Rohansi (u/Rohansi) - Readit News

Rohansi commented on Google can keep its Chrome browser but will be barred from exclusive contracts cnbc.com/2025/09/02/googl... · Posted by u/colesantiago

matwood · 9 hours ago

> It's easy to assume it's always accurate when it generally is. But it's not always.

So like a lot of the internet? I don’t really understand this idea that LLMs have to be right 100% of the time to be useful. Very little of the web currently meets that standard and society uses it every day.

Rohansi · 3 hours ago

It's a marketing issue. LLMs are being marketed similar to Tesla's FSD - claims of PhD-level intelligence, AGI, artificial superintelligence, etc. set the expectation that LLMs should be smarter than (most of) us. Why would we have any reason to doubt the claims of something that is smarter than us? Especially when it is very confident about the way it is saying it.

Rohansi commented on Google can keep its Chrome browser but will be barred from exclusive contracts cnbc.com/2025/09/02/googl... · Posted by u/colesantiago

sothatsit · 17 hours ago

Tools like GPT-5 Thinking are actually pretty great at linking you to primary sources. It has become my go-to search tool because even though it is slower, the results are better. Especially for things like finding documentation.

I basically only use Google for "take me to this web page I already know exists" queries now, and maps.

Rohansi · 17 hours ago

> pretty great at linking you to primary sources

Do you check all of the sources though? Those can be hallucinated and you may not notice unless you're always checking them. Or it could have misunderstood the source.

It's easy to assume it's always accurate when it generally is. But it's not always.

Rohansi commented on Apple pulls iPhone torrent app from AltStore PAL in Europe theverge.com/news/767344/... · Posted by u/pabs3

const_cast · 19 hours ago

Because we can make them change, lol. Why do companies do anything? Because of laws.

We're not powerless serfs, we can change the rules and we do it all the time.

Rohansi · 17 hours ago

DMA has shown us that Apple will do the absolute minimum to comply with changes like this. The fact that Apple is asserting it's power over an app distributed on a third-party store is a whole new example of legal changes not actually giving us what we want.

There's also the location issue. DMA forced Apple to make some changes but only in the EU. Apple is willing to do the work to only comply in regions where they have to. What happens if your country decides that Apple isn't doing anything wrong?

If this is something you care about then you should not buy an iPhone. First change the rules and then buy one when they comply.

Rohansi commented on Google AI Overview made up an elaborate story about me bsky.app/profile/bennjord... · Posted by u/jsheard

userbinator · 2 days ago

"AI Responses May Include Mistakes": https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44142113

IMHO the more people get trained to automatically ignore the "AI summary", just like many have conditioned to do the same to ads, the better.

Rohansi · a day ago

I don't know if that will happen though because, for the people who don't know or don't care about correctness, skimming through the AI "summary" is far more convenient than actually checking any of the search results.

Rohansi commented on Google AI Overview made up an elaborate story about me bsky.app/profile/bennjord... · Posted by u/jsheard

imtringued · a day ago

Why would people need discord if they can just talk to the AI directly?

Rohansi · a day ago

Because arguing with people who are wrong on the internet. It's no fun doing the same with an LLM because you're either actually wrong or it will assume you're right without putting up a fight

Rohansi commented on Apple pulls iPhone torrent app from AltStore PAL in Europe theverge.com/news/767344/... · Posted by u/pabs3

AnthonyMouse · a day ago

Isn't that the point? People would like to own an Apple product instead of paying for it and then never getting the keys.

Rohansi · a day ago

The problem with that expectation is Apple never gave anyone the keys before. That decision is not hurting them so why would they change?

Rohansi commented on Apple pulls iPhone torrent app from AltStore PAL in Europe theverge.com/news/767344/... · Posted by u/pabs3

simondotau · a day ago

To be precise, it's not the hardware but rather Apple's operating system software which is restricting what software applications can run on your device. Do you really own the iOS operating system? No.

I don't know precisely where the line is between owning the literal physical atoms and not owning the literal binary blobs of software, but agree or not, it's well understood that buying the right to use software is not synonymous with owning the software. I feel like the hardware–software distinction is a difficult one to square in the context of "owning an iPhone."

Does owning the atoms of your phone entitle you to a mechanism for side-loading your own operating system binaries? I think so. If you buy hardware, there should be a reasonable mechanism for wholesale replacing the supplied operating system software with any alternative you like. Should Apple be required to document how any of hardware works? On that I'm ambivalent but I lean towards yes. But as for how iOS works, I personally think that's regrettably out of scope, because owning the hardware isn't the same as owning the software.

Rohansi · a day ago

> it's not the hardware but rather Apple's operating system software which is restricting what software applications can run on your device

I disagree - the restrictions also apply at the hardware level. The entire boot process is locked down to prevent people from running their own OS on the hardware. It's nothing like Macs where Asahi Linux exists as an option. If anyone ever discovered how to bypass the restrictions you can count on Apple to fix it.

Rohansi commented on Apple pulls iPhone torrent app from AltStore PAL in Europe theverge.com/news/767344/... · Posted by u/pabs3

cnst · a day ago

You're wrong. We are blaming Apple, because they prohibit us from installing the apps we want on devices we own.

Rohansi · a day ago

Do you really own your device if Apple has control over what you can use it for?

Rohansi commented on We should have the ability to run any code we want on hardware we own hugotunius.se/2025/08/31/... · Posted by u/K0nserv

altairprime · 2 days ago

There’s a scenario where this does work: you can install any operating system on the hardware you own, if you complete a “erase all content and settings” dire scary confirmation screen.

- If you want to run something other than iPadOS or Google TV, go for it. (Smart TVs are just tablets with a don’t-touch screen.)

- If you want to install spyware on someone’s phone, you can’t; the HSM keys held by their OS are lost when you try to install a patched version and restore from a backup, and their backup doesn’t restore properly because half of it depends on the HSM or the cloud and everything is tagged with the old OS’s signature.

- If you want to patch macOS and then deploy it to your fleet, you can; it won’t be Signed By Apple but you’re an enterprise and don’t care about the small losses of functionality from that.

- If you want to dual boot, go ahead; the issues with the HSMs not permitting you to host two OSes worth of partitioned keystones can be resolved by regulatory pressure.

This satisfies all the terms of “let me install whatever I want”, while allowing the OG App Store to continue operating in Safe Mode for everyday users in a way that can’t be entrapped without the scammer on the phone telling them to delete everything, which destroys the data the scammer wants.

My car already allows me to do this. My phone should too.

Rohansi · 2 days ago

> My car already allows me to do this. My phone should too.

If you're referring to CarPlay and/or Android Auto you should know that it's not actually running on your car. It's basically RDPing your phone onto your car screen. You can already install RDP apps on your phone and connect to systems that provide more freedom, of course.

Rohansi commented on We should have the ability to run any code we want on hardware we own hugotunius.se/2025/08/31/... · Posted by u/K0nserv

spaqin · 2 days ago

Your parents are more likely to be a victim of a phone call scam than malware, even on PC. There is also no guarantee that malware will not slip through cracks of official stores or signatures.

You can also choose to do your banking at the physical branch.

We already had "best of both worlds", especially on mobile OSes - granular permissions per-app were quite good, and on Android until few years ago root was widely available if you needed it as well; these permissions could be locked or frozen if there is concern about users, just like work devices are provisioned with limitations. It all depends on your threat model.

Rohansi · 2 days ago

Also the good old phishing emails/links. So many people are simply unaware when a website is pretending to look like an app/floating window. Even younger people who you'd hope know better are falling for it today. I work on a PC game and players (mostly young adults) are constantly getting their accounts compromised by the same phishing sites that pop up monthly.

AI voice and video cloning scams are also only going to increase. Why would scammers need to get people to install random APKs when they can just impersonate a family member and tell them what to give directly?

To me it seems very much like the classic "think of the children" type argument. It's not going to really fix anything in the end but it will benefit Google.