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thanhhaimai

2,470 karma · joined January 16, 2012

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thanhhaimai··on Gemini 4 Argon
Opinions are my own.

I'm not sure this list is correct. Number 4 is especially wrong, since Skills are available with the launch of Antigravity 2:

https://antigravity.google/blog/introducing-google-antigravi...

thanhhaimai··on India's surprise baby bust
In 1970, a single minimum wage income can raise a family and save up for extra.

In 2026, a single minimum wage income can barely survive by themselves with no saving in most part of the US.

thanhhaimai··on Antigravity 2.0 Tops the OpenSCAD Architectural 3D LLM Benchmark
From the article:

> Antigravity was the only autonomous agent that implemented the Pantheon’s signature interior ceiling pattern: repeated square coffers visible through the oculus.

The article also includes a video showing the patterns visible through the roof oculus.

thanhhaimai··on Microsoft and OpenAI end their exclusive and revenue-sharing deal
Opinions are my own.

I think the biggest winner of this might be Google. Virtually all the frontier AI labs use TPU. The only one that doesn't use TPU is OpenAI due to the exclusive deal with Microsoft. Given the newly launched Gen 8 TPU this month, it's likely OpenAI will contemplate using TPU too.

thanhhaimai··on GPT‑5.4 Mini and Nano
Opinions are my own.

For agentic work, both Gemini 3.1 and Opus 4.6 passed the bar for me. I do prefer Opus because my SIs are tuned for that, and I don't want to rewrite them.

But ChatGPT models don't pass the bar. It seems to be trained to be conversational and role-playing. It "acts" like an agent, but it fails to keep the context to really complete the task. It's a bit tiring to always have to double check its work / results.

thanhhaimai··on [dead]
I don't understand the use case. What would this provides that Airplane Mode doesn't?
thanhhaimai··on GPT-5.2
This link doesn't have Gemini 3 performance on it. Do you have an updated link with the new models?
thanhhaimai··on Dollar-stores overcharge customers while promising low prices
And this is exactly why I only shop at Costco. While other retailers try to get me to buy more stuffs, Costco try to make sure I'm satisfied enough that I'll renew my yearly membership (their main profit source). The incentive structure aligns very well.
thanhhaimai··on Cognitive and mental health correlates of short-form video use
Long form educational YT videos are amazing. It makes my brain work hard, and I feel like I learn more.

Short form pop content like TikTok doesn't give my brain enough time to engage the thinking muscle.

I think it's better to identify the characteristics of the media we consume, rather than lumping all of them together.

thanhhaimai··on Google Antigravity
VSCode is based on Chromium. https://chromium.googlesource.com/chromium/src/+/HEAD/docs/v...
thanhhaimai··on Read your way through Hà Nội
I wouldn't say the Vietnamese alphabet is "transliteration". Vietnamese is one of the most, if not the most tonal language in the world. The same word, speaking with different tones will convey different meanings.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tone_(linguistics)

The modern Vietnamese alphabet was developed in 17th century (so it's not a transliteration) with tonal marks as a core feature. The writing language is very phonetic. Within a region with similar accent, if you hear a word, you can write it. And if you see a word, you can pronounce it.

The tonal marks are very important to the language. It allows for rich poetic rules that makes Vietnamese poem fun and musical to read:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/L%E1%BB%A5c_b%C3%A1t

thanhhaimai··on Why do LLMs freak out over the seahorse emoji?
One explanation could be: many humans (including me) mistakenly think a seahorse emoji exists. My mind can even construct a picture of how it should look like, despite me also knowing it's very unlikely I've seen one myself.

And those text got into the training set: https://www.reddit.com/r/MandelaEffect/comments/qbvbrm/anyon...

thanhhaimai··on Gold hits all time high
I think you're conflating between 2 different things: the USD and US stocks from US companies.

- The USD is definitely losing value. That also means stocks from US companies would be cheaper from a foreigner's point of view.

- That means it represents good investment opportunity as long as the fundamentals of those companies are not affected too much (e.g. AI companies not directly affected by workers' raid, or pay tarrifs). Nothing is contradictory here.

thanhhaimai··on Are touchscreens in cars dangerous?
Android Auto also doesn't let you type while driving. Source: I was the one who wrote the system UI and Keyboard integration. It's still there last time I checked.
thanhhaimai··on Ask HN: What's a good 3D Printer for sub $1000?
> So my big question, for someone who’s owned one a while: is the printer ever “done”?

The printer is never "done" :). But there are plenty check points where it's "pretty good".

For example, here is my rough timeline:

- I sourced the parts and built it. Took around 4 weekends.

- The initial tuning took a while (like a month). But this was very fun. I tried almost all the Slicers. I fixed constructions issues (square angle, deracking, belt tuning, ...). After this step, the machine becomes "good enough". I can print various parts in the house and I was satisfied with the quality.

- I started pushing for speed and redid many parts of the printer. I learned about various limitations (like Flow Rate is the real limit for speed). This phase last a long time for me (like a year). I ended up replacing like 75% of the printed parts with CNC parts. During this time, the printer is still online and printable.

- I didn't modded the printer much after that. I found my sweet spot between speed / quality. I want to mod it with a 120W Hot End heater to increase the Flow Rate (already bought it), but it's not quite a necessary thing. It's more for fun. The tinkering goes on as long as you feel it's fun. But I wouldn't say you _need_ to tinker to _keep_ it working.

> Is there a point after which it “just works”? Or is it always going to be more like “it’s great! I just need to tweak the blah blah setting every time and retighten the frobnitz every 3 prints, no big deal really!”

After the first tuning phase, the Voron was "just works" for me. Or at least, if there was any issue, I could immediately tell what went wrong. And no retightening needed so far except one time the printed feet cracked (that was the reason I switched to CNC aluminum parts).

Edit: I built a large Voron (350mm), and it is really _heavy_ (almost full metal in my case). That's why the printed feet cracked. Beside that, maintenance is almost zero. I don't even wash the spring steel bed. Just click print and walk away.

thanhhaimai··on Ask HN: What's a good 3D Printer for sub $1000?
> I would prefer something that doesn't phone home and can work offline. Opensource firmware/software and repairability are important.

I built myself a Voron, and it's an amazing learning experience. I learn how things work, and the trade offs. I get to pick and replace the exact parts I want. I design my functional parts knowing exactly the printer's capability. There is something very fascinating about it. You can look at a print, and can tell different issues at a glance because you have seen (and fixed) them while you built and tuned the printer. The majority of 3D Printing quality issue are due to Hardware constructions / trade offs, and not Software (slicer settings..). Without building a printer from scratch, it's hard to tell the root cause.

https://vorondesign.com/voron2.4

- Fully open sourced

- Repairability and updatability. Lots of fun mods.

- No phone home / privacy issue like Bambu

I think before going down the rabbit hole, it's best to make sure you have a clear answer for this question: Do you care about the learning / tinkering / optimizing part, or do you care more about "it just works" printing?

- Many recommendations in this thread is for the "it just works" printing case. The top candidates are Bambu, Creality, and Eiegoo. The quality is good for most cases.

- If you're an engineer and into tinkering like me, you would be much happier with a Voron v2. Depending on your effort, you can match Bambu's quality, or _greatly_ exceed it.

Regarding Slicer, don't worry much about it. You can learn one very fast. The top ones are Cura and Orca Slicer. I use them both, and they have pros / cons. Personally on my Voron, a well tuned Cura profile yield better result. But Cura is missing one important feature: it can't limit the speed based on Flow Rate.

Another quick tip:

- Take the advertised number with a grant of salt. For example, many printers advertised 600 mm/s print speed. The mechanical frame may be able to handle 600 mm/s, but the Hot End is the limit of the build (e.g. it can't melt material fast enough, friction, the ability of extruder motor to quickly change speed, etc).

Hope you have a great time!

thanhhaimai··on Tau² benchmark: How a prompt rewrite boosted GPT-5-mini by 22%
This is the PR with the changes in case people missed it:

https://github.com/mieciu/tau2-bench/pull/1/files

thanhhaimai··on Google Pixel 10 series review
Depending on the information Google knows about the incoming phone call:

- If Google is confident the source is spam (e.g. known spam center). The call is blocked outright. It still has a log that a call from this has been blocked.

- If it only suspects spam, Google will answer the call using AI bot, something like "Hi, I'm Google Assistant on behalf of XYZ, what's the call for?". The phone shows that it's screening a phone call, but doesn't ring. Only after the caller gives the reason, and it passes the spam check, then it rings the phone. You can always pick up the call early if you recognize what they talks about (from the transcript)

- If it's known good source (contact list, doctors,...), then it rings directly.

So far, the rate of spam I got is 0, and it screens about 20 calls a month.

thanhhaimai··on Google Pixel 10 series review
Disclaimer: opinions are my own.

I'm using the Pixel Fold at the moment, and it's the best phone I've used to date. It's something I didn't know I want until I have it.

Quick review:

- The phone construction feels good on hand and in the pocket. The screen is beautiful.

- When folded, functionality-wise it's like previous Pixel (beside looking better with the metal edge). I spent about 75% of my phone time in this mode. Also no notch!

- When unfolded, you have access to much more screen real estate. I didn't realize how this dramatically improve reading documents / browsing the web. Things that were unusable (like opening Google Sheet) is now much more comfortable. You can also do split screen, where you keep 2 apps on at the same time (todo list + message)

- The weight feels solid. The fold mechanism is solid. Battery ~50% per day with no battery saving. Camera is good as usual.

Software:

- I've mentioned before on HN, the Spam Screening feature singlehanded keeps me in the Pixel ecosystem. No spam call at all.

- Android Auto is solid

- Gemini is a gentle surprise, especially with how it's easy to interact with the "current phone screen".

Review caveats:

- I don't game on the phone or any CPU intensive tasks. It's plenty fast for me so far.

- I don't use the speaker (only use bluetooth headphones)

thanhhaimai··on Claude for Chrome
I love all the new AI improvements, but this is a _hard_ no for me.

Attack surface aside, it's possible that this AI thing might cancel a meeting with my CEO just so it can make time to schedule a social chat. At the moment, the benefits seem small, and the cost of a fallout is high.

thanhhaimai··on FCC bars providers for non-compliance with robocall protections
I don't have this problem at all thanks to Pixel Phone. That spam screen feature alone is keeping me on the Android ecosystem. I don't recall one spam call in the last year. And legitimate new caller (not on my contact list) can still reach me after like 5 seconds with the bot.
thanhhaimai··on Code formatting comes to uv experimentally
I'd rather `ruff` being merged with `ty` instead. `uv` for me is about package / project manager. It's not about code style. The only time `uv` should edit a code file is to update its dependencies (PEP 723).

On the other hand, both `ruff` and `ty` are about code style. They both edit the code, either to format or fix typing / lint issues. They are good candidates to be merged.

thanhhaimai··on How does the US use water?
It's interesting you said that. My experience is the opposite. In my last 10 years in California, I've had power outages a couple times a year (mostly due to storm / trees falling on the electrical lines). But I don't recall a time I got water cut off.
thanhhaimai··on How to stop feeling lost in tech: the wafflehouse method
For some reason, I see this style of "everything lowercase" more often recently. It distracts me from the content a lot. Was there a reason this style has become more popular?
thanhhaimai··on "Remove mentions of XSLT from the html spec"
The responses of some folks on this thread reminds me of this:

https://xkcd.com/1172/

thanhhaimai··on Imagen 4 is now generally available
> Imagen 4 Ultra: When your creative vision demands the highest level of detail and strict adherence to your prompts, Imagen 4 Ultra delivers highly-aligned results.

It seems that you may need the "Ultra" version if you want strict prompt adherence.

It's an interesting strategy. Personally, I notice that most of the times I actually don't need strict prompt adherence for image generation. If it looks nice, I'll accept it. If it doesn't, I'll click generate again. For creativity task, following the prompt too strictly might not be the outcome the users want.

thanhhaimai··on Claude Sonnet 4 now supports 1M tokens of context
I work across the stack (frontend, backend, ML)

- For FrontEnd or easy code, it's a speed up. I think it's more like 2x instead of 3x.

- For my backend (hard trading algo), it has like 90% failure rate so far. There is just so much for it to reason through (balance sheet, lots, wash, etc). All agents I have tried, even on Max mode, couldn't reason through all the cases correctly. They end up thrashing back and forth. Gemini most of the time will go into the "depressed" mode on the code base.

One thing I notice is that the Max mode on Cursor is not worth it for my particular use case. The problem is either easy (frontend), which means any agent can solve it, or it's hard, and Max mode can't solve it. I tend to pick the fast model over strong model.

thanhhaimai··on Cerebras Code
The issue is not about whether the limit is too high or too low. What turned me back was that they claimed "no weekly limits" as a selling feature, without mentioning that they change it to a "daily limits".

I understand it's a sale tactics. But it seems not forthcoming, and it's hard for me to trust the rest of the claims.

thanhhaimai··on Cerebras Code
> running at speeds of up to 2,000 tokens per second, with a 131k-token context window, no proprietary IDE lock-in, and no weekly limits!

I was excited, then I read this:

> Send up to 1,000 messages per day—enough for 3–4 hours of uninterrupted vibe coding.

I don't mind paying for services I use. But it's hard to take this seriously when the first paragraph claim is contradicting the fine prints.

thanhhaimai··on Animated Cursors
For a demo of the new Cursor feature in Ghostty: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=enwDjM7pNNE
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