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kokanee

1,658 karma · joined June 18, 2020

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kokanee··on Anti-AI fonts are useless and harmful
I'm a bit frustrated by what seems to be a widespread strong negative reaction to anti-AI fonts. The accessibility problem is real, but I feel like that's a reason to push the investigation deeper for solutions to that problem, not a reason to abandon the effort entirely. The largest intellectual property infringement in the history of the universe is actively unfolding, and it's resulting in an existentially threatening transfer of wealth and power. That's a problem worth exploring every solution for, and solving it may entail some serious sacrifices.
kokanee··on Incident with Github.com [resolved]
Yeah let's not forget that in those brief few days when Sam Altman was fired, Satya Nadella swooped in and hired him. Despite the failure of that move, Microsoft has invested $13 billion directly into OpenAI, and has spent $100 billion on the partnership. No sympathy from me watching their software crumble as a result.
kokanee··on Changes at Google DeepMind: Demis Hassabis from CEO to Chair, Jeff Dean departs
Does everyone want AI?
kokanee··on Proving a human wrote something
Yeah I think the "how can you prove text was handwritten" question is a subset of the larger "how can you prove that a computer is being driven by a human" problem that all of the work around captcha, attestations, biometrics, and government-id auth has been aimed at. The fundamental issue, it seems to me, is that any signal that a human can provide to a computer (keystroke, camera frame, mouse click, etc) is inherently only parsable by code because a sensor has translated the analog signal into a digital one. That same requirement also ensures that the input can be digitally spoofed or automated. There's a similar problem on the output side: how can an analog user trust a digital certificate? What's stopping me from copying the certificate HTML or taking a screenshot and using it to trick people into thinking my AI content is handwritten?

I don't have any suggestions. I worry that the only strong solutions require a lot of power to be given to a centralized authority.

kokanee··on How to stop Claude from saying load-bearing
I want to know when I'm consuming AI content because the source of information matters. I want to know what was at stake for the author, what motives they had and didn't have, what biases I should be aware of, and, for example, whether I'm reading content farmed slop that exists solely to attract ad impressions.
kokanee··on How to stop Claude from saying load-bearing
Hot take -- I'm glad that LLMs still tend to have recognizable communication patterns, because they're often the only clue I have to filter AI content.
kokanee··on Your 'app' could have been a webpage (so I fixed it for you)
Am I the only person who buys things on mobile websites? I feel like most apps are just websites rendered in webviews with a bunch of background tracking added, and websites create a bit of a firewall between my OS/filesystem and the application.
kokanee··on Your 'app' could have been a webpage (so I fixed it for you)
Back when I used to freelance, somebody once paid me a scant fee to build a pretty cool online tool for music teachers, basically an interactive piano. I checked in on the website a few years afterwards and found that they had wrapped it into an app and been selling it for $5/install ever since I made it for them. Probably my fault for not licensing the software I wrote for them (I was basically a kid at the time) but it still bothers me.
kokanee··on I Changed My Name
How do they handle this in Brazil? Is there a standard for which portion of a name shows up on credit cards and ID cards and such?
kokanee··on Show HN: 18 Words
Just a vote since I'm seeing a lot of anti-timer sentiment: I like the timer because it creates a conclusive way for the game to end, and causes me to spend a lot less time on the game, I imagine. But I also think it makes sense to have a non-timer mode. It would also be cool to have like 3 shuffles that you are allowed to use. As an exit to the non-timer mode, I think it would be fine to have an "I give up " button.
kokanee··on .self: A new top-level domain designed to support self-hosting
I see -- the statement "Link your existing social accounts to prove you're not a bot" is intended to mean that after you have verified your identity by scanning your passport, you can prove you're not a bot on your BlueSky account. The phrasing is misleading, and the home page seems to omit the most important part: you have to scan your passport.
kokanee··on .self: A new top-level domain designed to support self-hosting
I'm curious about how this works, but it doesn't look like I can find out without creating an account. I see that it says "Link your existing social accounts to prove you're not a bot." How does having social media accounts prove I'm not a bot?
kokanee··on Data centers trigger voter backlash
So many of these conversations come back to the problem of privatized gains and socialized losses.

Most things that create value have externalities. I kill the moss on my roof, then it rains and the chemicals go into the stream, then you try to go fishing and get skunked. I exerted my freedom as a private property owner and got the benefits; you paid for the drawbacks. We're all pulling from the same pile of resources, and the Earth doesn't care where your picket fence is.

Data centers incur expensive externalities and you're asking the general public to bear those costs -- or "pay those taxes," if that resonates more. I suppose NIMBYism is part of it, but we're not talking about ugly condos here, we're talking about towns running out of electricity: https://fortune.com/2026/05/12/lake-tahoe-data-center-49000-....

kokanee··on Finding the best dog treat with statistics
Yes, and also the presence of a window fan on that side is a big deal because the selection is based on scent. In my experience dogs appear to "like" a scent based on how strong it is, not necessarily how it is "flavored" (for examples, dogs can behave as if they love the smell of poop or skunk spray, but it's actually the powerful sensory information that they're reacting to, not a culinary desire). It seems possible to me that the dog is choosing whichever scent is more powerful.
kokanee··on Is Meta destroying its engineering organization?
I've definitely seen some articles on the topic of AI psychosis among executives. I think there's something about being in a position of power that makes the sycophancy really psychologically dangerous.
kokanee··on I Won't Buy You a Coffee
I'm surely not the only American reading this and being flabbergasted at the wildly low consumer prices mentioned. I had to double-check the post date to see if this was from 1990 or something.
kokanee··on Robinhood now lets your AI agents trade stocks
As much as I hate the idea of enabling the desperate masses to gamble like this, LLMs are very aligned tools for sentiment analysis, which can be the foundation of a trading strategy. I think it's extremely irresponsible to use them for execution, though.
kokanee··on I am retiring from tech to live offline
I would take this advice a bit further even -- I don't think savings alone is the key, because inflation and de-dollarization are exponentially eroding purchasing power. The key is ownership of income-producing assets. In late-stage capitalism, the vast majority of people who work in exchange for wages will be members of the debt class; workers who manage to escape debt will still be living on a knife's edge where you can be laid off at any moment regardless of how well your company is doing. The only people living with stability will be those whose lives are paid for by the assets they own, rather than by the hours they sell.
kokanee··on Private equity bought America's essential services
We need to figure out how to effectively organize boycotts, and find a way to actually incentivize participation.

I'm spitballing here, but what if we created a browser extension that gives users the option to block various monopolistic/oligarchic tech platforms. If the browser navigates to a blocked platform, we show a "consider these alternatives" page instead. Competitors to the monopolies could offer incentives (raffles, discounts, etc) in exchange for promotion on the recommended alternatives list, creating an incentive to participate in a boycott.

Example: a user opts into an Amazon boycott, but later clicks an affiliate link that leads them to a book listing on amazon.com. The browser extension intercepts this and displays a list of other places to shop for that book. Barnes and Noble offers a 10% discount for people who boycott Amazon, so they're the top recommended alternative, and the user gets the book for a discount.

kokanee··on Standard Chartered CEO walks back comment about 'lower-value human capital'
This is the kind of thinking that has resulted in an economy where losses are socialized and gains are privatized. There is strategic business value in managing your company in a way that doesn't contribute to the collapse of the middle class.
kokanee··on Microsoft and OpenAI end their exclusive and revenue-sharing deal
I hate that I agree with you. But there's a difference between whether AI is as powerful as some say, and whether it's good for humanity. A cursory review of human history shows that some revolutionary technologies make life as a human better (fire, writing, medicine) and others make it worse (weapons, drugs, processed foods). While we adapt to the commoditization of our skills, we should also be questioning whether the technologies being rolled out right now are going to do more harm than good, and we should be organizing around causes that optimize for quality of life as a human. If we don't push for that, then the only thing we're optimizing for is wealth consolidation.
kokanee··on Meta tells staff it will cut 10% of jobs
My theory is that Zuck has profound imposter syndrome due to the public knowledge that his joke of a side project in college went uber-viral and he has had to play CEO dress-up ever since. He has been desperate to prove that he actually has deep technological insight with his big bets on wearables and the metaverse and AI, but the truth is that his entire dynasty is built on people's need to snoop on pictures of their crushes and their exes. I think the company has actually done some impressive things with staying alive via acquisition as facebook has rotted, but he wants to be known as a tech genius, not an M&A suit.
kokanee··on Alberta startup sells no-tech tractors for half price
The disincentive to provide a durable product is unfortunate. Ideally businesses pair high-ticket one-time sales with low-cost recurring sales of related products and services.
kokanee··on NASA Force
This website is vibe coded
kokanee··on Google broke its promise to me – now ICE has my data
Weird take. When it comes to trying to compel tech companies to not be evil, trying to use legal precedent for crimes you can charge them with is usually difficult and turns into a semantic debate. I think what's more important is that we recognize when people and companies abuse power to do evil things, regardless of what legal precedent or written corporate policy is relevant. These companies act exactly as evil as they can possibly get away with without pushing us to other products and services.
kokanee··on If you started a company two years ago, many assumptions are no longer true
One year before 1969 we had never been to the moon. In the 70s credible scientists and physicists predicted that large martian colonies would exist before the year 2000.

If a metric goes from 0 to 2 it doesn't mean it's on a long-lived exponential trajectory.

kokanee··on Filing the corners off my MacBooks
The seasons idea is interesting -- to me, both proposals feel wrong. I think it's because the weather changes that I perceive seem to lag behind the changes to daylight length by a few weeks.

I would propose boundaries that align partly with how I perceive the weather, and partly with how we plan our year (by months): Summer starts June 1st, Fall starts September 1st, Winter starts December 1st, and Spring starts March 1st.

kokanee··on Filing the corners off my MacBooks
I'm conflicted -- the author's rounded Mac looks more comfortable to use, but aesthetically it looks worse. He turned the track pad notch into an amorphous shape that looks like a mistake.
kokanee··on ML promises to be profoundly weird
That seems fine if you're not publishing content for a living. A lot of people are.
kokanee··on Live: Artemis II Launch Day Updates
> the agency said it was confident that a change to the re-entry trajectory would be more than adequate to offset any spalling issues. Somewhat confusingly, they also announced their intention to switch to a new heat shield design, starting with Artemis III.

It's fine to be concerned, but this kind of take is why public agencies are damned no matter what they do. In the private sector, operating with the suboptimal resources you have while working on a better iteration is standard practice, even in industrial settings. But when you're a public organization, if anyone can find anything that is less than 100% optimal, the same people who complain about how slow the public sector is will complain that you're cutting corners, or that you're inept.

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