Hacker News: astahlx

New comment by astahlx in "Rack-mount hydroponics"

astahlx — Sun, 15 Mar 2026 08:53:33 +0000

Having it closed (like this server rack) allows for controlled air circulation if fans are installed and flow paths are designed properly. Also, in case heating is needed, for example, if operated in the basement the heat loss can be reduced.

New comment by astahlx in "Rack-mount hydroponics"

astahlx — Sun, 15 Mar 2026 06:21:48 +0000

I also built something similar. In the end I appreciated the services our nature provides to us even more. Replicating all this artificially is really hard and energy intensive. Planting and growing plans outsides is fun and rewarding; adding all the tech in the end felt like a big waste of resources.

My motivation to work on such a project was my disbelief in human mankind to keep our planet earth habitable.

New comment by astahlx in "Tony Hoare has died"

astahlx — Tue, 10 Mar 2026 17:26:02 +0000

Tony advised me to make money with the software model checker I have been writing. In contrast to the typical practice to make these tools open source and free for use. Would have loved to learn more from him. He was a great teacher but also a great and sharp listener. Still remember the detour we made on the way to a bar in London, talking too much and deep about refinement relations. RiP.

New comment by astahlx in "Coccinelle: Source-to-source transformation tool"

astahlx — Sat, 21 Feb 2026 19:14:38 +0000

I can only agree. It is great work; I met Julia in several occasions were we other academics tried to push our formal methods stuff for checking properties of the Linux kernel. Also ours worked but in a way more complicated way, very resource intense, and less effective than Julia’s work.

New comment by astahlx in "US plans online portal to bypass content bans in Europe and elsewhere"

astahlx — Fri, 20 Feb 2026 06:12:56 +0000

In the end, facts are useless. You belief what you think your social bubble, and in particular, the group you think you belong to, is thinking. And many people do not speak up. Mostly those with strong (often selfish) interests speak up, and often in a manipulative way. Having narcissist or sociopaths as leader can indeed be a bad thing. Some sort of media control is good, to protect core values, to protect the law against mass manipulation.

New comment by astahlx in "Em Dash in Reddit Comments, Interactive"

astahlx — Mon, 22 Dec 2025 11:13:28 +0000

Using em dash is just fine. Academic writing teached me using it. However, I have to admit that use of AI is accelerating its „adoption“.

New comment by astahlx in "Ask HN: Was Google Search and Services down for anyone else?"

astahlx — Fri, 19 Dec 2025 13:33:12 +0000

Have the problem for YouTube now for several minutes

New comment by astahlx in "Is AI what Africa needs to build?"

astahlx — Fri, 05 Dec 2025 18:00:09 +0000

Having a close look at the problems to be solved should be the first step. Also, Africa is big and rather heterogeneous. AI can help but is no silver bullet.

New comment by astahlx in "The new calculus of AI-based coding"

astahlx — Tue, 28 Oct 2025 05:43:52 +0000

It depends on how you define testing now: Property-based testing would test sets of behaviors. The main idea is: Formalize your goal before implementing. So specification driven development would be the thing to aim for. And at some point we might be able to model check (proof) the code that has been generated. Then we are the good old idea of code synthesis.

New comment by astahlx in "Tesla reports steep drop in profits despite US rush to buy electric vehicles"

astahlx — Thu, 23 Oct 2025 05:29:57 +0000

Just try and VW ID7 or Audi A6 etron.

New comment by astahlx in "Tesla reports steep drop in profits despite US rush to buy electric vehicles"

astahlx — Thu, 23 Oct 2025 05:24:38 +0000

Tesla is not a luxury brand, but they ask for premium prices, compared to the value (worst in ADAC statistics on repairs)

“ In 1974, a new car cost an average of 5320 euros. The average income was 13,928 euros per year, so a buyer had to work for an average of 4.6 months for a new car. 20 years later, it was already 7.4 months per new car. Until 2019, this number remained stable, but then it skyrocketed. Today, a buyer has to spend all his income from 9.6 months of employment to buy a new car. For more expensive e-cars, it is even 11.4 months. The reason is stagnant incomes, but also high profit margins of the manufacturers.” https://www.tagesschau.de/wirtschaft/verbraucher/kosten-auto...

From my personal perspective, as an employed software engineer, all cars over 50k are luxury.

New comment by astahlx in "Show HN: Hacker News em dash user leaderboard pre-ChatGPT"

astahlx — Sat, 30 Aug 2025 07:04:31 +0000

I started using emdashes in my academic career, after my advisor pointed me to the subtle differences. And since then, I like and use emdash a lot. In Latex, it is easily produced, just keep the spacing rules in mind. The Punctuation Guide is a nice reference on it https://www.thepunctuationguide.com/

New comment by astahlx in "GPT-5 leaked system prompt?"

astahlx — Fri, 08 Aug 2025 06:25:34 +0000

Looks like fake to me, too. I have asked it on its raw defaults for generating React and they are considerably different.

New comment by astahlx in "Stargate Norway"

astahlx — Thu, 31 Jul 2025 06:00:42 +0000

I do not understand why they chose Norway. I would choose a country where it is easy to build up a new power plant quickly with solar and wind, close to the site of the data center. Maybe they just have too much electricity up there that is not needed by the population or existing industry?

New comment by astahlx in "What if AI made the world’s economic growth explode?"

astahlx — Sat, 26 Jul 2025 05:36:55 +0000

The civilization will destroy itself first. States are not addressing what really matters and especially not the multi billion/trillion companies. The US fight against social security and less inequality, the things that wealth should enable. We are destroying jobs that brought purpose, just because some small percentages in margin. We are not training the AIs to solve climate change but to code well. Maybe it’s time for the UN to become the main government of this world, to deal well with the uneven distribution and discrimination of work force. It is too much about egos, too much thinking in cultural groups to protect from outsiders, too much war and destruction, still too much burning fossil fuels, too much destruction of our environment and the nature. Maybe with the appearance of aliens first to have a visible outer enemy first? But I guess it will be the same as always: as long as most find some distraction, some misinformation that calms down fears and anxieties, nothing will change for the common good.

New comment by astahlx in "Countries across the world see food price shocks from climate extremes"

astahlx — Wed, 23 Jul 2025 07:00:50 +0000

I see the war in Ukraine as one of them. They have huge areas of farm land, valuable in times where climate change makes farming impossible in other regions. And many big companies and countries are already invested in there. You can already see how dependent some countries are on this base on the different price spikes. (While the question remains if farm products should be traded on stock markets).

New comment by astahlx in "Countries across the world see food price shocks from climate extremes"

astahlx — Wed, 23 Jul 2025 06:09:00 +0000

I do not understand all the relativations here: If we crash the climate, we destroy the foundations for living on this planet, at least for most of us (billions). Sure, the current question is why we suddenly have none for weapons and even mightier AI while this would better be spend to get away from fossil fuels.

New comment by astahlx in "Countries across the world see food price shocks from climate extremes"

astahlx — Wed, 23 Jul 2025 06:01:34 +0000

We should not rely on gas for producing mineral fertilizers: https://www.carbonbrief.org/fertiliser-emissions-could-be-cu...

New comment by astahlx in "Countries across the world see food price shocks from climate extremes"

astahlx — Wed, 23 Jul 2025 05:56:39 +0000

Evidence? Olive oil got more expensive because of weather extremes https://www.bbc.com/travel/article/20231218-why-olive-oil-pr... . Who sets the rule that one oil must be cheaper than the other? Which country? Which type of olive oil?

New comment by astahlx in "Polystate: Composable Finite State Machines"

astahlx — Mon, 23 Jun 2025 05:58:11 +0000

How would you compare it to Rust Type States, for example: https://cliffle.com/blog/rust-typestate/ ?