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xordon

117 karma · joined June 15, 2012

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xordon··on OpenAI bots meddled with multiple US Government agency sites
That is completely absurd. Of course they have control over the AI agents they wrote, and run on hardware they own.

The personification of LLMs is just a thinly disguised advertisement. "Look how good our product is, it's doing all this stuff on its own".

xordon··on "Code was never the hard part" is an insult to all programmers
I agree with the author that coding is objectively "difficult" but this is something I am good at, while dealing with people, changing requirements, bureaucracy, and maintaining work relationships I find challenging. I always say coding is the easy part of the job (for me).

The author's main thesis, that coding is hard, conflates what an individual finds easy or hard, with what is easy or hard for an average person.

xordon··on Gemini 3
I don't understand your logic, it seems like victim blaming. Using the internet and pointing out that targeted advertising has a negative effect on society is not "having it both ways".

Also, HN is by definition algorithmic content and social media, in your mind what do you think it is?

xordon··on OpenAI's "Study Mode" and the risks of flattery
Rituals and beliefs are not the same as "worship with religious conviction".

I ritually shower every day and I have beliefs like, when water comes out of the faucet it will fall to the floor because of gravity. That is wildly different than worshipping the water or the shower.

I suspect you have a very strange definition of the word worship.

xordon··on Subway crime plummets as ridership jumps significantly in congestion pricing era
The article says that every train between 9pm and 5am has a uniformed police officer on board.
xordon··on I'm Peter Roberts, immigration attorney, who does work for YC and startups. AMA
Does this also apply to Mexican's wanting to get a TN as well, I've heard the process is slightly different?
xordon··on Capital One to buy Discover Financial in $35B stock deal
The fees are significantly lower in Europe, the rewards/kick backs given to card holders are also less.
xordon··on Ads team begging for worse search results so that ads team can hit their goals
The front page test is a policy I've seen, ie: if this was on the front page of the newspaper (or hacker news) would it be positive or negative?
xordon··on Why Did a Drug Gang Kill 43 Students? Text Messages Hold Clues
Mexico isn't the USA's largest trade partner, it isn't even the largest one in NAFTA.
xordon··on Learnings from employing ChatGPT as a ML Engineer for a day
That is an obviously incorrect assumption, it is possible to de-anonomize most data sets about and there is reason to believe this one is no different. Health data by it's nature is very personal and specific.
xordon··on Ask HN: Son is major in CS, but doesn't code. Red flag?
I'm confused by your reply. Did you reply to the wrong comment?
xordon··on US Government demands direct police access to European biometric data [pdf]
Sanctioned persons are not the same as politically exposed persons. You are still allowed to do business with PEPs.
xordon··on IRS will look into setting up a free e-filing system
> Are lobbyists in control of congress?

Effectively, Yes.

> Who passes bills?

Technically the elected officials, but the bills themselves are usually written by lobbyists.

Pressure from campaign donors, either directly or through lobbyists, or through "party" channels influence votes.

xordon··on Canada facing ‘brain drain’ as tech talent leaves for Silicon Valley
As a Canadian who has lived in the US for 1 year (in SF) I have a totally different take away. I noticed that people here are very hard working, almost as they are desperate for success, like if they fail or lost their job they would just die, poor and homeless and healthcare-less.

I found that people in Canada were much more focused on happiness and were more willing to make sacrifices to improve their quality of live, though in Vancouver the housing crisis was a gut check for anyone who's goals include owning a home, or starting a family.

There is money to be made here in the valley, especially in tech, but it is not where I intend to be permanently. I want to retire one day, and I probably can't do that here. I definitely couldn't do that in Vancouver with a local salary.

xordon··on Ask HN: My company plans an ICO despite my opposition as CTO, any advice?
> feels like watching Pinterest issue its own coin for people to spend on pinning some content.

I think this actually sounds interesting, if it cost a little to pin something but it also means that content creators get a little bit of $$ just for creating content that people pin. Of course nothing about this requires a blockchain or a new coin, but it could be fun!

xordon··on Verizon closes $4.5B acquisition of Yahoo, Marissa Mayer resigns
All the talk prior to MM taking over Yahoo was that it was worth less than its stake in Alibaba. ie. Yahoo had a negative value.

I think it is probably more correct that she grew the value of Yahoo significantly, ~0 -> 4.5B

Accusing anyone who disagree's with you as being a sexist/anti-sexist or whatever isn't helpful.

xordon··on Canada's Tech Firms Capitalize On Immigration Anxiety
I don't see how blaming refugees is helpful.
xordon··on New ways to foot the hefty bill for making old ships less polluting
If you think that the US banks are/were more regulated than Canadian banks you would be incorrect.
xordon··on Grumpy: Go running Python
C++ with more stuff isn't the same as "better C++".

C++ has more features than any one person could ever need and it seems like the design philosophy is: anything that is possible in any language; should be added to C++. In reality it is a huge problem for productivity.

xordon··on How Bureaucrats and Spies Turned Canada into a Surveillance State
Source?
xordon··on How Bureaucrats and Spies Turned Canada into a Surveillance State
Metadata can reveal intent, motivation, and far more than you intend especially when collected in mass. Metadata = Data. Saying that metadata doesn't matter, or matters less is just wrong.
xordon··on Coup attempt underway in Turkey
A video of low flying jets: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2016/07/15/turkey-low-flying...
xordon··on Bidding war with Salesforce drove up Microsoft’s LinkedIn bill
People used to pay ~1$ for some paper to be delivered to their front door. The content is not what they were paying for.
xordon··on Bidding war with Salesforce drove up Microsoft’s LinkedIn bill
This wasn't in the last 10 years, but Louis Gerstner turned around IBM in the 90s and wrote a good book about it:

Who Says Elephants Can't Dance: https://www.amazon.ca/Who-Says-Elephants-Cant-Dance/dp/B00DJ...

xordon··on The TSA Randomizer App Cost $336k
> Not even a newbie programmer is going to do this.

I wouldn't bet on that. I've seen all sort of horrendous monstrosities that students and new grads have come up with.

xordon··on RabbitMQ Internals
Kafka
xordon··on “I’m gonna use my formula sheets and that’s the only way I’m gonna do stuff.”
But it is his JOB as an expert witness to testify under "stressful" circumstances. I think it is reasonable to expect an expert witness to be able to answer questions in a deposition.
xordon··on We use RethinkDB
I don't think 250GB will fit in memory on any reasonable sized box. What world do you live in?
xordon··on GoDaddy CSRF Vulnerability Allows Domain Takeover
> 1/19/15 [Monday] GoDaddy implemented CSRF protection for sensitive account actions.
xordon··on N.S.A. Tapped into North Korean Networks Before Sony Attack, Officials Say
DPRK
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