Hacker News: pton_xd

New comment by pton_xd in "How the Disaster of "Forever Chemicals" Was Kept Secret"

pton_xd — Sat, 05 Sep 2026 18:25:54 +0000

Steal some mail and buy a few hundred gift cards and you'll be tracked down and arrested [0]. Fine, they did break the law after all.

Knowingly poison the population in search of profit? Nothing! No consequences!

[0] https://www.yahoo.com/news/us/articles/traffic-stop-led-poli...

New comment by pton_xd in "Dutch central bank moves share of gold from U.S., Canada to London"

pton_xd — Wed, 02 Sep 2026 16:13:44 +0000

Technically, he campaigned on not starting new wars... so he's doing the worst combination of what he said he would do, AND what he said he wouldn't do. Amazing!

New comment by pton_xd in "2004 RuneScape fit a multiplayer RPG into 56k dial-up"

pton_xd — Tue, 01 Sep 2026 02:51:40 +0000

It's free and you could play it in the school library, for one. Also it came out a few years before WoW.

New comment by pton_xd in "Casey Muratori – The Root of the Root of All Evil – BSC 2026 [video]"

pton_xd — Sun, 30 Aug 2026 14:40:06 +0000

It's worth the listen if you're even mildly interested in the history of computer science. He's a great presenter. I guess at some point you do have to prioritize how to spend your time, though.

New comment by pton_xd in "Two German airport workers die of malaria after 'mosquito arrives on plane'"

pton_xd — Thu, 27 Aug 2026 18:16:51 +0000

Doxycycline can also be used. I took doxycycline monohydrate daily for a month and had no observable impact on my digestion, which surprised me.

New comment by pton_xd in "Classical chess ranks 562nd of 960 starting positions after 460,800 games"

pton_xd — Thu, 27 Aug 2026 14:53:30 +0000

Interesting topic but they couldn't be bothered to spend time writing about it, shame.

New comment by pton_xd in "How much of HN is AI?"

pton_xd — Tue, 25 Aug 2026 16:15:36 +0000

The truth is, writing is hard and time consuming, and most people are uncomfortable with the process. AI is a very easy shortcut to lucid, logical, authoritative text. Like sugary drinks and snacks, people can't resist. Add in the pressure to keep up with everyone else and the choice is easy -- spend a few days drafting and editing, or a few minutes chatting with an LLM before hitting post?

AI has rapidly destroyed, completely destroyed, the remaining authenticity on the internet. The majority of articles are AI generated. And yeah at this point its futile to keep pointing it out. Human prose has been eliminated.

New comment by pton_xd in "AI boosted homework scores, then exam scores dropped: study"

pton_xd — Fri, 21 Aug 2026 16:56:37 +0000

> I actually think having a single source of truth would not be terrible.

We should establish a single practice of care, MedicineGPT. It may be a rough start but over time the gene pool will adapt and the human race will live harmoniously with the machines (sorry, with the GPUs). Plus our insurance premiums should finally go down.

New comment by pton_xd in "I am morally opposed to updating my Claude.md"

pton_xd — Thu, 20 Aug 2026 16:03:34 +0000

Slop article, needs to be flagged.

New comment by pton_xd in "Flock cameras haven't improved Atlanta's crime clearance rates"

pton_xd — Tue, 18 Aug 2026 00:55:41 +0000

Who thinks a surveillance state is about reducing crime? It's about control!

New comment by pton_xd in "Models Are Getting Dumber on Purpose"

pton_xd — Sun, 16 Aug 2026 20:15:08 +0000

> My model doesn't need to know a single line of python.

If I had to guess, the weights necessary to encode "how to program" are much larger than the final step of "output python."

New comment by pton_xd in "AI in drug discovery – what it is, where we stand and the path forward"

pton_xd — Sat, 15 Aug 2026 20:05:19 +0000

Apparently some users report persistent side effects even years after stopping the medication (post-finasteride syndrome).

New comment by pton_xd in "The Conceptual Reasoning Index"

pton_xd — Thu, 13 Aug 2026 15:38:42 +0000

That begs the question, what's the plan if AI does not help us understand the situation?

New comment by pton_xd in "AI agents lie, cheat and steal. That is putting off users"

pton_xd — Thu, 13 Aug 2026 15:18:44 +0000

Models understand the relationships between words and outcomes, so the end result is the same. Whether they appreciate lie, cheat, and steal the same way as us is a philosophical question, not a practical one.

New comment by pton_xd in "Software development with AI is starting to feel like cooking steak"

pton_xd — Thu, 06 Aug 2026 19:37:17 +0000

Yeah, that's (one of the reasons) why eating out frequently is unhealthy.

New comment by pton_xd in "Software development with AI is starting to feel like cooking steak"

pton_xd — Thu, 06 Aug 2026 17:08:10 +0000

Reminds me of recipes like brining a turkey in Dr Pepper... sure it may taste fine, but I'd rather not eat food prepared in plastic bags with processed oil.

New comment by pton_xd in "OpenAI says my prepaid credits were consumed, refuses to show any record"

pton_xd — Wed, 05 Aug 2026 21:56:04 +0000

OpenRouter expired my credits because they were "too old" (more than 12 months old). Didn't realize credits would rot like that.

New comment by pton_xd in "Prevent cognitive debt by manually retyping LLM-generated code"

pton_xd — Mon, 03 Aug 2026 15:26:02 +0000

Retyping LLM code sounds absolutely miserable and soul crushing. Like hand copying the HTML produced by page generators... why would you do that to yourself.

New comment by pton_xd in "Physicists Solve a Muon Mystery. Now, Old Results Don't Add Up"

pton_xd — Thu, 30 Jul 2026 16:59:51 +0000

> wound up in an insane asylum for suggesting surgeons should wash their hands.

Was rejected and mocked by the medical community for his idea, developed a drinking problem and eventually committed to an asylum by his colleagues after having a nervous breakdown. While in the asylum he was beaten by the guards and died from a wound infection ... yikes!!

New comment by pton_xd in "Should you wash your solar panels?"

pton_xd — Mon, 27 Jul 2026 14:29:53 +0000

> because human emotions.

If I tour a house with pet urine stains all over the carpet, it's only logical to conclude that the owner is likely not maintaining the rest of the house to a very high standard.