Hacker News: sydbarrett74

New comment by sydbarrett74 in "Be wary of Bluesky"

sydbarrett74 — Sun, 22 Feb 2026 11:12:43 +0000

Kudos, evbogue. Thank you for the hard work you've done to keep this alive.

New comment by sydbarrett74 in "FBI 'Asset' Helped Run a Dark Web Site That Sold Fentanyl-Laced Drugs for Years"

sydbarrett74 — Fri, 20 Feb 2026 08:05:05 +0000

To paraphrase Willie Sutton’s probably apocryphal answer to the question of why he robbed banks, ‘Because that’s where the money is.’

New comment by sydbarrett74 in "Tailscale state file encryption no longer enabled by default"

sydbarrett74 — Wed, 07 Jan 2026 20:56:39 +0000

That's an eminently reasonable and logical policy. Thanks for the context.

New comment by sydbarrett74 in "Linux kernel security work"

sydbarrett74 — Sat, 03 Jan 2026 09:00:31 +0000

Anything made by humans can be unmade by humans. Security is a perpetual arms race.

New comment by sydbarrett74 in "Is America's jobs market nearing a cliff?"

sydbarrett74 — Mon, 01 Dec 2025 08:55:07 +0000

Pipelining, mostly.

New comment by sydbarrett74 in "You will own nothing and be (un)happy"

sydbarrett74 — Fri, 14 Nov 2025 10:24:46 +0000

Because you’d be denying cast and crew of their royalties?

If people pirated on a mass scale, the losses would add up. Whatever you may think about streaming platforms, don’t punish the people just trying to make a living.

New comment by sydbarrett74 in "You will own nothing and be (un)happy"

sydbarrett74 — Fri, 14 Nov 2025 10:21:36 +0000

It’s both greed and laziness.

New comment by sydbarrett74 in "Direct File won't happen in 2026, IRS tells states"

sydbarrett74 — Wed, 05 Nov 2025 05:45:40 +0000

Why innovate when you can be a perpetual rentier?

New comment by sydbarrett74 in "AMD could enter ARM market with Sound Wave APU built on TSMC 3nm process"

sydbarrett74 — Fri, 31 Oct 2025 08:57:17 +0000

That will probably happen eventually, but right now RISC-V only has the hp for embedded or peripheral uses. It will continue to nip at ARM’s heels for the next 5-10 years.

New comment by sydbarrett74 in "Tinkering is a way to acquire good taste"

sydbarrett74 — Wed, 29 Oct 2025 03:12:04 +0000

Exactly. The best writers all have one thing in common: they’re voracious readers.

New comment by sydbarrett74 in "America's top companies keep talking about AI – but can't explain the upsides"

sydbarrett74 — Thu, 02 Oct 2025 00:23:01 +0000

Hence the ‘or else’ qualifier.

New comment by sydbarrett74 in "Microsoft allows use of personal Microsoft 365 subscriptions at work"

sydbarrett74 — Thu, 02 Oct 2025 00:21:08 +0000

Maybe Copilot will get wrapped into a Sky.NET meta-platform.

New comment by sydbarrett74 in "America's top companies keep talking about AI – but can't explain the upsides"

sydbarrett74 — Wed, 24 Sep 2025 03:06:51 +0000

AI provides cover to lay people off, or else commit constructive dismissal.

New comment by sydbarrett74 in "Americans face biggest increase in health insurance costs in 15 years"

sydbarrett74 — Sun, 07 Sep 2025 16:51:37 +0000

ACA is largely based on Heritage Foundation policy papers. Project 2010, if you will.

New comment by sydbarrett74 in "One universal antiviral to rule them all?"

sydbarrett74 — Wed, 27 Aug 2025 17:35:07 +0000

Second- and third-hand smoke mimic contagion.

New comment by sydbarrett74 in "Libre – An anonymous social experiment without likes, followers, or ads"

sydbarrett74 — Sun, 24 Aug 2025 08:53:45 +0000

Interesting project!

I also appreciate being introduced to the digital public infra initiative.

New comment by sydbarrett74 in "How does the US use water?"

sydbarrett74 — Sun, 24 Aug 2025 08:36:44 +0000

Energy is never lost, however, it’s transduced into less and less useful forms due to entropy.

New comment by sydbarrett74 in "How does the US use water?"

sydbarrett74 — Sun, 24 Aug 2025 08:33:37 +0000

There’s nothing wrong with frugality as an end-goal as long as it’s not coerced.

New comment by sydbarrett74 in "How does the US use water?"

sydbarrett74 — Sun, 24 Aug 2025 08:30:59 +0000

True. However, substitution of one good for another, or bringing online another source, won’t be instantaneous and thus otherwise needless human suffering will occur. The raw numbers don’t capture that.

New comment by sydbarrett74 in "9 Years of "Learning to Code" and I Still Couldn't Build a To-Do App"

sydbarrett74 — Wed, 20 Aug 2025 15:14:03 +0000

There are projects like NAND2Tetris that IMO successfully capture that ethos. I’m also heartened by the retro movement, which keeps going from strength to strength.