<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: rdl</title><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/user?id=rdl</link><description>Hacker News RSS</description><docs>https://hnrss.org/</docs><generator>hnrss v2.1.1</generator><lastBuildDate>Tue, 02 Jun 2026 01:25:41 +0000</lastBuildDate><atom:link href="https://hnrss.org/user?id=rdl" rel="self" type="application/rss+xml"></atom:link><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by rdl in "A successful Japanese trial of a ramjet engine designed for Mach‑5 aircraft"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>If a fund can get into the Anthropic Series A vs. not get into the Anthropic Series A based on a flight to meet with the team, that is worth <i>buying the supersonic plane</i> even if you scrap it after.</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Thu, 28 May 2026 01:46:32 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48303332</link><dc:creator>rdl</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48303332</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48303332</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by rdl in "A successful Japanese trial of a ramjet engine designed for Mach‑5 aircraft"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>Vastly more favorable today than it was when Concorde flew.<p>1) Rich people are WAY richer, and time is even more valuable
2) Businesses have some very important employees and "2 day trip" vs "3-4 day trip" is worth $50-100k
3) Larger population of people able to pay $20-30k for a flight than ever before.<p>The biggest practical impact is there's probably going to be a private jet version instead of just a commercial one, and there will likely be transpacific demand exceeding transatlantic.  Also government/military use.</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Mon, 25 May 2026 21:20:31 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48271812</link><dc:creator>rdl</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48271812</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48271812</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by rdl in "Is AI Profitable Yet?"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>That would be true if everyone weren't supply constrained and buying literally everything they can find.<p>There are actual risks that this trend doesn't continue, but as long as the trend continues, it is pretty good for revenue. "AI shown to hit a wall/doesn't actually deliver/stops growing so fast", "massive improvement in hw efficiency or tech such that all the old stuff becomes obsolete", "bottleneck on power/regulations/etc such that no one wants anything but the most efficient cutting edge stuff" would be the ways it could end and then all these factors reverse. Right now, power is so constrained that old, inefficient power generation is actively being turned back on or set up at new sites (e.g. old aviation turbines which are very inefficient compared to combined cycle).</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Sat, 23 May 2026 13:39:41 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48247591</link><dc:creator>rdl</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48247591</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48247591</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by rdl in "Is AI Profitable Yet?"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>If "cost" is mostly capital investments, absolutely.  Normally you'd use operating cost (which for capital equipment would be depreciation and interest), and here they are using the capital cost as full cost.<p>No one really knows how quickly AI hardware investments will become obsolete and thus how long it should be amortized, but 2-3 years would be extremely conservative, and in fact used H100 (discontinued/2 generations old) prices are higher today than they were when the equipment was new several years ago.</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Sat, 23 May 2026 06:44:27 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48245312</link><dc:creator>rdl</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48245312</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48245312</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by rdl in "Is AI Profitable Yet?"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>For a rapidly growing new line of business, this isn't bad at all.</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Sat, 23 May 2026 02:52:00 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48244107</link><dc:creator>rdl</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48244107</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48244107</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by rdl in "Peter G. Neumann, Who Warned of Computer Security Risks, Dies at 93"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>I think RISKS (which he edited) was one of the first places I saw computer security discussed in a meaningful way outside a military context (NSA, Puzzle Palace, Rainbow Books, etc.)</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Sun, 17 May 2026 21:46:06 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48173472</link><dc:creator>rdl</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48173472</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48173472</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[Peter G. Neumann, Who Warned of Computer Security Risks, Dies at 93]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>Article URL: <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2026/05/17/obituaries/peter-g-neumann-dead.html">https://www.nytimes.com/2026/05/17/obituaries/peter-g-neumann-dead.html</a></p>
<p>Comments URL: <a href="https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48173454">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48173454</a></p>
<p>Points: 23</p>
<p># Comments: 4</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Sun, 17 May 2026 21:43:36 +0000</pubDate><link>https://www.nytimes.com/2026/05/17/obituaries/peter-g-neumann-dead.html</link><dc:creator>rdl</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48173454</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48173454</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by rdl in "I want to live like Costco people"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>Where I live (Puerto Rico) Costco is basically the only decent midrange to upper midrange store.  There are a couple higher end butcher shops, but local groceries are "smart and final" or other discount-US grocery equivalent, with prices at mainstream NYC levels, while Costco is basically the same prices as most of the US, and ~70% of the selection of Bay Area Costco.  Easy choice (along with Amazon and other online shopping).</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Thu, 07 May 2026 22:15:41 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48055852</link><dc:creator>rdl</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48055852</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48055852</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by rdl in "The map that keeps Burning Man honest"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>If the issue are tent stakes/lag bolts which get buried under surface, clear solution would be metal detectors available to borrow/rent (or brought by each camp).  Also probably could do a drone or ground robot with a metal detecting loop on the bottom.</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Thu, 07 May 2026 15:09:17 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48050370</link><dc:creator>rdl</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48050370</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48050370</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by rdl in "Craig Venter has died"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>He was pretty shockingly an entrepreneur and inventor in all the best ways,’in a field dominated by very cautious scientists (who are great too, but who likely never would have gotten the genome sequenced within 10-20 years of when he did it).  It was basically the Apollo Project in a field which was more like 1980s NASA in culture.</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Thu, 30 Apr 2026 02:06:40 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47957240</link><dc:creator>rdl</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47957240</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47957240</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[Craig Venter has died]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>Article URL: <a href="https://www.jcvi.org/media-center/j-craig-venter-genomics-pioneer-and-founder-jcvi-and-diploid-genomics-inc-dies-79">https://www.jcvi.org/media-center/j-craig-venter-genomics-pioneer-and-founder-jcvi-and-diploid-genomics-inc-dies-79</a></p>
<p>Comments URL: <a href="https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47957101">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47957101</a></p>
<p>Points: 342</p>
<p># Comments: 85</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Thu, 30 Apr 2026 01:44:56 +0000</pubDate><link>https://www.jcvi.org/media-center/j-craig-venter-genomics-pioneer-and-founder-jcvi-and-diploid-genomics-inc-dies-79</link><dc:creator>rdl</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47957101</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47957101</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[Prototown: America's answer to China is hiding in rural Texas]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>Article URL: <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qIob2-ugCO0">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qIob2-ugCO0</a></p>
<p>Comments URL: <a href="https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47904598">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47904598</a></p>
<p>Points: 5</p>
<p># Comments: 2</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Sat, 25 Apr 2026 21:14:58 +0000</pubDate><link>https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qIob2-ugCO0</link><dc:creator>rdl</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47904598</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47904598</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[H.R. 8250 – Parents Decide Act (mandate OS age validation)]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>Article URL: <a href="https://www.congress.gov/bill/119th-congress/house-bill/8250/text">https://www.congress.gov/bill/119th-congress/house-bill/8250/text</a></p>
<p>Comments URL: <a href="https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47805033">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47805033</a></p>
<p>Points: 2</p>
<p># Comments: 0</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Fri, 17 Apr 2026 12:09:46 +0000</pubDate><link>https://www.congress.gov/bill/119th-congress/house-bill/8250/text</link><dc:creator>rdl</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47805033</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47805033</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by rdl in "Sam Altman's response to Molotov cocktail incident"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>My theory is a lot of the anti-AI sentiment is specifically US geopolitical adversaries (pick one or more: China, Russia, Iran, ...) who want a bad outcome for the US (AI as potential AGI; AI as one of the few successful economic sectors of the US; general desire to cause societal disruption or collapse and AI as convenient target).  Probably >95% of the really bad stuff (the micron fab disruption, attacks on AI datacenters, ...) is probably root-cause that, possibly executed by useful idiots, people paid by organizations, etc.  5% is normal NIMBY stuff.  Approximately measure 0 is Zizian death cultists.<p>I don't any of these will be dissuaded by cute family photos. Fortunately the frontier model companies and major infrastructure providers are able to pay for top-tier corporate security (although tech people generally have been unwilling to do this at home for lifestyle reasons), but I'd be afraid for people elsewhere in the supply chain.<p>(And destructive attack is all on top of the normal corporate espionage, infiltration, subversion, etc.)</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Sat, 11 Apr 2026 03:58:30 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47727234</link><dc:creator>rdl</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47727234</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47727234</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by rdl in "EFF is leaving X"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>It's depressing now, but also was genuinely amazing how great EFF was early on.  I think a lot of that had to do with the board, membership, and staff (such as yourself) intentionally trying to keep things balanced and focused.  Thank you for all the great stuff you and the rest of the org did back then.</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Thu, 09 Apr 2026 22:58:00 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47711391</link><dc:creator>rdl</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47711391</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47711391</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by rdl in "Cloudflare targets 2029 for full post-quantum security"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>It will be interesting to compare PQ rollout to HTTPS rollout historically (either the "SSL becomes widespread in 2015" thing, or the deprecation SSL 3.0).  Cloudflare is in an easy position to do stuff like this because it can decouple end user/browser upgrade cycles from backend upgrade cycles.<p>Some browsers and some end user devices get upgraded quickly, so making it easy to make it optionally-PQ on any site, and then as that rollout extends, some specialty sites can make it mandatory, and then browser/device UX can do soft warnings to users (or other activity like downranking), and then at some point something like STS Strict can be exposed, and then largely become a default (and maybe just remove the non-PQ algorithms entirely from many sites).<p>I definitely was on team "the risks of a rushed upgrade might outweigh the risks of actual quantum breaks" until pretty recently -- rushing to upgrade has lots of problems always and is a great way to introduce new bugs, but based on the latest information, the balance seems to have shifted to doing an upgrade quickly.<p>Updating websites is going to be so much easier than dealing with other systems (bitcoin probably the worst; data at rest storage systems; hardware).</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Tue, 07 Apr 2026 16:11:51 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47677520</link><dc:creator>rdl</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47677520</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47677520</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by rdl in "Iranian missile blitz takes down AWS data centers in Bahrain and Dubai"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>I insure a bunch of big datacenters (crypto mining, AI); there are really two main drivers of cost of insurance per $ of equipment:<p>1) Internal risks and controls within the datacenter (the company involved and their operating history, fires, flood, etc,) -- for a sufficiently "good" datacenter, you can assume it gets maxed out in quality, or at least to the point where it's no longer efficient to spend more.  Most of these risks also cause service disruptions, so if you're building for high availability anyway, the rest of this stuff is usually handled as part of that.  Essentially, if you're too cheap to build a good enough datacenter to max this out, you're not getting insurance anyway in most cases, so it's not a variable factor so bunch as binary or maybe a few broad risk bands (ISO tier for datacenters).<p>2) External risks.  This is mostly natural catastrophe ("nat cat" or "cat risk"); usually there's one dominant driver of that ("severe convective storms" in Texas; floods and hurricanes in places like Florida; earthquakes in California).  In some places it's multiple risks (Japan has both earthquake/tsunami and typhoon).  This drives the majority of insurance premium.<p>War risk, geopolitical, political risk, terrorism, SRCC ("strikes, riots, and civil commotion") are in a third category -- often essentially not a factor (e.g. for a $200mm facility in rural Texas), but often handled through special programs at a national level or specialty insurance.    A lot of normal policies exclude or let the client buy-back that part of the risk.<p>As my personal interests in war zones, drones, etc. and professional interests in crypto, AI, and datacenters seem to have converged, looking forward to seeing "quality of air defense artillery/integrated air defense system" as well as "comprehensive quick reaction force capable of dealing with national-level threats" as elements of insurance underwriting for $50B AI datacenters/"AI factories" in the future.  I assume in most cases this kind of stuff will be handled by national, military, defense, or civil defense parts of the government, but could easily be contracted as well.  I don't think Oracle Cloud is likely to stand up their own private army though.</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Sat, 04 Apr 2026 22:58:49 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47644414</link><dc:creator>rdl</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47644414</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47644414</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by rdl in "Best Gas Masks"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>There are some products where I absolutely don't take a chance (I buy all my tourniquets/etc from North American Rescue, who are the manufacturer or primary distributor, directly), but for a while I wouldn't even buy razor blades from Amazon because of the risk of getting fakes or commingled inventory from shoplifting gangs.  I'm willing to take <i>that</i> level of risk on Amazon policy now.</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Tue, 03 Feb 2026 16:52:03 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46873501</link><dc:creator>rdl</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46873501</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46873501</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by rdl in "Best Gas Masks"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>Very recently Amazon announced they'd stop commingling inventory from 3P sellers and themselves, so it should be safer to buy from Amazon in the future (if you look at the specific seller), but still maybe worth avoiding for safety critical items which are difficult to inspect.</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Mon, 02 Feb 2026 14:55:01 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46856707</link><dc:creator>rdl</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46856707</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46856707</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by rdl in "Scott Adams has died"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>I hate cancer.<p>What a long and unpredictable path his life took.  Too bad he isn't still with us.<p>I really loved Dilbert (the Gen X defining comic), and especially his first couple books.</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Tue, 13 Jan 2026 15:54:53 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46602645</link><dc:creator>rdl</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46602645</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46602645</guid></item></channel></rss>