Hacker News: sasaf5

New comment by sasaf5 in "Delta’s Biscoff cookies were supposed to be temporary"

sasaf5 — Sat, 17 Oct 2026 06:10:30 +0000

With 2 o's is the Belgian recipe, which is caramelized, out of which they made Biscoff. The Dutch recipe, named "Speculaas", has more spices, and is less sweet.

New comment by sasaf5 in "eBay Restricts Listings of Radio Equipment, but Exempts Ham-Band-Only Gear"

sasaf5 — Sat, 17 Oct 2026 05:39:00 +0000

"The radio spectrum is a fragile resource". That's the first thing they tell you in the licensing class in my country. So this care is more about keeping a fragile common resource working well, rather then trying to pose as law-abiding.

New comment by sasaf5 in "I know why the mathematicians weep"

sasaf5 — Thu, 15 Oct 2026 23:45:56 +0000

"Continue reading this post for free in the Substack app".

Ugh, no.

New comment by sasaf5 in "Delta’s Biscoff cookies were supposed to be temporary"

sasaf5 — Thu, 15 Oct 2026 23:21:38 +0000

And let's not forget the playful variety: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pepernoot

New comment by sasaf5 in "Delta’s Biscoff cookies were supposed to be temporary"

sasaf5 — Thu, 15 Oct 2026 16:46:07 +0000

Please, make sure you try these at least once in your life: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Speculoos

New comment by sasaf5 in "Americans' social activity has steeply declined in the past 30 years"

sasaf5 — Thu, 15 Oct 2026 03:09:56 +0000

+1 for the potluck dinners. I find much satisfaction in seeing my social circles merging.

Another lost art is keeping a contacts list and contacting them regularly. People used to have these lists on paper and then send cards at least once per year on birthdays/christmas/independence. With this being relegated to social media, your contacts often fall in the cracks of the quirks of tech companies.

New comment by sasaf5 in "Show HN: XY Music Notation"

sasaf5 — Tue, 13 Oct 2026 23:20:24 +0000

Uhm, why not writing the degrees of the scale at hand? 12-TET is irrelevant for modal music.

In a similar vein, I sometimes line the root of the scale with a red felt tip pen if I am struggling reading a piece.

New comment by sasaf5 in "The technology to eradicate mosquito-borne disease exists"

sasaf5 — Tue, 06 Oct 2026 03:40:06 +0000

Probably humans. Arguably worse.

New comment by sasaf5 in "ArXiv's Updated Rate Limit Policy"

sasaf5 — Fri, 02 Oct 2026 08:44:42 +0000

LLMs have introduced a new form of polution: cognitive polution.

New comment by sasaf5 in "ArXiv's Updated Rate Limit Policy"

sasaf5 — Fri, 02 Oct 2026 02:49:39 +0000

Abuse.

New comment by sasaf5 in "Suits Are Better Tech Than Modern Clothes"

sasaf5 — Thu, 01 Oct 2026 06:29:01 +0000

You can also get custom-made jeans and T-shirts. They fit better, you can pick the fabric, you can choose details, plus tailors tend to be fun to chat with. I could spend a whole day browsing the local fabric market chosing fabric for my next shirt.

I find it baffling, but custom-made shirts are cheaper than off-the-shelf.

New comment by sasaf5 in "The last time my family was replaced by technology"

sasaf5 — Thu, 01 Oct 2026 05:10:50 +0000

Oh yes, when LLMs fail at translating they don't make a visible error. They fill up with inferred meaning. Translators can only be replaced by LLMs if there's no consequence attached to the meaning of what's being translated.

New comment by sasaf5 in "Owners mourn spoiled food after firmware update bricks Samsung smart fridges"

sasaf5 — Fri, 25 Sep 2026 12:42:24 +0000

Meanwhile there's a 60's era fridge in our garage that still runs fine. For three generations it's reputed to keep beer at just the right temperature. To think that a machine like that would need an update... You'd never want to change something that works so well for so long.

New comment by sasaf5 in "Show HN: Make cursed fonts like Times New Bastard"

sasaf5 — Fri, 25 Sep 2026 03:04:38 +0000

Oh, and all the glueing it takes... I hate that part.

New comment by sasaf5 in "We write code by hand"

sasaf5 — Mon, 21 Sep 2026 15:00:50 +0000

Perhaps more like snipers saying they don't need full-auto?

New comment by sasaf5 in "Don't Use AI to Write"

sasaf5 — Mon, 21 Sep 2026 13:01:29 +0000

Also, don't use AI to translate into a language you can't read back. It glosses over assumptions you didn't know you made, and the output might not mean what you intended.

New comment by sasaf5 in "AI-generated posters don’t have to be horrible"

sasaf5 — Sun, 20 Sep 2026 02:10:29 +0000

My eyes immediately move away from AI generated graphics. If it does manage to fool me, I get irritated and the thing you are trying to promote gets associated with that feeling. Make a poster with crayons if you will, but spare us from more cognitive polution.

New comment by sasaf5 in "Mark Zuckerberg: "Cambridge Analytica" (2017)"

sasaf5 — Sun, 13 Sep 2026 21:35:34 +0000

I would date this beginning to 2013. That's around when Facebook feed ceased to be chronological. That's when everyone became rabid.

New comment by sasaf5 in "Vomit: Clean up Claude 5's token output with a separate LLM"

sasaf5 — Thu, 20 Aug 2026 22:13:47 +0000

This cuts against you in a way that genuinely matters.

New comment by sasaf5 in "Scientists stunned by children's lung recovery in ultra low emission zone"

sasaf5 — Wed, 19 Aug 2026 04:00:23 +0000

What about the vicinity of large or uphill streets inside a city? I am curious how the data compares with highways.