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jonathanstrange commented on AI will make formal verification go mainstream   martin.kleppmann.com/2025... · Posted by u/evankhoury
baq · a day ago
> Most of the data I deal with are strings with their own validation and formatting rules that are complicated and at the same time usually need to be permissive

this is exactly where a good type system helps: you have an unvalidated string and a validated string which you make incompatible at the type level, thus eliminating a whole class of possible mistakes. same with object ids, etc.

don't need haskell for this, either: https://brightinventions.pl/blog/branding-flavoring/

jonathanstrange · 20 hours ago
That's neat, I was about to ask which languages support that since the vast majority don't. I didn't know that you can do that in Typescript.
jonathanstrange commented on AI will make formal verification go mainstream   martin.kleppmann.com/2025... · Posted by u/evankhoury
egwor · a day ago
I think that’s because the barrier to entry for a beginner is much higher than say python.
jonathanstrange · a day ago
IMHO, these strong type systems are just not worth it for most tasks.

As an example, I currently mostly write GUI applications for mobile and desktop as a solo dev. 90% of my time is spent on figuring out API calls and arranging layouts. Most of the data I deal with are strings with their own validation and formatting rules that are complicated and at the same time usually need to be permissive. Even at the backend all the data is in the end converted to strings and integers when it is put into a database. Over-the-wire serialization also discards with most typing (although I prefer protocol buffers to alleviate this problem a bit).

Strong typing can be used in between those steps but the added complexity from data conversions introduces additional sources of error, so in the end the advantages are mostly nullified.

jonathanstrange commented on Young journalists expose Russian-linked vessels off the Dutch and German coast   digitaldigging.org/p/they... · Posted by u/harshreality
Nextgrid · 6 days ago
Are any of those drones being shot down? Is anything being done about it besides (AI-assisted) fear-mongering? That is the real question. If the drones are a problem, shoot/neutralize them and thank Russia for the free target-practice exercise.

It seems like the danger even bigger than Russia is government incompetence and the system of broken incentives where everyone does everything to appear busy but actually solving the problem.

If there's a drone there, and you don't want it there, the solution is obvious. It's obvious enough to any nutcase in the US with access to a shotgun (with various degrees of success, but at least they're got the right spirit). If nobody's taking out the proverbial shotgun then I have to assume the drones are not an actual problem and merely yet another excuse for busywork.

Edit: I am not saying to literally use a shotgun against them. But offensive solutions need to be developed and put to use; otherwise if we sit helpless now, what will we do when those drones evolve and start carrying offensive payloads? Fear-mongering and finding endless excuses about not doing anything is not going to help.

jonathanstrange · 6 days ago
The Dutch military fired on drones. However, they are all over Europe and generally not shot down for various reasons. First, shooting at them can be very dangerous. Debris and whatever is used to shoot at them (usually bullets) can hit civilians. Second, the laws tend to not allow military and police to shoot at drones that don't pose an immediate threat to life. A new police law has been passed in Germany to fix this issue, but it was only passed very recently. I suspect other countries have similar legal issues that first need to be fixed.
jonathanstrange commented on UK House of Lords attempting to ban use of VPNs by anyone under 16   alecmuffett.com/article/1... · Posted by u/nvarsj
burningChrome · 7 days ago
But would you agree going into people's houses and arresting them for mean tweets would be infringing on their civil liberties just a little bit?
jonathanstrange · 7 days ago
Of course, I agree. The UK has nothing to do with the EU, though.
jonathanstrange commented on UK House of Lords attempting to ban use of VPNs by anyone under 16   alecmuffett.com/article/1... · Posted by u/nvarsj
richwater · 7 days ago
EU countries seem to be obsessed with infringing upon their citizens privacy
jonathanstrange · 7 days ago
The UK is not an EU country.
jonathanstrange commented on Show HN: Gemini Pro 3 imagines the HN front page 10 years from now   dosaygo-studio.github.io/... · Posted by u/keepamovin
TimTheTinker · 9 days ago
I've talked and commented about the dangers of conversations with LLMs (i.e. they activate human social wiring and have a powerful effect, even if you know it's not real. Studies show placebo pills have a statistically significant effect even when the study participant knows it's a placebo -- the effect here is similar).

Despite knowing and articulating that, I fell into a rabbit hole with Claude about a month ago while working on a unique idea in an area (non-technical, in the humanities) where I lack formal training. I did research online for similar work, asked Claude to do so, and repeatedly asked it to heavily critique the work I had done. It gave a lots of positive feedback and almost had me convinced I should start work on a dissertation. I was way out over my skis emotionally and mentally.

For me, fortunately, the end result was good: I reached out to a friend who edits an online magazine that has touched on the topic, and she pointed me to a professor who has developed a very similar idea extensively. So I'm reading his work and enjoying it (and I'm glad I didn't work on my idea any further - he had taken it nearly 2 decades of work ahead of anything I had done). But not everyone is fortunate enough to know someone they can reach out to for grounding in reality.

jonathanstrange · 9 days ago
Personally, I only find LLMs annoying and unpleasant to converse with. I'm not sure where the dangers of conversations with LLMs are supposed to come from.
jonathanstrange commented on I'm Peter Roberts, immigration attorney who does work for YC and startups. AMA    · Posted by u/proberts
jonathanstrange · 13 days ago
What do you consider the probability that there will ever be free elections in the US again? Please answer with a value between 0 and 1.

Deleted Comment

jonathanstrange commented on True P2P Email on Top of Yggdrasil Network   github.com/JB-SelfCompany... · Posted by u/basemi
bofadeez · 18 days ago
That doesn't work alone https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bayesian_poisoning

Bayesian filters are basically just a cheaper / worse version of what an LLM filter would do. Very easy to beat. Especially if the spammer is using an LLM to write a semi-unique email for each recipient.

jonathanstrange · 18 days ago
What I'm trying to tell you is hat this has de facto worked for me during the past 20+ years. I get ca. 100 spam mails a day and they all get neatly sorted in the spam folder. There is no server-side filtering at all, my email provider allows users to switch that off entirely (and better should because it's very faulty).

As I've said, I'm not interested in theoretical arguments. All of my domains wildcard forward to the same email address, too. Filtering client-side has never been a problem.

jonathanstrange commented on True P2P Email on Top of Yggdrasil Network   github.com/JB-SelfCompany... · Posted by u/basemi
bofadeez · 19 days ago
You mean like LLM filters? Right now it's all reputation based on IP and domain with a whole ecosystem of anti-spam companies like Spamhaus, SenderScore, ProofPoint, etc.

Using NLP / LLM spam filtering would presumably be either inaccurate or expensive or both. Someone would have to pay for it.

jonathanstrange · 19 days ago
No, I'm using Bogofilter and it works perfectly. I'm not talking hypothetically. AFAIK, it does some Bayesian statistical analysis.

u/jonathanstrange

KarmaCake day5381July 11, 2016View Original