Hacker News: slow_typist

New comment by slow_typist in "Raspberry Pi Zero 3W and Pi 4 Model A spotted in device trees"

slow_typist — Wed, 28 Oct 2026 06:14:55 +0000

The attack surface maybe smaller but less eyes on the firmware images for sure.

New comment by slow_typist in "Investor-owned utilities charge 23% more for electricity than public providers"

slow_typist — Fri, 23 Oct 2026 15:05:31 +0000

Thanks Capt. Obvious

New comment by slow_typist in "The Future of CSS"

slow_typist — Wed, 21 Oct 2026 07:42:35 +0000

I do not think functions in CSS are the original sin. Why we don’t have them, was a valid question in the 90ies already.

And you cannot emulate functions by using a preprocessor in all use cases.

But what bothers me is the governance model of CSS, the increasing complexity that leads ultimately to more framework usage, not to thoughtful engineering of accessible front ends.

Very soon CSS will be Turing complete and we can have a JavaScript-free C64 emulator. Yay.

We need basically control structures and full access to user input to achieve that.

And we can only hope the vendors get the sandboxing right this time, otherwise we will get a entire new class of CSS based browser exploits.

New comment by slow_typist in ""I'm on a war footing": Terry Tao and the crisis in math"

slow_typist — Mon, 19 Oct 2026 14:45:03 +0000

They did not do this in a vacuum. But it doesn’t matter much. Benchmarking needs a benchmark.

New comment by slow_typist in ""I'm on a war footing": Terry Tao and the crisis in math"

slow_typist — Mon, 19 Oct 2026 05:10:12 +0000

It isn’t a benchmark though. Not yet. They rely on mathematicians to check the proofs including all lemmas. And on other mathematicians checking the reviews. Without being on the OpenAI payroll of course. Now they have flooded the zone, overwhelming the review capacity of the whole field by at least one order of magnitude. It is the move of 15-year-olds holding tools they shouldn’t have access to.

New comment by slow_typist in ""I'm on a war footing": Terry Tao and the crisis in math"

slow_typist — Mon, 19 Oct 2026 05:01:44 +0000

Does creativity need sentience?

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

slow_typist — Thu, 15 Oct 2026 18:20:29 +0000

+1 We need human verification.

New comment by slow_typist in "Iosevka is an open-source, sans-serif and slab-serif, monospace font"

slow_typist — Wed, 14 Oct 2026 09:53:14 +0000

Thanks, I couldn’t spot a license on the website, but existence of an arch package does probably mean the license is okayish.

New comment by slow_typist in "Hackers activate automatic defrosting in supermarket fridges across Europe"

slow_typist — Tue, 13 Oct 2026 15:59:23 +0000

There are better (and offline) solutions to detect temperature dips in the freezer (e.g. a thermograph, or cheaper, solutions that change color). And as a former trucker delivering frozen and refrigerated goods I can tell you the most dangerous part of the journey to the customer is not in the freezer of the POS. That being said, I admit I don’t know the legal requirements today. But I doubt someone will be sent out at night to salvage a few pounds of frozen spinach.

New comment by slow_typist in "Hackers activate automatic defrosting in supermarket fridges across Europe"

slow_typist — Tue, 13 Oct 2026 06:47:39 +0000

How do you measure core temperature of, say, a block of frozen fish without destroying the packaging and contaminating the good? Do they throw it away after measurements?

New comment by slow_typist in "Hackers activate automatic defrosting in supermarket fridges across Europe"

slow_typist — Tue, 13 Oct 2026 06:43:21 +0000

The thing I can‘t wrap my head around: why does a freezer need internet access at all? My freezer at home works just fine without. I bought it 20 years ago. Worst case in the supermarket: a freezer dies on Saturday night, you throw away the goods on Monday morning and call someone capable to fix it. Lowest TCO solution.

New comment by slow_typist in "Show HN: WallHop – 12ft.io is gone, so I built a replacement"

slow_typist — Sun, 11 Oct 2026 07:26:13 +0000

I elaborate: the local newspaper was perfectly archivable for years. Then it stopped.

The CMS usually allows search engines to get all content. The feature is to know human browser operators and make them pay, or know archiving/unblocking services and block them.

New comment by slow_typist in "Show HN: WallHop – 12ft.io is gone, so I built a replacement"

slow_typist — Sun, 11 Oct 2026 04:09:25 +0000

Of course they know. I have seen local newspapers who managed to block archive.ph's mechanism. If a bigger outlet does not use technical measures against services like wallhop, it is safe to assume that’s deliberate.

It makes sense economically since the part of the population using such services is so small and may have specific demographics that justify specific treatment just from a marketing POV.

Then you want search engines to get the whole content (okay at least before they started to summarise everything but the kitchen sink) - that will always leave a loophole.

New comment by slow_typist in "Ask HN: What do you run on a $5 VPS that's worth keeping online 24/7?"

slow_typist — Fri, 09 Oct 2026 19:35:08 +0000

Vittorio de Sica's Ladri di biciclette is a Linux ISO I can recommend.

New comment by slow_typist in "Kolibri: A Sovereign Open-Weight Model"

slow_typist — Sat, 03 Oct 2026 21:20:54 +0000

Souvereignty is about ownership and about knowing the training data. That is especially important given a business model aiming at the government as a key customer. With Schwarz, Cohere, SAP, NVIDIA and the like as backers society can’t have souvereignty in any meaningful way. Of course it would be a plus to keep US agencies out of the data streams. But this technology will be used to support and make decisions that impact citizens. That being said, incredible achievement.

New comment by slow_typist in "Kolibri: A Sovereign Open-Weight Model"

slow_typist — Sat, 03 Oct 2026 21:10:24 +0000

How, is the training data public?

New comment by slow_typist in "An Update on Orion for Linux and Windows"

slow_typist — Sat, 03 Oct 2026 12:55:27 +0000

On iOS it integrates better with Kagi search. It is basically a skin for safari though.

New comment by slow_typist in "US tells France and Germany to release diesel stocks or face US export ban"

slow_typist — Sat, 03 Oct 2026 07:10:30 +0000

That would hold up comparing nominal GDPs of subsequent years. GDP growth rates are adjusted for inflation.

New comment by slow_typist in "US tells France and Germany to release diesel stocks or face US export ban"

slow_typist — Fri, 02 Oct 2026 09:16:22 +0000

Careful with the suffering trope. GDP growth in 2025 was 1.4 % [1]. Even under the external oil price shock, projection for 2026 is >0.

Of course, in the periphery that is not good enough. For developed economies like Germany, France that is a totally normal growth rate. The allocation is the problem, very few people can’t get enough while the middle class is under pressure and the rest has real problems to pay their rents and food. Real growth can only be had by increasing local consumption and/or expansion of governmental spending.

That being said, I agree with your analysis.

[1] https://www.oecd.org/en/publications/2026/06/oecd-economic-o...

New comment by slow_typist in "US tells France and Germany to release diesel stocks or face US export ban"

slow_typist — Fri, 02 Oct 2026 07:47:26 +0000

Europe hasn’t grown some balls yet and I am afraid they will roll over again.