Hacker News: CommenterPerson

New comment by CommenterPerson in "Reaffirming our commitment to child safety in the face of EuropeanUnion inaction"

CommenterPerson — Sun, 05 Apr 2026 18:12:36 +0000

Came here to write this exact same thing; saw it's already done.

New comment by CommenterPerson in "Artemis II crew take “spectacular” image of Earth"

CommenterPerson — Sat, 04 Apr 2026 01:03:15 +0000

Why didn't NASA or the news agencies rotate the image so North is up? and slightly to the right. That would make Africa instantly recognizable as that's how maps are imprinted in our brains.

There is no "up" in space, so that wouldn't be editing the image I feel. The camera just happened to be oriented "upside down".

New comment by CommenterPerson in "What Is Copilot Exactly?"

CommenterPerson — Wed, 01 Apr 2026 18:17:58 +0000

Everything MS does can be summed up in one word: "Clippy"

I've been using their data reporting product for ever. It's not fancy but you'll be amazed at how many data people use it. Back then it used to be called "SQL Server Reporting Services" or "SSRS". It is now called Power BI Paginated Reports. Over the years, the product has gradually become worse. Publishing, subscriptions, several features are now hard to use. All in the service of Clippy and the Cloud.

New comment by CommenterPerson in "Founder of GitLab battles cancer by founding companies"

CommenterPerson — Sat, 28 Mar 2026 22:08:32 +0000

Hmmm .. where have we heard this story before? Tech bro tries alternative treatments for cancer .. somebody at Apple?

I wish him all the best and good luck. Maybe in 50, 100 years we'll have more definitive cures for cancer. Till then it's mostly slash, burn and poison, unfortunately.

New comment by CommenterPerson in "Mystery jump in oil trading ahead of Trump post draws scrutiny"

CommenterPerson — Wed, 25 Mar 2026 01:35:39 +0000

"If the US doesn't win, it loses. if Iran doesn't lose, it wins"

.. per [John] on Krugman's substack.

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

CommenterPerson — Sat, 21 Mar 2026 14:22:57 +0000

I love Practical Engineering. Grady Hillhouse's enthusiasm for engineering shows through brilliantly. Being a graduate engineer, I've learned a lot from his videos and transcriptions. Well worth browsing practical.engineering.

PS: and it is NOT about software engineering LOL!

New comment by CommenterPerson in "The 49MB web page"

CommenterPerson — Sun, 15 Mar 2026 23:52:56 +0000

I am a paid subscriber to NYT and have been reading it paper / internet for 30+ years. It is an Enshittification winner in terms tracking and click bait. It doesn't feel like a serious news outlet anymore, feels like Huff Post or similar.

New comment by CommenterPerson in "Why it takes you and an elephant the same amount of time to poop (2017)"

CommenterPerson — Fri, 06 Mar 2026 22:05:07 +0000

How about a general chat and then asking him about his health? If he comes out saying he's not feeling great, that would be an opening for more pointed advice. If not, maybe you could say something like you thought he was looking under the weather.

New comment by CommenterPerson in "BMW Group to deploy humanoid robots in production in Germany for the first time"

CommenterPerson — Thu, 05 Mar 2026 18:20:44 +0000

The video screams demo and stupid stuff.

New comment by CommenterPerson in "Dead Internet Theory"

CommenterPerson — Sun, 18 Jan 2026 22:42:43 +0000

Good post, Thank you. May I say Dead, Toxic Internet? With social media adding the toxicity. The Enshittification theory by Cory Doctorow sums up the process of how this unfolds (look it up on Wikipedia).

New comment by CommenterPerson in "VW is bringing physical buttons back to the dashboard with the ID. Polo EV"

CommenterPerson — Tue, 06 Jan 2026 18:44:11 +0000

Great, my 20 year old car is now avant-garde!

New comment by CommenterPerson in "Ask HN: What did you read in 2025?"

CommenterPerson — Sat, 27 Dec 2025 17:28:06 +0000

"The Emperor of All Maladies" by Siddartha Mukhejee.

He is a medical doctor, researcher .. plus writes great science / medical books. This one won a Pulitzer prize. Check out his other books "The song of the Cell" and "The Gene". The books take some work to read but every page is a treat.

New comment by CommenterPerson in "How I Left YouTube"

CommenterPerson — Thu, 25 Dec 2025 18:03:33 +0000

To the author: was there an open process to move to another role within your previous company? That could be another path to finding a better environment where one could grow in salary and responsibility?

New comment by CommenterPerson in "Ask HN: How do I bridge the gap between PhD and SWE experiences?"

CommenterPerson — Thu, 25 Dec 2025 15:49:36 +0000

You are special. There are lots and lots of "software engineers" in the world. Very very few can bring scientific experience and knowledge to the job. I might look for a developer role in a large university project where they need programming skills and scientific rigor. Or a R&D person in a large software company or the government . These kinds of jobs aren't listed on Indeed or Monster. Attend conferences related to your field (don't attend the talks, hang around in the lobby and chat with people). Reach out to professors in your university or your field.

All the Best!

New comment by CommenterPerson in "Ask HN: What are the best engineering blogs with real-world depth?"

CommenterPerson — Tue, 23 Dec 2025 21:17:22 +0000

Hear hear. The word "Technology" has also been redefined to mean computer or phone stuff. As a real (manly) engineer, this pisses me off no end! :-)

To answer the OP, this Civil engineering blog / video site is really good. I always learn something new, and his enthusiasm is infectious. Well worth giving it a look:

https://practical.engineering/

New comment by CommenterPerson in "The Rise of SQL:the second programming language everyone needs to know"

CommenterPerson — Tue, 23 Dec 2025 01:14:24 +0000

Knowing SQL, and knowing how to optimize queries has pretty much paid my paycheck for 20 years.

New comment by CommenterPerson in "US blocks all offshore wind construction, says reason is classified"

CommenterPerson — Tue, 23 Dec 2025 01:04:09 +0000

The $445 million campaign contribution / bribe from Big Oil is clearly paying off.

New comment by CommenterPerson in "I can't upgrade to Windows 11, now leave me alone"

CommenterPerson — Sun, 21 Dec 2025 20:21:34 +0000

I ordered a basic Windows laptop, it comes with Windows 11. It's going to be my Linux starter computer. I'm not a computer person. Wish me luck!

New comment by CommenterPerson in "Some surprising things about DuckDuckGo"

CommenterPerson — Sun, 14 Dec 2025 01:37:10 +0000

Firstly, Thank you to the entire DuckDuckGo team. DuckDuckGo is the browser I use most all the time. Any product that stops or reduces tracking and surveillance capitalism, I am happy to use and support.

Do you have plans to build an email service without the tracking? Would love to hear thoughts about this. There may be users willing to pay a small monthly fee for this.

New comment by CommenterPerson in "What is the nicest thing a stranger has ever done for you?"

CommenterPerson — Fri, 12 Dec 2025 00:46:01 +0000

We had driven to a small remote village on Vancouver Island BC, to catch an early morning ferry. We had reserved a room at the only motel in town. We got there around 9PM. The a*h** owner ignored the doorbell and did not let us in (we could see him moving around in his attached residence). We went to a restaurant that was just about closing, told our story, and asked the owners if there were any options. Their friend, who was hanging around there overheard us .. he invited us to come over to his house and spend the night. The next day he insisted on buying us a wonderful breakfast.

When we got back home after the long trip, we sent him a nice sweatshirt with "New Jersey" on it.