HNHacker News
TopNewBestAskShowJobs

hodder

1,953 karma · joined January 26, 2012

Forgive me because I do not understand the supply chain for memory. With Micron et al effectively scalping their customers with an oligopoly on probably the lowest intellectual IP in the chain, does this not guarantee 10 years from now a) We are either overbuilt as hyperscalers cut capex, or b) hyperscalers vertically integrate. Or is it truly that hard to make memory? And if that is not true, perhaps it isn't really a commodity at all.
submissionscomments
hodder··on Iran school bombing: grounds to believe US was behind atrocity, UN finds
Highly unlikely an entire chain of military personnel knew it was a school and was like, "yeah get em good, and lets see when they come scrambling in for their kids corpses".

Do you hear yourself? Have you ever in your life met someone this sadistic? It was definitely a mistake. One might argue criminal negligence, but there is no way everyone in the loop here is just pure evil. That just isn't how people think in North America. It is unfathomable that a team of US military (people with families of their own no doubt), would all nod along and agree with your contention.

hodder··on OpenAI expands ChatGPT ads with Sponsored Agents
This is a solution looking for a problem, built to satisfy the creator instead of serving the buyer. This is exactly what PG warns against doing. One would think Sam would know this too.
hodder··on Show HN: An e-ink frame that hears birds and draws them as 1800s illustrations
Amazing. Best post I've seen on HN in ages.
hodder··on Apple's Siri AI Can Be Swapped Out for Claude, ChatGPT, Code Shows
The thing is, Apple will have never lost this opportunity. The distribution advantage of the user base is so deep they can basically always implement this at will.
hodder··on Show HN: What if the speed of light was 5 km/h?
Cosmic expansion happens uniformly rather than through a local gravitational pull.

In physics, "we" use the raisin bread analogy where when you bake the bread, the raisins are all getting uniformly distant from each other with no central point of expansion and no obvious sign of pulling in any specific direction such as would be the case for a gravitational effect.

hodder··on Muse – Meta’s personal AI agent
The problem is no one wants a META agent. so yes LLMs are great. And still no one wants to use a Zuckerberg one.
hodder··on Muse – Meta’s personal AI agent
muse is probably an awesome technological innovation and will still completely flop bc it’s a consumer product outside of social from Meta. It’s a solution in search of a problem. I get why the company wants this. I don’t get why any consumer does.
hodder··on The model picker is a dead end
I don’t get how this differs from any other optimization harness. The problem is clear, but I’m not sure on what this company is doing that is unique to solve it.
hodder··on The Tariff Cost: analysis of the costs to Americans from new tariffs on Canada
You mean like Carney did in January? Trump cannot be shown reason once he has convinced himself his gut feel is correct.
hodder··on Requests for Startups: Energy
The ideal VC startups are low capex, high ROIC companies.

Energy almost universally requires massive capex to achieve a dime in revenue, and capital intensity never really subsides. YC has funded energy focused startups in the past (eg. Oklo and Helion), but it certainly cannot compete with the kind of scale and ROIC you can achieve in the digital world. Energy is difficult for seed investors.

hodder··on Ask HN: Do you feel comfortable admitting that you use AI?
Id be more weary of saying I didn't use AI.
hodder··on Gloomberb
People repeat this rhetoric all the time, but I promise you, finance professionals can and do easily migrate to other messaging platforms such as ICE chat. This isn't a moat for BBG
hodder··on My Rules for Using Spreadsheets
Excel succeeds in the business world because users interact with visible data directly on the screen rather than relying on abstract database storage and retrieval.

Non-technical workers can build functional tools rapidly, outperforming traditional software development speeds massively. Engineering CS types completely miss the point on this. If Im making a model for finance I need to see the data live, update fast, get my charts done without messing about with matplotlib etc. Get to solutions and decisions.

Spreadsheets are still prolific bc they enable rapid prototyping, visibility and flexibility that is to this day completely unmatched.

hodder··on Only 2.6% of the most visited websites have fully valid HTML
And not a single person cares. What does fully valid even mean anymore?
hodder··on Muse Code and Muse Spark 1.2
This is like the stupid Meta Portal. It doesnt matter how good it is, no one will use it bc no one trusts them. Right or wrong.
hodder··on The LLM Critics Are Right. I Use LLMs Anyway
Economically if you are vastly outcompeted by other programmers on productivity, yes that is "no longer of value" from a purely employment perspective. Much like an old person who cant use a computer has little value in the job market beyond being a greeter at Walmart, a programmer who hand codes a loop is next to useless on a productivity basis such that it makes zero sense to employ them. It is unfortunate but true. Why pay someone to accomplish less per dollar pf cost. Feels?
hodder··on SpaceX stock erases all its gains and slides below IPO price in intraday trading
Sure. But the market is littered with companies you can invest in. You don't "need" to bet on any single one of them.
hodder··on SpaceX stock erases all its gains and slides below IPO price in intraday trading
But why would you want to buy a company where the valuation reflects an extremely optimistic outcome already? Basically you are assuming obscene growth from SpaceX in AI, datacenters, rocket launches etc just to for the stock to go nowhere. The market cap was over 2T!

When you buy equities, if the company turns out shockingly successful beyond most peoples probable expectations you dont simply want your investment to just stay flat, you want to make multiples of your money. In order to do this, you simply cant start from a 2T marketcap. No company worth 2T can make you 100x your money or even 10x or 5x your money in a reasonable amount of time given the overall size of the economy.

hodder··on Apple increases MacBook and iPad prices by 20%
I agree man. I’m just quoting Donald.
hodder··on Apple raises prices of MacBooks, iPads
Forgive me because I do not understand the supply chain for memory. With Micron et al effectively scalping their customers with an oligopoly on probably the lowest intellectual IP in the chain, does this not guarantee 10 years from now a) We are either overbuilt as hyperscalers cut capex, or b) hyperscalers vertically integrate. Or is it truly that hard to make memory? And if that is not true, perhaps it isn't really a commodity at all.

Honestly Jassey, Zuck and Tim Apple are prob on the phone with Donnie. If oil companies are “gouging,” what is 85% margins on memory, threatening the whole bull run and raising compute, Killing AI, and raising iPhone/computer pricing? Countdown to DOJ antitrust case is ticking.

To be clear: I understand how markets work, Im just quoting Donald Trump's tweet from yesterday calling oil companies gouging, and I predict government intervention and polital pressures regardless of economic realities.

hodder··on Apple announces significant price increases for MacBooks, iPads, more
Forgive me because I do not understand the supply chain for memory. With Micron et al effectively scalping their customers with an oligopoly on probably the lowest intellectual IP in the chain, does this not guarantee 10 years from now a) We are either overbuilt as hyperscalers cut capex, or b) hyperscalers vertically integrate. Or is it truly that hard to make memory?

And if that is not true, perhaps it isn't really a commodity at all.

hodder··on Canada plans 'nuclear renaissance' with up to 10 reactors built by 2040
The claim that Alberta is actively trying to get rid of all wind and solar development is internet hyperbole that ignores real capacity data. Alberta actually ranks second in Canada for clean energy growth, and its renewable output surged by over 25% year-over-year into 2026.

The high-profile project cancellations people point to weren't a government ban. They happened because the province changed its transmission rules. Previously, ratepayers subsidized the massive utility costs required to connect remote wind and solar farms to the central grid. The province ended this, forcing private developers to internalize their own grid connection costs. Once forced to pay for their own infrastructure, highly speculative, unfinanced projects simply became economically unviable and dropped out of the queue.

If a private wind or solar developer wanted to build a massive farm in a remote, rural area (like Southern Alberta) where land is cheap but high-voltage power lines do not exist, they only had to pay for the immediate wire connecting their project to the nearest local substation. Taxpayers were subsidizing those players, because it was a "load pays" system.

Please do not fall pray to the general trope that Alberta is a backwards hillbilly province. Subsidizing private developments with public money is not something that should be encouraged.

On Canada broadly, you are correct in your baseload numbers and I agree with you.

(Energy trader here)

hodder··on Is AI ruining our skills? Early results are in – and they're not good
Your arguments are much lower quality than an LLM will generate. You are so transparently biased against them it is shocking. I’d certainly rather learn from an LLM than someone like you who is both grossly misinformed and a dick about it.
hodder··on Is AI ruining our skills? Early results are in – and they're not good
They absolutely are good at checking work. It really depends on the level and you are grossly underestimating their ability and over generalizing their limitations. To say an LLM can’t grade pretty much any undergraduate level or under subject well is to not understand how far they’ve come.
hodder··on Is AI ruining our skills? Early results are in – and they're not good
On average yes this is almost certainly true. As I said above technology is a lever and most people are incredibly lazy. However if one has drive and determination they are also incredibly powerful tools
hodder··on Is AI ruining our skills? Early results are in – and they're not good
Spot on analogy.
hodder··on Is AI ruining our skills? Early results are in – and they're not good
See my response above on this.
hodder··on Is AI ruining our skills? Early results are in – and they're not good
recently vibe-coded a personalized skateboarding block-training app. The platform maps curated YouTube tutorials to specific tricks I want to learn, logs my daily progress, and tracks failure rates alongside the specific reasons for missed attempts.It also functions as a structured video journal that integrates seamlessly into my coaching routine. For instance, during a session of 10 daily kickflip attempts, the app logs my success metrics and video capture so my coach can review my exact mechanics. Over time, this data-driven feedback loop visualizes my progression curve and systematically improves my landing consistency.

In another case I follow a bodybuilding cutting regimen and it helps me create and track recipes consistent with my diet plan and macro guidelines. It helps me also create tasty recipes that fit my criteria based on the ingredients I have on hand.

Those are just 2 examples.

I also recently built a backyard jib setup with a platform, ramp, PVC jib rail for snowboarding, and it helped me architect the design for it.

hodder··on Is AI ruining our skills? Early results are in – and they're not good
Once more, you are making massively blanketed biased assumptions about me.

You seem to believe LLMs cannot even produce simple exams and rubrics is that right?

hodder··on Is AI ruining our skills? Early results are in – and they're not good
When did I say I wasn't doing and just reading. That is your own heavy bias creeping in.
Page 1 of 15Next →