Hacker News: zdp7

New comment by zdp7 in "Erdosproblems.com Succumbs to the AI Onslaught"

zdp7 — Tue, 06 Oct 2026 21:41:40 +0000

It's the Walmart Effect at internet speeds.

New comment by zdp7 in "500k facial scans at UK stations yield no arrests, 1 false positive"

zdp7 — Tue, 29 Sep 2026 23:24:32 +0000

The public isn't saying anything of the sort. Police are buying them or cities. It's justified by telling us it makes us safer, but it's not. Let's be honest, if you have a license plate number, the alpr system probably isn't that useful. Criminals steal cars and license plates. Immigrants and activists don't.

New comment by zdp7 in "500k facial scans at UK stations yield no arrests, 1 false positive"

zdp7 — Tue, 29 Sep 2026 22:28:44 +0000

It isn't an effective panopticon. It can find people who aren't trying to hide. How hard is it going to be to fool if you can subvert it with a few fake plates (even easier to make with those convenient paper plates and it). An effective system wouldn't be creating a bunch of false positives. Luigi Mangione got caught because of one security cam. If he had just changed his look, we would never have got the hostel picture.

New comment by zdp7 in "500k facial scans at UK stations yield no arrests, 1 false positive"

zdp7 — Tue, 29 Sep 2026 22:18:31 +0000

January 6th was not a surveillance society win. It was a flash mob that live streamed their crimes, along with identification done by private individuals sleuthing in forums and chat groups.

The Nancy Guthrie case felt like ring cameras and Flock or traffic cams should have figured it out in no time. Yet it didn't happen. I feel like this is going to be something that only really works in cases, where investigation would solve it.

New comment by zdp7 in "500k facial scans at UK stations yield no arrests, 1 false positive"

zdp7 — Tue, 29 Sep 2026 21:27:36 +0000

Luigi Mangione got caught because he messed up. A simple change of clothes or ditching the very individual looking items he was carrying. If he had done that, you wouldn't have had a facial ID on him.

The Nancy Guthrie case on the other hand went nowhere, because we couldn't definitively make a match.

On the other hand we have multiple instances of bad data causing people to be subject to being targeted by the police. We have police threatening or arresting people based on a lack of corroboration. Some times ignoring clearly exonerating evidence.

The world is a better place without license plate cams.

New comment by zdp7 in "California farmers are struggling to sell grapes as demand for wine drops"

zdp7 — Tue, 29 Sep 2026 20:42:24 +0000

Cannabis use is the reason. Daily cannabis use has surpassed daily alcohol use in the US. Add on that it's generally perceived as not as bad for you. Finally the population brought up drinking is dying off.

New comment by zdp7 in "Owners mourn spoiled food after firmware update bricks Samsung smart fridges"

zdp7 — Thu, 24 Sep 2026 18:25:29 +0000

I personally can't do that. I deal with aphantasia (I can't visualize anything in my head). I can put something in the fridge and not realize it's there, unless I can see it. Then on the other hand I can create 20+ character passwords (no words, numbers, symbols) and not need to write them down. I have way above average memory recall, but will often forget about items aren't normally in the fridge.

New comment by zdp7 in "What California is learning from solar panels built over irrigation canals"

zdp7 — Tue, 22 Sep 2026 23:43:20 +0000

Vertical mounted bifacial panels are more efficient than horizontal mounted panels.

New comment by zdp7 in "What California is learning from solar panels built over irrigation canals"

zdp7 — Tue, 22 Sep 2026 23:38:15 +0000

In California most of the land around the aquaduct is valuable cropland. The other side of it is at risk of wildfire.

New comment by zdp7 in "What California is learning from solar panels built over irrigation canals"

zdp7 — Tue, 22 Sep 2026 23:30:22 +0000

There isn't a need for more copper. The canal already has electrical transmission lines.

Almost all the fields in the area is being used for valuable crops. It would be difficult to harvest them if solar panels were installed.

The wind on the valley side of the coastal range is intense. A cheap shade will need considerable maintenance.

There is little chance two separate projects would be cheaper than a combined project.

New comment by zdp7 in "Publishing Schematics Before “Open Source” Was a Word"

zdp7 — Tue, 11 Aug 2026 17:07:34 +0000

The GPL was released February 25th 1989 and the Free Software Foundation was founded in 1985. Open source was a concept already.

New comment by zdp7 in "Pi's Minimalism Is Its Advantage"

zdp7 — Wed, 05 Aug 2026 21:02:41 +0000

My read sees pi as a starter kit. It's job is to build personal workflows and not to dictate a workflow. Copy on the site calls it minimal and tells us to 'adapt pi to your workflow, not the other way around.' In other words a fleshed out pi is unique to you.

New comment by zdp7 in "Passkeys were invented by engineers with zero understanding of consumer brain"

zdp7 — Wed, 29 Jul 2026 22:39:43 +0000

To switch off, just stop using Keepass. If you want want delete the entry on the site. You don't need to, since your Keepass file should be secure and passkeys are designed allow multiple for a site. Passwords are not equal to passkeys and not difficult to add. Everyone seems to think you need to create new passkeys for all your websites. You don't, add them as you go. The hassle of adding it should be less than using a password to login.

New comment by zdp7 in "Passkeys were invented by engineers with zero understanding of consumer brain"

zdp7 — Thu, 23 Jul 2026 19:41:43 +0000

If you want to change it maybe tough. It doesn't have to be. Bitwarden has an open source self hosted option(you can also use their service), that can be set as provider in Android and Windows 11. KeepassXC is an option everything is in your kdbx file. Passkeys are so much more convenient and secure. If you do get stuck having to migrate, you can use your password (I would actually prefer just using multiple passkeys.) You don't need to do them all at once. Your average user is probably using whatever their device offers or nothing at all. I'd argue anyone that is tech savvy shouldn't be using either Google or Apple. If your account is disabled, you probably just lost anyway to retrieve your account unless you use a separate email address. I recently discovered cross device auth when a device I had a passkey was able to open my account on my pc that didn't have a passkey. TLDR ther are simple solutions that solve the 'lock in' issue.

New comment by zdp7 in "Passkeys were invented by engineers with zero understanding of consumer brain"

zdp7 — Thu, 23 Jul 2026 17:46:02 +0000

I have to think people aren't doing any research. Both Android and Apple sync your passkeys to your account. You can toss all your devices in a wood chipper, buy a replacement and still have access to all your passkeys.

New comment by zdp7 in "Passkeys were invented by engineers with zero understanding of consumer brain"

zdp7 — Thu, 23 Jul 2026 16:29:45 +0000

1) Install a keepass client and use it for passkeys.

2) See #1

3) See #1

KeepassXC supports passkeys. They suggest a couple mobile apps that also do.

New comment by zdp7 in "Passkeys were invented by engineers with zero understanding of consumer brain"

zdp7 — Thu, 23 Jul 2026 16:05:19 +0000

You aren't considering all the advantages of passkeys.

Passkeys only work on the domain they were created for. Password managers usually default to providing the password of the current website, but nothing stops you from pasting that in at any site.

There is no danger to the credential db being stolen. The website only has your public key.

A website using passkeys can support cross device authentication which allows you to login to on a computer without it ever seeing your credentials.

I'm sure that isn't a complete list. My last point, despite all the comments here, there is no vendor lock in. Bitwarden provides an open source self hostable option. On both Android and Windows 11, you can change your passkey provider to Bitwarden. A proper passkey implementation, should allow multiple passkeys to provide access. My bank does exactly that.

New comment by zdp7 in "Passkeys were invented by engineers with zero understanding of consumer brain"

zdp7 — Thu, 23 Jul 2026 00:50:38 +0000

Passkeys have an advantage in that the server doesn't have your password and every passkey should be unique.

New comment by zdp7 in "Passkeys were invented by engineers with zero understanding of consumer brain"

zdp7 — Wed, 22 Jul 2026 18:34:01 +0000

This is one of the key security features of passkeys. I did a little searching and the work around is to do a standard fake website that prompts for your standard credentials. That should be a fairly simple fix. Require access from a new device to be authorized from another source with an explanation that they will never request this info.

New comment by zdp7 in "Passkeys were invented by engineers with zero understanding of consumer brain"

zdp7 — Wed, 22 Jul 2026 18:20:02 +0000

Unfortunately probably implementation specific, but you don't always need to have multiple passkeys. There is cross device passkey login. I had this occur in the last couple weeks. Evidently I had created a passkey on my phone. Logging into that site on my PC, it identified that I had a passkey and allowed me to authenticate using my phone.