Hacker News: barney54

New comment by barney54 in "John C. Dvorak has died"

barney54 — Wed, 22 Jul 2026 22:26:49 +0000

This is exactly who it sounds like Dvorak was. I never got to know him like that, but being a public curmudgeon, but private warm-hearted person is a pretty great compliment.

New comment by barney54 in "John C. Dvorak has died"

barney54 — Wed, 22 Jul 2026 22:24:22 +0000

I enjoyed John and Leo butting heads. I agree that it was great. It's a bummer they haven't done that for a long time.

New comment by barney54 in "EU Parliament greenlights Chat Control 1.0"

barney54 — Fri, 10 Jul 2026 13:16:29 +0000

I write Donald sometimes. If you say Donald in the right context we know who are talking about. Or Kier or Emmanuel. There is nothing wrong with first names of public figures.

New comment by barney54 in "County with 37 Data Centers Asks Schools to 'Conserve Electricity'"

barney54 — Tue, 30 Jun 2026 18:16:26 +0000

So far, the data are clear--data centers are not increasing electricity rates. Those are the facts. https://www.instituteforenergyresearch.org/the-grid/the-numb... This may change in the future, but so far, there is no statistically significant correlation.

Not only that, but states with increasing electricity consumption have lower rates. So it's possible data center will lead to lower rates.

New comment by barney54 in "The Internet Has Become Too American to Trust"

barney54 — Sat, 30 May 2026 02:08:03 +0000

Except the environment in the U.S.—better air quality than almost all of Europe. Except natural beauty in the U.S.— the U.S. has some truly beautiful places to visit and to live. The people are very friendly, especially outside of the cities. These are all good things about the U.S. that has nothing to do with the fact that the U.S. is rich (actually the U.S. being rich is one reason air quality is improving and better than Europe).

New comment by barney54 in "The Pack That Killed the Pack Mule"

barney54 — Fri, 29 May 2026 03:20:58 +0000

I also had a Kelty pack. It was great for the time.

New comment by barney54 in "Alaska's oil revival sparks a new energy rush Into the Arctic"

barney54 — Mon, 25 May 2026 21:20:47 +0000

Types of energy are not fungible. In some circumstances they are, but not always.

New comment by barney54 in "Alaska's oil revival sparks a new energy rush Into the Arctic"

barney54 — Mon, 25 May 2026 21:19:36 +0000

That may be true, but also according to data from the U.S. Energy Information Administration, global oil production is up over 8% since 2017 (2017-2025). https://www.eia.gov/outlooks/steo/data/browser/#/?v=6&f=A&s=...

New comment by barney54 in "US–Indian space mission maps extreme subsidence in Mexico City"

barney54 — Sun, 03 May 2026 20:49:12 +0000

Nor does it say how much subsidence the satellite documented.

New comment by barney54 in "Palantir Workers Are Finally Noticing the Skulls on Their Caps"

barney54 — Sat, 02 May 2026 03:01:24 +0000

I mean, the likely democratic senate nominee literally has a nazi tattoo. Fascism still has its fans.

New comment by barney54 in "A Man Who Invented the Future"

barney54 — Sat, 25 Apr 2026 12:43:04 +0000

I read some AI slop earlier today and then read this. The AI slop was better than whatever this is.

New comment by barney54 in "A Man Who Invented the Future"

barney54 — Sat, 25 Apr 2026 12:41:33 +0000

The article concludes, stating that LLMs are the “apotheosis of knowledge stripped of animating spirit and reduced to mere utility.” Maybe, but LLMs have far more utility than this directionless essay.

New comment by barney54 in "NSA is using Anthropic's Mythos despite blacklist"

barney54 — Mon, 20 Apr 2026 11:28:23 +0000

It’s funny that you say that tweets are US policy when the Supreme Court struck down Trump’s tariffs.

New comment by barney54 in "The secrets of the Shinkansen"

barney54 — Tue, 14 Apr 2026 11:29:23 +0000

What is this corruption you are talking about? What specifically are you talking about? Things you don’t like aren’t necessarily the result of corruption.

New comment by barney54 in "The secrets of the Shinkansen"

barney54 — Tue, 14 Apr 2026 11:24:22 +0000

The U.S. can build trains and has a good rail system—for freight not passengers. It’s not obvious how Japan moves freight, but the U.S.’s rail system evolved to move freight efficiently. That is a huge difference and not necessarily the result of corruption or incompetence.

New comment by barney54 in "The secrets of the Shinkansen"

barney54 — Tue, 14 Apr 2026 11:21:33 +0000

What is seldom mentioned in these conversations is that the United States has a very good rail system—-for freight. That’s what the U.S. system did well, not passengers. From the article it isn’t obvious how Japan moves freight, but they obviously aren’t moving a lot of freight on the Shinkansen.

New comment by barney54 in "France to ditch Windows for Linux to reduce reliance on US tech"

barney54 — Fri, 10 Apr 2026 18:51:43 +0000

I don’t think it’s a question that Linux has more jank. I recently installed a fedora spin on a laptop that came with regular Fedora installed originally and the WiFi didn’t work. That’s some janky stuff right there.

New comment by barney54 in "Trump fires Pam Bondi as attorney general"

barney54 — Thu, 02 Apr 2026 18:17:35 +0000

I don't know why you are getting downvoted for this comment. Bondi's promoting the DOW during a hearing was bizarre.

New comment by barney54 in "Y Combinator CEO Garry Tan launches dark-money group to influence CA politics"

barney54 — Wed, 11 Feb 2026 22:15:05 +0000

Are you saving that an organization should be able to put together a documentary to criticize Trump and his supporters? Because that’s what Citizen’s United allowed. If you don’t support that, then the criticism will only come from rich individuals.

New comment by barney54 in "In Europe, wind and solar overtake fossil fuels"

barney54 — Thu, 22 Jan 2026 18:31:56 +0000

That’s because net metering is a transfer from people who can’t afford solar to the rich people who can. https://energyathaas.wordpress.com/2024/04/22/californias-ex...