandi in "Evolving OpenAI's Structure"

pdxandi — Mon, 05 May 2025 21:49:21 +0000

How would an AGI prevent others from competing? Sincere question. That seems like something that ASI would be capable of. If another company released an AGI, how would the original stifle it? I get that the original can self-improve to try to stay ahead, but that doesn't necessarily mean it self-improves the best or most efficiently, right?

New comment by pdxandi in "The coming long-run slowdown in corporate profit growth and stock returns [pdf] (2023)"

pdxandi — Wed, 04 Sep 2024 18:44:48 +0000

I’ve shared this opinion for a while, and would love to hear more informed opinions. Do you have any links to articles you’d recommend reading?

New comment by pdxandi in "Google Pixel 9 Pro"

pdxandi — Tue, 13 Aug 2024 19:05:24 +0000

I broke my iPhone 12 mini and part of me died that day. A tired dad moment – set the phone on the trunk lid when getting my kid in the car and then later opened the trunk. It slid down and crunched in the hinge.

I could replace it with another mini but have been holding out hope for another updated version. I love the small form factor, even at the expense of battery life and camera quality. I just want a reasonable phone with solid hardware that fits in my pocket.

New comment by pdxandi in "How Olympics officials try to catch “motor doping”"

pdxandi — Tue, 23 Jul 2024 23:12:11 +0000

It’s hard enough for bike teams to get sponsorship. Adding that burden on the sponsor could kill the sport.

New comment by pdxandi in "Two nights of broken sleep can make people feel years older, finds study"

pdxandi — Wed, 27 Mar 2024 16:56:57 +0000

Same here. 3.5 year old and one year old twins. Poor sleep and just general fatigue most days. It’s hard to convey to those who sleep well how challenging it is to be constantly sleep deprived.

New comment by pdxandi in "IRS has launched its free tax filing service, Direct File, in 12 states"

pdxandi — Wed, 13 Mar 2024 14:40:54 +0000

Good to know that Oregon released this, thank you. Do you know how it compares to FreeTaxUSA?