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There's an obvious theme with lawmakers in California—they pass laws to regulate things they have zero clue about, add them to their achievement page, cheer for

• burnt-resistor 7mo ago
  Not just 3D printers but all subtractive CNC machines too.
  • lazide 7mo ago
    Frankly, look at how hard it was to make a sten. Even just a lathe and a welder is likely sufficient.
• 9x39 7mo ago
  I’m more curious in the genesis of these laws, whether their sponsors received written suggestions or ghostwritten bills, etc. as a form of parallel construction. It seems all at once, everywhere that many groups that have a vested interest in forcing precedent and compliance of non-anonymous access across the computer world. It smacks of something less-than-organic.
  • almosthere 7mo ago
    Death threats mainly. Personally I think it would be easier if they just made it so that platforms ran a tiny LLM against the content that will be posted - determined if it is a death threat, then require them to be identified before it's posted, then it would solve a lot of these problems. TLDR: Evil people be doxxed internally not everyone.
    • bigfishrunning 7mo ago
      a "tiny large language model"? lol
      • almosthere 7mo ago
        Yeah, a small one that is cheaper because they'll be processing billions of messages per year.
        • lazide 7mo ago
          Good thing all the kind people doing death threats won’t just bypass it?
          • almosthere 7mo ago
            I'm totally lost here. If you don't identify, you don't post.
            • lazide 7mo ago
              Good thing no one ever breaks any rules!
              • BenjiWiebe 7mo ago
                If a platform decides to require an account to post, or requires your message to pass an LLM sniff test before publishing it, you can break all the rules you want but your message won't be visible to others on said platform.
• johnea 7mo ago
  I'm, again, glad to run linux. The distro I run has no affiliated online "account" at all, and I would expect this exempts it from the requirement. I'm no democrat, although I'm sure as hell no republican, and as a resident of the state, I'm also a routine critic of the California state government. I agree that a lot of their activities are indeed, performance art in nature. However I do agree with the identification requirements on guns and ammo. You can't shoot someone with a computer, no matter what OS you run. The idea that lethal weaponry is the same as any other consumer product is just not accurate.
  • SoftTalker 7mo ago
    Political office in general attracts the sort of people who like the "performance art" parts of it. It doesn't attract the sorts of people who like "getting things done" because the political process by design moves at a snail's pace, and if you actually solved problems you would remove issues run on in the next campaign.
  • anonym29 7mo ago
    It's about as easy to restrict the proliferation of firearms and ammunition as it is to restrict the proliferation of open source software. Anyone can make functional firearms out of supplies from any hardware store, this is true regardless of how many laws you pass. Look at the weapon that was used to assassinate Shinzo Abe. That was manufactured and used in a country with gun control laws that basically make California's gun control look indistinguishable from Texas. No number of laws have ever or will ever stop criminals with a rudimentary grasp of basic physics and basic chemistry. You can't put the genie of firearms back in the bottle any more than Hollywood can put the genie of p2p file sharing back in the bottle. Trying to do so is like trying to unscramble eggs. It doesn't matter how valid your desires or justifications for attempting to so are, it's an act of banging your own head against the cold, hard wall of reality.
    • collingreen 7mo ago
      It's a logical mistake to say that because an extremely motivated person can still cause harm somehow that implies no regulation or policy can have any positive impact anywhere. I don't have a stance here on what "the right" policies around gun control are but it is clearly a much wider field than just a preplanned assassination with diy parts. A non-exhaustive list of a few very different scenarios that are all involved with anything touching or rejecting gun control: - highly motivated, DIY-in-the-basement assassination plots like you mentioned - hunting for food - hunting for fun - wilderness safety - organized crime and gang related violence - mass shootings at things like concerts, sporting events, colleges. Sub point of mass shootings at schools where the law requires children to be. - gun violence involved with suddenly escalating impromptu violence like road rage and street/bar fights - systematic intimidation / domestic terrorism of particular groups or areas - gun related suicides All of these are very very different. None of them have perfect answers but that doesn't make thinking about it "an act of banging your own head against the cold, hard wall of reality" nor does it make anyone interested in working on some of these problems naive or stupid like you imply. If you're being earnest or maybe jaded, I'd say dont give up hope and don't let perfect be the enemy of good. If you're just being a dick then so be it, maybe someone else gets something out of this comment.
• wtallis 7mo ago
  > Now, you need to verify your age... on your microwave? Anyone buying or selling a microwave with an app store deserves this mess.
  • mikestew 7mo ago
    Downvoter (and GP) didn't RTFA. This is addressed in the parts of the law TFA quotes.
• AceJohnny2 7mo ago
  > There's an obvious theme with lawmakers in California You can remove the in California
  • _blackhawk_ 7mo ago
    this
  • SllX 7mo ago
    Yeah but let’s not and say we didn’t.
    • needastiffone70 7mo ago
      [dead]
    • avtar 7mo ago
      I guess let’s say we also add Colorado to the growing list https://leg.colorado.gov/bills/SB26-051 https://leg.colorado.gov/bills/SB26-051
  • needastiffone70 7mo ago
    [dead]
  • almosthere 7mo ago
    Young people generalize everything and end up not solving problems. Older people have already seen all the patterns, and realize you have to focus on specifics, and that helps clean up the general issue.
    • roenxi 7mo ago
      The old people's tolerance for general problems is why the general problems persist. A realistic dynamic is the old people are comfortable with the general problems and have positioned themselves to benefit from them. Indeed, they solved the general problems that troubled them in their youth with political activism in their middle age. The young people have different political needs that require general problems to be solved. Also young people have a terrible track record of actually identifying problems, they are pretty clueless in the main.
• randomNumber7 7mo ago
  Technology is currently worring for a lot of people so the moronic response is to simply reject it.
• johnbarron 7mo ago
  [dead]
• SllX 7mo ago
  The incentives are all wrong. You can serve up to 6 two-year terms in the Assembly or up to 3 four-year terms in the Senate, but regardless of which combination you do, nobody in the California legislature can serve more than 12 years combined across both Houses of the legislature. So we don’t have professional legislatures with long-term electability incentives or leadership goals, we have a resumé-building exercise that we call the legislature. They’re all interchangeable and within 12 years, 100% of it will be changed out.
  • api 7mo ago
    Long term tenure won't help. Look at the Federal government. Eventually you end up with a hospice center as your legislature.
  • zdragnar 7mo ago
    And yet, term limits are something many people want in the hopes that it will solve some of the problems in Washington DC. There, the professional legislators can't get anything right either. Do you think there's a middle ground of increasing the term limits to, say, 18 or 20 years?
    • rocqua 7mo ago
      Age limits might be an alternative. Say at 65 or 70. That's at an age where wizened legislators can move into advisory roles, instead of needing to find a next career.
      • weird_tentacles 7mo ago
        [dead]
    • pwthornton 7mo ago
      Term limits are anti-democratic, and it's just a way for voters to not take responsibility for their voting. A much more real issue is actually age limits. If someone starts in the Senate at 40 and serves for 24 years, term limits hardly seem to be the big issue. They are retiring at a normal time, and they should still be functioning at a high level. Conversely, someone who gets elected at 70 and then gets term-limited at 82 is still over a normal, reasonable retirement age. The typical 82 is not in the physical or mental condition to be taking on such an important, high-stakes role. Both of my parents are in their mid-70s and are in very good mental health for their age. They are very lucid, and my Dad still works part-time as a lawyer. They are also clearly not at the same intellectual powers they were a decade or two ago. Some of it can even just come down to energy levels. I have to imagine being a good legislator requires high energy levels. Many public companies have age limits for board members, and they even have traditional retirement ages for CEOs. In the corporate world where results matter, there is a recognition that a high-stress, high-workload, high-cognitiative ability job is not something that someone should be doing well past their prime. Al Gore had to leave the Apple board because he turned 75. In the U.S. Senate, there are 16 people 75 and older.
• SunshineTheCat 7mo ago
  > they pass laws to regulate things they have zero clue about While you are correct with this statement in this context, I would say it applies to most things in government in general. The vast majority of lawmakers have zero experience solving any real world problems and are content spending everyone else's money to play pretend at doing so. The reality is, most government "solutions" cause more problems than they solve, after which, they blame their predecessors for all the problems they caused and the cycle continues.
  • Hammershaft 7mo ago
    It's true, and yet there are real market failures that even a very ineffective government can improve on dramatically, like innovation & research output via basic science.
  • alistairSH 7mo ago
    most government "solutions" cause more problems than they solve Zero basis in fact. We’re in the wealthiest nation on the planet. Most of us live better than any previous generation. To claim all that success is completely in spite of government is ridiculous.
    • SunshineTheCat 7mo ago
      Are you under the impression that the government created all that wealth?
      • heavyset_go 7mo ago
        The government literally enforces capitalism with guns and bombs lol
      • alistairSH 7mo ago
        Not at all. But it enabled it. Or at worst didn’t prevent it.
      • Yossarrian22 7mo ago
• idle_zealot 7mo ago
  What I'm reading of this law is that it requires OS developers to require users select their age (really their age bracket) when making a user account, and an interface for applications/websites to read that user-provided field. I.e. not age verification, but just a standard way to identify if a user is on a child account. If that understanding is correct, how is this bad at all? It's a way to put to rest people's concerns and pearl-clutching over children accessing adult content without every individual app and service provider contracting with Palantir to scan you and guess your age. Instead they can just read the IsAdult header and call it a day. What's the cost to user-freedom? You have to be presented a Date of Birth field or I Am an Adult / Teen / Child selector when setting up a device... a thing that every operating system impacted by this law already does.
  • bawolff 7mo ago
    All the better to do targeted advertisments and underdeveloped minds!
    • idle_zealot 7mo ago
      This is exactly the sort of infrastructure that would make it super easy to pass a law banning tracking and advertising to minors. Once every platform can trivially detect when they should turn off the ads there's no reasonable counter-argument about privacy or feasibility.
      • sigio 7mo ago
        Fine by me... instantly setting my age to whatever it is that disallows all ads ;)
      • bawolff 7mo ago
        Have we banned advertising tk minors on tv shows aimed at minirs? Are barbie/action hero/etc commercial showing kids having fun with barbies on channels whose primary demo is children no longer a thing? Technology has never been tge limiting factor. Politicak will is.
  • 7mo ago
• eleventyseven 7mo ago
  Headline is wrong, and you didn't read the article. There is no verification requirement. You are a bad HN poster and should feel bad. All this does is require the user to select a non-verified age bracket on first boot. You can lie, just like porn sites today. I thought HNers wanted parents to govern their children's use of technology with these kinds of mechanisms. > There's an obvious theme with lawmakers in California—they pass laws to regulate things they have zero clue about, add them to their achievement page, cheer for themselves, and declare, "There! I've made the world a better place." There's an obvious theme with HN posters about politics—they make cheap drive-by comments about regulations they have zero clue about, based on articles they haven't actually read, cheer for themselves, and declare, "There! I've shown why I'm smarter than all these politics people."
  • gatlin 7mo ago
    > All this does is require the user to select a non-verified age bracket on first boot. This is the age verification requirement which you rudely and incorrectly said doesn't exist. Nothing is done with the data (for now) but age is in fact verified on the assumption that the user doesn't lie. Instead of lengthy condescending missives about the behavior of other users, you should instead write "I'm sorry for being negative and bringing down the quality of discussion."
    • wredcoll 7mo ago
      Selecting an age choice from a drop down is in no way verification. The original post was low effort flame baiting. There's an argument to be made that it should be ignored, but it's hard to say.
      • gatlin 7mo ago
        If it must be ignored, then it exists. The bill proposes age verification. You may think the measures employed are weak or trivial, and I would agree, but the bill proposes age verification.
        • 7mo ago
• mmooss 7mo ago
  I think they demonstrate a welcome and sophisticated understanding of technology. Their solution to age verification maximizes privacy by not sending any data off the computer besides a simple signal of age category (if I understand the design). They show more sophistication than the parent commment: > 3D printers should have a magical algorithm to recognize all gun parts in their tiny embedded systems Color scanners and printers have long had algorithms to recognize currency and prevent its reproduction, implemented with the technology of decades ago. It seems relatively simple to implement gun part recognition today, especially with the recent leap in image recognition capability. (Rants and takedowns, IME, may entertain fellow believers, but signal a comment that's going to go well beyond any facts.)
  • xomiachuna 7mo ago
    3d shape classification is different from matching a set of well-known, mostly fixed patterns (like eurion constellation) necessary to detect currency. With 3d shapes of non-governmental origin this is at best difficult and at worst intractable. Consider the fact that many parts of a gun can be split into multiple printable pieces to be later assembled, making it very nontrivial to decipher the role of the shape. With currency, the government has the controls for the supply of the target shape (it can encode hidden signals onto banknotes) and effectively controls the relroduction side (through the pressure on printer manufacturers). But it cannot control the supply of gun-part-shapes (it is not the only source for it), and since the problem is likely intractable - neither can it enforce the control on the 3d printing side. Paper money being almost non-fungible is a great achievement, but is it as easy to make any mesh nonfungible as well?
    • mmooss 7mo ago
      It's certainly harder, I agree. We have highly sophisticated, non-deterministic image recognition. We don't have to be perfect to have a significant impact, and to stop the 99.x% of amateurs. > Paper money being almost non-fungible is a great achievement Going off on a tangent: Many people in technology and in the public look at cash as backward, boring, even socially embarassing technology. I think few it's amazing technology, an incredible hack: tech we struggle to implement in computers is implemented highly successfully and reliably in a piece of paper.
• WaitWaitWha 7mo ago
  i did not even think of that! As the current law reads, will smart devices with OSes require age verification? Many IoTs are just tiny Linux versions running on a small processor. This makes all smart GE washing machines, dryers and refrigerators illegal in California. come to think of it, maybe there is something good about this law. :D
  • RobotToaster 7mo ago
    Not just that, but the the copy of Minix in the intel IME of every intel processor. Not to mention all the printers, routers, etc that run freertos/thread x/vxworks.
• michaelteter 7mo ago
  You can single out California, but I assure you there are asinine laws on the books in most states. What it takes to become a “successful” politician is typically not what it takes to define good policy.
  • pklausler 7mo ago
    Democracy rewards mass appeal, and that in turn encourages demagoguery and gives a platform for stupidity. It's been an unavoidable problem with the system since Athens.
• Joker_vD 7mo ago
  > Microstamping requirements for guns Eh, sounds kinda reasonable. Ammo already has unique serial numbers embedded in the butt of every cartridge (in some countries, not sure about the US), and guns do leave somewhat unique marks on the bullets upon firing so... sure, why not. Surprised it took that long TBF, the necessary technology has been commercially available since the early 90s, I think? > 3D printers should have a magical algorithm to recognize all gun parts in their tiny embedded systems Yeah, this one's seems unnecessary. Is weapon manufacturing without a license a crime? If yes, then whoever 3D-prints a gun can be prosecuted normally. > Now, you need to verify your age... on your microwave? Or on your gas stove. A travesty, really: I was taught how to operate a stove when I was in the second grade and never burned any houses down, thank you very much.
  • LooseMarmoset 7mo ago
    The micro stamping law is in no way reasonable because removing the micro stamping from the end of a firing pin is laughably trivial. The only people who won’t do this are people who weren’t going to break the law in the first place. Even people who didn’t want to break the law might find themselves on the receiving end of law-enforcement if the firing pin wears such that the micro stamping is no longer identifiable. The micro stamping law does nothing to prevent the flow of guns to people who should not have them, and does everything to prevent the use or purchase of guns by people who can lawfully own them - which is the whole point of a law like this. The people who make these laws are well aware of this. The age verification law, coupled with the proposed hardware attestation that our good friend Lennart poettering is working on will ensure that anonymity on the Internet is gone. This is precisely what lawmakers are aiming for. And just like the micro stamping law, the intent of the law is not the literal word of the law.
    • dataflow 7mo ago
      > The micro stamping law is in no way reasonable because removing the micro stamping from the end of a firing pin is laughably trivial. The only people who won’t do this are people who weren’t going to break the law in the first place. I'm curious, so if (when?) California ends up successfully hunting down some criminals with this, what is your new position going to be? They were going to get caught anyway, or something like that?
• amelius 7mo ago
  At least they did not invent cookie banners.
  • Joker_vD 7mo ago
    Yeah, the commercial firms invented them all on their own just to keep tracking customers and oversharing whatever data they gather with random third parties while still getting to complain about stupid laws that require them to do so [0]. [0] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46521179 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46521179
    • nozzlegear 7mo ago
      The EU's own government agencies use cookie banners on their websites.
• palmotea 7mo ago
  > - Microstamping requirements for guns—printing a unique barcode on every bullet casing (Glock gen3 cannot be retired, thus, the auto-mode switch bug cannot be patched...) I don't know much about guns, but I assume that would be on the hammer? Couldn't you remove that "microstamping" by lightly filing down the hammer or just using it a bunch and causing some wear?
  • marssaxman 7mo ago
    For most modern guns, it would be the firing pin, also called the "striker". Nobody manufactures microstamped guns, but if they did, the striker is a $20 part you can replace in ten minutes - or you could just spend half an hour on target practice at your local range, because 200 rounds are apparently enough to wear the etching down to illegibility.
    • jrnichols 7mo ago
      They know this, and they know the technology just isn't there. But that's their goal - to make gun ownership as difficult and expensive as possible. I think they've learned from the anti-gun lobbyists and are now pushing to end anonymity on the internet the same way.
      • iamnothere 7mo ago
        This is exactly it, it’s death by a thousand stupid cuts by throwing everything at the wall and hoping that something sticks. They know that many of these laws won’t pass constitutional scrutiny, but by the time they make their way to the Supreme Court, the damage will be done and 10 new stupid laws will take their place. The anti gun lobby has been doing the exact same thing for years.
• onlyrealcuzzo 7mo ago
  How long until we have to scan our assholes to use the coffee machine?
  • genxy 7mo ago
    Do you have a term sheet?
  • 4k93n2 7mo ago
    we might as well just do a coffee enema at that point
• rib3ye 7mo ago
  It's not a coincidence the equally clueless citizens are asking for these laws. Like in business, sometimes it's better to do "some thing" when you're not smart enough to do the right thing. Maybe you get there, maybe you don't, but inaction is not looked upon kindly.
  • pennomi 7mo ago
    What citizens are asking for age verification? I have met exactly ZERO people who want this. It’s only the authorities who want it.
    • NetMageSCW 7mo ago
      Do these groups count as the authorities? Children Now (co-sponsor). International Centre for Missing & Exploited Children (co-sponsor). AAPI Equity Alliance. California Parents for Public Virtual Education. Parents Support for Online Learning. Protect Our Kids.
  • shevy-java 7mo ago
    I've not met anyone privately who would be in support of this. There is a layer of indirection at work here. Fake-democracy.
• hintymad 7mo ago
  So essentially California is becoming more and more like EU? It's curious to see how it pans out. Maybe EU's model turns out to be better than a more laissez-faire world like the US. Who knows. What's even more curious is that the California voters seem not care at all. As long as the government can collect more taxes with more altruistic slogans, the voters will stay happy.
  • shevy-java 7mo ago
    Which EU law mandates age verification on my personal computer at home exactly?
• harrall 7mo ago
  No it’s a mindset thing. Some people think all problems should be fixed with regulation. Some people think all problems should be fixed with free market / responsibility. California and liberals tend to lean to the former. A place like Texas and conservatives tend to lean to the latter. I think both camps are crazy because it’s a case-by-case basis where you need to consider second and third order effects. But man talk to a die hard regulation supporter or die hard free market supporter and you just want to say “the world isn’t just simple rules like that.”
• Bender 7mo ago
  Modern technology is simply not compatible with clueless politicians He may be our next president and this becomes an executive order.
• rustystump 7mo ago
  There is a name for it, feel good policies and cali is not unique. People who dont understand the problem must pass a solution that makes people feel good. Clean needles, homeless hotels, etc. If they dont make things worse, that is a win.
• Aerroon 7mo ago
  I'm starting to get more and more behind the idea that maybe lawmakers need to be legally accountable for bad laws that they make.
• dataflow 7mo ago
  > Now, you need to verify your age... on your microwave? What part of the bill makes you think this would apply to a microwave? https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billTextClient.xhtml?bill_id=202520260AB1043 https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billTextClient.xhtm... And what part makes you think you need to verify your age, as opposed to just specifying it? Nobody is requiring any verification. The only requirement is on there being an interface for you to input whatever age you want to input.
• dongguanxianhao 7mo ago
  The printer spyware has an interesting backstory. A Spanish venture-backed firm is developing some vaporware called Print&Go and has convinced the NY DA's office that it'll permanently solve the Luigi problem. The best part? This company is drooling at the possibility of getting a permanent rent-seeking license for printers they didn't design, for nonexistent vaporware software that reduces its capabilities. They frame it as "enhancing 3D printer capabilities," the way a slaveowner would frame putting chains on a slave's wrists as an "employee retention innovation." Is everyone involved with promoting this software and these laws lying? Of course. https://blog.adafruit.com/2026/02/08/any-user-who-has-a-3d-printer-would-have-this-software-installed-printgos-plan-to-become-the-drm-of-3d-printing/ https://blog.adafruit.com/2026/02/08/any-user-who-has-a-3d-p...
• michaelbrave 7mo ago
  I'm still in the process of having to write letters to lawmakers about the stupid 3D printer law, now I'm going to have to write letters for this stupid thing too. Like how hard is it to take a day to have a conversation with someone that just knows a little bit about these things, a hobbyist even. The minimal amount of question asking, hell they could even ask an LLM and it would still give a better answer.
• interludead 7mo ago
  The irony is that the only entities capable of complying are the large centralized platforms