Hacker News: rendleflag

New comment by rendleflag in "Don't post generated/AI-edited comments. HN is for conversation between humans"

rendleflag — Thu, 12 Mar 2026 14:18:50 +0000

Again, the question is who blesses the expert? There’s a difference in having a voice and your voice being taken seriously.

If someone posts a link on a a new laptop, who should respond? I am not an expert on the current laptop market, but I have options about it. Maybe my English is not the best so I run through an AI to clean it up of ambiguities or wrong wording. Maybe I say “I like to take my laptop from behind” when I meant “I lift my laptop from the back”. An AI could point out this type of error.

New comment by rendleflag in "Don't post generated/AI-edited comments. HN is for conversation between humans"

rendleflag — Thu, 12 Mar 2026 00:54:01 +0000

It can catch things that I might miss or might be misinterpreted. I sometime miss simple things, like like repeated words, that an AI point out. Is a spell checker considered "AI"? Is Grammerly? Okay, maybe Grammerly from 5 years ago as opposed to today? If I'm typing on my phone and it pops up the next suggested word, is that AI edited?

And no, I don't have to reply to a post, but when I think it's a bad policy, should I just accept it without discussion? And who determines the "experts/insiders" and which voices should be allowed?

New comment by rendleflag in "Don't post generated/AI-edited comments. HN is for conversation between humans"

rendleflag — Wed, 11 Mar 2026 22:29:38 +0000

What constitutes “at edited”. If I throw a block of text in to an ai see if it makes sense — say a response to a post — and fold the suggestions in, is that “ai edited”?

New comment by rendleflag in "Rendezvous with Rama"

rendleflag — Mon, 09 Mar 2026 22:20:20 +0000

The sequel series was one of my favorite sets of books. It’s markedly different from Rendezvous, but I found them an enjoyable read. It was contrived at points, but the series had my favorite ending for a character.

New comment by rendleflag in "ChatGPT Health fails to recognise medical emergencies – study"

rendleflag — Fri, 27 Feb 2026 19:02:12 +0000

There is a concept of “the burden or knowledge”, in that doctors know the worst thing that could happen, so they recommend the most cautious approach. My son had stomach pain one time when he was young. We took him to urgent care because it was a stomach ache. The doctor there said we needed to go to the ER because it could be an appendicitis. So we trucked to the ER. Close to $2000 later he was diagnosed with idiopathic stomach pain and told to wait it out at home.

So when I read “they then compared the platform’s recommendations with the doctors’ assessments” and see a mismatch, I wonder if it’s because human doctors are overly cautious or that the AI was wrong.

But that all pales in what could be the actual issue. I can’t read the original study, but if it use the USA, it’s understandable why people are turning to AI for Health advice. Healthcare is painfully expensive here. Even a simple trip to the ER (e.g. a $2000 stomach ache) is beyond a lot of people’s ability to spend. That’s just a reality.

With that in mind, the real questions “should I do nothing about my symptoms because I can’t afford healthcare or should I at least ask AI knowing it could be wrong”.

New comment by rendleflag in "The Codex App"

rendleflag — Mon, 02 Feb 2026 20:18:30 +0000

I feel the same way about using the Internet or books to code. I'd rather just have the source code so that I'm not dependent on anything other then my own brain.

New comment by rendleflag in "The Pragmatic Programmer: 20th Anniversary Edition (2023)"

rendleflag — Sun, 16 Nov 2025 21:45:58 +0000

I bought the first edition when it came out. I was just 3 years into my SW development career and it provided a lot of good advise. I bought the second edition and enjoyed it, but the first edition had a special place in my heart.

New comment by rendleflag in "Sora 2"

rendleflag — Tue, 30 Sep 2025 18:58:03 +0000

Is your complaint that it has errors? I mean look at what it can do. This is a freaking computer generating things from scratch based on a prompt. Two years ago, technology like this was so much worse and could only generate basic images and videos. Now it can generate visuals all from the text someone puts in.

Anyone, literally anyone, can use it (eventually) to generate incredible scenes. Imagine the person who comes up with a short film about an epic battle between griffins and aliens...Or a simple story of a boy walking in the woods with their dog...Or a story of a first kiss. Previously people were limited to what they had at hand. They couldn't produce a video because it was too costly. Now they can craft a video to meet their vision.

I do find it exciting.

New comment by rendleflag in "Leaving Gmail for Mailbox.org"

rendleflag — Fri, 22 Aug 2025 22:09:54 +0000

I’ve been a Fastmail user for years, having left Gmail. It works great and have nothing be but praise for them. I use my own domain with them so if I decide to leave it’s not an issue worrying about updating people with my new email.

New comment by rendleflag in "FDA has approved Yeztugo, a drug that provides protection against HIV infection"

rendleflag — Mon, 28 Jul 2025 19:09:39 +0000

What's to prevent HIV from evolving past the protection? Strains of gonorrhea (a bacteria) has evolved to get around antibiotics. Won't that happen with HIV? Or is a virus not able to adapt?

New comment by rendleflag in "US Supreme Court Upholds Texas Porn ID Law"

rendleflag — Fri, 27 Jun 2025 16:04:09 +0000

Never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by stupidity.

New comment by rendleflag in "How to Make a Longbow"

rendleflag — Fri, 11 Apr 2025 19:20:41 +0000

It was the 80s.

New comment by rendleflag in "How to Make a Longbow"

rendleflag — Fri, 11 Apr 2025 17:27:37 +0000

40-plus years ago, I would take my dads bow and arrows, stand in the front yard, and shoot arrows straight up in the air. Not too high up, but high enough for me to toss the bow aside and catch the arrow in my hands when it came back down. Good times. Stupid, but good times.

New comment by rendleflag in "Show HN: I built a modern Goodreads alternative"

rendleflag — Sun, 02 Mar 2025 18:30:14 +0000

“Women don’t read sci-fi”?

New comment by rendleflag in "Is there a benefit to scratching that itch? Yes and no, says new study"

rendleflag — Tue, 04 Feb 2025 00:56:40 +0000

I bought a loofah pad and it works amazingly well. Never breaks the skin.

New comment by rendleflag in "Ozempic and Wegovy are selected for Medicare's price negotiations"

rendleflag — Fri, 17 Jan 2025 18:05:25 +0000

My understanding is that the drugs keeps you from wanting to eat as much.

New comment by rendleflag in "How the first gen iPod was reverse engineered to run Rockbox"

rendleflag — Thu, 07 Dec 2023 20:32:27 +0000

20-some odd years ago I added the initial bookmarking feature to Rockbox. None the MP3 players at the time targeted audiobook users so it wasn't a feature you could find on the market. With Rockbox, I just added it. Good times.

New comment by rendleflag in "Are colonoscopies worth it?"

rendleflag — Sun, 29 Oct 2023 15:08:13 +0000

When I was 12 or 13 (in the early 1980s), the same thing happened to me. I told my mom, who scheduled an appointment at the doctor. At the appointment the doctor needed to prove around with his finger and said “mom, maybe you should wait outside”. My mom said no, she’d be there with me. I looked at her and said “no, you are going outside”. I was not going to get fingered while my mom watched. She left and the doctor did his job. Turned out to be harmless.

New comment by rendleflag in "Wait, what's a bookmarklet?"

rendleflag — Wed, 25 Oct 2023 19:53:18 +0000

I use a "Go To Root" bookmarklet for both going to the root url of the current URL; or going to the subreddit if I'm in a reddit story. It's far from perfect, but I use it daily:

```javascript:var url = new String(location.href); var re = new RegExp('(https?:\/\/)([a-zA-Z0-9.]+)((\/r\/.\/)(comments.))?'); var res = url.match(re); // go to the root URL root_url = res[1] + res[2]; // If we are in a subreddit, go to the subreddit

re = new RegExp('.*reddit.com'); if( res[2].match(re)) { if (typeof res[3] !== 'undefined' && typeof res[4] != 'undefined') { root_url = root_url + res[4]; } } location.href=root_url;```

New comment by rendleflag in "“Inverse vaccine” shows potential to treat MS and other autoimmune diseases"

rendleflag — Fri, 15 Sep 2023 22:33:18 +0000

I wonder if this could be used to address allergies as well.