HNHacker News
TopNewBestAskShowJobs

vman81

344 karma · joined December 29, 2017

submissionscomments
vman81··on Heretic removes restrictions from language models
Just because something is easily available does not mean that it isn't easily banned. That doesn't make it go away, but it gives a dystopian government a lot of excuses to go after people breaking the law.
vman81··on AI 'kill switch' may need to be mandatory, Anthropic co-founder tells BBC
To be fair, the vegas loop is operating - shipping a few racks to space to save face/muddle the issue won't be a problem. Operating/scaling it in a commercially viable manner is the issue.
vman81··on 216M Spy TVs – The LG Smart TV Problem [video]
Blocking DNS doesn't do much if the device isn't resolving hostnames and just pushes data to a bunch of preconfigured IPs tho...
vman81··on Dutch central bank moves share of gold from U.S., Canada to London
> The average person could care less about following politics

Could they?

vman81··on Sony deletes more movies from the accounts of people who ‘bought’ them
They'll argue you're "buying" a license that they can revoke when they feel like it. My feelings on the matter have been summed up by someone else more clever than me as:

If buying isn't owning, then piracy isn't stealing.

vman81··on I'm a USB-C Maximalist
> And yes, USB as main connection standard was driven by Apple. But USB as main charging standard was set by the EU.

Hard disagree. Yes, they were quick to say that if you want to connect a device to their computers, you'd better be prepared for it to be USB. But their computer market share simply wasn't there to drive anything. More of a "lead by example" deal.

With phones OTOH, they COULD have driven it, but in the end they had to be whipped by Brussels to adopt standard USB(c).

vman81··on Iran starts Bitcoin-backed ship insurance for Hormuz strait
What do you base "its international waters" on? It is considerably narrower than the 12nm limit for territorial waters.
vman81··on OpenSSL 4.0.0
Well, I may want to have a say in what websites the employees at work access in their browsers. For example.
vman81··on Google removes "Doki Doki Literature Club" from Google Play
> I’m generally with you, but I am not prepared to say companies should be forced to host and distribute content they believe reflects badly on them.

If Apple and Google are hell-bent on killing sideloading, and they control 99% of the mobile market, I think they have an obligation to host things they don't like, as long as it is legal.

vman81··on Every GPU That Mattered
It's pretty, but almost exclusively focused on ATI/AMD and Nvidia with an intel thrown in for fun. Not actually a list of important GPUs.
vman81··on Every GPU That Mattered
Honorable mention, the Rendition Vérité 1000 https://fabiensanglard.net/vquake/index.html

Released before the Voodoo 1 with glquake and gl support for Tomb Raider.

vman81··on Ubuntu 26.04 Ends 46 Years of Silent sudo Passwords
Yea, add a VNC jump host and a flaky spice based terminal and there are a bunch of things that can make your input not register properly.
vman81··on Can Ozempic Cure Addiction?
Plenty of bad habits that cause chemical dependence would still benefit from a pause, even if temporary.
vman81··on France's homegrown open source online office suite
Managing documents on the back end can be very sensible, depending on your work context. Not having to deal with installations is also a real advantage in a heterogeneous environment with a mix of US-controlled operating systems and unencumbered OSes. It also makes migration between them easier, since you only need a common browser to be supported.
vman81··on The Science of Fermentation [audio]
About half of all Faroese traditional food is fermented mutton or fish - air dried and boiled/roasted it triggers a lot of savory flavors that simply aren't on the spectrum of food you can buy at a supermarket. All of these methods were developed out of necessity before refrigeration was a thing. You needed the october meat to last till summer of next year in a subarctic climate. Methodical drying and curing did the trick. There is a wonderful spectrum of aged/fermented/dried before actual inedible rot/decay.
vman81··on Interactive World History Atlas Since 3000 BC
I'll allow it.
vman81··on Heretic: Automatic censorship removal for language models
After seeing Grok trying to turn every conversation into the plight of white South African farmers, it was extremely obvious that someone was ordered to do so, and ended up doing it in a heavy-handed and obvious way.
vman81··on California Will Stop Using Coal as a Power Source Next Month
There's also a good case for geothermal plants at these sites, if the geology permits it. There has been a good deal of development, and more sites are usable.
vman81··on This map is not upside down
Writing top to bottom, and even left to right has/had advantages for mostly right-handed writers to avoid moving your hand over and smudging previously written text.
vman81··on MacPaint Art from the Mid-80s Still Looks Great Today
Reminds me of the youtube video where Ahoy recreates one of the classic 4 Byte images from the 80's 4-Byte Burger https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i4EFkspO5p4
vman81··on EU ruling: tracking-based advertising [...] across Europe has no legal basis
> Entrenches Google, Facebook, etc. because they are the only people that have enough money to comply with the regulation.

I have very little sympathy for the idea of NOT storing user data is some sort of onerous regulatory burden.

Just stop collecting it

vman81··on EU ruling: tracking-based advertising [...] across Europe has no legal basis
> As long as a market exists that can profit from exploiting PII, and is so large that it can support other industries, data will never be radioactive.

The EU bureaucracy machine can be slow moving, but has the potential to fix this. The stricter the rules, the simpler the implementation. You could cut a LOT of the administrative burden by specifying what data is allowed to be stored at all, instead of what isn't.

Big tech needs to be put in their place, and as others have commented; if this kills your business model, your business model doesn't deserve to exist.

vman81··on International Workers' Day
Much like the Democratic People's Republic of Korea is nominally democratic.
vman81··on I maintain a 17 year old ThinkPad
Corner to corner with their hinge opened to 180°
vman81··on Firefly ‘Blue Ghost’ lunar lander touches down on the moon
There have been plenty of pictures of older landing sites. Most of those people have a part of their identity tied up in contrarian ideas, and would find a way to call it fake, even if you personally flew them up to the landing sites to have a look.
vman81··on Backblaze seemingly does not support files greater than 1 TB
I'm guessing poorly configured log files?
vman81··on Commercial jet collides with Black Hawk helicopter near Reagan airport
If anyone needs a palate cleanser after listening to a depressing ATC recording, I can recommend this heartwarming first time solo flying teenager dealing with her landing gear coming off after takeoff. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kZ5q7Iv5wTM
vman81··on IAC confirms existence of a Super-earth in the habitable zone of a Sun-like Star
Regarding sci-fi; Joshua "Lagrange" Calvert did a fancy maneuver in Peter F. Hamilton's Reality Dysfunction involving a lagrange point that gave him that nickname.
vman81··on Tesla Sales Are Tanking in Europe
Just dropping a link like that about a car manufacturer doing even worse without any argument attached just comes across as coping or soviet style whataboutism. They just edged out Honda - a company with 4% of their market cap. Not really a slam dunk.
vman81··on Debian opens a can of username worms
I really don't want to be snarky or sarcastic, so I'll just be plain. Many people are unwilling or unable to understand a problem that doesn't affect them directly. Like - "UTF is woke" kind of people. They are out there.
Page 1 of 2Next →