Hacker News: winterbourne

New comment by winterbourne in "OpenAI: GPT 5.6 Sol price reduction (until at least Nov 21)"

winterbourne — Tue, 25 Aug 2026 04:02:32 +0000

And that it will be just another utility, like electricity.

New comment by winterbourne in "Don't Paste the AI, please"

winterbourne — Thu, 20 Aug 2026 09:22:05 +0000

This is like an earlier internet era when it was common for people to just copy-paste directly from other websites into a forum response.

New comment by winterbourne in "Goodhart's Law Comes for Every Benchmark You Trust"

winterbourne — Thu, 06 Aug 2026 07:44:04 +0000

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Signs_of_AI_writing

This wiki page is updated frequently and only needs to be fed into an AI to remove its telltale writing.

New comment by winterbourne in "Claude: Elevated errors across all models – Resolved"

winterbourne — Wed, 29 Jul 2026 21:02:50 +0000

Nice! But needs more footgun.

New comment by winterbourne in "Our position on open-weights models"

winterbourne — Tue, 28 Jul 2026 03:00:52 +0000

They're sweating it big time, and their fear is bleeding through their AI beneficence-speak. Time for the big US AI companies to call in some favors from the administration. But you can't unring a bell.

New comment by winterbourne in "Claude Cookbook"

winterbourne — Fri, 24 Jul 2026 09:00:24 +0000

Recipes like this get baked into the next iteration of a model.

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

winterbourne — Wed, 22 Jul 2026 09:25:57 +0000

This is true, but when we compare them to OpenAI's repeated feints at altruism and nonprofit structure, the irony is plentiful.

New comment by winterbourne in "Mathematical texts from a Maya site in Guatemala identify an ancient astronomer"

winterbourne — Wed, 15 Jul 2026 07:36:21 +0000

This was interesting; thank you. He admits that he can't really answer this question. His point about technology seeming obvious in retrospect is similar to the Egg of Columbus idiom: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Egg_of_Columbus

The video hints at the notion that they may just have not figured it out. Certainly working iron and steel would have been extremely useful, but they never developed that ability either, even after thousands of years of civilization. The interplay of a wheel and an axle may not be as intuitive as it seems to us in modern times.

One of the more esoteric explanations that I have heard is that there was a religious taboo around easing manual labor. And that the wheeled (and axled) figurines that we have found were not children's toys, but religious objects.

New comment by winterbourne in "Mathematical texts from a Maya site in Guatemala identify an ancient astronomer"

winterbourne — Wed, 15 Jul 2026 07:16:58 +0000

I use my wheelbarrow to do work around my mountain property all the time. We have a 4-wheel utility cart that sees a lot of service too. Their utility lies in doing work over short distances.

New comment by winterbourne in "Mathematical texts from a Maya site in Guatemala identify an ancient astronomer"

winterbourne — Wed, 15 Jul 2026 01:20:01 +0000

I still can't reconcile how they didn't use the wheel for transportation. The explanations of lack of draft animals and unsuitable terrain aren't great. Not even a wheelbarrow?

New comment by winterbourne in "Ask HN: What Are You Working On? (July 2026)"

winterbourne — Mon, 13 Jul 2026 00:32:56 +0000

Thanks, that means a lot. I've found that browsing through a few dozen build threads is the perfect cure for the AI blues.

New comment by winterbourne in "Ask HN: What Are You Working On? (July 2026)"

winterbourne — Sun, 12 Jul 2026 22:56:28 +0000

Thanks; much appreciated. I picked up an endless list of new build interests in starting the site and exploring different niche forums. Turns out I really like wooden boat builds, cyclekarts, intricate custom knives, handmade violins, the list goes on...

You're right that getting a car custom-built is where the costs add up quickly; easily north of $50K. Most of the cost is labor, which is $0 if you do it yourself. Some of the projects are much easier than others. If you want to fall down a rabbit hole, look in the kit car and hot rod categories; lots of affordable and small builds in there. The Buick Riviera in La La Land is more of a resto-mod cruiser project, but the small/retro itch is exactly what the kit car category scratches. The first step is to find a forum where people are building the car you like, and start following related build threads. That's the majority of my social media intake these days.

New comment by winterbourne in "Ask HN: What Are You Working On? (July 2026)"

winterbourne — Sun, 12 Jul 2026 22:17:48 +0000

https://buildthreads.com/

Aggregator for new posts in build threads from 277 old-school DIY forums.

Build threads of people building cars, 4x4s, motorcycles, boats, airplanes, hot rods, musical instruments, etc.

New comment by winterbourne in "We're extending access to Fable 5 on all paid plans through July 12"

winterbourne — Wed, 08 Jul 2026 04:34:46 +0000

Everyone scrambling to max their usage before the deadline may have given Anthropic some valuable data on exactly how much compute they can handle. The extension could also be a play to minimize the effect of OpenAI's next move.

Even if they grant a reset, the ball is now in OpenAI's court.

New comment by winterbourne in "Oomwoo, an open-source robot vacuum you build yourself"

winterbourne — Thu, 02 Jul 2026 05:49:05 +0000

Nice! This is just what I'm looking for. An old Roomba 880 served us well until it could no longer charge its battery, even a new one.

The AI slop on the site is not appealing, but it could also mean that the project will be parallelized successfully.

New comment by winterbourne in "Bring back crappy forums"

winterbourne — Thu, 02 Jul 2026 05:39:01 +0000

I run an active forum in the DIY space, and another site that aggregates new build threads from hundreds of niche forums. Forums for people building cars, motorcycles, boats, airplanes, cabins, musical instruments, etc.

The classic forum format and tight-knit communities are ideal for what are called "communities of practice": like-minded people who get together to help each other build/create/make/do something. A well-moderated build thread is best suited to a classic linear non-threaded posting format, and that's why thousands of niche DIY forums still exist.

Pining for the forum heyday is common on social media now, but for niche DIYers, that participation is still a daily ritual.

New comment by winterbourne in "Bring back crappy forums"

winterbourne — Thu, 02 Jul 2026 05:27:37 +0000

This is the truth. For DIY pursuits, niche forums are far superior to reddit, twitter, facebook, instagram, or any other social media.

New comment by winterbourne in "Hetzner Price Adjustment"

winterbourne — Mon, 15 Jun 2026 21:49:23 +0000

This gives permission for all other providers to do the same.

New comment by winterbourne in "Statement on US government directive to suspend access to Fable 5 and Mythos 5"

winterbourne — Sat, 13 Jun 2026 05:07:04 +0000

It would be more difficult to make an open model illegal. Where is the centralized kill switch like what Anthropic used today?

New comment by winterbourne in "Statement on US government directive to suspend access to Fable 5 and Mythos 5"

winterbourne — Sat, 13 Jun 2026 03:56:08 +0000

Huge PR win for Anthropic if they can restore access within a week or so.

Will be interesting to see OpenAI's next move.