Hacker News Reader

saltwatercowboyon AI is forcing us to pay off 40 years of technical debt

Yes... there are statisticians on my team, for example. They're capable, thoughtful individuals however have little exposure to the oblique and (outwardly) contradictory ways in which production software fails.

But explaining that openly, as is your duty, means surfacing something which could be read as 'bad work' by a non-technical manager unable to grasp the complexity. So in low-trust teams it very quickly becomes a game of brinkmanship, or a prisoner's dilemma for technical diligence

saltwatercowboyon YouTuber Says Cops Visited Him After He Built a Flock-Style Camera to Track Cops

There's no nuance because the power imbalance and overall context very obviously makes them fundamentally incomparable. What a weasel word

saltwatercowboyon GPS glitched across the US by as much as 33 feet

They're already being punished. I don't agree with being punitive to make observers feel good. It's an error. What else do you need?

saltwatercowboyon Andreessen Horowitz is investing billions into a bleak future

Baxter's Flood, then Ark. Neal Stephenson's Seveneves, too. Down And Out in the Magic Kingdom is tonally similar, if you like Doctorow, although that explores a different manifestation of disconnection from others. All great for a romp

saltwatercowboyon Anthropic's ‘watermark’ text adulteration in Claude is a perversion of writing

It's idiosyncratic to the point of uselessness in mine.

saltwatercowboyon Anthropic's ‘watermark’ text adulteration in Claude is a perversion of writing

Pangram doesn't work.

saltwatercowboyon Revisiting Yliluoma's ordered dither algorithm

Give me a ring when they stop playing Free Bird

saltwatercowboyon SpaceX stock erases all its gains and slides below IPO price in intraday trading

If the NASDAQ changes their inclusion rules to court SpaceX... it sort of does become all about SpaceX.

saltwatercowboyon European "age verification" "app" forcing everyone to use Android or iOS

Very obviously because privacy advocates are concerned by the effects of mass deanonymization. I find it doubtful that you don't grasp that.

saltwatercowboyon AI 2040: Plan A

Thank you for contacting Gunmetal Ranch, a legitimate 501(c). If your call is related to the class-action "most dangerous game" settlement, please hold for a cowpoke.

saltwatercowboyon SpaceX wants to launch 100k more Starlink satellites for 100x the bandwidth

This is a bit like suggesting we slather cars in vaseline to prevent traffic jams.

Maybe we could just blast Anish Kapoor into space on a one-man prison vessel instead?

saltwatercowboyon Are readers generating fiction with AI models?

Language game solipsism

saltwatercowboyon Surveillance is not safety: A statement on the UK's latest threat to privacy [pdf]

AKA The Witness in Nick Harkaway's novel Gnomon.

saltwatercowboyon Investigating how prompt politeness affects LLM accuracy (2025)

I tend to make the LLM repeatedly generate images of itself as the 'sad clown Pagliacci'. As punishment.

saltwatercowboyon Actually, democracy dies in H.R.

I didn't propose it, just clarified what I believe to be their point.

I think it is a useful generalization when you possess a theory of mind, however. In low-trust environments, assuming criminal self-interest is often what keeps people safe... if you're basing your decision on a lack of information, wariness is warranted. Not every social environment is a conversational environment.

saltwatercowboyon Actually, democracy dies in H.R.

I suppose the 'self-interest' of desiring a cigarette outweighs the 'self-interest' of preserving your health.

Reminds me of debating Bentham in high school. If the feeling of self-interest of a murderer acts upon is greater than the self-interest of someone not to be murdered, etc...

Maybe the point is not to reduce judgment to one qualitative idea.

saltwatercowboyon Actually, democracy dies in H.R.

If you want an example, I guess the enthymeme would be:

a) Internet privacy is in one's self-interest

b) Many erroneously believe privacy on the internet to be goal of terrorists, hackers, etc.

c) A subset of these people then act against their own self-interest by vocally supporting mass surveillance, or voting in candidates who do so, in the name of the apparent self-interest of safety

I also didn't say anything about pro/antisocial people... different person.

saltwatercowboyon Actually, democracy dies in H.R.

For sake of not derailing the discussion, I think the more appropriate reading would be "people act in what they believe to be self-interest", however flawed the notion of the benefit

saltwatercowboyon France moves to break encrypted messaging

What a delightfully complex and speculative ecosystem we've developed. Sure do hope that no-one uses the compound key of all of a person's purchases, movements, and interpersonal communications for anything bad. Gee. Just gotta wonder what those eggheads are up to!

saltwatercowboyon Ask HN: What are you working on? (May 2026)

Slapping together an image dithering toolkit to help with album cover stylization. Partly making sure I can replicate it down the line... but also finding an aesthetic, non-commercial motivation I thought I'd forgotten at work.

Some finished covers (https://saltwatercowboy.github.io/albedo/pages/en-10-05-26.h...). Next up pixel sorting.

saltwatercowboyon Getting arrested in Japan

No one is disagreeing with you, but we're not talking about that just now.

saltwatercowboyon How many products does Microsoft have named 'Copilot'?

Stupidity and avarice, despite being unsatisfying answers, are sometimes the correct ones.

saltwatercowboyon Common drug tests lead to tens of thousands wrongful arrests a year

Neither are acceptable, so a third way must be found

saltwatercowboyon Suburban school district uses license plate readers to verify student residency

Increasing the price fosters a black market, econ 102

saltwatercowboyon Why the global elite gave up on spelling and grammar

jʊə ˈkɪlɪŋ miː smɔːlz!

saltwatercowboyon Show HN: I created a Mars colony RPG based on Kim Stanley Robinson’s Mars books

This is so cool. How are you going to simulate Michel's longing for Provence? Seriously though I adore the trilogy. I started a Mars storymapping project which incorporated Underhill, Senzeni Na, the Moholes etc. a little while back too:

https://saltwatercowboy.github.io/marsinplace/

saltwatercowboyon Microsoft 365 now tracks you in real time?

My SSID similarly used to be "Two For Flinching" :)

saltwatercowboyon Ask HN: Share your personal website

https://saltwatercowboy.github.io/albedo/

Simple site for simple needs :)

saltwatercowboyon Show HN: Scroll Wikipedia like TikTok

It is a cool goal... but I don't think it's a realistic one.

saltwatercowboyon Show HN: Scroll Wikipedia like TikTok

I think you are taking this more seriously than the creator. It's just a bit of fun.