Hacker News: rfrey

New comment by rfrey in "Finnish sauna heat exposure induces stronger immune cell than cytokine responses"

rfrey — Mon, 06 Apr 2026 02:05:27 +0000

What you are describing is not evidence, it is a willful misuse (charitably perhaps, a misunderstanding) of statistics. It is exactly analogous to using a mean in a distribution with extreme outliers. The only reason is to hurl numbers around in an attempt to shore up a purely political position.

New comment by rfrey in "Finnish sauna heat exposure induces stronger immune cell than cytokine responses"

rfrey — Sun, 05 Apr 2026 19:48:56 +0000

Your point is even more graphically illustrated if you compare the extremes... Say trust fund babies to homeless people. The trust fund people spend at least ten hours a week reviewing investment and disciplining their entourage, whereas homeless people's time is completely their own.

New comment by rfrey in "Sweden goes back to basics, swapping screens for books in the classroom"

rfrey — Thu, 02 Apr 2026 13:44:19 +0000

Tobacco executives probably prevented their children from smoking, especially as evidence emerged. That's just parenting.

It doesn't forgive them for lobbying ferociously against any regulation of marketing to children.

New comment by rfrey in "Should QA exist?"

rfrey — Fri, 27 Mar 2026 22:14:29 +0000

I didn't "vote" but there aren't many clues in your comment suggesting it's satire. It is a mainstream presentation of a mainstream point of view, how would anybody distinguish between you believing it earnestly and you mocking it?

New comment by rfrey in "Should QA exist?"

rfrey — Fri, 27 Mar 2026 22:11:27 +0000

The idea that test coverage equates to well-tested software is one of the unfortunate consequences of MBAs killing QA departments.

New comment by rfrey in "Should QA exist?"

rfrey — Fri, 27 Mar 2026 22:09:39 +0000

Engineering like the guy in the booth at a show is a sound engineer. Talented: check; challenging work: check; valuable: check; creative: check. "Engineering" like designing a building, bridge, or power line? Nope.

It's not a protected term in the US so it's jarring to those of us living where it is.

New comment by rfrey in "Should QA exist?"

rfrey — Fri, 27 Mar 2026 22:05:00 +0000

Real engineering disciplines also have dedicated QA and test engineers.

New comment by rfrey in "Mystery jump in oil trading ahead of Trump post draws scrutiny"

rfrey — Tue, 24 Mar 2026 19:00:16 +0000

What kind of reply is that? Nevermind the questionable style of making up a sentence and putting it in quotation marks, what about the comment you're replying to suggests giving up any principles?

New comment by rfrey in "Our commitment to Windows quality"

rfrey — Fri, 20 Mar 2026 21:45:41 +0000

People loved the iPod. Users loved Dropbox. Nobody loves windows.

New comment by rfrey in "Lego's 0.002mm specification and its implications for manufacturing (2025)"

rfrey — Wed, 11 Mar 2026 21:29:32 +0000

Now what about the change in the number of earners per household? Houses don't earn wages, people do.

New comment by rfrey in "Waymo blocking ambulance during deadly Austin shooting"

rfrey — Sun, 01 Mar 2026 22:54:32 +0000

In many places, traffic would not function if drivers did not e.g. make space for other drivers to change lanes. It's an extraordinary claim to say such behaviour is bad practice (or even illegal??)

New comment by rfrey in "OpenAI raises $110B on $730B pre-money valuation"

rfrey — Sat, 28 Feb 2026 02:32:08 +0000

If OAI folded, there would also be a sudden tsunami of recent Nvidia hardware on the used market.

New comment by rfrey in "Show HN: Hacker Smacker – Spot great (and terrible) HN commenters at a glance"

rfrey — Thu, 26 Feb 2026 23:50:30 +0000

A lot of discussion on the labels. I agree friend/foe is counter to what most of us would like HN to be about. How about align/diverge or similar, suggesting whether a commenters position usually reinforces or challenges your viewpoint?

New comment by rfrey in "Vim 9.2"

rfrey — Sat, 14 Feb 2026 17:41:33 +0000

If the thread was deleted by a mod or flagged in the time between starting a comment and hitting "reply", you'd see a message that "you're not allowed to post a comment here" or similar language. Nothing to do with you, it's the state of the thread you're commenting on.

New comment by rfrey in "The "AI agent hit piece" situation clarifies how dumb we are acting"

rfrey — Sat, 14 Feb 2026 00:33:59 +0000

It's really remarkable to me how a certain subset of American ideologues can look out at the rest of the democratic nations - all of them - and call them authoritarian regimes where the citizens have "dust" for brains.

It's particularly poignant nowadays to see any American citizens painting the rest of the western nations as authoritarian.

New comment by rfrey in "'The old order is not coming back,' Carney says in speech at Davos"

rfrey — Fri, 23 Jan 2026 00:17:57 +0000

Yes, Canadian investigators should have gone to India to investigate and build a case against the Indian government. That would have worked well.

Several countries examined Canada's evidence and found it satisfactory. Your government conducted an extra judicial execution of a Canadian citizen on Canadian territory. You are the baddies, even if your government assures you of the opposite.

New comment by rfrey in "In Europe, wind and solar overtake fossil fuels"

rfrey — Fri, 23 Jan 2026 00:12:45 +0000

It's pure pedantry to distinguish between "user pay" and "progressive fees" based on usage. You're advocating for private payments on public infrastructure, it doesn't make it socialism just because it's infrastructure you disapprove of.

New comment by rfrey in "In Europe, wind and solar overtake fossil fuels"

rfrey — Thu, 22 Jan 2026 22:39:19 +0000

User pay formerly-public-infrastructure is what I identified as libertarian. Would you also advocate for residents of high crime areas to pay more taxes for police coverage?

New comment by rfrey in "GPTZero finds 100 new hallucinations in NeurIPS 2025 accepted papers"

rfrey — Thu, 22 Jan 2026 22:37:36 +0000

Fabricated citations seem to be a popular and non ambiguous way for AI to sabotage science.

New comment by rfrey in "In Europe, wind and solar overtake fossil fuels"

rfrey — Thu, 22 Jan 2026 20:10:05 +0000

People accuse communists of being unrealistic idealists, but they have nothing on the libertarians.