Hacker News: biofox

New comment by biofox in "Bonnie Tyler, singer of Total Eclipse of the Heart, dies aged 75"

biofox — Thu, 09 Jul 2026 12:47:38 +0000

"Number 5 is alive!"

New comment by biofox in "Copy That Floppy – Cambridge guide for preserving data from fragile floppy disks"

biofox — Wed, 08 Jul 2026 06:54:22 +0000

I lost the only recordings of my band when Myspace Music died.

At one point, I also had files on RapidShare. They probably weren't of any value, but I have no idea what they were now.

New comment by biofox in "This blog is written in en-GB"

biofox — Thu, 02 Jul 2026 12:52:21 +0000

I am the only Brit in the department I work in. No one gets the cultural references or British idioms I use, and I've found myself significantly changing the language I use to a very utilitarian and direct style to prevent the endless blank stares... reading this blog post just made me realise that this self-editing has made my interactions rather more 'flat' and unnatural, as they now lack spontaneity, with everything passing through a secondary filter before leaving my brain.

New comment by biofox in "What happened to nerds?"

biofox — Mon, 15 Jun 2026 10:49:15 +0000

I got into programming and computers due to their intellectual depth, and the exciting opportunities they opened to explore everything from electronics to obscure areas of mathematics... through to theory of mind and the dream of making silicon think.

The combination of endless trend-chasing, software churn, and techbro culture made me hate everything about software, so I jumped ship to biology.

New comment by biofox in "Claude Fable 5"

biofox — Wed, 10 Jun 2026 08:04:41 +0000

Oh... I was wondering why every single chat (including "Hello") was being flagged.

Seems I am barred from using Fable just for being a biologist :(

New comment by biofox in "How much of Thermo Fisher's antibody data has been manipulated?"

biofox — Mon, 08 Jun 2026 13:49:23 +0000

Holy shmoly... I'm a biologist who has used Thermo antibodies before, and this is seriously disappointing to see.

New comment by biofox in "The lasting influence of Netscape Time"

biofox — Tue, 19 May 2026 09:48:48 +0000

Just discovered the documentary, and it's such an interesting time capsule. That period simultaneously feels like yesterday, and a lifetime ago.

New comment by biofox in "Princeton mandates proctoring for in-person exams, upending 133 year precedent"

biofox — Thu, 14 May 2026 07:29:18 +0000

Exactly the same as my experience in the UK.

New comment by biofox in "They Live (1988) inspired Adblocker"

biofox — Tue, 12 May 2026 15:30:33 +0000

Ugh... that worked, but I gave up once I got to the home page.

To quote the late, great, Ray Arnold...

"I hate this Hacker crap!"

New comment by biofox in "Show HN: Brutalist Concrete Laptop Stand (2024)"

biofox — Tue, 07 Apr 2026 14:23:44 +0000

It can't be a good idea to condition yourself to be comfortable around an exposed wire that's near to a real power socket.

New comment by biofox in "New laws to make it easier to cancel subscriptions and get refunds"

biofox — Thu, 02 Apr 2026 10:54:52 +0000

Good luck finding out how to contact customer support. The darkest dark pattern of them all.

New comment by biofox in "Why so many control rooms were seafoam green (2025)"

biofox — Fri, 27 Mar 2026 03:08:29 +0000

Reminding me that early Windows versions used to have this colour as the default desktop colour -- and I remember seeing similar tones on Mac and Unix desktops in the 90s.

https://faculty.washington.edu/ajko/books/user-interface-sof...

New comment by biofox in "System76 on Age Verification Laws"

biofox — Fri, 06 Mar 2026 10:47:52 +0000

That would require technical know-how.

It's much easier for clueless lawmakers to write "the computer check the age", and make it everyone else's problem.

New comment by biofox in "Show HN: Poppy – A simple app to stay intentional with relationships"

biofox — Thu, 05 Mar 2026 11:59:37 +0000

"Privacy isn't a feature — it's the foundation."

"No feed, no doomscrolling — just intention."

"Not your whole address book — just the ones you'd hate to lose touch with"

"You care deeply—you're just terrible at follow-through."

"You care deeply—your ADHD brain just doesn't..."

New comment by biofox in "Arabic document from 17th-cent. rubbish heap confirms semi-legendary Nubian king"

biofox — Thu, 05 Mar 2026 11:51:50 +0000

The Middle English spelling and phonetic shifts are what make it so painful to read. The words themselves though are mostly comprehensible with a bit of effort.

Go back another four hundred years to Old English and Beowulf and it becomes complete gobbledygook (to me at least).

New comment by biofox in "A brief history of barbed wire fence telephone networks (2024)"

biofox — Thu, 12 Feb 2026 16:04:56 +0000

The batteries were either charged using a "telephone magneto", or were taken to a local town to be charged off of mains electricity:

https://www.1900s.org.uk/1920s60s-windup-phones.htm

New comment by biofox in "A brief history of barbed wire fence telephone networks (2024)"

biofox — Thu, 12 Feb 2026 15:55:36 +0000

Very cool to see one comment linking to an old Sears magazine from the 1920s, showing some of the equipment people would have constructed these networks from:

https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=njp.32101066805050&vi...

The thing I'm most amazed by is how "modern" the catalogue is, especially the clothing and phonograph sections.

New comment by biofox in "CIA to Sunset the World Factbook"

biofox — Thu, 05 Feb 2026 14:20:44 +0000

Did you forget the /s?

Some people mentioned the dollar as the global reserve currency, but there's also the use of English as the global lingua franca, the US being the largest global destination for talent and investment, and countries (previous) willingness to make sacrifices or deal with the US on less-than-perfect terms out of a sense of shared culture.

New comment by biofox in "I miss thinking hard"

biofox — Wed, 04 Feb 2026 14:47:25 +0000

In silico duckying

New comment by biofox in "Apple I Advertisement (1976)"

biofox — Sun, 01 Feb 2026 19:41:52 +0000

What was the reasoning behind that?