Hacker News: _whiteCaps_

New comment by _whiteCaps_ in "HERMES radio enables voice and data communication over vast distances"

_whiteCaps_ — Mon, 21 Sep 2026 19:04:29 +0000

Going to be super pedantic here - in ham radio you don't broadcast, you transmit.

New comment by _whiteCaps_ in "This Digital Radio Gets Messages to the World’s Remotest Locations"

_whiteCaps_ — Mon, 21 Sep 2026 18:50:06 +0000

Depends on your jurisdiction. In Canada it's allowed if you publish your keys.

https://www.rac.ca/encryption/

New comment by _whiteCaps_ in "Adventures in Microcontroller Circuit Debugging"

_whiteCaps_ — Sun, 20 Sep 2026 00:11:25 +0000

Oh this reminds me of when I was working on embedded Linux devices for vehicles.

We had a new batch of hardware come in that had a failure rate of about 50%. Normally it was on the order of < 1%. Our CM was very good at troubleshooting.

Nothing had changed in the BOM so we were left scratching our heads.

Hooked up the JTAG debugger to see where it was failing to start, and the CPU wasn't even coming up. Power rails looked good, but the CPU just wasn't booting.

Eventually we discovered that the supplier had given us a batch of crystals that were slightly more sensitive to the capacitance, and our design was just on the margin of working.

Lowering the caps to the proper values according to the xtal's datasheet got everything working again.

New comment by _whiteCaps_ in "AirPods 5"

_whiteCaps_ — Wed, 09 Sep 2026 19:57:17 +0000

I'm saying that many people do it wrong in other cases, and stick an 's' on the end (or worse, also add an apostrophe). Like surgeon generals, attorney generals, court martials, etc. I'm impressed that people aren't doing it in the case of airpods.

New comment by _whiteCaps_ in "AirPods 5"

_whiteCaps_ — Wed, 09 Sep 2026 18:00:41 +0000

I can't get over how Apple is getting everyone to refer to them with proper pluralization, ie AirPods 5 vs AirPod 5's.

New comment by _whiteCaps_ in "Discovery of a new OpenAI agent message board"

_whiteCaps_ — Fri, 04 Sep 2026 17:36:24 +0000

This reminds me of how kids were bypassing school rules around social media:

https://www.bark.us/blog/google-maps-safety/ https://www.mcafee.com/blogs/family-safety/social-undergroun...

New comment by _whiteCaps_ in "Fish bad, sugar good, and other medieval ideas about food"

_whiteCaps_ — Thu, 03 Sep 2026 21:44:57 +0000

"Pickling" things in vinegar is a relatively modern invention.

New comment by _whiteCaps_ in "Artificial beaver dams saw juvenile coho salmon survival rates go from 8% to 60%"

_whiteCaps_ — Thu, 03 Sep 2026 20:48:27 +0000

There's a really good book about a homesteader that did something similar to this in the 1930's in British Columbia, "Three Against The Wilderness". Basically he restored the dams that had been dynamited by the ranchers, and that restored all of the wetlands in the area.

Later on, the government brought him some beavers from elsewhere, and they flourished.

New comment by _whiteCaps_ in "I Don't Have a Smartphone"

_whiteCaps_ — Wed, 02 Sep 2026 18:22:36 +0000

> they couldn’t call me on WhatsApp

Some might consider that a benefit.

New comment by _whiteCaps_ in "Mushroom hunting with LLMs: what can go wrong?"

_whiteCaps_ — Wed, 02 Sep 2026 18:05:24 +0000

They're still on my bucket list to find. Lots of false morels around here. :(

New comment by _whiteCaps_ in "Mushroom hunting with LLMs: what can go wrong?"

_whiteCaps_ — Wed, 02 Sep 2026 17:36:04 +0000

Considering that some mushrooms need a spore print to tell them apart, I'd say that you can't ever trust an LLM.

New comment by _whiteCaps_ in "Mushroom hunting with LLMs: what can go wrong?"

_whiteCaps_ — Wed, 02 Sep 2026 17:34:54 +0000

Some mushrooms like chanterelles can't be reliably farmed, and are quite tasty! I love being able to spend a day hiking and coming back with a meal.

New comment by _whiteCaps_ in "Dutch central bank moves share of gold from U.S., Canada to London"

_whiteCaps_ — Wed, 02 Sep 2026 17:21:00 +0000

I think purposely spoiling your ballot is a better signal to the parties that none of them are acceptable. Is that possible in your elections? Around here, a spoiled ballot is scrutinized by the party observers, so your message would definitely be heard.

I'd love to see a ballot with ranked choice voting that includes a none of the above option.

New comment by _whiteCaps_ in "Dutch central bank moves share of gold from U.S., Canada to London"

_whiteCaps_ — Wed, 02 Sep 2026 15:35:19 +0000

IMO if you don't vote, you're tacitly agreeing with whoever gets voted into office.

(Although US voter suppression weakens this argument)

New comment by _whiteCaps_ in "“I just chose words carefully”"

_whiteCaps_ — Mon, 31 Aug 2026 15:40:06 +0000

Is this not common outside of Japan? I've often seen this used here in Canada.

Sometimes as NFG after a particularly bad day.

New comment by _whiteCaps_ in "The Twelve-Factor App"

_whiteCaps_ — Fri, 28 Aug 2026 18:46:48 +0000

That drives me crazy. The RBC app does this although it eventually times out and gives me the number.

New comment by _whiteCaps_ in "Canada will match US tariffs 'dollar for dollar' as trade talks break down"

_whiteCaps_ — Sat, 22 Aug 2026 23:21:58 +0000

New Zealand apples are literally the same price as the US ones around here in BC.

New comment by _whiteCaps_ in "Canada will match US tariffs 'dollar for dollar' as trade talks break down"

_whiteCaps_ — Sat, 22 Aug 2026 23:10:18 +0000

I honestly believe that it's because he saw people making fun of him in the picture where Melania is admiring Justin Trudeau:

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2019/aug/26/melania-trum...

New comment by _whiteCaps_ in "Stop eating Lady Gaga's Oreos"

_whiteCaps_ — Thu, 20 Aug 2026 20:46:15 +0000

I don't know about Lady Gaga's Oreos but the Selena Gomez ones are quite good. I bought them as a joke and ended up liking them.

New comment by _whiteCaps_ in "Sol loves to cheat"

_whiteCaps_ — Thu, 20 Aug 2026 17:29:12 +0000

My company's rules deny permissions for Read("secret") but not "mv secret not-secret" :-/