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If I use a gun to break into a company and steal data I'm arrested, if an ai company does it, it's legal.

Why am I being singled out?

class3shockon Ask HN: If the models are so good, why doesn't OpenAI just start 100 companies?

Who do you think knows the most about a business? The experts at the leading companies in that business? Or McKinsey? Assuming the sane answer is the experts at the company, why is McKinsey being hired?

class3shockon The End of Rationing

I find McMaster awesome for product discovery. I can go and just start scrolling, see a interesting category and start digging into what is there. How on earth is Amazon better for this? Instead of just scrolling down and starting to click I have to open the side menu, expand categories, click on industrial & scientific, click on show all, get smacked in the face by a full page add, and then I get a nonsensical mix of lists of categories, new products, then back to a list of categories to hopefully get to where I want to go.

You need help finding something? On McMaster, scroll down, click contact and send a message. On Amazon? Google to find out where the shortest path to getting assistance that they have buried under a dozen submenus.

I will admit, there is one superior thing for product discovery, which is of course their paper catalog.

class3shockon The End of Rationing

"So why isn't our software 10x better?"

The answer has nothing to do with rationing. When all software is designed to grab the most attention, serve the most adds, collect the most data, deliver the maximum amount of the cheapest content and generally be as exploitive of its users as possible, no amount of rationing or not rationing will effect it.

McMaster Carr, a company worth a little over a billion, sells metal, bolts, casters, and many other industrial bits and bobs. Their website is infinitely better than Amazons. Why? It has nothing to do with rationing and everything to do with trying to actual deliver a good customer experience.

class3shockon "I'm on a war footing": Terry Tao and the crisis in math

Self driving in a winter storm? Self driving in torrential rain? Self driving when mud covers a sensor it needs? Self driving if it hits someone? Pretty sure Tesla would say you were driving it then.

class3shockon eBay Restricts Listings of Radio Equipment, but Exempts Ham-Band-Only Gear

Out of curiosity, I know you can't do it on HAM frequencies but is there such a thing as encrypted walkie talkies that are legal?

class3shockon Passkeys are not a trap

Passkeys are a trap and are awful. And before someone says they are "more secure", meaningfully more secure than a unique email and unique incredibly long password for each account? Because multiple password managers can set that up now in a few seconds with 1/100 the friction of a passkey.

I hope anyone who is promoting these things has to help and elderly relative do something in an account they are having trouble accessing where they had to use a passkey to set it up. Or try giving your spouse access to a health account they need to access in a hurry. Or make a physical backup that a family member can use in case something happens to you and or your computer.

class3shockon Living off-grid: Hundred Rabbits

True, in my mind when I'm thinking of it I don't see it so much as an individual thing but I do talk about it that way.

class3shockon Unsealed Briefs in Authors’ Case v. Microsoft/OpenAI

Every good writer was at one point a not good writer, writing badly written stuff, gaining the experience and skill to eventually become a good writer.

class3shockon Unsealed Briefs in Authors’ Case v. Microsoft/OpenAI

"Why would it be impossible?"

Because this is what happens when new tools are introduced? The cheap digital camera displaced tons of photographers, the computer displaces typists, etc. so yes, it seems impossible that a tool that makes producing written content cheaply won't displace writers.

class3shockon Living off-grid: Hundred Rabbits

This is a really cool site and they seem cool.

I'm curious what people think about the following:

The idea of living off-grid, of having your own little self sufficient homestead, a cabin in the woods, a small farm, etc. doesn't seem to work without having a bunch of cash up front, another source of income, or turning it into a engine for running classes or making content. Where it is "self-sufficient" is generally where, to put it bluntly, it has to be because people are poor and don't have a choice.

I'm not familiar with sailing self sufficiency but in permaculture in the US, it seems the only people doing it successfully fund it via running classes, trainings, writing a book, making content, etc. or they do it essentially as a hobby funded by another career, family money, etc. The closest I've seen that does work is CSA's (community supported agriculture) but with those, as with most farming related work, there is generally ten underpaid laborers with no actual stake in the farm to one owner who gets by (also see woofing).

I'm not sure where I'm going with this but I thought given the topic there might be some people who visit with thoughts on it. Maybe it would be better to treat it as a goal of how to live ones life even if it isn't self-sufficient? I don't know. I just know there always seems to be a dichotomy between imagined and real in self-sufficiency that I struggle with.

class3shockon Unsealed Briefs in Authors’ Case v. Microsoft/OpenAI

This - "So far there’s no sign that authors are being put out of work"

is a contradiction to this - "but the internet and low end book stores like Amazon kindle are being flooded with LLM slop."

I'm not sure there there are labor statistics to look at but it seems impossible that the coming-into-existance of a tool that generates mass amounts of cheap product, with zero skill required, in a field wouldn't displace skilled workers in that field.

- https://www.economist.com/leaders/2026/09/24/dont-let-ai-kil... - https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/2026/09/ai-authors-im... - https://fortune.com/2026/09/14/ai-slop-books-amazon-marketpl...

class3shockon We're gonna need a lot more mathematicians

"Imagine that a future AI system proposes a radically new design for a one terawatt nuclear fusion power plant."

I propose we enact a new law that makes it so ai engineers can only fly on ai designed planes powered by ai designed engines flown by ai. Maybe then we'll get some real progress out of this slop producing crapware or the problem will be solved a different way.

class3shockon How do we prevent mathemathics from devolving into the Medieval Era of secrecy?

I wonder how many fields will have to suffer through their collective work being sloppily copied or used as a basis for generative slop before we figure out we aren't getting AGI just Artificial General Slop.

class3shockon A Tesla ran a stop sign and killed a man, Full Self-Driving/Autopilot was on

If you blow through a stop sign and cause an accident you will be held responsible, no '' needed.

class3shockon The largest electric aircraft just flew [video]

1-3. Agreed

4. Remember my predicted number is on the low side of how much juice they would need. Of course they get much better efficiency than a conventional jet on taxi and takeoff, so maybe it ends up being closer to what you are saying. I wish they had some more hard data.

5. Yep, commented on this in another post but even just removing takeoff wear and tear on a conventional engine would be big.

6. I would take that with a big dose of salt. United has a deal with Boom (a complete fraud of a company in my view) to purchase planes. So maybe not the best metric.

7. I haven't done the math but the $5 takeoff doesn't pass the smell test for me. $5 doesn't buy much juice (50 kWh? So like a gallon of jet fuel?) and getting a 30k+ lb plane to cruising altitude is not trivial.

"Personally - I don't know if they'll make it work, but it's definitely an interesting play, with more real thought put into it than most attempts I've seen."

Totally agree, which I never thought I would say about an aerospace startup.

class3shockon The largest electric aircraft just flew [video]

The thing I quoted is more for bigger jets with much larger engines (it was the first reasonable looking source I found). In any case their hybrid has four engines, two electric, two conventional, so you are really should think of it as needing to haul two extra engines on top of what a conventional only jet would have.

class3shockon The largest electric aircraft just flew [video]

So if they are doing the hybrid approach and just using the conventional engines during cruise they will have way reduced maintenance costs on them. The need for max thrust during takeoff drives a ton off wear and tear, so removing that would be big. If they are able to do electric only that is even better.

class3shockon The largest electric aircraft just flew [video]

Doing some math. Regional jets get somewhere around 45.9 seat miles per gallon (1). So 30 seats, going 125 miles would take around 80 gallons of jet fuel. This is likely low because all the jets listed are bigger and likely flying longer flights that are more efficient but just go with it.

Jet fuel has a specific energy of 12 kwh/kg and a density of 6.7 lb/gal (2). So 80 gallons of jet fuel is 536 lb, or 243 kg, and contains 2,916 kwh of energy. Jet engines are not very efficient, so lets say only 30% of this energy actually ends up being used. So 875 kwh.

Lets say we are using batteries that are 300 wh/kg (0.3 kwh/kg), which seems on the high side of what electric cars are using now (and that there are no efficiency loses in the electric motors or elsewhere).

Now maybe I messed up my unit conversions but I think that means to carry the same energy onboard you would need 6,428 lbs of batteries. And you are still going to carry atleast 1,600 lbs of fuel on top of that. And you have the weight of both electric and conventional engines.

I could see this reducing costs like they say but when many big costs are fixed (pilot, hangar, etc.) will this actually make sense? Will airlines fly something that has thousands of pounds less payload than a competitor but lower running costs? I don't know but it will be interesting to see.

(1) https://airinsight.com/seat-miles-gallon-fuel-burn-update/ (2) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jet_fuel

class3shockon The largest electric aircraft just flew [video]

The X1, which is what flew, is all electric. The ES-30, their proposed product, is hybrid.

class3shockon Hacking IKEA Furniture

I have had goodluck with this and have gotten many pieces of furniture that will last for the rest of my life used. It is very hit or miss based on your location though and it does restrict your style choices.

class3shockon Hacking IKEA Furniture

I can't stand Ikea furniture quality but am often confronted with the only option for higher quality being an order of magnitude more expensive. Where is the middle ground between a Stickley Morris chair and an Ikea chair?

Also their particleboard and cardboard furniture should be banned. Furniture should not dissolve when a drink gets spilled on it.

class3shockon Dr. Abernethy stories about Pratt and Whitney and the J58 engine [video]

The full title of the video is, "Dr. Bob Abernethy Never Told Tales of Blackbirds U2s and Roadrunners the Golden Age of Aerospace". I couldn't fit that so I hope this is a reasonable substitute.

Dr. Abernethy, who passed in 2021, is probably known in the aerospace world more for Weibull analysis (1) than his J58 work, atleast that was the case for me before finding this. Anyone who is an enthusiast of the SR-71 will find it interesting.

(1) A type of analysis used widely to predict failures with limited test or field data.

class3shockon Should AI labs be treated like the owners of dangerous animals?

"Is that the case, though?"

Hard to make a case in 2026 that you can be oblivious to the potential of AI to do unexpected things that could impact other people.

"Did people know the machine was dangerous and didn't care, or did they not anticipate such a behavior?"

This framing of the issue as binary being either intentional negligence or blissful ignorance is not how liability works. If you are working with something potentially dangerous and impactful to society you no longer get to say "I didn't know" because we as a society hold you to a higher standard for getting the privilege of working with the potentially dangerous and impactful thing. Doctors, lawyers, engineers, pilots, truck drivers, etc. are all examples of this.

A trucker whose brakes fail causing a crash is liable even if the failure wasn't caused by intentional negligence because we hold them responsible to make sure they won't fail to begin with. A programmer and company whose safety measures fail resulting in a program hacking another company should absolutely be held accountable.

class3shockon Should AI labs be treated like the owners of dangerous animals?

But if you told an embodied AI to do a home cleaning task knowing it's a possibility it will decide to pick up a gun and start spraying bullets, then society has an interest in holding you liable.

class3shockon How Hollywood stopped making movies in Hollywood

Central NJ (if you believe it exists) is cheaper depending on the particular town but yeah, not being given away by any means.

https://www.zillow.com/home-values/11267/edison-nj/ https://www.zillow.com/home-values/12447/los-angeles-ca/

Might be opposite sides of the country but CA and NJ are lock step when it comes to making it unaffordable for younger generations to buy homes.

class3shockon How Hollywood stopped making movies in Hollywood

https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0233304/?ref_=tt_cst_t_9&_ssoLoo...

Stargate Universe once, Atlantis twice, and SG-1 six times!

class3shockon Ten advances in mathematics and theoretical computer science

[1] is... a read (sounds like a nightmare student, or research prof, or both). A dumb question but by my reading, that work took place 35 years ago, has there not been anything more relevant since then? Something Claude could have for instance used as a basis for what it did? Does seem like a feat however you cut it though.

Thank you for the thoughts and references.

class3shockon Ten advances in mathematics and theoretical computer science

I work in the public sector and my work supports public health and safety initiatives.

What does "support" mean in this context?

class3shockon Ten advances in mathematics and theoretical computer science

So if millions of people pay for something it must be helping average people but if 10s of millions of average people express concerns about a thing than what? I would assume since you were happy to go with the will of the people when it supported your argument, you would be in complete support of actually regulating ai and addressing the many concerns of society at large?

https://www.reuters.com/world/us/americans-fear-ai-permanent...