<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: vba616</title><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/user?id=vba616</link><description>Hacker News RSS</description><docs>https://hnrss.org/</docs><generator>hnrss v2.1.1</generator><lastBuildDate>Sun, 26 Jul 2026 04:13:46 +0000</lastBuildDate><atom:link href="https://hnrss.org/user?id=vba616" rel="self" type="application/rss+xml"></atom:link><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by vba616 in "[dead]"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>Is the size of the effect in any of these studies stated in your comments? I skimmed them but didn't see what I was looking for.<p>Or via non-paywalled links?<p>Thanks.</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Sun, 21 Apr 2024 23:28:39 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40110106</link><dc:creator>vba616</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40110106</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40110106</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by vba616 in "Meta says you can't turn off its new AI tool on Facebook, Instagram"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>"Sledge designed the humanoids to help humanity and be invulnerable to human exploitation. However, he eventually realized that they had instead taken control of humanity, in the name of their Prime Directive, to make humans happy<p>...<p>No humans may engage in any behavior that might endanger them, and every human action is carefully scrutinized. Suicide is prohibited. Humans who resist the Prime Directive are taken away and lobotomized, so that they may live happily under the direction of the humanoids."<p><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/With_Folded_Hands" rel="nofollow">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/With_Folded_Hands</a></p>
]]></description><pubDate>Sat, 20 Apr 2024 23:37:53 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40101981</link><dc:creator>vba616</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40101981</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40101981</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by vba616 in "Would you trust a donation collector with card on phone as much as with cash?"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>I assumed it's more or less what they call a "thrift store" in the US.</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Wed, 17 Apr 2024 23:19:14 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40071148</link><dc:creator>vba616</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40071148</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40071148</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by vba616 in "Would you trust a donation collector with card on phone as much as with cash?"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>Presumably it was meant literally, but the term "charity shop collector" seems to have some other meanings as well which are interesting to me as a non-UKian speaker:<p><pre><code>   - A provider of "a charity shop back-end as a service", which disposes of donations 
     received by charity shops.

     e.g. https://live.ctrgroup.co.uk/third-sector/textiles-collection/ 

   - A person who collects things purchased from charity shops.
     
     e.g. "Harding is an avid charity shop collector, especially of sad and neglected 
     ceramic animals".</code></pre></p>
]]></description><pubDate>Tue, 16 Apr 2024 23:18:05 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40058519</link><dc:creator>vba616</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40058519</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40058519</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by vba616 in "92 out of the top 500 Reddit subs are controlled by just 4 people"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>They seem to be losing money.<p>On the one hand, if they are incinerating millions of dollars every month, that's an argument that they could easily afford a few more - after all, they are getting cash from somewhere.<p>On the other hand, if they are losing money, in a certain sense they have not got even $1 to spare.</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Tue, 16 Apr 2024 22:28:57 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40058075</link><dc:creator>vba616</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40058075</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40058075</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by vba616 in "92 out of the top 500 Reddit subs are controlled by just 4 people"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>I don't understand what you mean, or why you wrote it.</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Mon, 15 Apr 2024 22:44:55 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40046547</link><dc:creator>vba616</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40046547</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40046547</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by vba616 in "92 out of the top 500 Reddit subs are controlled by just 4 people"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>>Their revenue was $804 million. It's not a huge amount for them.<p>They made $804M after all expenses? Or before?</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Mon, 15 Apr 2024 21:25:37 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40045795</link><dc:creator>vba616</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40045795</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40045795</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by vba616 in "Cow Magnets"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>Decades before I had to deal with my mom dying, I read "Grave Angels" by Richard Kearns, and I don't know what more you can say on the topic of accepting death.</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Wed, 10 Apr 2024 23:40:44 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=39996844</link><dc:creator>vba616</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=39996844</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=39996844</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by vba616 in "Cow Magnets"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>The "right now" whereof I spoke is basically any crisis during a quickly progressing terminal cancer after the oxycontin starts and before the morphine.<p>When a person can speak, and change their mind, and everyone involved in care isn't present at a particular instant or on the same page with what to do.<p>If that clarifies.</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Wed, 10 Apr 2024 22:47:58 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=39996492</link><dc:creator>vba616</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=39996492</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=39996492</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by vba616 in "Cow Magnets"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>>Plenty of people recognize when it's time.<p>Thank you for being relatively polite.<p>All of the replies to my original comment have veered off from what I tried to express with the phrase "right now".<p>I was alluding to a situation with rapid terminal cancer much later than diagnosis, but earlier than morphine + the end of communication. The fentanyl or oxycontin stage, as I recall it.<p>I think most likely if you are ever so slightly insulated from such a situation, you might not realize it.<p>Having a parent die of cancer when you are ~7 may not prepare you for having a parent die of cancer when you are ~37. That is how I see it now.</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Wed, 10 Apr 2024 22:18:30 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=39996296</link><dc:creator>vba616</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=39996296</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=39996296</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by vba616 in "Cow Magnets"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>>It was a much better death than having a lot of futile last-minute interventions.<p>It's easy to say that sort of thing, so everyone does. It makes plenty of sense.<p>People don't want to die in the hospital or go through hell in their last days or weeks.<p>But nobody wants to die <i>right now</i>, ever. No matter what they said before or what papers they signed.<p>The standard picture, the logic, makes perfect crystalline sense up until there is a choice between going to the hospital right now and living an undefined amount of time, maybe only a day or a week, but longer than the next few minutes.</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Tue, 09 Apr 2024 21:24:32 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=39984437</link><dc:creator>vba616</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=39984437</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=39984437</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by vba616 in "Elon Musk predicts AI will overtake human intelligence next year"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>"Overtake" doesn't imply "becomes superior to in intelligence"...Maybe he does mean it that way, but still.<p>Was the Terminator superior to all humans in intelligence? Either in the original or the first sequel? It didn't seem like it to me. It was just good enough to infiltrate and destroy.</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Tue, 09 Apr 2024 20:25:24 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=39983853</link><dc:creator>vba616</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=39983853</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=39983853</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by vba616 in "I was targeted in the Westminster honeytrap"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Badger_game" rel="nofollow">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Badger_game</a><p>I am now learning that:<p>"A famous person known to have fallen victim of the scheme was the first United States Secretary of the Treasury, Alexander Hamilton"<p><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hamilton%E2%80%93Reynolds_affair" rel="nofollow">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hamilton%E2%80%93Reynolds_affa...</a></p>
]]></description><pubDate>Tue, 09 Apr 2024 19:57:53 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=39983572</link><dc:creator>vba616</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=39983572</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=39983572</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by vba616 in "Home insurers are dropping customers based on aerial images"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>>that requires capital - more than the average owner really has access too<p>It sounds odd to my ear to matter-of-factly state that the US is deprived due to being capital-poor.<p>I mean, I'm not disputing anything specific, but where do middle-class people have better access to consumer finance than the US?<p>If you'd asked me what single fact represents American homeowners to people interested in economics around the world, I would've guessed it's the access to 30-year fixed rate mortgages.<p>As far as I know this is a deliberate policy in the US, that has not been emulated by those envious of the American economy, but why I haven't a clue.</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Sat, 06 Apr 2024 23:07:01 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=39956495</link><dc:creator>vba616</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=39956495</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=39956495</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by vba616 in "Home insurers are dropping customers based on aerial images"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>That sounds very nice. What would a competitive rent for your house be? Is it near London?<p>For Americans who don't know anything about housing in the UK, there is an interesting article at: <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Council_house" rel="nofollow">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Council_house</a><p>Being Wikipedia in 2024, I wouldn't assume it's not all AI hallucinated references, but still, it's interesting.</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Sat, 06 Apr 2024 22:58:18 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=39956445</link><dc:creator>vba616</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=39956445</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=39956445</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by vba616 in "NYC officials took 24 minutes to alert New Yorkers about earthquake"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>It was stated that aftershocks are a concern.<p>I guess the idea is if you didn't notice the initial quake then you should be warned there might be a follow up.</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Sat, 06 Apr 2024 00:03:48 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=39948746</link><dc:creator>vba616</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=39948746</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=39948746</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by vba616 in "Tesla quarterly deliveries decline in nearly four years"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>Does Tesla have a dealer system like Toyota and Ford?</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Wed, 03 Apr 2024 04:12:17 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=39913536</link><dc:creator>vba616</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=39913536</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=39913536</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by vba616 in "Re-evaluating GPT-4's bar exam performance"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>"when examining only those who passed the exam (i.e. licensed or license-pending attorneys), GPT-4’s performance is estimated to drop to 48th percentile overall, and 15th percentile on essays."<p>What do they call a lawyer who passed the bar exam at the 15th percentile?</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Mon, 01 Apr 2024 21:17:15 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=39899472</link><dc:creator>vba616</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=39899472</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=39899472</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by vba616 in "F-16s "Sitting Ducks" for Russian MiG-31 Fighters?"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>The article never really compares the MiG-31 with the F-16 - it has almost nothing to say about the missiles and electronics of the latter.<p>It reminds me of a time I went to a Honda dealer and started listing the reasons why Toyotas had better engineering.<p>The salesman appeared to take it very personally, but I was thinking "duh, can't you see I want a Honda <i>because</i> I know all about their competition and yet I'm here?". Maybe he thought I worked for Toyota.</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Thu, 28 Mar 2024 22:53:38 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=39858400</link><dc:creator>vba616</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=39858400</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=39858400</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by vba616 in "Comments are always wrong (2009)"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>Comments are always wrong...but some of them are useful.</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Sun, 24 Mar 2024 19:05:50 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=39809406</link><dc:creator>vba616</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=39809406</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=39809406</guid></item></channel></rss>