Hacker News: Melkman

New comment by Melkman in "CERN's Exabyte Data Center"

Melkman — Wed, 01 May 2024 19:17:01 +0000

More information on the software side of CERN storage can be had here: https://indico.mathrice.fr/event/143/contributions/174/attac...

New comment by Melkman in "Clearing 500k feral cats from New York’s streets"

Melkman — Fri, 09 Jun 2023 00:11:52 +0000

American minks will solve this without need to enlarge the sewers....

New comment by Melkman in "Cracking Open and Controlling a 747 Fuel Gauge"

Melkman — Thu, 08 Jun 2023 21:07:16 +0000

I really like this picture that demonstrates this size difference: https://www.flickr.com/photos/ramonkok/27081197680

New comment by Melkman in "Still Love Telnet"

Melkman — Sat, 03 Jun 2023 23:39:30 +0000

Socat doesn't support STARTTLS. If you want to debug SMTP submission "openssl s_client -starttls smtp -connect server:587" is awesome. Just take care not to use upper case "R" or "Q". Man, why did they implement rekeying and quit in such a bothersome way. Just use recipient and quit instead of RECIPIENT and QUIT.

New comment by Melkman in "The Framework Laptop 13"

Melkman — Wed, 03 May 2023 19:05:08 +0000

Size, speed, features. You can have a small FPGA for about 2$. You will however be limited in the complexity of the design you can implement because it has limited gates and pins. And limited speed. Like normal processors if you want faster, bigger and more features the cost shoots up. Combine that with the limited market for big FPGA's and they can be very high in price. Mind you that many also have things like a multi core ARM processor on board since many designs need a processor to control the circuit. Same with many interfaces. Would be a shame to use the limited gates in the FPGA for standard things like that.

New comment by Melkman in "BYD Seagull EV Priced from $11,400, Gets 10k Orders on First Day"

Melkman — Sat, 22 Apr 2023 17:45:45 +0000

Philips isn't really dying a slow death. The company has been split into pieces. Some of which are very successful like ASML. Some are doing OK like NXP and Signify. Some are struggling like the leftover Philips that only does healthcare now. Other parts have been sold like the consumer goods and the Philips brand licensed as part of those deals. I'm not sure the outcome would have been better had they not split the company.

New comment by Melkman in "129-year-old vessel still tethered to lifeboat found on floor of Lake Huron"

Melkman — Sat, 11 Mar 2023 11:11:10 +0000

To be fair it is 100m vertical. Stand on a 25 story building and look down. That's not a small distance.

New comment by Melkman in "NASA Confirms (1000 lbs) Meteoroid Entry"

Melkman — Mon, 20 Feb 2023 22:34:54 +0000

https://web.archive.org/web/20230220204315/https://ares.jsc....

New comment by Melkman in "Posters of the IPv4 and IPv6 internet as of Jan 1, 2023"

Melkman — Sun, 01 Jan 2023 14:25:25 +0000

Because IANA started delegating prefixes starting with 2. And haven't done enough delegations to go to 3. Prefixes starting with 0 of F are also in use for mapping IPv4 addresses to IPv6, link local and multicast adressing and other special needs.

New comment by Melkman in "Corkscrew optics yield direct line to electronics"

Melkman — Mon, 19 Dec 2022 10:37:38 +0000

For transport, yes light is more desirable. For computing, no. The fact that electrons interact with each other is the basis of computational circuits. The article is about how to get photons to do the same.

New comment by Melkman in "Why does the E12 resistor sequence use 27 and 33 instead of 26 and 32?"

Melkman — Mon, 21 Nov 2022 13:29:51 +0000

The reason you can not build a 0% tolerance resistor is the laws of physics. A very high precision resistor can certainly be build but it will never be perfect. Increasing precision has a cost to it. For normal resistors the shape and thickness of the film of resisting material is calculated and the tolerance is mainly dictated by the precision of the manufacturing process. Increasing this precision of the process adds cost. High precision resistors can be trimmed to specification. When you manufacture the resistor with a lower resistance you can use a laser to trim some of the resistive material away. This is an extra step and adds extra cost. While this can be very precise you are limited to what you can measure and there is a limit to that. Also precision is limited by environmental factors like heat, humidity and aging.

New comment by Melkman in "Why A4? – The Mathematical Beauty of Paper Size"

Melkman — Mon, 05 Sep 2022 16:52:03 +0000

To rephrase te question: why would somebody be annoyed with the fractional metric size of A-n sizes ?

New comment by Melkman in "A Dutch city testing the future of urban life"

Melkman — Mon, 09 May 2022 19:57:11 +0000

Indeed, Almere is a sleeping city. Many inhabitants moved from Amsterdam to Almere since gentrification has made housing in Amsterdam almost unobtainable for people with a median income. Almere is comfortable enough and you can get by without a car. But the fun still is in Amsterdam only a half an hour train ride away. In the US it would be called a suburb of Amsterdam.

New comment by Melkman in "The US Marines Got Rid of Their Tanks. Is Ukraine Making Them Look Smart?"

Melkman — Wed, 30 Mar 2022 07:45:30 +0000

It's 250k and a bit: the launcher is reusable.

New comment by Melkman in "What is the flap about chlorinated chicken? (2018)"

Melkman — Mon, 28 Feb 2022 18:41:50 +0000

Also what drinking water are they comparing to that gives 99% of the chlorine intake ? In dutch drinking water chlorine is not used at all, neither for primary disinfection nor to maintain a residual disinfectant in the distribution network. Still doesn't mean that small chlorine intake is bad for your health. Does seem however they use chlorine rich drinking water to justify the extra intake from chlorinated chickens. https://dwes.copernicus.org/articles/2/1/2009/dwes-2-1-2009....

New comment by Melkman in "On iPhone sideloading: it’s ok, I’m changing my mind"

Melkman — Wed, 09 Feb 2022 21:23:39 +0000

Being able to sideload is a double edged sword. Yes, it would be a barrier for Apple to go to far overboard on monetizing the ecosystem. It would also give companies like Microsoft a means of ONLY distributing their applications via their own app store forcing you to side load this app store with less oversight. Maybe they add a forced installer to push their apps ? It's not that I trust Apple that much. It's that I trust other companies like Google, Facebook, Microsoft and Amazon less.

New comment by Melkman in "Why are semi trucks in the US and Europe so different? (2018)"

Melkman — Thu, 03 Feb 2022 16:21:46 +0000

A blunt front isn't that bad for aerodynamics as long as it's rounded enough for the air stream not to separate. A lot more can be gained at the back of a truck. Like this: http://learntoflyblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/4-5.png

New comment by Melkman in "Facebook loses users for the first time"

Melkman — Thu, 03 Feb 2022 14:01:20 +0000

If you only use your PC one day a month then yes, you may have to wait sometimes for updates. If you use your PC a few hours every week, nope. If you only use your Quest 2 once a month you've demonstrated my point: there is a barrier to using it.

Windows updates don't prompt anymore. They download automatically and apply at the next reboot. Steam starts at boot and updates every thing in the background. Never had an Nvidia popup, don't use anything else than a driver for my GPU. As soon as you put on the headset and turn on the controllers it wakes up, starts SteamVR and you can play. I don't care how long you've been a PC gamer in the past. The time that gaming on Windows was a chore is long gone. Stuff just works on Windows now.

New comment by Melkman in "Facebook loses users for the first time"

Melkman — Thu, 03 Feb 2022 12:10:25 +0000

Ehh, the content is the problem because there is a lack of bad content ? There's a heap of 3D content and growing. Like last years Marvell movies, James Bond, Dune. And movie theaters still show those in 3D. Which works because people go to a movie theater for the experience and donning 3D glasses is a minor annoyance with that mindset. Most people don't go to the movies very often. However people wanting to view a quick movie at home don't want that annoyance. It's a bit the same with VR I think. When you go to an arcade or a friends house the space is already available and you accept being isolated because it's expected. Going for a quick VR session at home is an anti social hassle (unless you got a dedicated VR room or live alone).

New comment by Melkman in "Facebook loses users for the first time"

Melkman — Thu, 03 Feb 2022 11:35:15 +0000

That doesn't explain why someone who has an Index doesn't use it. The setup and expense is just one time. The updates are all automatic via Steam. It's just a matter of putting on the headset and go. And yet, just like @wayoutthere , I find myself using it less and less. Not because lack of content either. It's just so inconvenient and awkward to isolate yourself from the other people in vicinity. Plus you'll be moving your arms without regards of your physical environment. So basically you need a room with a 2 meter by 2 meter clear space and no other people available. Most people don't have that. I used the quest 2. Personally I was not impressed. Graphics are soft and simple compared to the Index and the field of view is so small. You can tether it to a PC for better graphics but then you loose the main advantage of not having a cable. And you still keep a small field of view.