Hacker News Reader

a_fon A message from President Kornbluth about funding and the talent pipeline

In the UK I started a (3 year) PhD program without a Masters. It was not untypical.

a_fon Ask HN: Who wants to be hired? (April 2026)

Looking for QA or QA management work. Lots of experience across multiple domains.

Location: Southampton, UK

Remote: Prefered, but not essential

Willing to relocate: No

Technologies: Python, Robot Framework, AWS, JIRA, PostGres, DynamoDB, Node, React, GitHub

Résumé/CV: https://1drv.ms/w/c/b51a0ed90bcbfc29/IQCruUz3VSbgR7MhuFaDiWq... LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/ben-ient-b706ab221

Email:ientb@hotmail.co.uk

a_fon Bars close and hundreds lose jobs as US firm buys Brewdog in £33M deal

> doom bar

Maybe not for much longer: https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cjendwk7979o

a_fon Microsoft is walking back Windows 11's AI overload

Reminds me of the Xbox One release disaster, and the push for Kinect and TV streaming support.

a_fon Tell HN: Azure outage

Looks like MyGet is impacted too. Seems like they use Azure:

>What is required to be able to use MyGet? ... MyGet runs its operations from the Microsoft Azure in the West Europe region, near Amsterdam, the Netherlands.

a_fon Croatian freediver held breath for 29 minutes

I think it is in some part to do with https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fetal_hemoglobin

a_fon Take the pedals off the bike

This is one of the biggest hurdles to getting kids to enjoy riding bikes too. If you think about the weight of many cheaper kids department store bikes they are a significant weight compared to the child. Having a lighter bike makes it much more enjoyable for the kids.

Also recommend Islabikes and Frog bikes for two companies that offer lighter offerings. Again you have to pay for it, but they can often be resold and a decent value later. Especially if you keep the bike clean and loved.

a_fon DiyPresso: DIY Espresso Machine

Sheldon is a great resource as mentioned already, although it will not include information on newer components.

I really like the park tool website and videos for step by step instructions. RJ the bike guy on Youtube also has some good instructionals too.

I found most of the difficulty is identifying which components and/or standards your bike is using, rather than the process of fixing.

a_fon Shaving is too expensive

I found my leaf razor spring has started to become semi-slack, and failing to return as well to the original position. I suspect I will need to replace it soon (should be a waranty issue). Had it ~ 1 year. I found the shave is also not that close, and the larger head flat region means it is more difficult to get to spaces like under directly the nose. I like the design, but it is far from perfect

a_fon Ask HN: Who wants to be hired? (July 2024)

  Location: UK, Southampton
  Remote: Prefered
  Willing to relocate: No
  Technologies: AWS, GitHub, Git, Python - robot framework, PostGres, 
  Résumé/CV: Available on request
  Email: ientb@hotmail.co.uk

---

13 years in the industry, the majority of it spent in software QA. After a more hands-on QA role, currently in a managerial position. Experience in scientific and engineering software domains. Broad scope of testing across multiple platforms, product types and everything in between.

a_fon There's No Good Reason to Buy a Carbon Bike

There is also this video from Santa Cruz: https://youtu.be/w5eMMf11uhM?t=148 where they test the fork and frame

I am also remind of the Danny M video of the carbon wheels test: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VfjjiHGuHoc

a_fon Windows 11 struggling to escape the shadow of Windows 10

Given the direction they have taken Windows 11, I am glad that this is not an update to Windows 10.

a_fon Striking auto workers want a 40% pay increase–the same rate their CEOs’ pay grew

Do NBA CEOs get paid less than the highest paid players? I would expect them to get paid more.

a_fon Two-parent households should be a policy goal

Could it be that a widow might inherit some of the remaining assets of the deceased, whereas in a divorce the assets are split?

a_fon Ask HN: What's the coolest physical thing you've made?

Would love to see a write up of this if you ever do one, had one

a_fon Food companies ‘sweetened the world’ and increased the risk of disease

Do you have any recipies? I have a bread maker and would like to know more

a_fon Imgur Updates TOS, Banning NSFW Content

It looks like redgifs may have split from Gyfcat (according to wikipedia). Interestingly gyfcat is owned by Snap[chat].

a_fon It’s Game over on Vocal Deepfakes

What I have read people do is that they prime the text with something obviously emotional before hand, including punctuation, before their desired output. They then trim the audio they want to remove the prime phrase.

So something along the lines of:

"Remove this audio because it makes me super angry! Very angry! Now I say what I want to keep!"

Just having the AI read a script is often not enough alone without post processing and manipulation, often it is somewhat flat

a_fon Bard uses a Hacker News comment as source to say that Bard has shut down

I wonder if you could get it into an infinite loop bug somehow

a_fon Google Bard waitlist

I wonder if it is for the best - imagine getting locked out of your work account becuase of some flagged request or response in Bard

a_fon Running large language models like ChatGPT on a single GPU

Nitpicky but the RTX 3060 (non-Ti) has a variant with 12 GB, whilst the Ti is 8 GB. Agree with your points though

a_fon Bing: “I will not harm you unless you harm me first”

>mind viruses

Could this be memes?

I'm not sure I look forward to a future that is going to be controlled by mobs reacting negatively to AI-generated image macros with white text. Well, if we are not there already

a_fon Japan PM’s solution to dire birthrate has already been rejected by young

Like in Brave New World's Central London Hatchery and Conditioning Centre? Ha, be careful what you wish for!

a_fon Did the Music Business Just Kill the Vinyl Revival?

I was interested in quickly seeing if you could just cut records at home, which led to an article here: https://thevinylfactory.com/features/a-beginners-guide-to-la...

The lathe they mention, Lathe Atom A-101, seems to go second-hand for around £2500. At least judging from the first few results. This feels a bit expensive for a home hobbyist. I also wouldn't want to navigate the laws of trying to sell vinyl to people who wanted some pressed from songs they don't have rights to (in order to make some money back).

a_fon Cognitive ability is a powerful predictor of political tolerance

Casuallly known as the euphemism treadmill I believe

a_fon In 2019 RX470 were $70, RX580 $100

Wait until you see some of the new motherboard prices for AMDs AM5 platform. The top end rivals that of the new graphics cards

a_fon As an artist I am concerned about AI image generation

Also woth checking out the submissions on the subreddit, https://old.reddit.com/r/StableDiffusion/

Some of them really are outstandingly good. Beyond what I expected, and I have had access to Dalle2.

a_fon For centuries, English bakers’ biggest customers were horses

> Was it ever, in history? Maybe not boats, but aircraft. Operation Black-buck in The Falklands war: https://vulcantothesky.org/articles/falklands-war-1982-opera... as another possible example

a_fon Contra Wirecutter on the IKEA air purifier

gamersnexus for pc gaming hardwear is another

a_fon DALL-E 2 has a secret language

Is it gibberish in the true sense, or is it some sort of AI generated/learned latin text for the input models used? I wonder if they used a large number of biological images in their training data along with their scientific names, which led to this second order effect.