Hacker News: Baeocystin

New comment by Baeocystin in "Woman who never stopped updating her lost dog's chip reunites with him after 11y"

Baeocystin — Thu, 26 Mar 2026 01:21:14 +0000

Her contact information.

New comment by Baeocystin in "The Los Angeles Aqueduct Is Wild"

Baeocystin — Sat, 21 Mar 2026 03:13:27 +0000

Not really inaccurate in this case, though. It's a huge loss.

New comment by Baeocystin in "Why vampires live forever"

Baeocystin — Tue, 24 Feb 2026 06:28:22 +0000

“I’ve told you before, Daniel: roach isn’t an insult. We’re the ones still standing after the mammals build their nukes, we’re the ones with the stripped-down OS’s so damned simple they work under almost any circumstances. We’re the goddamned Kalashnikovs of thinking meat.”

New comment by Baeocystin in "Blood test boosts Alzheimer's diagnosis accuracy to 94.5%, clinical study shows"

Baeocystin — Tue, 24 Feb 2026 06:18:59 +0000

In my friend's case, donanemab, FWIW.

New comment by Baeocystin in "Blood test boosts Alzheimer's diagnosis accuracy to 94.5%, clinical study shows"

Baeocystin — Tue, 24 Feb 2026 06:14:16 +0000

Completely arrested? I don't. But it appears to be arrested in ways that matter for mental acuity, for now. I've taken care of a parent with Alzheimer's, and helped several other caregivers over the years with their own family's journeys, and one thing I can tell you is that I have never, ever seen an actual halting of the progression for this long. The descent is usually a stairstep pattern, but the steps are on the matter of weeks to a month or two. My friend has been stable for a year.

This is all new. There is research hinting at Alzheimer's subtypes, some of which are more likely to respond than others. Even halting the decline is a huge potential breakthrough.

New comment by Baeocystin in "Blood test boosts Alzheimer's diagnosis accuracy to 94.5%, clinical study shows"

Baeocystin — Tue, 24 Feb 2026 04:04:16 +0000

I know two people who have been taking the new monoclonal antibody treatment for it. One who was a bit further along when she started, and did not show any significant improvement. The one who started while she was still in the early stages has completely arrested her descent. She hasn't recovered much of what she already lost, but she's still able to live independently and enjoy life, and her mental acuity scores are (slightly) better than they were last year. That's a hell of a thing.

New comment by Baeocystin in "Why vampires live forever"

Baeocystin — Wed, 11 Feb 2026 22:10:02 +0000

Just a heads up, don't go in to Echopraxia expecting it to feel like Blindsight. When I first read it, I was actually pretty disappointed overall, and a few of my friends had similar reactions.

Over a couple of years a few re-reads, though, I've come to enjoy it perhaps even more that Blindsight, but in a completely different way. It fills out a lot of the posits opened in the first novel, without coming to specific conclusions, but it gives you a lot to think about.

New comment by Baeocystin in "All praise to the lunch ladies"

Baeocystin — Fri, 14 Nov 2025 21:56:59 +0000

I used to get the poor kid's meal when I was very young. They made us stand as a group aside in a line and let all the other kids get their full-sized meals first, then would give us our half-sized shitty sandwich after everyone else walked passed and stared at us.

Fuck every single adult involved in that kind of cruelty.

That being said- the bit of light in this story is the lunch ladies who went out of their ways to sneak us extra when it was available, even though I know they got in trouble for it. I managed to give one a hug once, and the strength she hugged me back, I knew she meant it. I have nothing but love and gratitude for those women.

New comment by Baeocystin in "The R47: A new physical RPN calculator"

Baeocystin — Tue, 11 Nov 2025 20:11:32 +0000

I don't really disagree with anything you've said, but I still feel a warm spot in my heart from projects like this. I still have (and use!) my HP48SX from my high school days, and it still works like it always has. There is something to be said for a device's limitations, and I mean that honestly. It's very powerful for what it is, but its processing limitations keeps me from overextending, which is something very easy to do with the pocket supercomputers we've all gotten used to carrying around over the previous decade. (And its keys are simply a delight to press compared to even the best glass touchscreen.)

New comment by Baeocystin in "Ridley Scott's Prometheus and Alien: Covenant – Contemporary Horror of AI (2020)"

Baeocystin — Sun, 12 Oct 2025 19:35:03 +0000

Ripley being the survivor was a rug pull on the audience's expectations. Tom Skerritt (Dallas) was a well-known actor at the time, and would have been assumed to have been the default lead.

New comment by Baeocystin in "A built-in 'off switch' to stop persistent pain"

Baeocystin — Fri, 10 Oct 2025 04:41:21 +0000

When I turned 50 I started capping my max weights because I was more worried about long-term joint and ligament health than ultimate strength. I no longer lift above two plates (225lbs) for anything, even though that is well below my deadlift, squat, etc.

It's been a couple years, now, and honestly I wish I'd made the change sooner. I haven't lost any functional strength, and my recovery is a lot smoother. Haven't had any injury since, either.

New comment by Baeocystin in "How to write in Cuneiform"

Baeocystin — Fri, 10 Oct 2025 01:00:49 +0000

Seems relevant to mention https://dumbcuneiform.com/ here. I haven't ordered from them, but was always amused by the idea.

New comment by Baeocystin in "The worrying kink in this job openings, unemployment curve"

Baeocystin — Mon, 06 Oct 2025 18:47:37 +0000

Here in California, at least, yes. The local ATMs give 100s and 50s, and only twenties if you are specifically drawing 20 or 40 bucks.

New comment by Baeocystin in "Everything that's wrong with Google Search in one image"

Baeocystin — Thu, 25 Sep 2025 00:58:34 +0000

Not Google related, but cognition and older relative relevant: The amount of predatory scamware targeted towards older adults on the app stores is infuriating. I have a family friend who is now in the early-mid stages of Alzheimer's, but is still able to live at home and enjoy her life. She gets confused and stressed out by the fake 'alert! all your photos will be deleted!!' ads that pop up when she does her adult coloring books or jigsaw puzzles on her ipad. Apple's recommended apps in this category are evil in this regard, every single one. I've had to disable $80/week 'security' subscriptions from her account more than once. It is shameful that this is allowed.

New comment by Baeocystin in "Ask HN: What's a good 3D Printer for sub $1000?"

Baeocystin — Fri, 19 Sep 2025 00:37:38 +0000

As someone who tried those kickstarter specials... They just aren't there unless you use a laser-based system, which are many thousands of dollars. You'll get a point cloud that is close-ish for whatever part you're scanning, but unless it's strictly decorative, you're going to find pretty quickly that it's faster to just re-create the thing from scratch if you need any kind of dimensional accuracy. The scans are somewhat useful as on-machine references, but that's it.

Also, scanning is a lot more work than you'd naively think. Reflections are the enemy, the matte spray used for scan prep is messy and expensive. It was fun to play around with, and I learned a lot, but my current advice is don't bother, you'll just be disappointed.

New comment by Baeocystin in "Study finds gaps in evidence for air-cleaning technologies to prevent infections"

Baeocystin — Tue, 26 Aug 2025 02:31:34 +0000

Years ago I lived in an apartment where the vent hood above the range was an overpowered commercial unit instead of the usual home stuff. It genuinely surprised me how much of a difference it made compared to 'normal' vent hoods. Higher extraction volumes, even without side walls, makes a big difference.

New comment by Baeocystin in "AOL to discontinue dial-up internet"

Baeocystin — Tue, 12 Aug 2025 01:45:14 +0000

Going from a 1200 to a 9600 blew my mind- text faster than I could ever hope to read! The future had arrived.

New comment by Baeocystin in "Car has more than 1.2M km on it – and it's still going strong"

Baeocystin — Sat, 09 Aug 2025 20:58:34 +0000

There are definitely a few engine designs out there that won the design lottery in terms of longevity. I know a guy that has close to half a million miles on a Jeep Cherokee with the old AMC 4-liter straight six, and the only engine work done other than plugs and wires is replacing the water pump at 250k. I've got ~186k on my Jeep with the same engine, and it doesn't even burn any oil yet.

New comment by Baeocystin in "The mystery of Alice in Wonderland syndrome"

Baeocystin — Sat, 09 Aug 2025 20:52:41 +0000

Interesting. I never knew there was a name for this phenomena. It happened to me every now and then as a kid, too, usually when I was sick and in bed. In my case, it made me feel vertigo, like size scales were shifting around so fast I'd lose my balance and fall over, stuff like that, but I don't remember any particular fear reaction per se, other than feeling kind of gross when it happened. I found that dim light (like a nightlight in a child's bedroom, with long shadows) was the worst trigger, and either bright light or complete darkness helped avoid it.

New comment by Baeocystin in "Show HN: I made a 3D printed VTOL drone"

Baeocystin — Wed, 11 Jun 2025 06:08:59 +0000

For now, the answer is just buy more batteries and use a DJI drone. There is nothing else that comes anywhere close in terms of bang for your buck.