Recent submissions

Comment · 5 days ago
One of the challenging things about sharing knowledge is that it doesn't exist in a vacuum. With certain things there's definitely more complicated and nuanced approaches that may make sense. It's absolutely true that it can swing back too far - and that's usually the case with the most important areas of life, I'd argue. It's the cause of all sorts of seemingly-well-intentioned attempts at sharing information, as well as, of course, intentionally malicious forms of sharing information. That's what all propaganda does, realistically.

To bring it back to the topic, this is certainly a serious concern with AI-generated content. The world changes and evolves and things that are acceptable become unacceptable and vice versa. With training data potentially being stuck in time due to the majority of new data being generated, history could essentially just stop here. Or at least that is an idea that's been proposed. I'll be honest that I have thought that to be a genuine concern. However, objectively, novel ideas have come out of these new technologies. So it's a bit of a pickle to figure out how that relates to the human experience as time marches on.

Thank you. The world will keep on spinning. :)

Comment · 5 days ago
I think I see your point. As you said, it's factual but it could be read as having an agenda. While we both support the agenda, it's not ideal to have one in the first place for a resource which should be as non-biased as possible, I suppose.

Always fun to think about different viewpoints. The same factual information could be represented (and is, as far as I know) in another way to denounce homosexuality and premarital sex, for example. Not making a statement about any particular belief system.

Thanks for the engaging think on a difficult night for me. I appreciate it. :)

Comment · 5 days ago
I just read both and I'm not sure I understand what your point is here. I don't have much to say about the diabetes page other than there is some interesting (as well as unfortunate) information. The HIV page certainly doesn't seem as if it gives off the "not a bad disease" feeling. It lists an untreated life expectancy as 11 years, whereas the diabetes page lists an expected life expectancy of being reduced by 10 years. That certainly makes HIV more deadly. It's also made obvious that it's transmissible from normal sexual behavior, as well as being so for some time before one would even experience symptoms. It's definitely not a bed time story. If anything, I'd say the diabetes page is less scary in its overall presentation than it should be.

Obviously this is subjective. I'm not saying you're wrong, just genuinely curious at what made you think this. I'm not making assumptions, but perhaps you have (unfortunately) more personal and upsetting experiences with HIV/AIDS than with diabetes? I know that when I used to bartend at a neighborhood gay bar frequented by gen Xers it was very difficult to see and hear people lose or talk about losing their partners to something that alienated them even more than they already are/were.

It is interesting to think about how to convey information about these things though. I think it's probably a good thing to make HIV/AIDS not sound so terrifying. For pretty much every adult alive today, I'd assume, their idea of HIV/AIDS was something like being told it's a "gay disease" or that you can't touch people with it (thank you for your service, princess Diana) or some sort of anti-African racist nonsense. So conveying accurate information without bigotry, homophobia, or xenophobia is probably a good thing overall.

Also curious what sort of possible conspiracy would benefit from Wikipedia readers from not being more afraid of HIV/AIDS.

Comment · 3 months ago
Strong "oll korrect" vibes.
Comment · 3 months ago
Comment · 3 months ago
I don't want to edit this to change the narrative, but I wanted to clarify that I'm not not a fan of all of the technologies or people related to this. As far as compan{y,ies} go, though, well..
Comment · 3 months ago
Comment · 3 months ago
Comment · 3 months ago
Comment · 4 months ago
A hint would maybe be good. You could highlight the first letter and a direction, for example.

The share functionality could be improved. Sharing the score and time to the specific puzzle would be nice.

Also I came back to this thread to comment that this is the most engaging, fun, and satisfying word puzzle game I've maybe ever played. My only complaint is that there aren't more puzzles!

Thanks for the fun :)

Comment · 4 months ago
It's so interesting to me how people consider writing bash scripts to be some sort of absurdist gimmick. I've made some scripts like this for blogging, as well as many other things.

It's often not the best choice. There are situations where, I'd argue, it is. One of the main reasons, in my experience, is for very lightweight servers. I don't want python or node or anything. I want to run a web server with 128mb of ram and a 1gb disk. Somewhat niche, but it's useful to just use the base system.

The other useful thing about it is knowing your shell in general. Even if you're not on the infrastructure team, being comfortable knowing how to navigate a system is both fun and sometimes critical. You never know when you'll need it, and it's an interesting look into your tools.

It's akin to saying "why know how to use a saw when you can use a chainsaw" or "why know how to make a fire when you can use lighter fluid and a lighter?" Sometimes things come up. And it's fun to know how we got to where we are today.

Comment · 4 months ago
Comment · 4 months ago
Probably my favorite thing about the author's posts is that it's all handwritten, vanilla code - as far as I can tell. It seems like all the HTML, CSS, and JS are just plain, standard, universal code. It's one of the few "advanced" sites that just works on an old iPhone 7, for example. So many modern sites that use modern frameworks just don't work anymore.

Also just a huge fan of using the existing infrastructure of browsers - even older ones - in effective ways. Browsers have been quite capable for awhile now.

Comment · 4 months ago
Millions of people died when a possible solution of "hey, everyone, let's stay inside for a couple weeks" could've possibly effectively eradicated the virus does not seem like a great example of humanity's ability to cope with imminent global existential threats. The potential solution(s) to the massive brick wall we're speeding towards are far more inconvenient than "everyone just hang out for a minute." It's radical change to everything in society.

The comparison with Covid is also striking because the only reason a global "don't travel too much" solution couldn't work is due to the nature of capitalism. It's not like we couldn't feed everyone. It's just that some people with too much wouldn't gain as much for a little bit. Which is the same root cause of why solving climate change is impossible without radical change.

Unfortunately, I don't know the answer. I'm quite certain it's not to maintain the status quo, though.

Live from the official Hacker News API

A modern reader for Hacker News · SvelteKit + Skeleton