<rss version="2.0" xmlns:dc="http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/" xmlns:atom="http://www.w3.org/2005/Atom"><channel><title>Hacker News: tooltower</title><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/user?id=tooltower</link><description>Hacker News RSS</description><docs>https://hnrss.org/</docs><generator>hnrss v2.1.1</generator><lastBuildDate>Wed, 22 Apr 2026 17:07:58 +0000</lastBuildDate><atom:link href="https://hnrss.org/user?id=tooltower" rel="self" type="application/rss+xml"></atom:link><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by tooltower in "Making RAM at Home [video]"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dynamic_random-access_memory#Principles_of_operation" rel="nofollow">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dynamic_random-access_memory#P...</a><p>It turns out they intentionally drain a bit of the storage capacitor, and amplify that weak signal. Some of that amplified charge is then fed back to storage.</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Wed, 22 Apr 2026 06:19:43 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47859753</link><dc:creator>tooltower</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47859753</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47859753</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by tooltower in "What are skiplists good for?"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>In my personal projects, I've used it to insert/delete transactions in a ledger. I wanted to be able to update/query the account balance fast. Like the article says, "fold operations".</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Sun, 19 Apr 2026 06:26:34 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47822211</link><dc:creator>tooltower</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47822211</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47822211</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by tooltower in "We can't have nice things because of AI scrapers"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>> Rather than downloading our dataset in one complete download, they insist on loading all of MusicBrainz one page at a time.<p>Is there a standard mechanism for batch-downloading a public site? I'm not too familiar with crawlers these days.</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Tue, 13 Jan 2026 23:18:33 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46609859</link><dc:creator>tooltower</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46609859</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46609859</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by tooltower in "Zero knowlege proof of compositeness"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>Are we sure that the base reveals nothing about the factors if n is composite? I have never seen a proof of that.<p>Usually, zero knowledge proofs also require a prover who knows the answer (the factors in this case). This is just a primality test that can be performed locally.</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Sat, 29 Nov 2025 18:46:41 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46089770</link><dc:creator>tooltower</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46089770</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46089770</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by tooltower in "Why is hash(-1) == hash(-2) in Python?"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>This article is not about the API contract of the hash function, or the abstraction it provides. If you are just trying to hash things, you don't need any info here.<p>It's very much trying to go _under_ the abstraction layer to investigate its behavior. Because it's interesting.<p>This is very similar to how people investigate performance quirks or security issues.</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Fri, 10 Jan 2025 20:34:23 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42659855</link><dc:creator>tooltower</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42659855</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42659855</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by tooltower in "GenChess"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>I still don't see the settings. Can anyone help?</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Tue, 26 Nov 2024 19:56:39 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42249359</link><dc:creator>tooltower</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42249359</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42249359</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by tooltower in "Google’s TOS doesn’t eliminate a user’s Fourth Amendment rights, judge rules [pdf]"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>The hash functions used for these purposes are usually not cryptographic hashes. They are "perceptual hashes" that allows for approximate matches (e.g. if the image has been scaled or brightness-adjusted). <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Perceptual_hashing" rel="nofollow">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Perceptual_hashing</a><p>These hashes are not collision-resistant.</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Wed, 30 Oct 2024 19:54:49 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=41999484</link><dc:creator>tooltower</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=41999484</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=41999484</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by tooltower in "LHC experiments at CERN observe quantum entanglement at the highest energy yet"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>Kind of? Keep aside quantum mechanics for a second. In any classical experiment that has random outcomes, would you say that the probability distribution is a property of a single system or a bunch?<p>You can only deduce a distribution from repeated measurements. But most physicists would have no problem talking about a single experiment having many possible outcomes, governed by a probability distribution. It's almost a philosophical question about whether probability means anything in single systems.<p>It's the same way in quantum mechanics. The effects of entanglement can only be discerned if you take repeated samples. But we still feel okay talking about single systems governed by such entanglement.</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Sun, 22 Sep 2024 20:33:24 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=41619834</link><dc:creator>tooltower</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=41619834</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=41619834</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by tooltower in "LHC experiments at CERN observe quantum entanglement at the highest energy yet"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>> How can entangled system be differentiated from a nonentangled system?<p>The canonical answer to your question is Bell's inequality: <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bell's_theorem" rel="nofollow">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bell's_theorem</a>. But TL;DR: the distinction only shows up in the statistics of repeated experiments. There is _no way_ to distinguish them in single-fire experiments. Entanglement is defined in terms of "odd" statistics.<p>In repeated measurements of related properties (e.g. spin along varying angle), entangled systems show more correlation than it should be possible classically.</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Sun, 22 Sep 2024 03:39:27 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=41614456</link><dc:creator>tooltower</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=41614456</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=41614456</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by tooltower in "Chain of Thought empowers transformers to solve inherently serial problems"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>Constant depth circuits can solve everything? I feel like I missed some important part of circuit complexity. Or this is BS.</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Tue, 17 Sep 2024 02:29:11 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=41563429</link><dc:creator>tooltower</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=41563429</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=41563429</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by tooltower in "CrowdStrike ex-employees: 'Quality control was not part of our process'"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>This is like online reviews. If you selectively take positive or negative reviews and somehow censor the rest, the reviews are worthless. Yet, if you report on all the ones you find, it's still useful.<p>Yes, I'm more likely to leave reviews if I'm unsatisfied. Yes, people are more likely to leave CS if they were unhappy. Biased data, but still useful data.</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Fri, 13 Sep 2024 23:16:53 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=41536060</link><dc:creator>tooltower</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=41536060</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=41536060</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by tooltower in ""Firefox added [ad tracking] and has already turned it on without asking you""]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>I have been donating a few hundred dollars to Mozilla every year (or at least most years) for the last 7 years. It's not much, but I might stop that donation now.</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Sun, 14 Jul 2024 00:16:08 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40957891</link><dc:creator>tooltower</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40957891</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40957891</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by tooltower in "Safer roundabouts are replacing traffic signals (2023)"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>I didn't get from the article: are they better than all traffic signals, or signals with unprotected left turns? And what's a good vs. bad turnabout like?<p>I have had to go through a few that feel extremely dangerous compared to having all cars stop for me. So I know I must be missing something.<p>Edit: Also, I see a lot of comments on yield. I'm probably confused too, but how do they work when traffic is non-stop? Is there a specific traffic rate beyond which roundabouts become less safe?</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Sat, 13 Jul 2024 19:42:34 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40956340</link><dc:creator>tooltower</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40956340</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40956340</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by tooltower in ""Firefox added [ad tracking] and has already turned it on without asking you""]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>I just found this setting in mobile, but I don't know if it's the same feature: Settings > Data Collection > Marketing</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Sat, 13 Jul 2024 17:29:05 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40955434</link><dc:creator>tooltower</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40955434</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40955434</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by tooltower in "A reawakening of systems programming meetups"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>I'm interested in attending these in my area (SF South Bay). How should we discover similar meetups?<p>Is there a place we should subscribe to?</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Mon, 08 Jul 2024 02:46:38 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40902206</link><dc:creator>tooltower</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40902206</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40902206</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by tooltower in "Text for Proofing Fonts (2020)"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>This reminds me of the difference between micro-benchmarks vs real programs. I would always include extracts from real texts of a few different types (novels, lists, technical writing, short paragraphs like in a playscript). But a test text like these are also helpful in exercising a few rare cases, like z, q, and certain ligatures.</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Sun, 30 Jun 2024 23:07:53 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40841159</link><dc:creator>tooltower</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40841159</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40841159</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by tooltower in "Night-vision lenses so thin and light that we can all see in the dark"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>Thanks for the actual paper they published</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Thu, 06 Jun 2024 16:53:49 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40599651</link><dc:creator>tooltower</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40599651</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40599651</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by tooltower in "Framework Laptop EC Driver Being Prepared for Linux"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>I'm not OP, but I had no idea KDE had that built in. I'll have to check for something analogous in my xfce config when I'm back at my laptop. Thanks!</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Mon, 06 May 2024 22:10:01 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40280088</link><dc:creator>tooltower</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40280088</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40280088</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by tooltower in "CBMC: C bounded model checker (2021)"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>>  [...] other algorithms may require the sort of induction one gets with constructive proofs to sufficiently verify. There is an art to this which will lead to style changes in C and a slightly different way of building up functions from pieces that can be trivially model checked.<p>Is there a book or article that talks more about this? I.e. how to write code in a way that is more amenable to model-checking (bounded or otherwise)?</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Sun, 05 May 2024 05:29:51 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40262508</link><dc:creator>tooltower</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40262508</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40262508</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by tooltower in "Frawk: An efficient Awk-like programming language. (2021)"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>What's the common tool people use these days for manipulating json in an awk-like manner?</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Mon, 22 Apr 2024 16:02:41 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40115632</link><dc:creator>tooltower</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40115632</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40115632</guid></item></channel></rss>