Hacker News: r14c

New comment by r14c in "DSpark: Speculative decoding accelerates LLM inference [pdf]"

r14c — Mon, 29 Jun 2026 15:23:51 +0000

Eh a death squad is a death squad tbh.

I mean maybe, but China's industrial strategy isn't well served by war. I just don't see the structural incentive.

New comment by r14c in "DSpark: Speculative decoding accelerates LLM inference [pdf]"

r14c — Sun, 28 Jun 2026 13:39:36 +0000

Peace for who? Like just look at the last 50-70 years of US intervention in LatAm. Backing a series of coups and extremely violent right wing dictatorships.

The issue is one of incentives. The US needs cheap foreign labor because of deindustrialization policies in the 60s and 70s. These were arguably passed as a check on labor power since socialism was still looking potentially ascendant at the time. Whatever the reason though, the contemporary US is reliant on keeping foreign wages down and domination of the oil trade. Imperialism grows out of this need for external resources to maintain economic growth. It would be less relevant to us if we had better fundamentals, but we traded those away to avoid letting certain demos get wealthy and powerful.

China's play is more mercantile. They benefit most from stable trade conditions. They get richer the more customers they have. They benefitted massively from becoming an industrial trade partner with the US in the 60s and 70s. Because of this, they have completely different foreign policy objectives. All they need to do to win is normalize relations and build trade infrastructure. Its way cheaper than imperialism.

New comment by r14c in "US holds off blacklisting DeepSeek, more than 100 firms deemed security risks"

r14c — Thu, 18 Jun 2026 00:43:50 +0000

> The fact those plans also have subclauses ensuring the party elite are made even more wealthy and powerful is less alluring

Our oligarchs do that too and all we get in return is declining infrastructure and paranoia.

New comment by r14c in "US bans differential privacy in Census data"

r14c — Sat, 13 Jun 2026 16:13:47 +0000

Isn't the issue here the lack of accountability? Maybe an unpopular opinion, but I don't think its a foregone conclusion that governments are fundamentally corrupt. Ours certainly is and we have a very weak constitution which makes it worse, but that's the US. I think better constitutions are possible, but we have to stop treating it like a sacred document and be practical.

New comment by r14c in "India's surprise baby bust"

r14c — Sat, 06 Jun 2026 05:14:36 +0000

Evolution doesn't work like that. What we have here is a dead end. For whatever reason, this system isn't advantageous from an evolutionary perspective, so we don't reproduce. That's natural selection.

New comment by r14c in "Microsoft open-sources “the earliest DOS source code discovered to date”"

r14c — Sat, 30 May 2026 03:24:17 +0000

Glazing? I stated an historical fact. What doesn't math for me is why we care so much what kind of economy other people decide to have. Eastern Europe isn't soviet anymore obviously. They can make their own choices.

New comment by r14c in "The dead economy theory"

r14c — Sat, 30 May 2026 02:18:39 +0000

My impression is that China has a pretty high standard of living. They have been extremely successful in reducing poverty over the last few decades. You should see how shiny even some of the third tier cities are.

New comment by r14c in "The dead economy theory"

r14c — Sat, 30 May 2026 02:14:46 +0000

It seems obvious to me that a complex society needs a privileged class to function, but I don't think it's self evident that every kind of elite class would behave in the same way.

New comment by r14c in "Tech CEOs are apparently suffering from AI psychosis"

r14c — Thu, 28 May 2026 04:17:46 +0000

Not to be too pedantic, but my understanding is that the transition to agriculture was not a singular event like this. Afaik this process of forced technological displacement is a relatively recent development connected to the rise of capitalism.

New comment by r14c in "Microsoft open-sources “the earliest DOS source code discovered to date”"

r14c — Mon, 25 May 2026 03:21:13 +0000

I would read that meta study. Especially if they verify and compare methods.

New comment by r14c in "Microsoft open-sources “the earliest DOS source code discovered to date”"

r14c — Mon, 25 May 2026 01:56:57 +0000

We kill people all the time, what's the difference? Isn't it a sovereign nation's prerogative to do whatever they want? That said, it is our prerogative to be nosy and violently mess with other people's affairs too so..

New comment by r14c in "Microsoft open-sources “the earliest DOS source code discovered to date”"

r14c — Sun, 24 May 2026 21:37:29 +0000

We didn't try communism as far as I know. We hunted it down and murdered it in its cradle if I'm reading the CIA declassified archives correctly.

New comment by r14c in "I keep bouncing off the Scheme language"

r14c — Sun, 24 May 2026 19:48:53 +0000

With LLMs you can make 20 websites and still not really understand the language. For learning you really do have to type the code out yourself. That's how you build familiarity and understanding. Reading code is a good starting point, but it doesn't really gel until you start writing your own ideas down, fail, and try again until it works and makes sense. Especially if you're working in a new language with unfamiliar semantics.

New comment by r14c in "Linux gaming is faster because Windows APIs are becoming Linux kernel features"

r14c — Thu, 14 May 2026 03:13:42 +0000

Yeah some hardware combinations are just broken. IF ur lucky everything will just work, if not you can likely fix it with enough skill. That's better than nothing, but understandably frustrating if you accidentally pick a bad combination of devices.

Unfortunately the install process is always going to be at least a little bit technical. I wish it wasn't, but idk how you'd do that without making the os like an emmu chip that you can swap out, instead of a thing you write on your drive.

New comment by r14c in "Haiku"

r14c — Wed, 13 May 2026 20:05:51 +0000

Sometimes a project is largely whimsy and I don't think that's a bad thing. People don't "seriously" use 9front either, it kinda exists because there's a group of people who just want to make a unique thing.

I do somewhat agree on the beta label issue, but I would just put up a ymmv warning label and call it a day.

New comment by r14c in "Starship V3"

r14c — Wed, 13 May 2026 03:42:46 +0000

From what I understand about the Texas facility, SpaceX has also not honored their agreements regarding protected wildlife zones in the area. Damage from explosions is understandable, but they apparently not taken sufficient precautions to protect the surrounding area from their regular operations.

New comment by r14c in "The Burning Man MOOP Map"

r14c — Thu, 07 May 2026 16:46:01 +0000

Western culture is hierarchical, hierarchy isn't inherently Western. Lots of cultures do it.

New comment by r14c in "The Old Guard: Confronting America's Gerontocratic Crisis"

r14c — Thu, 07 May 2026 14:35:44 +0000

Oh I see. I guess that's one way of looking at it. I tend to favor appropriation because it simplifies the accounting. You don't need equal outcomes exactly, you just ensure that everyone has their basic needs met and the ability to improve themselves. Historical context matters, but the issue tends to boil down social instability due to repeated displacement (redlining, gentrification). Allow people get rooted into a place and they'll build whatever they need to flourish.

New comment by r14c in "The Old Guard: Confronting America's Gerontocratic Crisis"

r14c — Thu, 07 May 2026 05:19:55 +0000

Yeah I guess we're talking about different things. Thanks for clarifying.

New comment by r14c in "The Old Guard: Confronting America's Gerontocratic Crisis"

r14c — Thu, 07 May 2026 02:51:14 +0000

I think we're talking about different things then.

Nobody is asking for equal result. Equity means sharing the rewards of productivity, instead of allowing a group of people who do nothing get rich off of other people's hard work. That's fair.

Doing good work should be rewarded!