Hacker News: Wildgoose

New comment by Wildgoose in "The Writers Who Wrote the Most in History"

Wildgoose — Mon, 06 Jul 2026 06:18:58 +0000

Came here to say exactly this. He wrote under so many pseudonyms he appeared to be an entire team of writers on his own.

New comment by Wildgoose in "If AI replaces workers, should it also pay taxes?"

Wildgoose — Mon, 15 Dec 2025 11:37:23 +0000

The current minimum EPC rating is D. The legislation to raise it to C hasn't been dropped, they just haven't decided exactly what date it will take place. And it's stupid legislation because many old properties cannot be sensibly raised from D to C, and these are the properties (e.g. terraced housing) which are typically rented out. So, we have a housing crisis with too few properties available to rent and the legislation will force landlords to take rental property off the market. Madness.

New comment by Wildgoose in "Britain's railway privatization was an abject failure"

Wildgoose — Thu, 13 Nov 2025 14:37:24 +0000

I remember that the UK was forced to privatise Rail in the way that it did because of EU competition rules. I was commuting by Rail at the time and the manner in which it was privatised was considered to be barmy by both myself and fellow passengers.

New comment by Wildgoose in "Epson MX-80 Fonts"

Wildgoose — Fri, 22 Aug 2025 09:58:42 +0000

Likewise. I used to possess a hand-written letter from Sophie Wilson (of Acorn/ARM fame) replying to my own hand-written query letter at around 1981 when I was 16 and learning to program my Acorn Atom.

New comment by Wildgoose in "1976 Soviet edition of 'The Hobbit' (2015)"

Wildgoose — Thu, 14 Aug 2025 13:19:55 +0000

It really is worth reading. And I say that as a die-hard Tolkien fan. Genuinely highly recommended.

New comment by Wildgoose in "A brief history of the absurdities of the Soviet Union"

Wildgoose — Sun, 10 Aug 2025 10:49:15 +0000

I know both usages, and as an Englishman I am a native English speaker. However, I would agree that the most common usage would be the non-Red opponents of the communistic takeover of Russia in the early 1920s. Isn't the cocktail named as a direct reference to these people?

New comment by Wildgoose in "JANET – The UK Joint Academic Network (1988) [pdf]"

Wildgoose — Thu, 31 Jul 2025 09:27:17 +0000

Wow! Blast from the past! (University of Hull, around 1987).

New comment by Wildgoose in "Half the human beings alive today are descended from the Yamnaya: new research"

Wildgoose — Fri, 14 Mar 2025 14:47:55 +0000

All the base structure and common words are Germanic/Scandinavian. Yes, "fancier" vocabulary and constructed words like television or telephone are Latin/Greek derived. You could restrict English to its Germanic roots and still make (stilted) conversation. You could not do the same using only its added French/Latin/Greek vocabulary.

New comment by Wildgoose in "Man's brain turned to glass by hot Vesuvius ash cloud"

Wildgoose — Thu, 06 Mar 2025 14:36:12 +0000

A.E. Van Vogt wrote it. Brilliant author. I am sure one of the tales in "The Voyage of the Space Beagle" was the inspiration for "Alien".

New comment by Wildgoose in "A Short History of English Waymarks (2015)"

Wildgoose — Tue, 18 Feb 2025 14:17:12 +0000

Fascinating. I was hoping to see the "zero mile" marker in Alfreton and it was present. The fingerpost in Brownhills (in the West Midlands) is worth knowing as well:

https://www.sabre-roads.org.uk/wiki/index.php?title=The_Fing...

New comment by Wildgoose in "Trump says he has directed Treasury to stop minting new pennies"

Wildgoose — Tue, 11 Feb 2025 09:39:37 +0000

to-do-list presumably.

New comment by Wildgoose in "Microsoft deletes official Windows 11 CPU/TPM bypass for unsupported PCs"

Wildgoose — Wed, 05 Feb 2025 16:34:04 +0000

My (unsupported) desktop PC is an AMD Ryzen 7 2700 eight-core CPU running at 3.2Ghz with 16GB of RAM and 2TB of SSD storage. It handles Windows 10 Professional but is apparently incapable of running Windows 11. I don't have a Webcam, but maybe face ID login is now mandated? It will be something stupid like that. I have no interest in replacing this machine though.

New comment by Wildgoose in "World conker champion found with steel chestnut, cleared of cheating"

Wildgoose — Tue, 15 Oct 2024 09:21:23 +0000

So well known that it was even famously used in an advert for a kid's chocolate bar: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nC9BBLSZZdQ

New comment by Wildgoose in "AI headphones let wearer listen to a single person in a crowd by looking at them"

Wildgoose — Wed, 29 May 2024 09:57:45 +0000

My daughter has an auditory impairment which she describes as "brain deaf".

Basically, her hearing is perfect but her brain struggles to process sound in a noisy environment; she can't single out what she is listening to.

This sounds perfect for her!

New comment by Wildgoose in "Ask HN: Interesting TUIs (text user interfaces), maybe forgotten ones?"

Wildgoose — Wed, 08 May 2024 13:01:16 +0000

I still run my (Unix) terminals sized to 80x43 by default.

New comment by Wildgoose in "A tiny ultrabright laser that can melt steel"

Wildgoose — Mon, 15 Apr 2024 13:46:51 +0000

Combine these with hydrogen-boron (aneutronic) fusion and we may be able to generate electricity directly without needing a thermal plant. Even though we are years away it still shows a possible path forwards. Here's hoping!

New comment by Wildgoose in "Kobo announces color e-readers"

Wildgoose — Thu, 11 Apr 2024 10:08:28 +0000

I really wish someone would revive mirasol displays. Sunlight-readable fast colour displays for e-readers and everything.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R352WObkU3Q

New comment by Wildgoose in "After AI beat them, professional Go players got better and more creative"

Wildgoose — Tue, 09 Apr 2024 11:41:54 +0000

Agreed. With a 3-3 you are trading away influence in favour of hard territory. AI is happy to do that very early because AI can effectively destroy influence. Human players need to learn to enter 3-3 at "the last possible moment". That requires judgement.

Forward Compatible CPU Instruction Set

Wildgoose — Thu, 21 Mar 2024 14:42:07 +0000

Article URL: https://www.forwardcom.info

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=39779054

Points: 1

# Comments: 0

New comment by Wildgoose in "Why are there suddenly so many car washes?"

Wildgoose — Mon, 18 Mar 2024 16:59:08 +0000

Thanks for that - fascinating story!

http://www.queenoftheisles.com/HTML/Republic%20of%20Minerva....