Hacker News Reader

breadwinneron FTC rule on unfair or deceptive fees to take effect on May 12

Why limit this to live-event and lodging industries? Why not all the fees tacked on by cell carriers?

For example, AT&T charges a fee to "recover certain aggregate expenses AT&T incurs, including, but not limited to, charges AT&T or its agents pay to interconnect with other carriers to deliver calls from AT&T customers to their customers and charges associated with cell site rents and maintenance" [1]

[1] https://www.att.com/legal/terms.otherWirelessFeeSchedule.htm...

breadwinneron India launches attack on 9 sites in Pakistan and Pakistani Jammu and Kashmir

No credible photos have surfaced so far—if the claim were true, some likely would have. It’s possible the Pakistan army is making this statement for domestic audiences, perhaps to deflect pressure to respond.

breadwinneron Corporation for Public Broadcasting Statement Regarding Executive Order

The way to fight Trump is to form mutual defense pacts. For example, the Big Ten schools are forming a mutual defense pact [1]. All media should form a similar pact. Trump is attacking CBS 60 Minutes, New York Times, PBS, etc. Instead of giving in (big mistake, bully demands more), or fighting alone, they should form an alliance.

[1] https://www.yahoo.com/news/big-ten-michigan-schools-moves-11...

breadwinneron New Study: Waymo is reducing serious crashes and making streets safer

You could also link to all of the people killed by self-driving Teslas. In my opinion, Teslas (especially) are bringing a bad name to the entire field.

breadwinneron Vanguard 50-year anniversary CEO letter

The worst aspect of their web interface is poor information density. Take a look at this page as an example: https://investor.vanguard.com/investment-products/mutual-fun...

breadwinneron Retailers will soon have only about 7 weeks of full inventories left

> To preserve relative margins companies need to increase prices by 145%.

Not true. If you have watched Shark Tank you have seen that products cost, as an example, $6 landed, but retail for $24. Tariffs are 145% of $6, so around $9. So they only have to increate the retail price from $24 to $33 to keep the same profit margin. In this example that's a 37% increase, not 145%.

breadwinneron Retailers will soon have only about 7 weeks of full inventories left

...against China specifically. He appeared to be more anti-China (because of IP theft and so on), than pro-tariffs.

breadwinneron I've largely replaced Google with ChatGPT for looking things up

> without the company going under

That's too soon to say. We're only at the first down.

breadwinneron I've largely replaced Google with ChatGPT for looking things up

They were late to commercialize it... someone else had to show them how first. As a result they are playing catch up, and they will at best be one of many players, for the foreseeable future, as opposed to a monopoly.

breadwinneron I've largely replaced Google with ChatGPT for looking things up

> Google invented the Transformer architecture

That's like saying AT&T invented the graphical user interface. It doesn't matter because AT&T failed to commercialize it.

breadwinneron I've largely replaced Google with ChatGPT for looking things up

Ads are not the only challenge. Cost-per-query is also a challenge, as an LLM query is 10x more expensive than a search-index query.

breadwinneron I've largely replaced Google with ChatGPT for looking things up

Google is turning into Alta Vista right before our eyes!

I have replaced Google with Perplexity. It backs up every answer with links, so I find it to be more trustable than ChatGPT.

Perplexity also keeps their index current, so you're not getting answers from the world as it existed 10 months ago. (ChatGPT says its knowledge cutoff is June 2024, Perplexity says its search index includes results up to April 29, 2025, and to prove it, it gives me the latest news.)

breadwinneron Amazon to display tariff costs for consumers

The reason that works in the rest of the world is, taxes are the same throughout the country. For example in the UK, the standard VAT rate (20%) applies uniformly to most goods, throughout the UK. So the price can be printed on the label. In the US some states have no sales tax at all, for example Oregon.

breadwinneron Amazon to display tariff costs for consumers

Tariffs are not labor costs.

breadwinneron Amazon to display tariff costs for consumers

> Some sectors have been doing this for years - "service fees" at restaurants...

If the additional fees is government-forced, such as taxes, then it makes sense to display it separately. You are throwing government-forced costs and regular business costs in the same bucket. If tariffs should be included in the listed price then why not taxes?

breadwinneron Amazon launches first Kuiper internet satellites in bid to take on Starlink

Fortunately FOX News is not the only news source. We don't want Starlink to be the only satellite internet serving rural areas. Is that hard to understand?

breadwinneron Amazon launches first Kuiper internet satellites in bid to take on Starlink

The world needs an alternative to Starlink yesterday.

If you criticize Musk on X, the self-proclaimed “free speech absolutist” will reduce distribution of your posts [1].

We don't want someone like that owning critical internet infrastructure.

[1] https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2025/04/23/business/elon...

breadwinneron Home Without China

This shows what an amateur Trump is, and the impact of not seeking guidance from experts. He just winged it. Now the store shelves are going to be empty (or prices are going to double) and Trump will have to beg China for mercy.

breadwinneron Found a simple tool for database modeling: dbdiagram.io

Visual DB can do that: https://visualdb.com/

breadwinneron Bill Gates's Personal Easter Eggs in 8 Bit BASIC (2008)

billg. https://news.ycombinator.com/user?id=billg

breadwinneron DOGE worker’s code supports NLRB whistleblower

Right. But then it is part of a pattern:

See: https://infosec.exchange/@briankrebs/114083485241630234

Excerpt: "How much more proof do we need that this administration is completely compromised? There is zero reason for the US to relax any offensive digital actions against Russia. If anything, we should be applying more."

breadwinneron DOGE worker’s code supports NLRB whistleblower

breadwinneron SerenityOS is a love letter to '90s user interfaces

It inspired Win95. It inspired the original Netscape browser's UI (toolbar etc is very NeXTSTEP-inspired, not surprising because it was developed on a NeXT box). It inspired the Mac OS X and the iPhone, although both have degraded since then. As things exist today, NeXTSTEP from 40 years ago (!) looks much nicer - and way more usable - than today's flat UIs.

breadwinneron SerenityOS is a love letter to '90s user interfaces

NeXTSTEP was widely regarded as visually striking and innovative for its time, particularly for its clean, minimalist design and advanced graphical capabilities. Key elements contributing to its perceived beauty included:

3D chiseled widgets: Beveled buttons and controls with subtle shading created a dimensional, tactile appearance.

Full-color icons: Large, detailed icons (uncommon in late 1980s GUIs) enhanced visual clarity.

Consistent typography: System-wide use of Display PostScript enabled professional-quality fonts and anti-aliasing.

Transparency and compositing: Advanced graphics handling allowed overlapping windows and semi-transparent elements.

Current discussions still praise NeXTSTEP's design as better looking and more usable than Windows 11 and macOS.

breadwinneron SerenityOS is a love letter to '90s user interfaces

This is much nicer: https://github.com/trunkmaster/nextspace/blob/master/Documen...

breadwinneron SerenityOS is a love letter to '90s user interfaces

NeXTSTEP's interface (1988–1989) used subtle shading and depth for buttons and windows, creating a dimensional appearance. Its visual design pioneered the use of shading for depth in GUIs.

Microsoft's timeline:

CTL3D.DLL: Introduced circa 1991–1992, primarily for Windows 3.1 applications (not the OS itself). It added 3D effects to dialog boxes and controls but was optional for developers.

Windows 95: Introduced native 3D controls (e.g., recessed buttons, drop shadows) as the system-wide default in 1995, eliminating the need for CTL3D.DLL

breadwinneron SerenityOS is a love letter to '90s user interfaces

Win95 UI is a cheap copy of NeXTSTEP. The original is so much nicer: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NeXTSTEP#/media/File:NeXTSTEP_...

breadwinneron GOP Senator: 'We Are All Afraid'

> What kind of retaliation is she afraid of? Personal, or against her state?

Afraid of losing their jobs. She specifically is one of the least afraid. It is her GOP colleagues that are afraid.

> some of whom seem to support the President's program in detail

Maybe because they are afraid?

breadwinneron Silicon Valley got Trump completely wrong

> Tariffs came as a surprise to no one that was paying attention

During election when Trump said outrageous things, and Trump supporters downplayed Trump's comments: he's trolling... he is bluffing... it is just a distraction tactic... it is a negotiation tactic... and so on.

Then after he got elected and actually started doing the things he said he would the same people are like... "Trump is delivering exactly what he promised what he would deliver when he started this campaign. This is what the American people voted for!"

Here's a Peter Thiel quote for the ages: "The media always is taking Trump literally. It never takes him seriously, but it always takes him literally. I think a lot of the voters who vote for Trump take Trump seriously, but not literally."

He should have been taken literally.