Hacker News: ColonelBlimp

New comment by ColonelBlimp in "Why Japan has such good railways"

ColonelBlimp — Sat, 18 Apr 2026 18:09:56 +0000

I'm not surprised that the article has that vibe and that you noticed it. Works in Progress, the magazine that published the article, is notorious for having a preference for market-oriented solutions, "laissez faire" policies and neoliberalism. They are open about it. Nothing wrong with that, of course.

New comment by ColonelBlimp in "No I don't want to turn on Windows Backup with One Drive"

ColonelBlimp — Sun, 12 Oct 2025 19:03:55 +0000

As far as I know, this is the blog post that led to the backlash https://world.hey.com/dhh/as-i-remember-london-e7d38e64

New comment by ColonelBlimp in "Solar power has begun to transform the world’s energy system"

ColonelBlimp — Thu, 10 Jul 2025 14:19:04 +0000

Norway is member of the European Economic Area, not of the European Union, together with Iceland and Liechtenstein.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/European_Economic_Area

New comment by ColonelBlimp in "I tried every top email marketing tool"

ColonelBlimp — Tue, 19 Nov 2024 16:20:32 +0000

I thought that having your website/article on the frontpage of Hacker News was good news. I guess I was wrong.

New comment by ColonelBlimp in "Ask HN: What's the "best" book you've ever read?"

ColonelBlimp — Tue, 08 Oct 2024 13:31:48 +0000

The best book I've ever read isn't the best book I've read but one that connects me with a particular moment: The Master and Margarita, by Mikhail Bulgakov.

It was the start of summer school holidays back in the late 1980s, in my teenage years. I went to my local library and, because I didn't know what I wanted to read, I decided to pick one book blindly from the fiction section. I didn't know what book I had borrowed until I got home. I had never heard about Bulgakov or that particular novel. I had no easy way to know who that writer was or if the book was good or not. I was tempted to return it. But I didn't.

I read the book over several weeks of a particularly boring (and lonely) summer. I enjoyed reading it although I didn't love it. Looking back, I suppose that book gave me something I needed in a completely random way.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Master_and_Margarita

New comment by ColonelBlimp in "Ask HN: What happens to ".io" TLD after UK gives back the Chagos Islands?"

ColonelBlimp — Thu, 03 Oct 2024 14:56:44 +0000

The fact that, as you say, "it's just a military base" is the consequence of the forced eviction of the local population (around 1,500 people) in 1968 by the US and the UK.

New comment by ColonelBlimp in "US Bans Kaspersky Software"

ColonelBlimp — Fri, 21 Jun 2024 21:31:13 +0000

“Lately”.

New comment by ColonelBlimp in "Can turning office towers into apartments save downtowns?"

ColonelBlimp — Wed, 08 May 2024 12:50:01 +0000

Lucky you. Search for Travis Kelce unless you prefer to keep your exposure to useless information under control.

New comment by ColonelBlimp in "The KDE desktop gets an overhaul with Plasma 6"

ColonelBlimp — Thu, 29 Feb 2024 22:33:28 +0000

I’m a happy Gnome user.

New comment by ColonelBlimp in "Mozilla Monitor Plus: automatically remove your personal info from data brokers"

ColonelBlimp — Tue, 06 Feb 2024 22:20:31 +0000

With providers like Addy and SimpleLogin it is possible to use your own domain.

> https://addy.io/ > https://simplelogin.io/

New comment by ColonelBlimp in "Mozilla's new Firefox Linux package for Ubuntu and Debian derivatives"

ColonelBlimp — Tue, 23 Jan 2024 18:54:02 +0000

Flatpaks are a perfectly functional option https://flathub.org/apps/org.mozilla.firefox

New comment by ColonelBlimp in "Mozilla's new Firefox Linux package for Ubuntu and Debian derivatives"

ColonelBlimp — Tue, 23 Jan 2024 17:10:59 +0000

You didn’t have to wait for this new Firefox package to stop using snaps, did you?

Artificial Intelligence – Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy

ColonelBlimp — Mon, 08 Jan 2024 16:16:19 +0000

Article URL: https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/artificial-intelligence/

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38914161

Points: 2

# Comments: 0

New comment by ColonelBlimp in "Eating fewer calories can ward off ageing"

ColonelBlimp — Tue, 02 Jan 2024 10:39:21 +0000

Not necessarily. I'm in my early fifties and I typically run 30 miles/50 km per week. I've been doing this for a couple of years and I reckon I consume less calories and eat less in general than during my sedentary phase.

I suppose feeling better overall (physically and mentally) makes it easier for me to have a more rational relationship with food.

New comment by ColonelBlimp in "The Piccadilly line’s new air conditioned trains"

ColonelBlimp — Tue, 21 Nov 2023 23:42:32 +0000

> and goes through Hounslow which is where the Indian population is in London.

According to the 2021 Census, 656,272 Indian British live in London. Hounslow total population is 288,200, 21% of them Indian or around 60,000.

British Indians are the second largest ethnic group in Hounslow (after "white"), but there are almost 600,000 more living in other parts of London.

https://www.ons.gov.uk/census https://stats.hounslow.gov.uk/population/#/view-report/63aed...

New comment by ColonelBlimp in "Flathub – The Linux App Store"

ColonelBlimp — Fri, 17 Nov 2023 09:28:05 +0000

Ubuntu uses Snaps by default. Flatpaks are an option in Ubuntu only if you install the application.

New comment by ColonelBlimp in "The Cruel Fantasies of Well-Fed People"

ColonelBlimp — Sat, 28 Oct 2023 23:50:06 +0000

>These guys just seem to want to talk. I find this beyond useless.

I'm not sure this is how George Monbiot defines himself, but for me he's an intelectual. There's a place and a value in what intelectuals do. They think, they talk, they discuss. Historically, good intelectuals have helped societies identify problems by asking questions and challenging common assumptions (something very difficult to do well).

And, of course, we need engineers and people with the right technical skills to develop solutions that improve life in practical ways.

New comment by ColonelBlimp in "Show HN: Mango Mail – Affordable email host with unlimited addresses"

ColonelBlimp — Wed, 25 Oct 2023 20:35:02 +0000

I hope the note I added to my original message is enough to explain that my comment wasn’t about the location of the company but about what I think is very limited information about the company. I copied the quote from the website to illustrate what I meant by limited information. That was all.

I don’t live in the US, I don’t follow US politics and I have literally no idea about what's going on in Florida.

New comment by ColonelBlimp in "Show HN: Mango Mail – Affordable email host with unlimited addresses"

ColonelBlimp — Wed, 25 Oct 2023 20:19:29 +0000

I explained that better adding a note to my original message. Nothing to do with Florida or any other location in the US or any other country.

What I meant was that before I make the decision to move email providers I would like to see more information about the company (the usual stuff. I suppose I could ask directly but being able to find that information on the website would be nice.

New comment by ColonelBlimp in "Show HN: Mango Mail – Affordable email host with unlimited addresses"

ColonelBlimp — Wed, 25 Oct 2023 19:52:36 +0000

Nice website and interesting option of email provider. However, I haven’t been able to find much information about the company providing the service beyond “Mango Mail is an American company based in the state of Florida”. That (i.e, the limited information about the company, not the location) could be a deal breaker or, at least, a cause for concern for some people. It would be for me.

Some small providers are completely transparent about how small they are and share the information about the company. See, for example Purelymail https://purelymail.com/about .

Edit/note: To be clear, the point I tried to make has nothing to do with the location of the provider but about the lack or limited information about the company.