Hacker News: phist_mcgee

New comment by phist_mcgee in "Taxi drivers rarely die of Alzheimer's"

phist_mcgee — Mon, 10 Aug 2026 09:09:04 +0000

They also have to remember where roadwork is/was and what kind of traffic is best/worst at a given time.

There's a fantastic Tom Scott video on it https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZmWREtcDVBE

New comment by phist_mcgee in "My phone detects going on a run as “someone snatching my phone and running off”"

phist_mcgee — Fri, 07 Aug 2026 00:50:55 +0000

For us in Australia it's uncontrolled right turns, and it is absolutely infuriating that many journeys would be temporally shorter if the route waited longer for the turn at an intersection with lights. Google Maps would almost surely have this data. It's been like this for at least a decade.

New comment by phist_mcgee in "China’s open-weights AI strategy is winning"

phist_mcgee — Mon, 20 Jul 2026 22:46:21 +0000

>As a consumer, the last things I want in an interface are to a) be sycophantic enough to lessen my judgment

This is EXACTLY what people like/are addicted to about chatbots.

My sister-in-law bombed an interview and asked AI about her answers to the interviewer's questions, chatgpt or whatever it was told her that her answers weren't bad, but that the interviewer could not see the gold in her responses. She said she felt much better.

I see this effect with all the non-tech people in my life

New comment by phist_mcgee in "Voxatron"

phist_mcgee — Thu, 16 Jul 2026 00:48:09 +0000

Lol well make that the headline!

I sometimes think that passionate nerds love their niche so much they forget that other people might not have the foggiest of what they're talking about.

Happens on github README.md files all the time.

New comment by phist_mcgee in "Voxatron"

phist_mcgee — Wed, 15 Jul 2026 21:56:01 +0000

What is a fantasy console? Is this just software? If it's just software, is the fantasy console some kind of meta game or emulator?

It's not clear at all.

New comment by phist_mcgee in "The real prices of frontier models"

phist_mcgee — Mon, 13 Jul 2026 22:23:05 +0000

If you couldn't bother writing it, I can't be bothered reading it.

New comment by phist_mcgee in "Suspecting AI cheating, Ivy League prof ordered in-person final; scores fell 50%"

phist_mcgee — Thu, 09 Jul 2026 02:04:49 +0000

>America is the Greatest Country on Earth

Yeah ok mate. Have a good one.

New comment by phist_mcgee in "Suspecting AI cheating, Ivy League prof ordered in-person final; scores fell 50%"

phist_mcgee — Thu, 09 Jul 2026 01:09:47 +0000

What an odd world view. Of course the priviliged have greater social obligations, because they are greater benefactors of life. We're all equal under the law but that doesn't mean that those with greater means shouldn't have greater impacts on society.

Meritocracy is often a buzzword of the elite to avoid paying their fair share.

New comment by phist_mcgee in "Suspecting AI cheating, Ivy League prof ordered in-person final; scores fell 50%"

phist_mcgee — Thu, 09 Jul 2026 00:51:29 +0000

Sounds like you're in AU, I will point out that trades are not looked down on at all in this country. In fact culturally we value chippies and sparkies higher than desk jockeys.

New comment by phist_mcgee in "Suspecting AI cheating, Ivy League prof ordered in-person final; scores fell 50%"

phist_mcgee — Thu, 09 Jul 2026 00:48:33 +0000

You owe society more than nothing, otherwise you end up with a sick society.

New comment by phist_mcgee in "Today I've made the difficult decision to reduce the size of Coinbase by ~14%"

phist_mcgee — Tue, 05 May 2026 21:48:50 +0000

Go on, spill some more tea..

New comment by phist_mcgee in "Today I've made the difficult decision to reduce the size of Coinbase by ~14%"

phist_mcgee — Tue, 05 May 2026 21:45:57 +0000

I realise you're joking, but crypto is now a heavily regulated industry, the KYC/AML requirements are no-joke and non-compliance will get the company's licences in a given country/state terminated.

For the end user it looks like an evil cash-grab, but really it's the company protecting itself from regulatory vengeance.

New comment by phist_mcgee in "How ChatGPT serves ads"

phist_mcgee — Wed, 29 Apr 2026 07:31:53 +0000

Fusion power is proven to be possible.

AGI is not.

New comment by phist_mcgee in "GitHub Actions is the weakest link"

phist_mcgee — Tue, 28 Apr 2026 20:14:51 +0000

What an absolute joke that it has taken GitHub this long to clean up it's act when it comes to supply chain security.

New comment by phist_mcgee in "ASML became the chokepoint for cutting-edge chips"

phist_mcgee — Tue, 28 Apr 2026 20:11:57 +0000

Which did you enjoy serving on more? Submariners apparently eat better than anywhere else on the navy, but also don't get any sunlight for 6 months?

New comment by phist_mcgee in "GPT-5.5"

phist_mcgee — Thu, 23 Apr 2026 21:12:48 +0000

Parable of the mechanic who charges $5k to hit a machine on the side once with a hammer to get it working. $5 for the hammer, $4995 for the knowledge of where to hit the machine etc etc.

New comment by phist_mcgee in "John Ternus to become Apple CEO"

phist_mcgee — Mon, 20 Apr 2026 21:52:26 +0000

Nor does the cop who demands $100 for letting you go without arresting you.

But they're still responsible for their own personal piece of the rot in the system.

New comment by phist_mcgee in "The Bromine Chokepoint: How Strife Could Halt Production of World’s Memory Chips"

phist_mcgee — Sun, 19 Apr 2026 21:10:51 +0000

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2IsR06zf8nQ

New comment by phist_mcgee in "Thoughts and feelings around Claude Design"

phist_mcgee — Sun, 19 Apr 2026 03:47:55 +0000

Ever seen a vibe-coded react app? It's astounding how well SOTA LLMs can produce good looking code in detail, but zoom out to the architectural or broader picture and it becomes an unholy mess.

It's like a masterpiece painted by an artist with their nose 5 inches from the canvas at all times.

New comment by phist_mcgee in "Thoughts and feelings around Claude Design"

phist_mcgee — Sun, 19 Apr 2026 03:42:22 +0000

Just teach backend engineers to do frontend pixel perfect CSS!

Different fields.