Hacker News: wand3r

New comment by wand3r in "US citizen charged after GrapheneOS phone wipes during airport search"

wand3r — Mon, 27 Jul 2026 02:07:51 +0000

Yes, this is something more people really need to take to heart. As Americans are seeing, a lot of rules are unenforceable and really came down to norms and pressure. I have been thinking about this a lot over the last few years and it is roughly encapsulated in this tweet I saw a while back.

When I was a kid I wanted to be a police officer because I wouldn't have to follow any laws or rules. Then I got a little bit older and realized that wasn't how being a police officer actually worked in practice. Then, I got a little bit older than that, and realized that it actually does work like that.

This has always been true and there has never really been perfect justice. Ultimately, power and violence have always superseded the law. High trust societies with less corruption and a strong justice system try to limit these circumstances.

New comment by wand3r in "Kimi K3 Is Competitive with Fable; Kimi K3 and Fable Is SoTA"

wand3r — Wed, 22 Jul 2026 01:53:54 +0000

There is too much business risk in running on an American company. They can pull the model back or lobotimize it. No Alex Karp fan, but he was right: companies are worried about hyperscalers stealing their alpha. The lack of guardrails, data security and control really give these open models the edge. If you factor in that they appear to cost less, the hyperscalers are in big trouble. I don't see how this works out. Software was always supposed to be deflationary and collapse down to 0 marginal cost but this isn't remotely the case. It's truly amazing to see the state of open weight models

New comment by wand3r in "Algorithmic Monocultures in Hiring"

wand3r — Tue, 23 Jun 2026 20:32:38 +0000

Did I miss the part of the article where they break down how they determined race? Is the algorithm blind to race? It looks like they specifically looked at 83k people applying to ~100 companies which notably were Fortune 500 companies. Could there simply be candidate discrepancies here? Hard for me to follow the full methodology but it doesn't necessarily seem either malicious or that well structured. Don't you need to have a control group of applicants who are similar on paper? To allege DISCRIMINATION is quite bold.

Definitely open to opposing or critical views

New comment by wand3r in "It's hard to justify buying a Framework 12"

wand3r — Sat, 30 May 2026 15:50:33 +0000

The author does mention it, they just don't deeply analyze it. Frankly, it goes without saying. If you are considering a framework and reading articles about it, you almost certainly understand the tradeoff and it was mentioned in the article. Given the build quality of Apple and the option to lock in Apple care vs. the insane cost of computer parts, it isn't that important. Especially for an entry level laptop.

New comment by wand3r in "New statue in London, attributed to Banksy, of a suited man, blinded by a flag"

wand3r — Sun, 03 May 2026 20:29:13 +0000

Certainly in America but all over the west, people are significantly less capable of media literacy. Sometimes the obvious needs to be said.

New comment by wand3r in "Trump says Venezuela’s Maduro captured after strikes"

wand3r — Sat, 03 Jan 2026 22:57:54 +0000

This really doesn't have much to do with oil. This is because Marco Rubio and a cadre of wealthy elite immigrants who fled communism in the last half century have this grand vision of revenge and subscribe to an absurd notion of Domino Theory where communism will fall. Maduro already promised to stop trading with China and negotiate absurdly favorable mineral and energy deals. He even conceded to give up power on a 2-3 year timeline. Obviously, we will go in and control the nation and take a ton of resources. However, this was primarily about Marco Rubio living out his father's fantasy as outlined in his autobiography. It was sold to Trump as a drugs bust because he is an absolute moron and needed a distraction from Epstein.

Honestly, this is disgusting. Trump is personally renting and selling out America for personal profit. To Israel and now a cadre of South Floridians. He is selling passports and pardons and letting countries have trade deals or bases. I simply do not understand how everyone with power is letting this happen. This is not even ideological. The country is in recession and we are attached to 3 wars. WTF IS HAPPENING?

Ask HN: What is your prediction for the price of computer parts in 2026?

wand3r — Sat, 03 Jan 2026 21:42:17 +0000

I am considering doing a build but the pricing makes me want to gag. RAM pricing particularly seems to be climbing aggressively with no end in sight. I feel like I should build a computer ASAP and buy as much as I can afford now. Due to AI there will be significant pressure on RAM and GPUs IMO. There is a rumor that Samsung will pull out of the NAND/Storage market. In a situation where there is a problem in Taiwan, CPUs would increase drastically. What are your predictions? Do you think if you were to hold out 6-12 months things would improve? Maybe tariffs or some other factor will change and pricing will fall? What do you think the general parts market trends are for 2026?

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46481925

Points: 2

# Comments: 2

New comment by wand3r in "Delaware High Court Reinstates Elon Musk's $56B Tesla Pay Package"

wand3r — Sun, 21 Dec 2025 02:09:39 +0000

The board approved his pay package 2 times. The share price when the initial operating milestones were set was roughly $21 and he was able to raise the share price to >$450. Regardless of anyone's opinion on Elon Musk, the pay package was obviously valid. His performance was directly incentivized by tying it to business outcomes which at the time were considered completely impossible. The board approved this twice. This is politicized garbage. I am not a lawyer but it says the initial denial of his package were for procedural violations and undue influence. However, this is the case in all founder run companies. It seems pretty straight forward and fair, they set absurd milestones and quotas which, in the event they were met, would mean the company would be in tremendous and unthinkable financial position. All shareholders were handsomely rewarded.

New comment by wand3r in "We're losing our voice to LLMs"

wand3r — Thu, 27 Nov 2025 16:01:53 +0000

If you didn't intentionally try and trick us, then yes, you used an LLM.

New comment by wand3r in "Joe Rogan Experience #2394 – Palmer Luckey [video]"

wand3r — Sun, 19 Oct 2025 16:19:31 +0000

The hellfire missile video not striking a UAP is crazy.

New comment by wand3r in "Jeep wrangler owners waiting for answers week after an update bricked their cars"

wand3r — Sat, 18 Oct 2025 03:37:10 +0000

Tesla isn't the best proxy for what is normal. While Tesla has had a lot of issues and the critiques and articles are valid, it definitely seems like the media coverage was much more widespread and pervasive because 1)Anti Elon sentiment sells ads and clicks 2) it was somewhat agenda based. I am not making a political statement, but I think what I said is objectively true.

New comment by wand3r in "US Passport Power Falls to Historic Low"

wand3r — Wed, 15 Oct 2025 19:17:03 +0000

Leaving aside the ranking this article itself employs, it does seem to track. I will arbitrarily and qualitatively try and touch on some perceived benefits of a US passport / citizenship that seem to be falling:

- Visaless entry

- Ability to skip lines or fast track through immigration

- Embassy services

- Marriage prospect: Often US citizens were desirable or at least neutral partners for international relationships. Foreign nationals considered the option of relocating to America favorably. A partner may not want to relocate to the US now, or want a relationship with an American.

- General disapproval of Americans abroad in some countries

- Likelihood the government would intervene on your behalf. Brittney Griner / Travis King.

The Trump government does not seem as capable at governing. The Democrats seem to be be better at governing and favor bureaucracy more, whether this is true or perceived, I will not claim to know. The government itself is not funded/shut down currently which may impact embassies and clerical services. There does seem to be a general dislike of America and frustration building in many populations and presumably governments. The standing of America has greatly fallen in the world. While hostilities seem to be rising, America's ability to project soft and real power seem to be falling. This can impact some of the points above.

I am sure there are other points I have missed and factors I have overlooked. I would say that the general perception of the "strength" of a passport has fallen.

New comment by wand3r in "Don't Do Live Demos, Do Live-Looking Demos"

wand3r — Tue, 14 Oct 2025 16:30:04 +0000

This is good advice. The breakdown really depends on how big of a gap there is between the reality of your product and your "live-looking" demo. Also, the stakes matter here as well. You can end up in Magic Leap territory pretty quickly, and it is telling that many people might not even understand this reference. In general, I totally agree with the OP, especially for a talk. However, the Meta demo likely failed because the technology was simply not fully there yet. Add in thoughtless executives and a marketing team, and you can be doing a live looking demo of something that absolutely does not exist. You will then be ripped apart by the press and your users taking a massive reputational hit.

New comment by wand3r in "Tech CEOs Take Turns Praising Trump at White House Dinner"

wand3r — Fri, 05 Sep 2025 17:38:26 +0000

The power is real. The fear is real. The praise is the only fake thing.

New comment by wand3r in "Google: 'Your $1000 phone needs our permission to install apps now' [video]"

wand3r — Sun, 31 Aug 2025 17:24:48 +0000

> You can't even unlock the bootloader on most of the quality Android phones.

Can you not do this on Samsung phones? I was considering buying a used s22 ultra as an iPhone user to explore more freedom and pirate apps, etc. Is andoid really this locked down now? I have heard that quite a bit, but can't you sideload or install any apps you want on Android? Why do you need to unlock the bootloader?

New comment by wand3r in "That viral video of a 'deactivated' Tesla Cybertruck is a fake"

wand3r — Tue, 12 Aug 2025 17:34:03 +0000

Yeah. I have noticed a disturbing amount of people believe fake stories, tweets, videos, propaganda etc. because it confirms their worldview or is otherwise fun. For example, the amount of people who thought dumb Republicans were dying from eating horse dewormer was way overblown. Or that Haitian immigrants were eating cats and dogs.

I have adopted an extremely skeptical view of almost all content on the internet now. Fun videos that are staged aren't particularly harmful. Something like "a crazy coincidence or wild prank" made to look real and genuine is not particularly sinister. I personally have briefly put way to much stock in a screenshot of a Tweet from an unattributed anonymous poster alleging X happened. Simply because "it feels true" and confirms my bias. Be careful out there kids!

New comment by wand3r in "Perplexity Makes Longshot $34.5B Offer for Chrome"

wand3r — Tue, 12 Aug 2025 17:06:28 +0000

Presumably they would include a clause they can't do that? If not, why wouldn't they simply fork Chromium if they haven't already. They must be bargaining that there will be some lockout period and regulatory scrutiny that would prevent them from immeadiately rebranding chrome and repointing all the download links to a new repo.

New comment by wand3r in "Japan's largest paper, Yomiuri Shimbun, sues Perplexity for copyright violations"

wand3r — Tue, 12 Aug 2025 12:55:45 +0000

You are entitled to your opinion. Personally, I would only be able to accept your worldview if these artists grew up on something like an island without books or internet and pursued their craft 100% intuitively without any external influence. Then they could make a claim their work was 100% original. Otherwise, I find all human output to be derivative and build off the body of work of the entire race. This is one of mankind's greatest advantages IMO.

edit: When many make this argument, what they are really saying is "big fucks small". This may not be what you are saying, but seems to be the general philosophy of many who make this argument. I am sympathetic to that which is why I believe we should have something like a 15% tax or 2% of revenue of AI paid into a general tax fund. I find it impossible to litigate how much a news article should be "worth" when 400 of the same news article were written the same day with the value immeadiately diminishing after the "news" was new.

New comment by wand3r in "Japan's largest paper, Yomiuri Shimbun, sues Perplexity for copyright violations"

wand3r — Tue, 12 Aug 2025 05:19:55 +0000

I personally find this argument really lazy. In a very reductionist reframing, independent artists who uploaded some art to the internet for fun believe that AI shouldn't be allowed to exist without them being paid, essential alleging their contribution to AI is fundamental to it's existence. I would be a lot more receptive to the fact that all humans generally contributed to the information this system consumed and we enact some democratic law that 15% of all profits flow into some public tax fund, rather than litigate every single instance of potential copywrite on the per person or organizational level.

There are obviously laws that differ in every region but at a philosophical level I believe in the ideal of fair use. An AI is a distinctly different "work" than these originals and much like a human's own output is informed by all the information they have taken in over their lifetime, so is the output of a model.

New comment by wand3r in "OpenAI raises $8.3B at $300B valuation"

wand3r — Mon, 04 Aug 2025 14:07:08 +0000

I forgot to mention lucrative non-government enterprise contracts. Just commenting so I can point to these 2 comments in 5 years.