<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: retrochameleon</title><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/user?id=retrochameleon</link><description>Hacker News RSS</description><docs>https://hnrss.org/</docs><generator>hnrss v2.1.1</generator><lastBuildDate>Mon, 15 Jun 2026 13:13:48 +0000</lastBuildDate><atom:link href="https://hnrss.org/user?id=retrochameleon" rel="self" type="application/rss+xml"></atom:link><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by retrochameleon in "How much of Elon Musk's wealth comes from government help? Virtually all of it"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>I think his personal impact is overstated. Maybe I have a bad taste in my mouth from overzealous fanboys, but all I see is a manchild who likes scifi and tech, and threw a bunch of money he didn't work very hard to get in the first place at the right problem at the right time. The reason Tesla and SpaceX succeed is because of every person at the company besides Musk.<p>Have you forgotten Musk nearly sabotaging their own company with tweets tanking their stocks?</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Sun, 14 Jun 2026 18:01:19 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48530481</link><dc:creator>retrochameleon</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48530481</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48530481</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by retrochameleon in "Gmail thinks I'm stupid, so I left"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>Frankly I've tried quite a few clients and haven't found one I can settle for. I used Mailspring for a while because it was close to being a gmail experience, but that went some kind of bad way I don't remember and I don't think is developed anymore.<p>I want a client that is simple but flexible by default, extensible, themeable would be nice, and for the love of god has key shortcuts for everything THAT CAN BE CHANGED. LOOKING AT YOU, THUNDERBIRD.<p>Thunderbird is almost usable for me, but the UI is just absolutely abysmal. The kicker is not being able to change key shortcuts, making Thunderbird unusable for me.</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Thu, 04 Jun 2026 03:39:34 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48393451</link><dc:creator>retrochameleon</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48393451</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48393451</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by retrochameleon in "Not alive, but not dead: disembodied human brains used for drug testing"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>I had a low stakes cyst removal from my butt crack once. Sparing the other details, the anesthesiologist explained the different drugs, one to numb, one to prevent my memory from forming. I asked if they could leave out the memory drug and I could remain cognizant. She didn't mind and I had a nice chat with her about anesthetics while on my stomach having doctors cut out part of my butt.</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Thu, 21 May 2026 15:17:21 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48224240</link><dc:creator>retrochameleon</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48224240</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48224240</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by retrochameleon in "Vivaldi 8.0"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>How is this an argument when you can use extensions on the desktop version?</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Thu, 21 May 2026 15:12:06 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48224133</link><dc:creator>retrochameleon</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48224133</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48224133</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by retrochameleon in "Trials on veterans suggest ibogaine could provide a new treatment for PTSD"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>This recent focus on ibogaine is annoying when we have previous promising success with what I understand to be low risk side effects in a controlled environment using substances like ketamine and MDMA.<p>I've never seen something in other well known psychedelics to compare to the health issues I've seen associated with ibogaine, so who is benefitting from us putting all this attention on it now?</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Wed, 20 May 2026 16:06:30 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48209975</link><dc:creator>retrochameleon</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48209975</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48209975</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by retrochameleon in "Show HN: Spud – cross-platform remote control, optimised for gaming"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>I've been trying to work out a way to use my Steam Deck as a controller for my PC. In a perfect world I would be able to do it directly over USB or Bluetooth, but this might be the next best option. I was trying to make an abandoned project work that was supposed to do just that and haven't gotten anywhere yet<p>I was previously using Steam Connect to do it, but the connection would randomly drop out after a while or suddenly crash the game, so I had to stop doing that.</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Wed, 20 May 2026 16:00:01 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48209886</link><dc:creator>retrochameleon</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48209886</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48209886</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by retrochameleon in "Ontario auditors find doctors' AI note takers routinely blow basic facts"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>Thanks for introducing me to those concepts.<p>If I take the Bitter Lesson into account, I would frame this as needing more focus on enabling a general intelligence to use tools more effectively and when appropriate to essentially stop making mistakes.<p>A basic example being a calculator. The AI needs to recognize its default thinking pattern doesn't work well for math calculations, so it delegates it to the available calculator tool / skill / MCP instead. An LLM should not be relying on LLM prediction to give a mathematical resultant figure, ever. It should come from a deterministic tool. If anything, the LLM may interpret the problem and convert it into starting math figures to use for calculation.<p>If we can enable AI systems to learn and apply that for themselves, and even develop their own deterministic tooling and sense of what tool to use for what job, that starts to sound promising to me.<p>Skills feel like a conceptual stepping stone to the next useful abstraction.</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Sun, 17 May 2026 00:30:31 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48165047</link><dc:creator>retrochameleon</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48165047</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48165047</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by retrochameleon in "I love Linux, but I can't quit Windows"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>Using Linux is a learning experience. You will inevitably face and solve numerous problems over time, but every time you do, you come out of it understanding what's going on under the hood a little more.<p>Still, it can be dreadful to face even small issues when you only feel like using your computer and not fixing it. Having an LLM agent help with fixing issues is a lifesaver. Ask it what you don't understand, take note of the commands it uses or suggests while troubleshooting and fixing your issue, and you'll supercharge your learning and not get as hung up on the issues.<p>If someone doesn't care much to learn though, I'd say Linux is still tough to recommend.</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Fri, 15 May 2026 17:29:18 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48151394</link><dc:creator>retrochameleon</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48151394</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48151394</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by retrochameleon in "I love Linux, but I can't quit Windows"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>Full time linux user for 8 years now. The knowledge base of discussion around Linux issues is vast and usually has the answers you need. Albeit with the variety of distros and their differences you must be mote scrutable in identifying what is applicable to your situation. Stick with mainstream like Ubuntu and you will have tons of community support and knowledge to search through.</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Fri, 15 May 2026 17:25:27 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48151344</link><dc:creator>retrochameleon</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48151344</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48151344</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by retrochameleon in "Ontario auditors find doctors' AI note takers routinely blow basic facts"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>I was skeptical that LLMs could be the right path to AGI, but then I kept being impressed by how much further we could take it by expanding upon the way we use it, the harnesses we use with LLMs, and better context engineering.<p>When I see how LLMs are capable of essentially prompt and context engineering for themselves, it makes me think they won't need human guidance forever.<p>When it comes to simple fact-based tasks that have a concrete methodology, it is no surprise to me that LLMs aren't the right tool, and I believe it's a failure of the harness to not recognize those types of tasks and handle them with a more concretely functioning tool instead of relying on statistical probabilities in the LLM "brain" to spit out the correct number to a math problem.<p>In the same sense that LLMs can use "skills" when necessary, it should have tools or possibly even specialized "brains" for it to pass of certain types of tasks to.<p>I'm starting to feel that our first form of AGI is not going to be a single brain but an elaborate system of harnesses, multiple LLM models, skills, domain and task specialized subsystems it passes tasks off to, etc. Whether we get there with current LLM technology before some other evolution in AI is the question, to me.</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Fri, 15 May 2026 17:19:03 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48151269</link><dc:creator>retrochameleon</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48151269</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48151269</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by retrochameleon in "Mullvad exit IPs are surprisingly identifying"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>I'm American. It's the pervasive culture. The brush doesn't need to be narrower.</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Fri, 15 May 2026 17:05:20 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48151095</link><dc:creator>retrochameleon</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48151095</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48151095</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by retrochameleon in "Fuck You, Bambu Lab. Go Ahead, Sue Us"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>Not having an automatic material system a la Bambu is what really puts me off. After having that system with Bambu it's really hard to settle for less.</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Wed, 13 May 2026 19:42:30 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48126487</link><dc:creator>retrochameleon</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48126487</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48126487</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by retrochameleon in "Mickey Mouse is watching you: Disneyland deploys facial recognition"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>Big casinos have been doing the same thing for a long time. At the end of the day, the casino world and the tightly controlled and manicured Disney theme park world don't seem all that different.</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Thu, 07 May 2026 17:34:41 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48052259</link><dc:creator>retrochameleon</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48052259</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48052259</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by retrochameleon in "Ping-pong robot beats top-level human players"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>I'll be impressed when it's a humanoid robot that has to contend with similar kinematic limitations as a human player.</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Wed, 22 Apr 2026 21:32:19 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47869556</link><dc:creator>retrochameleon</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47869556</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47869556</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by retrochameleon in "The Mechanics of Steins Gate (2023) [pdf]"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>I get the feeling he was more so referring to the others, because the others besides S;G are pretty meh.</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Mon, 06 Apr 2026 08:54:32 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47658431</link><dc:creator>retrochameleon</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47658431</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47658431</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by retrochameleon in "Police used AI facial recognition to wrongly arrest TN woman for crimes in ND"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>Great point. Obviously can't expect them to vote against their own interests, because higher standards, higher accountability, and higher transparency will always be against those interests.</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Mon, 30 Mar 2026 09:00:13 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47572044</link><dc:creator>retrochameleon</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47572044</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47572044</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by retrochameleon in "Police used AI facial recognition to wrongly arrest TN woman for crimes in ND"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>Then the system should be redesigned such that transparency is a priority and cover ups are not feasible. And when cover ups eventually get found out, the punishments even more severe.</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Mon, 30 Mar 2026 00:27:18 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47568988</link><dc:creator>retrochameleon</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47568988</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47568988</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by retrochameleon in "Police used AI facial recognition to wrongly arrest TN woman for crimes in ND"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>There needs to be consequences for shitty, procedure-ignoring police work. Period.<p>Minimum 1 year of jail time for grossly wrongful arrests that could be avoided with standard procedure or investigation tactics that were not applied.</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Sun, 29 Mar 2026 21:20:30 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47567450</link><dc:creator>retrochameleon</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47567450</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47567450</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by retrochameleon in "AI overly affirms users asking for personal advice"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>This is why I intensively avoid phrasing that invites affirmation. I present the scenario, the differing viewpoints and maybe a couple personal thoughts, and I try to make it compare and contrast to arrive at it's conclusion.<p>I'd like to know if my methods are effective. I'm certain they are at least to some extent.<p>I only ever see research being done about naive and "unskilled" prompting methods. Obviously that's the average user, but just because LLMs are doing poorly in a certain scenario doesn't mean the LLM couldn't excel in the scenario with better direction and prompting. So while it's useful research to be doing, it's a little annoying to only see focus on these examples of "look at how LLMs are bad or biased at this specific thing when prompted in the most straightforward naive way"</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Sun, 29 Mar 2026 07:39:03 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47561133</link><dc:creator>retrochameleon</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47561133</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47561133</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by retrochameleon in "Kldload 1.0 – ZFS on root for Linux"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>A whole suite of "k*" seems questionable considering the relative ubiquity of the KDE suite. Almost all their software starts with k</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Fri, 27 Mar 2026 08:08:00 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47540097</link><dc:creator>retrochameleon</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47540097</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47540097</guid></item></channel></rss>