Hacker News: bandofthehawk

New comment by bandofthehawk in "Solving the “Zork” Mystery"

bandofthehawk — Sat, 23 May 2026 14:51:23 +0000

General jargon like foobar is not that far off in meaning from "unfinished software". I think it's possible there's not really a contradiction between the different sources. The "unfinished software" meaning in the NYT article might have just been an example of one possible use of a more general nonsense word.

New comment by bandofthehawk in "Is my blue your blue? (2024)"

bandofthehawk — Mon, 27 Apr 2026 23:05:10 +0000

I feel the same way, after the first couple of responses, I was just thinking it's blue-green. So I just had to pick randomly.

A better interface would have been to just show the final spectrum pic and slide to where you think the separation is.

New comment by bandofthehawk in "Plants can sense the sound of rain, a new study finds"

bandofthehawk — Sun, 26 Apr 2026 20:11:02 +0000

I was thinking along similar lines. If this was purely due to brain signals, I would think the artificial sweetener would also work.

New comment by bandofthehawk in "US special forces soldier arrested after allegedly winning $400k on Maduro raid"

bandofthehawk — Fri, 24 Apr 2026 14:19:47 +0000

Power resides where men believe it resides. It’s a trick. A shadow on the wall. And a very small man can cast a very large shadow.

New comment by bandofthehawk in "US special forces soldier arrested after allegedly winning $400k on Maduro raid"

bandofthehawk — Fri, 24 Apr 2026 14:14:51 +0000

No one did of course, but it's a common tactic of distraction to try to focus the attention on something else. That way people don't have to experience the discomfort thinking about the negative thing going on in their own society.

New comment by bandofthehawk in "America will come to regret its war on taxes"

bandofthehawk — Sat, 18 Apr 2026 19:09:17 +0000

Ross Perot comes to mind, but I think he wanted to balance the budget mostly be cutting spending.

New comment by bandofthehawk in "The threat is comfortable drift toward not understanding what you're doing"

bandofthehawk — Sun, 05 Apr 2026 22:27:08 +0000

A more fair comparison might be, do you learn as much by reading one full paper vs. in a similar amount of time reading summaries of 3-4 papers, asking questions about details, reading the portions of those papers that you are interested in, etc.

New comment by bandofthehawk in "The threat is comfortable drift toward not understanding what you're doing"

bandofthehawk — Sun, 05 Apr 2026 20:52:29 +0000

In 2002, there war in Iraq had large popular support, something like 70-80 percent. It took a few years for people to realize it was based on a lie and was a massive mistake. It was also morally reprehensible, but that part is not often discussed in mainstream US politics.

If you compare that to the current Iran war, a majority of the population is already against it, however the current administration doesn't seem to care much about public opinion, and there doesn't seem to be much that the public can do about it.

New comment by bandofthehawk in "The Cathedral, the Bazaar, and the Winchester Mystery House"

bandofthehawk — Sat, 04 Apr 2026 15:32:56 +0000

Originally "the GNU project" was supposed to be an operating system. That might be what the parent post was referencing.

New comment by bandofthehawk in "Typing and Keyboards"

bandofthehawk — Sun, 29 Mar 2026 19:53:48 +0000

120 wpm using mostly thumb and index fingers sounds insane to me. I type using standard touch typing and can only get to about 60 wpm. I've always been a bit of a slow typist. Can I ask how you measured the 120 wpm?

New comment by bandofthehawk in "Explore the Hidden World of Sand"

bandofthehawk — Fri, 27 Mar 2026 19:02:09 +0000

It would be nice if they included zoomed out pictures as well, is hard to tell what the beaches look like in person from the magnified sand.

New comment by bandofthehawk in "Miscellanea: The War in Iran"

bandofthehawk — Thu, 26 Mar 2026 05:08:19 +0000

> Antisemitism is at all times high.

It's always high, or did you mean at an all time high? How does antisemitism in America today compare to Russia in the 1800s?

New comment by bandofthehawk in "Austin’s surge of new housing construction drove down rents"

bandofthehawk — Thu, 19 Mar 2026 14:08:20 +0000

I believe the market in the US selects for urban sprawl because it's usually subsidized by the dense urban core. Suburban areas often don't generate enough tax revenue to support their own infrastructure and services.

New comment by bandofthehawk in "The American Healthcare Conundrum"

bandofthehawk — Tue, 17 Mar 2026 15:08:24 +0000

I think this difference mostly disappears if you group Americans by wealth. So wealthy Americans have similar life expectancies to those in other countries. It's really the poor that are most affected by our dystopian healthcare system, which is probably a big part of why it never gets fixed.

New comment by bandofthehawk in "The American Healthcare Conundrum"

bandofthehawk — Tue, 17 Mar 2026 01:41:57 +0000

If the Japanese cashier makes half the amount, but spends only 1/3 on healthcare that still seems to favor Japan

New comment by bandofthehawk in "US commercial insurers pay 254% of Medicare for the same hospital procedures"

bandofthehawk — Tue, 17 Mar 2026 01:34:51 +0000

But prices already have skyrocketed, and insurance execs have already become significantly richer. Why didn't the feedback loops work?

New comment by bandofthehawk in "Americans are destroying Flock surveillance cameras"

bandofthehawk — Mon, 23 Feb 2026 23:54:28 +0000

Obama only tried to close Guantanamo by moving the prisoners to the United States, which is arguably worse than having them in Guantanamo. It would mean that you could hold prisoners in the United States indefinitely without trial. What he should have done was give the prisoners fair trials or release them.

New comment by bandofthehawk in "In world without BlackBerry, physical keyboards on phones are making a comeback"

bandofthehawk — Mon, 23 Feb 2026 00:24:16 +0000

I still have my original Motorola Droid, I would buy one in a second if they came out with a modern version.

New comment by bandofthehawk in "How to stop being boring"

bandofthehawk — Fri, 20 Feb 2026 14:52:24 +0000

Doesn't almost every situation have a minimum required codex? Sure, you should be yourself with your friends. But if they are already your friends, then you are likely already interesting enough. I thought the article was more about how to be interesting to people who don't already know you.

New comment by bandofthehawk in "How to stop being boring"

bandofthehawk — Fri, 20 Feb 2026 14:44:11 +0000

Well said, this was similar to what I was thinking while reading this. Acting in a completely unfiltered way can get you into fights, arrested, or worse.