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Scottn1on Does Reddit have an astroturfing problem? What the data suggests

Reddit started to become questionably relevant that I am even reading real humans anymore for me I'd say around 2021. Covid caused the internet "grift" of karm-farming, content creators shilling miracle products "they love", and hidden agenda posts with affiliate links to really take off. Slowly over time you'd notice fake sounding or off tangent type comments intertwined into threads. Some subreddits were way worse and some still felt pretty clean around that time.

But LLM's have completely and utterly destroyed Reddit. To the point of it feels like it is 75% FAKE conversations and/or astroturfed with only a FEW real people commenting anymore. Plus the LLM's have gotten so much better I catch myself sometimes wondering if a certain comment is from a real person or not. Just too much mental energy required for Reddit now to the point of I hardly go there anymore for anything other specific technical questions.

It is sad because it used to be a wealth of knowledge and community. All of /r/askreddit is just bot started ragebait questions, karma-farming or stupid hypotheticals now. /r/popular is just trashy. Constantly I notice videos that are sometimes 7-10+ years old getting reposted again like they are new, just to get rage conversation started again.

You cannot search for ANY product recommendations anymore. Fake "Hey I tried this brand and it was game-changing". No subreddit is safe. Look at /r/supplements now, it is full of those type comments to innocent topic starting questions that are also probably fake. Off topic stuff such as "xxx brand Beef liver supplement changing my life" when someone asks what brand of multivitamin others prefer.

Reddit used to have a few real cesspool subreddits one could avoid, but now I consider the whole site one. You can't even browse Reddit anymore without being blocked to download their app to continue. Old-Reddit now requires a login. Ads make it unreadable without a blocker.

Ugh. Just the worst of the internet all on display at Reddit now.

Scottn1on California is chasing wealth that has feet

“ Larry Page, Sergey Brin, Peter Thiel, Don Hankey, Travis Kalanick, and Steven Spielberg, worth roughly $540 billion combined — had already moved their tax residency out of state before the measure”

Imagine being worth billions USD and rather than being a part of the solution to support the state that helped build your wealth, you spend your money to just get around paying your small share.

It is trivial for the wealthy to buy another house elsewhere and “move” their primary residence.

Scottn1on Backups Aren't Simple

I was using Restic + Backrest as well for my personal Windows machines and it was great. Then I found out that Backrest stores the vault password (among other things) in a simple plaintext file on your local hard drive. Not sure if this applies to all platforms but for Windows users that is a huge security hole in today's environment.

https://github.com/garethgeorge/backrest/issues/1047

Scottn1on Fed hikes rates as inflation worries push up bond yields

At what point into a presidential term does it become their actual mess? And is there evidence of a time delay? Because by that argument, the mess we are in would been caused by Democrats.

Scottn1on AI Doomlord Jacob Coxon's Media Tour Has Begun

>>>How does Ted Kaczynski fit into all of this?

You mean Jacques Ellul? Ted Kaczynski was heavily influenced by little known French Philosopher / Anarchist Ellul's anti-technology books. Ted even mentioned this to his prison interviewer. Here is a copy of Ted's 1983 letter to Ellul:

https://www.thetedkarchive.com/library/ted-kaczynski-s-lette...

Ted always seems to get the recognition for being the main, or original, anti-technologist who "foresaw" our modern predicament because he killed people to make enough noise to get his manifesto published. Ellul and many others were before him.

The Netflix documentary on Ted Kaczynski is real good.

Scottn1on People are worried about America's solvency

Not that simple IMO. If Trump was to rescind his own tax cut, he'd lose a large majority of his base as they feel even more pinched in the pocketbook than they currently are experiencing with the inflation problem.

I don't see a way out of this and I don't think current admin really cares. Loot every last drop they can for next two years to enrich themselves and leave America to burn with no money left for Social Security, bond payments, etc. The crowds with pitchforks won't have anyone to tar and feather as Trump will be too old/dead to face any justice and his rich billionaire family will expat to the billionaire utopia of choice. Along with Musk, Bezo's and Zuck.

Scottn1on I am not a black belt

When I was a young kid in the 80's I thought Steven Seagal was a real badass, and Aikido was THE best (and coolest) martial art. Watching his movies and fight scenes was like watching that video at this website. Effortlessly using attackers own momentum against them, snapping limbs and the principle of no fist/kick hits harder than the ground. I remember going to the library and getting some Aikido books and practicing the steps from photographs.

Then Royce Gracie with Brazilian Jujitsu and the very beginnings of UFC came along and completely upended the traditional glamor of movie star Martial Arts for REAL fights against opponents of all sizes (Early UFC didn't have weight classes). Most real fights end up on the ground pretty fast anyway and against larger/stronger opponents you want to be on the ground.

That isn't to say that a black belt in say Karate, or even Aikido wouldn't still be effective in a no-choice self-defense situation, but I'd rather be more proficient in Boxing at that point or one of the many other more modern fighting arts that have grappling as a core.

Scottn1on Bitwarden scrubs 'Always free' and 'Inclusion' values from its site

I literally just spent hours in January of researching all the commonly mentioned options out there and trying them for myself before deciding fully on Bitwarden Family. I was a KeepassXC user for years and had my family on it as well. For 2026 I wanted to be more modern and was tired of worrying about backups (like a teenager only having their passwords on their phone), as well as syncing and accessibility. Then spent many more hours getting everyone off individual KeepassXC installs and transferred to the Bitwarden Family account.

I am locked in with paid annual until Next January, but if I have to change again do to enshittification or changes made to, what I felt was a good open-source product and company, I am not going to be happy, nor will my family.

Scottn1on $500 GPU outperforms Claude Sonnet on coding benchmarks

You forgot about the $9b bailout to Intel in August of 2025.

With the recent OpenAi deal with the government I am certain they would throw tons of money at OpenAi if it got real bad. But with upcoming IPO where they are expected to be valued at $840b, we would be a LONG way from them needing a bailout. Well past this current admin.

Scottn1on Ask HN: What are your best purchases under $100?

>The Speakman S-2251 showerhead, with the flow regulator pried out. Was 100 when >bought, 3x that now.

Holy molly! You aren't kidding. I literally have one laying around in my bathroom cabinet that I bought during Covid for, I wanna say, $60? I used it for about a month or two before I decided I liked my previous shower head better (Kohler Forté).

Also, I'm curious why it is so common recommendation across the internet to take out the flow regulators. Even see it mentioned in Amazon reviews. It is bypassing regulations and selfish. It defeats the purpose of everyone doing their part to cut down their water usage, especially in areas that really need it (Arizona, Nevada and California). I still have mine in at 1.75gpm and it rinses me fine. No one needs the Kramer "Commando 450" force.

Scottn1on Ask HN: What are your best purchases under $100?

LectroFan Classic - Portable fan sounds and noise machine (I have mine set to pink noise). Wife and I use it nightly to drown out distractions. Even pack it with us on vacation now for hotel rooms.

Scottn1on Ask HN: What are your best purchases under $100?

I recently upgraded the cheap plastic version to the robust glass one and feel so much better about having hot liquid simmering in it now.

Scottn1on Microsoft Will Preload Windows 11 File Explorer to Fix Bad Performance

> In fact, that's how it already is for me at my job now. I have a MacBook Pro. Windows is just another app on my laptop that I open when I need it, and close when I'm done.

How? Windows as a VM? Or is Windows VM hosted somewhere and you are connecting to it via RDP? Either way everything we mention with the dark-patterns and bloat still apply. Someone has to install and maintain the OS whether you in the VM or the host in your hosted elsewhere VM.

Or are you talking about hosted Microsoft apps on your Macbook? Where the icon opens the app elsewhere and you are just getting the interface?

Scottn1on Homeschooling hits record numbers

I've met so many of these narcissistic dad types that I think they are either a) living vicariously though their sons as an ego thing or b) seriously think they are sitting on a winning lottery ticket and their kids will make pro. So they obsessively push the kids so they don't "waste their opportunity" and/or "don't make mistake I did and not take it seriously".

I have even felt that urge with my son at times when he was making Little League All-star teams each year and considered top 5 player in the league. But then you realize they are only 9-12 years old and playing on a mini field! So I relished in him just having FUN. It was so hard to be around those obsessive Dads when I was having fun practices.

Scottn1on Microsoft Will Preload Windows 11 File Explorer to Fix Bad Performance

It really is sad! Truly

I've been a Microsoft user since DOS days and diehard Windows fan since it first came out. All through the years I've installed, ran, broke, reinstalled, tinkered and administered countless Windows PC's for myself and clients. Was even on track to be MCSE NT certified through my employer until the Internet bubble burst and got laid off. Played with so many others like Linux, BSD, Solaris, BeOS, etc as well but always at end the day just wanted my Windows and get stuff done. I was known as the "PC Guy" in my circles.

Where Microsoft is now and what Windows 11 has slowly become, I have really started to think their Windows division is just a nuisance for them and they don't care. Every month I seem to be reading another anti-user friendly decision and ANOTHER switch I have to find to turn off at every install or visiting family. A default install of Windows 11 is an assault of Constant locked-down install, forced account adding or worse grabbing it from Edge or where it can, ad-based data slurp with so much stuff running in the background and other enshittification of the OS. WHAT IS GOING ON??

Even the Pro version MEANT for business and domain PC's has Xbox stuff on it and game bar running by default, now CoPilot on as well by default, screen snapshots. Instead of a nice light install for business and hardcore users that you then ADD to to make your desired setup, it is the opposite of having it all installed and you spend an hour removing everything.

I am ready to jump ship for first time in my life.

Scottn1on Homeschooling hits record numbers

Homeschooling is becoming an epidemic and a major reason is --- SPORTS. From my experience, it is growing for all the wrong reasons and I have not come across ONE family doing it properly and in a matter I would consider better for the kid.

I have a 15yo son who plays sports and for the past 5 years, homeschooling has been a way to "red-shirt" kids - hold them back a year or two then re-entering them into public schools into grades behind their age. Literally purposely holding back their kids so they can be older as freshman.

A major problem with boys because of puberty, size etc around this age. The difference between a 14yo and a 16yo, or 16/18yo can be quite large at times. My son had a freshman on his team last year that could drive and had a mustache playing vs these tiny incoming freshman, it was so comical. He was 16 1/2 as a freshman. And the parents were on the sideline acting like their kid was the next coming of Aaron Judge. It REALLY hurts the rest of us playing the rules and taking education seriously when our kids are trying to make a team.

I've known several of these parents and they all are the same. They haphazardly put them into the bare min online courses, still go to work all day and stick them in front of computers to expect them to self teach for a few years. The moms would be stay-home types that didn't seem much educated themselves. The kids are spoiled entitled types who think they are top athletes already and would jokingly be calling my son at 11a telling him they are done already for the day and headed to the gym and playing Fortnite.

Now this is just MY circle, I am not saying there aren't very serious and capable parents out there really homeschooling and giving their kids a better education than public school, but I haven't met any in maybe roughly 10 I know. Most of them seemed to also be MAGA types poo-pooing public education and how they are brainwashing kids. It is really despicable that this is most likely happening ALL across America.

Education and manipulation aside, I would also think this isn't good the kids mental and social health as well. They already are on devices doom-scrolling enough nowadays, do we really want them hermits too now?

I applaud anyone putting in huge effort to home school a kid properly and with true care and teaching. But the image of them at a desk being taught by a real smart/educated parent following a true curriculum all day and on a schedule I imagine is ultra rare. And we are going to pay a price for this in the long run. Or not, GPT will just help them along to properly write that email for them when they are adults in a corporate world.

Scottn1on U.S. details gambling cases involving pro athletes and mafia families

For anyone interested in the Poker part of this news, two years ago I read an article in Wired magazine about a security consultant that was able to "hack" the automatic card shuffle machines. These machines are commonly used throughout the world in casinos and private games. He got the machines to send the cards dealt to each player to his phone. This showed all hands dealt and the eventual seat with the winning hand BEFORE the players even looked at their cards! At the time, I knew where there is enough money, this will surely become a problem. It was the first thing I thought about reading this news today.

Wired did a follow up article today in relation to this news: https://www.wired.com/story/how-hacked-card-shufflers-allege...

The video from 2023 explaining it all and demonstrating it is here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JQ20ilE5DtA

Scottn1on The new geography of stolen goods

I have a Tesla. It is trivial to steal; you just get my phone and you have my car. It is tied to the car through Bluetooth that auto unlocks AND drives without any other security measures beyond just being close to it with the devise. You don't even have to unlock my phone. Getting my phone would be the harder part, but it just would take a lapse in paying attention (like left in on the table to get a drink refill).

The comforting part (unless you consider the immense privacy issues) is, as you mention, how tied the auto is to Tesla and my account. I could have the car disabled and tracked probably less than 10 minutes of discovering it was taken. I could also lock/erase my stolen phone remotely which would then disable driving the car again once it was put into park for the first time.

Scottn1on Wyze pays $255k of tariffs on $167k of floodlights

Tarrifs have started to hit the boardgame industry pretty hard already, and as an enthusiast, I have started to really worry. Within a very short span, several companies have already announced drastic slowdowns in product production/shipments and staff, to some outright closing.

https://stonemaiergames.com/we-are-suing-the-president/ https://www.cmon.com/press/an-update-on-our-internal-teams-a... https://www.greaterthangames.com/blogs/news/greater-than-gam...

Scottn1on Whats your max wpm in typing?

81 WPM is my highest. Can hit low 70's any given day. Self taught inefficient style. Never learned to Touch type. Mishitting keys often enough is my barrier. So keyboard does matter. I need tactile to cut down those errors. Red switches (Linear) I can drop into the 50's.

Funny enough we had a party day after Thanksgiving and I had a typing competition for friends and family using 10fastfingers. First place I awarded a $10 Starbucks gift card. Surprisingly the majority were faster than I thought and I am not that much faster overall despite being into computers since I was 9.

The fastest that night was a 22 year old ex-gamer now in IT that scored 91 WPM. Slowest we saw was 8 WPM for a 9 year old and some seniors also were under 10 WPM. The majority fell in 40-65 range and these were mostly career corporate types and a few public school officials. The surprises for me were my 14yo son who got 77 WPM and a 25yo female nurse that got 71wpm.

My wife's 36yo cousin wasn't there for the party but I have seen him several times coast at 110WPM and his highest I've seen is 132WPM.

Scottn1on CDC data are disappearing

Your Twitter was one of several I followed to get trusted information during most of Covid. Just wanted to say "Thanks".

Scottn1on New Tesla Model Y

Tesla Model 3 Owner here for a year now. There is no question in my mind that was a Sieg Heil on stage, at our nations capital while standing behind the Presidential seal and being watched by millions. Twice!

I am currently shopping for alternatives and would gladly trade mine in even at a small loss. I wasn't a fan of his before, really, but didn't pay much to it, his company produces a product I drive.

My M3 is the most buggy car I ever owned and has had warranty service three times in that year. Little stuff like seat-belt sensor warning, window switch and foam-dislodging in one of the tires causing major shaking at speed. Service department has been friendly as they come out to my house for two of them, so that is nice. They also quickly gave me a loaner for the tire issue without even prying. The road noise is also horrible on the car. Way worse than even my Mazda6 I had before it. Whistles in the driver window area on the highway. Lose pillar trim.

But I'm not finding much STILL that competes with Tesla in the USA really. In price or looks as an EV. I still love the way it drives/handles and would have a difficult time leaving EV back to ICE at this point. I haven't had to change oil, stop for gas, check fluids, etc.

Scottn1on Ask HN: Which RSS reader do you use?

https://bazqux.com/

Five years now.

Scottn1on Tesla reports 1.1% sales drop for 2024, first annual decline in at least 9 years

Lucid is majority controlled by Saudi PIF.

https://eletric-vehicles.com/lucid/saudi-pif-now-controls-64...

Scottn1on Google starts tracking all your devices in 8 weeks

Because Brave is just trying to build their own ad-network under the guise of being "privacy" oriented. It is a conflict of interest trying to get profitable selling user data while also claiming to block it. When first installed the their own ad and crypto stuff is enabled-by-default. Then throw in a few nefarious incidents, such as the affiliate link-hijacks a few years ago, and it is hard to trust them.

No browser is safe from capitalistic rot at this point.

Scottn1on Beating the bookies with their own numbers

When I moved to Las Vegas in the late 90's, I became friends with someone in my new circle who was from Brooklyn, NY and a pretty active sports better. I mean this wasn't the recreational type doing for-fun $20 parlays on Sunday, he was routinely doing $500 and $1k bets ("dimes" he called them). I had been to Vegas on trips before and remember bringing $300 for gambling for a weekend and thinking that was a lot. I was in utter shock at how much he would be riding on a typical NCAA Football Saturday and NFL Sunday. It was one of my first true experiences in my life of what hardcore gambling was and a side I have never seen or known.

Anyway, I remember very clearly how serious his betting was and how he solely looked to find any edges he could. It wasn't about handicapping a game, he was a line sharp. Remember this was a time where Internet was still dial-up and wagering off-shore was still very early days. Many times he would be calling old-fashioned bookmakers back home. He was paying for a service called Don Best and at the time it was pretty expensive but was able to get line-moves almost in real time. He was "Chasing Steam" as you called it. Watch for big line moves in Best and place bets where he could that haven't caught it yet. He was pretty successful and quit his full time job while buying a house, cars, etc. Not flashy but just a living.

Eventually, as all things gambling, it started to turn bad for him. He was getting accounts suspended and getting listed as a sharp. He would call customer support playing dumb and I remember one guy at an offshore book on speaker-phone flat out told him basically no longer want his business as every time he places a bet with them the lines were moving shortly after in his favor and wanted to know what he was using.

I remember his downfall being pretty fast after that. It started with just getting blacklisted at some and the few reputable offshore books left wouldn't keep him long when they discovered he was a steam chaser. He tried changing phone numbers and fake ID's and they caught onto that. Eventually any book that did take his action he started to hear Don Best line moves in the background on the phone and they would tell him to "hold on something is happening" then just give him the new adjusted line. The edge was gone and he started to bet with shadier old-school bookies that didn't have the technology, but they just didn't pay him anyway.

He started to see the writing on the wall and the bill pressures started to effect him as he started to just push into trying to handicap and pick winners based on gut and dabble into some line making software. At one point he was in for a very large sum after a bad Sunday, something like $70k he owed. He struggled for a good 5 years after that, divorced and back to a 9-5. Last I seen him was right before Covid and he was out of that world not having placed a bet in a long while he said and was now into options trading.

I doubt betting line moves is even a thing anymore. Information just moves so fast now and books have evolved way beyond. Plus with how big sports wagering in in the US, lines probably only move now because of large public betting waves or injuries.

Scottn1on Intel might be too big to fail

I'm actually fascinated the rise-and-fall of some mega corporations over time as times/habits change. IBM, Sears, Etc.

At one point Sears was THE place to shop for everything from back-to-school clothes, appliances and Christmas. In the early 2000's I would have thought you were either a giant fool, or a time-traveler, had you tried to tell me by 2024 Intel would be de-listed from the Dow and talk of taxpayer bailout or bankruptcy. They had a monopoly on PC/Servers. As crazy as it currently may sound but one day we could be discussing the downfall of Amazon, Microsoft and Google.

Does anyone know of good books about the business-cycle and life/death of companies?

Scottn1on Ask HN: What ist your AdBlock strategy?

I literally JUST set this up for myself on Openwrt (Running on my Pi4) this past week. I tried two popular solutions that both didn't work well and/or I felt were not very intuitive to setup if I needed to re implement them in the future. I started with fresh factory images after each attempt.

The third one I found a very easy method and now am currently using Control-D DNS with free ad/tracker/malware blocking over the modern DoQ protocol. Got it running in less than 30 minutes. ControlD latency appears as fast as any free DNS I've tried (Quad9, OpenDNS for years, etc), including my own ISP, so I am lucky location-wise.

I'll send you all my notes and guidance if want. Email me at my throwaway xyzx

duck.com

Scottn1on Cooking with black plastic is particularly crucial to avoid

I had no idea either. Thanks! When I first got my Aeropress, really hot water being forced through all dark-colored hard plastic had me concerned. Still does. But after getting the routine down it takes only three minutes and my daily coffee is so much better since I got it, I don't want coffee any other way anymore.

The glass one is most likely going on my Christmas list (even though that is sort of expensive for what it is)

Scottn1on Show HN: I built a task manager that separates "do" and "due" dates

Check out Twos App (https://www.twosapp.com/). The interface makes it pretty easy to move tasks around, has integrated Calendar and can keep notes/journal as well.

Not affiliated, just been trying it out for a month now. Developer has been very responsive as well.