Hacker News: topham

New comment by topham in "Quality non-fiction books are the antithesis of AI slop"

topham — Thu, 23 Jul 2026 00:10:11 +0000

It tends to the mean. You can get it to do that less, but it's an inherent bias

New comment by topham in "Infuriating Google commercial imagines the founding fathers embracing AI"

topham — Sun, 05 Jul 2026 15:00:57 +0000

How many had slaves? How many had business partners with slaves?

New comment by topham in "I Wasn't Allowed Prompting ChatGPT During My Chalk Talk: This Is Discrimination (2025)"

topham — Fri, 03 Jul 2026 19:18:35 +0000

I don't have a problem using AI.

I also acknowledge, when doing so, how I use it.

But, literally typing in a prompt and then massaging its output and then claiming ownership of its plan? Yeah, no.

It doesn't matter if the original article is supposed to be satire. I've been using AI to do some coding, I've been using it to help me plan a much larger project. It's a tool, and it's useful; but I am in control of the project, not letting the AI control me.

Meanwhile in my day job, I've had multiple coworkers pump shit into AI and regurgitate the answer without critical thought. They are letting it make decisions for them without validating it first even.

It's not really satire if we're already dealing with this attitude.

New comment by topham in "I Wasn't Allowed Prompting ChatGPT During My Chalk Talk: This Is Discrimination (2025)"

topham — Fri, 03 Jul 2026 18:06:44 +0000

"prepared to do what I do every single day in my actual scientific practice: type a prompt and receive a coherent, well-structured response that I would then lightly edit and present as my own thinking."

So, plagiarism. Daily.

New comment by topham in "A man was gifted his dream car by Kevin Mitnick, who he helped put in prison"

topham — Wed, 24 Jun 2026 00:31:32 +0000

The hero worship of him makes me physically ill, always has.

He did cost people their jobs though, so I guess he's a good person.

New comment by topham in "The new HTTP QUERY method explained"

topham — Tue, 23 Jun 2026 17:45:45 +0000

If it crashes it's a security issue.

It should adept reject what it does not expect.

New comment by topham in "The new HTTP QUERY method explained"

topham — Tue, 23 Jun 2026 15:47:31 +0000

Browsers won't.

No, really, they simply won't implement it.

New comment by topham in "The new HTTP QUERY method explained"

topham — Tue, 23 Jun 2026 15:46:42 +0000

Which means you have to structure everything around multiple scenarios anyway.

New comment by topham in "The new HTTP QUERY method explained"

topham — Tue, 23 Jun 2026 12:22:03 +0000

So, I need to update all the tools to support QUERY, or I need to update all the tools to support GET/body.

So, either way, I need to update all the tools.

Just fix GET.

New comment by topham in "The new HTTP QUERY method explained"

topham — Tue, 23 Jun 2026 12:17:51 +0000

Fixing GET would be easier.

And yes,it would be fixing a flawed interpretation of what should be implemented.you are, by definition GETting something.

Tools dropping body from GET by default are violating the spec today.

Rules configured to drop it are just that, temporarily configured constraints readily modified.

Adding QUERY will make it unpredictable in effectively the same manner as GET/body. It'll take even longer to resolve it though.

New comment by topham in "The new HTTP QUERY method explained"

topham — Tue, 23 Jun 2026 12:02:47 +0000

QUERY won't be supported by them either.

So, change is required. Just change GET to allow for body and move on.

Most of the systems that are blocking GET/body could be easily tweaked to allow it. Today. As is.

QUERY will likely need firmware updates, core engine updates, etc.

Meanwhile, tweaking GET is a rule change.

New comment by topham in "Self declare engineering fails to meet expectations"

topham — Fri, 12 Jun 2026 15:58:05 +0000

Comment-driven development may be a useful design exercise, but calling it the only approach that follows engineering principles misunderstands engineering. Engineers don’t stop at documenting assumptions—they validate them.

Self declare engineering fails to meet expectations

topham — Fri, 12 Jun 2026 15:58:05 +0000

Article URL: https://hackaday.com/2026/06/11/the-merits-of-comment-driven-development-as-counterweight-to-tdd/

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48505777

Points: 1

# Comments: 2

New comment by topham in "How to Call an API from an Email"

topham — Fri, 22 May 2026 14:36:17 +0000

Nothing to discuss.

Don't do this. Ever.

New comment by topham in "Cloudflare breaks promise to not gatekeep small browsers"

topham — Wed, 13 May 2026 02:02:26 +0000

If your browser crashes it's not the site, it's your browser.

New comment by topham in "If AI writes your code, why use Python?"

topham — Tue, 12 May 2026 02:50:10 +0000

There's a broken idea that AI know Python because they're written in Python.

Not how any of it works.

New comment by topham in "Could Lovable's automatic 10% pay raise be the cure for toxic cultures?"

topham — Fri, 08 May 2026 21:08:44 +0000

No. "This program reflects the enduring company we want to build. It applies to all full-time employees meeting performance expectations on their work anniversary. The longer someone stays at Lovable, the more deeply they understand the company, contribute to its momentum, and shape its culture,” Maryanne Caughey, lead of Lovable’s people team, told TechCrunch."

So when they wish to not increase the payroll significantly they'll downrate everyone at the annual review.

Basically, it's exactly how you create a toxic culture.

New comment by topham in "A web page that shows you everything the browser told it without asking"

topham — Fri, 08 May 2026 20:47:20 +0000

The site isn't violating your privacy.

New comment by topham in "A web page that shows you everything the browser told it without asking"

topham — Fri, 08 May 2026 15:37:49 +0000

Contrast is a violation of accessibility guidelines.

New comment by topham in "SQLite Is a Library of Congress Recommended Storage Format"

topham — Thu, 07 May 2026 05:16:23 +0000

The problem with it is you didn't solve your biggest actual problem, you just haven't had a problem bite you in the ass yet so you think your problem is solved.