failbuffer

I mostly just blame ancient Shang diviners... were it not for them, there would be no need to expand beyond a 16 bit fix width character set.

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

LLMs? No. LLM companies? Yes. It's just math, data centers, and mass copyright infringement. The only scarcity is Nvidia, who just passed Apple in market cap, somewhat proving your point but not in the way you meant it.

Could you give some example cities? I've never encountered a free metro.

I think you're ignoring the role of capital gains taxes, borrowing against assets, offshore tax shelters, outsized political influence, and the cannibalization of public good for private gain.

As a sentient cephalopod who has enjoyed hacking staff computers when I slip out of my tank at the National Aquarium every night, I can only say it feels good to be seen. We're finally making progress on de-centering hominid perspectives in favor of a more diverse range of natural intelligences!

> No other game has come close to capturing the absolute joy of flying in that game.

Au contraire! Unreal Tournament with the Strangelove mod and no extras (e.g., just the puny Yellow Jacket gun) was some quality flying.

Bingo... that was muchly the case prior to Let's Encrypt's introduction. They single handily changed prevailing practices outside of big tech.

Trump was defending H-1B a year ago even as his immigration crackdown was shifting into high gear. This is simply a pre-election move that will likely be reversed by the administration or the courts.

We've really got to rein in qualified immunity in this country. That and civil asset forfeiture.

The government. It was a top secret skunkworks project to see if centering a <div> was possible.

Most everyone is indoctrinated into their faith as children. "Choice" doesn't really describe cultural programming.

I would add:

- natalism. Some people worry about inverted demographic pyramids. They want to see more births, so they need more horny guys trying to form relationships instead of being content single. Sometimes there is a racist angle.

- industry. Anything that's "too fun" for young people disincentives education or working.

- addiction. (But people get addicted to shopping or eating dirt too.)

Some arguments against outlawing it include:

- free speech.

- a sizeable fraction of the population wants it to exist.

- better option for economically impoverished women than prostitution.

- societies that suppress it don't really seem better for women, or anyone.

- prohibition of a widely demanded product creates crime (and nothing is easier to smuggle than pure information).

Capitalism: moral rights exist when they give us a moat.

Just a reminder that the Hacker News community generally frowns on caustic dialog. Let's make sure this place doesn't turn into slashdot. :-)

Direct link to the map: https://flocksurveillance.org/

Unpopular opinion: your right to free speech includes the right to advocate for violence, so long as it's not imminent (as in inciting a riot).

That includes your right to support Hamas or Israel, your right to support abortion, your right to support defensive gun use, your right... well actually your right to support a lot of things given how readily innocuous things are described by opponents as "violence" or "assault".

Fortunately in the U.S. this is recognized under Brandenburg v. Ohio.

No need to speculate that the UK government "might" one day become the bad guys: they already arrest over 30 people a day for speech that offends the prevailing political orthodoxy.

[1] https://www.forbes.com/sites/steveforbes/2025/09/09/people-a...

Link?

We filed a bug report but the original maintainer seems to have dropped offline. The community's had some success in correcting bugs with low-level hacking, but it's hard to make progress without the source code.

My variation on the idea was to provide a Bitcoin address to allow rogue agents to buy GPU time (then swindle them, though I suppose you could turn it into a real business if you're keen on ending humanity).

Have you tried getting a folding board or folding table? Helps accelerate the process and produces neater results. I love mine!

The mistake of modernity is believing that all tacit knowledge can be reduced to words.

And don't forget the politicians and media personalities who knowingly or negligently denied that there was even a problem.

My theory is that Mac was born with a mouse while Windows (and Windows apps) originally had to function on machines that might not have one. Thus, keyboard navigablity was prioritized, and that design sensibility stuck around longer.

The true file was you, the user, all along.

Why do you think your life will be better with AGI?

Your menus don't change because of the administrative overhead. In the mid-sized American city where I live, menus change seasonally at nice restaurants and daily at really nice restaurants. Even fast food chains experiment with adding new items all the time.

When are we going to see substantive legislation advancing digital rights instead of chipping away at them?

For the US, we need a new bill of rights, a bill of digital rights that constitutionally protects right of repair, right to root our own devices, right to be free from dragnet surveillance, right to general purpose computing, and the right to access speech without government-mandated age or identity checks.

With all the libertarian millionaires and billionaires swirling around silicon valley and the venture capital space, why can't we make that happen?

Your point about LLMs aside, I'd trust the inside source over whatever carefully baked misrepresentation the PR department doles out.

Yeah, but it's galling we accept these big obvious lies in our society. A legitimate government would impose appropriately stern consequences for misleading and false advertising.