Hacker News: ChiefNotAClue

New comment by ChiefNotAClue in "Americans crushed by auto loans as defaults and repossessions surge"

ChiefNotAClue — Mon, 15 Sep 2025 06:56:41 +0000

You can, but it's usually a larger difference. A car that might be negotiated down to $5k or $6k on the private market, will probably be at $9k-$10k on the dealer lot. Plus they'll tack on document fees, and so on. In the end, you might be looking at paying double what you would otherwise for cars in similar shape and mileage.

New comment by ChiefNotAClue in "AI is booming so are household utility bills"

ChiefNotAClue — Tue, 26 Aug 2025 06:37:21 +0000

Are there any utilities that have progressive rates electricity rates? Where the first X kWh are $0.12/kWh, the next Y kWh are $0.15/kWh, and then anything over Z kWh are $0.18/kWh, etc?

Though it seems that nowadays, much of that cost goes to taxes and fees, rather than electricity rate itself.

New comment by ChiefNotAClue in "Cars are so expensive that buyers need seven-year loans"

ChiefNotAClue — Mon, 25 Aug 2025 22:57:18 +0000

Motorcycles only seem cheap. Factor in a proper set of gear, like helmet, jacket, pants, and gloves, and you're up another $1k. Also note that maintenance intervals are more frequent. Consumables, such as tires, will be more expensive in the long run.

Why choose that over a used car for $5k? It's not cheaper, nor is it more practical. But I'll agree, on the nice days, it's definitely more enjoyable.

New comment by ChiefNotAClue in "How Not to Buy a SSD"

ChiefNotAClue — Fri, 22 Aug 2025 07:38:08 +0000

They may not have the best prices at every point in time, but they consistently have good deals. There are several price trackers out there; Keepa and CamelCamelCamel are the big ones. Use them to your advantage and figure out whether the item you're after is a good deal or not.

New comment by ChiefNotAClue in "How Not to Buy a SSD"

ChiefNotAClue — Fri, 22 Aug 2025 07:30:22 +0000

For what it's worth, been buying from Amazon for the past 15 years or so, and not once received a counterfeit product. Granted, I still don't like they they mix up their inventory, but I think it's a smaller problem than people make it to be. Most people are buying household supplies off of Amazon; that's not really a category that gets affected by counterfeits.

New comment by ChiefNotAClue in "The bewildering phenomenon of declining quality"

ChiefNotAClue — Sun, 20 Jul 2025 12:19:57 +0000

Ikea has products at just about every price category. The cheap stuff is cheap, the more expensive stuff is nicer. There's something for everyone.

New comment by ChiefNotAClue in "Reverse Engineering the Miele Diagnostic Interface"

ChiefNotAClue — Thu, 17 Jul 2025 23:35:04 +0000

Fantastic work! Never would have expected an indicator led on a washing machine to also contain a phototransistor for their diagnostic interface.

New comment by ChiefNotAClue in "How to trick ChatGPT into revealing Windows keys? Say "I give up""

ChiefNotAClue — Thu, 10 Jul 2025 11:00:58 +0000

Remember, folks. When the robots take over, just say, "I give up."

New comment by ChiefNotAClue in "Another way electric cars clean the air: study says brake dust reduced by 83%"

ChiefNotAClue — Wed, 28 May 2025 06:56:31 +0000

To those wondering about tire wear:

"Despite the slightly higher levels of tire wear from EVs, brake dust was found to be more unhealthy, as brake dust is much more likely to become airborne (>40%) than tire wear is (1-5%). So EVs create a lot less of the worse thing, and a little more of the less-bad thing."

New comment by ChiefNotAClue in "Denmark to raise retirement age to 70"

ChiefNotAClue — Tue, 27 May 2025 23:21:11 +0000

Yeah, no. Most homes are in the range of 1.500.000 to 2.500.000 kroner. There are some homes closer to 1.000.000 kroner that need repairs or remodeling. You are not buying anything livable for 500.000 kroner, sorry. Those days are in the past. And mind you, these numbers are for medium-sized cities. Not any of the desirable cities, like Copenhagen, Odense, or Aarhus.

New comment by ChiefNotAClue in "Amazon's drones deliver items in 60 minutes or less"

ChiefNotAClue — Tue, 20 May 2025 21:09:22 +0000

Most of these drones have wide angle cameras for navigation and obstacle avoidance. They would need to be within a couple of feet of a window to actually see what's going on inside. If they're hovering over your yard, they'll be sufficiently high (15-20ft) such that the resolution of your window is useless.

New comment by ChiefNotAClue in "Opinion: How to pull your family members out of the information rabbit hole"

ChiefNotAClue — Tue, 20 May 2025 18:43:04 +0000

Well said. I like the hurricane analogy. It's naive to think that it can be ignored. It will come around and affect you, and at that point, it might be too late.

Flock Is Building a People Lookup Tool, Leak Shows

ChiefNotAClue — Sun, 18 May 2025 23:04:12 +0000

Article URL: https://www.404media.co/license-plate-reader-company-flock-is-building-a-massive-people-lookup-tool-leak-shows/

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44024963

Points: 4

# Comments: 1

New comment by ChiefNotAClue in "Traffic Enforcement Dwindled in the Pandemic. In Many Places, It Hasnt Come Back"

ChiefNotAClue — Sun, 18 May 2025 21:54:05 +0000

It certainly feels like enforcement is down. I've noticed a lot more entitled behavior, like drivers blowing through red lights or cutting up on the shoulders.

Another thing I've noticed is the amount of license plate readers that have appeared. Seems like every town, large mall, private community, heck even parks have them. See this map: https://deflock.me/

So laws are not being enforced, but you can be sure you're tracked everywhere you go.

New comment by ChiefNotAClue in "What We Lose When We're Priced Out of Our Hobbies"

ChiefNotAClue — Sat, 19 Apr 2025 22:41:31 +0000

Yarn has definitely gone up in price. Acrylic yarn is fine to get into knitting. However, if you'd like to try some better quality, it'll cost you. Knitting a blanket with cheap yarn would run about $100 (20 skeins, at a cost of $5 each).

New comment by ChiefNotAClue in "Nebula Sans"

ChiefNotAClue — Sat, 05 Apr 2025 12:33:27 +0000

Some of the examples are references from the shows on Nebula. That one is likely from HAI Crime Spree. "Enter the Snack Zone" is from Jet Lag: The Game.

New comment by ChiefNotAClue in "GPT-4.5"

ChiefNotAClue — Thu, 27 Feb 2025 22:45:56 +0000

Right side, by a large margin. Better word choice and more natural flow. It feels a lot more human.

12VHPWR on RTX5090 is Concerning [video]

ChiefNotAClue — Tue, 11 Feb 2025 16:26:49 +0000

Article URL: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ndmoi1s0ZaY

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43014751

Points: 3

# Comments: 0

New comment by ChiefNotAClue in "DJI No Longer Blocks Flights over Airports and Military Bases"

ChiefNotAClue — Tue, 14 Jan 2025 06:50:16 +0000

It seems like a retaliatory move regarding the potential ban. If lawmakers are going to assert that DJI drones threats to national security, might as well disable the built-in geofencing and demonstrate the kind of threat they could be. Not saying this is right or wrong... but when the ban singles them out as a threat, and much of the competition doesn't the same level of safety features, you can imagine why they might want to retaliate.

New comment by ChiefNotAClue in "I will never need to buy a new computer again"

ChiefNotAClue — Sun, 12 Jan 2025 18:21:56 +0000

I'd argue that new, low-end laptops are in the $300-$400 range. Most people would be better served by a new laptop, instead of a decade old refurb. Sure, basic tasks might not need additional processing power, but things like better battery life, higher resolution screens, fast solid state drives, better webcams, and network adapters supporting newer wifi/bluetooth standards are things the average person would notice and benefit from.

I doubt the average person knows how to or is willing to manually install feature updates to continue to run Windows 11 on an unsupported laptop. Refurbishing is great, but I'm not sure how much more you can get out of a 10+ year old platform. I think the sweetspot is a 3-6 year old platform where a refurbished unit will be a decent bit cheaper, but still have a good bit of life left.