Hacker News: toephu2

New comment by toephu2 in "US cities are axing Flock Safety surveillance technology"

toephu2 — Wed, 08 Apr 2026 15:38:48 +0000

Don't people tend to behave if they know the are being watched?

New comment by toephu2 in "US cities are axing Flock Safety surveillance technology"

toephu2 — Wed, 08 Apr 2026 15:38:14 +0000

probably up

New comment by toephu2 in "Google closes deal to acquire Wiz"

toephu2 — Wed, 11 Mar 2026 21:20:58 +0000

Great company, bad name. Pretty sure the company name was chosen by a non-native English speaker since it's an Israeli company after all.

Sort of like Wix... Wix also an Israeli company with an odd sounding name (although better then Wiz).

New comment by toephu2 in "Layoffs at Block"

toephu2 — Fri, 27 Feb 2026 19:11:10 +0000

Also the logged out experience is broken and has been broken for years since it was acquired by Musk.

Just look at the logged out version of Musk's own profile.. at the top it's showing Tweets from 2022 & 2024 (these are not pinned Tweets)

https://x.com/elonmusk

New comment by toephu2 in "Statement from Dario Amodei on our discussions with the Department of War"

toephu2 — Fri, 27 Feb 2026 18:59:04 +0000

"Altman Says OpenAI Is Working on Pentagon Deal Amid Anthropic Standoff"

https://www.wsj.com/tech/ai/openais-sam-altman-calls-for-de-...

New comment by toephu2 in "Statement from Dario Amodei on our discussions with the Department of War"

toephu2 — Fri, 27 Feb 2026 18:57:36 +0000

They just jumped in line to take Anthropic's spot.

https://www.wsj.com/tech/ai/openais-sam-altman-calls-for-de-...

New comment by toephu2 in "Statement from Dario Amodei on our discussions with the Department of War"

toephu2 — Fri, 27 Feb 2026 18:56:15 +0000

"Altman Says OpenAI Is Working on Pentagon Deal Amid Anthropic Standoff"

https://www.wsj.com/tech/ai/openais-sam-altman-calls-for-de-...

New comment by toephu2 in "Americans are destroying Flock surveillance cameras"

toephu2 — Tue, 24 Feb 2026 03:43:11 +0000

They shouldn't even have license plates?? That leads to 0 accountibility.

Would you like the government driving around in government vehicles doing hit and runs and having zero accountability?

Or criminals for that matter?

New comment by toephu2 in "Americans are destroying Flock surveillance cameras"

toephu2 — Mon, 23 Feb 2026 23:16:10 +0000

License plate readers are hardly mass surveillance.

Why is no one in democratic countries complaining about mass surveillance?

And I mean real cameras (not license plate readers) recording 24/7?

I'm talking about UK, South Korea, Taiwan, Singapore, etc.

New comment by toephu2 in "Americans are destroying Flock surveillance cameras"

toephu2 — Mon, 23 Feb 2026 23:14:22 +0000

If you think USA has mass surveillance you haven't been to Asia (South Korea, Taiwan, China, Singapore, Etc).

I can drive down highways in most cities in the USA without my license plate being read (Flock isn't on highways). Also Flock as integrated mostly just records license plates. It's not recording video 24/7.

New comment by toephu2 in "Americans are destroying Flock surveillance cameras"

toephu2 — Mon, 23 Feb 2026 23:06:02 +0000

I am in favor of them. There is no expectation of privacy in the public setting. I can record anyone on a public street w/o their permission. If these license plate cameras are making the streets safer and helping to reduce crime, why not? Sure there may be some mis-uses here and there, but for the most part they seem to be working and in places where they are deployed, crime is being reduced.

New comment by toephu2 in "Gemini 3.1 Pro"

toephu2 — Thu, 19 Feb 2026 19:02:06 +0000

This is what competition looks like.

New comment by toephu2 in "I want to wash my car. The car wash is 50 meters away. Should I walk or drive?"

toephu2 — Mon, 16 Feb 2026 18:45:48 +0000

I tried this prompt when it was trending on Chinese social media last week. At the time ChatGPT said walk, Gemini said drive. Now both say drive.

(using the default selected free model for each)

New comment by toephu2 in "Amazon Ring's lost dog ad sparks backlash amid fears of mass surveillance"

toephu2 — Fri, 13 Feb 2026 20:58:33 +0000

When did I say death penalty means no murders?

I didn't. Does a strict rule of law and enforcement of said law lead to no murders? No. Does it reduce the amount of murders that occur? Yes (see Singapore).

New comment by toephu2 in "Gemini 3 Deep Think"

toephu2 — Fri, 13 Feb 2026 07:29:29 +0000

When will AI come up with a cure / vaccine for the common cold? and then cancer next?

New comment by toephu2 in "Amazon Ring's lost dog ad sparks backlash amid fears of mass surveillance"

toephu2 — Thu, 12 Feb 2026 18:08:10 +0000

Banning guns does nothing without removal of guns or enforcement of laws. Assault weapons are "banned" in California, has it stopped anyone from getting their hands on them? Extended magazines are "banned" in California, has it stopped any criminals from getting them? Almost every other day a criminal is caught w/ extended magazines found on them. A concealed carry permit is notoriously hard to get in California, and yet criminals still walk around with guns concealed without a CCW permit every day in California.

Banning guns isn't going to solve anything.

New comment by toephu2 in "Amazon Ring's lost dog ad sparks backlash amid fears of mass surveillance"

toephu2 — Wed, 11 Feb 2026 22:14:00 +0000

Everything I want to do in public I can still do.

What "freedom" is lost? I gain security and lose no freedoms (unless you are doing something illegal).

When property crime is up 53%.. plenty of people are willing to lose "freedom" whatever you are referring to, in exchange for safety.

New comment by toephu2 in "Amazon Ring's lost dog ad sparks backlash amid fears of mass surveillance"

toephu2 — Wed, 11 Feb 2026 22:12:26 +0000

Lets take the current example of the famous kidnapping of the TV anchor's mother in AZ for example.

If Arizona was blanketed in CCTVs, do you think this kidnapping would have happened?

And if it still did happen, I'm 100% sure the suspects would have been caught by now (11th+ day since the disappearance now).

New comment by toephu2 in "Amazon Ring's lost dog ad sparks backlash amid fears of mass surveillance"

toephu2 — Wed, 11 Feb 2026 22:07:31 +0000

People tend to behave if they know they are being watched. Yeah it's not going to stop crime 100%, but I bet you it will (and it has) help reduce crime by double digit percentages.

Look at places where there are CCTV cameras all over, there is very little crime there compared to the United States. I won't use China as an example because then you are going to attack me for saying it's an authoritarian state. In that case I will use democratic examples: Taiwan, South Korea, Singapore.

New comment by toephu2 in "Amazon Ring's lost dog ad sparks backlash amid fears of mass surveillance"

toephu2 — Wed, 11 Feb 2026 22:04:11 +0000

There is no expectation of privacy in the public setting though. Anyone can record you in public without your permission.

> No amount of surveillance will 100% prevent any individual from being a victim of a crime.

No, but if it reduces crime by 99% would you be in favor of it? (See South Korea, Taiwan, Singapore.. examples of democratic countries with CCTVs all over the public space.. and before you say well those are racially homogenous countries.. I say look at Singapore. Singapore is very diverse racially, and yet they have very low rates of crime. This is because they have strict laws against crime and these laws are actually enforced)