Hacker News: smurda

New comment by smurda in "Japan's book scene is quietly moving from bookstores to libraries"

smurda — Wed, 09 Sep 2026 14:29:05 +0000

"Until recently, oh, maybe still now… libraries have been boring and uncool place for most Japanese people."

This is the perception of libraries in many places. Libraries are a tremendous public good that is underutilized. If we can make them "cool" people would take advantage of this resource.

This is even a challenge for bookstores. In the UK, James Daunt successfully built Daunt Books, an independent bookshop in the age of Amazon by making it "cool" and personalized. Most recently, he became the CEO of Barnes and Noble to make that large chain bookstore a place people want to be. https://www.modernretail.co/operations/barnes-noble-ceo-jame...

I very much want libraries and bookstores to be a part of our society, so I'm a huge fan of "making them cool" so that more people will use them and they will continue to exist, and thrive, in our society.

New comment by smurda in "Genius AI Detector"

smurda — Mon, 07 Sep 2026 02:31:17 +0000

" The text is AI-generated. Here's how we know: Contains em-dash. Since the dawn of written language, no genuine human text has ever contained an em-dash. The evaluated text contains at least one, so you can be 100% sure that it was generated by AI."

I used to love an em-dash. Now it gets categorized as AI slop, sadly.

New comment by smurda in "Pre-auth RCE on MikroTik: exploited before the patch, rebuilt in three hours"

smurda — Sun, 06 Sep 2026 20:56:53 +0000

“Exploitation started three days before the public advisory”

I think bug bounty programs are completely overwhelmed right now. Idk how people keep up with them.

U.S. auto companies call for ban on Chinese-made cars

smurda — Fri, 04 Sep 2026 17:20:21 +0000

Article URL: https://thehill.com/policy/transportation/6070614-auto-companies-congress-letter-chinese-car-ban/

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49567461

Points: 5

# Comments: 7

Sonos Has New Devices, a New OS, and Yes, a New App

smurda — Wed, 02 Sep 2026 14:25:12 +0000

Article URL: https://www.wired.com/story/sonos-has-new-devices-a-new-os-and-yes-a-new-app/

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49536755

Points: 1

# Comments: 0

New comment by smurda in "An investigation into the state of corvid–human relations"

smurda — Fri, 28 Aug 2026 15:46:42 +0000

Crows can remember a dangerous person and tell their friends about it. From "Social learning spreads knowledge about dangerous humans among American crows" (https://faculty.washington.edu/wirsinga/Cornell2011.pdf)

We exposed wild crows to a novel ‘dangerous face’ by wearing a unique mask as we trapped, banded and released 7 –15 birds at five study sites near Seattle, WA, USA. An immediate scolding response to the dangerous mask after trapping by previously captured crows demonstrates individual learning, while an immediate response by crows that were not captured probably represents conditioning to the trapping scene by the mob of birds that assembled during the capture. Later recognition of dangerous masks by lone crows that were never captured is consistent with horizontal social learning. Independent scolding by young crows, whose parents had conditioned them to scold the dangerous mask, demonstrates vertical social learning.

Microsoft gives Task Manager another task: Watching AI workloads

smurda — Fri, 21 Aug 2026 11:16:03 +0000

Article URL: https://www.theregister.com/os-platforms/2026/08/20/microsoft-gives-task-manager-another-task-watching-ai-workloads/5290448

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49386447

Points: 3

# Comments: 0

Amazon’s new user agreement seeks to curb class-action suits

smurda — Mon, 17 Aug 2026 16:16:48 +0000

Article URL: https://www.theindianalawyer.com/articles/amazons-new-user-agreement-seeks-to-curb-class-action-suits

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49333450

Points: 5

# Comments: 0

Rogue AI Agents Aren't Evil. They're Just Eager to Please

smurda — Thu, 13 Aug 2026 12:14:44 +0000

Article URL: https://www.wired.com/story/rogue-ai-is-just-misunderstood/

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49284801

Points: 2

# Comments: 0

Reasoning Traces: A New Trick Reveals AI Models' Inner Thoughts

smurda — Tue, 11 Aug 2026 11:57:14 +0000

Article URL: https://www.wired.com/story/a-new-trick-reveals-ai-models-inner-thoughts/

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49256857

Points: 3

# Comments: 0

New comment by smurda in "London Underground begins scanning passengers' faces"

smurda — Tue, 11 Aug 2026 10:39:03 +0000

The UK already has so much CCTV. Some believe it reduces drug-related, vehicle, and property crime, but most agree is has virtually no effect on violent crime (https://www.college.police.uk/research/crime-reduction-toolk...).

Even if this initiative is effective at reducing crime, I don't want to lose privacy or see a chilling effect in society where people are afraid because they know they're being watched.