HackerDigest

### The commenter discusses the advancements in the diamond industry, including the availability of diamond-making machines and the use of technology to find and sort diamonds. They also mention the automation of cutting and polishing processes and the ability to purchase diamonds in bulk. They provide links to sources for further information on these developments.

### The commenter believes that lab diamonds demonstrate humanity's ability to improve upon nature, but another person points out that this is unfounded and challenges the commenter to create a diverse man-made forest before making such claims.

### The commenter discusses the rise of cheap lab diamonds and moissanites in China and India over the past 10 years. They note that 10 years ago, these gems were hard to find at a reasonable price, but now they are ubiquitous and of high quality due to cutthroat competition and low pricing strategies. They provide links to examples of these gems being sold for less than $200/ct and $5/carats, respectively. The commenter believes that within the next 10 years, diamonds

### The commenter explains that Google Code was not created to compete with other platforms like SourceForge, but rather to prevent a monopoly that was hurting the community. Google was consistent in this goal from the beginning and eventually folded the platform because they had achieved their goal and did not want to compete with other platforms. The commenter also mentions that they were personally involved in Google Code and that the decision to fold was made in collaboration with other platforms to provide migration tools. They criticize the media for creating a false narrative

### The commenter discusses the history of Sourceforge bundling malware and how it caused many developers to move to other platforms. They also mention the misconception that private GitHub repos are the only way to use git, and how GitHub's success with private repos has helped them monetize their platform.

### The popularity of Linus Torvalds, the creator of Git, played a significant role in the success of the version control system. GitHub, a popular hosting service for Git, also benefited from this association and is often mistakenly seen as synonymous with Git. GitHub's early focus on Git, while its competitors supported multiple version control systems, helped establish its dominance in the market. However, it is concerning that the most popular open-source hosting service is owned by a company historically opposed to the open-source

### The commenter expresses conflicting feelings about smartphones and Apple's products. They acknowledge the impressive capabilities of smartphones but also feel cynical about constantly labeling new models as "boring." They argue that the average user's needs have been met for several generations and give their girlfriend as an example of someone who is not aware of or does not use many of the features released. They also mention that their girlfriend is highly educated and works in IT, but still does not care about the advances in technology. The commenter believes

### The commenter shares a link to a video discussing updates to Apple's intelligence features. They highlight some notable changes, such as improved video understanding in photo and album searches, summaries in Mail and Notifications, and Siri's ability to suggest actions based on personal context. They also mention the addition of a camera control button and the integration of AI and phone features. Overall, the commenter is impressed with the ideas and integration of AI in the updates.

### The commenter used to care a lot about their photos, but after accumulating many over the years, they no longer see value in them. They used to obsess over camera features and sharing photos online, but now they don't want anyone to see their photos and are wary of data brokers using them. They have stopped taking photos and instead focus on being present in the moment. They believe that phone camera technology reached a point of being "good enough" in 2017 and they no longer care about

### The commenter mentions that while most people are discussing the actor's role as Vader, they personally associate him with his performances in Strangelove and Hunt for Red October. They also mention their own experience in the military, which they found to be uneventful, and how the line "Now, understand, Commander..." from Hunt for Red October resonates with them.

### The commenter praises the combination of James narrating Edgar Allan Poe's The Raven in the first Simpsons Treehouse of Horror episode with the unique and artistic animation style of the early-Simpsons, calling it a beautiful and perfect representation of cross-generational culture.

### James Earl Jones, known for his iconic voice and roles in films like Star Wars and The Lion King, actually made his film debut in Stanley Kubrick's Dr. Strangelove as the bombardier on a B-52. This lesser-known fact can be seen in a clip from the movie on YouTube.

### The commenter finds it amusing that people are using this as a negative example of AI-generated content, as web-based sports content companies have been using it for years for SEO purposes. They believe that this situation has likely happened before without much attention, and it reflects more on ESPN's lack of oversight rather than the use of AI. The commenter has personal experience working with this type of content as a developer.

### The commenter suggests that since ESPN is paying two commentators to provide live commentary during a match, they should also provide a transcript of their commentary to the writerbot. This would be an easy and valuable addition, especially since the commentary is already being live captioned.

### The commenter questions how the AI summary included the statement about this being the last game for Alex Morgan, as it was not part of the input. They suggest that a teenage intern could have written a similar article based on a table of goals scored, but this is not a valid excuse for news organizations and sports sites to rely solely on generative AI. They understand why people are frustrated with ESPN's use of AI.

### The commenter shares a link to an article about the new AirPods Pro 2, which includes a "clinical grade" hearing aid feature.

### The commenter shares their experience with mild tinnitus and offers advice they found online: to stop reading and looking up information about tinnitus, and to distract oneself if they notice it. They mention the possibility of legitimate hearing damage but emphasize the psychological aspect, stating that the more one thinks about it, the worse it becomes. They recall a doctor's statement about how people don't complain about tinnitus while playing video games, and share that they hadn't thought about it in weeks or months until writing

### The commenter shares their personal experience with tinnitus, a condition where one hears ringing or buzzing in their ears. They explain that their tinnitus was caused by an improperly filled root canal, which was putting pressure on the tissues inside their skull. After getting the root canal redone, their tinnitus was cured.

### The commenter points out that on modern Windows systems, Direct3D is a crucial part of the kernel and is always available, even without a GPU. This allows for easy manipulation and sharing of GPU resources between processes, and supports higher level technologies like Direct2D and Media Foundation. However, Linux does not have a comparable system, as its dma-buf subsystem is more difficult to use and specific to certain drivers.

### The commenter believes that WindowsNT was a well-designed system compared to Linux when it was first released. They wish that it had continued as a separate platform for workstations (NTNext) and that it didn't have to sacrifice performance for gaming compatibility like Windows 7/8/10/11. They also mention that Windows Server should have been the successor to NTNext, but it wasn't. They remember being impressed with how much better NT was than DOS/Windows3/95, even

### The commenter praises the NT kernel but criticizes Windows for having too much outdated and unnecessary components stacked on top of it, which often leads to vulnerabilities. They suggest that Microsoft should move away from the Win32 and MS-DOS paradigms and focus on a more native OS design based solely on NT and evolving principles.

### The commenter explains that building a startup distribution network in Canada is difficult due to the large land area and interprovincial trade barriers. They also mention the requirement for French language on all products, which adds to the complexity and cost of importing goods. This leads to a centralized distribution center in Toronto, making it more expensive for smaller grocery stores to compete. The commenter also mentions the influence of corporate welfare for companies like Sobeys and Loblaws, making the market unfair for smaller businesses.

### The commenter expresses frustration with the oligopoly in major industries in Canada, such as telecoms, banks, insurance, grocers, and airlines. They believe that it is difficult to start a competitor in these industries due to regulatory reasons, and smaller competitors often end up getting bought out by the bigger companies. This results in poor customer experiences, high prices, and terrible customer support. The commenter also believes that these companies are colluding on pricing, which is evident in the telecom market. They acknowledge

### The commenter is offering their expertise in economic analysis of pricing data and suggests reaching out to them for assistance. They also mention the difficulty of proving antitrust cases solely through data analysis and the limitations of using grocery data for this purpose. They caution against relying on this method and suggest consulting with an antitrust expert instead.

### The commenter believes that the introduction of AirPods as a treatment for hearing impairment could have a significant impact on the field. They point out that stigma is a major barrier in getting hearing products to those who need them, especially young patients. This can result in social isolation and a negative impact on their quality of life. However, the commenter believes that the use of AirPods could break this stigma and encourage patients to seek help sooner, potentially leading to the use of traditional hearing aids for those

### The commenter suggests that the price of $250 for a product would allow them to buy their father three pairs, which would last him the entire day, and still be cheaper than his current hearing aids.

### The commenter shares their experience with their expensive hearing aides, which they find to be subpar as Bluetooth earbuds. They mention that music streamed from their phone has a lot of static and they prefer using wired headphones instead. They express interest in trying AirPods as hearing aides, as they believe it would be a better option for them.

### The commenter believes that companies should be held accountable for creating hardware that becomes unusable when their cloud servers are shut down. They argue that consumers should not have to rely on a constant connection with the manufacturer in order to use their devices and should not have to give personal information to the company. The commenter believes that hardware should continue to function for a long time without being dependent on the manufacturer's servers, and suggests that devices should be clearly labeled as such if they do require this type of connection.

### The commenter suggests that instead of blanket regulation, there should be a variety of certifications enforced by the FTC. These certifications would be displayed on products and would indicate compliance with certain standards such as Open Source, Cloud-Free, Firmware Rollbacks, Telemetry-Free, E2EE, and 10 years of replacement parts. The commenter believes that different people have different priorities and a certification system would allow for more flexibility. They also express concern about the FTC potentially removing products from the market due to incorrect regulation

### The commenter is reminded of when Sony disabled their officially supported OtherOS feature, which allowed for dual booting with Linux and other operating systems. This update also prevented access to the Sony Store and rendered certain games unusable without it.

### The commenter discusses the benefits of using SQL for data operations and mentions that they have stopped using Pandas due to the automatic performance optimizations of SQL. They also mention that SQL's declarative language and plan-execute programming paradigm make it ideal for optimization. They suggest that while the syntax could be improved, SQL is historically successful and it is important for software engineers to learn to think in sets rather than loops for working with data at scale. They also mention that avoiding SQL can lead to poorly reinventing

### The commenter is excited about the expanded C API support and performance improvements in duckdb. They specifically mention the streaming optimization for fetchone() and the ability to use duckdb in smaller queries from python. They are also looking forward to the addition of variables and query/query_table for use in the CLI. They appreciate the focus on features that make people's lives easier while also improving performance. The commenter has introduced duckdb to others and they have been impressed, despite some initial hesitation due to SQL stigma

### The commenter believes that the addition of R-Tree spatial indexes in the latest release is the most exciting feature, but is disappointed that it was not highlighted more prominently in the announcement.

### The commenter is criticizing a website for being clickbait and poorly designed. They also point out that the domain was registered in 2023 and there are few references to it on Google. They mention that the site cannot handle the load from Hacker News and that the "About Us" page leads to a broken link. They find it amusing that the post has received 50 upvotes despite the website not even loading.

### The commenter is discussing a new European directive that will require companies to make salaries or salary ranges public in order to reduce salary inequality. Employees will also have the right to request and receive information about their individual salary and the average salary ranges of colleagues. However, there are limits to this access in order to maintain competitiveness and privacy. The title of the article may be misleading, as this measure will not give public access to all employees' salaries.

### The commenter points out that the correct terms are European Union or European Parliament, not just Europe, and that the legislation being discussed is a directive, not a law. They also clarify that the claim about employees knowing their colleagues' salaries is false, as it only reports salary ranges and averages. They mention that the 2026 deadline is only for the Spanish implementation of the directive and that it only applies to large companies in Spain.

### The commenter points out the difficulty of properly configuring infrastructure, using the example of S3 buckets which have 70 configuration options. They highlight the challenge for junior developers who may be tasked with setting up an S3 bucket and ensuring their app can access it. They also mention that while S3 has some sensible defaults, many Terraform modules do not, making it even more challenging for someone to decipher the basic properties, ACLs, and IAM of S3.

### The commenter believes that the post is simply a list of instructions for using awscli and does not offer any new or insightful information. They suggest reading the documentation for more comprehensive information on s3/s3api operations.

### The commenter points out that most people would not make the same risky choices on a public NAS as they would on a private one. This raises the question of why people perceive public cloud storage to be more secure than private on-prem storage. The commenter wonders if this is due to a belief in safe defaults or a general attitude that public cloud is more secure because it is not managed by corporate IT teams. They also question if there are other factors at play.

### The commenter expresses skepticism about a study involving simulated drone strike decisions made by unqualified individuals. They also express anger at the idea of using video games to train people to kill real people. The study's sample size and demographics are also mentioned.

### The commenter believes that the study is flawed and could easily be manipulated to show a negative view of AI. They also argue that the main takeaway from the study is obvious and not very useful. In reality, they predict that AI will not be used for important decision-making until it is more advanced, and that ultimately more lives will be saved by AI than lost due to human error.

### The commenter believes that AI is a way for people to avoid taking responsibility for their actions, similar to excuses like "I was protecting shareholder interests" or "I was just following orders."

### The commenter expresses frustration with the strict gatekeeping in the CPAP field and argues that while manufacturers should be regulated, there should not be restrictions on who can purchase CPAP machines. They believe that the default settings are sufficient for most people and that an easy-to-use control, such as a knob, should be provided for adjusting the maximum pressure. They claim that the risk of being harmed by a personally set-up CPAP machine is very low compared to the risk of not being treated at all.

### The commenter is not an expert, but they have spent a lot of time learning about and using technology related to sleep apnea detection. They are skeptical about the accuracy of sleep apnea detection without the pulse oximeter functionality. They hope that the technology is accurate for a wide range of users. They also wonder if the pulse oximeter is being used without users' knowledge. They believe that if the pulse oximeter was utilized, the functionality would be much more effective.

### The commenter expresses a desire for the Apple Watch to have a feature that monitors oxygen levels during sleep to assess sleep apnea. They ask why this is not already a feature.