Hacker News: smeagull

New comment by smeagull in "New doctoral thesis proposes Buckminster Fuller was a 'charlatan'"

smeagull — Thu, 08 Aug 2024 21:11:12 +0000

There's an "ACCESS DOCUMENT" link on the right of the page, which informs you that you can access it by visiting the Harald Herlin Learning Centre.

Which is a bit sad. My thesis is available online. Which might be sadder.

New comment by smeagull in "New doctoral thesis proposes Buckminster Fuller was a 'charlatan'"

smeagull — Thu, 08 Aug 2024 21:08:37 +0000

A thesis is more a proof that you can handle a particular type of research or investigation. I myself haven't touched the particular specialised field of my thesis since I submitted it.

It also doesn't mean that the Author particularly enjoys or finds the topic that interesting. I've often heard that if you have a favourite topic, you should at best find a thesis topic that is adjacent or related, and I'd tend to agree.

New comment by smeagull in "New study simulates gravitational waves from failing warp drive"

smeagull — Mon, 29 Jul 2024 21:01:59 +0000

Things don't have to be real for them to hurt you.

New comment by smeagull in "The most, and least, walkable cities"

smeagull — Fri, 26 Jul 2024 10:38:27 +0000

Auckland is a horrible car-ridden shithole.

You can't get from where people live, to where they work without a car and actually maintain a job.

New comment by smeagull in "A chemist explains the chemistry behind decaf coffee"

smeagull — Fri, 26 Jul 2024 04:14:02 +0000

There is nothing saying that a product needs to pay for all the processes inherent in making that particular product.

There is value in having flat pricing across all your products. Especially if some of them aren't as popular, yet might driving purchasing decisions.

Consider cafes that need to stock decaf, but want to buy from a single supplier. If you don't have decaf you're not going to see their custom, despite their order largely being non-decaf.

So they'll want to supply decaf, but in order to encourage the sale of it (so they can reach a better economy of scale) keep the price the same as the equivalent non-decaf.

New comment by smeagull in "AI models collapse when trained on recursively generated data"

smeagull — Wed, 24 Jul 2024 20:49:13 +0000

They needed to deal with degenerate data on the Web anyway. It's always been full of trash and spam.

New comment by smeagull in "Sparrows may be 'canary in the coal mine' for lead poisoning in children: study"

smeagull — Thu, 18 Jul 2024 20:50:05 +0000

People consider Sparrows pests?

New comment by smeagull in "We are at our most creative just before we fall asleep, scientists say (2022)"

smeagull — Mon, 01 Jul 2024 23:55:46 +0000

I like to run from my problems too.

New comment by smeagull in "McDonald's and other big brands warn that low-income consumers starting to crack"

smeagull — Wed, 15 May 2024 10:18:55 +0000

> an inflationary shock

There has been a recent marked increase in inflation. That is the inflation I refer to.

Learn to read maybe.

New comment by smeagull in "McDonald's and other big brands warn that low-income consumers starting to crack"

smeagull — Thu, 02 May 2024 00:31:32 +0000

It's not greed that has varied. It was an inflationary shock. Greed explains why it hasn't gone back down once the shocks are gone. It's basically price collusion - nobody wants to be the first to decrease prices, so nobody does.

Before the inflation, there wasn't an opportunity to collude in this manner.

New comment by smeagull in "McDonald's and other big brands warn that low-income consumers starting to crack"

smeagull — Wed, 01 May 2024 22:37:54 +0000

I don't know how to use those things, and I'll never learn. McD's are a public restroom to me.

New comment by smeagull in "You can't just assume UTF-8"

smeagull — Mon, 29 Apr 2024 22:30:39 +0000

I absolutely can. If it's not UTF-8, I assume it's worthless.

New comment by smeagull in "Washington State judge blocks use of AI-enhanced video as evidence"

smeagull — Thu, 04 Apr 2024 06:35:33 +0000

Yeah, those weirdos using AI to "compress" and "enhance" their videos with Cosine transforms. Get out of court!

New comment by smeagull in "Banning open weight models would be a disaster"

smeagull — Tue, 02 Apr 2024 10:17:02 +0000

It's not a monopoly. It's America opting out of open research.

New comment by smeagull in "Show HN: Aldi Price Map"

smeagull — Sun, 18 Feb 2024 02:08:39 +0000

Nah, I've seen more than one Aldi. Hence Aldis.

New comment by smeagull in "Apple confirms it's breaking iPhone web apps in the EU on purpose"

smeagull — Thu, 15 Feb 2024 21:37:30 +0000

Seems like a very unreliable platform to me.

New comment by smeagull in "Our next-generation model: Gemini 1.5"

smeagull — Thu, 15 Feb 2024 21:12:03 +0000

I believe that's a limitation of using vectors of high dimensions. It'll be muddy.

New comment by smeagull in "Show HN: Aldi Price Map"

smeagull — Thu, 15 Feb 2024 08:05:12 +0000

Actually it's 'Aldis', because we're talking about more than one.

New comment by smeagull in "Only real people can patent inventions – not AI, US Government says"

smeagull — Wed, 14 Feb 2024 20:31:00 +0000

The contents of books are also factual statements about their contents.

New comment by smeagull in "An illustrated guide to post-Orwellian censorship (2021)"

smeagull — Wed, 24 Jan 2024 21:21:41 +0000

I didn't read your comment. I skimmed over it. I was expecting there to be ice cream... Disappointing.