Hacker News: tempestn

New comment by tempestn in "Canada to order military plane fleet from Sweden in shift from US suppliers"

tempestn — Wed, 27 May 2026 21:30:37 +0000

And this is mostly thanks to the oil sands. Will that always be the economic engine it is today?

New comment by tempestn in "My new obsession: A horse-racing board game of pure luck"

tempestn — Wed, 27 May 2026 18:50:23 +0000

I'd hoped this would be a post about Giro Galoppo, which is a fantastic little board game if you have kids (and can find a copy). It's easy enough for small children to learn, but the mix of strategy and luck is such that an adult can put real effort into winning, but will still probably only win 2/3 to 3/4 of games, not every time. And it's quick to play. Great game.

New comment by tempestn in "Why the Smart Home Bubble Popped"

tempestn — Tue, 26 May 2026 03:52:04 +0000

I expect the more significant concern would be OpenClaw opening your front door for someone else.

New comment by tempestn in "AI is breaking two vulnerability cultures"

tempestn — Fri, 08 May 2026 20:13:18 +0000

But don't we know that some of the vulnerabilities being discovered predate ai coding?

New comment by tempestn in "Trump fires NSF's oversight board"

tempestn — Sat, 25 Apr 2026 23:48:42 +0000

This is a reference to RJK Jr's pronouncement that Trump has a "different way of calculating percentages". Seems apt to me in this context.

Critical Atlantic current significantly more likely to collapse than thought

tempestn — Thu, 16 Apr 2026 05:54:44 +0000

Article URL: https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2026/apr/15/critical-atlantic-current-significantly-more-likely-to-collapse-than-thought

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47789173

Points: 3

# Comments: 0

New comment by tempestn in "Nothing Ever Happens: Polymarket bot that always buys No on non-sports markets"

tempestn — Mon, 13 Apr 2026 23:34:54 +0000

How is it an anomaly? Global stocks go up (or at least have positive total return) over time on average because companies produce value. Ultimately it's true that that money has to come from somewhere, so you can say printing it is monetary policy, but the reason it can be done without runaway inflation is the tangible value produced by the firms.

New comment by tempestn in "One neat trick to end extreme poverty"

tempestn — Sat, 11 Apr 2026 21:04:45 +0000

Do you think carrying a gun gives the child soldier power to change his circumstances? It's a problem of organization and collective action, not lack of arms.

New comment by tempestn in "One neat trick to end extreme poverty"

tempestn — Sat, 11 Apr 2026 21:01:07 +0000

If they wanted it to persist, why would they give up a portion of their income to end it? Are you suggesting the 40% is just more honest than the 60?

New comment by tempestn in "Sam Altman's response to Molotov cocktail incident"

tempestn — Sat, 11 Apr 2026 04:27:21 +0000

Their point was that violence is sometimes justified, using the French Revolution as an example. I'm pointing out that the FR wasn't just a matter of "killing the rulers". Many, many people were killed. It wasn't such an unambiguous good as they seemed to be implying. Also, other countries have transitioned to democracy without such bloodshed.

New comment by tempestn in "Sam Altman's response to Molotov cocktail incident"

tempestn — Fri, 10 Apr 2026 23:33:37 +0000

Are you familiar with the details of the French Revolution? Some of the eventual outcomes were indeed positive, but a lot of what actually went on was pretty horrific.

New comment by tempestn in "1D Chess"

tempestn — Fri, 10 Apr 2026 17:52:50 +0000

That's actually a fun little puzzle.

New comment by tempestn in "Running out of disk space in production"

tempestn — Wed, 08 Apr 2026 06:50:31 +0000

It doesn't prevent it. It gives you a way to potentially recover after the disk fills. Many operations become impossible once the disk is full, so this buys you some temporary breathing room to solve the problem.

New comment by tempestn in "Running out of disk space in production"

tempestn — Wed, 08 Apr 2026 06:49:00 +0000

A + B would be best. Warn at 200, file to reserve the last 100 (or 50 or whatever). That way if the fill is too fast to react to in time, you still have a quick way to temporarily gain disk space, if needed to solve the problem.

New comment by tempestn in "No Terms. No Conditions"

tempestn — Tue, 24 Mar 2026 18:48:26 +0000

I'm guessing it means that your use of the website is not contingent on you accepting (approving of) the terms presented. But there are plenty of other ways it could be reasonably interpreted. For instance, your access of the website is not contingent on the website operator approving said access.

New comment by tempestn in "US and TotalEnergies reach 'nearly $1B' deal to end offshore wind projects"

tempestn — Tue, 24 Mar 2026 00:52:57 +0000

You're saying offshore wind farms would prevent the US from detecting an intercontinental attack crossing the ocean?

New comment by tempestn in "Two pilots dead after plane and ground vehicle collide at LaGuardia"

tempestn — Mon, 23 Mar 2026 21:02:38 +0000

Speaking of runway crossings specifically, you could have an automated backup, and require authorization from both ATC and the automated system to enter a runway.

New comment by tempestn in "I built an AI receptionist for a mechanic shop"

tempestn — Mon, 23 Mar 2026 20:23:08 +0000

Would you call a business to ask a question that's answered on their website?

New comment by tempestn in "I built an AI receptionist for a mechanic shop"

tempestn — Mon, 23 Mar 2026 19:26:23 +0000

I'd argue a well designed AI assistant would be considerably better than a decision tree for that use case. Decision trees are slow because you normally need to wait through several options before getting to the one you're interested in. (Though sure, perhaps not if your call is literally for the most common thing.) But with an AI you could jump straight to what you're interested in.

"Hi, I'm the LargeBank AI Assistant. How can I help you?" "I'd like to know the balance of my checking account."

And then authenticate and get the balance as usual. Simpler and faster. Agreed that it becomes a problem if it's seen as a replacement for human agents though. In an ideal world it would actually free up the human agents for when they're actually needed. In reality it'll probably be some of each.

New comment by tempestn in "I built an AI receptionist for a mechanic shop"

tempestn — Mon, 23 Mar 2026 18:07:13 +0000

Agreed; they're far better than the old style robots, which is what you'd have to deal with otherwise.

More generally, when done well, RAG is really great. I was recently trying out a new bookkeeping software (manager.io), and really appreciated the chatbot they've added to their website. Basically, instead of digging through the documentation and forums to try to find answers to questions, I can just ask. It's great.