Hacker News: rfrey

New comment by rfrey in "South Korean forums will need to scan every images with AI censorship tools"

rfrey — Fri, 05 Jun 2026 04:25:04 +0000

So what accounts for the current state of the USA? Not exactly platonic ideals of courage these days.

New comment by rfrey in "Trump signs downsized AI order after weeks of reversals"

rfrey — Wed, 03 Jun 2026 03:52:15 +0000

Federal crimes such as having an Hispanic name.

New comment by rfrey in "The dead economy theory"

rfrey — Sat, 30 May 2026 02:30:53 +0000

This time, there is nowhere to move to. And there is no interest in supporting the displaced people in any way.

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

rfrey — Mon, 25 May 2026 05:25:23 +0000

In the opinion of the champaign socialists in the West. In the opinion of people who lived under that regime... Not so much.

New comment by rfrey in "Build Adafruit projects right from Firefox"

rfrey — Mon, 25 May 2026 04:26:16 +0000

I think it is uncharitable to say "your convenience". It's more like "your vision as a creator". We're talking about developer intent that isn't possible otherwise. You can say "good, it shouldn't be", but don't characterize it as convenience.

New comment by rfrey in "Vivaldi 8.0"

rfrey — Thu, 21 May 2026 21:39:47 +0000

What would that "you problem" look like? Bought the wrong laptop? Bad aura? Clicking links wrong?

New comment by rfrey in "OpenAI is connecting ChatGPT to bank accounts via Plaid"

rfrey — Fri, 15 May 2026 17:25:15 +0000

Man, I remember when the common wisdom was that there would NEVER be enough people willing to put their credit card into a web browser to support a business.

I never expected to be nostalgic for those days.

New comment by rfrey in "Cursing the government does not fix potholes. Spray-painting them does"

rfrey — Fri, 15 May 2026 13:34:56 +0000

Although if a big pothole remains for several years amid many complaints, it's reasonable to think there's no such list. Or there is a list, but it's so long that it might as well not exist.

New comment by rfrey in "Singapore introduces caning for boys who bully others at school"

rfrey — Fri, 08 May 2026 03:24:15 +0000

Countries taking care of their citizens is communism? A social safety net leads to empty store shelves? Am I the latest victim of Poe's Law here?

Every advanced economy in the world except for the United States has a well developed social safety net, and I assure you our shelves are not empty and I can listen to all the Mötley Crüe I desire.

New comment by rfrey in "DeepSeek v4"

rfrey — Fri, 24 Apr 2026 13:15:20 +0000

Many of us (worldwide, I'm not American) watched China massacre thousands of its own children at Tiananmen Square. The US is descending into totalitarianism, but it hasn't reached that level yet.

And China may have changed in some ways but there have been no signals it would not repeat that event if it thought circumstances warranted.

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.