Hacker News: simtel20

New comment by simtel20 in "Uber shuts operations in Nigeria and Uganda with immediate effect"

simtel20 — Thu, 03 Sep 2026 03:07:30 +0000

99 is quite popular in Brazil, and is often cheaper, but Uber does seem ubiquitous there and is the leader.

New comment by simtel20 in "People of ACM – Russ Cox"

simtel20 — Sat, 22 Aug 2026 23:14:53 +0000

The bar used to be pretty low. My father spent a few years writing and selling a system/360 time sharing system in the 70s or so. He was not a self-identified computer person, just a physics student who found a way to make a few dollars.

In the 70s and 80s and 90s so many operating systems from lisp machines to ITS to the bsds... People used to write an OS like people write frontend frameworks now.

New comment by simtel20 in "Choosing an AI model: one prompt, 11 models, different results"

simtel20 — Fri, 14 Aug 2026 16:59:29 +0000

Why are you trying to put words in my mouth about visiting every coffee shops website etc? You look at possible places and choose the one(s) that appeal.

Since all coffee stores are not the same, I look at the website of the coffee shop I am considering visiting, and either I choose it or I don't.

New comment by simtel20 in "Netflix Has Peaked"

simtel20 — Fri, 14 Aug 2026 02:19:28 +0000

All your points are valid, but they all assume a fait accompli of all cdns have already built out to Netflix scale with similar contracts for bandwidth at the edge. If they have done so, then that is not a moat or even a difference at all. However these things take time, and amortize over years, and I don't think the big.playets are all there yet, and so it's a moving target.

Also you are saying that the lawsuit speaks to context cost, which is the headline, but that is unlikely to be the full story at the end of the day since it is a fishing expedition at the moment.

New comment by simtel20 in "Choosing an AI model: one prompt, 11 models, different results"

simtel20 — Thu, 13 Aug 2026 23:19:35 +0000

When I travel I have limited time, and if e.g. the coffee shop doesn't have the hallmarks of good coffee, I will save my time and find one that does

New comment by simtel20 in "Netflix Has Peaked"

simtel20 — Thu, 13 Aug 2026 23:08:06 +0000

You are probably right that it's not the most likely outcome, but it is more likely with net revenue and projections of future revenue being the actual crux of the case isn't it?

New comment by simtel20 in "Netflix Has Peaked"

simtel20 — Thu, 13 Aug 2026 17:45:21 +0000

That is not what I said. I am challenging your dismissal of the cost of bandwidth is material to the success of a cdn

> All that matters is that the CDN is good enough to serve viewer traffic. If your CDN isn't up to snuff, the outcome is that the viewer can't play the video they want. AFAIK, no Netflix competitor is suffering from insufficient CDN resources

My personal experience is that e.g. if your cdn can serve ads, but not video, then you lose subscribers.

Extrapolating from that, if you lose money on every video a subscriber plays because of DTO costs, then you can't stay in business. Netflix and Amazon can afford their cdn. Maybe Disney can stay in business because they have the scale to get to the right COGS to meet their forecast, but for sure in the past they are accused of misleading investors as to their costs and revenue and their future revenue forecasts[1]. Since that's still underway, we may even know what part of their break-even calculations CDN costs are in the future.

1. https://www.ktmc.com/new-cases/the-walt-disney-company/?hl=e...

New comment by simtel20 in "Netflix Has Peaked"

simtel20 — Wed, 12 Aug 2026 21:30:57 +0000

Everything about a cdn is cost per MB, and Netflix has that priced at I don't know, I imagine almost zero, and maybe negative because they host with ISPs, which other cdns can't do. Which means their competitors must spend infinitely more money until they hit a scale where they can start to follow in Netflix's parh. Also, I imagine that buying hardware now, especially DRAM is four or more times as expensive as it was when Netflix paid for a lot of their hardware, so yeah, that.

New comment by simtel20 in "Bioengineered chewing gum may offer a way to fight HPV and other microbes"

simtel20 — Fri, 07 Aug 2026 15:27:51 +0000

The original chewing gum was a latex called chicle from tropical trees. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chicle?wprov=sfla1

New comment by simtel20 in "Netflix employee fired for sharing personal details in retreat trust exercise"

simtel20 — Tue, 28 Jul 2026 10:04:55 +0000

I would guess that the casino is a relatively cheap space that can do entertainment and conferences and food, and it's not being chosen for the gambling aspects

New comment by simtel20 in "Prioritize mental health, and why communication is so important"

simtel20 — Wed, 15 Jul 2026 12:41:45 +0000

This is irresponsible on your part. OP has been diagnosed by professionals and is being treated and clearly sees the difference. While high CO2 levels make a measurable difference in some tasks and its effects can be felt in crowded spaces, it seems like you're taking your pet peeve and dismissing the struggle that the OP is going through. Please try to have more sympathy.

I understand it can be difficult or even frightening to think about problems that don't have a trivially described cause, effect and solution like your proposal, but it would be a good idea to ask questions, even as simply as asking if that OP has noticed an effect, before trivializing their struggles this way

New comment by simtel20 in "Late Bronze Age Collapse"

simtel20 — Fri, 10 Jul 2026 16:15:48 +0000

Do you find yourself more lost in the history parts or the gaming parts?

New comment by simtel20 in "Damaged Earth Catalog"

simtel20 — Fri, 10 Jul 2026 10:49:13 +0000

Aside from the reasons stated in the page linked to? The thinking there seems like good fodder for conversation, do you have a more specific question?

New comment by simtel20 in "Leaving Mozilla"

simtel20 — Sat, 13 Jun 2026 10:23:20 +0000

I see it as a pointed observation that the people who focus on a goal will accomplish that goal. There are organizations with administrative-focused people who work in alignment with the mission-focused people, and that also follows this law as well. It's just that the same dynamic can cause organisations to spiral into an extractive, stale, ossifying, change-resistent focus instead.

New comment by simtel20 in "The Joy of Folding Bikes"

simtel20 — Sun, 26 Apr 2026 05:15:02 +0000

Hi fellow tikit owner! When they did the early upgrade of the cable, I thought it was just some gauge of airplane wire, threaded through the front nut and clamped or welded in place (I don't rude mine very often, it's a very early model and has a lot of the weaknesses like chain offs, and it comes unfolded too easily when I roll it). But I haven't been able to bring myself to sell it, it's still such a nice little device.

New comment by simtel20 in "S3 Files"

simtel20 — Thu, 09 Apr 2026 16:59:49 +0000

Ok, but to be clear you said all outgoing traffic is charged. The API call price is something else, it's not part of the outgoing traffic.

New comment by simtel20 in "S3 Files"

simtel20 — Wed, 08 Apr 2026 06:07:13 +0000

Reads from s3 via an s3 endpoint inside a vpc to an interface inside of that vpc is not billed.

New comment by simtel20 in "U.S. stocks are set to deliver their worst quarter in nearly four years"

simtel20 — Tue, 31 Mar 2026 12:50:55 +0000

The parent comment is quoting Pam Bondi doing evasive maneuvers a couple of months ago

New comment by simtel20 in "The Los Angeles Aqueduct Is Wild"

simtel20 — Fri, 20 Mar 2026 16:34:17 +0000

Where did you get that idea about NYC water being untreated? NYC treats its water. Chlorine is added if and when needed. Testing stations exist to evaluate water quality all around the boroughs, etc.

You can't have a city of millions of people and have the water be potable from the tap without testing and treatment

New comment by simtel20 in "Hands-On Introduction to Unikernels"

simtel20 — Sat, 31 Jan 2026 14:41:41 +0000

There were publications in the 80s that used that term iirc, and I do recall the term for how slightly incongruous it was, and how it didn't come with an explanation.

In looking into ut some more, it looks like the executive was a term from mainframes for the layer of the kernel that enforced isolation, but I must have read the term being loosely used in pc magazines. Or maybe mockingly?