Hacker News: LynxInLA

New comment by LynxInLA in "Which colors are primary?"

LynxInLA — Sat, 09 Aug 2025 18:37:22 +0000

You may recognize the author of this blog, he created and illustrated the Dinotopia series of books in the 90s.

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

New comment by LynxInLA in "Florida House of Representatives approves bill to ban social media for kids < 16"

LynxInLA — Mon, 29 Jan 2024 18:37:22 +0000

I agree it is different, but the jury is out on whether it is better. Banning "social media" is likely to push users to a "lite" version of it. I'm not convinced that will be better.

New comment by LynxInLA in "Florida House of Representatives approves bill to ban social media for kids < 16"

LynxInLA — Mon, 29 Jan 2024 16:23:58 +0000

Have you not seen people vaping at a young age now?

New comment by LynxInLA in "Computer Engineering for Babies (2021)"

LynxInLA — Thu, 18 Jan 2024 00:00:15 +0000

Did you reach out to the creator? They know there are some QA issues and claim to be good at sending replacements or fixes.

New comment by LynxInLA in "West Point discovers time capsule from 1828"

LynxInLA — Mon, 28 Aug 2023 15:12:48 +0000

based on what was inside, you weren't far off

New comment by LynxInLA in "Show HN: I made a customizable iOS browser for minimalists and myself"

LynxInLA — Sun, 23 Jul 2023 17:51:14 +0000

Does the reader have dark mode? Or does that depend on the website’s implementation?

New comment by LynxInLA in "Show HN: I made a customizable iOS browser for minimalists and myself"

LynxInLA — Sun, 23 Jul 2023 15:32:52 +0000

Does it re-request contents when it reload tabs after the app is suspended? Safari makes it very difficult to read content later if you don’t have service.

New comment by LynxInLA in "Mark Zuckerberg on Apple’s Vision Pro headset"

LynxInLA — Fri, 09 Jun 2023 20:21:09 +0000

They seem to have used them on the Steam Deck, so maybe they'll use them again in future projects.

New comment by LynxInLA in "Lyft’s plan to take control of its maps and its future"

LynxInLA — Tue, 30 May 2023 21:20:56 +0000

I am talking about the walk from LAXit. This is the parking lot where Uber/Lyft/Taxi pickups are, and you generally have to take a shuttle to get there to begin with.

LAXit is on Sepulveda, but it is safer to cross the street to a parking lot. I'll admit I underestimated the distance. It is closer to 300 yards:

https://goo.gl/maps/DWsk4MSx9HuDJAJz5

New comment by LynxInLA in "Lyft’s plan to take control of its maps and its future"

LynxInLA — Tue, 30 May 2023 18:54:25 +0000

It is very easy at LAX. You walk about 100 yards across one (admittedly very busy) intersection and get picked up for 1/3 the price. You already have to take a shuttle to even get picked up unless you have a black car, so this adds 5 minutes. It is still annoying if you have luggage.

You could also take a shuttle to a local hotel or car rental, but that is breaking some rules.

New comment by LynxInLA in "Adult-use cannabis delivers $15B in tax revenues"

LynxInLA — Tue, 02 May 2023 17:21:19 +0000

Typically, tax rates are much higher on cannabis than regular sales tax. In many states, it is even taxed twice; once when the retailer purchases it from a distributor, and again when the consumer purchases it from the retailer. Some laws have changed, but, in prior years, this could lead to an effective tax rate of around 40% in states like California.

New comment by LynxInLA in "NPR quits Twitter after being labeled as 'state-affiliated media'"

LynxInLA — Wed, 12 Apr 2023 18:25:17 +0000

Take it as you will, but the example they give is:

> For example, NPR joined with other media organizations to press the Obama administration for access to closed hearings involving detainees held by U.S. authorities at Guantanamo Bay

New comment by LynxInLA in "60M Americans have taxes so simple the IRS could do them automatically"

LynxInLA — Fri, 07 Apr 2023 06:38:38 +0000

Ok, but this thread isn't about the actual value of the taxes. This is just about the waste of time that is filing taxes.

New comment by LynxInLA in "60M Americans have taxes so simple the IRS could do them automatically"

LynxInLA — Fri, 07 Apr 2023 04:15:31 +0000

Okay, did they change their attitudes because they owed money or because they spent 20 hours filing their taxes?

New comment by LynxInLA in "60M Americans have taxes so simple the IRS could do them automatically"

LynxInLA — Fri, 07 Apr 2023 03:04:31 +0000

You still have to pay your taxes, including writing a check or getting a return at the end of the process. This just cuts out the billions of wasted hours of busywork along with the billions of dollars spent on unnecessary tax prep.

Plus, most people end up with a return, and many think they are getting money back from the government. Doesn't that counter your reminder/pain of actually filling out the forms?

New comment by LynxInLA in "Master Plan Part 3"

LynxInLA — Thu, 06 Apr 2023 16:48:57 +0000

I completely agree. I also don't think it is hypocritical to take advantage of tax "loopholes" at the same time as arguing they should be closed. That is just good financial practice.

New comment by LynxInLA in "I don't want streaming music, I just want to stream my music"

LynxInLA — Thu, 06 Apr 2023 03:30:30 +0000

Yes, they have a web client, but their audiobook support is not great. Plex is primarily geared towards music (albums/tracks), and the podcast support is built on top of it by independent clients. I recommend Prologue for iOS and Chronicle for Android.

I've heard good things about audiobookshelf [1] as a cross-platform alternative, but it is pretty early in development.

[1] https://www.audiobookshelf.org/

New comment by LynxInLA in "Master Plan Part 3"

LynxInLA — Thu, 06 Apr 2023 03:23:23 +0000

I doubt it, but why wouldn't it be close to market value for public companies?

I don't know how it works for the ultra-wealthy, but regular investors can draw a loan against their deposits with securities-based lines of credit (SBLOCs). SBLOCs have a limit smaller than the total value of your portfolio, but your collateral is still the current securities.

I'm mainly spitballing here, but I agree it would be extremely difficult to implement fairly. I just think it is worth investigating.

New comment by LynxInLA in "Master Plan Part 3"

LynxInLA — Thu, 06 Apr 2023 03:08:25 +0000

In your mind, would it be "truly absurd" to redefine what counts as a realized capital gain? [1]

In my mind, if you take a loan against your equity, you are realizing the current market value. This would be difficult to implement (especially with private companies and options), but it would close a big gap in the tax system that is primarily used for tax avoidance. [2]

---

[1] I completely agree that taxing unrealized gains in the current system would be a terrible idea.

[2] The main non-tax reasons I can think of are retaining voting power and cashing out on pre-ipo stock.

New comment by LynxInLA in "Tesla tells investors it’s being investigated by the Justice Department"

LynxInLA — Tue, 31 Jan 2023 19:05:50 +0000

I rented one for a few weeks in late 2021, and the experience completely turned me off of Tesla's FSD.

During a 2 hour drive on an interstate on a clear, sunny day, FSD started steering into another vehicle 3 different times. One was a truck, and another was a wide load house being transported. I'll admit that is an odd case, but "don't accelerate straight into a house that is at windshield level" seems like a pretty simple ask. It did this multiple times and I had to temporarily disable the cruise control.

It also failed miserably on curving state highways, to the point that I turned it off after about 20 minutes.