<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: programmertote</title><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/user?id=programmertote</link><description>Hacker News RSS</description><docs>https://hnrss.org/</docs><generator>hnrss v2.1.1</generator><lastBuildDate>Wed, 07 Oct 2026 05:59:29 +0000</lastBuildDate><atom:link href="https://hnrss.org/user?id=programmertote" rel="self" type="application/rss+xml"></atom:link><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by programmertote in "California farmers are struggling to sell grapes as demand for wine drops"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>Not sure how the extra supply for grapes affect retail prices of grapes for regular consumption. But at Costco in Southern CA, the price of grapes have been fairly stable (~$5.99 - $7.99) over the last year or a little more.</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Mon, 28 Sep 2026 21:24:01 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49884584</link><dc:creator>programmertote</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49884584</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49884584</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by programmertote in "Tell HN: Codex Is Down [fixed]"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>This outage is not just Codex, right? I am just using GTP-6 Astra for some administrative prompts and it has been returning, "Error in message stream", for several minutes now.</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Fri, 25 Sep 2026 23:20:25 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49851334</link><dc:creator>programmertote</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49851334</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49851334</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by programmertote in "How do traffic signals work? (2019)"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>I used to live in a south Florida (Miami) suburb and the traffic lights there function like what you suggest too. So after moving back to southern CA, it's something I had to adjust (and the traffic light behavior difference became obvious to me).</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Tue, 22 Sep 2026 20:04:25 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49807325</link><dc:creator>programmertote</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49807325</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49807325</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by programmertote in "How do traffic signals work? (2019)"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>One thing that I noticed about traffic lights in CA -- there will be like 4-5 cars who are driving on the major road and approaching the traffic light. Then a car arrived from the small road at the intersection. The traffic light will then turn red for cars on the major road, so all 4-5 cars will brake and stop at the light. The small car proceed to turn left into the major road. A few seconds later, the light for the major road turns green again and the 4-5 cars proceed.<p>I have seen this so often that I sometimes wonder if it'd be more fuel efficient to let the 4-5 cars on the major roadway proceed (the traffic lights have cameras anyway) while letting the one car from the small street wait slightly longer or wait for a fixed amount of time.<p>I wonder if there's any traffic engineer on HN from California and if so, I'd love to hear an explanation/rationale behind the current approach.</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Mon, 21 Sep 2026 21:35:53 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49793782</link><dc:creator>programmertote</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49793782</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49793782</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by programmertote in "Claude Fable 5.1 and Claude Mythos 5.1"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>> Prose density is not the same thing as succinctness<p>Can't agree with you more. I review 2-3 PRs a day from my team of eight data engineers. Most of my team members use Claude to write SQL, dbt and Python code. Some of them use Claude a lot, some less so. I can easily tell when I review the code that is mostly Claude generated vs. the one that is not. In dbt models where we have a lot of biz logic in intermediate layers, that's where I really have a difficult time following Claude-generated comments. So much jargon copied over from other adjacent dbt models (yet inconsistently), and the prose is super choppy (for the lack of better word).<p>After reading a looooong sentence/comment line, I still can't figure out what it really means. Had to always re-read the line 2-3 times (sometimes, more) to sort of understand. Reading code, however, is so much easier and usually, I just skip to reading the code and then come back to the comments. :D</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Wed, 02 Sep 2026 00:16:48 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49530146</link><dc:creator>programmertote</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49530146</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49530146</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by programmertote in "Federal Communications Commission scraps limit on broadcast TV ownership"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>He will be pardoned by trump before the latter leaves the office. There will be LOTS of people pardoned by trump.<p>I immigrated from a very poor, military-ruled country to the US more than 20 years ago. It is very sad to see the democratic system and the rule of law eroding in the US. All the mistakes that I observed and lived through in my former country are being practiced in the US these days.</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Thu, 06 Aug 2026 22:11:54 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49203330</link><dc:creator>programmertote</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49203330</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49203330</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by programmertote in "What's Behind the Sharp Drop in Labor Force Participation?"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>You are living my dream! When I retire, I want to teach for underserved areas; I also want to help out in some ways related to the homelessness problem. Plus, I want to learn how to play piano/guitar and learn how to swim properly (I can swim, but not too well). I also want to try improv. I have ever-growing books that I want to read. So many things I can do to enjoy life personally and do something nice (albeit it having just a teeny tiny impact) for the future generation and humanity.<p>> I have no desire to keep working for random "Mikes" and "Bobs" in upper management that only care about their bonuses and stocks. Not in Big Tech, not in random startups, not anywhere else. "Mike wants this", "Bob wants that"... Gosh, I couldn't care less about their "direction"!<p>Agreed! That's one of my motivation to retire early. :)</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Tue, 04 Aug 2026 21:36:55 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49175523</link><dc:creator>programmertote</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49175523</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49175523</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by programmertote in "What's Behind the Sharp Drop in Labor Force Participation?"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>> Still, this rate merits carefully watching in coming months; a continued decline may signal a deeper change in the behavior of workers in this critical age group.<p>I know I'm speaking from a rather (somewhat) privileged position. I myself don't consider working beyond 50 years of age. I have lived frugally/minimally and am confident that (unless WW3 happens or some sort of unexpected global catastrophe arrives) I can FIRE (retire frugally with my savings) before I hit 50.<p>I also know it's somewhat of a bubble, but Reddit has a lot of subreddits (like r/HENRYfinance/; r/Fire/; and r/coastFIRE/) dedicated for folks retiring early.<p>Observing that FIRE trend and the fact that AI psychosis (don't get me wrong, I believe AI is useful, but not to a level that humans will be entirely replaced) at work place will surely drive some folks away (or at least discourage them) from staying in the work force, I am not surprised that this trend is showing up in the data. Plus, a lot of millennials are child free (by choice), so they can afford to retire early as well.</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Tue, 04 Aug 2026 18:47:40 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49173113</link><dc:creator>programmertote</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49173113</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49173113</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by programmertote in "Google fixed more Chrome bugs in June than over the past two years, thanks to AI"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>I have at least one coworker who literally copy-paste AI output to respond to code and doc reviews (and most of her communications like on Teams and Asana) despite me telling her multiple times to take it a notch down. Two days ago, she started answering my doc review questions with literally AI outputs (like "Good question. <insert a bunch of verbose response>" and "You're right. <insert a lot of fluff with little substance>").<p>That really bothered me that I finally announced AI "code of conduct" (more like AI usage expectation) and stressed that if one is not so kind as to have his/her coworker review AI output as it is, then I'll take formal measures to address that. We'll see what happens in the near future.<p>Really worrying that some people are totally comfortable with relying 100% on AI to do their work. Then what's human agency? What's the point of having them in the team (as opposed to just building an AI agent and work with that)?!</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Fri, 31 Jul 2026 15:29:06 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49124350</link><dc:creator>programmertote</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49124350</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49124350</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by programmertote in "AI companies spend record sums on Washington lobbying"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>It really irks me for some reason that American Medical Association (one of the top spenders in lobbying) is doing the lobbying. I did a quick Gemini/Google search and these are the topics they lobby for.<p>```
Core Legislative PrioritiesMedicare Reform:<p>Fighting to fix stagnant physician payment formulas and account for inflation.<p>Prior Authorization: Pushing to reduce administrative roadblocks and delays enforced by insurance companies.<p>Scope of Practice: Opposing laws that expand independent clinical roles for non-physicians like nurse practitioners and pharmacists.<p>Burnout Reduction: Supporting federal and organizational relief to help doctors manage workplace stress and administrative tasks.<p>--
Public Health and Science<p>Public Health Crises: Supporting science-based policies on vaccinations, gun violence prevention, and chronic disease reduction.<p>Digital Health: Guiding regulations for artificial intelligence and telehealth integration in medical practices
```<p>Most of these are about keeping the gate (i.e., doctor's compensation high). The US doctors are the highest paid in the world (among developed countries like UK, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, etc.) by a long shot. Kind of mad if you think about it.<p>Disclaimer: My spouse is a specialist doctor. You can say I have selfish interest in keeping doctor's salaries high in the US. But I can't help highlighting that doctor's guilds (like AMA) are part of the reasons why the healthcare expenses are so high in the US.</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Mon, 27 Jul 2026 17:44:30 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49073122</link><dc:creator>programmertote</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49073122</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49073122</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by programmertote in "What's Under Your Feet in New York City?"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>One of the most informative videos from Practical Engineering channel. I thought I knew NYC infra fairly well, but I learned so much from that video still (like how NYC's electric grid is actually a grid and more fault tolerant).</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Sun, 26 Jul 2026 18:10:24 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49060711</link><dc:creator>programmertote</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49060711</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49060711</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by programmertote in "Which streaming service was that on again?"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>> Cross-platform search should be standard by now. A shared watchlist across services would help<p>I have a Hisense TV with Roku interface. I was always able to search a movie and it'll tell me ways to watch. Being a data engineer, I sometimes wonder how that data is collected and aggregated.</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Wed, 22 Jul 2026 23:02:29 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49014649</link><dc:creator>programmertote</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49014649</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49014649</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by programmertote in "Any text-to-SQL benchmark should address difficulties of real-world data stores"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>Interesting... at my current job, my team and I are solving this problem of how to make sure LLM understand our SQL data warehouse to answer analytical questions for clients. We have a 20-year old database with rotting schema as the blog post describes. So we had to rebuild the database in a way that is well structured and governed. Once that hard work is done, we slap dbt models on top of business metrics with model YAML files (and some common MD files) carrying a lot of semantic and metadata info for them.<p>Then our software engineering team ingest the dbt models (we have to tactically create dbt models; that is, always think "what would make LLM hallucinate less" as we are implementing them) and info from the semantic layer to build context for the LLM, and use that to answer analytical questions. So far, it's been promising. The accuracy isn't zero like the blog's author suggested though. We have built like 30 metrics in dbt and semantic layer in the last quarter, and asked the research and analytics teams to do internal testing on the LLM app. I will find out how accurate this approach is from the feedback soon.</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Wed, 22 Jul 2026 22:34:21 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49014400</link><dc:creator>programmertote</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49014400</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49014400</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by programmertote in "So Reddit has decided that plain HTML is unsafe"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>I am like OP -- I use old.reddit.com strictly in Firefox. I'm comfortable and familiar with the old UI (been a Reddit user for as long as Reddit has been around).<p>I was a little annoyed by being asked to log in. But I don't want to browse 'reddit.com' because I don't like the way the new UI looks. It's hard to read and scan the first few pages quickly in the new UI (also looking at you Vanguard; you destroyed your old UI which was compact and informative).<p>Worse, now that I'm logged in and can use "old.reddit.com", Reddit serves me what it "thinks" I like, so now I'm trapped in the subreddit/topic bubble that Reddit selects for me (btw, it selects things poorly). I want to go to the old front page, so I click on 'Hot' or 'Top'. But Reddit still interleaves the posts with what it thinks I'd like to see.<p>Madness and sadness ensue.</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Wed, 22 Jul 2026 22:10:07 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49014146</link><dc:creator>programmertote</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49014146</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49014146</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by programmertote in "Passkeys were invented by engineers with zero understanding of consumer brain"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>Like some folks already commented here, even as someone who has been working in tech for 20+ years, I find Passkey confusing. I understand the key aspect in computer science term, but I don't know how to use it across devices. Another big worry is that if I tie that to a physical key, then I might lose it (because it's physical) and never get it back.</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Wed, 22 Jul 2026 15:10:47 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49008060</link><dc:creator>programmertote</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49008060</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49008060</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by programmertote in "Show HN: LastShelf – an emergency map of your family's documents bills& contacts"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>100% what I do. :) Simple and gets the job done.</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Thu, 09 Jul 2026 19:13:06 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48850984</link><dc:creator>programmertote</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48850984</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48850984</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by programmertote in "Why skilled workers come to Germany and then leave again"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>I think you misunderstood my comment. What I'm saying is that the same issue can be observed in the US (i.e., it's not Germany specific).</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Thu, 09 Jul 2026 00:14:09 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48839236</link><dc:creator>programmertote</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48839236</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48839236</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by programmertote in "GPT‑Live"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>I watched the demo video. Isn't that agent's voice too hasty in responding? Maybe that's what they (OpenAI) are trying to show off as full-duplex tech, but I can't shake the feeling that I'll feel annoyed if the AI agent interrupts me when I'm speaking....</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Wed, 08 Jul 2026 20:33:19 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48837072</link><dc:creator>programmertote</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48837072</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48837072</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by programmertote in "Why skilled workers come to Germany and then leave again"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>That sounds similar to what you experience in the US especially as a first gen immigrant. I see a glass ceiling (for the lack of a better word) here. Most of the leadership positions are occupied by US-born (mostly Caucasian) and/or to some degree, Indian immigrants. Sometimes, I truly wonder how/why this person got into the leadership role because it's fairly obvious that s/he lacks the essential qualities required for it. The only explanation is the politicking (typical in the corporate world) and somehow being able to impress others by talking fast and/or smooth (while giving false promises and failing upward).<p>All of this to say that your observation in Germany doesn't sound that different from mine in the US (been here for over 20+ years; been in a manager/director role in data for almost a decade).</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Tue, 07 Jul 2026 21:08:59 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48823801</link><dc:creator>programmertote</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48823801</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48823801</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by programmertote in "Iran Shock Jolts Asia and Europe to Speed Up Energy Transition"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>I'm assuming that China, with its industrial power and leadership position to produce a bunch of green energy components (like solar panels), is well-positioned to benefit from this.</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Thu, 04 Jun 2026 21:28:44 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48404877</link><dc:creator>programmertote</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48404877</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48404877</guid></item></channel></rss>