Hacker News: skillina

New comment by skillina in "LLMs are eroding my software engineering career and I don't know what to do"

skillina — Sun, 07 Jun 2026 16:22:37 +0000

Yeah, humans reviewing the AI review can only detect the false positives, where the LLM claims something is non-compliant and flags it for review/correction by a human or another agent. Human review can’t find the false negatives (true deficiencies not flagged) unless you do a full audit yourself to find whatever deficiencies the AI missed.

New comment by skillina in "I don't want my search engine to think for me"

skillina — Wed, 03 Jun 2026 02:00:17 +0000

If you want Gemini to answer your question, why not go directly to Gemini?

New comment by skillina in "Meta launches Instagram, Facebook, and WhatsApp subscriptions"

skillina — Mon, 01 Jun 2026 00:44:41 +0000

That statement applies to the person who won't be your friend because you don't have an Instagram, not to the person who refuses to install an arbitrary app as a precondition to becoming friends.

New comment by skillina in "Meta launches Instagram, Facebook, and WhatsApp subscriptions"

skillina — Mon, 01 Jun 2026 00:31:58 +0000

I maintain Meta accounts for two purposes. Facebook Marketplace, and following local businesses on Instagram because it's become the de facto platform for many artists/bars/restaurants/popups to distribute information. I don't add friends, I don't "like" posts, and I don't doomscroll the garbage they put in my feed.

I'm willing to give Meta the information that I enjoy old cars, bar trivia, and breakfast sandwich pop-ups.

New comment by skillina in "Meta launches Instagram, Facebook, and WhatsApp subscriptions"

skillina — Mon, 01 Jun 2026 00:24:19 +0000

I've been considering writing a nastygram to the NYT about their nonsense popups. Every time I open their web page I get not only the family account popup, but also a "use our app, it's better!" popup.

I refuse to install your app just because you intentionally trash the web experience with popups.

New comment by skillina in "Anthropic surpasses OpenAI to become most valuable AI startup"

skillina — Sat, 30 May 2026 15:09:13 +0000

Claude and Codex are tools. You can't tell the difference in the output between something that was done with a ratcheting wrench vs a standard combination wrench, but your mechanic certainly knows the ratcheting wrench is better (for most tasks).

I've not used Codex to compare against, so I'm not claiming X is better than Y, but comparing tools simply on their output is naive.

New comment by skillina in "Everything in C is undefined behavior"

skillina — Wed, 20 May 2026 12:41:15 +0000

Source for what? The volatile keyword is explicitly telling the compiler "don't optimize read/write to this memory location". That's the whole point. Its use for manipulating hardware registers is covered in any intro embedded systems course. I don't know the history of C compilers but it would seem reasonable to assume that compilers started out plainly translating the C to machine code. Optimization would have happened later as the compilers became more mature.

https://www.gnu.org/software/c-intro-and-ref/manual/html_nod...

New comment by skillina in "Google changes its search box"

skillina — Wed, 20 May 2026 01:50:46 +0000

I’ve found it quite unsettling to be served foreign language videos on YouTube automatically dubbed over by Google into English. Just mixed in with the search results.

New comment by skillina in "Houses are for living, not for speculation"

skillina — Tue, 12 May 2026 13:38:48 +0000

The difference is that all those parties serve a necessary function. We could debate the tax office - arguably the function of a transaction tax is precisely to deter speculation or sales for short-term use.

Some speculators serve a necessary function but many do not. In my area it's not uncommon to see homes listed where the last sale was ~6 months ago and it's clear they just slapped some paint on it, replaced appliances in ways that are not generally to my taste, and then doubled the asking price.

New comment by skillina in "Houses are for living, not for speculation"

skillina — Tue, 12 May 2026 13:29:27 +0000

"Speculators" are not built-in middlemen, they are competing on bids with the buyer. Perhaps there could be some policy put in place to level the playing field between an owner-occupant who will bring mortgage-related red tape and an institutional investor who can make an immediate cash purchase, waive inspections, etc.

New comment by skillina in "Show HN: TikTok but for scientific papers"

skillina — Tue, 12 May 2026 13:17:52 +0000

Web site maxes out cpu utilization. Scrolls like PowerPoint 2003. Firefox 140 on Debian 12.

Web design has gotten so terrible over the years. HN is an example of an extremely functional site, yet it will perform well on any computer from the last ten years because it understands that it's a web site, not an interactive video.

New comment by skillina in "Local AI needs to be the norm"

skillina — Mon, 11 May 2026 11:10:43 +0000

What is the use case you see for non-technical users self-hosting? I think it’s important that tools remain available but I don’t expect it to be adopted by “average consumers.”

I’m interested in self-hosting for privacy and control. I already owned the hardware I’m testing with, so my spend is limited to time and electricity.

The “LLM pods” you describe will be loaded with spyware and adware (see: Smart TVs), and average consumers won’t max their compute around the clock so naturally data centers are able to make more efficient use of hardware by maximizing utilization.

New comment by skillina in "Show HN: PanicLock – Close your MacBook lid disable TouchID –> password unlock"

skillina — Sat, 18 Apr 2026 01:33:20 +0000

Capable? Yes. Willing? I wouldn't be so sure. You don't even need to hurt someone to manhandle them enough to put their fingerprint on a scanner. Whereas forcing someone to give up a password could rise to the level of torture.

Of course, I imagine the majority of people would yield their password if you simply threatened to detain them long enough to make them miss their flight.

New comment by skillina in "Why AI Sucks at Front End"

skillina — Sun, 12 Apr 2026 14:03:58 +0000

That assumes all companies care about providing a good front end experience. Many do not. Many are actively hostile to their users.

New comment by skillina in "France's government is ditching Windows for Linux, says US tech a strategic risk"

skillina — Sat, 11 Apr 2026 11:13:04 +0000

You might want to do a bit more reading on why European intellectuals migrated en masse to the US in the 1930s.

New comment by skillina in "Why are executives enamored with AI, but ICs aren't?"

skillina — Sat, 28 Mar 2026 00:58:18 +0000

I can’t say who will win or lose. The value of a social network has as much to do with its userbase than its tech, so maybe Meta has a different path. Alphabet and Microsoft are who I really have in mind here.

New comment by skillina in "Why are executives enamored with AI, but ICs aren't?"

skillina — Sat, 28 Mar 2026 00:21:50 +0000

Iterating an existing product takes time, but creating a clean room clone of an existing product could be accelerated significantly with AI. We could be moving towards an environment where bigtech falls back on one of its core competencies (scale) and hoards infra while small startups pay them compute and inference costs to undercut existing consumer-facing software on price.

New comment by skillina in "Newly purchased Vizio TVs now require Walmart accounts to use smart features"

skillina — Thu, 26 Mar 2026 17:21:56 +0000

The frustrating thing is the lack of options. If you buy a $300 TV or a $3000 TV it will still come loaded with bloat/ad/spyware built in.

New comment by skillina in "Meta’s AI smart glasses and data privacy concerns"

skillina — Tue, 03 Mar 2026 01:36:19 +0000

Depends what your threat model is, but this will literally turn you into a glowing signal that says "hey, look at me!" Your face might be protected but anyone manually reviewing security footage will be paying way more attention.

New comment by skillina in "I am directing the Department of War to designate Anthropic a supply-chain risk"

skillina — Sat, 28 Feb 2026 01:59:14 +0000

A subpoena isn't "simply asking." Subpoena literally means "under penalty" in Latin. If the company does not comply they will be held in contempt of court and someone may well go to jail.