Hacker News: tensor

New comment by tensor in "I requested a copy of my data from McDonald’s loyalty program"

tensor — Thu, 13 Aug 2026 17:31:21 +0000

Deny you medical care payouts based on your diet. Algorithmically increase prices on you. Increase your car insurance based on where you travel.

New comment by tensor in "I requested a copy of my data from McDonald’s loyalty program"

tensor — Thu, 13 Aug 2026 17:29:03 +0000

I agree, and I'm really against data surveillance. The data collected in this example is exactly what I'd expect, and frankly McDonalds should have the right to collect this. If you go to a local store all the time the owner will get to know your habits, this really isn't any different.

The red lines here would be adjusting pricing for an individual based on this dossier. Also, correlating this with data obtained from elsewhere would be really bad. Sharing this data with other parties would be really bad.

I think that would be the real story here. Is this data sold to 3rd party aggregators?

New comment by tensor in "Heart aerospace completes first flight of largest electric aircraft"

tensor — Thu, 13 Aug 2026 17:15:48 +0000

From what I remember on the topic, batteries are not yet remotely close to dense enough to enable long haul flights. Even hydrogen electric doesn't cut it, and hydrogen fuel is much denser energy wise than conventional batteries.

Perhaps if solid state batteries become cost effective to produce at scale that would change the feasibility, but someone else would have to chime in there.

New comment by tensor in "Heart aerospace completes first flight of largest electric aircraft"

tensor — Thu, 13 Aug 2026 17:13:39 +0000

I assume being electric that the maintenance costs will also be much lower. How much do you spend annually on engine maintenance?

New comment by tensor in "5th Heat Dome Expands Across Europe: 40°C+ Target Western and Central Europe"

tensor — Wed, 12 Aug 2026 15:01:38 +0000

No, excessive fossil fuel use is the cause by an immense margin. It's completely dominated by commercial shipping (boats), followed by planes. Then I think it may actually be gas from cattle before cars. Bitcoin and AI are so recent and still relative to everything else small.

New comment by tensor in "An OpenAI Strategist Says AI Labs Should Rival Government Power"

tensor — Sun, 09 Aug 2026 18:27:39 +0000

Sounds more like a crank really.

New comment by tensor in "Degrees of Wealth"

tensor — Thu, 06 Aug 2026 18:16:14 +0000

After the knee wealth is not the major factor in happiness, other factors take over like friends, relationships, weak tie relationships, etc etc etc. If you want to be happy optimizing for wealth only makes sense under the knee.

After that, it's other factors, and extreme wealth may even harm those due to inequality.

New comment by tensor in "Degrees of Wealth"

tensor — Thu, 06 Aug 2026 18:13:35 +0000

Not if you life in a first world country that provides universal healthcare.

New comment by tensor in "Degrees of Wealth"

tensor — Thu, 06 Aug 2026 15:16:59 +0000

Wealth is objectively a poor measure of a good life, past a threshold. Scientific studies have shown that yes, up to a level of wealth (e.g. being able to not worry about food, shelter, and future security), improving wealth improves happiness. After that, reported levels of happiness do not really change with wealth.

New comment by tensor in "It's not a fear of "AI communism"; it's a fear of competitive market capitalism"

tensor — Tue, 04 Aug 2026 18:43:47 +0000

I've always assumed "win" means being economically and culturally dominant. It necessarily involves being a trade leader and having a lot of soft power.

I also don't want totalitarian oligopoly from the US or China. What I'm hoping for is "the rest" of the democratic free nations get together in a proportionally representative alliance. Together they may have both the economic power and cultural soft power to maintain an counterweight to the authoritarian nations. Being a proportionally representative democratic alliance, whatever form that should take, gives us the people the most control over our lives that we can really hope for.

New comment by tensor in "Apple's hostile App Store rating system"

tensor — Thu, 30 Jul 2026 00:11:59 +0000

The only thing I agree with you about is that I'd have preferred Apple to not have approved your app because of the nag. I don't care if it's a screen or just a constant message. It's a nag.

New comment by tensor in "Apple's hostile App Store rating system"

tensor — Thu, 30 Jul 2026 00:04:22 +0000

Honestly, reviews are pretty standard and straight forward. Advocating to silence voices you don't like is just shit. Sure, there will always be some people super angry and something or other, but every app developer is in the same boat. It's an even playing field.

In this case I agree with the system. I wouldn't want Apple start removing reviews based on arbitrary fuzzy feelings or logic.

New comment by tensor in "Apple's hostile App Store rating system"

tensor — Wed, 29 Jul 2026 16:07:58 +0000

The one star nag review is accurate to me. As a potential user, I know not to buy the app. I despise ads and nag screens are in the same boat.

Just because you don't like the value system of your users doesn't mean you get to call them false or fake. Good product managers LISTEN to their users. You clearly are not willing to do that, despite the now overwhelming validation of your users complaints you are receiving.

New comment by tensor in "Apple's hostile App Store rating system"

tensor — Wed, 29 Jul 2026 15:50:51 +0000

That's my read. Both reviews seem fair to me. E.g. if translation is important to that user then maybe it's better to take a note of it rather than be angry. Also, being upset about users hating your obnoxious nag screen? hahah wow.

New comment by tensor in "Our position on open-weights models"

tensor — Tue, 28 Jul 2026 22:47:25 +0000

No, I don't, I live in Canada. I don't support any country annexing any other country, but in terms of direct threat to my quality of life and freedom, currently the US is the biggest threat and is actively making life worse for Canadians.

New comment by tensor in "Our position on open-weights models"

tensor — Mon, 27 Jul 2026 22:52:09 +0000

As someone who isn't American, I'm amused when someone from the US talks about the terrors of China or some other nation having more power than them as being bad for the world. The way the US is currently threatening to invade and damage all its allies, well, the world is already bad.

China hasn't threatened to annex my country yet, at least.

New comment by tensor in "Should you wash your solar panels?"

tensor — Mon, 27 Jul 2026 19:17:57 +0000

I never cleaned mine. Rain does enough. It's still plenty valuable without minmaxing them.

New comment by tensor in "Orion Browser by Kagi"

tensor — Mon, 20 Jul 2026 12:25:03 +0000

100% agree. Everyone is susceptible to ads, even if few believe it. The ad pushers know it. It's a form of information warfare, not simply business. If I'm looking for a product and ask a vendor to give me pitch, great. But if I'm doing something else and vendor propaganda is forced on me interrupting my task, that's not ok in any way.

New comment by tensor in "Orion Browser by Kagi"

tensor — Mon, 20 Jul 2026 12:21:59 +0000

> Not everyone want to pay for news.

People want things for free. Too bad. Nothing is really free. Either you pay for it, have ads, or have your taxes pay for it as part of public media. Personally, I'd like to see forced ads banned. Having ads that the user can come to see is fine (e.g. I'm looking for a product and I want to browse pitches, totally fine). That means that yes, we need a way where news can get paid. Most big news companies already offer paid tiers, they just continue to shove ads even then.

New comment by tensor in "Leanstral 1.5: Proof abundance for all"

tensor — Sat, 04 Jul 2026 09:12:35 +0000

I like to make less money and pay more taxes for higher quality of life reasons. Sure I could go to America and have more many in my pocket by eating mcdonalds every day, but I'd rather eat amazing high quality food and have less money in my pocket.