Hacker News: purple_ferret

New comment by purple_ferret in "Our Agreement with the Department of War"

purple_ferret — Sat, 28 Feb 2026 21:27:20 +0000

We live in a world of Trump-esque "truths" where if you claim something once, nothing subsequent matters.

Not surprised to see a guy like Altman adopt the strategy

New comment by purple_ferret in "Stripe valued at $159B, 2025 annual letter"

purple_ferret — Tue, 24 Feb 2026 17:57:07 +0000

Braintree had $1.53 trillion TPV in 2023[0], and it's just a subsidiary of Paypal which has tanked to $40 billion market cap despite revenue and profit that are probably lightyears ahead of Stripe.

Honestly, I wouldn't touch Stripe with a ten foot poll at this valuation. Fintech is an industry that just disappoints in the end.

[0]https://www.paypal.com/us/braintree

New comment by purple_ferret in "US Tech Force"

purple_ferret — Mon, 15 Dec 2025 17:53:05 +0000

A lot of these places already have massive government contracts with their own management structures.

So the plan is to also make some of them federal employees, ostensibly helping to oversee those contracts? Seems like a conflict of interest...

US Tech Force

purple_ferret — Mon, 15 Dec 2025 17:19:24 +0000

Article URL: https://techforce.gov/

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46277353

Points: 228

# Comments: 299

New comment by purple_ferret in "What will enter the public domain in 2026?"

purple_ferret — Tue, 02 Dec 2025 17:48:59 +0000

maybe 'creator' in the youtuber sense

But most creative people I know aren't really that interested in trying to co-opt someone else's work

New comment by purple_ferret in "Gold Prices Top $4k for First Time"

purple_ferret — Tue, 07 Oct 2025 16:27:36 +0000

Curious how this is affecting jewelers. Was blown away at how expensive gold earrings have gotten.

New comment by purple_ferret in "Things I learned from 5 years at Vercel"

purple_ferret — Fri, 11 Jul 2025 14:06:08 +0000

Sort of conflicts with the other points though, which basically sum up to "Be a 10X developer or die trying"

New comment by purple_ferret in "PlasticList – Plastic Levels in Foods"

purple_ferret — Tue, 24 Jun 2025 17:20:42 +0000

No chance any commercially available milk is getting hand milked.

New comment by purple_ferret in "Google to buy Wiz for $32B"

purple_ferret — Tue, 18 Mar 2025 15:36:06 +0000

Proof you don't need to own the .com domain name to make it big?:

http://wiz.com/

HHS Secretary: It Would Be Better If 'Everybody Got Measles'

purple_ferret — Wed, 12 Mar 2025 19:47:45 +0000

Article URL: https://www.thedailybeast.com/rfk-jr-it-would-be-better-if-everybody-got-measles/

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43346962

Points: 27

# Comments: 18

New comment by purple_ferret in "GSA Eliminates 18F"

purple_ferret — Sat, 01 Mar 2025 18:36:25 +0000

Here's the tweet that prompted Elon's 'deleted' tweet:

>18F, the far left government wide computer office that was recently taken over by allies of @elonmusk, is also the same agency that built Elizabeth Warren's "Direct File" tax program.

>Direct File puts the government in charge of preparing peoples tax returns for them.

https://nitter.poast.org/alx/status/1886415751528972515?

Clearly, they think there is something malicious in having the federal government manage this service despite the fact that the result gets submitted....to the federal government anyway

New comment by purple_ferret in "GSA Eliminates 18F"

purple_ferret — Sat, 01 Mar 2025 18:23:42 +0000

But you don't understand. If the government helps you file your taxes, they'll use the service to collect your personal data, so the communists could use it against you at some point in the future.

(this is the right wing argument, so to speak)

New comment by purple_ferret in "GSA Eliminates 18F"

purple_ferret — Sat, 01 Mar 2025 18:15:53 +0000

Elon literally said they would be 'deleted' for being 'far left,' specifically for working on direct file.

Yet, people still seem baffled by what's going on and refuse to accept the maliciousness behind his and Trump's actions. He came out against a public technology service!

It's like Bill Gates being confused about USAID being dismantled and being willfully ignorant that the people dismantling it believe he's part of some sort of global health conspiracy along with Soros.

It's easy to see why they're successful. Their 'opposition' does nothing but roll over.

New comment by purple_ferret in "What are non intelligent people like me supposed to do for money?"

purple_ferret — Tue, 11 Feb 2025 03:29:25 +0000

They key is to work for yourself

Start your own business, hustle, and bust ass

New comment by purple_ferret in "United States Digital Service renamed to DOGE"

purple_ferret — Tue, 21 Jan 2025 03:23:52 +0000

Some of these agencies have IT infrastructure meant to accommodate thousands of people. Many have convoluted structures to protect data; webs of contractor-led programs that are barely connected. You really think an engineer that will accept 70k pay is going to even understand what's going on?

New comment by purple_ferret in "United States Digital Service renamed to DOGE"

purple_ferret — Tue, 21 Jan 2025 03:06:41 +0000

>AFAIK, it has never been stated publicly that DOGE or Mr. Musk would get control of this most essential service, responsible for sourcing identity verification, etc.

The man has been plotting on Signal with a bunch of cronies. Of course, he was never revealing his plans.

But, honestly, this makes perfect sense. USDS is an easy way for them to backdoor their way into the technology environment of the federal government on day 1. He gets a crew of talented people to report to him on day 1 who know the ins and outs as good as anyone in the federal government.

On top of that, after 4 years, they can tout all the successes of DOGE. Hell, they might even claim it saved Healthcare.gov

New comment by purple_ferret in "TikTok says it is restoring service for U.S. users"

purple_ferret — Sun, 19 Jan 2025 19:05:35 +0000

>Everybody loses.

Huh? Trump singlehandedly bringing TikTok back for tens of millions of malleable voters. Sounds like a pretty huge victory for him!

New comment by purple_ferret in "Supreme Court rules to uphold TikTok ban, setting stage for shutdown"

purple_ferret — Fri, 17 Jan 2025 15:37:37 +0000

We have an archiving institution for stuff like that. Relying on a private business to maintain a catalogue is nonsense.

New comment by purple_ferret in "I am rich and have no idea what to do"

purple_ferret — Fri, 03 Jan 2025 14:44:56 +0000

Loom is not for teams who use Microsoft 365.

It's for teams that exclusively use Slack, Notion, Miro, Vercel, Mux etc

New comment by purple_ferret in "I am rich and have no idea what to do"

purple_ferret — Fri, 03 Jan 2025 03:06:46 +0000

Well, for one, categorizing the people he'd have to work with at Atlassian as "NPC Coworkers"