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bjnewman85

89 karma · joined August 11, 2023

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bjnewman85··on Ask HN: Slow thinkers, how do you compensate for your lack of quick-wittedness?
participating in asynchronous communication
bjnewman85··on UI is a function of your organization
Umm, the argument in the article seems self-defeating. UI=f(org) except we end up with the same UI with radically different orgs because we can just f() over the differences with dark design patterns and users can't tell the difference.

I can show you anything in a UI - only good orgs can develop valuable products from those UIs.

bjnewman85··on UI = f(statesⁿ)
i would argue that any state that is useful should not be illegal, but i agree with you that people have often used that phrase to mean what you said
bjnewman85··on UI = f(statesⁿ)
UI=F((irreducibleComplexity + poorDesignChoices + poorArchitectureChoices + techDebt + bad coding + states)^n). The author mixes web and native UI development here to encompass a partial range of possible UIs, there's obviously a lot more complexity in UI development if we expand that list to include AR/VR, CLIs, voice-based interfaces, etc.

But also most software UIs we are building today are overly complicated. Because devs forget f() is supposed to narrow the complexity space to match the users needs, by making illegal states unrepresentable.

bjnewman85··on The U.S. Government Will Soon Spend More on Interest Payments Than Defense
Yeah man, our government borrows money. We used it to build the largest economy in the world. Now we continue to do that, but we also send part of the money our government borrows to people all around the world.

In exchange for this ultra stable source of revenue backed by the wealth of our current and future taxpayers and our military, they might forgive us for all the horrible things we have done.

bjnewman85··on Give AI curiosity, and it will watch TV forever (2018)
as mentioned elsewhere this is from nearly six years ago and uses a very crude model for curiosity - and poses this as some sort of unsolveable problem instead of a decision made by the researchers in order to investigate particular behaviors of the systems they were working with.

It is a fun thought experiment - how do our brains systems manage to reward seeking new information without getting trapped by simplistic pseudo-RNG patterns in nature

bjnewman85··on Molecular jackhammers' 'good vibrations' eradicate cancer cells
paper link here https://www.nature.com/articles/s41557-023-01383-y i thought this sentence from the abstract was interesting 'Given that a cell is unlikely to develop resistance to such molecular mechanical forces...' I wonder if someone could explain what basis there for believing that cells couldn't develop such resistance. Is the difference in energies that high?
bjnewman85··on Llamafile lets you distribute and run LLMs with a single file
Justine is creating mind-blowing projects at an alarming rate.
bjnewman85··on Silicon Valley's worldview is not just an ideology; it's a personality disorder
pathologizing people you disagree with is a pretty dehumanizing tactic and one i think we should pretty much stay away, or from doing armchair psychology on a whole group of incredibly diverse people.

the author's argument such as it is is a series of strawman arguments. this isn't academic it is political, which is fine.

bjnewman85··on 18-year-old built a computer monitor that doesn't strain your eyes
This is a nice idea. But it appears the trend of "Look at this astonishing youth!", then in paragraph 8, "whose parents own a recycling company near Shenzen...and connected him with manufacturers" so this is a joint venture between his parents company and some of their friends to back their son's business idea. Very newsworthy.
bjnewman85··on Pigging
its the first time i have seen that label on a wiki article. Is it in common usage or only for scandalous near-homonyms?
bjnewman85··on Ray-Ban Meta Smart Glasses
if you cover the LED notification light you will get a notification to uncover it. Surely that will stop anyone from covering it.
bjnewman85··on Workers who cut countertops are dying of silicosis
the incurable disease in the title is greed in the hearts of others that values the lives of these people less than the shiny things they make for rich people
bjnewman85··on Speeding up the JavaScript ecosystem – Polyfills gone rogue
Second that, I would definitely buy a book based on this series.
bjnewman85··on Internet-connected cars fail privacy and security tests conducted by Mozilla
Can't capture audio info when i'm blasting music at max volume with the windows down on the highway yelling at my friends. Privacy Win!