Hacker News: chipsa

New comment by chipsa in "Kona EV Hacking"

chipsa — Mon, 16 Mar 2026 14:18:23 +0000

Range extender was definitely a requirement when I got mine in ‘19. But that’s because I did not have reliable charging available in the area.

It also came in handy for a bad road trip (charging stations more than my range apart, so I couldn’t otherwise get there from here, but hold state of charge kept it up at 75% with frequent gas stops)

New comment by chipsa in "Following 35% growth, solar has passed hydro on US grid"

chipsa — Thu, 26 Feb 2026 05:44:25 +0000

I got panels last year because I’m pretty confident that the majority of the cost of putting panels on my roof is the stuff besides the actual panels. So pricing won’t go down much for getting an actual installer to do it.

New comment by chipsa in "Following 35% growth, solar has passed hydro on US grid"

chipsa — Thu, 26 Feb 2026 05:38:36 +0000

Very much depends on the rating. A residential panel is something like 65”x40”. A commercial sized panel is something like 80”x40”. The cell size is relatively constant, but the bigger panels are 6x12 cells instead of 6x10. Newer panels have more efficient cells, and so higher power.

Panel manufacturers can also do odder sizes as required. Example: q-cell does a 94x51” panel. This is 6x22 cells, but different sized cells as well.

Most panels are 6x, because that results in an open circuit voltage of just shy of 50V, which is convenient for code compliance.

New comment by chipsa in "Banned in California"

chipsa — Thu, 26 Feb 2026 04:52:26 +0000

It’s not claiming: you can’t have an automotive paint shop. It’s claiming you can’t start a new paint shop. Specifically, if you don’t have one for your car manufacturing line already, you can’t set one up. Wikipedia shows 13 pages for auto plants in CA. Most of them have the verb “was” in the opening sentence. There are two current plants: Tesla Fremont and Toyota California. Both of these plants are over 50 years old, and only one of them produces actual cars instead of parts.

New comment by chipsa in "Flipper Zero dark web firmware bypasses rolling code security"

chipsa — Fri, 08 Aug 2025 13:06:44 +0000

I promise there is not an OBD2 port inside the headlights of cars.

There is CANBUS to the headlights, but that is not a OBD2 port. And more securely designed cars can put that in a less secure zone, so it can only send and receive commands for exterior things like lights, and not be able to have commands for keys injected, because that bus will not accept those commands.

New comment by chipsa in "Telo MT1"

chipsa — Thu, 07 Aug 2025 15:51:12 +0000

More advanced EVSEs are capable of adjusting the power delivered based on the power available. It does require a sensor on the supply cables to determine how much power is being used, but it's technically capable without a service upgrade. Also, electric companies will frequently upgrade an old 50/100 amp service to 200 amp for low or no cost (because they figure you'll pay off the cost of doing so through more power usage). The panel side of the service upgrade will cost you, but then you'll be able use the toaster oven at the same time as the A/C.

New comment by chipsa in "Caches: LRU vs. Random"

chipsa — Sun, 03 Aug 2025 15:01:35 +0000

Quick sort usually uses something like insertion sort when the number of items is low, because the constants are better at low n, even if O(n) isn’t as good.

New comment by chipsa in "Telo MT1"

chipsa — Sun, 03 Aug 2025 01:06:16 +0000

The third row is just planned. They do not have any publicly available views of it, and the currently non-removable back glass of the prototypes inhibit actually installing and using them.

New comment by chipsa in "Telo MT1"

chipsa — Sun, 03 Aug 2025 01:02:31 +0000

The vast majority of tractor trailers in Europe are cab over designs. There’s definitely less room between the bumper and the driver’s legs in those than in any standard pickup truck.

New comment by chipsa in "Telo MT1"

chipsa — Sun, 03 Aug 2025 00:58:30 +0000

I don’t think slate has a four door option. It’s still two door, but with a rear seat that you can clamber into after pushing the front seat forward.

New comment by chipsa in "Telo MT1"

chipsa — Sun, 03 Aug 2025 00:55:49 +0000

Do you have power at the lake house? Then you have charging infrastructure. Also, why are you towing the boat to and from the lake house?

And again, which new production pickup fits 6 people?

New comment by chipsa in "Telo MT1"

chipsa — Sat, 02 Aug 2025 17:54:00 +0000

You think a crumple zone isn’t required by current FMVSS, which they are designing against? That is, in fact, what they referred to with “ structural technology”.

New comment by chipsa in "Telo MT1"

chipsa — Sat, 02 Aug 2025 17:38:23 +0000

No pickup will do that. Even crew cab pickups normally max out at 5 people (4 passengers), because there is no bench seat up front anymore. Even a Ford Maverick is $30k or so, and that won’t tow a 5000lb boat. Max listed towing is 4klb.

New comment by chipsa in "Personal aviation is about to get interesting (2023)"

chipsa — Sun, 27 Jul 2025 17:36:02 +0000

Important note: if you’ve failed a medical, you’re no longer eligible for a light sport license. This is what’s killed Xyla Foxlin’s flying career: her medical was revoked.

New comment by chipsa in "The natural diamond industry is getting rocked. Thank the lab-grown variety"

chipsa — Sun, 27 Jul 2025 17:15:26 +0000

That includes stuff like diamond grit. You don’t care about the color or clarity of grit. Tenth of a carat on up? You care about that for jewelry use. And that translates into better non-grit industrial diamonds as well.

New comment by chipsa in "Steam, Itch.io are pulling ‘porn’ games. Critics say it's a slippery slope"

chipsa — Fri, 25 Jul 2025 21:13:53 +0000

What you need for running a site that people might not like: 1. Your own servers 2. Your own network 3. Your own CDN 4. Your own payment processor

Step 4 gets you thrown in jail for violating AML.

New comment by chipsa in "SCP-055 is an "antimeme" – it erases itself from memory when observed"

chipsa — Thu, 17 Jul 2025 15:53:38 +0000

What book?

New comment by chipsa in "Europe's first geostationary sounder satellite is launched"

chipsa — Sun, 06 Jul 2025 02:01:12 +0000

Google says: no, the US did not stop sharing weather data. Communication isn’t automated weather data sharing. The data never stopped. Again, citation needed.

New comment by chipsa in "Europe's first geostationary sounder satellite is launched"

chipsa — Sun, 06 Jul 2025 00:30:19 +0000

> for example, the US has stopped sharing weather data with canada.

Citation needed. Most weather data from NWS is required by treaty to be disseminated through WMO compliant methods. The Metsat data is transmitted unencrypted from the GOES sats. I don’t believe they even have the capability to encrypt it. It’s only DoD weather data that’s not being widely disseminated, AFAIK.

New comment by chipsa in "Peasant Railgun"

chipsa — Fri, 04 Jul 2025 16:38:59 +0000

10 gallons of water is like 80 pounds of snow. Even with the relative density, 80 pounds of snow isn’t going to do much for avalanche.