Readit News logoReadit News

Deleted Comment

alister commented on Light exposure at night predicts incidence of cardiovascular diseases   medrxiv.org/content/10.11... · Posted by u/gnabgib
alister · a month ago
Several comments here mentioned shift work as a possible explanation.

The paper concedes that shift work is unhealthy[1] but claims that shift work doesn't explain their finding[2]. And their conclusion is "avoiding night light may be a promising approach for preventing cardiovascular diseases," but without telling us why. It's going to be fascinating if there's a mechanism by which sleeping with light can cause heart disease.

[1] "Evidence demonstrates higher risks of adverse cardiovascular events, coronary heart disease, heart failure, atrial fibrillation, and mortality due to cardiovascular disease in rotating shift workers."

[2] "Following separate adjustments for pre-existing diabetes, hypertension, high BMI, high cholesterol ratio, short, long, or inefficient sleep, and exclusion of shift workers, the relationships of night light with cardiovascular risks were attenuated but remained statistically significant for all outcomes except stroke."

alister commented on Fakespot shuts down today after 9 years of detecting fake product reviews   blog.truestar.pro/fakespo... · Posted by u/doppio19
alister · 2 months ago
There's a discoverability problem with this tool because I've never heard of Fakespot or Mozilla Review Checker until today.

> Mozilla integrated Fakespot's technology directly into Firefox as the "Mozilla Review Checker" feature, making it easier than ever for users to verify product reviews without installing separate extensions.

If it was integrated directly into Firefox, it's funny that I don't recall ever seeing it. I wonder if it gets disabled if you set your security and privacy settings too high, or if you use the Firefox ESR versions (Extended Support Release).

alister commented on Klein Bottle Amazon Brand Hijacking (2021)   kleinbottle.com/Amazon_Br... · Posted by u/sebg
CliffStoll · 2 months ago
Yep, I'm the same guy. Almost 40 years ago, I chased down those German hackers in my unix boxes; not knowing a thing about writing, I wrote Cuckoo's Egg. (a long story there - how to write a book)

Since then, I've lowered my periscope: my wife, Pat, and I decided to stay home together and raise two kids. They're now fledged - hooray! During that time, I started this micro-business of making Klein bottles - much fun!

Alas, but this past December, my wife left this vale of toil and tears. During the day, staying busy helps keep the grief under control; other times I'm in deep sadness, trying to find my way without her.

To all my friends & acquaintances on HN: my deep thanks for your kindness & support across decades. It's a joy to be considered a member of the tribe.

alister · 2 months ago
I’m so sorry to hear about your loss. We’ve never met but I feel like I know you because of your book and many other works, and I feel your loss.
alister commented on Klein Bottle Amazon Brand Hijacking (2021)   kleinbottle.com/Amazon_Br... · Posted by u/sebg
alister · 2 months ago
In case there are readers who don't know who Clifford Stoll is, he's the author of The Cuckoo's Egg: Tracking a Spy Through the Maze of Computer Espionage, that was practically required reading if you were a programmer or hacker in the early 1990s.

I didn't understand how hijacking worked on Amazon until I read this lucid explanation. Clearly he's still a great writer.

He's on Hacker News as CliffStoll. This makes me wonder how Hacker News deals with someone registering a famous person's name if they are not that person? I'm guessing that it's not a big problem here on HN because there's nothing being sold.

alister commented on Magistral — the first reasoning model by Mistral AI   mistral.ai/news/magistral... · Posted by u/meetpateltech
marsa · 2 months ago
doing some reason.. uhh intuitioning i imagine brazil and portugal might have some sort of a visa-free deal going on in which case llama 4 might actually be right here?
alister · 2 months ago
Brazilians don't need a visa for Portugal, France, or any Schengen country. But everybody has to pass through immigration control (at least a passport check even if you don't need a visa) when entering the Schengen zone. My question was which country would that happen in.
alister commented on Magistral — the first reasoning model by Mistral AI   mistral.ai/news/magistral... · Posted by u/meetpateltech
alister · 2 months ago
As a quick test of logical reasoning and basic Wikipedia-level knowledge, I asked Mistral AI the following question:

A Brazilian citizen is flying from Sao Paulo to Paris, with a connection in Lisbon. Does he need to clear immigration in Lisbon or in Paris or in both cities or in neither city?

Mistral AI said that "immigration control will only be cleared in Paris," which I think is wrong.

After I pointed it to the Wikipedia article on this topic[1], it corrected itself to say that "immigration control will be cleared in Lisbon, the first point of entry into the Schengen Area."

I tried the same question with Meta AI (Llama 4) and it did much worse: It said that the traveler "wouldn't need to clear immigration in either Lisbon or Paris, given the flight connections are within the Schengen Area", which is completely incorrect.

I'd be interested to hear if other LLMs give a correct answer.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schengen_Area#Air_travel

alister commented on Is outbound going to die?   rnikhil.com/2025/04/25/sa... · Posted by u/whoami_nr
alister · 4 months ago
In the face of this AI-powered sales onslaught, customers will use AI-powered tools to analyze and evaluate all corporate products and services to make their purchasing decisions, without talking to anyone. Personal connections won’t be the solution to sales when customers trust their personal AI agents even more than real-life contacts.
alister commented on But what if I want a faster horse?   rakhim.exotext.com/but-wh... · Posted by u/saeedesmaili
yakkomajuri · 4 months ago
I feel like this with my (current) bank of choice here in Brazil. They were one of the first to focus on being digital-first and allowed opening an account without going to a branch etc. They grew fast and became one of the largest banks in the country and generally considered pretty solid. I've been banking there for like a decade.

Now they've decided to be what they call a "SuperApp". This goddamn super app has a Twitter-like thing inside of it, shopping, and literally dozens of other products. Some core banking features are now hard to find but more importantly I had quite a few issues with investments as well. People who work there also tell me about messy problems on the financial services bits. It's very clear to me that in trying to become everything, they've deprioritized the fundamental products they offer, which are those related to banking. I want to store money, send and receive it, invest it, and have access to credit. But the experience of using those features has become significantly worse as new verticals sprouted up.

alister · 4 months ago
> I feel like this with my (current) bank of choice here in Brazil. Now they've decided to be what they call a "SuperApp".

I'm curious to know the name of that digital bank.

u/alister

KarmaCake day3345August 11, 2010View Original