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billev2k

34 karma · joined September 7, 2024

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billev2k··on Tell HN: Apple not letting removal of AI models on macOS 27 is outrageous
Yes. But environmental and anti-obsolence considerations might lead us to require good documentation of hardware. Then those who care would have what they need to write their own drivers. (Well, those who care and have the chops.)
billev2k··on Artificial intelligence now beats some of the best human forecasters
Stealing?
billev2k··on US House of Representatives takes step to make daylight saving time permanent
Morons.
billev2k··on Measuring Input Latency on Linux: X11 vs. Wayland, VRR, and DXVK
Contrast is your friend. Or at least mine.
billev2k··on Backblaze has stopped backing up OneDrive and Dropbox folders and maybe others
Please: Not "a few notches". All the way. Black. That is if you actually care if people read your posts.
billev2k··on Dear Time Lords: Freeze Computers in 1993
I personally think that "peak computing" was around 2005. Maybe 2006.
billev2k··on Silicon Valley can't import talent like before. So it's exporting jobs
Like Boeing. And look how well that's worked out.
billev2k··on Android's sideloading limits are its most anti-consumer move
The Android Developer Blog called it "an ID check at the airport which confirms a traveler's identity but is separate from the security screening of their bags."

From the mouths of rubes, I guess. The ID check at the airport has zero to do with safety or security and everything to do with the airlines' business model (no secondary market for tickets), enforced by government.

billev2k··on Retrocide Mono – A monospaced font with no decenders
I'd prefer a greater difference between ( ) and { }, and between : and ;

But that's for using it as my daily driver, which doesn't seem to be the actual motivation.

billev2k··on Show HN: ZeroFS, the Filesystem That Makes S3 Your Primary Storage
I had to laugh out loud: "In practice, you'll encounter other constraints well before these theoretical limits, such as S3 provider limits, performance considerations with billions of objects, or simply running out of money."
billev2k··on Show HN: I made my own TRMNL e-ink device
Speaking of a beautiful turn of phrase: "...more piles of electronic parts in my cupboard of broken dreams."

:)

billev2k··on Tech terms I was pronouncing wrong
REJ-exs
billev2k··on Doge Social Security Closures: Recipients Need to Visit Offices to Get Benefits
MFA is often painful for me, and I've been a dev since we were called "programmers".
billev2k··on Time for a Change: The long, contentious history of time shifts
By all means, get up early if that fits your internal clock! But please, let's keep the clocks as close to the sun (ie, clock noon at solar noon) as practical.
billev2k··on Apple's Software Quality Crisis
That, and the effects of allowing "new feature demos" at WWDC. The various groups MUST come up with something that demos well. "See how easily I can...", and now the slightest breath does something dramatic, and usually wrong.
billev2k··on The A.I. Monarchy
tl;dr: AI and capitalism are both cancers, existing for no reason other than to further propagate themselves; hegemonistic. And Thiel is a cancer-causing agent.

I agree re capitalism. And Thiel. AI is TBD, but not looking so great.

billev2k··on The HP-35: Consumer Electronics, an Origin Story
I was a sophomore EE student when these came out. There were debates about whether to allow calculators in the classroom, somewhat irrelevant to me, since the price was out of reach anyway. Then the ME department made a deal to order in bulk, answering the debate, and making the marvelous machine somewhat affordable. I begged my father, and he fronted me the $271.40 (the HP-45 had just come out, so the 35 came down in price). Glorious days!
billev2k··on DOGE employees don't understand the basics of SQL
Though it doesn't matter how fervently you believe. The universe doesn't care.
billev2k··on A Minimalist TypeScript for C
Crazy usage of "+". Using "+" as a synonym for "var" seems pretty pointless. Suffix "+" to mean stack allocated (vs not yet allocated?), unless it's an array, in which case "+" means objects not pointers. Or so it seems.

And allowing the minus sign as an identifier character is just asking for errors.

Some nice ideas (member functions!). Love to see the next evolution.

billev2k··on Show HN: I built open source file sharing solution using AWS S3
I'm pretty leery of making the "access key" and "secret key" so public (like typing them into a web page, or setting them in environment variables). Of course it adds significant friction to set up an IAM identity for every user, and "low friction" is one of the key requirements here.
billev2k··on An 'earthquake' at Volkswagen – and a crisis for Germany?
VW’s current lineup of cars is pretty unattractive to me. Time was they looked efficient and a bit sporty. Now they look like Buicks.