Hacker News: webnrrd2k

New comment by webnrrd2k in "Leo's first encyclical attacks technological messianism"

webnrrd2k — Sat, 30 May 2026 13:46:46 +0000

I think it's a reference to the Butlerian Jihad

https://dune.fandom.com/wiki/Butlerian_Jihad

New comment by webnrrd2k in "I hated writing until I learned there’s a science to it (2024)"

webnrrd2k — Fri, 29 May 2026 00:35:37 +0000

As far as I can tell, according to the article, the "science" is get feedback and listen to it. Ok, that was perfectly fine advice, I guess.

New comment by webnrrd2k in "FBI Arrests CIA Official with $40M in Gold Bars in His Home"

webnrrd2k — Thu, 28 May 2026 03:23:10 +0000

There's a book that ties into this sort of thing - Gold Warriors [1]. It about how, post WWII, the US recovered a bunch of Gold looted from China and used it to set up an anti-communist slush fund.

[1] https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/249237.Gold_Warriors

New comment by webnrrd2k in "The Road to a Billion-Token Context"

webnrrd2k — Tue, 05 May 2026 01:04:21 +0000

This is more me thinking out loud than a fully formed theory, but I suspect that a really large context might be useful when LLMs control more physical things. The huge context could be used to help encode the huge amount of implicit knowledge that ~4 billion years of evolution has crammed into our bodies. Plus all the junk we learned growing up, too. Stuff like vision processing, object permanence, all the unstated common-sense stuff humans are good at. Right now LLMs are used mostly for textual or data-processing tasks, but they will do more physical stuff, too.

It seems far more likely that it would all get baked-in to the LLM during training, but maybe it will turn out to be really useful to train up a "generic robot controller LLM" and pass in a huge number of tokens to better optimize it.

New comment by webnrrd2k in "Fish oil may be hurting your brain, new study finds"

webnrrd2k — Tue, 28 Apr 2026 21:25:26 +0000

I don't know, this seems pretty weak... I am certainly no expert, but there have been a lot of studies, and in reputable journals, that show at least some benefit from fish oil. One study showing that maybe there is a problem with fish oil in special cases (like confusions) doesn't seem like it's worth worrying about.

Also, fish oil is well know to help with brain development. I know that a concussion is a different thing, but it seems a little suspicious on the face of it.

New comment by webnrrd2k in "I Spent My Sabbatical Building a Power Meter for Sledgehammers"

webnrrd2k — Tue, 28 Apr 2026 18:13:59 +0000

I'd think that electronic drum heads would provide a good prototype. I really know nothing about it, so I could easily be wrong, but the basics are all there... They are percussive, and the sound varies by how hard they are hit, so there has to be something like a power meter going on.

Maybe someone else knows more?

New comment by webnrrd2k in "The dangers of California's legislation to censor 3D printing"

webnrrd2k — Thu, 16 Apr 2026 00:40:47 +0000

It looks like a Plastikov uses a lot of metal Kalashnikov parts that you'd need to get from a kit or machine yourself or something, so I don't think it's really fair to call that gun a 3D printed gun. It uses printed parts, but the barrel, trigger, etc... aren't printed.

New comment by webnrrd2k in "What have been the greatest intellectual achievements? (2017)"

webnrrd2k — Mon, 13 Apr 2026 07:04:13 +0000

I'll put in a vote for the Panini Sutra (Aṣṭādhyāyī) [1], which is a sort of "Backus–Naur form" for classical Sanskrit grammar. I don't understand Sandskrit, but I've heard from people that I respect that the Panini Sutra should be considered as one of humanities great intellectual achievements.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A%E1%B9%A3%E1%B9%AD%C4%81dhy%C...

New comment by webnrrd2k in "German men 18-45 need military permit for extended stays abroad"

webnrrd2k — Sat, 04 Apr 2026 16:13:31 +0000

Press gangs are back

New comment by webnrrd2k in "Ask HN: How to be alone?"

webnrrd2k — Sun, 08 Mar 2026 23:40:15 +0000

I don't think anyone is asking for perfect, I think they are asking for "good enough".

If I may be blunt, it sound more like you might have some self-esteem issues, or shame, or just plain immaturity.

New comment by webnrrd2k in "Dulce et Decorum Est (1921)"

webnrrd2k — Thu, 05 Mar 2026 21:12:25 +0000

Just as an FYI, if anyone is into reading some good poems, I'd recommend "Good Poems", an anthology edited by Garrison Keillor. It's a great book to start reading poetry.

I had a friend who was reading it, and she loaned it to me, and it got me much more into poetry. I read the intro and was hooked. The whole series is pretty good, too.

New comment by webnrrd2k in "Judge finalizes order for Greenpeace to pay $345M in ND oil pipeline case"

webnrrd2k — Tue, 03 Mar 2026 01:33:40 +0000

Yes, and cigarettes, asbestos, lead in gasoline, and a few others, too. Clearly there is a place for education and coordinated action among the common people.

New comment by webnrrd2k in "I am directing the Department of War to designate Anthropic a supply-chain risk"

webnrrd2k — Sat, 28 Feb 2026 02:13:53 +0000

Yeah, that should have been in the contract too -- no using our software to overthrow the government or to implement a fascist state.

New comment by webnrrd2k in "Statement from Dario Amodei on our discussions with the Department of War"

webnrrd2k — Fri, 27 Feb 2026 06:32:22 +0000

Bond to what -- that's the real question

New comment by webnrrd2k in "Steel Bank Common Lisp"

webnrrd2k — Wed, 25 Feb 2026 06:19:23 +0000

”Mr. Potatohead is on the loose!” is my favorite, iirc from an fedora linux distribution.

New comment by webnrrd2k in "Can random experimental choice lead to better theories?"

webnrrd2k — Thu, 19 Feb 2026 19:51:35 +0000

What, like penicillin?

New comment by webnrrd2k in "Sizing chaos"

webnrrd2k — Thu, 19 Feb 2026 17:07:44 +0000

It's one of those "if we put a man on the moon, why can't we solve this damn thing" kind of problems.

Throughout my life I've had various girlfriends complain about poorly-fitting bras, especially ones with under-wires that bite or break. It really seems like it should be a solved problem, but I kinda don't think it is.

New comment by webnrrd2k in "The wonder of modern drywall"

webnrrd2k — Sat, 14 Feb 2026 16:23:36 +0000

If you're interested in this kind of material, I'd recommend checking out Construction Physics by Brian Potter.

https://www.construction-physics.com

New comment by webnrrd2k in "The super-slow conversion of the U.S. to metric (2025)"

webnrrd2k — Wed, 21 Jan 2026 17:17:17 +0000

Speaking of mixed units, don't forget the alwys fun distinction of avoirdupois pound vs troy pound...

People sometimes ask "what's heavier, a pound of feathers or a pound of gold?", the implication is that you're stupid for for asking a dumb question. The technically correct answer is that the pound of feathers is heavier. The expected answer is usually that they're the same weight, because there is no difference in weight between the two things that both weigh a pound. The problem is that, in the USA, a pound of feathers is measured with the avoirdupois pound, while a pound of gold is measured in troy pounds. The troy pound is lighter than the avoirdupois pound, so the answer is that a pound of feathers is heavier.

While a troy ounce is heavier than the avoirdupois ounce, and the grain unit is equal in both. So, depending on whether you ask for a pound/ounce/grain, the answer can change. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Troy_weight

New comment by webnrrd2k in "Ozempic is changing the foods Americans buy"

webnrrd2k — Mon, 12 Jan 2026 18:12:13 +0000

> jjk166: You're falsely assuming a 1:1 ratio between calories and cost Give the guy some credit... No, clearly CGMthrowaway is not assuming that at all, it's purposly left out. The first sentence mentions "back of the envelope math" and makes it clear it's a rough order-of-magnitude estimate. Also it's in response to a statement about "wondering how you could get such a high impact overall". Also, also, the last sentence is "So it tracks, roughly. And we are not at the bottom yet."

It's perfectly fine for people to do rough estimates to understand a situation, especially in informal discussions. It not a dissertation for a Ph.D. or formal position paper.