Hacker News: aworks

New comment by aworks in "Nearly 200 people under observation after Irkutsk lab worker dies from plague"

aworks — Mon, 05 Oct 2026 04:28:35 +0000

I preferred the Nuclear War scenario book. Same style of narrative mixed with expert insights. The first several days of the scenario were riveting, after that less so. This one tries to describe the impact of social media and influencers, which I found inconclusive.

She also reports that Bush rode in the back of a laundry truck on the day of 9/11 to avoid detection getting to the Doomsday plane. Single source attribution, though.

New comment by aworks in "RSS Feeds for Last.fm"

aworks — Thu, 01 Oct 2026 02:52:53 +0000

I've been using xiffy last.fm feeds for awhile and am satisfied with the combo.

New comment by aworks in "Previously unheard recordings of John Coltrane, captured by Frank Tiberi"

aworks — Sun, 27 Sep 2026 18:42:51 +0000

And the recordist, Frank Tiberi, is a jazz saxophonist and has played with the Woody Herman big band (with whom I saw in the 70s). Also teaches at Berklee College of Music in Boston.

New comment by aworks in "Alan Kay: Shannon gave us a way of dealing with noisy channels [video]"

aworks — Fri, 25 Sep 2026 20:01:36 +0000

Alvin Lucier wrote other highly interesting, if unconventional works, although similar to John Cage's 4'33", this is the one that achieved meme status as conceptual art.

New comment by aworks in "Meta bans ads for Virginia Woolf play in Spain"

aworks — Mon, 21 Sep 2026 16:15:47 +0000

I wanted to parenthetically say that I recently saw Job, set in the Bay Area. The show was provocative and contemporary. I don't remember if I saw an ad for it...

"Jane, an employee at a big tech company, has been placed on leave after video of her emotional breakdown at work went viral. Her employers tell Jane she must be evaluated by crisis therapist Loyd before she can be reinstated to the job that gives her life meaning."

https://www.writerstheatre.org/events/job

New comment by aworks in "Meta bans ads for Virginia Woolf play in Spain"

aworks — Mon, 21 Sep 2026 15:49:25 +0000

Is this an EU or Spain issue? I regularly attend at a theatre in Chicago that has socially "sensitive" plays. I often see their ads on Facebook.

New comment by aworks in "How Hacker News ranking works: scoring, controversy, and penalties (2013)"

aworks — Sun, 20 Sep 2026 01:48:31 +0000

For those of us scanning Hacker News by RSS, this additional feed is helpful

https://hnrss.github.io/#reply-feeds

New comment by aworks in "Global shortage has led to motor oil rationing at Costco"

aworks — Mon, 14 Sep 2026 02:03:02 +0000

Likewise with my Jeep Gladiator. I traveled, hauled and camped with it more than I ever expected.

The bed is only 5 feet long but I'm thinking of taking out part of the back seat for even more room .

I also used 4x4 in 4H mode more than I thought on bad roads even though I didn't go truly off-road that much so no need for 4L. I did take advantage of the higher wheel clearance and the more rugged suspension and the 8-speed manual shifting is useful going down mountain roads.

New comment by aworks in "How to buy a good car for $1000"

aworks — Sat, 12 Sep 2026 15:13:00 +0000

My dad put electrical tape over the check engine light in my car...

New comment by aworks in "Apple Watch Series 12"

aworks — Fri, 11 Sep 2026 18:35:44 +0000

Hah. I read that as pressing the "Digital Clown."

New comment by aworks in "Young Americans have never witnessed a functioning foreign policy"

aworks — Tue, 08 Sep 2026 17:21:10 +0000

Hardly any losses except for the violent deaths of hundreds of thousands of Iraqis over a decade.

New comment by aworks in "Over 5,200 Ebola cases recorded in Congo"

aworks — Mon, 24 Aug 2026 14:51:38 +0000

Which reminds me of being at the SFO baggage claim. A security dog went straight for a person's bag. The security officer opened it up and found an old, stale sandwich. The person said they had forgotten their mother had stashed it there.

New comment by aworks in "Because It's Not Fun Enough: why languages fail"

aworks — Mon, 10 Aug 2026 12:55:00 +0000

I'm retired now but it never occurred to me the vocational languages I enjoyed most were all respectable or false starts (or obscure): FORTRAN, Pascal, Icon, Ada, Tcl.

And in hindsight, I only grudgingly accepted the immortals, although I recognized at the time they would be widely adopted: C, C++, Java, Javascript, and Python.

Is awk still respectable? Is it even a programming language?