subsection1h

Joined 16 years ago

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1,641

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710

Member since

May 2

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Recent submissions

Comment · 1 day ago

I've edited Bash scripts almost every day (including weekends) for decades and I'll continue doing so. Bash is the language I use to communicate with computers. I don't differentiate between writing Bash scripts and using Bash interactively. It's all the same. For me, using AI for Bash scripting would be like using AI to write emails.

In my experience, very few people who don't write shell scripts (Bash, Zsh, POSIX, etc.) know how to use a Unix shell effectively. For example, if a person never writes loops when using a Unix shell interactively, they have not yet achieved personhood.

Comment · 2 days ago

> I just don't get the TUI obsession

TUIs can be run on minimal VMs that lack window systems. Using minimal VMs rather than heavyweight VMs allows a dev to run more VMs.

Do you not sandbox agents on VMs?

Comment · 8 months ago

The fact that this discussion was flagged might be the final nail in the coffin for me. The huge increase in AI generated comments and posts at HN is a topic that has been discussed on other forums for months now. Complaints include "Orange Reddit", "Orange LinkedIn", etc. But when the topic comes up at HN, it gets flagged. Fuck this.

Comment · 8 months ago

I've been using HN since 2008 when I created my first account[1] and I use HN differently than most people. I have a group of bookmarked searches that I visit almost daily that relate to technologies that interest me, such as Emacs.

In the past year, the searches I perform that relate to web development show a horrifying increase in the amount of Show HN posts that are posted by new accounts, include AI generated descriptions and point to AI generated projects on GitHub.

In 2024, there were 17,661 Show HN posts.[2] In the past year, there have been over 448,000 Show HN posts![3] And of course, most of these posts are AI generated.

Also, if you check the new accounts posting all this AI slop, you'll see that some of them also post AI generated comments in other threads, which is the main problem.

But for me, what is even more annoying is the enormous increase in new accounts created by nontechnical vibecoders who now think of themselves as technologists and who post worthless, ignorant comments that actually get upvoted, presumably by similar folks who have unfortunately been creating accounts at HN in the past 10 years or so.

As a result, 2026 is the first year in which I visit HN about once a week instead of about once a day.

[1] https://news.ycombinator.com/user?id=zartan

[2] https://hn.algolia.com/?query=%22Show+HN%22&dateRange=custom...

[3] https://hn.algolia.com/?query=%22Show+HN%22&dateRange=pastYe...

Comment · 8 months ago

There are plenty of tech forums that don't discuss AI. I think your confusion might be the result of you equating tech with "writing code for employers."

By the way, have you seriously never written[1] so much as a single backup script to back up a personal system? You only use GUI backup software?

[1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46634535#:~:text=As%20f...

Comment · 9 months ago

> Never thought this would be something people actually take seriously

The author of the article has a bachelor's degree in economics[1], worked as a product manager (not a dev) and only started using GitHub[2] in 2025 when they were laid off[3].

[1] https://www.linkedin.com/in/benshoemaker000/

[2] https://github.com/benjaminshoemaker

[3] https://www.benshoemaker.us/about

Comment · 9 months ago

Wow, 120 comments and not one person who uses mpg123[1] or ffplay[2] with shell scripts for playlists.

[1] The most minimal media player I know of. Written in assembly. Supports only MP3.

[2] The most minimal media player I know of that supports more formats than MP3.

Comment · 9 months ago

All of the comments posted by the HN account named jaynamburi were written using an AI. Gemini confirms this: "Based on an analysis of the comments on the profile you linked, it is highly likely that they are written by an AI (or a human heavily using an LLM to generate responses)."

Comment · 9 months ago

> broke their workflows because of vague technical reasons

> I switched to Vivaldi

You refer to important security improvements as "vague technical reasons" and you switched to Vivaldi, a browser that is based[1] on extended stable Chromium, which is not "recommended for any team where security is a primary concern"[2].

It seems you don't care about security.

[1] https://help.vivaldi.com/android/android-privacy/security-fa...

[2] https://chromium.googlesource.com/chromium/src/+/HEAD/docs/p...

Comment · 9 months ago

WTF. I have a separate computer solely for personal finance, domain registration, DNS management, and the associated email account. If I didn't use multiple computers this way, I'd go back to using Qubes OS.

Comment · 9 months ago

The folks at the Qubes OS forum care about security, unlike the vast majority of HN users nowadays:

https://forum.qubes-os.org/

Comment · 9 months ago

> Privacy has long since been dead, but at least for myself opsec for personal work is too.

Hacker News in 2026.

Comment · 9 months ago

Containers aren't a sandbox:

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46405993