Hacker News: santoshalper

New comment by santoshalper in "Claude.ai down"

santoshalper — Mon, 13 Apr 2026 16:26:28 +0000

I am not sure how many people learned it the first time. To be fair, it's really hard to build a business without major dependencies. The key is to assume they will fail and have alternatives available.

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

santoshalper — Fri, 20 Mar 2026 22:14:48 +0000

The ecosystem is the operating sytem.

New comment by santoshalper in "Bombarding gamblers with offers greatly increases betting and gambling harm"

santoshalper — Fri, 20 Mar 2026 00:20:16 +0000

For the same reason it isn't outlawed to begin with. It makes some wealthy, influential people even wealthier. They, not we, control our government.

New comment by santoshalper in "Bombarding gamblers with offers greatly increases betting and gambling harm"

santoshalper — Fri, 20 Mar 2026 00:18:25 +0000

Only the moral obligation not to prey on the weak. Gambling addicts are sick. Taking advantage of a sick person makes you scummy.

New comment by santoshalper in "Clockwise acquired by Salesforce"

santoshalper — Fri, 20 Mar 2026 00:12:33 +0000

Or they may just think the clockwise team is great and is willing to pay a small premium to get them.

New comment by santoshalper in "The Appalling Stupidity of Spotify's AI DJ"

santoshalper — Sun, 15 Mar 2026 15:25:10 +0000

I believe the person you are responding to was being facetious.

New comment by santoshalper in "The Appalling Stupidity of Spotify's AI DJ"

santoshalper — Sun, 15 Mar 2026 15:24:11 +0000

I love classical music, and I am convinced that 90% of the reason people think they don't is because of people like the Charles Petzold. Deriving your self worth from being an enjoyer of art that someone else created is the high pretention.

New comment by santoshalper in "AI Gets Wrong Woman Jailed for Six Months, Life Ruined"

santoshalper — Sat, 14 Mar 2026 17:47:25 +0000

I still wouldn't let AI off the hook here. Every link in the chain has to be accountable for fuckups. You don't get to pass it along to the supposed "human in the loop" when you fail spectacularly. That's how we end up with shitty "almost works" AI.

New comment by santoshalper in "Iran students stage first large anti-government protests since deadly crackdown"

santoshalper — Sun, 22 Feb 2026 16:13:07 +0000

Not really. We absolutely have the option to let things play out in Iran and refuse to intervene. There are many regimes in Africa that are as bad or worse than Iran. We seem to have little interest in "regime change" there. You should think about why not.

New comment by santoshalper in "Iran students stage first large anti-government protests since deadly crackdown"

santoshalper — Sun, 22 Feb 2026 16:10:30 +0000

Pound for pound, Hacker News has the best bad takes anywhere. This is an absolutely terrible take, but at least it's very interesting.

New comment by santoshalper in "My Snapdragon Dev Kit was healthy and working fine until a Windows update failed"

santoshalper — Wed, 07 Jan 2026 03:41:27 +0000

Two bugs occurring at the same time is definitely not one in a billion, and with billions of computers in the world, weird shit is going to happen.

New comment by santoshalper in "Yearly analytics on my spaced repetition results"

santoshalper — Mon, 05 Jan 2026 15:18:20 +0000

I think they just enjoy memorizing things. Roughly the equivalent of meeting someone who runs 10 miles a day. They enjoy it and it has some benefit to their life as well, even though they are probably far past the point of diminishing returns.

New comment by santoshalper in "Yearly analytics on my spaced repetition results"

santoshalper — Mon, 05 Jan 2026 15:16:54 +0000

I read the author's attempt to explain why memorization is important, and found myself unconvinced. Of all the things we consider to be "intelligence", memorization of facts seems like one of the least valuable in the Internet-era. That said, I am open to hear some counter-arguments (pro-memorization).

Of course, if you simply enjoy the process of memorizing facts, then no explanation is needed - it is entertainment for you, and comes with a benefit, like enjoying exercising. Otherwise, it does not seem like a remotely optimally productive way to achieve mastery in any field I am aware of, other than being a student who will be tested on fact memorization.

New comment by santoshalper in "Warren Buffett steps down as Berkshire Hathaway CEO after six decades"

santoshalper — Thu, 01 Jan 2026 02:49:59 +0000

I think it's more that he didn't build a gaudy billionaire mansion, even though he easily could have.

New comment by santoshalper in "Staying ahead of censors in 2025"

santoshalper — Mon, 29 Dec 2025 13:46:23 +0000

I googled it and couldn't find anything credible about this. At this point, I don't believe it actually happened the way it is being discussed.

New comment by santoshalper in "Staying ahead of censors in 2025"

santoshalper — Mon, 29 Dec 2025 13:43:12 +0000

Do you have a credible source?

New comment by santoshalper in "Steve wants us to make the Macintosh boot faster"

santoshalper — Fri, 26 Dec 2025 16:32:09 +0000

Bullshitting, inspiring, and marketing are just three different words for the same thing.

New comment by santoshalper in "Steve wants us to make the Macintosh boot faster"

santoshalper — Fri, 26 Dec 2025 16:30:40 +0000

It also didn't always work. At no point did the MacBook boot nearly as instantly as an iPad. That said, Jobs' obsession with UX was a powerful driving force and your point stands.

New comment by santoshalper in "Steve wants us to make the Macintosh boot faster"

santoshalper — Fri, 26 Dec 2025 16:29:30 +0000

Enjoy your tacky, Vista-esque, liquid glass.

New comment by santoshalper in "Will West Coast Jazz Get Some Respect?"

santoshalper — Sat, 13 Dec 2025 17:22:03 +0000

Using "easy listening" as a pejorative has always baffled me. Why does music need to be difficult?