Hacker News: abrowne

New comment by abrowne in "French e, è, é, ê, ë – what's the difference?"

abrowne — Thu, 26 Mar 2026 16:25:19 +0000

The other way – trying to spell a word you hear – is harder, since many sounds have multiple possible spellings. Hence la dictée.

New comment by abrowne in "Court affirms imported beef still allowed to be labeled "Product of USA""

abrowne — Fri, 18 Mar 2022 17:53:33 +0000

I believe the US allows .5 to round down to 0, while I've seen EU labels list e.g. .5 g of fat, so I wouldn't be surprised if they require it.

New comment by abrowne in "Mavis Beacon was the top typing teacher in the US, then she vanished"

abrowne — Mon, 14 Mar 2022 02:03:20 +0000

I would not have guessed that! I like that he last lived in Parma, Ohio.

New comment by abrowne in "GE won’t let me use convection roast on my new oven without connecting to WiFi"

abrowne — Sat, 05 Mar 2022 19:30:59 +0000

I got new boilers (furnaces for radiator heating) installed recently, and halfway through one of the crew asked where they should install the boxes that connect the thermostats to the internet. Luckily they were completely separate, so I said I never agreed with that and they left them boxed up, because they had never thought to mention it. (They listened to my explanation that I would not have something that literally starts a fire in my house connected to the internet without at least being able to control the software it runs, but I think they were just being polite.)

New comment by abrowne in "Is the Russian Air Force incapable of complex air operations?"

abrowne — Sat, 05 Mar 2022 03:22:28 +0000

And not sideways, off the road, because of the mud.

New comment by abrowne in "Sabre ends distribution agreement with Aeroflot"

abrowne — Thu, 03 Mar 2022 18:38:25 +0000

If they can still transfer them!

New comment by abrowne in "How illiterate people use their mobile phones (2012)"

abrowne — Fri, 11 Feb 2022 03:23:46 +0000

But not because of the script.

New comment by abrowne in "Some of the error messages produced by Apple's MPW C compiler (2006)"

abrowne — Mon, 07 Feb 2022 02:12:42 +0000

Sure it is. It just comes with a new Mac.

New comment by abrowne in "Framework Raises $18M Series A"

abrowne — Tue, 01 Feb 2022 23:02:37 +0000

I'd take one that's repairable and only minimally modular.

New comment by abrowne in "Framework Raises $18M Series A"

abrowne — Tue, 01 Feb 2022 23:01:53 +0000

I'd buy a Fairphone if they sold in the US!

New comment by abrowne in "Framework Raises $18M Series A"

abrowne — Tue, 01 Feb 2022 19:21:48 +0000

> this funding unlocks categories even more ambitious than our first one.

Any guesses?

I'd love to buy a Framework phone — if they can guarantee Android updates.

New comment by abrowne in "How FreeDOS Grew Up and Became a Modern DOS (2021)"

abrowne — Sat, 29 Jan 2022 19:09:02 +0000

My understanding is that it's more a way to sell a computer for people who don't want a bundled OS, but without it really having no OS. This way the new computer will at least start up to something instead of an error message that can potentially imply storage failure.

Edit: Especially since some of these purchasers are not technically-minded Linux users, who can handle a blank disk error, but people who want to use their (ahem) specially-aquired Windows licenses.

My current home computer is an HP EliteBook I custom ordered with FreeDOS to install Linux on. (Also got the matte touchscreen!)

New comment by abrowne in "Framework Laptop Embedded Controller (EC)"

abrowne — Fri, 21 Jan 2022 19:13:04 +0000

Discussed here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=30027117

New comment by abrowne in "Notepad++ v8.2 Released"

abrowne — Fri, 21 Jan 2022 13:58:44 +0000

My workaround for the startup delay, since I use it so much, is just to autostart VS Code on OS login, and never quit. I basically treat it as part of the OS, which I've started to prefer: my computer boots up to the editor, like opening a notebook, rather than an empty "desktop".

New comment by abrowne in "Wine 7.0"

abrowne — Wed, 19 Jan 2022 02:58:33 +0000

I think this article shows one (barely): https://www.omgubuntu.co.uk/2022/01/wine-7-0-released-with-t...

New comment by abrowne in "Norton 360 Now Comes with a Cryptominer"

abrowne — Thu, 06 Jan 2022 18:46:11 +0000

> Anyone can just

An extended family member of mine had been planning on replacing their computer because they were having problems logging in to Office 365.

New comment by abrowne in "Tell HN: Canada Posts systems to be down for 6 hours of “unplanned maintenance”"

abrowne — Thu, 30 Dec 2021 18:07:33 +0000

Good to know if there's a next time.

I forgot to say that another option was to contact them by mail, so at least they're dogfooding ;-)

New comment by abrowne in "Tell HN: Canada Posts systems to be down for 6 hours of “unplanned maintenance”"

abrowne — Wed, 29 Dec 2021 21:37:46 +0000

Last year, someone signed up for PO box-equivalent with my firstnamelastname@gmail.com address. (Not the first time this guy in Montréal forgot that his email has a 0 before the @gmail.com. Or an error from the person entering it in.) I live in the US. I have lived in Canada, but over 10 years ago now.

The only two options to contact Canada Post were phone or … Twitter — which I don't have an account for — no email or web form. And the phone CSR had to get a manager who still couldn't figure out how to deal with the issue since I wasn't a customer myself and just wanted my email removed from the account.

New comment by abrowne in "SpeedCrunch"

abrowne — Fri, 24 Dec 2021 03:20:09 +0000

Agreed. This is one case that's not hyperbole.

New comment by abrowne in "Water drinking acutely improves orthostatic tolerance in healthy subjects (2002)"

abrowne — Thu, 23 Dec 2021 13:53:32 +0000

Note that in the US, all salt can be labeled "sea salt". Other places, like Canada, mined salt can't be.