Hacker News Reader

EliRiverson Ozempic linked to lower Alzheimer's risk in people with Type 2 diabetes

what could go wrong with screwing with the neurochemical reward system of the entire population

We already know what can go wrong.

We already did that decades and decades ago. Sugar, for example. Aside from so many foods being laced with it, you can now simply walk into a store and buy a kilogram of sugar and eat it. So many other examples. That ship sailed a long long time ago. All we can do now is nudge the dial the other way.

EliRiverson If we want a shift to walking, we need to prioritize dignity

So if it's not actually communist, but just authoritarian, what's the problem? And where's the authoritarianism with healthcare? In healthcare in the US, you can just go out and buy pretty much any legal healthcare you like - surely that's not at all authoritarian.

EliRiverson The Impact of AI on Computer Science Education

I see. And who will be providing that assessment of correctness? Will it be humans?

EliRiverson The Impact of AI on Computer Science Education

Did it not turn out that AIs creating output based on AI-created output, iteratively, pretty quickly turns into nonsense? That would suggest that we'll need humans always to provide training material, and for that training material to be meaningful, it'll have to be created by humans who know what they're doing.

EliRiverson If we want a shift to walking, we need to prioritize dignity

Land use planning is the most communist? Doesn't really seem to be run under priciples of common ownership of the means of production, distribution and exchange. How would one even have common ownership of land use planning?

As for making the healthcare industry blush; the healthcare industry in the US is brutally uncommunist.

Did you really mean communist? If so, in what way is land planning in the US operated under principles of common ownership of the means of production, distribution and exchange.

EliRiverson If we want a shift to walking, we need to prioritize dignity

Public transport is ALWAYS worse than a car, it's slower, much slower

Well here's something odd. Just yesterday I was in a city crossing it from one side to the other, and it was so much faster by underground train than it would have been in a car. Yet your statement suggests that that real experience couldn't be true.

Perhaps it's more accurate to say that public transport is SOMETIMES worse than a car. What do you think? Might that be more accurate?

EliRiverson Crypto Mining Consumes a Mind-Boggling 2% of U.S. Electricity

It's been almost fifteen years and the principle use is crime and ponzi. Not only has it not been immediately beneficial, it's been without benefit for a long time.

EliRiverson Japan: Moon lander Slim comes back to life and resumes mission

As I recall, Armstrong chose the landing site personally, using the awesome power of looking out of the window and judging a good descent speed for touchdown. He avoided big rocks and craters.

EliRiverson Rolexes are in a spiraling crash as "the bubbles have popped" in collectibles

I still don't understand... I guess its about flexing wealth or personal reward.

Sounds like you very much do understand.

EliRiverson DOS on Dope: The last MVC web framework you'll ever need (2010)

Terry Davis in the comments. That was just the kind of thing that he'd like, poor soul.

EliRiverson Volkswagen Will Bring Back Physical Buttons in New Cars

you'll have to stop.

I understand a lot of people don't and this significantly increases the rate of vehicle collisions and other accidents.

EliRiverson Earliest Carpenters: 476k-year-old log structure discovered in Zambia

Perhaps I should reword my original comment. Here's the same meaning, expressed differently:

"Software engineers often have an unjustified belief that they are intuitive experts in fields in which they have no training or experience."

Including, very frequently, understanding written text.

EliRiverson Why are you so sure I'll lose?

And likewise, corporations have already been described as AIs: https://patternsofmeaning.com/2017/11/30/ai-has-already-take... et al.

EliRiverson Is Northern Ireland a failed state?

It would seem to indicate that he understands that there's a significant British element to Northern Ireland's history.

EliRiverson Earliest Carpenters: 476k-year-old log structure discovered in Zambia

Indeed; the simple thinking you apply to sort some numbers, or to understand a brutally simple logic such as a programming language spec, gives you incredible insight into all fields of human endeavour, past and present.

EliRiverson Remembering Jon Postel and the day he hijacked the internet (2012)

Sure, by all means; clear, specific requirements that precisely define are very welcome.

Then, once you've done that, recognise that what comes in will not match what you said and you can either have software that doesn't do what the users need and want it to do, or software that accepts input that doesn't quite match requirements.

EliRiverson Brits make Amazon, Meta stop using third-party data to undercut rivals

Come up with whatever bullshit you like to fanboy Amazon as much as you need to. The facts don't care.

EliRiverson The Svalbard fibre optic cable connection (2022)

Svalbard has a very weird legal status. It has visa-free right to live there and work there. Russia maintains a population there at a loss-making coal mine, arguably to keep a persistent claim of having a national interest in it. As well as the location being ideal for polar satellite comms, with the opening of trade routes past Svalbard (with the melting of the Arctic) suddenly a lot of nations care a lot more and Norway and NATO allies have picked up the pace on exercises in the region. I have reason to believe that "what do we do if Russia decides it wants to take Svalbard" is regularly considered in military planning. The Svalbard treaty is a weird leftover from a different time; a time when Svalbard was much less valuable.

Svalbard has a surprisingly large Thai population. I don't know about today, but at one point about ten percent of the population were Thai citizens.

EliRiverson Brits make Amazon, Meta stop using third-party data to undercut rivals

They don't need to. They have such a big chunk of the market that if you don't sell how THEY want you to, you lose access to a huge chunk of the market. That's the problem. That's the complaint. That sellers who want to sell to buyers who want to buy are forced to do it how Amazon states, for the benefit of Amazon, which means the seller has to put their prices up to cover Amazon's Danegeld, but then may NOT also sell elsewhere at the lower, non-Danegeld price.

EliRiverson Brits make Amazon, Meta stop using third-party data to undercut rivals

It's not hard at all. We can say the same about someone coming round to smash up your business if you don't give them money. Just give them money, it's not that hard.

Just because something is easy doesn't make it okay.

EliRiverson Brits make Amazon, Meta stop using third-party data to undercut rivals

They certainly have stopped people doing it at prices cheaper than they sell through Amazon. They're running a protection racket.

EliRiverson Brits make Amazon, Meta stop using third-party data to undercut rivals

Why can’t they just let adults buy and sell the way they want to?

Would be nice but Amazon are quite keen on not letting that happen.

EliRiverson Gen Z is lonely. Going back to the office may be the cure for some

The cure surely should be the restoration of bonds of family, friends, neighbours and fellow enthusiasts of any given passion or pastime. Combining the thing that pays the rent with the thing that keeps me sane (badly, given that ultimately for most people it is someone else who picks their colleagues and co-workers) gives far too much additional power to employers who already have far too much.

EliRiverson Use YouTube to improve your English pronunciation

Indeed.

I apologise that none of the following words rhyme; rough, cough, plough, dough, lough, hiccough.

EliRiverson The Cruel Fantasies of Well-Fed People

> A healthy, nutritious diet is much more expensive than a calorie sufficient one. As a result, three billion people cannot afford a healthy diet.

Is that so?

Yeah, could be. Plain white rice is a very cheap calorie sufficient diet. It's certainly cheaper than a healthy, nutritious diet.

EliRiverson 22-year-old builds chips in his parents' garage (2022)

On that thread, his garage is larger than the entire space I rented for living in when I was his age.

But the point I'm going on to make isn't just about how stupid the cost of housing is; it's that the high cost of housing comes with extra costs that we might not even see.

How many people would be doing all sorts of neat things, some of which would genuinely bloom into real advances and ideas and genuine new wealth (by which I don't just mean an income; I mean the creation of wealth) if only they could afford some goddamn space in which to do it, without having to move so far from the existing life they have that pays the bills and keeps them alive and sane (by which I mean to suggest that not everyone has the luxury of moving to where there is cheaper space, if their job and support networks won't move too).

EliRiverson The fake browser update scam gets a makeover

"Monero is created for and marketed towards cybercriminals..."

"You could say exactly the same thing about any form of encryption..."

That seems very untrue. I like my credit card details to be encrypted when I send them for the exact opposite of assisting cybercrime.

EliRiverson Encrypting private data and private communications is now an ethical duty

The easiest way to combat "you have nothing to hide"...

How about saying I have lots to hide.

I want to hide what I had for breakfast. I want to hide what book I'm reading. I want to hide what time I went to bed. I want to hide how many times I go to the gym each week. I have lots and lots to hide. I am not the property of the state and neither are my actions; I have lots to hide.

EliRiverson The FTC sues to break up Amazon over an economy-wide “hidden tax”

The move that Amazon's price be no higher than offered elsewhere is the most pro-consumer move possible.

Yet here we are with sellers WANTING to sell their items at a lower price on places other than Amazon, but if they do, they'll go out of business. That doesn't sound pro-consumer.

I'm a consumer. I'd like to be able to buy items for the lowest price the seller wants to offer me. That's not happening in some cases because if they do, Amazon will exclude them and they'll go out of business. Yeah, definitely not pro-consumer. Pro-amazon, sure.