Hacker News: MengerSponge

New comment by MengerSponge in "Boris Cherny: TI-83 Plus Basic Programming Tutorial (2004)"

MengerSponge — Thu, 07 May 2026 17:56:43 +0000

My "bored in class" story: In addition to plenty of stickman fighting animations, I wrote a full "Geometry" helper program which solved arbitrary triangles, did the quadratic equation (including imaginary roots), and maybe one or two other things that I don't remember.

We could have a quadratic equation solver on tests, but not the other functions. I put a splash screen that said my name and "Quadratic Equation Solver" which prompted a, b, and c if you pressed ENTER. If you pressed the right button on that splash screen (sin, naturally) it would unlock the full menu.

New comment by MengerSponge in "Zuckerberg 'Personally Authorized and Encouraged' Meta's Copyright Infringement"

MengerSponge — Tue, 05 May 2026 20:10:48 +0000

Always Has Been

New comment by MengerSponge in "Accelerating Gemma 4: faster inference with multi-token prediction drafters"

MengerSponge — Tue, 05 May 2026 19:01:49 +0000

Does it? Or is this a centaur situation where a competent human can fix it in about two minutes?

New comment by MengerSponge in "iOS 27 is adding a 'Create a Pass' button to Apple Wallet"

MengerSponge — Tue, 05 May 2026 14:28:24 +0000

I'm a fan of Wallet Creator (https://apps.apple.com/us/app/wallet-creator/id1486573384)

Zero dollars, lets you geofence passes when you create them.

New comment by MengerSponge in "UK Fuel Price Intelligence – Market analytics from reporting stations"

MengerSponge — Tue, 05 May 2026 04:14:08 +0000

People obsess and complain, but the interstate drivers around me aren't driving like gas is expensive yet (currently $4-4.20/gal)

New comment by MengerSponge in "'Point of no return': New Orleans relocation must start now due to sea level"

MengerSponge — Mon, 04 May 2026 23:17:55 +0000

That's the short term plan, baby! The long term plan is to be the elect who get raptured first.

New comment by MengerSponge in "Removable batteries in smartphones will be mandatory in the EU starting in 2027"

MengerSponge — Mon, 04 May 2026 18:08:15 +0000

too many CS majors and not enough mechanical engineers on this forum

New comment by MengerSponge in "Ti-84 Evo"

MengerSponge — Sat, 02 May 2026 02:00:01 +0000

If anybody here can illuminate where these names came from, I'd love to know!

New comment by MengerSponge in "Historic Tennessee hotel is also home to the greatest duck tradition (2016)"

MengerSponge — Sat, 02 May 2026 01:52:00 +0000

Duckmaster Kenon has a charming Instagram presence: https://www.instagram.com/kenon_walker/

Don't sign up for IG for this, but if you already have an account, go marching with some duckies :)

New comment by MengerSponge in "Sawe becomes first athlete to run a sub-two-hour marathon in a competitive race"

MengerSponge — Sun, 26 Apr 2026 23:30:27 +0000

Real "Bad Luck Brian" energy

https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/bad-luck-brian

New comment by MengerSponge in "The West forgot how to make things, now it’s forgetting how to code"

MengerSponge — Sun, 26 Apr 2026 17:56:42 +0000

I'm biased, but I think you're on to something. People are writing about this under the broad framing of "cognitive surrender"

New comment by MengerSponge in "SFO Quiet Airport (2025)"

MengerSponge — Fri, 24 Apr 2026 20:30:56 +0000

See "Alarm fatigue" https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alarm_fatigue

New comment by MengerSponge in "Palantir employees are starting to wonder if they're the bad guys"

MengerSponge — Thu, 23 Apr 2026 18:51:09 +0000

It's not like these guys have any media literacy or emotional intelligence to speak of. If they did, they wouldn't have gone to work for Thiel and Karp's perfectly named company.

I'm pretty sure this is the same population of people who lost (and may still be losing sleep) over Roko's Basilisk. They're clever but not smart.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pascal%27s_wager

New comment by MengerSponge in "F-35 is built for the wrong war"

MengerSponge — Tue, 21 Apr 2026 04:54:15 +0000

The F-35 is a perfect pork-barrel example: by using subcontractors distributed in many house districts, the project owner ensures its political viability. By my count, only Louisiana, Wyoming, Nebraska, and North Dakota show less than $1MM in "economic impact".

https://view.ceros.com/lockheed-martin/f35-domestic-impact/p...

New comment by MengerSponge in "Palantir Wants to Reinstate the Draft"

MengerSponge — Tue, 21 Apr 2026 04:41:04 +0000

17,725 draftees died, just over 30% of all American combat deaths in the war

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

New comment by MengerSponge in "Not buying another Kindle"

MengerSponge — Mon, 20 Apr 2026 21:25:23 +0000

Modern e-readers are waterproof enough for pool or bath reading. It's nice!

New comment by MengerSponge in "Not buying another Kindle"

MengerSponge — Mon, 20 Apr 2026 20:30:08 +0000

If you're even the slightest bit tech savvy you can find a DRM stripping utility for Calibre. Apprentice Alf is long retired, but a fork of that DeDRM still is maintained

New comment by MengerSponge in "Anduril, Palantir and SpaceX are changing how America wages war"

MengerSponge — Mon, 20 Apr 2026 19:16:41 +0000

When someone tells you who they are, believe them.

New comment by MengerSponge in "Palantir Wants to Reinstate the Draft"

MengerSponge — Mon, 20 Apr 2026 17:26:39 +0000

For others' sake, I double-checked: 2.59 million served, of which 648,500 were draftees. Right at 25%

Is there a study of soldiers who enlisted but only because their draft number was low? There were substantial benefits to enlisting, because you could choose your branch of service.

New comment by MengerSponge in "A Brief History of Fish Sauce"

MengerSponge — Mon, 20 Apr 2026 04:08:48 +0000

That's the spirit! But you shouldn't underestimate the power of suggestion:

"This was cooked with fish sauce" -> "This tastes fishy"