Hacker News Reader

someothherguyyon When code is a maze, smart developers make maps (2025)

many do. for example: https://www.jetbrains.com/help/idea/code-folding-settings.ht...

there are also extensions for vscode that do this, vim plugins, etc

someothherguyyon When code is a maze, smart developers make maps (2025)

What? You don't like horizontally scrolling 6000 columns to read something?

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

someothherguyyon Ubuntu 26.10 completes transition to Rust-based coreutils

then install the other tool. no one is holding a gun to your head. it isn't windows.

someothherguyyon Ex-FTC boss Khan: break out the handcuffs for AI CEOs, citing 1934 precedent

> All the hacking legislation (and criminal law in general) require proving intent

No, they don't, see laws that make negligent behavior illegal

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

someothherguyyon Mark Zuckerberg: "Cambridge Analytica" (2017)

The article I linked outlines it pretty clearly.

"Cambridge Analytica then arranged an informed consent process for research in which several hundred thousand Facebook users would agree to complete a survey for payment that was only for academic use.[15][17] However, Facebook allowed this app not only to collect personal information from survey respondents but also from respondents' Facebook friends.[15] In this way, Cambridge Analytica acquired data from millions of Facebook users.[15]"

CA acquired access to the data of ~90 million users from the actions of several thousand other users whom they paid to fill out forms that stated they were for non-political use.

FB said data was private that they then shared with CA without user consent.

This was widely reported on, and people admitted to these behaviors. I am not sure an internal email is enough to rewrite history.

> If you read either my comment or the email, you'd know what the advice was.

I read both of these, and many of your recent comments seem to be some form of directed motivated reasoning or trolling, not sure.

someothherguyyon Mark Zuckerberg: "Cambridge Analytica" (2017)

FA and CA lied to users, and sent data from all the friends of users who filled out a form to CA

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook%E2%80%93Cambridge_Ana...

If that was the advice, it seems pretty terrible.

someothherguyyon OpenAI considers slowing advanced AI development, Sam Altman tells employees

feels and hype

someothherguyyon Navier-Stokes – Tristan Buckmaster [pdf]

its what all LLM users have all been doing, profiting off others' IP through a number cruncher, while relinquishing their own

someothherguyyon UN backs new map showing Africa's true relative size with US alone in opposition

so? people still need to use and visualize a map that isn't some strange abstraction. how useful is a population map when attempting to locate a small country to understand geography?

someothherguyyon Why AI-generated slopaganda works

> it is shocking to see that you have not even read the paper and you are just presenting it directly

what the fuck do you know about what i have read?

i was responding to a statement from the article. the link i shared is to an article that i read. it is cited some 600 times by similar articles.

i don't have the time to analyze every thing that the president or his administration posts. i don't know the realness of the AI faces he posts. if you have a resource that summarizes this, feel free to share.

maybe try to add to a discussion instead of ridiculing those participating in it with anecdotes and accusations.

someothherguyyon DHS 'Predictive Policing' Unit Is Analyzing Americans' Financial Habits

> Putting one of those participant’s phone numbers into WhatsApp reveals a profile picture of a law enforcement patch. A pawn with wings sits in the center, surrounded by lightning bolts. The patch reads, “Laredo Sector Tech Ops PITT,” indicating there is also a Predictive Intelligence Targeting Team in the Laredo Sector.

https://www.aviatorgear.com/p-52057-laredo-sector-tech-ops-p...

someothherguyyon Why AI-generated slopaganda works

https://www.pnas.org/doi/abs/10.1073/pnas.2120481119

there is some very depressing research on this topic

someothherguyyon Leaving VMware just got harder after Broadcom pulled VDDK downloads

> Much like freedom of speech means someone can speak abhorrently, freedom of enterprise means someone can do bad or dumb business things.

No?

someothherguyyon UN backs new map showing Africa's true relative size with US alone in opposition

> Would've been a lot more interesting of they promoted a population map

why?

someothherguyyon How the Disaster of "Forever Chemicals" Was Kept Secret

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cheating_(biology)

someothherguyyon How the Disaster of "Forever Chemicals" Was Kept Secret

yeah, sometimes cheaters winning is a net benefit or at least acceptable. although, i don't think those cases above are, heh.

someothherguyyon How the Planet-Altering Disaster of "Forever Chemicals" Was Kept Secret

cheater detection and self-correction is important in systems. i am not sure "fucked-up" is a meaningful way to look at species-level things.

someothherguyyon Creating Backup Storage Sucks

yeah, i mean, that might be meaningful, or not. i have thousands of pictures of my grandparents, great grandparents, etc that none of their kids (or many grandkids, great grandkids, etc) wanted.

seems like, eventually (mostly) no one cares

someothherguyyon LLMs and Self-Referentiality

there is deeper thought on this topic beyond douglas hofstadter (~20 years ago for strange loop and prior for GEB) and scott aaronson

any cognitive science textbook will bring some thoughts, or a cursory google scholar search

someothherguyyon Creating Backup Storage Sucks

i am more of the position of most human generated information should be ephemeral. for instance, i wish this site would let individuals have that need met, alas.

no information is so important to violate others' right to their own property.

so i contribute as little as possible, in the name of "community", per the guidelines.

someothherguyyon Creating backup storage sucks

everyone should do this, but it is difficult. imo, it is better to talk with your parents beforehand (if possible) to understand what they want to share with you and what they do not.

someothherguyyon Creating backup storage sucks

not sure if i got this right, but it sounds like you experienced some things and you want to share something, but you are telling others how to live instead.

someothherguyyon Mamdani Bans AI in NYC Schools

a lot of these studies with technology, etc, are concerned with outcomes in primary/secondary(high) school, which, tbf, no one gives a fuck about, as life outcomes are what matters

a great harm in human society is overconfident extrapolation, especially when treating humans as analogous to weather elements

however, there is literature that explores this aspect, but not relative to what we know right now (and if it is a global trait, does it matter at the general population level?)

someothherguyyon New York City Bans AI from Elementary Schools

based on the dates, links, publishing status, and content, these seem somewhat contrived, but i will read them, when i have the chance.

that first paper is on academic outcomes in uraguay, with a particular set of testing that i am not familiar with. if you could fill me in, that would be great.

i am also not following how they arrived at this:

'We find no statistically significant effect of FTTH exposure on children spending more than one hour per day in front of a screen – the threshold recommended by health institutions – nor on caregivers' acceptance of using screens to entertain children without supervision. We interpret this as insufficient evidence to confirm the direct channel with our data, rather than as evidence that it is not operating: our measures of screen time have significant limitations, and we cannot rule out that direct exposure is also playing a role.'

but i can't see the whole paper from where i am at the moment.

the other paper looks more like a magazine article, but i will try to take a look at it.

someothherguyyon New York City Bans AI from Elementary Schools

> It is absolutely not Luddite to note that pretty much no technological revolution privileged elementary-school aged kids who had exposure over those who did not. That divergence starts manifesting in the teenage years, after basic cognitive functions like information absorption and processing and self-motivated curiosity have set in.

When? Which decade between 1970 and today?

Show me the study or tell me the keywords to look up, because I cannot reveal what you are hinting at.

someothherguyyon New York City Bans AI from Elementary Schools

i live in ny. there are still "devices" in schools in rich and poor communities. many have "banned" personal devices, but that isn't really meaningful for this discussion.

this is about banning existing technology for material in teaching.

> We have tonnes of evidence in kids with versus without devices

that is a blanket statement, wrt to device time (i assume without you specifying), and is not what is being discussed in this article, and more of the fear mongering that leads to these outcomes

someothherguyyon New York City Bans AI from Elementary Schools

it seems incredibly short sighted to bar students from something that exists in the world, that they will need to interact with and be aware of in the future.

also, LLMs are great at summarizing knowledge, which is likely a better fit for earlier stages of education, rather than later forms, to instill some sense of interest.

are students actually having issues discerning real people from LLMs in NYC? did they explore that before coming up with this program or is this signaling? the article is scant on these details, which is unfortunate.

"The new mandate also includes restrictions on the use of individual laptops and tablets. Students in preschool through second grade will no longer be able to use individual devices at all, while older elementary school students will face time limits of 30 to 45 minutes a day. But exceptions will reportedly be made for students who are actively learning English or are living with disabilities, as well as for the use of coding software."

without citing evidence that does anything at all, that comes across as luddite levels of hope that putting kids in information jail will do something special that'll make them "better" somehow.

pretty much anyone on this forum who is older than 30 should remember these dumb jails that did nothing but frustrate students when they attempted to get access to information.

i was writing "code" when i was in 4th grade >30 years ago, and if i had these restrictions in school, relative to what exists today, i wouldn't have been.

you cannot fight the future this way.

someothherguyyon Can I opt out of my input or output data being used for training?

https://beckreedriden.com/the-black-box-problem-in-ai-trade-...

someothherguyyon Creepy Crawlies

normally depends on the type of traffic you are serving, but that seems like a weird thing to say as a blanket statement.

someothherguyyon Whistleblower warns Postal Service mail ballot system has catastrophic problems

voting by mail is pretty popular these days

https://electionlab.mit.edu/research/voting-mail-and-absente...

more controversy:

https://www.nytimes.com/2026/08/25/us/mail-in-voting-states....

https://www.nytimes.com/2026/08/31/us/politics/postal-servic...

https://www.nytimes.com/2026/09/02/us/politics/postal-servic...