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neil_s

429 karma · joined May 17, 2012

ycombinatorpublic.fhoi@gishpuppy.com
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neil_s··on ChatGPT Work
I had switched from Claude Cowork to OAI Codex a month ago. This seems like a rebranding and app merging to make it more obvious. And switching between the newly named "ChatGPT Work" vs "ChatGPT Code" mostly just seems to increase the verbosity of technical outputs, while using the same harness underneath.

I switched because Cowork felt like a bunch of features thrown in by engineers without thought to the UX. Codex solved a lot of those issues for me - remote control from mobile has native approval dialogs, and you can start new threads from mobile - you can remote control from another laptop - computer use doesn't hijack my computer from me because it uses a11y trees instead of screenshots - it was super unclear which skills were accessible to which surface (claude chat, cowork in app, code in app, code in cli). - codex chooses the right browser profile and gets stuck less often than cowork + claude-in-chrome. I know there are 3P skills to use playwright or the chrome CDP, but I've found the native browser use most productive even if slower.

A few people here are missing the old ChatGPT app, but I found myself increasingly using Codex for casual chats too, and never using ChatGPT. You never know when the conversation might evolve to requiring tools in Codex, so no real downside to it. Yes, separation of work and personal accounts, or connecting multiple google accounts, is still unsolved on both Codex and Cowork AFAICT.

For a bit, I got FOMO because of Fable, but now it looks like 5.6 might continue the monthly model leapfrog pattern.

neil_s··on How Madrid built its metro cheaply (2024)
What would need to be true for SF to replicate this? Would we need alignment at the mayor, state assembly and SFMTA levels?
neil_s··on Show HN: Sim Studio – Open-Source Agent Workflow GUI
Much simpler UI than n8n, congrats on the launch!
neil_s··on Launch HN: Akiflow (YC S20) – Bring your tasks and calendars together
Since Timeful got shut down, I've been looking for a great solution for task time-blocking. This comment thread has so many great solutions for me to try, including Akiflow, thanks for working on this problem! I can't use it right now because our corporate Google Workspace accounts are locked from sharing, but looking forward to using it eventually.
neil_s··on Libor, long the most important number in finance, dies at 52
OMG, I was wondering why they waited so far down in the article to describe the pronunciation. Only after seeing your comment did it click!
neil_s··on Show HN: ChangeSets – group PRs across multiple Git repos
Is this kinda like Changelists at Google?
neil_s··on ‎Amplosion: Redirect AMP Links on the App Store
Genuine question: what is the advantage to the end user by seeing non-AMP versions of webpages?
neil_s··on I started SaaS companies in 2013 and 2021 – how things have changed
This is super insightful, thanks for writing it up! Any details on the smart GTM strategy between enterprises and SMBs? I feel like enterprise is a dangerous place to start because of the long test/iterate loop, but SMBs could make your initial acquisition cost numbers look terrible.
neil_s··on Google illegally underpaid thousands of workers
That's a jurisdiction issue though. Of course, the underlying cause is that the US, unlike other countries, doesn't have a pay parity law for US-employed temps.
neil_s··on OnlyFans drops planned porn ban
Thanks for sharing that link! Interesting that the study notes that the drop in sexual activity was mostly in low-income/underemployed men, and students. So probably not the demand side of OF.
neil_s··on Welcoming our first riders in San Francisco
I agree with smaller and more expensive. But less flexible? How is a fixed bus route that needs to run on a fixed schedule, reasonably invariant to current demand, more flexible than a car that can take you point-to-point on-demand?

I see this as the future of public transport, where you'd have a combo of smaller and bigger vehicles (including self-driving minibuses and buses) running autonomously, with options to pay more in order to walk less, but only running where people actually need them . Similar to Uber and Lyft Pool before the pandemic, where you could pay less to be picked up on a main street intersection instead of your front door.

neil_s··on Launch HN: Slip (YC S21) – Build and sell interactive programming courses
This looks excellent, I would have definitely used it back in the day when I was creating programming courses. But is there a way for this to be a venture-scale company? At first glance, it seems better suited to be a lifestyle business.
neil_s··on Launch HN: Financial Choice (YC S21) – Checking accounts with market returns
As a Googler, I have this pain point. I was envisioning a product that sweeps the leftover income at the end of the month after all credit card bills and rent are paid, into a brokerage account. It would also automatically invest that amount into my choice of ETFs, which Vanguard bizarrely doesn't seem to support today. This seems to achieve the same goal with a simpler implementation, and then as you improve your cash flow predictions, you could start keeping a cash buffer and delaying investments to avoid some cash<>asset conversions.

Worrying about capital gains taxes is a head-fake - you're only paying tax on your gains, which would have otherwise been minimal interest, which btw is taxed higher than gains. The risk here is just that the amount of margin interest I pay is dependent on how quickly you're able to sell, although hopefully this shouldn't be a massive issue for VTI et al.

Your messaging on the website seems clear to me, I wouldn't worry about anyone living paycheck-to-paycheck mistaking your technical looking homepage for a regular checking account.

One of your mentioned use cases doesn't sound right though - if I'm saving up towards a short-term spending goal like a car or house downpayment, I probably want a predictable balance and not exposure to sudden price shocks.

neil_s··on Launch HN: HomeBreeze (YC W21) – Easy booking of home repairs
I just recently expressed this pain for the first time, so excited to see your service. Some pain points:

1) Scheduling required filling in the same qualification form multiple times, and texting/calling with a rather disorganized office. The better reputed the service company, the bigger mess their schedule is. You're solving this.

2) I didn't have a quote until the people came out to visit. You're solving this.

3) Once the service pros gave quotes, I had to share them with my landlord, have them approve the work, have the service pro complete it, confirm that the issue was fixed, and have the landlord complete payment. Coordinating parties was a major PITA, I hope you solve this in the future.

4) When the service pro diagnosed the issue and gave me a quote, I didn't know whether the diagnosis was truthful, and the quote was reasonable. After the fix, the symptom went away for a bit, and then came back, and the service person tried other fixes. This back and forth was a major pain. I don't know how you'll fix this, maybe a warranty on your service, or an annual insurance plan/maintenance subscription instead? Similar to Forward's model for healthcare - don't make money when you have to fix problems, make money when I don't have problems.

5) Thumbtack had a fixed price service, but it was too large a premium over the more ad hoc services. I hope you keep prices reasonable when you start swallowing more unexpectedly large scoped problems.

neil_s··on Launch HN: MergeQueue (YC S21) – Automate rebasing and merging for your codebase
So excited to skip rebase/merge hell! Congrats on the launch!
neil_s··on Global minimum corporate tax: 130 nations to support U.S. proposal
Surprised to see the negative comments, despite HN comments' usual bent. As someone that moved around multiple countries, I was impressed by the US' tax by citizenship on global income. About time we apply the same to corporations as we do to individuals, given how much easier it is for corporations to move their income around.
neil_s··on Intuit to share payroll data from 1.4M small businesses with Equifax
As in, they were insisting that employers have to opt out of the data sharing instead of opt in?
neil_s··on Google turned me into a serial killer
I filed a bug. I don't work on the KG team but hopefully it'll get redirected to the right people and fixed asap.
neil_s··on Security Breach at US Universities
As a recent expat to the US, I don't actually know, why DOES the medical office want my SSN?
neil_s··on I don't care about cookies
The website already offers an ad blocker filter. I use one that was not named on the website, so went poking in the filterlists available in my ad blocker extension, and found "I don't care about cookies" was already listed as an option there.
neil_s··on Google, Apple cave to Pakistan pressure to take down apps by Ahmadiyya Muslims
Since the underlying issue here is clearly with Pakistan's laws, I tried looking up how effective a democracy Pakistan is, so that its people would be able to push for freedom of speech laws (or overturning the blasphemy laws) if they so wanted.

Hard to find unbiased sources on this, but it seems like while Pakistan has technically had democratic elections for a while, they have been mired with issues until fairly recently. From wikipedia: "The democratic elections held in 2008 were the first to conclude a complete 5-year term in the nations' political history."

neil_s··on Agents raid home of fired Florida data scientist who built Covid-19 dashboard
Per the article: "The FDLE investigator claims he determined through his "investigative resources" that an Internet Protocol, or IP, address associated with Jones's Comcast account was the source of the ESF-8 text message."
neil_s··on HP Instant Ink is “ink as a service”
I just went through the exact same experience. Usually would print at work but need a printer for infrequent docs like tax returns during quarantine WFH. The Instant Ink subscription is reasonably priced for that, and I don't need to worry about the cartridges getting spoiled if left alone for too long because I pay for pages printed, not cartridges. The Tango gives me the bonus of printing unlimited photos. Admittedly the photo paper doesn't cost much less than printing photos at retailers, but fun to have it at your house.
neil_s··on Waymo is opening its driverless service to more people in Phoenix
Thank you for voicing some sanity here. This comment thread has all the standard HN cynicism (Google killed Reader omg), but criticism over a gradual rollout over a few weeks for a physical service is new to me.
neil_s··on Waymo is opening its driverless service to more people in Phoenix
> "I wonder if these friends and family persons are subject to any NDA"

According to the article: "take friends and family along on their rides and share their experience with the world"

neil_s··on TSA tries out another biometric system
I detest the TSA, and government overreach, but I'm failing to see the issue here. Even before the optional photo system was introduced, they would stick my ID in a scanner, this seems like the same thing but the work is outsourced to me. Admittedly, I place less value on my privacy than the average HN commenter, given I opted in to Clear which lets me bypass lines using biometrics, a trade-off I was glad to make.

Then, people have raised the unrelated issue of why ID checks are needed at all, and I can think of a couple, not sure of the actual reason: 1) Checking that you're not on the no-fly list. 2) Checking that there isn't a BOLO out on you, so that people with warrants, parole etc can't skip town easily.

The argument that it is to prevent secondary markets for tickets sounds hollow - airlines do their own ID checks when printing the boarding pass and at the gate.

neil_s··on Google forced OnePlus to decimate a Fortnite launcher deal, claims Epic Games
This headline seems sensationalist to me. Google simply enforced its Android/Play Store Terms of Service, which have restrictions on apps being able to sideload other apps on devices that also have the Play Store. This is because if one of those other apps is infected, users don't know whether it came through the sideloaded apps or Play Store (which is supposed to virus scan all apps). You can argue all day about whether Google should be allowed to charge 30% of revenue for providing the value of the Play Store and Android, but seems pretty straightforward that if you sign the ToS, then sign a conflicting deal with an OEM, Google saying that that won't work is not exactly "forc[ing]...to decimate a deal".
neil_s··on Forget Google, time to end the Visa-MasterCard duopoly
+100! In Europe, they've limited interchange fees to a reasonable maximum. Banks can still make money, but don't offer crazy credit card rewards to the rich. I was sad to not get the rewards I was used to in the US, but happy that it was the greater good for society.
neil_s··on Google bans ZeroHedge and The Federalist from its ad platform
I'm surprised by all the negative top-level comments. I wasn't familiar with ZeroHedge before, but I just looked it up on Snopes.com and there are numerous results where ZH articles were marked false or mostly false. I followed a few links and didn't find any retractions. Clearly, this is a site that is OK publishing demonstrably false news for the eyeballs and ad dollars. An advertising platform is well within its rights to stop showing their ads on this website, especially since most major corporates would not want their brand associated with funding such false news. Admittedly, as a moderate/progressive, I'm biased against extreme-right hate-peddling.
neil_s··on Hertz SEC Filing: Up to $500M Common Stock
I do the same, with National's Emerald Club service. It sounds fancy but anyone can sign up for free membership. I used to be so paranoid about taking photos and videos of the car at the start and end of the rental, but have gradually transitioned to parking the car and walking right off to the terminal since all my experiences have been so painless. I do have a corporate code from my employer on the bookings (one of business travel and one for personal travel), which probably doesn't hurt.
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