Hacker News: PM_me_your_math

New comment by PM_me_your_math in "Taking a Radio Camping"

PM_me_your_math — Sat, 27 Jul 2024 14:27:23 +0000

A buddy of mine uses one and it is effective. Most of your noise will come from buck converters and other cheap power supplies in the near field. Cell phone chargers, 120ac to 12vdc PSU, computer PSU, and fluorescent lighting ballasts are big culprits. Plasma TVs will generate more noise as they age. Pole-mounted cable repeater PSU go bad and start heating up, generating a shitload of noise. Any arcing on cracked insulators will generate RFI and can be easily located by driving around with a clear AM channel on your car stereo. Report these as they must also be repaired. Cheap solar panel inverters are also noise generators. A process of isolating house circuits helps identify the offending devices if they are in the home. In most cases, it is unlawful for devices to generate spurious emissions. In the case of solar panel inverters, they must fix/replace them if you complain. Another thing to check is cable tv leakage, which is less of a problem today, but can still cause interference. Unterminated cable coax can radiate lots of noise in the 144mhz band, and also on other channels. Great article about RFI hunting and elimination: https://www.arrl.org/files/file/RFI/Thompson%20Noise.pdf

New comment by PM_me_your_math in "Can We Engineer Our Way Out of the Climate Crisis?"

PM_me_your_math — Thu, 04 Apr 2024 03:34:57 +0000

If the so-called "total collapse" threat was real, then Obama, Gore, DiCaprio and all the other ocean-front mansion owners wouldn't have 1) bought the home or 2) been able to insure it.

So why cripple our economies, ruin our lives, increase our food, transportation, and energy costs? Because of faith? Dire climate-related predictions from the church of climatology date back to the 1960s. Hundreds of them. Not a single one has ever come true. Not one. But we should believe it now?

Catastrophic changes happen over geologic time. There isn't a tax which can stop a natural process, so why bother?

Even if the stated sea level rise is accurate (0.12 inch per year), that isn't exactly a flash flood. Places like New Orleans demonstrate that you can live at or below sea level and manage it with engineering.

If it came down to it, we'd build or we'd move 1000 feet inland and be good for another 5,000 years.

The calamity and chicken little shit is overstated because it is about the money; always is.

New comment by PM_me_your_math in "The 'Atlanta Magnet Man' is saving our car tires, one bike ride at a time"

PM_me_your_math — Fri, 01 Mar 2024 14:21:37 +0000

Pushing a trailer doesn't really work. You'd need an apparatus big enough to hold magnets and FOD, and allow you to steer unobstructed. A purpose built vehicle with a cab-over design would be easier to control.

New comment by PM_me_your_math in "Reddit signs $60M content licensing deal with AI company"

PM_me_your_math — Sat, 17 Feb 2024 14:57:36 +0000

Because it is reddit, one of the most vile companies on the planet.

New comment by PM_me_your_math in "Ask HN: Anyone left software to study non-STEM subjects?"

PM_me_your_math — Wed, 14 Feb 2024 11:32:57 +0000

You only have time if you make time.

New comment by PM_me_your_math in "Man who shoveled new channel into Lake Michigan convicted"

PM_me_your_math — Tue, 13 Feb 2024 12:05:11 +0000

Is he not a member of the public?

New comment by PM_me_your_math in "Man who shoveled new channel into Lake Michigan convicted"

PM_me_your_math — Mon, 12 Feb 2024 11:43:20 +0000

Rivers change their natural state constantly. What the guy or group did shouldn't be criminal insomuch as it only takes one storm to cut a new channel. I take issue with government putting the lives of little birds and mounds of dirt over the lives of its citizens and their livelihoods.

New comment by PM_me_your_math in "Ask HN: Who are the "snake oil salesmen" of tech?"

PM_me_your_math — Sat, 27 Jan 2024 13:47:05 +0000

Democracy is hell on earth. Whether it is a system of government, or a means by which groups make decisions or peddles their wares. The majority tends to encumber, enslave, and/or murder the minority. The eventual outcome of any purely democratic state or process is tyranny. This is why the founding fathers choose a republican form of government that uses democratic processes. Recall that Socrates was sentenced to die by a majority vote. With that in mind, then yes, the faux value assigned to "tech influencers" is a form of democracy that's just as poisonous as people who seek to "save democracy."

New comment by PM_me_your_math in "TinySA – small spectrum analyzer and signal generator"

PM_me_your_math — Fri, 26 Jan 2024 17:20:58 +0000

The TinySA is excellent for finding sources of RFI, although you want to use a small yagi or loop antenna.

New comment by PM_me_your_math in "Ancient City Found in the Amazon"

PM_me_your_math — Fri, 12 Jan 2024 15:05:50 +0000

I just wish there were more images. There are usually only one or two on this types of articles.

New comment by PM_me_your_math in "SpaceX is suing to bust up federal union protections"

PM_me_your_math — Thu, 04 Jan 2024 22:43:55 +0000

Unions are cancer. This isn't the late 19th century anymore. Unions do very little but enrich themselves and exert political power.

New comment by PM_me_your_math in "Another crackdown on Boston-area pirate radio stations"

PM_me_your_math — Mon, 04 Dec 2023 19:24:13 +0000

All the best pirate stations are on HF. Ballsmackers on 6960khz / Fridays & 0200UTC is my fav.

New comment by PM_me_your_math in "Children, left behind by suburbia, need better community design"

PM_me_your_math — Wed, 22 Nov 2023 15:00:19 +0000

The article is a joke, and so is the author. Everyone says we should listen to the youth because they are young. Meanwhile, the young are inexperienced, irrational, and mercurial with a very limited perspective helmed by an under-developed brain and an even less developed sense of self and purpose. Teenagers eat tide pods and routinely kill themselves or their friends (or others) driving drunk. The question is, why do we need advice from high school students? Easy. We don't.

New comment by PM_me_your_math in "California employers must reimburse remote workers for all necessary expenses"

PM_me_your_math — Tue, 31 Oct 2023 16:31:49 +0000

You might want to retake your constitutional law courses. The Commerce Clause (Article I, Section 8) grants the government power to regulate business. It does not grant citizens the right to do business. The right to do business and participate in commerce and trade is a natural right. You do not allow businesses to exist. You are nobody.

New comment by PM_me_your_math in "FCC aims to reinstate net neutrality after us Democrats gain control of panel"

PM_me_your_math — Tue, 26 Sep 2023 13:10:16 +0000

You can always trust politicians to do the exact opposite of their claim. For example: inflation reduction act, affordable health care act, voting rights act 2023. The propaganda is strong with net neutrality. It is just another play for more government control over information.

New comment by PM_me_your_math in "Unity’s new pricing: A wake-up call on the importance of open source"

PM_me_your_math — Fri, 15 Sep 2023 12:48:52 +0000

There is what they say, which is often not exactly what they do. And even if the intentions are good, behavior or scenarios not conceived may emerge.

New comment by PM_me_your_math in "Touch Pianist"

PM_me_your_math — Fri, 08 Sep 2023 12:49:09 +0000

You're right. It is amazing.

New comment by PM_me_your_math in "California moves to decriminalize use of magic mushrooms, other psychedelics"

PM_me_your_math — Fri, 08 Sep 2023 12:34:37 +0000

If you go outside, you will see what unfettered access to drugs does to a society. Of course, you don't need to go outside to see it, since you can do a search and find plenty of examples and studies. The truth can exist, even if someone doesn't want to do your homework for you. Late 19th century China comes to mind. Right now, one only needs to walk the streets of LA, NYC, Chicago, Charlotte, Orlando, Detroit, San Diego, Philly, Houston, San Antonio, Austin, and any other city. You will see this on the streets: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e72zMER95ps

Is this really glamour? How is it helping, exactly? I don't see any purpose to unrestricted access to these substances, unless your goal is to shatter and/or destroy the lives of 20,000,000 Americans.

I'll add that I think people should have a choice, but rights cease being rights when they impose on the rights of others. Weed, tobacco, and alcohol are legal, but that doesn't mean there is no cost to society. People do stupid shit after smoking. Tobacco has health care implications. Alcohol destroys families. Free access to fent, heroin, crack, cocaine, lsd, meth, and even mdma is going to incur a very big cost. Those are non-starters. And while I think mdma can be used under medical care, abuse of that specific drug incurs a debt.

New comment by PM_me_your_math in "Dollar Stores Quietly Consumed America [video]"

PM_me_your_math — Thu, 07 Sep 2023 16:50:20 +0000

Imagine complaining about the only store willing to invest the capital in a small town.

New comment by PM_me_your_math in "Chicago’s parking meter disaster"

PM_me_your_math — Thu, 07 Sep 2023 16:22:46 +0000

So the double amputee with no feet is going to bike to go food shopping?

America isn't Europe. We have spaces between places and are not packed in like sardines.