Hacker News Reader

drivingmenutson Ask HN: Hypothesis: Cellular providers are deprioritizing voice calls?

Yes.

Alternately, you can bribe/buy enough legislators to get them to enact laws allowing/requiring pay-as-you-go plans, but if you have the money to do that, you might as well just form a company so you can do it at scale.

drivingmenutson Who should be held accountable when an AI Agent (accidentally) acts maliciously?

The person who ordered it or allowed it?

Seems pretty simple to me.

drivingmenutson Show HN: Panda, the world's first personal AI computer

How much control over the AI does the end user have? Can I direct the AI in any way I choose (ie., tell it do "evil" of some sort)?

drivingmenutson Astronomer watches Starlink satellites sinking to build a 'planetary barometer'

It probably doesn't matter. Global warming has proven that we are incapable of doing the necessary things to slow or stop the human-caused decaying of our planet. I'm starting to think we deserve what we're gonna get.

drivingmenutson Ask HN: Hypothesis: Cellular providers are deprioritizing voice calls?

Then you'll have to be the change you want to see in the world. Otherwise, it's not coming back because it gives accountants, executives and investors nightmares about the bottom line.

drivingmenutson Nobody Asked for a Crab Chair

Low-key want.

drivingmenutson US criticises Australia's proposed algorithm opt-out laws as 'censorship'

So, would you then have to submit to forced breeding programs?

Which would play into all sorts of agendas.

drivingmenutson Proposed Rule: Eliminating the Discretionary 60-Day Grace Period

Does this leave them vulnerable to immediate ICE enforcement action on the loss of a job? If so, that's rather nasty.

drivingmenutson Apple wants to train AI on your private personal data

It would be nice if we were somehow able to switch AIs on our local systems, ie., replace the Apple "brain" with some other "brain". I doubt we will be able to do that, but it would be nice.

drivingmenutson Git hosting that never leaves Europe

Well, I was thinking more like photos of the dog, but Germany, you crazy.

drivingmenutson A/I shuts down

Some of y'all are from countries that are in great turmoil.

Which is partly or mostly our fault.

Maybe we could concentrate on doing less of that.

drivingmenutson Git hosting that never leaves Europe

> I say "we" but it's really only me (Peter Ullrich, peterullrich.com) and my dog (Bella, Labrador, beige)

Is there an EU law about a "dog tax" when you've mentioned the dog? Perhaps there should be.

Ps - I'm kidding. Mostly. I like dogs and cats. Frequently, more than people.

drivingmenutson Show HN: MesaOS – An operating system written from scratch in Rust

You might need to either rename (or sue for the name) as MesaOS is in use by a Restaurant POS software.

https://mesaos.com/

drivingmenutson Which tools do Claude, Codex and Cursor choose? We measured 17k runs to find out

I smell a money-making opportunity.

drivingmenutson Dutch central bank moves 86 tonnes of gold from US citing 'geopolitical unrest'

How would that even work? Park tanks on Wall Street and point them at stockbrokers?

drivingmenutson The British state has lost the argument

What does half of an 80's (and onward) English pop band have to do with English justice?

drivingmenutson Chicken products recalled in five states due to “false marks of inspection”

35 Billion lbs of chicken? 100 lbs of chicken per person per year?

Dayummmmm!

drivingmenutson You've heard of CSV files, but have you heard of CCSV files?

It's turtles all the way down, mate.

drivingmenutson Artificial Intelligence Policy

I think I can understand the reasoning behind most of those rules, but the prohibition against AI translation of papers not in English is a bit puzzling. Do they expect students to do their own translations in all cases?

drivingmenutson Stwipe Acquires OpenWouter

OpenWouter does not strike me as being a customer-forward kind of service. Basically, it's a deal-with-it kind of thing, I guess.

drivingmenutson Rivian OS 2

I thought that was just me being an idiot.

Also, least-rewarding link ever.

drivingmenutson Feature Request: Support AGENTS.md

Why not symlink AGENTS.md to CLAUD.md?

drivingmenutson Cursor launches Origin, GitHub alternative

This completely fails to address one of the issues that people have with Github, which is the use of AI, whether you like it or not.

drivingmenutson Show HN: 1667, a terminal UI for writing fiction with language models

https://www.keranews.org/news/2026-08-13/generative-artifici...

The article describes a much more practical reason to avoid using LLMs for writing fiction - you could lose a book deal if you do (and you have a desire to publish for money). There are probably ways to achieve the same end result without going through a publishing house, but I imagine they aren't quite as lucrative nor able to provide the funds up front like a publisher can.

drivingmenutson Two wheels, a few tradeoffs, and gas prices

I recently bought an e-bike for running errands and so on (I do not own a car). I got it put together, hefted it outside (it weighs rather more than I expected), fired it up and rode 10 yards.

It's a moped-style bicycle that rides like a motorcycle and I HAVE NEVER OPERATED A MOTORCYCLE. Bicycle, yes. Motorcycle, no.

I'm going to have to find a large grassy area to practice riding on before this is useful. If I had it to do over, I'd pick something that's more bicycle than motorcycle. But I don't, so I just have to make do with what I did get.

Feel free to call me an idiot.

drivingmenutson Show HN: Lumabri – What if LLMs worked like Napster?

There needs to be some sort of safeguard to prevent people from abusing this and running queries to do something an owner objects to. I'd feel horrible if I discovered that someone used my AI to figure out how to kill someone. Another problem would be privacy. My highly personal queries would be available to whomever ran that query for me thru logging.

This is not to say it's a bad idea, but it needs some thought toward protecting users or at least acknowledgment and warnings that their information might be available to unintended eyes.

drivingmenutson A Tome of Forbidden Technologies

I quit reading at homeopathic medicine.

drivingmenutson Astronauts describe persistent 'observer' sensation after 6 month missions

I had that one time. I was kind of ill at the time and it lasted about an hour. That is some freaky shit if you don't know what is going on. My continuing thought was "Is this going to last forever?"

drivingmenutson Show HN: Physically accurate black hole you can put in your room

Good work! Gimmer two, chief!

Two black holes at once?!?!?? Yeah, I'm crazy like that.

drivingmenutson ECHR confirms ethical veganism is a protected philosophical belief

> It doesn’t sound right to me, I mean a culture can’t be so totally obsessed with the self.

One of our (the US) early political mottoes is "Don't Tread On Me" and it has a flag.

And, yes, we can be and to varying degrees, are. Which is why we can't get along with ourselves very well, much less everyone else.

We're tetchy.