Hacker News: waqf

New comment by waqf in "Google scrambles to manually remove weird AI answers in search"

waqf — Sun, 26 May 2024 12:29:31 +0000

Recently I searched Google for a slightly unlikely phrase — in quotation marks — and Google proudly told me that my phrase was grammatically correct.

And nothing else. They didn't give me any search results. Or even tell me there weren't any results. Or even give me a button to press to say "no, I really wanted to search the internet for this phrase".

And also I have zero interest in Google's opinion on English grammar and am frankly insulted to be offered it, although to be fair I'm probably in a minority worldwide on that one.

If I can't use Google to search the internet for things, then Google is eventually going to have a big problem.

New comment by waqf in "Everyone Wants Your Email Address. Think Twice Before Sharing It"

waqf — Sun, 18 Feb 2024 20:40:01 +0000

Moving to another country is a nightmare because you cannot bring your phone number.

I am currently paying for a US phone number I don't meaningfully use, because it's not clear that all of my important account-holding organizations reliably support a two-factor/login confirmation strategy that isn't "US phone number".

New comment by waqf in "The dating app paradox"

waqf — Wed, 14 Feb 2024 12:40:13 +0000

My experience is that the major limiting factor in finding partners is whether people "click" with me, not whether people are single.

In other words I'm better off going to an event with my kind of people and looking for the 5% that are eligible singles, than going to an event with singles and looking for the 0.5% that are my kind of people.

Obviously this would be different if you're a person who likes almost everyone and is attractive to almost everyone — a golden retriever, as it were. I offer no opinion on whether many such people exist.

New comment by waqf in "Rampant DMCA use of Tumblr site for filing false copyright claims with Google"

waqf — Tue, 13 Feb 2024 13:44:09 +0000

Arguably the problem is that copyright enforcement has been farmed out to private middlemen with a fast and loose process.

New comment by waqf in "The Brennan self-balancing monorail [video]"

waqf — Mon, 12 Feb 2024 12:57:43 +0000

Do you still feel uncomfortable if you cannot see outside the train at all (i.e. not even in peripheral vision)? My understanding was that the effect was caused by the scenery outside the window moving in a way that's incommensurate with what your sense of balance is telling you.

New comment by waqf in "Incentives and the Cobra Effect"

waqf — Thu, 08 Feb 2024 11:32:35 +0000

Discreet users, or discrete users? (I initially assumed you meant discreet, i.e. not wanting to share login details, but the comment read oddly as a result.)

New comment by waqf in "A record number of Americans can't afford rent"

waqf — Wed, 07 Feb 2024 20:18:59 +0000

I assume you're referring to the graph on the page you linked. Is there an explanation somewhere of exactly how it is calculated?

I tried to read the "article" underneath the graph but it just seems to be a disjointed collection of assertions strung together with inappropriate connectives and insane formatting.

New comment by waqf in "Two's complement integers with only sign bit set should be a trap representation"

waqf — Wed, 07 Feb 2024 14:56:44 +0000

Every rational number is a p-adic number (though not necessarily a p-adic integer, of course). So doesn't that mean p-adic numbers would be below rationals?

New comment by waqf in "WA House bill would make it illegal for police to lie during interrogations"

waqf — Mon, 05 Feb 2024 20:16:52 +0000

This is speculative and based on a possibly not-representative sample, but what I've noticed from watching bodycam footage is that when the suspect asks for a supervisor, the police give negative/discouraging replies to the suspect while they are also calling a supervisor in the background.

I assume the intention is to comply with the letter of the law while maximizing the chance that the suspect will abandon the request and not force them to wait until the supervisor arrives.

New comment by waqf in "A journalist goes undercover to reveal the absurdity of the art scene"

waqf — Wed, 31 Jan 2024 11:38:42 +0000

You're an AI, aren't you?

New comment by waqf in "Harmonics Explorer"

waqf — Mon, 29 Jan 2024 23:53:37 +0000

Strictly speaking they're all non-piano intervals, just some are more non-piano than others. (Or you can retune your piano …)

New comment by waqf in "In loving memory of square checkbox"

waqf — Sun, 28 Jan 2024 13:10:48 +0000

The mute on the touchbar on my MacBook Pro has a slash when unmuted (and also when muted).

It looks like this unmuted: https://discussions.apple.com/content/attachment/e909bffc-81...

and this muted: https://discussions.apple.com/content/attachment/e3e9c230-e4...

I believe the reason it always has the slash is to distinguish it from the "change volume" button (which, when pressed, pops up a volume slider). But it's still confusing.

New comment by waqf in "'Horizon IT system was 100% reliable'"

waqf — Fri, 26 Jan 2024 21:38:05 +0000

There's an impressive amount of detail about what was actually wrong with the system in the judgements from some of the previous cases; I think the main one is this one: https://www.bailii.org/ew/cases/EWHC/QB/2019/3408.html

New comment by waqf in "'Horizon IT system was 100% reliable'"

waqf — Fri, 26 Jan 2024 21:31:29 +0000

My impression is that it's a technical case (not just about software, but really also about how accounting evidence should look) and that it was subverted by misleading testimony from the needed expert witnesses.

I don't disagree that the UK needs to take a long, hard look at its judicial system, but what system is safe from this kind of problem and how so?

New comment by waqf in "Air France denied my delay compensation, so I challenged them and won"

waqf — Fri, 07 Jul 2023 03:03:17 +0000

Triple damages, that reminds me of something … if you happen to live in Massachusetts you might be able to send them a Chapter 93A letter (which entitles you to triple damages if they don't attempt to settle in good faith)

New comment by waqf in "Flashing elements alienate users"

waqf — Wed, 28 Jun 2023 06:16:14 +0000

> it endears users

This time I am speaking solely for myself, but your grammar alienates and enrages me.

New comment by waqf in "Setris – Tetris with Sand Physics"

waqf — Tue, 30 May 2023 15:09:23 +0000

I watched the demo video but I can't get over using E in the bass in bar 5, where D would normally be expected. (Yes, it should be possible to use chord V11 here instead of IV if you really want, but you would need to fill out the harmony a lot more to make that work, not just the bass line.)

New comment by waqf in "Amazon investigates after high-value orders were switched for cheaper products"

waqf — Sat, 22 Apr 2023 16:17:07 +0000

You only have to counterfeit it to the standard of Amazon's returned-items check though, not to the OEM's standard.

New comment by waqf in "Amazon investigates after high-value orders were switched for cheaper products"

waqf — Sat, 22 Apr 2023 16:11:00 +0000

The point is to find a way to have the 90% questions answered by a machine, and the 10% by an expert human. And LLMs are (another step towards) making it hard to argue that this isn't feasible or isn't a good experience.

New comment by waqf in "The Door Close Button"

waqf — Tue, 14 Mar 2023 21:54:05 +0000

Meanwhile, on the London Underground, the lengths of all sets of stairs down to platform level are described as "equivalent to 15 floors" irrespective of how high they actually are: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pBTvmrRGlbE&t=41s