Hacker News: OwlsParlay

New comment by OwlsParlay in "Jurassic Park computers in excruciating detail"

OwlsParlay — Wed, 15 Jul 2026 07:20:54 +0000

"audiences are so sophisticated now in their knowledge of computers"

It's funny they say this back in 1993. It feels like we've gone from computers being a niche but beloved piece of tech to a ubiquitous and reviled piece of tech.

New comment by OwlsParlay in "The buns in McDonald's Japan's burger photos are all slightly askew"

OwlsParlay — Thu, 16 Apr 2026 09:23:34 +0000

Is it me or are those prices dead cheap compared to UK / US?

New comment by OwlsParlay in "Iran threatens OpenAI's Stargate data center in Abu Dhabi"

OwlsParlay — Tue, 07 Apr 2026 10:31:41 +0000

Trump has avoided a ground invasion up to this point for this exact reason, even trying to take one of outerlying islands would have heavy casualties due to drone warfare. There's speculation that the mess over the weekend was the result of a SOF mission gone wrong.

New comment by OwlsParlay in "Suburban school district uses license plate readers to verify student residency"

OwlsParlay — Thu, 12 Mar 2026 15:13:05 +0000

Interestingly US-based newsrooms are still geo-blocking EU users. Not even bothering to ask for cookies.

New comment by OwlsParlay in "Over 36,500 killed in Iran's deadliest massacre, documents reveal"

OwlsParlay — Tue, 27 Jan 2026 09:59:28 +0000

This is a country of 90 million, compared to Gaza which was 2million

New comment by OwlsParlay in "I'm Kenyan. I don't write like ChatGPT, ChatGPT writes like me"

OwlsParlay — Mon, 15 Dec 2025 14:05:03 +0000

For people invested in AI it is becoming something like Maslow's Hammer - "it is tempting, if the only tool you have is a hammer, to treat everything as if it were a nail"

New comment by OwlsParlay in "Police Break Up Lego Theft Ring"

OwlsParlay — Fri, 24 Oct 2025 08:40:50 +0000

At this rate that's a couple of large LEGO sets.

New comment by OwlsParlay in "The $25k car is going extinct?"

OwlsParlay — Mon, 30 Jun 2025 08:53:29 +0000

That's a big part of it for you perhaps, but not for everyone?

New comment by OwlsParlay in "The origin of the cargo cult metaphor"

OwlsParlay — Mon, 13 Jan 2025 08:57:24 +0000

The biggest problem comes when this type of language policing is seen as the primary way of changing behaviours.

It's correct to be anti-racist / anti-sexist / etc. but that doesn't come from just changing your language while still operating the same as before. It reminds me of the whole fuss over using "homeless" vs "unhoused" - while actual policies to help homeless people get ignored or defunded.

New comment by OwlsParlay in "I spend £8,500 a year to live on a train"

OwlsParlay — Tue, 05 Mar 2024 13:26:41 +0000

The sad fact is that this is more expensive than my 1-bed flat was 15 years ago. Rent really is insane if this is preferable now.

New comment by OwlsParlay in "“Wherever you get your podcasts” is a radical statement"

OwlsParlay — Wed, 07 Feb 2024 15:52:30 +0000

I dropped the two BBC podcasts i'd been interested in (News Cast and In Our Time) for this reason, it's such a weird tack to take in order to chase views.

New comment by OwlsParlay in "Teach Yourself Programming in Ten Years (1998)"

OwlsParlay — Tue, 16 Jan 2024 13:14:29 +0000

I wonder if any of the commentators from 2007-2013 can share what they've learned in 10 years

New comment by OwlsParlay in "Stack Overflow's CEO Doesn't Understand Stack Overflow"

OwlsParlay — Thu, 27 Jul 2023 10:59:23 +0000

I'm always surprised Discourse was never integrated into SO.

New comment by OwlsParlay in "The great Polish Sea or We forgot Poland (2006)"

OwlsParlay — Mon, 10 Jul 2023 08:49:35 +0000

New Zealand has a similar problem

https://www.reddit.com/r/MapsWithoutNZ/

New comment by OwlsParlay in "How Russia Went from Ally to Adversary"

OwlsParlay — Thu, 15 Jun 2023 08:50:01 +0000

Why would the US want to do a Marshall plan? It was in full asset stripping mode in the USA itself in the mid 90s

New comment by OwlsParlay in "Windows needs to stop showing tabloid news"

OwlsParlay — Mon, 27 Mar 2023 12:59:56 +0000

This, I find even trying to ignore news sources doesn't work. I continually try to prune the more tabloid papers like Daily Mail / Express / Sun but no avail.

New comment by OwlsParlay in "Google search for a local restaurant returns scammer’s ad as top result"

OwlsParlay — Fri, 24 Feb 2023 09:57:05 +0000

This is something some delivery apps have been accused of doing though.

https://www.eater.com/2020/1/29/21113416/grubhub-seamless-ki...

New comment by OwlsParlay in "Is Discord a Spyware?"

OwlsParlay — Thu, 26 Jan 2023 10:44:54 +0000

These days? Yeah, pretty much.

Don't trust anything that isn't E2E encrypted and is on a centralised server.

New comment by OwlsParlay in "YouTube Addiction"

OwlsParlay — Sat, 14 Jan 2023 21:52:01 +0000

AS someone who watches a lot of YouTube, like the Let's Play content mentioned, I recognise and sympathise with the OP. But I think the problem isn't necessarily YouTube - thats just the drug of choice. It could be Twitch, it could be podcasts, or television, or any other form of entertainment offering a parasocial relationship. One that fill the gaping lonely hole in so many people's lives.

New comment by OwlsParlay in "How do I draw a pair of buttocks? (2014)"

OwlsParlay — Thu, 05 Jan 2023 14:43:36 +0000

I don't think it was that different on the internet per se, but SE itself was relatively young at that point and more lax with its own rules. This early period is when you also had funny answers for bad questions, like using RegEx to parse HTML.

https://stackoverflow.com/questions/1732348/regex-match-open...