Hacker News: MandieD

New comment by MandieD in "Microsoft Office 2019 and 2021 for Mac view-only conversion"

MandieD — Sun, 31 May 2026 05:13:05 +0000

Instead, we’re shoving out people who had already chosen America, and scaring a bunch of others off.

New comment by MandieD in "Green card seekers must leave U.S. to apply, Trump administration says"

MandieD — Sun, 24 May 2026 05:07:42 +0000

I think you meant “jus soli” (“law of soil”) - “jus sanguinis” means “law of blood.”

New comment by MandieD in "Green card seekers must leave U.S. to apply, Trump administration says"

MandieD — Sun, 24 May 2026 04:52:28 +0000

All of my interactions with German immigration have not only happened in Germany, but at an office in the town I was living in at the time: the initial residence permit application, the first renewal, and the renewal where the Beamterin (government employee) helpfully pointed out that as the spouse of a German citizen, I had been resident long enough to go ahead and apply for a Niederlassungserlaubnis (permanent residence; aka, German equivalent of a Green Card).

Six weeks and 255 Euro later, it was in my hand. I have to “renew” it every ten years, but that’s only because the card needs to match my US passport number (and means I don’t have to carry that book around); there’s no interview or document gathering.

New comment by MandieD in "EU Parliamentary Research Service calls VPNs "a loophole that needs closing""

MandieD — Sat, 09 May 2026 09:19:30 +0000

"Children's Commissioner for England"... that's not the EU. Really not the EU - they had a whole election and years-long process to leave the EU.

New comment by MandieD in "4TB of voice samples just stolen from 40k AI contractors at Mercor"

MandieD — Mon, 27 Apr 2026 16:01:19 +0000

30 under 30 doing 10 to 20 candidates right there.

New comment by MandieD in "Alberta startup sells no-tech tractors for half price"

MandieD — Thu, 23 Apr 2026 16:12:12 +0000

A niche called Mennonites in general and in particular, Amish in communities that are ok with motors, but not with fancy, fragile electronics.

New comment by MandieD in "In the UK, EVs are cheaper than petrol cars, thanks to Chinese competition"

MandieD — Wed, 22 Apr 2026 06:52:08 +0000

I've seen this on the Autobahns: what were just parking spots with unattended bathrooms are becoming little charging stations. Since I don't have an EV yet, I've not stopped at one to see how high-speed the chargers are, but at the very least, I assume that 10-15 minutes would be enough to get you somewhere more efficient/pleasant to wait for a full charge.

New comment by MandieD in "Google broke its promise to me – now ICE has my data"

MandieD — Thu, 16 Apr 2026 08:37:05 +0000

I've run into this, too, and found it hilarious because I remember when some sites wouldn't allow you to sign up with hotmail, gmail or other free email provider (over 20 years ago).

New comment by MandieD in "New bill would let New Yorkers hang solar panels from windows"

MandieD — Wed, 15 Apr 2026 14:46:00 +0000

Right now, they're about 300 EUR at OBI (major home improvement chain in Germany and Austria) if you don't care at all about avoiding ties to specific apps, and about 1000 from solar specialists if you want to go with the more flexible Hoymiles + OpenDTU inverter setup, 4 panels and a 2kWh (or so) battery, and is one of the few things that has gotten cheaper recently.

New comment by MandieD in "Nordics and Estonia rolling out offline card payment backup in case internet cut (2025)"

MandieD — Mon, 13 Apr 2026 19:53:08 +0000

done

New comment by MandieD in "Seven countries now generate nearly all their electricity from renewables (2024)"

MandieD — Sun, 12 Apr 2026 22:37:51 +0000

It's not (mostly) to salve their consciences; it's fundamental to their avoidance of the Resource Curse/"Dutch Disease". Norway, unlike just about everywhere else "blessed" (and I use those scare-quotes intentionally) with oil and gas, anticipated the value of not getting high on one's own supply: they have some of the most heavily taxed vehicle fuel in Europe, as well as strict limits on how much oil/gas tax revenue can be spent each year with the rest going into an enormous investment fund.

The Memory Maker

MandieD — Fri, 10 Apr 2026 08:34:51 +0000

Article URL: https://longreads.com/2026/04/09/openai-sora-deepfake-memories/

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47715230

Points: 2

# Comments: 0

New comment by MandieD in "Meta removes ads for social media addiction litigation"

MandieD — Thu, 09 Apr 2026 18:48:58 +0000

Radio did plenty of harm in 1930s Germany - Hitler was a master of the new medium.

New comment by MandieD in "Session is shutting down in 90 days"

MandieD — Thu, 09 Apr 2026 18:18:31 +0000

If you are getting 60k EUR as a senior developer in Germany, you are getting ripped off. Look for a place with an IG Metall contract, friends - if you would like to be making significantly more than $75k USD full time as a senior developer, anyway.

New comment by MandieD in "81yo Dodgers fan can no longer get tickets because he doesn't have a smartphone"

MandieD — Wed, 08 Apr 2026 21:34:09 +0000

That's good to know - I'll tell him to check that with his current doctors' offices, and make sure that he makes it clear for any new practices he visits that he only does phone calls and postal mail.

New comment by MandieD in "Ask HN: Any interesting niche hobbies?"

MandieD — Wed, 08 Apr 2026 20:41:33 +0000

My hobby involves some of the oldest technology we've been able to find evidence of.

It started as spinning with a hand spindle using prepared (combed/carded) wool, and has evolved into looking for interesting fleeces directly from the shepherds (plenty given away or sold cheaply around here), figuring out how best to wash and process (hand comb? drum carder? spin directly from the slightly-opened locks?), working on which settings on my spinnng wheel will produce the twist I'm looking for, and most recently, dyeing using Easter egg dye and vinegar, which is surprisingly effective.

Oh, and of course, knitting and crocheting with the results.

I still use hand spindles to spin while walking, watching my kid on the playground, or on transit.

New comment by MandieD in "Has electricity decoupled from natural gas prices in Germany?"

MandieD — Wed, 08 Apr 2026 10:51:41 +0000

And of course, you can combine those things sometimes - I've seen cattle munching on grass under solar panels in Baden-Württemberg (state just west of Bavaria).

New comment by MandieD in "81yo Dodgers fan can no longer get tickets because he doesn't have a smartphone"

MandieD — Mon, 06 Apr 2026 17:11:42 +0000

My 75-year-old, retired construction worker dad’s fingers are nearly useless on capacitive screens; half a century of handling cement apparently has that effect. His deep East Texas accent was still only semi comprehensible to Siri the last time I had him try with my phone.

He recently missed several notifications from his truck’s dealership that the part they ordered was in and ready for installation, because they sent text messages that he didn’t read, instead of ever calling and leaving a message when no one responded to the texts. I’m terrified that there’s going to be a doctor’s office sometime that does the same, with more serious consequences.

He’s fine flying as long as one of us can buy the ticket for him and he just needs his ID at the airport; I dread the day airlines start requiring their stupid apps.

New comment by MandieD in "How Pope Leo is pushing back on divine justification of war"

MandieD — Sun, 05 Apr 2026 12:25:05 +0000

This is pretty crazy blasphemous. Not even Jesus Himself is said to know, and I can't think of a more arrogant, literally blasphemous thing than putting oneself in God's shoes, trying to "make Armageddon happen," like Hegseth and Company are doing.

New comment by MandieD in "R3 Bio pitched “brainless clones” to serve the role of backup human bodies"

MandieD — Tue, 31 Mar 2026 09:56:05 +0000

GP was likely referring to J. Marion Sims, who tested operations on enslaved women who couldn’t meaningfully consent (in an era when there was little or no anesthesia), with some women being operated on over a dozen times, performed ovary removal and clitorectomies on women at the behest of their fathers or husbands to treat “hysteria”, and was a Confederate sympathizer who spent the war over in Europe raising money and seeking diplomatic recognition for it.

He also developed several important surgical techniques and operated on cancer patients at a time when that was considered an absolute waste of time and resources, and that latter thing caused him to lose his position at the hospital he had founded, after which he started the first cancer hospital.