Hacker News: balfirevic

New comment by balfirevic in "New thermoelectric cooling breakthrough nearly doubles efficiency"

balfirevic — Sun, 21 Sep 2025 17:21:49 +0000

> I believe the science is pretty clear that in principle these beat gas phase change systems.

Do you know by how much?

New comment by balfirevic in "How to motivate yourself to do a thing you don't want to do"

balfirevic — Thu, 18 Sep 2025 11:08:32 +0000

Some people will sleep through alarms, turning them off without remembering it.

But more importantly, if your sleep schedule is shifted you might not actually be able to fall asleep when you need to, even if you haven't had enough sleep. After a few days you will be exhausted, fall asleep in the afternoon and take a nice 4 hour nap, leaving you unable to fall asleep until very late, after which the cycle continues.

New comment by balfirevic in "How to motivate yourself to do a thing you don't want to do"

balfirevic — Wed, 17 Sep 2025 21:18:08 +0000

Can you expand? What's actionable about it?

New comment by balfirevic in "How to motivate yourself to do a thing you don't want to do"

balfirevic — Wed, 17 Sep 2025 19:26:23 +0000

> Go to bed early

Why? You have 24 hours in a day no matter when you sleep. How did it help?

New comment by balfirevic in "How to motivate yourself to do a thing you don't want to do"

balfirevic — Wed, 17 Sep 2025 18:05:33 +0000

> the only way to do things you don’t want to do is to do them

Do you have anything that's not tautological?

New comment by balfirevic in "Waymo has received our pilot permit allowing for commercial operations at SFO"

balfirevic — Tue, 16 Sep 2025 19:04:39 +0000

> Trains are self-driving. Europe already has the better self-driving system.

Well, I'm in Europe and it ain't here. Waymo can't get here fast enough.

New comment by balfirevic in "From burner phones to decks of cards: NYC teens adjusting to the smartphone ban"

balfirevic — Thu, 11 Sep 2025 14:32:35 +0000

On the other hand, I would not have learned to play the guitar without the high-speed internet.

New comment by balfirevic in "The elegance of movement in Silksong"

balfirevic — Tue, 09 Sep 2025 15:11:22 +0000

> I bet if we all wait a year, the back and forth will die down and we'll be left with a game that gets similar acclaim to Hollow Knight.

Sounds great, because I think it doesn't get much better than that.

New comment by balfirevic in "What brain surgery taught me about the fragile gift of consciousness"

balfirevic — Tue, 02 Sep 2025 11:53:28 +0000

> Sold up. Put everything on 00 and gave the wheel a spin.

Wait, what?

New comment by balfirevic in "Income Equality in Nordic Countries: Myths, Facts, and Lessons"

balfirevic — Sat, 30 Aug 2025 01:11:09 +0000

I eat whatever I want, don't really exercise and I'm not fat. I guess I just have awesome willpower.

New comment by balfirevic in "German Economist fined €16,100 for sarcastic X posts"

balfirevic — Fri, 29 Aug 2025 16:55:54 +0000

> This is nothing new

Well, it's authoritarian bullshit and deserves contempt. There is nothing redeeming int the fact that it's been going on for a long time.

New comment by balfirevic in "Left to Right Programming"

balfirevic — Tue, 19 Aug 2025 10:15:19 +0000

My impression was the parent poster was talking about order of operations like projection and selection, where you might more commonly write:

Π(σ(R)) instead of σ(Π(R))

and not about whether relational algebra uses prefix or postfix notation:

Π(σ(R)) vs. R > σ > Π

SQL's WHERE statement (and others) works totally differently from SELECT in that regard, so it doesn't make much sense to say that "SELECT comes first because relational algebra".

New comment by balfirevic in "Left to Right Programming"

balfirevic — Tue, 19 Aug 2025 02:23:32 +0000

> It's written that way because it stems from relational algebra, in which the projection is typically (always?) written first.

It's inspired by a mish-mash of both relational algebra and relational calculus, but the reason why SELECT comes first is because authors wanted it to read like English (it was originally called Structured English Query Language).

You can write the relational algebra operators in any order you want to get the result you want.

New comment by balfirevic in "Left to Right Programming"

balfirevic — Tue, 19 Aug 2025 01:53:18 +0000

> This was a historical decision because SQL is a declarative language

It would be equally declarative if FROM came first.

New comment by balfirevic in "Open hardware desktop 3D printing is dead?"

balfirevic — Fri, 15 Aug 2025 16:26:46 +0000

Which ones do you have in mind? Enclosed "desktop" mills, like Nomad 3 - that I can understand (although that one is pricey, and I can't can't even find what it would cost to get where I live).

Regular mills and lathes would basically turn the room where it's located into a shop, with chips flying everywhere, so you better have a spare room. Noise might also be a problem. Even moving them is a project by itself. Tall ask for a hobbyist.

New comment by balfirevic in "Open hardware desktop 3D printing is dead?"

balfirevic — Fri, 15 Aug 2025 13:55:22 +0000

> Many plastic parts makers are making would be better as metal done on lathes and milling machines

I'd love to, but I'm not getting those into my apartment.

New comment by balfirevic in "Installing a mini-split AC in a Brooklyn apartment"

balfirevic — Sun, 10 Aug 2025 00:55:57 +0000

If we're talking about https://mylinkdrive.com/USA/M_Series I also can't access it, I get:

  This site can’t be reached
  Check if there is a typo in mylinkdrive.com.
  DNS_PROBE_FINISHED_NXDOMAIN

New comment by balfirevic in "Installing a mini-split AC in a Brooklyn apartment"

balfirevic — Sun, 10 Aug 2025 00:42:29 +0000

I view "heat pump" as a technical term describing how some heaters/coolers/dehumidifiers/clothes driers/fridges work. Wikipedia seems to somewhat agree with me, although article about heat pumps seems focused on space heaters and coolers.

> yet the term air conditioner has a distinct meaning that is silly to try to pretend not to recognize

Well, yes, in US it apparently means "heat pump based space cooler". Where I live it means "heat pump based space heater and cooler".

New comment by balfirevic in "Installing a mini-split AC in a Brooklyn apartment"

balfirevic — Sun, 10 Aug 2025 00:35:09 +0000

> Cripple is a fairly strong word here.

Well... I'm in Europe, so I don't know if I ever saw a heat pump that can't operate both ways :-)

New comment by balfirevic in "Installing a mini-split AC in a Brooklyn apartment"

balfirevic — Sat, 09 Aug 2025 23:22:54 +0000

> A heat pump is an air conditioner that can run in reverse

Is this really the correct terminology? I'd say every AC is a heat pump, whether or not it can run in reverse, because that's how it works. It pumps heat from a colder place to a warmer place.

If it has been crippled so that it can't run in reverse, that's crappy and unfortunate, but it makes it no less of a heat pump.