Hacker News: _whiteCaps_

New comment by _whiteCaps_ in "Decoy Font"

_whiteCaps_ — Thu, 16 Jul 2026 21:37:10 +0000

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gfvMU36fgKw

Same effect, Marilyn Monroe / Albert Einstein

New comment by _whiteCaps_ in "The lost joy of music piracy"

_whiteCaps_ — Thu, 16 Jul 2026 18:26:47 +0000

My bet is Broken Social Scene.

New comment by _whiteCaps_ in "The 'absolute magic' of Morse code that still connects people globally"

_whiteCaps_ — Mon, 13 Jul 2026 18:52:09 +0000

lcwo.net is a great resource for this... however the best way is to get on the air talking to people.

New comment by _whiteCaps_ in "The 'absolute magic' of Morse code that still connects people globally"

_whiteCaps_ — Mon, 13 Jul 2026 15:48:09 +0000

I just had my first CW contact with someone in Australia from BC - using a 10W radio. It's great fun!

New comment by _whiteCaps_ in "Long Wave radio era set to end with switch-off"

_whiteCaps_ — Fri, 26 Jun 2026 21:12:50 +0000

Seems like everyone's shutting down radio services. CHU and Weather radio in Canada too :(

New comment by _whiteCaps_ in "Researchers used math to crack Wordle"

_whiteCaps_ — Tue, 23 Jun 2026 17:38:22 +0000

If you want a challenge, try https://lirdle.com/

One letter per line is a lie.

New comment by _whiteCaps_ in "Canada plans 'nuclear renaissance' with up to 10 reactors built by 2040"

_whiteCaps_ — Mon, 22 Jun 2026 21:53:47 +0000

Cold is fine - solar panels perform better the lower the temperature.

That's what makes Calgary ideal for solar.

New comment by _whiteCaps_ in "British Columbia, Time Zones, and Postgres"

_whiteCaps_ — Mon, 22 Jun 2026 21:44:13 +0000

I just need to know what happens to our 9am standups in Vancouver when the other team is in SF. If I'm doing the math correctly it moves to 10am.

Also, I've often picked a random city in Pacific time when setting timezones on hosts, so I guess it's going to cause me some headaches in the fall.

New comment by _whiteCaps_ in "How Alberta Eradicated Rats"

_whiteCaps_ — Thu, 18 Jun 2026 16:56:39 +0000

The dose makes the poison. Warfarin is prescribed as a blood thinner for humans.

New comment by _whiteCaps_ in "'Wow, it really worked ': 70s TV show causing worldwide panic today"

_whiteCaps_ — Tue, 16 Jun 2026 15:25:33 +0000

After watching Disclosure Day with my kids, we had an interesting conversation on the way home - what would it take for you to believe that aliens are real and visting Earth?

With the advancement of image and video generation, I think I'd have to see one in person!

New comment by _whiteCaps_ in "Improvement in advanced Alzheimer’s disease following high-dose psilocybin"

_whiteCaps_ — Mon, 15 Jun 2026 16:47:53 +0000

Niacin works well as an 'active placebo'.

New comment by _whiteCaps_ in "Cybersecurity researchers aren't happy about the guardrails on Anthropic's Fable"

_whiteCaps_ — Thu, 11 Jun 2026 13:49:54 +0000

It's my favourite slime mold. Just by the name you can instantly recognize it.

New comment by _whiteCaps_ in "Cybersecurity researchers aren't happy about the guardrails on Anthropic's Fable"

_whiteCaps_ — Thu, 11 Jun 2026 13:48:08 +0000

I asked it to use geomorphology to help me find lakes nearby that would have thriving trout populations, and it bumped me down to Opus. :-/

New comment by _whiteCaps_ in "Anti-social: It's fads, not friends, which now dominate social media feeds"

_whiteCaps_ — Mon, 08 Jun 2026 18:54:20 +0000

For me it was when Facebook sent the C&D order about the Whopper Sacrifice.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whopper_Sacrifice

New comment by _whiteCaps_ in "I replaced Spotify with a homemade FM radio station"

_whiteCaps_ — Mon, 08 Jun 2026 15:42:01 +0000

A modern station list is available here: https://short-wave.info/

New comment by _whiteCaps_ in "Wind and solar generated more power than gas globally in April 2026"

_whiteCaps_ — Fri, 05 Jun 2026 17:08:18 +0000

I 100% agree with having inspections if you're grid tied. You don't want your system energizing the neighbourhood when the power goes out!

New comment by _whiteCaps_ in "Wind and solar generated more power than gas globally in April 2026"

_whiteCaps_ — Thu, 04 Jun 2026 18:51:21 +0000

The MPPT solar controller.

MidNite has a sizing tool for this: https://www.midnitesolar.com/sizingTool/

New comment by _whiteCaps_ in "Wind and solar generated more power than gas globally in April 2026"

_whiteCaps_ — Thu, 04 Jun 2026 18:46:54 +0000

It's fairly easy and there are a lot of forums around with knowledgeable people.

My main issue was ensuring wire gauges were correct. One's intuition about dealing with house wiring @15A changes when you're dealing with 50A circuits. Also you need to pay attention to things like equal cable lengths between battery banks so you don't overcharge one battery in a series.

However, I'm dealing with an off-grid cabin so I don't need to deal with any grid-tie circuitry, which would make it much more difficult and I'd definitely get an electrician for that.

New comment by _whiteCaps_ in "Wind and solar generated more power than gas globally in April 2026"

_whiteCaps_ — Thu, 04 Jun 2026 16:20:04 +0000

The "Sunshine" Coast of BC.

Right now we're limited by the charging capacity of the inverter/charger. It can only do 50A in from an external solar controller. In hindsight I should have gone with a 48V inverter/charger to get twice the power going in. On a sunny day we're maxing it out at 1200W for several hours at a time.

New comment by _whiteCaps_ in "Wind and solar generated more power than gas globally in April 2026"

_whiteCaps_ — Thu, 04 Jun 2026 15:49:17 +0000

I just upgraded the solar system at my family's off-grid cabin. It's incredible how much battery technology has improved over the last 10 years.

Everyone is getting tired of me checking the panel to see how many watts we're bringing in.

Next project, install a shunt and get a Raspberry Pi talking to it over USB. And then I'll be able to build a Grafana dashboard. :)