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runjake

16,455 karma · joined December 3, 2009

Hi, I'm Rich, not Jake (long story). I am a programmer in the Chattanooga, TN area.
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runjake··on Hello, me. It's been a while
Half the time I have my headphones on playing nothing. I'm just using the noise cancellation to find some silence.
runjake··on Ask HN: How are you preventing brainrot?
Basically, I do stuff like I did before the Internet.

I still code for fun.

I write detailed specs for AI. Although I feel like this is, or is about to be, obsolete.

I read books.

I play chess.

I play words games.

I make stuff with wood and tools.

I go more places.

I cook more food.

I am not jaded about any of this. I am highly adaptable and refuse to think about myself as a victim.

I am optimistic and excited to see what the future holds. But it will require much adaptation and reflection on my identity as part of that process.

runjake··on Flock updates privacy, accountability, security, and transparency safeguards
For my miscellaneous Flock queries, I use case number "abc123".

My police chief is okay with it and the case number "abc123" is FOIA-exempt out of operational security concerns.

runjake··on Ask HN: What browser do you use?
Brave with all the cruft turned off except Brave Shield. Chrome isn't bad either.

I'd love to be able to tolerate Safari, but it's just not a good day-to-day desktop browser.

runjake··on Go is an ideal language for AI-assisted software engineering
> Do not assume I haven't read.

It's hard not to, given your comments in this thread.

runjake··on Go is an ideal language for AI-assisted software engineering
Here's how my assessment selected Go (long before LLMs):

- I had to write a moderately complex program. I didn't want to do it in C, and I didn't want to learn Rust.

- So I spent roughly about 2 hours becoming familiar with Go and playing around in Go playground. I decided that this would work.

- And then I got started on my program and I was immediately productive and that software is still running today, along with all the other stuff I've written since then.

Programmer productivity is excellent with Go. And it has a thriving ecosystem. Of course, some things could be better, but I don't really have much issue with it's error handling or types.

runjake··on Go is an ideal language for AI-assisted software engineering
> Who cares? Languages are tools, LLMs are tools. Use the ones more appropriate for what you are trying to do.

The article specifically discusses how Go is well-suited for LLMs. It's not going on about general programming topics.

runjake··on Ask HN: How did you teach analog electronics to your kids?
I originally learned with an old Radio Shack electronics kit like this one:

https://old.reddit.com/r/electronics/comments/g6vyjc/old_ele...

I tried to get my kids interested with the modern equivalent, Snap Circuits, but they didn't take to it. It was too limited and toy-like.

I later acquired an old electronics kit like the above, and they were much more interested in that. You can still find the older kits on eBay for not too much money.

Keep in mind they may not take to it like you did. My kids' own interests went to more mechanical stuff and small gasoline engines and electric motors instead.

Don't steer their interests, feed them. Provide breadcrumbs for their curiosities.

runjake··on Hyperspace
It says it’s a paid app right on the linked page.
runjake··on Hyperspace
I don’t understand. It mentions multiple times it’s not free right on the linked page. And if you open the App Store link? It also mentions it’s a paid app.

What am I missing?

runjake··on Oracle bans AI-generated code from OpenJDK
I do understand what you're saying, but at the same time, of course it's natural -- it's, well he's, a thing that exists.

We don't have to like it. From Larry's perspective, our natures are strange and perhaps repulsive to him.

runjake··on Mark Zuckerberg attacks 'closed' AI rivals as Meta returns to open models
If Zuck gets his way, he gets more control, maybe he gets significant control of the market. Then, he'll probably close his models, if the past is any indication, which leads to bad results.

Maybe Zuck has, but I haven't seen a pledge that he'll keep models open. And even then, he might not stick to his word, citing dangers or some other excuse.

But yeah, open models is a great concept.

runjake··on Ask HN: Do people with authism have emotions?
And even people with psychopathy disorders have emotions.
runjake··on Oracle bans AI-generated code from OpenJDK
It's a twist on the Scorpion and the Frog story.

In other words, Larry Ellison is going to do what Larry is going to do, and there's no use wondering why.

Usually, that's to make money and sue people, at any expense. It's in his nature.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Scorpion_and_the_Frog

runjake··on A year of fighting scrapers on my 1.5 million-page website
Using a global agent rule with something like the following makes agent output much more tolerable for me:

"Use only ASD-STE100 Simplified Technical English when communicating with me or writing documents, comments, and other communications intended for humans."

As a result, I've never seen Claude or Codex use it's weird terms like "load-bearing".

runjake··on A year of fighting scrapers on my 1.5 million-page website
Not the OP, but because it appears structured just like AI output?

(This isn't a condemnation. AI can often do a better job of representing thoughts than humans.)

Examples:

- The article organization

- The general language flow

- The bullet points with a bolded gist, a colon, and then elaboration (and bonus with details stats).

- The images are almost certainly AI generated. They look AI generated.

runjake··on Show HN: I spent 2 years designing a mechanical Magic Keyboard
LOVE the industrial design. HATE the font, especially on the number keys. But, great job overall!
runjake··on Ask HN: Can Apple Ever Be Disrputed?
You just described Acorn, Atari, DEC, Nintendo, Commodore, HP, IBM, SCO, Sun and Microsoft in certain decades. A few of those aren't strictly consumer, I suppose, but my point is: all empires decline.
runjake··on Ask HN: Can we direct AI on our personal projects during work hours?
My objective is to minimize risk of lawsuits, even if I'm sure I'd win them. Of course, this can be solved by not working at places where this is a concern.
runjake··on I'm switching my phone from Android to Linux
This read like a lot of pain and suffering. I've tried this for kicks myself. There's a lot of sacrifices to be made. But I'm rooting for anything Linux on smartphones.
runjake··on Ask HN: Can we direct AI on our personal projects during work hours?
The first rule of AI club is you do not talk about personal AI projects at work.

- Don't do any of it on work equipment, otherwise your employer may own your works. Do you like being sued?

- Don't discuss it with people at work, otherwise your employer may own your works because: time and IP. Do you like being sued?

Keep your mouth shut, use your own equipment and probably even network (eg: cell) and you should be fine. Or do you like being sued?

runjake··on Ask HN: Can Apple Ever Be Disrputed?
I guess you'll have to define what you mean by "none of those were directly consumer companies" because I disagree, with the exception of Sun.
runjake··on Ask HN: Anyone else tired of brands discontinuing your favorite everyday items?
When I say "it's talked about constantly in commercial circles" this comes from personal experience, so no.

Put another way, don't you think companies have considered this? It's a rather obvious idea. So, assuming it's been considered, why don't they do it?

Spoiler: it's probably not economically viable based on the current consumer client, which is "buy cheap, throw away when broken, repeat". It's pretty sad how quickly the US has gone from repairable to throw-away products all while proclaiming concern for the environment.

runjake··on Ask HN: Can Apple Ever Be Disrputed?
Several of the companies I mentioned also had this, some rather notoriously, such as Sun, IBM, and Microsoft.
runjake··on Ask HN: Can Apple Ever Be Disrputed?
I once felt that way about Zenith, RCA, Timex Sinclair, Acorn, Atari, Commodore, IBM (especially them), the old HP, DEC, SCO, Sun Microsystems, and Microsoft.

In other words, all things have their end.

runjake··on Ask HN: Anyone else tired of brands discontinuing your favorite everyday items?
The only viable solution is to reduce dependencies where possible and deal with it.

Nobody in the commercial space is going to follow step 4. It inhibits growth and innovation and increasing profit margins. LTS support would cost a lot of money and my guess is that would not gain enough traction to make it profitable for them. Otherwise, they'd already be doing all of this. I mean, it's talked about constantly in commercial circles.

runjake··on Ask HN: Which one do you use for planning and coding between sonnet and Opus?
Sonnet 5 Medium and GPT 5.5 Medium for coding.

I drop down to a Mini model for file-based tasks.

Codex keeps trying to revert me back to 5.6 but 5.6 seems to use too many tokens to do the same or slightly inferior job.

I am only on multiple $20 plans.

runjake··on French musician Kavinsky found dead
> How is this hacker news?

If it wasn't, it would've been flagged or not voted up, and you wouldn't be here complaining about it. :-P

> Hundreds of musicians died today.

Whom? With the status of Kavinsky?

runjake··on US citizen charged after GrapheneOS phone wipes during airport search
It is a massive pain in the ass, but if the case is thrown out, the gov't may be less likely to arrest someone again. Who knows, under the current regime. They seem to go after whoever they want.
runjake··on US citizen charged after GrapheneOS phone wipes during airport search
I'm waiting to see whether he is convicted before I form a strong opinion around this. I'm leaning toward thinking this case will be dropped or at least severely reduced charges.
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