Hacker News: wavefunction

New comment by wavefunction in "The buns in McDonald's Japan's burger photos are all slightly askew"

wavefunction — Wed, 15 Apr 2026 22:07:37 +0000

noone says you can't use industrial adhesives imperceptible to the advertised eye

New comment by wavefunction in "I wrote to Flock's privacy contact to opt out of their domestic spying program"

wavefunction — Wed, 15 Apr 2026 04:03:12 +0000

I assume they are building "meta-data" profiles of people based on the data they say they can't use directly. That seems like an easy work-around that satisfies the lip-service they've given to the issue.

New comment by wavefunction in "I went to America's worst national parks so you don't have to"

wavefunction — Mon, 13 Apr 2026 13:36:31 +0000

In form it approximates a classic "park" more than the sort of national parks you and I probably think of. I like the idea of diversity in our national parks and public lands. Some could focus on history and education, others on naturalism and ecology, others could mix and match as needed. Urban national parks seem like a fine idea and a way to encourage urban populations to explore more public lands outside of their cities too, eventually. To build a nation of parks and gardens would be laudable.

New comment by wavefunction in "AI Will Be Met with Violence, and Nothing Good Will Come of It"

wavefunction — Sun, 12 Apr 2026 15:35:24 +0000

It's the way that machine-learning automation is deployed and used in/against society and individuals that will engender violence. I don't necessarily think it will be unjustified even if I think such violence will be unproductive and should be discouraged in favor of a wider consensus in society.

New comment by wavefunction in "We intercepted the White House app's network traffic"

wavefunction — Wed, 01 Apr 2026 04:34:21 +0000

People will excuse anything when it suits them

New comment by wavefunction in "Missile defense is NP-complete"

wavefunction — Tue, 24 Mar 2026 14:30:09 +0000

You could counter multipayload missiles by hitting the missile earlier in its trajectory before the payloads deploy, that was the plan for MIRV nukes but it requires usually forward interceptors or perhaps energy weapons we don't yet have.

New comment by wavefunction in "Palantir extends reach into British state as gets access to sensitive FCA data"

wavefunction — Sun, 22 Mar 2026 21:30:43 +0000

He joked about Palantir killing people. I know Israel and the US have been using some sort of Palantir system for target designation and that speaks for itself.

New comment by wavefunction in "Please do not A/B test my workflow"

wavefunction — Mon, 16 Mar 2026 15:14:14 +0000

Big tech companies are not serving their "users" but advertisers, it's a common mistake.

New comment by wavefunction in "Starlink militarization and its impact on global strategic stability (2023)"

wavefunction — Mon, 16 Mar 2026 15:13:26 +0000

The paper argues that the militarization of space is inevitable. I agree based on it being a self-fulfilling prophecy by paranoids and not the charming type.

New comment by wavefunction in "MoD sources warn Palantir role at heart of government is threat to UK security"

wavefunction — Mon, 16 Mar 2026 15:11:07 +0000

Not for Jared Kushner and I expect he's not the only one.

New comment by wavefunction in "Cannabinoids remove plaque-forming Alzheimer's proteins from brain cells (2016)"

wavefunction — Mon, 16 Mar 2026 10:38:16 +0000

Willie Nelson is pretty sharp for his age. I compare him to the much younger President of the United States who blathers absolute nonsense constantly despite no known history of cannabis use and a claimed history of abstaining from all substances.

New comment by wavefunction in "Starlink militarization and its impact on global strategic stability (2023)"

wavefunction — Sat, 14 Mar 2026 15:35:12 +0000

I haven't read it fully but it doesn't seem to be promoting any sort of falsehoods. As an American I consider any reliance on Starlink and the thoroughly compromised Elon Musk to be a weakness rather than a strength.

New comment by wavefunction in "Please do not A/B test my workflow"

wavefunction — Sat, 14 Mar 2026 14:36:49 +0000

A responsible company develops an informed user group they can test new changes with and receive direct feedback they can take action on.

New comment by wavefunction in "Italian prosecutors seek trial for Amazon, 4 execs in alleged $1.4B tax evasion"

wavefunction — Thu, 12 Mar 2026 20:35:11 +0000

Billionaires don't seem to create anything new when they're billionaires. You look at companies like Google or Meta and they acquire companies and teams but what sort of truly successful projects and products did they create from whole. It seems like a string of failures, canceled projects and lackluster product offerings to me.

If we can tell poor people how to behave for their own good then we can certainly help billionaires out too by taxing them back to creativity.

New comment by wavefunction in "Will vibe coding end like the maker movement?"

wavefunction — Thu, 26 Feb 2026 22:03:02 +0000

Tortoise have been observed righting other tortoise that have become stuck. https://www.youtube.com/shorts/DZ57D608fiM (two tortoises helping a third) this has a terrible voiceover but you get the idea

New comment by wavefunction in "MIT Living Wage Calculator"

wavefunction — Mon, 09 Feb 2026 22:28:57 +0000

I would only add that young people or anyone should be able to afford to live alone as you say OR opt to live with roommates to share expenses and save and build wealth. It shouldn't be necessary for anyone working 40 hours a week to pool their resources with other people in similar situations simply to survive.

New comment by wavefunction in "New York’s budget bill would require “blocking technology” on all 3D printers"

wavefunction — Wed, 04 Feb 2026 07:50:09 +0000

In my experience in Texas, the right-wingers have this system set up where votes that were legally cast can be denied validity by some sort of "citizens election integrity board." I had no issue voting in Travis County but when I moved to a more conservative suburban county address I ran into this. There's a multitude of ways for anti-democratic forces in the US to deny citizens their rights. And it really hardened my opinion of these sorts of people that would do that to me and others. If they say my rights aren't valid how valid are their own, certainly nothing I should respect given their treatment of myself and others. That's why I have no tolerance for the right-wing I've seen their real face.

New comment by wavefunction in "Tesla ending Models S and X production"

wavefunction — Thu, 29 Jan 2026 05:03:09 +0000

>the most popular car on the planet

That's the Toyota Corolla. I find this inaccurate glazing of musk to be relatively common but it always strikes me as profoundly weird.

New comment by wavefunction in "ICE and Palantir: US agents using health data to hunt illegal immigrants"

wavefunction — Wed, 28 Jan 2026 13:57:06 +0000

"structured data transfers" yeah I've done those, difference is it wasn't to build fascDB or extract public monies at grossly over-inflated rates

New comment by wavefunction in "US Vaccine Panel Chair Says Polio and Other Shots Should Be Optional"

wavefunction — Sat, 24 Jan 2026 19:33:25 +0000

Ignorance is neutral. It's not an assignation of blame, merely an acknowledgement of deficit.