Hacker News: Liftyee

New comment by Liftyee in "Starlink Mini 2"

Liftyee — Wed, 11 Nov 2026 04:50:56 +0000

The bans on "all cyber security equipment" just show how little they understand. A regular laptop with cheap dongles is just as capable as a Flipper, if not more. And you don't even need dongles if you're just messing with WiFi/Bluetooth. The NFC part can partially be done via phone apps.

New comment by Liftyee in "MacBook Pro with PROLED XDR Display and Touch"

Liftyee — Wed, 28 Oct 2026 19:51:44 +0000

I use a stylus to take lecture notes and solve problem sheets on my ThinkPad X13. Xournalpp works ok, Ubuntu 24.04, though there was a mutter bug that I had Sol patch out. Only better than paper because of data storage, honestly carrying a notebook is lighter than the usb c second display I use.

When I have it folded, it's intuitive to use the touchscreen like a tablet. But I wouldn't want to run the i3 setup I have on my desktop. The Wayland UI bandwagon and huge touch targets are for something after all.

New comment by Liftyee in "Upcoming critical PHP security release (CVE-2026-109618 / -109619)"

Liftyee — Wed, 21 Oct 2026 11:40:19 +0000

Surprising that this sort of vuln can exist for DECADES. Perhaps software really is too complex for all its behaviours to be outwardly visible. Many student-run services are down right now, even the lunch menu website is going down for maintenance.

New comment by Liftyee in "They war-gamed dimming the Sun. It went worse than you think"

Liftyee — Sun, 18 Oct 2026 23:30:39 +0000

What other options are on the table if we REALLY want to limit warming below the 2 deg C target? It's already 1.5+, and control systems theory says that the inertia of various mechanisms (ocean warming, ice/permafrost melt, ...) will cause a lag between the emissions being produced and the actual warming happening. So even if we immediately switch off all human sources NOW, everything that's already in the air will stay there, and the temperature will keep increasing for some time. Under the assumption that the "residual warming" will overshoot 2 C, aerosols are the only industrially feasible way I know of. Mass production of engineered particles certainly sounds more reasonable than mass producing carbon capture machines in the volumes required.

Of course, we are too busy arguing about how important it is to fully commit to any path.

New comment by Liftyee in "Ubuntu 26.10 (Stonking Stingray) released"

Liftyee — Thu, 15 Oct 2026 13:27:39 +0000

Agree. My next upgrade from 24.04 will be to Debian.

New comment by Liftyee in "Ledger confirms spy chip implant behind wallet crypto thefts"

Liftyee — Tue, 13 Oct 2026 20:01:33 +0000

Market segmentation?! What device is high quality enough to be potted but still has the same hardware modified by jumpers across models?

New comment by Liftyee in "Cops Can Bypass iPhone's Automatic Reboot to Get into Locked Phones"

Liftyee — Thu, 01 Oct 2026 16:48:14 +0000

Last time I checked, the Soviet Union was dissolved.

(CCCP = Union of Soviet Socialist Republics...)

New comment by Liftyee in "Solving Factorio Quality"

Liftyee — Wed, 30 Sep 2026 12:43:25 +0000

I'm sure they would choose real factory building instead if it was just as easy (at least, I would) - no bureaucracy/planning conflicts, you are the sole dictator - full vertical integration, no supply costs or land costs - building is near-instant and perfectly reversible - machines don't have 6 month lead times or go out of stock - maintenance is done by magic, machines never break down - infinite research and information to build every machine from scratch

New comment by Liftyee in "When did Google get so weird?"

Liftyee — Mon, 28 Sep 2026 01:18:43 +0000

It still makes me feel odd when ChatGPT says something like "I feel the same way", "I love xyz", "I think ...", exactly because it can't really feel anything. It defends this behaviour as an abstraction to make the conversation more natural, but that makes it easy to forget that there is no feeling or opinion - only the inputs/outputs resembling one.

New comment by Liftyee in "Tech Needs Humanists More"

Liftyee — Fri, 25 Sep 2026 10:02:04 +0000

I like the idealism, but an important factor making this viable is that people (i.e. employers) must realise that this fundamental reasoning is scarce and pay enough for it to support life, and this must happen before AI takes over.

New comment by Liftyee in "Fixing the Portobello Police Station Clock"

Liftyee — Wed, 23 Sep 2026 21:31:43 +0000

Intriguing. That circuit board definitely looks like a little company's product from decades ago or a one-off - no silkscreen, single layer, "yellow" board material. Also, in the bottom right, it looks like there are some pads that have been left undrilled. As long as those three mains coloured cables in the bottom left aren't mains, it looks reasonable to keep running (there's not a lot of clearance between that area and the microcontroller...)

Also looks like it was hand assembled, by the component mounting. Wires soldered straight to board isn't great, but not a huge issue if stationary and undisturbed.

New comment by Liftyee in "Whirlpool Washer Transmission Repair (2007)"

Liftyee — Mon, 21 Sep 2026 16:42:20 +0000

It surprises me how the US loves their top-loading washers. Here in the UK, there isn't the complex (though interesting) "transmission": the drum has fins to act as both agitator and spin-dryer. This means it's just a boring belt drive between motor and drum (or direct drive, for newer machines.)

New comment by Liftyee in "Rabbit Hole: Minimum L-seams"

Liftyee — Sun, 20 Sep 2026 01:36:58 +0000

The premise is interesting but a little unintuitive. As I understand it, an L-seam is defined by having to attach a square by two edges at a time (i.e. two of its sides already have adjacent pieces in the finished part). Consequently, it's order dependent: any sized quilt can have L-seams if you construct a L-shaped piece that needs a corner filled in, even if there is an optimal way. It follows that not every "seam that ends in the middle of the piece" is an L-seam: both ends could have been edges at the time of construction.

As an engineer with no sewing experience, I don't understand why you wouldn't sew one straight edge from the outside in, then sew the other and meet at the corner, avoiding L-turning issues. Please enlighten me.

New comment by Liftyee in "How Hacker News ranking works: scoring, controversy, and penalties (2013)"

Liftyee — Sat, 19 Sep 2026 23:02:30 +0000

The penalties are interesting. It shows that the design goal is not to maximise interactions otherwise "controversial" posts should stay up. Still though, I wonder what's the point of deranking said posts. Minimise the potential for a flame war to hit critical mass? Stop people from perceiving HN as an argument-filled forum?

New comment by Liftyee in "I don't like passkeys"

Liftyee — Fri, 18 Sep 2026 12:38:58 +0000

YES. This exactly. I work across multiple devices, some of which are nonstandard/uncommon (Linux, Xiaomi China ROM, ...) and I've NEVER had passkeys work properly - yet everything constantly prompts me to add one. Even if they did work, I'd have to carry around hardware keys or register each computer separately. And the lack of backups if a device is lost/broken is definitely a larger concern for me than being phished of my TOTP keys.

Huawei's τ Chip Was Supposed to Melt?

Liftyee — Wed, 09 Sep 2026 13:12:00 +0000

Article URL: https://arxiv.org/abs/2609.04287

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49625993

Points: 2

# Comments: 0

New comment by Liftyee in "The Real Luxuries In Life"

Liftyee — Sat, 05 Sep 2026 19:02:23 +0000

True. Money is just an instrumental goal. I was thinking about how some have 1000x more money but not 1000x more happiness. Enjoyment doesn't scale.

New comment by Liftyee in "Making the Internet Boring"

Liftyee — Thu, 03 Sep 2026 02:11:52 +0000

I used to start the same place the author did with total blocks but kept overriding for real purposes then getting sidetracked. Identified the real problem as feeds which choose what to watch for me instead of me choosing. So I use custom apps and extensions to remove all the feeds but keep the search and messaging functionality (Feurstagram). Sometimes I catch myself opening the page out of habit but then realising I have literally nothing I actively want to watch/search for ...

New comment by Liftyee in "$44M Solar-Powered EV Production Deal Struck"

Liftyee — Sat, 29 Aug 2026 22:43:40 +0000

In case you didn't notice, today's solar panels are more efficient and much cheaper than the solar panels of 1991.

Also, enough energy for some range ≠ enough power to drive constantly.

New comment by Liftyee in "The Work Number: credit score but for your employment history – by Equifax"

Liftyee — Mon, 24 Aug 2026 08:32:55 +0000

The US is rapidly catching up with China in the field of authoritarianism.