Hacker News: bloke_zero

New comment by bloke_zero in "New 'super ice' 10 times stronger, bringing it close to the strength of concrete"

bloke_zero — Fri, 16 Oct 2026 11:49:58 +0000

Ice nine!

New comment by bloke_zero in "We Tested Nonstick Cookware: Coatings Don't Need to Look Worn to Shed Particles"

bloke_zero — Mon, 27 Jul 2026 14:30:19 +0000

Carbon steel is amazing - durable self repairing non-stick surface that after the inital seasoning is trivial to maintain: wash the pan with a brush when its still hot without any detergent - cleans in seconds.

Cast iron is good too but takes longer to heat the pan.

You only have to look in any professional kitchen - they don't use non-stick pans.

New comment by bloke_zero in "Ask HN: Do you say please and thank you to your LLMs?"

bloke_zero — Fri, 17 Jul 2026 10:55:30 +0000

No, it doesn’t have feelings - it would be like asking your washing machine to please wash your pants? Anthropomorphising LLMs seems deeply unhealthy.

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

bloke_zero — Tue, 12 May 2026 10:25:10 +0000

I wish I could upvote this 10 times! I love the film - blew my mind when I saw it on cable just after it came out.

New comment by bloke_zero in "Building a TB-303 from Scratch"

bloke_zero — Wed, 11 Mar 2026 14:33:20 +0000

There was a lot of work done on the RE_303 and the Pixie CPU (303/606) - I don't know much about it but it might give you another more recent vector to explore: https://github.com/sunflowr/recpu?tab=readme-ov-file

(I built one and as far as I know the Pixie CPU was the 303 code + MIDI)

'creepy' digital billboards that can track viewers' responses

bloke_zero — Tue, 09 Dec 2025 08:44:43 +0000

Article URL: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/dec/09/uk-campaigners-condemn-digital-billboards-track-viewers

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46202701

Points: 9

# Comments: 2

Big Tech are the new Soviets – We're in a planned economy now

bloke_zero — Thu, 04 Dec 2025 12:38:54 +0000

Article URL: https://unherd.com/2025/12/big-tech-are-the-new-soviets/

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46146976

Points: 7

# Comments: 2

New comment by bloke_zero in "Ask HN: How to approach first days on a new job as a senior engineer?"

bloke_zero — Fri, 10 Jan 2025 19:31:19 +0000

Try and talk to the other seniors? Last time I joined (fully remote) I asked all the other seniors for a 1 to 1 - not all replied but I learnt a huge amount about past projects, what people would have done differently and where the pain points were. Meant I could get a jump on the issues rather than find out slowly. You also get a sense of the weather and who you can vibe with. Oh yeah, taking notes about everything!

New comment by bloke_zero in "Why the Left needs to watch Star Trek"

bloke_zero — Sun, 05 Jan 2025 17:49:47 +0000

When I was a kid I thought the future would obviously be more “Star trek” as it had such a compelling interior logic. Sad times. Makes me want to go back and review the Picard years.

Why the Left needs to watch Star Trek

bloke_zero — Sun, 05 Jan 2025 17:40:42 +0000

Article URL: https://unherd.com/2025/01/why-the-left-needs-to-watch-star-trek/

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42603406

Points: 5

# Comments: 5

New comment by bloke_zero in "I need to grow away from these roots"

bloke_zero — Mon, 29 Jan 2024 10:29:05 +0000

If you're transcribing written music then it's fairly straight forward - you program the pitches in one round, press a button and input the note length values. If however you want to jam around like you might with any other seqencer driven synth I find it's too much to keep in your head so a pencil and paper with a 303 sequencer grid on it is pretty essential.

The Behringer lets you connect to an app via USB so you can program it that way too.

The sound engine is easy to use and the knobs encourage experimentation - the interaction of the filter, the envelope and the accent is where the fun is. And of course the slide!

New comment by bloke_zero in "Ask HN: What is a quote that permanently changed the way you think?"

bloke_zero — Mon, 25 Dec 2023 10:59:30 +0000

“Never whistle while you’re pissing” - Robert Anton Wilson in Illuminatus trilogy.

New comment by bloke_zero in "Restored 478-key, 31-tone Moog synthesizer from 1968"

bloke_zero — Fri, 22 Dec 2023 19:16:45 +0000

I notice there isn’t a lot of the actual performance? Banjo and synthesiser is always a tough call.

New comment by bloke_zero in "Cyclists now outnumber motorists in City of London"

bloke_zero — Mon, 20 Mar 2023 16:08:29 +0000

Not easy at home in London. Our flat would not allow a cargo bike (1st floor) and there is no where outside to lock it safe and dry.

60,000 people on a 4 year waiting list for on street bike parking:

https://www.standard.co.uk/news/london/london-cyclists-bike-...

Was Kurt Vonnegut a nice man?

bloke_zero — Thu, 10 Nov 2022 12:42:25 +0000

Article URL: https://unherd.com/2022/11/was-kurt-vonnegut-a-nice-man/

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=33545602

Points: 10

# Comments: 6

New comment by bloke_zero in "Chevron wins case to jail lawyer Steven Donziger"

bloke_zero — Fri, 29 Oct 2021 09:20:39 +0000

Getting on the front page is hit and miss - this was interesting yesterday: https://bengtan.com/blog/open-secrets-hacker-news/

For what it's worth I didn't read the article and come away thinking well of Chevron. I'm sure it's biased, but I read it and was shocked by his treatment, came here to read more.

Wes Anderson’s New Yorker Obsession

bloke_zero — Tue, 26 Oct 2021 15:52:38 +0000

Article URL: https://unherd.com/2021/10/why-wes-anderson-loves-the-new-yorker/

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=29001934

Points: 2

# Comments: 0

New comment by bloke_zero in "Why the Substack hype is much ado about very little"

bloke_zero — Thu, 05 Aug 2021 14:20:21 +0000

I take the point for sure, and escaping constraints can be valuable - but we must all be familiar with the 'great wo/man' syndrome where everything they say is right and doesn't need editing or even questioning...

New comment by bloke_zero in "Why the Substack hype is much ado about very little"

bloke_zero — Tue, 27 Jul 2021 08:24:05 +0000

What I don't get in these conversations is why no one mentions the role of the editorial team?

Expecting even a great journalist to write consistently interesting and clear pieces on their own is like letting a musician record without a producer. It might be good for a while but the chances are a great producer is going to even out the output and make a tremendous difference in depth, quality and accessibility. To say nothing of checking the wilder excesses.

These discussions which focus on the stars ignore the team so necessary for consistent and readable articles. I suppose the lone genius idea has an inexorable fascination.

New comment by bloke_zero in "Spatial Audio"

bloke_zero — Fri, 18 Jun 2021 08:59:25 +0000

It seems weird to me that people would disregard the input of the artist and producer who will have painstakingly mixed the original - surely that is as much a part of the art form as the music in many cases? I'm thinking of records like "Bitches Brew" where you couldn't just go back to the master recordings and recreate them without Miles in the room.

Though I guess the early stereo mixes for e.g. The Beatles were often done without the band's input simply because no one was interested in the stereo mix - it was all about the mono mix. 2nd Engineer Richard Lush said “The only real version of Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band is the mono version.

https://www.analogplanet.com/content/sgt-peppers-lonely-hear...

The format controversy runs and runs!