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pivot_root

Re:Hacking AI customer service agents on Monday September 14, 2026 @01:18PM (#49700508)
I thought the same thing - especially with those screenshots. Inti De Ceukelaire did present at Speakers and was part of Bug Bounty Village. If he was paid 50k as claimed, I imagine he demonstrated these techniques as described. The decision to present them in such a generic way, rather than obfuscate the actual testing is an interesting choice.
Re:Ask HN: What are you working on? (September 2026) on Monday September 14, 2026 @02:15AM (#49692649)
Using a local model (qwen 3.8 27b) to evaluate and tag public domain images from US national parks to find the best landscapes.

They are sorted by predicted aesthetic rating and can be filtered by time of day, color, orientation, and park.

You can see how it’s going at https://joshkaspar.github.io/vistarium/

Re:Icons as a Service on Sunday September 06, 2026 @01:23AM (#49583566)
Interesting article. This fact stood out to me:

  John Calvin (of Calvin & Hobbes fame)…
Interesting, TIL.

  …in the Institutes makes a similar claim:
  
  “The human mind, stuffed as it is with presumptuous rashness, dares to imagine a god suited to its own capacity; as it labours under dullness, nay, is sunk in the grossest ignorance, it substitutes vanity and an empty phantom in the place of God.”
I don’t remember that particular strip. I wonder if he says that to Susie or Miss Wormwood.
Re:Ask HN: Who wants to be hired? (July 2026) on Thursday July 02, 2026 @02:17AM (#48757257)
I’m a teacher with a tech background so I’m great at explaining technical things to non-technical people. If you want to bridge that gap via developer advocacy, developer relations, or customer success - I’m your guy.

  Location: St. Augustine, FL, USA
  Remote: Yes
  Willing to relocate: No
  Technologies: Linux, Docker, Python, QEMU/KVM, self-hosted infrastructure, technical writing, curriculum design
  Résumé/CV: https://joshkaspar.dev/resume.pdf
  Email: [email protected]
Re:Why I Stopped Arguing with People on Wednesday July 01, 2026 @11:32AM (#48748555)
I think the main point of the article is sound, the idea that arguing with people puts you in an adversarial position with the person, even if you think you are debating the merits of the ideas.

This is frustrating to those of us who are focused on the project or the task - to try and find the best way to do something and come at the conversation from a place that feels like logic, and be met with ego and emotion.

But I think the overall conclusion lacks subtlety. I don’t think the best response is to disengage completely, then say “I told you so” and/or swoop in to profit off of the mistake.

So yes, recognizing that you also have an ego and can benefit from feedback but just take it a little further. Ask clarifying questions about why their solution is better, come from a place of collaboration rather than competition. Have them explain why their solution is better and once it’s clear you are collaborating, voice your concerns and weight the pros and cons together.

I know this is a simplistic version of how these conversations actually happen, but it’s an example of the fact that you can make more progress by recognizing some subtlety.

I thought the same thing, which sent me down a bit of an unexpected rabbit hole in the topic. Greg Paul argued that thr chevron shape of the bones in the bottom of the tail point to sauropods rearing and using their tails as support . Heinrich Mallison did some biomechanical modeling and found that some of the anatomical features previously thought to support rearing might actually hinder it. And last year, a study on larger sauropods (Dreadnoughtus and Giraffatitan) showed that their femurs most likely couldn’t handle sustained stress of resting.

So it looks like this pose is based on anatomy, not biomechanics, and the one rigorous biomechanical sauropod-rearing study that exists didn’t even test this genus - which means the rearing question Mamenchisaurus is unresolved.

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

https://reptilis.net/DML/2009Apr/msg00036.html

https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/pala.70019

ALSO, consider how stiff their neck was, it could very well have spent most of the time grazing on the ground, like you said!

Re:Ask HN: Who wants to be hired? (June 2026) on Monday June 01, 2026 @02:41PM (#48360892)

  Location: St. Augustine, FL, USA
  Remote: Yes
  Willing to relocate: No
  Technologies: Linux, Docker, Python, bash, QEMU/KVM, self-hosted infrastructure, technical writing, curriculum design
  Résumé/CV: https://joshkaspar.dev/resume.pdf
  Email: [email protected]
Technical educator with a background in Linux and self-hosted systems, moving into developer advocacy. I care about documentation and examples that actually reflect how things work - not just happy paths. Comfortable owning content end-to-end, from concept to demo to write-up.
Re:Show HN: Hallucinopedia on Thursday May 07, 2026 @06:04AM (#48047521)
Oops! Apparently I can’t edit it in order to fix it. It’s only the link above, though — the original article I generated was spelled correctly.
Re:Show HN: Hallucinopedia on Wednesday May 06, 2026 @08:29PM (#48043865)
I made an SCP foundation inspired page: https://halupedia.com/hard-to-detroy-reptile

My favorite link generated there is the Institute for Unyielding Biology: https://halupedia.com/institute-for-unyielding-biology

Re:Ask HN: Who wants to be hired? (May 2026) on Friday May 01, 2026 @04:20PM (#47979759)

  Location: St. Augustine, FL, USA
  Remote: Yes
  Willing to relocate: No
  Technologies: Linux, Docker, Python, bash, QEMU/KVM, self-hosted infrastructure, technical writing, curriculum design
  Résumé/CV: https://joshkaspar.dev/resume.pdf
  Email: [email protected]
Technical educator and Linux hobbyist transitioning to developer advocate. I build real tools and explain them clearly.