Hacker News: WWWWH

New comment by WWWWH in "The first British person in space"

WWWWH — Fri, 22 May 2026 10:14:44 +0000

The story I remember is that at the time she worked for Mars (developing the Mars ice cream), so one of the tabloids had the headline:

"Woman from Mars goes to space!"

New comment by WWWWH in "Beowulf's opening "What" is no interjection (2013)"

WWWWH — Wed, 21 Jan 2026 19:08:27 +0000

I used to use this (still do really) as a technique when starting undergraduate lectures. They’re there, ready to listen, but chatting away and need a moment to focus their attention.

*SO* let me tell you further fun facts about carbonyl chemistry…

Works. Those Anglo-Saxons knew what they were about.

New comment by WWWWH in "Over fifty new hallucinations in ICLR 2026 submissions"

WWWWH — Sun, 07 Dec 2025 19:50:27 +0000

Surely this is gross professional misconduct? If one of my postdocs did this they would be at risk of being fired. I would certainly never trust them again. If I let it get through, I should be at risk.

As a reviewer, if I see the authors lie in this way why should I trust anything else in the paper? The only ethical move is to reject immediately.

I acknowledge mistakes and so on are common but this is different league bad behaviour.

New comment by WWWWH in "Over fifty new hallucinations in ICLR 2026 submissions"

WWWWH — Sun, 07 Dec 2025 19:31:03 +0000

Well yes, but just because that’s bad doesn’t mean this isn’t far worse.

New comment by WWWWH in "In Northern Scotland, the Neolithic Age Never Ended"

WWWWH — Thu, 04 Dec 2025 11:15:35 +0000

Perfect. Right up there with, "but are you a Protestant Muslim or a Catholic Muslim?"

New comment by WWWWH in "In Northern Scotland, the Neolithic Age Never Ended"

WWWWH — Thu, 04 Dec 2025 08:36:11 +0000

You know I wondered who those guys throwing spears at the busses were. Thought they’d just come doon the watter.

New comment by WWWWH in "Mitochondria Are Alive"

WWWWH — Fri, 08 Nov 2024 19:39:30 +0000

I have a chloroplast for you on line two; can you hold?

New comment by WWWWH in "Fully documented source code for Lander on the Acorn Archimedes"

WWWWH — Tue, 24 Sep 2024 12:27:08 +0000

I also wasted a lot of my youth playing Elite, so much fun. Check out the page--it also has annotated source code for Elite (a few different versions up there).

New comment by WWWWH in "The Triple Failure of 2U, EdX, and Axim"

WWWWH — Tue, 27 Aug 2024 06:40:17 +0000

Check out the Open University then. It’s the real thing and online. It costs and there are time constraints but they are the experts in remote teaching

New comment by WWWWH in "I've stopped using box plots (2021)"

WWWWH — Sun, 23 Jun 2024 19:18:44 +0000

Yes, exactly! Just plot all the bloody data and be done with it. No one is doing this by hand anymore so it is no extra work.

To my mind, if you have a genuine EDA attitude you plot it all.

New comment by WWWWH in "Street-Fighting Mathematics (2008)"

WWWWH — Thu, 20 Jun 2024 13:27:39 +0000

It's the same resource--he gives it away for free, but you can buy the book if you want (I did).

New comment by WWWWH in "Psion 5mx Emulator"

WWWWH — Wed, 22 May 2024 13:35:06 +0000

Really pleased to have a play with this--I've so often read comments that the agenda, the calendar, on this thing was better than almost anything since, it was interesting to go and have a look. I can see the point, the year view is really good in a way that my current calendar (fantastical) doesn't quite match.

New comment by WWWWH in "SQL is syntactic sugar for relational algebra"

WWWWH — Sat, 23 Mar 2024 07:03:24 +0000

And on some cases sugar sugar not syntactic sugar.

New comment by WWWWH in "Made of Lies (and More Lies)"

WWWWH — Thu, 07 Dec 2023 14:38:19 +0000

And Charlie Stross is not a particularly common name so you could hope for it to be more accurate then for most.

My name is somewhat more common (although not the full John Smith) and apparently:

1. I'm a multitalented artist ... "is not only a successful actor, but he's also a singer, songwriter, dancer, and businessman. He's released several music albums and singles, and he's also starred in numerous films and television shows."

2. And I'm also a style icon... "is known for his stylish fashion sense. He's always on point with the latest trends, and he's not afraid to experiment with different looks. He's also a fan of streetwear and luxury brands."

And so on.

For the record, I'm not even monotalented and my personal style is closer to cosplaying last of the summer wine than anything else.

New comment by WWWWH in "On Being the Right Size (1926) [pdf]"

WWWWH — Mon, 18 Sep 2023 11:48:22 +0000

The author was an interesting character (and a very prominent scientist--some of his work on enzymes is still taught to undergraduates) and a committed communist. Many of his essays were first written for the a newspaper. I think it was the Daily Star.

New comment by WWWWH in "Ask HN: Do you still use a hand held/desktop calculator?"

WWWWH — Thu, 03 Aug 2023 06:32:17 +0000

Yes, a Swiss Micros DM42. Why? Mostly because I like it, but I justified it to myself by using it in the lab, where having a more expensive screen is not wise.

They are also useful for teaching.

Near-Infrared Spectroscopy and Machine Learning for Accurate Dating of Books

WWWWH — Thu, 08 Jun 2023 08:24:34 +0000

Article URL: https://pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/jacs.3c02835

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=36238818

Points: 1

# Comments: 0

New comment by WWWWH in "The man who invented the modern cop novel"

WWWWH — Tue, 09 May 2023 11:16:51 +0000

Any chemists around should read his 'Delta Star' set in the CalTech Chemistry Department. Apparently he was buddies with Harry Grey and spent some time around the school. Grey, the only non-fictional character in the book, spoke highly of his work ethic (something like 'he turned up to all of the classes, which is more than most of our students do').

New comment by WWWWH in "How companies use dark patterns to keep you subscribed"

WWWWH — Thu, 04 May 2023 15:29:58 +0000

That's a good reminder though. I subscribe and don't want to cancel but I would like a discount. Let's see how I get on.

New comment by WWWWH in "Learning Some Logarithms"

WWWWH — Wed, 03 May 2023 13:57:52 +0000

Check out "Street-fighting mathematics" and excellent (free) resource. It's so good I paid for a copy (and his other one) after reading the free version online.