<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: riffraff</title><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/user?id=riffraff</link><description>Hacker News RSS</description><docs>https://hnrss.org/</docs><generator>hnrss v2.1.1</generator><lastBuildDate>Fri, 17 Apr 2026 12:47:49 +0000</lastBuildDate><atom:link href="https://hnrss.org/user?id=riffraff" rel="self" type="application/rss+xml"></atom:link><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by riffraff in "Ada, Its Design, and the Language That Built the Languages"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>I only realized now CTM is more than 20 years old. In my mind it's still a cool new book.<p>CTM: <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Concepts,_Techniques,_and_Models_of_Computer_Programming" rel="nofollow">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Concepts,_Techniques,_and_Mode...</a></p>
]]></description><pubDate>Fri, 17 Apr 2026 11:34:12 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47804786</link><dc:creator>riffraff</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47804786</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47804786</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by riffraff in "30 Years of HPC: many hardware advances, little adoption of new languages"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>Perhaps one issue lacking discussion in the article is how easy it is to find devs?<p>I've never worked in HPC but it seems it should be relatively simple to find a C/C++ dev that can pick up OpenMP, or one that already knows it, compared to hiring people who know Chapel.<p>The "scaling down" factor (how easy or interesting it is to use tool X for small use) seems a disadvantage of HPC-only languages, which creates a barrier to entry and a reduction in available workforce.</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Fri, 17 Apr 2026 07:38:15 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47803430</link><dc:creator>riffraff</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47803430</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47803430</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by riffraff in "US Bill Mandates On-Device Age Verification"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>How does this undercut apple? This entrenches apple's position as a provider of "verified" devices.</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Fri, 17 Apr 2026 05:04:05 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47802595</link><dc:creator>riffraff</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47802595</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47802595</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by riffraff in "Claude Opus 4.7"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>if you're not american you should be worried about the bit of using AI to kill people which was the other major objection by Anthropic.<p>(not that I think the US DoD wouldn't do that anyway, ToS or not.)</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Thu, 16 Apr 2026 15:57:33 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47795279</link><dc:creator>riffraff</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47795279</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47795279</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by riffraff in "Germany suspends military approval for long stays abroad for men under 45"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>eh, this stirs memories of the similar exam in Italy (abolished ~20 years ago).<p>The doctor would also grab your testicles and ask to cough, to diagnose varicocele. I wonder how many young men have undiagnosed issues since the military exam was abolished.</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Thu, 16 Apr 2026 08:09:58 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47790116</link><dc:creator>riffraff</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47790116</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47790116</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by riffraff in "Metro stop is Ancient Rome's new attraction"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>good question!<p>In this case, I think not: there's paving stones under the dirt, if the building had sunk those would have to be comparatively higher up (they don't weigh as much) but they still lay at the front of the steps.<p>(or I should say, laid, sadly the building had to be levelled after an earthquake)</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Thu, 16 Apr 2026 08:04:01 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47790077</link><dc:creator>riffraff</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47790077</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47790077</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by riffraff in "The buns in McDonald's Japan's burger photos are all slightly askew"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>I remember reading a book in the '80s where one of the characters was a food photographer and mentioned that some kind of plastic had to be used for the cheese in hamburgers or it wouldn't be realistic.<p>But also many post 2000 claims that it was all actually real food because of various "truth in advertising" regulations around the world.<p>The linked Canadian McDonald's video would be one example.</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Thu, 16 Apr 2026 07:53:21 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47789985</link><dc:creator>riffraff</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47789985</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47789985</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by riffraff in "Metro stop is Ancient Rome's new attraction"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>The "mouth of Truth" has attracted tourists for centuries but it was just a drain cover, and it would fit your idea perfectly.</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Wed, 15 Apr 2026 21:22:28 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47785413</link><dc:creator>riffraff</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47785413</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47785413</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by riffraff in "Metro stop is Ancient Rome's new attraction"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>I believe in Rome, it was mostly flooding/alluvial debris. But yeah, sometimes buildings would collapse and they would just build again on top of the ruins.<p>There definitely are instances of buildings being misaligned.<p>In my ancestral family home there was a door wat ground level, but originally it had a few steps to get to it; the outside ground had gone up by some 40cm with sediments over a century or so.</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Wed, 15 Apr 2026 21:19:57 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47785379</link><dc:creator>riffraff</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47785379</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47785379</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by riffraff in "Metro stop is Ancient Rome's new attraction"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>I believe Athens was the first city to do this some decades ago.<p>Once again Romans taking "inspiration" from the Greeks :)</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Wed, 15 Apr 2026 21:14:15 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47785313</link><dc:creator>riffraff</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47785313</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47785313</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by riffraff in "DIY Soft Drinks"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>ah yes, I remember that one from some episode of Tasting History, but I could not remember the name!<p>Also <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shrub_(drink)" rel="nofollow">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shrub_(drink)</a></p>
]]></description><pubDate>Wed, 15 Apr 2026 06:37:50 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47775485</link><dc:creator>riffraff</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47775485</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47775485</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by riffraff in "Picasso’s Guernica (Gigapixel)"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>I have been to a bunch of galleries and seeing a painting in person doesn't usually make a difference for me compared to seeing it in a book.<p>Guernica is one of the few that did. Perhaps because it's massive compared to other well known paintings.<p>So, I just want to say, I second your recommendation for seeing it in person.</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Wed, 15 Apr 2026 06:26:42 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47775408</link><dc:creator>riffraff</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47775408</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47775408</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by riffraff in "Sometimes powerful people just do dumb shit"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>I think you have to qualify what you think trump is doing knowingly or not.<p>Lie in every press conference? Sure.<p>Posting an image of himself as Jesus? The guy has dementia.</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Tue, 14 Apr 2026 06:38:11 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47762041</link><dc:creator>riffraff</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47762041</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47762041</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by riffraff in "Sometimes powerful people just do dumb shit"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>Yeah I don't buy that xAI story, musk would have gotten a popular ai lab even without Twitter if he wanted.<p>Except.. his ai lab is not popular. It has zero value and people only use it <i>because</i> it's on Twitter and they don't pay for it.<p>The fact that he had to merge it with a successful unrelated company tells you all you need to know.</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Tue, 14 Apr 2026 06:35:30 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47762022</link><dc:creator>riffraff</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47762022</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47762022</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by riffraff in "GitHub Stacked PRs"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>There's a certain set of changes which are just easier to review as stacked independent commits.<p>Like, you can do a change that introduced a new API and one that updates all usages.<p>It's just easier to review those independently.<p>Or, you may have workflows where you have different versions of schemas and you always keep the old ones. Then you can do two commits (copy X to X+1; update X+1) where the change is obvious, rather than seeing a single diff which is just a huge new file.<p>I'm sure there's more cases. It's not super common but it is convenient.</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Tue, 14 Apr 2026 05:17:13 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47761525</link><dc:creator>riffraff</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47761525</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47761525</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by riffraff in "GitHub Stacked PRs"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>I remember darcs fondly but even with tiny repos (maybe 5-6 people working on it) we hit the "exponential merge" issues.<p>It worked just fine 99% of the time and then 1% it became completely unusable.</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Tue, 14 Apr 2026 05:08:24 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47761462</link><dc:creator>riffraff</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47761462</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47761462</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by riffraff in "A perfectable programming language"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>Indeed! I got to about 20 with A-B-C but it somehow became harder after those. The multitude of C-something is obvious but I didn't realize there's so many A* languages (apl, ada, agda, alice, algol, applescript, apex, ampl, assembly..)</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Mon, 13 Apr 2026 06:32:25 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47748382</link><dc:creator>riffraff</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47748382</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47748382</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by riffraff in "DIY Soft Drinks"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>I don't like vinegar much either, but vinegar in drinks does have a certain tradition e.g.<p><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Posca" rel="nofollow">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Posca</a></p>
]]></description><pubDate>Mon, 13 Apr 2026 04:01:53 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47747449</link><dc:creator>riffraff</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47747449</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47747449</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by riffraff in "Tech valuations are back to pre-AI boom levels"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>I see more and more non-tech people using LLMs.<p>I think none of them are paying for it beyond techies, but this is definitely not because they hate AI.</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Mon, 13 Apr 2026 02:01:21 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47746677</link><dc:creator>riffraff</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47746677</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47746677</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by riffraff in "Pijul a FOSS distributed version control system"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>I remember working with darcs 20 years ago (pijul should be on that lineage) and cherry picking in that was way better than doing it with git since it meant "get this change and all the required ones" rather than "pick this commit".<p>It still required intelligence (changes across files may not be tracked as dependent but actually are) but it was a different experience from what git provides.</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Sun, 12 Apr 2026 05:13:41 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47736324</link><dc:creator>riffraff</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47736324</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47736324</guid></item></channel></rss>