Hacker News: arethuza

New comment by arethuza in "My adventure in designing API keys"

arethuza — Wed, 15 Apr 2026 09:16:33 +0000

"for rejecting api keys which might have a type" - assuming that is meant by to be "typo" - won't they get rejected anyway?

New comment by arethuza in "Oracle slashes 30k jobs"

arethuza — Tue, 31 Mar 2026 15:51:25 +0000

They acquired a lot of applications - ERP, CRM, finance - I suspect actual database licensing revenues are only a small part of their revenues these days.

Years ago I had some fun integrating with Hyperion Financial Management (HFM) - which is actually a pretty impressive beast if you need consolidated financial reporting!

New comment by arethuza in "We're Pausing Asimov Press"

arethuza — Tue, 31 Mar 2026 15:35:43 +0000

Well I'm pretty sure that Vulcan still isn't there!

New comment by arethuza in "We're Pausing Asimov Press"

arethuza — Tue, 31 Mar 2026 15:12:23 +0000

Maybe I should have mentioned that was about 50 years ago - still a good book though!

New comment by arethuza in "Audio tapes reveal mass rule-breaking in Milgram's obedience experiments"

arethuza — Tue, 31 Mar 2026 11:21:55 +0000

On that second point - I can strongly recommend the book Goliath's Curse by Luke Kemp:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Goliath%27s_Curse

New comment by arethuza in "We're Pausing Asimov Press"

arethuza — Tue, 31 Mar 2026 10:28:36 +0000

My mother bought me "The Planet that Wasn't" when I was a kid - excellent book that I re-read many times:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Planet_That_Wasn%27t

New comment by arethuza in "The Military Failures of Fascism"

arethuza — Fri, 27 Mar 2026 14:36:53 +0000

One of my favourite Robert the Bruce stories is about all the adventures his heart had once he died and it was removed from his body:

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

New comment by arethuza in "The Military Failures of Fascism"

arethuza — Fri, 27 Mar 2026 09:16:42 +0000

Indeed, but it's interesting that it is included in the Declaration of Arbroath asking the Pope to recognise Scotland's independence - I think it might have been to emphasise that it wasn't just about his wants but all of the Scottish aristocracy?

New comment by arethuza in "The Military Failures of Fascism"

arethuza — Thu, 26 Mar 2026 12:17:18 +0000

Robert the Bruce, King of Scots, held his position on the condition that "...if he should give up what he has begun, seeking to make us or our kingdom subject to the King of England or the English, we should exert ourselves at once to drive him out as our enemy and a subverter of his own right and ours, and make some other man who was well able to defend us our King"

New comment by arethuza in "Earthquake scientists reveal how overplowing weakens soil at experimental farm"

arethuza — Thu, 26 Mar 2026 09:57:39 +0000

Our house sits on a small basalt volcanic plug and the solid dark rock lurks not very far under our garden - 100m north of us and its sandstone, 100m south and it is limestone.

Digging a hole of any depth would probably require explosives!

New comment by arethuza in "Migrating to the EU"

arethuza — Mon, 23 Mar 2026 14:04:59 +0000

"exceptionally short-sighted Brits"

Probably something along the lines of "nice nuclear deterrent shame if it was to stop working" or "nice carriers, shame if the only aeroplanes that can fly from them stopped working"....

New comment by arethuza in "Bombarding gamblers with offers greatly increases betting and gambling harm"

arethuza — Fri, 20 Mar 2026 09:16:39 +0000

How do you define "gambling" though - the YouTube ads I see for crypto trading apps and outright betting apps look very similar. Mind you I don't gamble or "invest" in crypto...

New comment by arethuza in "The American Healthcare Conundrum"

arethuza — Tue, 17 Mar 2026 11:54:32 +0000

In Scotland and, I think, Wales there are no subscription charges at all.

New comment by arethuza in "Every layer of review makes you 10x slower"

arethuza — Tue, 17 Mar 2026 09:16:05 +0000

"Surely I could do a mediocre job as a CxO by parroting whatever is hot on Linkedin"

Having worked for a pretty decent CIO of a global business I'd say his main job was to travel about speak to other senior leaders and work out what business problems they had and try and work out, at a very high level, how technology would fit into that addressing those problems.

Just parroting latest technology trends would, I suspect, get you sacked within a few weeks.

New comment by arethuza in "The bureaucracy blocking the chance at a cure"

arethuza — Tue, 17 Mar 2026 08:52:38 +0000

Worth noting that "eligibility for COVID vaccines" is for "free at the point of delivery" NHS treatment - you can still get it elsewhere at any age. Boots (a major chain of pharmacies) do it for £98:

https://www.boots.com/online/pharmacy-services/covid-19-vacc...

New comment by arethuza in "Ask HN: What is it like being in a CS major program these days?"

arethuza — Mon, 16 Mar 2026 11:49:51 +0000

That was my experience in the 80's - we were taught theory, we had to apply the theory in projects so we spent lots of time programming and getting stuff working - but we were pretty much expected to pick up particular languages, operating systems or libraries by ourselves.

The CS theory (i.e. maths based) side of it really has stuck with me - only other thing being vi controls being hardwired in my brain even though I went on to become more of an emacs fan...

New comment by arethuza in "Newcomb's Paradox Needs a Demon"

arethuza — Thu, 12 Mar 2026 12:51:54 +0000

I would think that the existence of a flawless predictor is probably more likely to indicate that memories of predictions, and any associated records, have been modified to make the predictor appear flawless.

New comment by arethuza in "Google closes deal to acquire Wiz"

arethuza — Thu, 12 Mar 2026 12:09:43 +0000

About 20 years ago I quite liked the idea of becoming a CISO - the CIO I worked for at the time talked me out of it - saying that the role would largely involve being ignored then, when something inevitably did go wrong, you'd get sacked.

New comment by arethuza in "I'm Getting a Whiff of Iain Banks' Culture"

arethuza — Mon, 09 Mar 2026 16:46:42 +0000

A Culture Mind would at least have a clear set of objectives and a plan for how to achieve them? "Bomb everything forever" doesn't seem very like the Culture at all?

New comment by arethuza in "The engine of Germany's wealth is blocking its future"

arethuza — Mon, 09 Mar 2026 16:09:50 +0000

About 20 years ago I can remember a German colleague describing the quality of engineering by Mercedes as a "national disgrace". I wonder what he thinks now!