<rss version="2.0" xmlns:dc="http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/" xmlns:atom="http://www.w3.org/2005/Atom"><channel><title>Hacker News: persnickety</title><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/user?id=persnickety</link><description>Hacker News RSS</description><docs>https://hnrss.org/</docs><generator>hnrss v2.1.1</generator><lastBuildDate>Mon, 06 Apr 2026 07:02:25 +0000</lastBuildDate><atom:link href="https://hnrss.org/user?id=persnickety" rel="self" type="application/rss+xml"></atom:link><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by persnickety in "A thought on JavaScript "proof of work" anti-scraper systems"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>> An LLM scraper is operating in a hostile environment [...] because you can't particularly tell a JavaScript proof of work system from JavaScript that does other things. [..] for people who would like to exploit your scraper's CPU to do some cryptocurrency mining, or [...] want to waste as much of your CPU as possible).<p>That's a valid reason to serve JS-based PoW systems scares LLM operators: there's a chance the code might actually be malicious.<p>That's not a valid reason to serve JS-based PoW systems to human users: the entire reason those proofs work against LLMs is the threat that the code is malicious.<p>In other words, PoW works against LLM scrapers not because of PoW, but because they could contain malicious code. Why would you threaten your users with that?<p>And if you can apply the threat only to LLMs, then why don't you cut the PoW garbage start with that instead?<p>I know, it's because it's not so easy. So instead of wielding the Damocles sword of malware, why not standardize on some PoW algorithm that people can honestly apply without the risks?</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Wed, 28 May 2025 08:48:04 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44113976</link><dc:creator>persnickety</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44113976</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44113976</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by persnickety in "Dragonsweeper — A minesweeper game that requires observation"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>Is there a way to download it? It would be nice to decide to play even while offline.</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Tue, 28 Jan 2025 17:08:30 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42854816</link><dc:creator>persnickety</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42854816</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42854816</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by persnickety in "Dragonsweeper — A minesweeper game that requires observation"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>Huh, now I have to check.</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Tue, 28 Jan 2025 11:15:48 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42851103</link><dc:creator>persnickety</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42851103</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42851103</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by persnickety in "Dragonsweeper — A minesweeper game that requires observation"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>The rat scroll removes points from the board (replaces monsters with 1hp rats).</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Tue, 28 Jan 2025 09:29:39 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42850477</link><dc:creator>persnickety</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42850477</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42850477</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by persnickety in "AI slop, suspicion, and writing back"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>Oops. Then it must be <Compose>---</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Sun, 26 Jan 2025 11:59:55 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42829545</link><dc:creator>persnickety</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42829545</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42829545</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by persnickety in "Visualization of Huygens probe descent to Titan's surface"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>" This movie, built with data collected during the European Space Agency's Huygens probe on Jan. 14, 2005, shows the operation of the Descent Imager/Spectral Radiometer camera during its descent and after touchdown. The camera was funded by NASA.<p>The almost four-hour-long operation of the camera is shown in less than five minutes. That's 40 times the actual speed up to landing and 100 times the actual speed thereafter.<p>The first part of the movie shows how Titan looked to the camera as it acquired more and more images during the probe's descent. Each image has a small field of view, and dozens of images were made into mosaics of the whole scene. "<p>I like how clear this visualization is despite being packed with data. Once you start paying attention to the different parameters, you'll find yourself restarting the 5 minutes video to watch some other property.</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Sun, 26 Jan 2025 09:52:29 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42829065</link><dc:creator>persnickety</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42829065</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42829065</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[Visualization of Huygens probe descent to Titan's surface]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>Article URL: <a href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Huygens_descent.ogv">https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Huygens_descent.ogv</a></p>
<p>Comments URL: <a href="https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42829064">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42829064</a></p>
<p>Points: 5</p>
<p># Comments: 2</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Sun, 26 Jan 2025 09:52:29 +0000</pubDate><link>https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Huygens_descent.ogv</link><dc:creator>persnickety</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42829064</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42829064</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by persnickety in "Liberux Nexx: Linux smartphone (found on Galaxus, Swiss online reseller)"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>I'd say those drivers and libraries are the backbone of an OS. Everything else is on top of them.</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Sun, 26 Jan 2025 09:30:55 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42828977</link><dc:creator>persnickety</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42828977</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42828977</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by persnickety in "AI slop, suspicion, and writing back"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p><Compose>--. on Linux.</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Sun, 26 Jan 2025 09:29:52 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42828971</link><dc:creator>persnickety</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42828971</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42828971</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by persnickety in "Liberux Nexx: Linux smartphone (found on Galaxus, Swiss online reseller)"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>I'm not sure I'd call anything using libhybris "Linux-based". Their low-level elements come from Android with all the problems that implies, including Android being Linux only in the most irrelevant technical sense.</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Sat, 25 Jan 2025 17:13:32 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42822929</link><dc:creator>persnickety</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42822929</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42822929</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by persnickety in "UI is hell: four-function calculators"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>The typical 4-function calculator doesn't even allow multiple subtrees of computation, so I think it works out to having something like 2 entries on the stack.</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Fri, 24 Jan 2025 08:19:57 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42811436</link><dc:creator>persnickety</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42811436</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42811436</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by persnickety in "UI is hell: four-function calculators"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>There were calculators in the '90s where the display would go faint when you covered the tiny solar panel. Perhaps the battery was already drained. Quite common I would say.</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Fri, 24 Jan 2025 07:42:18 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42811277</link><dc:creator>persnickety</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42811277</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42811277</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by persnickety in "UI is hell: four-function calculators"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>RPN is definitely easier to implement. I helped someone do that as a student project and while it was minimally complex, there were no edge cases with the operators.<p>You pay for that by having a stack rather than a small fixed number of variables.</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Fri, 24 Jan 2025 07:40:50 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42811270</link><dc:creator>persnickety</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42811270</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42811270</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by persnickety in "How to Debounce a Contact (2014)"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>What's with the advice about interrupts and undebounced signals?<p>What does it mean that a flip-flop gets confused? What kind of undesired operation could that cause?<p>Because, quite honestly, if connecting directly means occasional transient failures, then having less hardware is a tempting tradeoff on small PCBs.</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Thu, 09 Jan 2025 04:44:34 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42641699</link><dc:creator>persnickety</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42641699</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42641699</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by persnickety in "Forced to upgrade"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>The environmental impact grows a lot more with the number of sold product than the maintenance burden.<p>For a business that sold a thousand units with a handful remaining, the calculation is going to be a lot less dominated by impact than for a giant who sold millions and has thousands still in use.<p>And if there's a giant in this industry, that's Apple.</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Mon, 02 Dec 2024 07:41:35 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42293970</link><dc:creator>persnickety</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42293970</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42293970</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by persnickety in "Breaking the 4Chan CAPTCHA"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>Who do you think spam classification false positives are going to be pubishing if not real users?
At least with a captcha, you have some idea that you were rejected before you put in the effort to write your comment.</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Sat, 30 Nov 2024 19:38:33 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42283529</link><dc:creator>persnickety</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42283529</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42283529</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by persnickety in "Why is it so hard to find a job now? Enter Ghost Jobs"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>That's an uncharitable read. Connections can be made, not only received.<p>Networking is different kind of work than sitting at a desk, but it's still work. The benefits of that work are seen next time you want a job. Every freelancer operates this way, for example.</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Thu, 14 Nov 2024 18:29:49 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42139453</link><dc:creator>persnickety</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42139453</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42139453</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by persnickety in "Starship Flight 5: Launch and booster catch [video]"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>Can it even be blocked completely? Every layer of material geometrically reduces the proportion of rays going through. Or am I wrong about that?</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Sun, 13 Oct 2024 17:47:26 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=41829953</link><dc:creator>persnickety</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=41829953</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=41829953</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by persnickety in "Should we be thinking about luck differently?"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>And yet, there is something, therefore the odds cannot be zero, revealing a flaw in this line of reasoning.</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Sun, 13 Oct 2024 13:06:22 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=41827701</link><dc:creator>persnickety</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=41827701</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=41827701</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by persnickety in "Should we be thinking about luck differently?"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>> You're one out of 8 billion people, the only known humans inhabiting an incredible vast cosmos with billions of galaxies and billions of years of timespan. That you are sitting here reading these typed words is nothing short of incredible,<p>There's nothing incredible about being the only kind of human known to humans. Classic anthropic principle, making every kind of human special as long as they haven't met any other kind.</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Sun, 13 Oct 2024 13:03:40 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=41827677</link><dc:creator>persnickety</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=41827677</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=41827677</guid></item></channel></rss>