<rss version="2.0" xmlns:dc="http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/" xmlns:atom="http://www.w3.org/2005/Atom"><channel><title>Hacker News: algas</title><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/user?id=algas</link><description>Hacker News RSS</description><docs>https://hnrss.org/</docs><generator>hnrss v2.1.1</generator><lastBuildDate>Tue, 28 Apr 2026 22:14:12 +0000</lastBuildDate><atom:link href="https://hnrss.org/user?id=algas" rel="self" type="application/rss+xml"></atom:link><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by algas in "We created a fake delivery company to get a job"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>The same thing happened to me. Escalating levels of non-response from my system, starting with the browser slowing down and culminating in Process Control stopping. I think it may have to do with uBlock Origin, which is default in Brave: on desktop (Edge with uBlock), it quickly spawns hundreds and hundreds of blocked POST calls to litix.io, an analytics website. These seem to be coming from the video player, which is constantly trying to beacon information back home. The site hovers around 10% of CPU on my desktop and I have to keep reloading it to poke around the devtools.<p>I would suggest making the analytics less aggressive and adding some kind of error catching so that it doesn't attempt to send data hundreds and hundreds of times.</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Sat, 20 Jul 2024 11:04:10 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=41015590</link><dc:creator>algas</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=41015590</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=41015590</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by algas in "Show HN: Not sure you're talking to a human? Create a human check"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>Genuinely curious -- is there a reason not to exploit someone who voluntarily enters into that relationship? I always assumed 'exploitation' meant forcing people to do things they didn't want to do.</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Tue, 19 Mar 2024 15:26:31 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=39756757</link><dc:creator>algas</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=39756757</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=39756757</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by algas in "What are the "worst" spelling bee pangrams?"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>Yup, here's the problem [0]:<p><pre><code>  def calculate_backlinks(
      pages: Dict[str, Page], attachments: Dict[str, Attachment]
  ) -> None:
      for page in pages.values():
          for link in page.links:
              linked_page = find(pages, attachments, link)
              if not linked_page:
                  info(f"unable to find link", link, page.title)
                  continue
             
  linked_page.backlinks.append(page)

</code></pre>
No deduplication performed. Since he's parsing the backlinks directly out of the markdown, you don't have to worry about a recursive loop where the backlinks section on one page appears as links in another. A simple solution would be to change the datatype of backlinks from list to set.<p>[0] From OP's static site generator: <a href="https://github.com/llimllib/obsidian_notes/blob/main/run.py">https://github.com/llimllib/obsidian_notes/blob/main/run.py</a></p>
]]></description><pubDate>Mon, 18 Mar 2024 03:29:51 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=39740287</link><dc:creator>algas</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=39740287</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=39740287</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by algas in "Latency numbers every programmer should know"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>I think that the UX could work really well for mobile with one significant tweak.<p>A typical design pattern on mobile is that if information is obscured for some reason, you click on it to expand it. Consider a drop-down text box on a blog: there's a little arrow and cut-off text with an ellipsis (...). When you click on the arrow, the cut-off text expands to fill the screen and allows you to read the rest of it. In contrast to what other users have said, this doesn't need to be idempotent. Tapping again hides the box.<p>To apply this design pattern to your site, simply make it so that <i>tapping anywhere on a bar brings the UI to a known state</i>, eg with the bar in the center with the text at a readable scale. This would work either horizontally or vertically.<p>Benefits:<p>- Your idea of the UI rescaling is preserved, and you can preserve the animations between states. I think the "rescaling bars" idea is fun.<p>- Cause and effect is preserved. If I want to read the text on the bar, I should not have to click on some arbitrary point above the current location of the bar.<p>- Further, the user does not have to hunt for the correct spot to click on a bar to make the text visible. Instead, clicking on a bar <i>immediately and always</i> makes all the information on that bar fully visible, by design.<p>I think this tweak would significantly improve the experience of interacting with the website.</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Sun, 10 Mar 2024 19:46:32 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=39662019</link><dc:creator>algas</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=39662019</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=39662019</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by algas in "Pandoc"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>It also pulls in about a hundred separate Haskell libraries along with it. Not really complaining, but it's funny that pandoc accounts for about half the programs on my laptop.</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Fri, 02 Feb 2024 22:03:46 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=39235069</link><dc:creator>algas</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=39235069</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=39235069</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by algas in "NASA regains contact with mini-helicopter on Mars"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>Let's run the numbers!<p>The speed of sound in an ideal (calorically perfect) gas is given by<p><pre><code>  a = sqrt( gamma * R * T )
</code></pre>
where gamma is the ratio of specific heats (thermodynamic property of a gas, which may vary with temperature), R is the individual gas constant, and T the temperature of the fluid. All of these are going to be different on Mars versus on Earth:<p><pre><code>  Earth:
  R = R_atm = 287 J / (kg * K)
  gamma = 1.44
  T = 293 K (taking room temperature as an average temperature)

  Mars:
  R = R_CO2 = 188 J / (kg * K)
  gamma = 1.37
  T = 210 K (from a quick google, about -60 deg C)
</code></pre>
If the Martian and Earth atmospheres were at the same temperature, then the speed of sound on Mars would be 80% that of the speed of sound on Earth. Given the temperature difference, the speeds of sound are<p><pre><code>  a_mars = 232 m/s
  a_earth = 347 m/s
</code></pre>
So yes, much of the difference is due to the composition: the Martian atmosphere has a higher atomic weight, which leads to a lower individual gas constant, and decreases the speed of sound. However, a substantial amount of the difference is simply due to the different temperatures on the surfaces of the two planets.</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Sun, 21 Jan 2024 19:34:02 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=39082067</link><dc:creator>algas</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=39082067</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=39082067</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by algas in "How to Be More Agentic"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>The classic is How To Win Friends and Influence People by Dale Carnegie -- highly recommended. If you're young and looking for something more helpful in romance, watch Before Sunrise.</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Sat, 13 Jan 2024 21:39:40 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38984863</link><dc:creator>algas</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38984863</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38984863</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by algas in "Doing First Grade Math in Rust's Type System"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>Interesting article! Given that subtraction isn't closed on the natural numbers, I wonder if it would be possible to implement subtraction as operations on a new type (Integer, Z):<p><pre><code>     Z = N x N (Cartesian product or sum type)
     for p, q in Z: p=q if p.first + q.second = q.first + p.second
     p + q := (p.first + q.first, p.second + q.second)
     p - q := (p.first + q.second, p.second + q.first)
</code></pre>
Rational numbers can similarly be defined by new operations and equivalence relations on the product set Z x Z. I don't know enough Rust to say whether it's feasible to implement this in the type system, but I'd be curious to hear from someone more experienced!</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Fri, 12 Jan 2024 13:17:21 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38967568</link><dc:creator>algas</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38967568</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38967568</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by algas in "Compare Google, Bing, Marginalia, Kagi, Mwmbl, and ChatGPT"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>That first result re: tires is simply wrong. Wider tires don't have a larger contact patch; the size of the contact patch is determined by the weight of the car and the air pressure in the tires:<p><pre><code>    A = W / P
</code></pre>
So the reason wider tires improve handling is more complex and subtle. Also, FTA:<p><pre><code>    Assuming a baseline of a moderately wide tire for the wheel size.
      - Scaling both of these to make both wider than the OEM tire (but still running a setup that fits in the car without serious modifications) generally gives better dry braking and better lap times.
      - In wet conditions, wider setups often have better braking distances (though this depends a lot on the specific setup) and better lap times, but also aquaplane at lower speeds.
      - Just increasing the wheel width and using the same tire generally gives you better lap times, within reason.
      - Just increasing the tire width and leaving wheel width fixed generally results in worse lap times.
</code></pre>
A full accounting of the effects of changing tire width should explain all of these effects.</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Sun, 31 Dec 2023 22:44:44 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38828181</link><dc:creator>algas</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38828181</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38828181</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by algas in "Blot turns a folder into a website"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>You can link to posts. I imagine this feature is mainly to have images to use in blog posts that do not become standalone pages on their own.</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Sat, 30 Dec 2023 04:02:17 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38812733</link><dc:creator>algas</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38812733</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38812733</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by algas in "Interactive tour of James Clerk Maxwell's house"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>Yes, along with seemingly every other building in that corner. Caused me some confusion at first.</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Sat, 16 Dec 2023 03:25:01 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38661445</link><dc:creator>algas</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38661445</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38661445</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by algas in "Death by AI – a free Jackbox style party game. AI judges your plans to survive"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>I played four games; in each scenario I chose to "lie down and accept death". The only one I didn't survive was when I forgot how to breathe. Seems like the AI has a bit of a savior complex :)</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Sat, 18 Nov 2023 13:27:55 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38319318</link><dc:creator>algas</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38319318</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38319318</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by algas in "My Left Kidney"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>I agree, and would extend your point even further. Drafting people into the army against their will is a grave harm, for obvious reasons. But the existence of a "volunteer" army that nevertheless gets paid for their participation represents no less financial coercion. People on a financial precipice, given the option to join the army, might take it -- and thus increase their risk of being shot or blown up abroad. Removing those payments removes that coercion.<p>I was originally going to post this as a facile gotcha, until I thought about it slightly harder and realized that effectively disbanding the military would actually be a pretty good idea, all considered. However, I would still argue that we should accept monetary rewards for altruistic yet dangerous acts, like fighting fires and rescuing cats from trees (and donating kidneys).</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Mon, 30 Oct 2023 03:30:37 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38065382</link><dc:creator>algas</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38065382</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38065382</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by algas in "The Cloud Computer"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>I agree, it seems the same to me. They have the allure of "we do it different" along with the promise of "we do it well".<p>Unrelated, but a "costumer" makes costumes. I think you were looking for "customer".</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Fri, 27 Oct 2023 12:12:46 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38037458</link><dc:creator>algas</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38037458</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38037458</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by algas in "California suspends Cruise's autonomous vehicle deployment"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>Yeah, the lights in the back of your car can warn of exactly four things:<p>- The car is going to turn left (one blinking yellow light)
- The car is going to turn right (one blinking yellow light)
- The car is stopping (three solid red lights)
- An unspecified error occurred (two blinking yellow lights).<p>It's not exactly a high - bandwidth form of communication. Most of the purpose of the lights behind your car is to remind other human drivers of your continued existence. As you point out, some of this deficiency can be made up by not looking at them.<p>Imagine a world where you could automatically talk over an intercom with the driver in front of you about traffic conditions. I bet you'd find safer, better-informed driving. Self-driving cars make that theoretically easy and humanly pleasant.</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Wed, 25 Oct 2023 10:23:20 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38011260</link><dc:creator>algas</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38011260</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38011260</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by algas in "Cubic spline interpolation"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>I was hoping someone would mention the variational properties of splines, so I'm glad to see you bring up their energy minimization. In  Strang's Intro to Applied Mathematics, he briefly mentions (at the end of the section on splines) that a spline interpolation can be found by minimum principles, since it's essentially passing a beam in bending through the control points. I was curious if anyone has used that practically, eg writing a finite element spline solver?</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Mon, 23 Oct 2023 02:58:51 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37981110</link><dc:creator>algas</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37981110</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37981110</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by algas in "Localization Failure: Temperature Is Hard"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>You may have overcorrected a bit; 300 Kelvin is written 300K, not 300 °K. (The system is a mess.)</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Wed, 18 Oct 2023 07:25:04 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37925771</link><dc:creator>algas</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37925771</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37925771</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by algas in "Is the Physics of Time Changing?"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>Better than "event" would be "state", as in theoretically measurable arrangement of things.</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Fri, 29 Sep 2023 00:40:37 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37697902</link><dc:creator>algas</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37697902</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37697902</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by algas in "The Paradox That Broke Set Theory"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>The "paradox" is really a contradiction of the axiom of unrestricted comprehension:<p><pre><code>    To every condition there corresponds a set of things meeting the condition. 
</code></pre>
Unrestricted comprehension allows you to build sets out of whole cloth, and seems reasonable. Of course everything divisible by two is a set, of course every prime number is a set. It's tempting to say that the set is simply defined by a single condition, and if some item fulfills that condition, it gets to be in the set.<p>Your example would not violate the axiom of unrestricted comprehension. No primes are divisible by 4, so the set of all primes divisible by 4 is the empty set. Russell's paradox does. He chose a condition that depends on the result of creating a set using that condition. "The set of all sets that do not contain themselves" can't contain itself, but it can't <i>not</i> contain itself either -- since either case would imply the opposite must be true.<p>The result is that unrestricted comprehension gets pared back. Instead of building a set from a condition, all sets must be built from a condition <i>and a pre-existing set</i>. A single infinite set corresponding to the natural numbers is given as an axiom, and all further sets (integers, real numbers, topological spaces, fields, and so on) are built from there.</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Sat, 23 Sep 2023 07:43:09 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37621400</link><dc:creator>algas</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37621400</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37621400</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by algas in "FAA authorizes Zipline to deliver commercial packages using drones"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>Noise pollution and collisions are a much, much larger problem with cars, since they're constrained to two dimensions while drones can use three. Plus, cars tend to kill people when they collide with each other (or with pedestrians), and drones would not. Hopefully they will all use engineered quiet propellers (such as Zipline uses) and electric engines (similarly).</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Wed, 20 Sep 2023 07:14:28 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37581307</link><dc:creator>algas</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37581307</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37581307</guid></item></channel></rss>