<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: unit_circle</title><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/user?id=unit_circle</link><description>Hacker News RSS</description><docs>https://hnrss.org/</docs><generator>hnrss v2.1.1</generator><lastBuildDate>Wed, 08 Apr 2026 14:54:32 +0000</lastBuildDate><atom:link href="https://hnrss.org/user?id=unit_circle" rel="self" type="application/rss+xml"></atom:link><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by unit_circle in "MacBook Pro Insomnia"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>This is the simplest solution that enables the behavior that I think most people who care enough to comment here want</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Thu, 31 Jul 2025 20:19:38 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44749694</link><dc:creator>unit_circle</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44749694</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44749694</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by unit_circle in "Sam Altman Slams Meta's AI Talent Poaching: 'Missionaries Will Beat Mercenaries'"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>Side note: I'm noticing more and more of these simple, hyperbolic headlines specifically of statements that public figures make. A hallmark of the event being reported is a public figure making a statement that will surely have little to no effect whatsoever.<p>Calling these statements "slamming" (a specific word I see with curious frequency) is so riling to me because they are so impotent but are described with such violent and decisive language.<p>Often it's a politician, usually liberal, and their statement is such an ineffectual waste of time, and outwardly it appears wasting time is most of what they do. I consider myself slightly left of center, so seeing "my group" dither and waste time rather than organize and do real work frustrates me greatly. Especially so since we are provided with such contrast from right of center where there is so much decisive action happening at every moment.<p>I know it's to feed ranking algorithms, which causes me even more irritation. Watching the brain rot get worse in real time...</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Tue, 01 Jul 2025 19:48:04 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44437395</link><dc:creator>unit_circle</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44437395</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44437395</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by unit_circle in "Xfinity using WiFi signals in your house to detect motion"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>It's all well and good until the MBAs get a hold of it... Technology doesn't exist in a vacuum.</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Mon, 30 Jun 2025 21:53:24 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44428311</link><dc:creator>unit_circle</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44428311</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44428311</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by unit_circle in "TikTok preparing for U.S. shut-off on Sunday"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>This is very welcome as a parent in the USA. It is also sound legally, and was a long time coming. Nothing of great value is being lost and in a year users will have moved on to something else.<p>There are two positive effects here:
1. A company that is meaningfully foreign is losing control of a mass media asset.
2. Children and young adults are losing access to a product that is not good for them.<p>A country should not allow foreign powers to control platforms with so much reach--full stop. We do not allow foreign entities to own radio stations... Imagine how much deeper these platforms penetrate a person's mind, and how much larger their audiences are. We should all be MUCH more concerned about how these apps are stretching the social fabric (throughout the world) and how every society's ability to function is effected. I challenge anyone voicing discontent at this result to question whose interests they are voicing.<p>American manipulation of American minds... Yea! That's the point. I'd rather have someone with interests as aligned as possible with mine working for, owning and ultimately making business decisions at these companies. Regulation as appropriate to further align them.<p>Which leads me into my next point: I think that everyone here would argue that TikTok is in a class of its own with regard to very engaging short form content and rapid feedback feed training. I would argue that these attributes make it necessarily vapid and reactionary, providing little to no net benefit to either the individual or society to begin with.<p>If you disagree, what is the value of this product to the user and to society? Does it make people's lives better? I think that when the harms are considered, the answer to both is ultimately no. There are very well-documented negative effects on focus, happiness, and anxiety in children, which persist into adulthood from social media[1]. I don't think it can be argued that something that makes you feel good and connected in the moment but disconnects you from your immediate neighbors and friends and is highly correlated with mental illness is good.<p>Social platforms (TikTok included) are putting our children at a disadvantage mentally compared to previous generations and need to be more regulated. If these platforms (TikTok and other short-form rapid feedback products most of all) are of dubious value to begin with, what is the harm being done here?<p>Finally, I conjecture that we've only gotten a taste so far of how power can be wielded through these instruments. Even if Elon decides NOT wield his asset overtly during this administration, I believe we'll see more overt demonstrations of the power of social media sites in the next few years if relations with China continue to deteriorate and Russia becomes more desperate, with Meta clearly becoming less scrupulous.<p>----<p>1. <a href="https://www.anxiousgeneration.com/research/the-evidence" rel="nofollow">https://www.anxiousgeneration.com/research/the-evidence</a></p>
]]></description><pubDate>Wed, 15 Jan 2025 20:40:53 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42716624</link><dc:creator>unit_circle</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42716624</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42716624</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by unit_circle in "Jeff Bezos killed Washington Post endorsement of Kamala Harris"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>This is so obviously the nail on the head. Shocked how far I had to scroll</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Sat, 26 Oct 2024 02:18:38 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=41951981</link><dc:creator>unit_circle</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=41951981</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=41951981</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by unit_circle in "Show HN: A macOS app to prevent sound quality degradation on AirPods"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>Bluetooth 5.2 was supposed to fix this issue. Indeed, my S22 phone with Jabra Elite 8s sounds great in calls.<p>MacBooks newer than 2023 SHOULD have better call quality. They have Bluetooth 5.3¹. Can anybody confirm this? I have been meaning to try pairing my earbuds with a floor model at a store and testing audio quality but's only to satisfy a curiosity for me.<p>---<p>1. <a href="https://support.apple.com/en-us/111838" rel="nofollow">https://support.apple.com/en-us/111838</a></p>
]]></description><pubDate>Tue, 01 Oct 2024 16:16:31 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=41710439</link><dc:creator>unit_circle</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=41710439</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=41710439</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by unit_circle in "Ask HN: Is iCloud a viable alternative to Dropbox? Any other alternatives?"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>Neither are exactly a 1:1 replacement, but check out backblaze and syncthing. A combination (syncthing for device sync, backblaze for offsite backup) might suit you.<p>I was impressed with syncthing when I used it ~2 years ago and I assume it's matured since then.</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Sun, 21 Apr 2024 10:49:41 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40104632</link><dc:creator>unit_circle</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40104632</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40104632</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by unit_circle in "Princeton group open sources "SWE-agent", with 12% fix rate for GitHub issues"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>A 1/8 chance of fixing a bug at the cost of a careful review and some corrections is not bad.<p>0% -> 12% improvement is not bad for two years either (I'm somewhat arbitrary picking the release date of ChatGPT). If this can be kept up for a few years we will have some extremely useful tooling. The cost can be relatively high as well, since engineering time is currently orders of magnitude more expensive than these tools.</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Tue, 02 Apr 2024 20:17:46 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=39910424</link><dc:creator>unit_circle</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=39910424</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=39910424</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by unit_circle in "Via ferratas are finally catching on in the United States"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>Western American wilderness is different than Europe--it has very few human improvements.<p>Personally I'd love to see it retain that character and I think this is the wrong direction.<p>Imo if you want a European experience you should go to Europe.</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Fri, 01 Mar 2024 19:41:10 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=39565912</link><dc:creator>unit_circle</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=39565912</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=39565912</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by unit_circle in "Via ferratas are finally catching on in the United States"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>The one counterpoint I'd like to make here is tat. Imo it's better to leave minimal high quality, long lived gear than soft goods that deteriorate over time that can make for a dangerous descent and produce a fair bit of garbage.</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Fri, 01 Mar 2024 19:33:34 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=39565822</link><dc:creator>unit_circle</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=39565822</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=39565822</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by unit_circle in "Ask HN: What happened to hackerspaces?"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>Sector67 is still healthy! They have a smart, incredibly dedicated and frugal BDFL who got them through some lean times.<p>I think in general it only works if there is a strong community / third place thing going. I always saw that as their biggest offering--a way to get out of the house without drinking or spending money. The making / hacking thing is just something to enjoy together.</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Mon, 23 Oct 2023 05:03:40 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37981821</link><dc:creator>unit_circle</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37981821</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37981821</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by unit_circle in "The Cuboid: A DIY air purifier that's better than a box-fan (2021)"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>Noctua makes some nice, slightly ruggedized 12v high static pressure fans.</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Wed, 07 Jun 2023 22:29:03 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=36234528</link><dc:creator>unit_circle</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=36234528</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=36234528</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by unit_circle in "What it feels like to work in AI right now"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>- Amazing translations (this alone is a game changer)<p>- Language learning... The ability to improvise realistic conversations is huge. I can ask to talk about cooking a specific dish or a sport!<p>- As others have noted, refining documents similar to grammarly<p>- Looking for a product with extremely specific features (though it isn't very good at comparing yet)<p>- Searches that are too vague and complicated to articulate to a search engine or use exact matching
...</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Fri, 07 Apr 2023 04:41:18 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=35478102</link><dc:creator>unit_circle</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=35478102</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=35478102</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by unit_circle in "Grand jury votes to indict Donald Trump"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>This is really all that's worth saying until next week</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Fri, 31 Mar 2023 05:54:34 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=35383140</link><dc:creator>unit_circle</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=35383140</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=35383140</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by unit_circle in "ChatGPT Plugins"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>But doesn't this seem like the correct approach long term? Basically shelling out to what essentially amounts to a fact table when it gets a factual question</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Fri, 24 Mar 2023 03:20:29 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=35284671</link><dc:creator>unit_circle</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=35284671</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=35284671</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by unit_circle in "ChatGPT Plugins"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>Why do you program? It won't go away, it'll just be different. You probably don't know x86 or arm instruction sets anyway. This will be a much faster, easier way to manipulate symbolic code.<p>I'm looking forward to being able to work alongside an AI because there are a zillion ideas I have every day that I don't have the time to fully explore. And all I do is work on the backend of a boring-ass webapp all day.<p>The only worrying thing is how fast this will accelerate everything... I'm worried society will, if not collapse, go for a wild ride.<p>As for interfaces... I'm looking forward to much better voice assistants. I would love to be able to essentially have conversations with the internet.</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Fri, 24 Mar 2023 03:17:57 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=35284648</link><dc:creator>unit_circle</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=35284648</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=35284648</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by unit_circle in "So you've installed `fzf` – now what?"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>Nice. I'm going to dig through these tomorrow. Thanks for posting! The PR review helper looks excellent and I'm excited to try it out. Til about `pandoc` and `glow`.<p>I whipped up a nice, performant branch picker last night that I'm pretty happy with, hopefully there are some useful tidbits for others. It's similar to your `flog` command but it uses the reflog to find the most recently checked out branches. It filters those which have been deleted using a set structure (well, map of bools), thus requiring BASH 4+. I'll be interested to see the differences in behavior and performance of your approach<p><a href="https://gist.github.com/pnovotnak/4dfe9b2867bf6fea60fa94b4c8a2cc9d" rel="nofollow">https://gist.github.com/pnovotnak/4dfe9b2867bf6fea60fa94b4c8...</a></p>
]]></description><pubDate>Thu, 23 Mar 2023 05:56:15 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=35270934</link><dc:creator>unit_circle</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=35270934</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=35270934</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by unit_circle in "SVB was particularly poorly run"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>I agree this is a stunning clip and a disgusting display of nepotism.<p>But I wouldn't say this clip is stunning (other than the temporal proximity). Sounds like this dude likes to run his mouth. He's bragging about his 3k sqft loft and these weird loan deals in front of strangers... I have no idea who he is, but if you showed me this clip and asked me to guess what he did when things went down, I'd tell you he said some (probably dumb) off-the-cuff stuff.</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Mon, 20 Mar 2023 19:28:37 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=35237275</link><dc:creator>unit_circle</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=35237275</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=35237275</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by unit_circle in "My new hobby: finding public domain images that Getty sells for $500"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>This is the correct answer. (My org at least) routes these legal requests quite differently and they are all handled promptly</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Mon, 20 Mar 2023 02:57:14 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=35226719</link><dc:creator>unit_circle</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=35226719</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=35226719</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by unit_circle in "Free data-center heat is allegedly saving a struggling public pool $24K a year"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>I'm glad that energy is becoming more expensive because I suppose things like this will become economical. Running BOINC during the winter is fun, but the impact is trivial.</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Thu, 16 Mar 2023 22:51:00 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=35190025</link><dc:creator>unit_circle</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=35190025</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=35190025</guid></item></channel></rss>