Hacker News: zw123456

New comment by zw123456 in "The rising returns to R&D: Ideas are not getting harder to find"

zw123456 — Tue, 19 Aug 2025 01:57:19 +0000

I am writing a book about this topic. I started my career in 1978 at Bell Labs and worked in 3 different startups after that. After 45 years in R&D, I have recently retired. So many times, the inspiration for new inventions we worked on came from unexpected sources; the arts, culture, music, history and many other sources. And I said we on purpose because rarely did a new invention come from one person, it was almost always from collaboration on a team. My conclusion is that invention so often comes from a team of well rounded people with knowledge in many areas and the ability to work in a team. I wonder if the decline in the productivity in R&D comes from a decline in these attributes?

New comment by zw123456 in "Sam Altman says Meta offered OpenAI staffers $100M bonuses"

zw123456 — Thu, 19 Jun 2025 02:40:39 +0000

Simple hack for Sam. Hire a bunch of people for some nominal amount. They do not have to do anything and they know nothing about AI. Then let Zuck waste his wad paying out signing bonuses to fake employees.

Sam Altman says meta offered OpenAI staff 100M-bonuses

zw123456 — Thu, 19 Jun 2025 02:30:08 +0000

Article URL: https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/companies/sam-altman-says-meta-offered-openai-staff-100-million-bonuses-as-mark-zuckerberg-ramps-up-ai-poaching-efforts/ar-AA1GVr7y

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44314911

Points: 3

# Comments: 1

New comment by zw123456 in "The Gentle Singularity"

zw123456 — Tue, 10 Jun 2025 22:19:21 +0000

Can a human who is a sociopath express heartfelt condolences? Perhaps they can mimic words and phrases they know are the appropriate words for the occasion but lack the true emotion.

New comment by zw123456 in "What If We Had Bigger Brains? Imagining Minds Beyond Ours"

zw123456 — Thu, 29 May 2025 06:41:12 +0000

Sperm whales have the largest brains on earth but they have not invented fire, the wheel or internal combustion engine or nuclear weapons... Oh wait. Hmmm.

New comment by zw123456 in "Are people bad at their jobs or are the jobs just bad?"

zw123456 — Wed, 02 Apr 2025 22:52:20 +0000

I recently retired after 45 years in tech. I started out in 1978 at Bell Labs. I have had great jobs and terrible jobs. Great bosses and horrific bosses. And all the things in between. I did not just survive, I thrived and beyond and worked at 3 start ups and a bunch of other companies large and small. What I learned is to not to be afraid. Regardless of what is happening around you. Fear is the enemy. Don't be afraid to be weird or crazy or whatever is causing you to be timid.

New comment by zw123456 in "I asked police to send me their public surveillance footage of my car"

zw123456 — Fri, 28 Mar 2025 14:39:36 +0000

What if someone takes their license plates off and makes a fake temporary paper one, the kind you put in the back window when you get a new car? Not permanently but if you wanted to go do something illegal and not be tracked. Can the LPR pick those up?

New comment by zw123456 in "I still don't think companies serve you ads based on your microphone"

zw123456 — Fri, 03 Jan 2025 03:50:18 +0000

Weird it just popped up. Probably they cranked up a new algo that said, if they live near water, hit 'em with kayak ads. Why not paddle boards or boats too? Whatever.

New comment by zw123456 in "I still don't think companies serve you ads based on your microphone"

zw123456 — Fri, 03 Jan 2025 03:17:25 +0000

Hmmm, I live alone and in a pretty remote area (on an island). I keep my wifi pretty secure, so, that seems pretty unlikely. But who knows, anything is possible I suppose. Maybe because I live on an island.

New comment by zw123456 in "I still don't think companies serve you ads based on your microphone"

zw123456 — Fri, 03 Jan 2025 02:50:12 +0000

OK, but query me this batman. Lately, I have been inundated by ads for anything to do with Kayaks. I do not own a Kayak. I do not want to own a Kayak and have never even spoken the word as far as I can remember. But for some reason, I am seeing ads for a Kayak carrier, a Kayak launcher, roof rack, you name it. It is so weird. I cannot figure out why suddenly these idiots think I am remotely interested in Kayaking. Kayaking, it is just so random. But way back in the 2000s, a friend of mine worked for a web site dev company. Her job was to visit with clients and take pictures of whatever they were hawking, write some copy and the dudes back in her office would turn it into a web page. She would occasionally ask me to come along and stare at whatever crap they were selling and act like I cared about it while she snapped some photos. I joked that meant technically I was a model. But then one time she was doing a web page for a marketing company that did focus groups. That was back before we had smart phones tracking your every move. I posed in a fake focus group with some other people and after that, the dude that ran the place asked me if I wanted to be in real focus group and I agreed. They seemed to think there were certain connections that made no sense. For example, they were sure that they could market adult diapers to nerds that play video games who were to absorbed in their game to get off their ass to take a simple dump. Apparently that is actually a thing? Then I went to this one focus group where they were asking if you own a dog and buy a lot of peanut butter. Read between the lines. So gross. So, I am guessing, some marketing weirdo thinks there is some weird connection between something else in my life an Kayaks. It would be interesting to know what that is. But, I think, a lot of times, they might be right about those weird connections that make you feel like they are reading your mind. Just in this case, whatever it is, maybe that I watch a lot of documentaries and that means I like Kayaking? I guess they only have to be right some percentage of the time. Just not in this case.

New comment by zw123456 in "An 83-year-old short story by Borges portends a bleak future for the internet"

zw123456 — Sun, 01 Dec 2024 00:43:14 +0000

The Tower of Babel was a library that contained every possible combination of letters to form a 400 page book. Or something like that. It made me wonder, what if you made a content honey pot full of just random text and a chatbot vacuumed that up? Does it's data vacuum have a garbage detector?

New comment by zw123456 in "Washington's 'forgotten giant' volcano stirs"

zw123456 — Sun, 13 Oct 2024 15:34:22 +0000

This is a really nice resource for monitoring earthquake activity in the PNW. https://pnsn.org/earthquakes/recent/ https://pnsn.org/volcanoes/mount-adams

Chinese hackers access US telecom firms, worrying national security officials

zw123456 — Tue, 08 Oct 2024 05:23:56 +0000

Article URL: https://www.cnn.com/2024/10/05/politics/chinese-hackers-us-telecoms/index.html

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=41774080

Points: 3

# Comments: 1

There's a problem with that 'bullet in flight' photo of Trump

zw123456 — Sat, 17 Aug 2024 20:44:27 +0000

Article URL: https://haje.medium.com/theres-a-problem-with-that-bullet-in-flight-photo-of-trump-333dc1eeda1a

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=41277810

Points: 8

# Comments: 2

New comment by zw123456 in "Launch HN: Airhart Aeronautics (YC S22) – A modern personal airplane"

zw123456 — Tue, 06 Aug 2024 02:59:18 +0000

I am so sorry to see this. The absolute last thing we need is yet another fossil guzzling vehicle. Please stop what you are doing immediately and go back to the drawing board and help save our planet by inventing a craft that uses solar power to charge batteries to fly. I am sure I will get down voted to hell for this. But tough shit. The planet is chocking and we simply do not need more people burning fossil fuel for fun and pleasure. Stop. Please. Stop and rethink this.

Host circuit engagement of human cortical organoids transplanted in rodents

zw123456 — Tue, 30 Jul 2024 03:44:04 +0000

Article URL: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41596-024-01029-4

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=41105887

Points: 2

# Comments: 0

The First Self-Proclaimed Drag Queen Was a Formerly Enslaved Man

zw123456 — Mon, 08 Jul 2024 01:29:14 +0000

Article URL: https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/the-first-self-proclaimed-drag-queen-was-a-formerly-enslaved-man-180982311/

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40901910

Points: 6

# Comments: 0

New comment by zw123456 in "The internet is already over (2022)"

zw123456 — Sun, 07 Jul 2024 22:55:38 +0000

And yet they persist. And continue to evolve. And TV, now streaming over the internet. The way humans communicate evolves. And so will the internet, and social media and all the rest to come.

Think of it like this...

Radio didn't die, it evolved, into streaming music.

TV didn't die, it evolved to streaming TV>

The printed medium did not die, it evolved into HTML and web pages, a fancier form of type setting.

The telegraph didn't die, it evolved into digital communications.

See, it's not that things die and go away, it is a process of improving how humans interact.

Some may find it difficult, or maybe the isolation is a problem, then there is an evolution.

It will not stop, it will evolve to the next step.

What that is, will be fun to watch.

I hope I am still here to see it.

I wait in anticipation, not negativity.

New comment by zw123456 in "The internet is already over (2022)"

zw123456 — Sun, 07 Jul 2024 22:53:28 +0000

The person who wrote the article used the internet for all the sub-references. Had it not been for the internet, this person most likely would not have known all the things they mentioned. I don't know if they are listening, but it would be an interesting question.

New comment by zw123456 in "The internet is already over (2022)"

zw123456 — Sun, 07 Jul 2024 21:51:48 +0000

I am old enough to remember when people said TV was a passing fad. And the radio. And the printing press. And the telegraph. And the written word. I mean come on you lazy shlubs, memorize Beowulf like we had to back in my day. OK, I am not actually that old. My point is, that with every technology that has been invented to improve, or expand the ability of humans to communicate, there have been the detractors and naysayers predicting the inevitable doom of said technology. I am still waiting for that whole writing things down instead of memorizing them thing to finally go out of style.