Hacker News: boelboel

New comment by boelboel in "The largest electric aircraft just flew [video]"

boelboel — Fri, 04 Sep 2026 09:16:11 +0000

Old lines which have some more riders on other stops I imagine. You only need to maintain the rail which has been laid 150+ years ago.

New comment by boelboel in "The largest electric aircraft just flew [video]"

boelboel — Thu, 03 Sep 2026 20:59:21 +0000

It's not about moving hundreds of people, it's about moving 30-100 people. Many places don't have the demand or physical possibility for a railway. If this wasn't the case there wouldn't be so many short distance flights.

New comment by boelboel in "Where did all the public bathrooms go?"

boelboel — Tue, 25 Aug 2026 00:43:35 +0000

Chinese first tier cities aren't accessible, you can't even live there as a country bumpkin.

New comment by boelboel in "Ask HN: Why do corporate failures always seem to punish the wrong people?"

boelboel — Mon, 24 Aug 2026 14:41:33 +0000

software is actually one of the sectors most vulnerable to politics as it's a lot more difficult to measure how much value employees add compared to other sectors. Marketing, sales, manufacturing ... are relatively simple to track.

New comment by boelboel in "Will you have spent more of your life with computers than your family?"

boelboel — Tue, 18 Aug 2026 00:58:06 +0000

Tiny bit of truth? I think for many it would happen almost instantaneously, genuinely where else would people put those 3+ hours now spent on the computer/phone/tv.

It would also make it easier as more family oriented businesses would become viable when they would no longer compete with phones and tv (e.g bowling alleys).

I obviously agree with the latter but it doesn't change the fact that the (vast) majority of parents will fail at it similar to junkies failing at getting sober.

New comment by boelboel in "Pixel 11 Pro Fold"

boelboel — Wed, 12 Aug 2026 21:48:47 +0000

I'd imagine a great portion of the people buying these high end phones are just duped into paying for an overpriced subscription model. They're not really buying phones at store prices.

New comment by boelboel in "Pixel Watch 5"

boelboel — Wed, 12 Aug 2026 21:22:27 +0000

Many people with long hair and lengthy (body) skincare routines take showers which take half an hour daily. Probably depends on what you include in the shower time.

New comment by boelboel in "U of Michigan drops first-semester grades to ‘curb mental health crisis’"

boelboel — Wed, 12 Aug 2026 15:06:29 +0000

If they had experience at good companies I think the odds are better than the student getting into a good university after fucking up some classes.

New comment by boelboel in "About Rx Kids"

boelboel — Tue, 11 Aug 2026 23:46:47 +0000

There's been many countries who've reversed declining birthrates to some extent. Almost all European countries and the US did so after WW2, the US had a birthrate below replacement in the 30s. Many cities in the western world had fertility rates well below 1.5 some under 1, Vienna is the most striking example with a tfr of about 0.6 about as low as South Korea right now.

Besides European countries you have many of the Soviet countries who had a rebound, Kazakhstan is the greatest example, going from 1.8 to 3. Israel was mentioned by others.

I also don't think the better life => less kids holds true at this point. Plenty of countries in deep troubles (e.g. Tunisia) have birthrates far below the US or some other western countries. Having a phone is enough to keep people distracted.

Those who do well financially (at least relatively in their own country) get more kids, I've heard about people working for TSMC getting twice as many kids vs their non TSMC peers.

If somehow everyone was able to have a stable job, could afford good housing, wasn't obsessed about the rat race you'd see birthrates close to replacement (like you see them in regions of the US where these conditions are mostly met). Sadly this isn't going to happen.

New comment by boelboel in "U of Michigan drops first-semester grades to ‘curb mental health crisis’"

boelboel — Tue, 11 Aug 2026 18:09:42 +0000

Sometimes I wonder where all these HNers work. The majority of "slightly below top companies" seem to consist of mediocre workers, which is fine. Employees are just doing their job and if they fuck up, even badly, it's not too difficult for them to get a new job. Meanwhile a student getting a few subpar grades, often for reasons beyond their control, should somehow be punished forever.

New comment by boelboel in "Taxi drivers rarely die of Alzheimer's"

boelboel — Sun, 09 Aug 2026 22:52:34 +0000

They don't just add more hours of driving they replace a small amount of risky hours for a lot of hours of low risk if they change location/job.

New comment by boelboel in "Taxi drivers rarely die of Alzheimer's"

boelboel — Sun, 09 Aug 2026 21:44:01 +0000

This is mentioned in the article as well.

New comment by boelboel in "Taxi drivers rarely die of Alzheimer's"

boelboel — Sun, 09 Aug 2026 21:41:17 +0000

I could imagine taxi drivers have fewer fatal/grave road accidents than the average person or at most slightly more. They tend to drive in cities, are more trained, can't drink or do drugs on the job. For London only 1 taxi driver has died in a traffic accident since 2020.

New comment by boelboel in "Ancient Library – 1,060 Greek/Latin texts, click any word to parse it"

boelboel — Sun, 09 Aug 2026 15:39:09 +0000

In some countries classics are still widely taught in middle school/high school (as in about 10% of the population taking up Latin). Where I was brought up (Flanders) I'd guess over 50% of people with an advanced degree took up Latin, maybe 5-10% Greek. In certain circles not taking up Latin and/or Greek means you were either not smart enough to do so or you were uncultured. So anyone "cultured" with a CS/engineering degree took up Latin.

New comment by boelboel in "U.S. economy lost 23,000 jobs in July, a sudden reversal"

boelboel — Fri, 07 Aug 2026 16:00:29 +0000

It's like the hydration revolution, wealthy Americans (or those who aspire to be) are very conscious about their health/career/investments/childcare/looks. Many of them seem quite neurotic, maybe it's a consequence of individualism and social media. I don't think it's something which is unique to the US but they're just ahead/rich compared to other countries.

New comment by boelboel in "Why is Everyone in Tech so sad?"

boelboel — Fri, 07 Aug 2026 14:41:42 +0000

Leave the department*, the parts where people get on/off trains are closed off from the seats. There's also some gangway connections which have doors between the wagons.

New comment by boelboel in "What happens if an entire class of workers loses faith in their careers"

boelboel — Fri, 07 Aug 2026 14:06:22 +0000

It's considered rude in Belgium, at least when I commuted there by train. People would leave the wagon to take a call. Maybe it's changed in the past few years. There were also signs that it's prohibited to call in the trains.

New comment by boelboel in "AI fuels more than half of cybercrime in Africa as scams surge – Interpol"

boelboel — Thu, 06 Aug 2026 23:38:40 +0000

I was thinking about more than just scams when I thought of the comment. But I'm probably looking with rose coloured glasses at the early internet.

New comment by boelboel in "AMD acquires Taalas to boost inference performance by etching models in silicon"

boelboel — Thu, 06 Aug 2026 23:23:42 +0000

Closer to every 5-6 years these days and with ram prices going up it will be even longer. Especially with the low/mid range phones, which are most phones outside some developed countries, people will keep their phones as long as they can.

New comment by boelboel in "AI fuels more than half of cybercrime in Africa as scams surge – Interpol"

boelboel — Tue, 04 Aug 2026 23:21:32 +0000

Late 90s/early 00s internet would've probably been the sweet spot for utility while causing little harm. Sadly we can't just freeze the internet in time.