Hacker News: userabchn

New comment by userabchn in "Delete FROM users WHERE location = 'Iran';"

userabchn — Tue, 23 Sep 2025 13:20:29 +0000

The website of an American company returned a blank page to me. I thought that they must have made a mistake and that it would be fixed soon. Several days later it was still returning a blank page, so I sent them an email in case they didn't know. It turns out that they don't want to deal with the laws of other countries (EU's GDPR, etc.) and so simply return a blank page for anyone visiting from outside America. A "451 Unavailable For Legal Reasons" or some other type of explanation would have been less confusing than the blank page.

New comment by userabchn in "How I solved PyTorch's cross-platform nightmare"

userabchn — Thu, 11 Sep 2025 17:55:57 +0000

I maintain a package that provides some PyTorch operators that are written in C/C++/CUDA. I have tried various approaches over the years (including the ones endorsed by PyTorch), but the only solution I have found that seems to work flawlessly for everyone who uses it is to have no Python or PyTorch dependence in the compiled code, and to load the compiled libraries using ctypes. I use an old version of nvcc to compile the CUDA, use manylinux2014 for the Linux builds, and ask users to install PyTorch themselves before installing my package.

New comment by userabchn in "OpenAI claims gold-medal performance at IMO 2025"

userabchn — Sat, 19 Jul 2025 16:21:30 +0000

HN doesn't have a strong enough protection against bots, so foreign influence campaign bots with the goal of spreading negative sentiment about American technology companies are, I believe, very common here.

New comment by userabchn in "Britain is lowering the voting age to 16. It's getting a mixed reaction"

userabchn — Fri, 18 Jul 2025 16:10:37 +0000

As I have gotten older, I have come to believe that the current voting age is already too young. I thought I was right about things when I was 18, but with more experience I realise how naive I was.

New comment by userabchn in "I maintain a 17 year old ThinkPad"

userabchn — Thu, 03 Apr 2025 15:59:43 +0000

I use a 20 year old Dell laptop. The only problem for me is that 32bit is starting to become limiting.

New comment by userabchn in "'The tyranny of apps': those without smartphones are unfairly penalised"

userabchn — Sat, 22 Feb 2025 17:00:44 +0000

My ugly solution to this problem is to have a free Oracle Cloud VM in the other country that I use to run a VPN (Oracle provides instructions [1]). I then connect to this using OpenVPN on my phone, which allows me have a Google account that thinks I am in the other country and so allows me to install apps that are restricted to that country. I don't have the VPN connected all the time - only when I want to access the App Store using the Google account that I have for the other country.

[1]: https://blogs.oracle.com/developers/post/launching-your-own-...

New comment by userabchn in "Show HN: Air traffic control radio and chill music for focus"

userabchn — Mon, 17 Feb 2025 17:40:25 +0000

I used to listen to Digitally Imported's Eurodance station a lot 10-15 years ago, but eventually it felt like I just kept hearing the same songs, that they never added any new music to it.

New comment by userabchn in "My Time at MIT"

userabchn — Mon, 17 Feb 2025 17:28:35 +0000

During my PhD at MIT my girlfriend asked me how I thought I would feel about those years in the future. I said relieved that it was over, as, although I loved everything about the place, I felt constant pressure. She knew me better than I knew myself, it seems, as it was obvious to her that I would in fact long to be able to return to that time. I'm sure part of the longing is just due to the fact that I was in my 20s, living in my own nice on-campus apartment, and was hopeful that I had a bright future. Many people probably have a longing to be 23 again for similar reasons. However I think that what makes the feeling especially strong for me is that being at MIT added a feeling of privilege to every day. It created a sense of fulfilment, that I had done everything right and had succeeded.

I don't think I could bear to visit now. The smell of the Infinite Corridor, the tunnels, Vassar Street, the Eastman Court trees in Autumn, or a warm summer evening by the Charles, would bring back memories that would be overwhelming.

New comment by userabchn in "Family of OpenAI whistleblower Suchir Balaji demand FBI investigate death"

userabchn — Sun, 29 Dec 2024 18:00:42 +0000

I think many people underestimate the mental anguish caused by being ostracized by your former coworkers, and by the realization that, even after a lifetime of working hard, your career prospects are now in tatters.

New comment by userabchn in "What we know about CEO shooting suspect"

userabchn — Tue, 10 Dec 2024 18:15:26 +0000

> there's a very loud minority of performative extremists with an army of sock puppet accounts who want to hunt down the snitch

The people running the bot armies for foreign influence operations probably do not care about hunting down the snitch, they are simply following orders to spread that message.

New comment by userabchn in "Hit men aren't what you think"

userabchn — Sat, 07 Dec 2024 18:18:24 +0000

My suspicion is that this murder was organised by Russia as an attempt to normalise and encourage further vigilante actions, thereby weakening society. They chose their target well for this one, but I imagine, even after the shift it has caused in what is considered acceptable, there will be less widespread approval of future killings.

New comment by userabchn in "Anthem BCBS calls off surgery anesthesia cap after UH CEO murdered"

userabchn — Fri, 06 Dec 2024 13:25:26 +0000

I wonder whether the murder, and the immediate strong social media reaction supporting it, were part of a foreign influence operation. Normalising the idea that murdering a CEO makes you a hero and that a large percentage of the population would react to a murder with a laughing emoji will be effective means of furthering division.

New comment by userabchn in "Spirit Airlines is filing for bankruptcy"

userabchn — Wed, 13 Nov 2024 17:39:36 +0000

Spirit was pulling it off reasonably well until Covid.

New comment by userabchn in "MIT engineers make converting CO2 into useful products more practical"

userabchn — Wed, 13 Nov 2024 17:30:30 +0000

Have there been any recent developments in "lab-grown wood"? The last time I looked into it there had been some research on it (also at MIT), but there didn't seem to have been any updates for a few years.

New comment by userabchn in "Trump wins presidency for second time"

userabchn — Wed, 06 Nov 2024 13:08:22 +0000

> free Healthcare

It is not free for all.

New comment by userabchn in "Scientists working to decode birdsong"

userabchn — Mon, 21 Oct 2024 15:52:33 +0000

I installed it a year or two ago but was disappointed by its identification abilities. Then it changed to require providing an email address so I deleted it.

New comment by userabchn in "Routine dental X-rays are not backed by evidence"

userabchn — Tue, 15 Oct 2024 16:12:34 +0000

The dental office where I used to get my teeth cleaned every six months did X-rays every time and then no one ever looked at them. If you went there for a checkup they required you to get another set done. I am quite certain that they just assumed everyone had dental insurance and it was effectively insurance fraud.

New comment by userabchn in "Scale Ruins Everything"

userabchn — Tue, 15 Oct 2024 15:58:29 +0000

> what if corporate income tax were tied to the logarithm of the number of employees+contractors? What if the corporate income tax increased with the market share in markets served?

Is there a reason for choosing those rather than the simpler alternative of the corporate income tax rate increasing progressively with revenue (as it does for individuals)?

New comment by userabchn in "Tesla Robotaxi"

userabchn — Fri, 11 Oct 2024 09:48:37 +0000

I'm disappointed that it wasn't a single occupant, three-wheeled, ultra-basic microcar limited to 50 km/h to gather and scatter people from public transport stops, solving the last-mile problem.

New comment by userabchn in "If Fever Helps Fight Infection, Should I Avoid Fever-Reducing Drugs? (2018)"

userabchn — Wed, 07 Aug 2024 17:04:22 +0000

The fever might help to fight infection, but I think sleeping well helps even more and fever-reducing drugs are useful for that