Hacker News: crypttales

New comment by crypttales in "US citizen charged after GrapheneOS phone wipes during airport search"

crypttales — Mon, 27 Jul 2026 01:12:13 +0000

"When he finally provided a passcode, the phone appeared to restart. The defense motion states that "the screen went blank, flashed several times, and the phone appeared to restart," resulting in the loss of data."

I dont use grapheneOS, but it seems he activated a self-destruct code after being arrested.

That's always been illegal, and computers don't change that:

Arthur Andersen LLP v. United States (2005)

On the surface this case sides with evidence destruction, except

"Chief Justice Rehnquist noted that routine document management is not inherently corrupt; to be a felony, the government must prove the defendant had a "consciousness of wrongdoing" and a specific intent to obstruct a known or imminent proceeding" [1]

He fellow obviously had a consciousness of wrongdoing since he purposely set the delete triggers off during a police interrogation!

[1] https://www.oyez.org/cases/2004/04-368

New comment by crypttales in "Codex scraped the ICM website and discovered 2026 Fields Medal winner list"

crypttales — Tue, 14 Jul 2026 14:44:52 +0000

The winners have known for a while; their families need visas to be at the ceremony, afterall

New comment by crypttales in "On cigarettes"

crypttales — Mon, 29 Jun 2026 04:27:04 +0000

"Oh cigarette, Oh cigarette, How good thou are to me Yet I have crush you. "

Me the first time getting drunk in the woods realizing I had crushed my smoke in my jacket.

I became friends with my best friend that day.

New comment by crypttales in "An entire Herculaneum scroll has been read for the first time"

crypttales — Fri, 26 Jun 2026 03:09:53 +0000

For our understanding of Christianity, the Pompeii eruption was too soon to the events, so unless the owner was amongst the first Christians worldwide and there is a dated letter from St Luke foretelling the destruction of the temple I don't think it'll be too revolutionary

New comment by crypttales in "An entire Herculaneum scroll has been read for the first time"

crypttales — Fri, 26 Jun 2026 03:06:49 +0000

The folks in the monastery were more open minded towards those who proceeded in the previous millennium than we are to those a thousand years ago.

That said, they had limited resources. This is very cool

New comment by crypttales in "Dostoyevsky isn't difficult"

crypttales — Thu, 25 Jun 2026 02:31:16 +0000

I know the feeling. Reading Don Quixote in English would be cheating.

Then again, so would reading Shakespeare in Spanish - even though I'm more comfortable reading in eng, I'm better in Spanish than i am 500 year old English

New comment by crypttales in "Dostoyevsky isn't difficult"

crypttales — Thu, 25 Jun 2026 02:28:16 +0000

Karamazov is amazing.

But if you're 600 pages in and it's a slog you might have lost the train of thought of the novel.

It is a lot to keep in your head!

New comment by crypttales in "Canada plans 'nuclear renaissance' with up to 10 reactors built by 2040"

crypttales — Mon, 22 Jun 2026 22:11:57 +0000

Well those online refueling channels look mighty interesting don't they?

New comment by crypttales in "Canada plans 'nuclear renaissance' with up to 10 reactors built by 2040"

crypttales — Mon, 22 Jun 2026 22:10:50 +0000

If there's something Canada has in excess it's water and storage space.

New comment by crypttales in "Canada plans 'nuclear renaissance' with up to 10 reactors built by 2040"

crypttales — Mon, 22 Jun 2026 22:09:33 +0000

Because the Candu is insanely expensive.

New comment by crypttales in "Canada plans 'nuclear renaissance' with up to 10 reactors built by 2040"

crypttales — Mon, 22 Jun 2026 22:08:46 +0000

"A well respected and safe nuclear design in CANDU"

A very expensive to build with lower utilization rates than PWRs despite online refueling. A solution AECL has been trying to move away from for the last thirty years.

And that online refueling? Looks a lot like a weapons grade Pu pipeline.

New comment by crypttales in "Surprising economics of load-balanced systems"

crypttales — Fri, 19 Jun 2026 22:28:56 +0000

Of course, this assumes independent events. World Cup, super bowls, etc break these assumptions.

Still, queuing theory is so cool.