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balaji1on Tell HN: We should start to add “ai.txt” as we do for “robots.txt”

With search engines and other crawlers, there wasn't easy ways to monetize "copyright theft" at scale. Google, which had the biggest share of eyeballs, was much more equitable in sharing revenue to content producers (who wanted to monetize). And Google was probably more just in taking action against copyright theft.

Individual high value IP was always much less accessible (not available as a webpage on the internet). Gen AI/LLMs with the internet scale data is too powerful and maybe easier to monetize.

balaji1on Ask HN: I won't have Internet access for months, How could I use my time?

If you have free time, you could try to build an (offline) app that you or someone near you might need. It is good fun to find a user and build features for them.

Other comments have great pointers for downloading docs/books/resources offline. Also textbooks are underrated.

balaji1on Hawthorne effect

Is there a tool that indicates how "popular" a Wiki page is? Something like a Google Trends metric of how often the topic is searched for.

balaji1on YouTube, the jewel of the internet

recently, I started getting videos with less than 500 views from tiny channels. I guess YT is trying to be fair and send traffic to those channels. But I felt those videos were just clickbaits. That's one problem with the algorithm.

Positives of YT, mentioned in other comments also: Algorithm is very good in general. Quality of content is good lately (or at least you can stick to such content). Easily replace Netflix time. Comments section is also good. YT Premium is worth it.

YT almost got beaten by Insta and TikTok but survived. And the YT app on a smart TV is much better than Netflix and others.

balaji1on Google CEO Salary

Sundar is not coming up with all the product ideas. Nor is he vetting all the ideas. Ideas come up from product leaders under him. Surely he must have vetoed dozens of bad ideas every year. There is latent talent in these giants and experiments fail.

Could Sundar be more ruthless? Yes; Does this and other articles have valid criticisms? 100%;

These articles going after Zuck, Sundar, etc are needed. But we do not see the other side.

balaji1on Fire Mark Zuckerberg

That said, it is not easy being Zuck. How do you steer a huge complex company like Facebook? He has had 3 mega mega hits (Fb, WA and Insta) and the company has produced tons of other useful tech and trained professionals.

balaji1on Fire Mark Zuckerberg

That is an interesting point. Also those being put at the helm to run many such in-house or acquired projects probably don't have enough skin in the game or passion. Their metrics are always towards near-term progress; not tied to revenue, viability or even traction for that product line. And like you said, no big consequences other than switching to write code in another repo.

balaji1on StableLM: A new open-source language model

> Everything accrues to OpenAI if it's not.

because OpenAI is not open-source? Then a closed source StableLM would accrue value to Stability?

balaji1on StableLM: A new open-source language model

what is the financial incentive to make it open-source?

balaji1on Show HN: ADHD-friendly Pomodoro web app

does it need a title for the task? useful to see after the task is done.

balaji1on RAM’s New Electric Pickup Truck Aims for Battery Range of 500 Miles

somehow a huge chunk of RAM workforce is forced to build a EV truck that is clearly not a good product in many ways.

EVs are great. But not the way they are being built today. Feels like the first movers are making a quick buck.

balaji1on Hexatrek: The long distance thru hike in France

The Tour de France of hiking

balaji1on Goodbye to Google Code Jam

they don't mention why it's ending?

balaji1on The risks of cleaning with bleach and other disinfectants

The article is obviously not proposing a strong suggestion. It even seems to create a case against bleach and alcohol which are least risky and probably very cheap.

balaji1on Previous: A NeXT Computer Emulator

please be a browser based emulator :fingers_crossed:

balaji1on Anki-fy your life

The other high ROI activity is writing/re-writing and writing these prompts yourself will make it more effective.

balaji1on Why did 250k Britons die sooner than expected?

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=35131300

An idea for ambulances shortages ^

balaji1on Why did 250k Britons die sooner than expected?

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=35131249

I remember an article that some ambulance drivers are doing it as volunteering (they are trained). There could be a rideshare/gig-economy take on deploying more ambulances+drivers subsidized by hospitals/government: and drivers can be called in on-demand during surge - local community folks would be driving anyway.

I understand EMT are very well trained. You would want those techs to be as trained as possible. So that could be the limiting factor.

balaji1on Why did 250k Britons die sooner than expected?

How does the caller know an ambulance is coming? How do we know the call didn't end up in a black hole?

We see where the driver is on Doordash. Similarly there should be a text message confirmation with a tracking link to the ambulance on the way and the destination hospital.

balaji1on OpenHV – Open-Source Pixelart Science-Fiction Real-Time-Strategy Game

To the long list of keywords, it would have been nice to see "web-based". When do we start seeing web-based games... open a tab and start/continue playing.

balaji1on Flux Keyboard

Surprising this toy doesn't exist yet. People will use(buy) it. 450$... fine, it is an expensive toy after all.

balaji1on Autonomous restructuring of asteroids into rotating space stations

Oh lol we can handle a few sand-castle building robots. ChatGPT on the other hand...

balaji1on Want an unfair advantage in your tech career? Consume content for other roles

Consume this content. Consume that content. Stop consuming so much content. Create content... haha... Disclaimer: I only consumed the title on this post's content.

balaji1on 2023 State of Software Engineers [pdf]

But their marketing worked, I'm going to be signing up sigh... Hope it is better than the rest.

balaji1on Autonomous restructuring of asteroids into rotating space stations

what is containment?

balaji1on 2023 State of Software Engineers [pdf]

Let's flip it.

how good is hired.com's performance? how many jobs they fill per year?

how many candidates get a job on there? how long does it take them?

I ask because there are many job portals these days and I see a lot of flakiness, ghosting, etc.

balaji1on Autonomous restructuring of asteroids into rotating space stations

Can they build a demo on earth? Maybe reshape a small hill-side into something fun or pretty with "Autonomous Restructuring". That would be fun to watch.

balaji1on Maybe treating housing as an investment was a mistake

It might be good investment when you sell it in a few years. But lets leave the specifics...

To live (with long term attachment and commitment) at a place, people want something that is decent and new-ish and much bigger than a 1B condo. Especially given how laborious and costly the buying and selling process.

balaji1on 3dfx: So powerful it’s kind of ridiculous

Most of the upvotes to the original post seem to nostalgic reactions to 3dfx just based on the title.

Because the article is kinda hard to follow for the uninitiated. Heavy name and jargon dropping haha

balaji1on Is there an ongoing campaign/lobby for Apple to release iPhone minis?

I was under the impression minis will be discontinued. Hope that is not true.