guitarbill

Joined 10 years ago

Karma
4,311
Submissions
1,639
Member since
Jan 6
View on Hacker News

Recent submissions

Comment · 8 months ago
Sure, we can ignore that specific example, and that software has an effect on the world, and that people have been trained to expect software to be deterministic and accurate.

Or if you want compare vibe coding with any technology, like electricity. Sure, that one person got electrocuted or their house burned down. But it's just so useful, and "somehow civilization continues to function". I guess they should've known better.

I'm personally not comfortable hyping up the benefits whilst ignoring the risks, especially for lay people.

Comment · 8 months ago
One counter-example is the Horizon IT scandal. Obviously, you didn't say this directly, but "only a few people died/were affected, somehow civilization continues to function" maybe isn't the best argument.
Comment · 9 months ago
> Germany has a very sad and weak airport security story.

The system you describe is hardly unique to Germany, so this just reads like hyperbole or inexperience travelling.

> Classic example of government run workflows

This I can agree with.

Comment · 9 months ago
I'm a fan of the RP2040 chip. It's a good trade-off between being simple and capable. There are more powerful chips like the STM32's, but frankly there are too many variants and their data-sheets are nightmarish. And there are simpler chips like the Atmel AVRs, but the tooling sucks. ESP chips are also good, but I haven't kept up with them so can't give much advice.

You'll want a dev board, which has the chip plus some supporting components on it. The Raspberry Pi Pico is a good choice because it's so widely used and well documented.

If you care about Rust, you'll also want to get the Debug Probe. Worth the money.

If you don't care about Rust, any Adafruit dev board should run CircuitPython, have good documentation, and likely some projects you can start with. The reason I don't recommend these for Rust is because many of their dev boards do not "break out"/make available the connections for a debug probe.

Edit: Having a project you want to do is good, but just making an LED blink can be magical, too, especially if you haven't done anything with hardware.

Comment · 11 months ago
I really like the idea... but I have to admit my first visceral reaction was "I hate this". I think it's because the tone and style is quite infantile/childish. A good experiment nonetheless. Maybe there's a middle ground somewhere?
Comment · 11 months ago
You aren't wrong on either; Germany's tax law is insanely complex but also many people don't want to change the tax law as they can deduct a million and one things.
Comment · 11 months ago
> Same story with rollover testing.

That's for occupants.

> Furthermore, the NHTSA doesn't do most testing.

Which is why I quoted IIHS and other non-US testing.

> NHTSA standards

Which standards are for e.g. pedestrian safety? The hood ornament thing?

> That's misleading. They don't test for pedestrian safety as part of the normal tests. But they test for it generally

No, it isn't and no they didn't/don't. E.g. GAO report from 2020 [0]:

> NHTSA’s last substantial update of NCAP was in July 2008 (with changes effective for model year 2011 vehicles). This update established additional crash tests and technical standards to protect vehicle occupants, but did not include pedestrian safety tests.

Or from NHTSA itself in 2022 [1], although note this is a "proposal" and "recommendations":

> For the first time ever, NCAP includes technology recommendations not only for drivers and passengers but for road users outside the vehicle, like pedestrians. The proposal [...]. We look forward to reviewing the comments we receive and considering them as we complete this important work.”

They will/might, by adopting Euro NCAP [2]:

> This final decision notice adds a crashworthiness pedestrian protection program to the New Car Assessment Program (NCAP) to evaluate new model year vehicles’ abilities to mitigate pedestrian injuries. Based on its previous research, NHTSA concurs with and adopts most of the European New Car Assessment Programme’s (Euro NCAP) pedestrian crashworthiness assessment methods [...]

> These changes to the New Car Assessment Program are effective for the 2026 model year.

But as of yet, this does not appear on their NCAP ratings: https://www.nhtsa.gov/ratings/resources-related-nhtsas-new-c...

[0]: https://www.gao.gov/assets/gao-20-419.pdf

[1]: https://www.nhtsa.gov/press-releases/five-star-safety-rating...

[2]: https://www.nhtsa.gov/sites/nhtsa.gov/files/2024-11/NCAP-Fin...

Comment · 11 months ago
Downvote or not, it's true:

> NHTSA conducts frontal, side and rollover tests because these types account for the majority of crashes on America's roadways.

> IIHS tests evaluate two aspects of safety: crashworthiness — how well a vehicle protects its occupants in a crash — and crash avoidance and mitigation — technology that can prevent a crash or lessen its severity.

> As well as assessing how well cars protect their occupants, Euro NCAP tests how well they protect those vulnerable road users – pedestrians and cyclists – with whom they might collide.

Comment · 1 year ago
First, you try to normalise it:

> It is completely normal for staff to have to work 24/7 for critical services.

> Not only is it normal, it is essential and required.

Now you come with the weak "you don't have to take the job" and this gem:

> An employee’s lack of boundaries is not an employer’s fault.

As if there isn't a power imbalance, or employers always disclose everything or chance their mind. But of course, let's blame those entitled employees!

Comment · 1 year ago
Nice try at guilt-tripping people doing on-call, and doing it for free.

But to parent's points: if you call a plumber or HVAC tech at 3am, you'll pay for the privilege.

And doctors and nurses have shifts/rotas. At some tech places, you are expected to do your day job plus on-call. For no overtime pay. "Salaried" in the US or something like that.

Comment · 1 year ago
As far as I can tell, the author isn't claiming e.g. all of Usenet or IRC was affected. Only that this issue has been happening to communities for a long time in many different online places.
Comment · 1 year ago
Sorry, it's not even close to Rust. Or even C# or Java. It can't provide the same "fearless refactoring". It is better than being blind/having to infer everything manually. That's not saying much.

And that's assuming the codebase and all dependencies have correct type annotations.

Live from the official Hacker News API

A modern reader for Hacker News · SvelteKit + Skeleton