Hacker News: bouvin

New comment by bouvin in "In Colorado, a marriage of solar energy and farming"

bouvin — Sat, 04 Jan 2025 10:17:15 +0000

A far simpler geoengineering approach would be to stop emitting so much CO₂.

New comment by bouvin in "The Birmingham Blade: geographically tailored urban wind turbine designed by AI"

bouvin — Mon, 09 Dec 2024 23:54:25 +0000

Indeed. I regard wind turbines as striking kinetic sculptures in the landscape.

New comment by bouvin in "AI poetry is indistinguishable from human poetry and is rated more favorably"

bouvin — Tue, 03 Dec 2024 20:36:49 +0000

As usual, Zach Weinersmith got it right [1]

[1] https://www.smbc-comics.com/comic/poetry-2

New comment by bouvin in "MQTT turns 25"

bouvin — Tue, 22 Oct 2024 11:14:05 +0000

I have been using MQTT for years in my IoT courses – it has proven to be a very versatile tool, and it is convenient that it is also supported over web sockets.

New comment by bouvin in "Apple's AirPods Pro hearing health features"

bouvin — Tue, 22 Oct 2024 09:23:44 +0000

Earplugs lower the volume, they do not cut the sound completely.

Good earplugs (I use Etymotics myself) can do this without affecting the sound quality, making concerts enjoyable and safe.

New comment by bouvin in "Intel's Thunderbolt Share is a speedy sneakernet replacement and more"

bouvin — Tue, 20 Aug 2024 06:26:03 +0000

Ah, the good old days, where hooking up a parallel cable between two PCs and running LapLink was a power move [1]…

[1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=31013707

New comment by bouvin in "A Mini Monitor for a Pi"

bouvin — Mon, 08 Jul 2024 06:11:02 +0000

I use one of the small plug'n'play displays (well, nearly – you run a script) for my Pihole RPi to show stats and state. For mere interactive work, I have found that tablet displays packaged in a case from Aliexpress work nicely.

New comment by bouvin in "A Few Notes on the Culture by Iain M Banks (1994)"

bouvin — Sun, 07 Jul 2024 19:29:25 +0000

I think there is a wide consensus that Consider Phlebas, though first, is not the ideal starting point for Banks' Culture series. The plot is meandering, and compared to later books, it is clear that Banks had not yet quite found the form that would be so impressive later on. I usually recommend The Player of Games, or alternatively, depending on the reader, Use of Weapons as starting points.

It is however a good idea, having read other Culture books, to read Consider Phlebas before beginning Look to Windward, as there is a connection between the two.

New comment by bouvin in "Andrew S. Tanenbaum Receives ACM Software System Award"

bouvin — Sat, 22 Jun 2024 23:41:16 +0000

I was myself taught Computer Architecture in 1991 using the Tanenbaum SCO book, and many years later taught the Computer Architecture course for four years using the SCO book (a later edition, but still!). A true classic, and if anything, it is a wonder that Tanenbaum had not already received the award.

New comment by bouvin in "Austria to 'Super-Speeders': We're Taking Your Car"

bouvin — Wed, 19 Jun 2024 21:44:57 +0000

It was introduced a few years ago in Denmark with good results, too. Companies that lease out cars complained a bit, but I suppose they have since learned to be more careful when issuing vehicles to punters. This, of course, also applies to people who just lend out their cars – you really want to ensure that it will be driven responsible.

New comment by bouvin in "Alarms in medical equipment"

bouvin — Fri, 07 Jun 2024 19:30:16 +0000

Fascinating. Interesting to hear the differentiation in severity in the same class of error.

Though a bit disappointing that there is no machine that goes PING! [1]

[1] https://youtu.be/VQPIdZvoV4g?si=Ov4AuyKgeKtmYmz9

New comment by bouvin in "Unitree G1 Humanoid Agent"

bouvin — Tue, 14 May 2024 09:10:31 +0000

Indeed, this is a pet peeve of mine as well. If the silly notion of Roko’s Basilisk has any merit, I wouldn’t want to be that guy. Besides, transversing an unstable or uneven surface would seem to be a better test, anyway.

I do however find it amusing that it is also apparently a requirement for a humanoid robot to stand up in the most uncanny way possible.

New comment by bouvin in "Boston Dynamics' new electric Atlas robot is swiveling nightmare fuel"

bouvin — Thu, 18 Apr 2024 12:44:48 +0000

I quite like it.

There was going to be an uncanny valley regardless, and BD clearly decided to lean into it.

New comment by bouvin in "Charging My Phone with a Steam Engine"

bouvin — Sat, 27 Jan 2024 19:10:44 +0000

Quin finishes her DC generator and charges her phone with her self built steam engine.

Charging My Phone with a Steam Engine

bouvin — Sat, 27 Jan 2024 19:10:44 +0000

Article URL: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y2UEY04lKSU

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=39158775

Points: 2

# Comments: 1

New comment by bouvin in "Air pollution over Alberta oil sands up to 6,300% higher than reported"

bouvin — Fri, 26 Jan 2024 09:55:20 +0000

Thirded – it is a stunning, haunting work. The author, Kate Beaton, was previously probably best known for her (also award winning) 'Hark! A Vagrant' web comic [1,2].

[1] http://www.harkavagrant.com

[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hark!_A_Vagrant

New comment by bouvin in "The Surprising Story of the First Microprocessors (2016)"

bouvin — Mon, 22 Jan 2024 09:13:06 +0000

Alexander the ok did a fairly detailed video on this a few days ago [1].

[1] https://youtu.be/YpruA5mC7wg?si=nQdHoak_5grmiepg

New comment by bouvin in "Zeiss's "Holocam" turns glass windows into cameras"

bouvin — Fri, 05 Jan 2024 19:13:30 +0000

Looks pretty cool, though it is not quite Slow Glass [1].

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Light_of_Other_Days

New comment by bouvin in "Ants recognise infected wounds and treat them with antibiotics"

bouvin — Thu, 04 Jan 2024 10:06:38 +0000

The real beauty is that ants do not have overlords – their intelligent behaviour is emergent, not centrally controlled.

New comment by bouvin in "Thomas Cochrane"

bouvin — Wed, 03 Jan 2024 11:34:59 +0000

I love the books as well (especially in my very nice Folio Society edition).

As for the impossible naval jargon, I found it amusing to see the movie in (Danish) cinema, where the incomprehensible naval terminology was replaced in the subtitles with… incomprehensible Danish naval terminology.