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david927

10,548 karma · joined August 15, 2007

david927 at gmail dot com
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david927··on Could a modern chess engine on a Pentium have defeated Kasparov in 1996?
I strongly believe some people are inherently good at chess but no one is inherently bad. If you're interested enough to comment this, play one 5-minute game a day on lichess. Start with the lowest setting but do it every day, maybe in the morning with coffee. You might not win a single game the first year but slowly you'll improve. When you're winning more, move up a level. Sometimes do the puzzles. Give it five years and you'll be able to beat almost anyone you meet and, better yet, you'll know the answer to your question based on your own experience.
david927··on Samsung TVs look for microphones in your house via Bluetooth and then spy events
Until Samsung is sued out of existence
david927··on Tesla Roadster
The Wright Brothers wanted to build something cool. They didn't care it was only 12 seconds and they didn't scheme over potential ROI.

A car drives a vertical wall, launches itself off, and catches itself with thrusters. That's awesome.

If you read my remarks again, you would realize I'm embarrassed for you. I'm embarrassed for a forum that should be about curiosity and wonder, where can we go, and what can the future be -- not earnings per share.

david927··on Tesla Roadster
Businesses care about ROI. Hackers do things that are cool. This is cool.
david927··on Tesla Roadster
The technology is jaw-dropping, the engineering staggering, and this thread -- it's just embarrassing. I've been on HN since the beginning and I don't even recognize it anymore.
david927··on Tesla Roadster
This is incredible engineering and deserves nothing but applause.
david927··on M7.6 Earthquake in Panama
"Tsunami surges of 1 to 3 meters are projected for Panama coastlines, with waves of 0.3 to 1 meter forecast for Ecuador."
david927··on The Great Accretion and the Great Depression
The abridged abstract:

"The Second Industrial Revolution sparked a wave of new products and industrial processes, fueling an optimistic Roaring Twenties. But did excitement about technological progress contribute to an over accumulation of investment, despite a slowdown in new product development and satiated demand during the 1920s? And, was this over investment worsened by continuous process innovation? Could these factors have played a role in triggering the Great Depression? ... The answer is yes."

david927··on On social reality in China
Chinese people find American food disgusting: inauthentic slop inundated with additives and high fructose corn syrup.

Europeans feel exactly like this as well. And as an American who's lived in Europe for decades, I couldn't agree more.

david927··on Ask HN: What are you reading?
Thank you
david927··on Ask HN: What are you reading?
You can't entirely judge a George Sand novel partway through. For my money, it destroys any Brontë, Austen, or Dickens.
david927··on Ask HN: What are you reading?
Bulgakov's The Master and Margarita.
david927··on Startup Nights 2026 is comming up on 5-6 Nov. in Switzerland
If you are going and looking to join a startup, let me know. email in profile
david927··on Good people refuse to do bad things
We're getting so much of this junk with the IPOs pressing.

The mimicbots are impressive but they're frustrating. We've hit the limit for pre-training data and now we're relying on RL for the next progressive steps and that gets asymptotic fast. The truth is that unsupervised learning hasn't inched forward and we don't know how it will, so we're left with benchmaxxing and LARPing about how they're escaping air-gapped configs using themal sensors, all in a desperate attempt to make the projected numbers look less insane so these people can cash out at IPO time. Everyone knows what's happening and it's embarrassing.

david927··on Steve Wozniak launches merch store
https://x.com/stevewoz/status/2100074363605397658
david927··on Show HN: Collected every single "What are you working on" project into a website
very cool!
david927··on Ask HN: What are you working on? (September 2026)
Thanks for doing that!

For more context on these numbers: when I started posting these, first, I wasn't consistent, and second, I was doing something that, to the algorithm, looked suspicious, so I think the posts had a negative weight.

In 2024, HN reached out and it got more of an official blessing for me to run these, and we set an official day of the month (the second Sunday), which in turn made me more consistent.

david927··on Feeling Sad about AI
The thing you love and made your identity was always the cruft middleman of getting from one place to another.

People were sad when we moved from horses to cars; they loved their horses, they named them. That didn't stop the slow, glacial, detached march of the calendar, of progress, and in this example, of the wheel.

david927··on Qwen 3.8-Flash-Next releasing tomorrow (125B a6B)
Well put and succinctly put. And if OxA is a flash model? it becomes: goodnight
david927··on US debt has hit $40tn - Will that be a wake-up call?
The news we read is optimized for edge-event cases. Here it's about a particular number being hit.

What's more interesting is the long, overarching news stories that span decades, e.g. BRICS, and the demise of the petro-dollar

david927··on Nvidia AVO achieves 100% in ARC-AGI-3
Is this a stunt? Or is ARC-AGI-3 not an interesting bench?
david927··on Deutsche Bank becomes first foreign yuan clearing bank in Europe
This is exactly my take. Except I think there was never an interest by China to make the yuan the new global reserve currency but instead slow walk it back to a gold standard, and that's what has been happening since 2008.

If a single country's currency is the global reserve currency, all you're finding out is whose thumb you're under.

david927··on Ask HN: How's Everyone Feeling Today?
Ready for a change.
david927··on Simulacra and Simulation
Suddenly, wildly, pertinent to today's world.
david927··on Ask HN: What are you working on? (August 2026)
This is fantastic and exactly what I needed. Thank you!
david927··on Ask HN: What are you working on? (August 2026)
Very cool
david927··on Ask HN: What are you working on? (August 2026)
Just a fun thing I do: editing films to music. https://brodlist.com/sfe

P.S. Credit to adityaathalye for the change of phrasing for these posts to add "what are you curious about?"

david927··on Ask HN: What art would you like to express?
right? I didn't do that one. But, wow.
david927··on Ask HN: What art would you like to express?
Not for my short films, but here's where I put some existing films I've cut and edited to music (and a few from others)

https://brodlist.com/sfe

david927··on Ask HN: What art would you like to express?
oh, it can be anything, in the same way a short story can be. A lot of times it has a music track which is central to it.
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