Wow, a sudden change in writing style that’s not at all intended to disguise the fact that you’re an llm!

> Don't post generated comments or AI-edited comments. HN is for conversation between humans.

https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html

Your own source [2] says:

> But to be clear, there is no evidence DARPA or the U.S. intelligence services had any role in the creation of Facebook.

I require at least some evidence.

Your own source says there is none.

I think they’re trolling you, see their username.

You chose your sources, not me.

Besides bloggers / youtubers who have written / talked about this, there's a single news story returned by Google, which I sourced. If there were other articles to source from, I would have. Given that our internet was created by DARPA and has always been under the control of intelligence agencies / governments, it's not shocking that there aren't a plethora of sources regarding Facebook emerging from DARPA.

yeah I'm sure an immensely powerful and shadowy conspiracy trusted their most critical operation to a 20 year old college dropout. Makes sense to me.

sure. I don't think its a strong argument. You can control someone for a bit, but giving a 20 year old that much power and resource over this long an amount of time is far too loose a leash to constitute a robust plan. If we're going full tin foil then I think its more likely he's literally a robot than a front man for some shadowy cabal.

> This is, of course, a nod to the classic comedy sketch by Vihart

As a big fan of Vi Hart I was surprised to read that she wrote or was involved in that "classic comedy sketch".

As far as I can tell, after a few minutes searching, she was not.

Many of the advances in biology in the middle of the 20th century were also helped along by physicists who switched to biology, often inspired by Schrodinger's What is Life? (1946). The list includes Francis Crick, Maurice Wilkins, and (coming from physical chemistry) Rosalind Franklin.

> AI might give them good reasons for pros and cons.

This is what lawyers do, in their briefs and oral arguments before the court.

True. But if I was a judge I might want to consult AI to get a "neutral" opinion.

AI "neutrality" is a mirage. Hopefully the Supreme Court justices are smart enough to know that.

Hopefully. If they are smart they know that everybody can be wrong, therefore it is good to hear differing opinions and argumentation from multiple sources, in important matters.

Yes, that’s why they have lawyers submit briefs and make oral arguments.

I was very pleasantly surprised when they sent me free replacement hardware to reassemble an old ikea twin bed model that had been discontinued a number of years ago. I assume they use the same hardware in other models they still sell.

It's not cheap, though. Two weeks ago I bought a computer with a similar form factor (GMKtec G10). Worse CPU and GPU but same 16GB memory and a larger SSD for 40% the price of a base mac mini ($239 vs $599). It came with Windows preinstalled, but I immediately wiped that to install linux. Even a used (M-series) mac mini is substantially more expensive. It will cost me about an extra penny per day in electricity costs over a mac mini, but I won't be alive long enough for the mac mini to catch up on that metric.

I considered the mac mini at the time, but the mac mini only makes sense if you need the local processing power or the apple ecosystem integration. It's certainly not cheaper if you just need a small box to make API calls and do minimal local processing.

It's cheap for what you get.

If you just need "a small box to make API calls and do minimal local processing" you an also just buy a RPI for a fraction of the price of the GMKtec G10.

All 3 serve a different purpose; just because you can buy a slower machine for less doesn't mean the price:performance of the M1 Mac Mini changes.

> you an also just buy a RPI for a fraction of the price of the GMKtec G10.

Sadly not really. The Pi 5 8gb canakit starter set, which feels like a more true price since it's including power supply, MicroSD card, and case, is now $210. The pi5 8gb by itself is $135.

A 16gb pi5 kit, to match just the RAM capacity to say nothing of the difference in storage {size, speed, quality} and networking, is then also an eye watering $300

>Sadly not really. The Pi 5 8gb canakit starter set, which feels like a more true price since it's including power supply, MicroSD card, and case, is now $210. The pi5 8gb by itself is $135.

At that point buy a used macbook air m1.

>you an also just buy a RPI for a fraction of the price

lol. you need to look at rpi 5 prices again. they are insane.

If you need the CPU power in the Mac Mini then it is a pretty good price-to-performance ratio.

> It came with Windows preinstalled, but I immediately wiped that to install linux.

Do you really need Openclaw now? And not claude code + zapier or Claude code + cron?

That's the point. If you have worse CPU and GPU Windows will be sluggish (it's bloated).

That’s a big “if” at the end. You can always make a computer cheaper “if” you strip down what you need to do with it.

The Mac mini strangely is and has been a very good deal for years now.

This site is extremely uncomfortable to read on mobile (iOS).

The "hide distracting items" option is the best thing Apple has done lately. Unfortunately there's not anything worth your time once you get that nav out of the way.

it also contains no "manifesto" ...

-tracker, -alert or -status would be more proper titles.

+2 android

At least nobody can accuse them of not dogfooding enough.