Hacker News: sbalough

New comment by sbalough in "Google Opal"

sbalough — Wed, 31 Dec 2025 06:46:40 +0000

Anyone have comments actually about Opal? Curious if anyone tried it.

New comment by sbalough in "How I bypassed Amazon's Kindle web DRM"

sbalough — Sat, 18 Oct 2025 01:57:22 +0000

True, but DRM free books in digital form have a lot more potential utility for non-genius types like myself. Just a good search engine over the text is a huge win before even considering the standard reader features like notes and book marks. With LLMs I can imagine testing my retention of a chapter by asking it where my recollection is wrong or short and having it cite paragraphs in support of its judgement. All of this progress is impeded by the big ebook sellers, but is or will be fulfilled by inde developers at least for those of us that can go to yandex, plug in a title and get a DRM free epub.

New comment by sbalough in "Nobody knows how to build with AI yet"

sbalough — Sat, 19 Jul 2025 16:56:06 +0000

I don’t think that was his argument. It would be one thing if we reach a point where humans trust a higher AI intelligence to create/keep software systems predictably meeting requirements. We aren’t there yet. So, it’s important to make sure any AI code is reviewed and approved by humans.

New comment by sbalough in "Health Insurance Companies Take Down Leadership Pages Following Murder of UH CEO"

sbalough — Fri, 06 Dec 2024 04:47:00 +0000

Copy cat killers or just harassment? But, I guess the less smart perpetrators since it’s a public company and the info is in filings.

New comment by sbalough in "UnitedHealthcare CEO fatally shot in midtown Manhattan"

sbalough — Thu, 05 Dec 2024 13:58:45 +0000

If we had more insurance companies instead of a few that dominate the market, then your employer would have more choices. More competing insurance cos would lead some to differentiate by having a reputation of honest claim handling while also not being the most expensive option. It would then at least be possible for an employer to choose better insurance companies.

New comment by sbalough in "UnitedHealthcare CEO fatally shot in midtown Manhattan"

sbalough — Thu, 05 Dec 2024 06:49:57 +0000

Thought cameras literally everywhere would improve the odds these days

New comment by sbalough in "UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson fatally shot in Manhattan"

sbalough — Thu, 05 Dec 2024 06:36:54 +0000

I have the same thoughts especially thinking how we’re on the precipice of possible mass workforce displacement from ai and robots like waymo. What I just can’t understand is why anyone would feel satisfied being the billionaire in a bunker among miles of slums (picturing India) - even if the desperate folks are successfully oppressed.

New comment by sbalough in "UnitedHealthcare CEO fatally shot in midtown Manhattan"

sbalough — Thu, 05 Dec 2024 06:28:55 +0000

Not murderers of others they consider to be “in” their own “group”. But murderers of out group folks seems like it just depends on enough rage and desperation to build up.

New comment by sbalough in "UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson fatally shot in Manhattan"

sbalough — Thu, 05 Dec 2024 06:20:33 +0000

It’ll get worse. You forgot to throw in unrest due to mass workforce displacement from ai / bots

New comment by sbalough in "UnitedHealthcare CEO fatally shot in midtown Manhattan"

sbalough — Thu, 05 Dec 2024 06:18:25 +0000

Not so fast, probably just killer bots…thugs are screwed too

New comment by sbalough in "UnitedHealthcare CEO fatally shot in midtown Manhattan"

sbalough — Thu, 05 Dec 2024 06:17:24 +0000

Nah, folks’ll forget about it in a few days and go back to perpetuating or worrying about stuff like trans & immigrant bashing.

New comment by sbalough in "UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson fatally shot in Manhattan"

sbalough — Thu, 05 Dec 2024 06:12:00 +0000

Think this is a failure of govt to use capitalism as an effective tool. More competition in the insurer space means non-evil players can afford to manage risk

New comment by sbalough in "UnitedHealthcare CEO fatally shot in midtown Manhattan"

sbalough — Thu, 05 Dec 2024 06:10:04 +0000

I think a main root cause of high insurance costs is failure of govt to break up health company monopolies and other impediments to a competitive marketplace like no individual mandate which should make it hard for smaller players to take on risk that they can afford to manage.

New comment by sbalough in "UnitedHealthcare CEO fatally shot in midtown Manhattan"

sbalough — Thu, 05 Dec 2024 06:03:12 +0000

CEOs of largest companies don’t tend to spend much time near poor folks communities that suffer from violent mental health episodes. Executives even way further down forbs 500 have security staff.

New comment by sbalough in "UnitedHealth's Playbook for Limiting Mental Health Coverage"

sbalough — Thu, 05 Dec 2024 05:44:58 +0000

Seemed like a hit job. Most likely the public and especially poorer folks will just keep getting screwed since their communities will most likely be exposed to armed unstable types.

New comment by sbalough in "UnitedHealth's Playbook for Limiting Mental Health Coverage"

sbalough — Thu, 05 Dec 2024 05:34:31 +0000

I live in the US and don’t disagree with your perspective. I am genuinely curious if the average American is better or worse off in terms of mental health than 30 or 50 years ago. My guess is that people just described the symptoms differently in the past - like alcoholism or being mad most of the time. I’m not saying the situation today is good, but does it keep sucking less over time?

New comment by sbalough in "I Just Hit $100k/year On GitHub Sponsors"

sbalough — Wed, 24 Jun 2020 01:04:30 +0000

Write a blog post ... lots of us envy you.