Hacker News: cwingrav

New comment by cwingrav in "How big a solar battery do I need to store all my home's electricity?"

cwingrav — Wed, 17 Sep 2025 01:18:07 +0000

One of the best ways to ensure you have energy is to reduce use and dependence. A huge amount of energy goes to heating and hot water so insulation and shorter showers with on demand can drastically reduce battery and solar panel needs.

New comment by cwingrav in "Apple unveils iPhone 17 Air – the thinnest iPhone ever at 5.6 mm"

cwingrav — Wed, 10 Sep 2025 20:25:52 +0000

Probably thin so it can make a foldable screen. That seems to be the thinking around this because nobody really cares about thinness after a point. Also, a bonus, thin/small generally means better efficiency.

New comment by cwingrav in "Apple unveils M3, M3 Pro, and M3 Max"

cwingrav — Tue, 31 Oct 2023 11:16:06 +0000

I think what Apple is pushing for is computing efficiency. It still gets faster but with much less power. Focusing on performance solely would be the wrong way to evaluate these chips. https://www.tomsguide.com/news/apple-m3-chip

New comment by cwingrav in "The Case for Bash (2021)"

cwingrav — Thu, 18 May 2023 11:47:28 +0000

A lot of bash errors are not understanding possible cases due to white space.. which shellcheck catches. After using it for a while, I don’t even really worry about white space because of the good habits I’ve learned/(been forced to use).

New comment by cwingrav in "The Case for Bash (2021)"

cwingrav — Thu, 18 May 2023 10:53:23 +0000

Also, use shellcheck. Incorporate it into you editor. Fix all warning and don’t ignore them. This will push you deep into bash syntax rabbit holes but you come out better the other side.

New comment by cwingrav in "The Case for Bash (2021)"

cwingrav — Thu, 18 May 2023 10:48:16 +0000

BASH is like Obi Wan. It isn’t the most powerful or flashiest, but it survived a long time, where others didn’t, for very good reasons. Bash runs basically everywhere. It has many modern features you wouldn’t expect. Its syntax is literally what you would type on the command line if you were diagnosing or fixing systems so you don’t need to transpile to another language. Its reliance on other programs means it is glue and can easily incorporate highly cohesive functionality/tools others write and maintain. Also, it’s been around and is everywhere so you don’t worry about trying to incorporate the current latest and greatest declarative tool (which will blow over in 5 years) into your other workflows. Basically, don’t disparage a Jedi/tool that has survived where others didn’t. There is a reason.

New comment by cwingrav in "PSKoans: A simple, fun, and interactive way to learn the PowerShell language"

cwingrav — Wed, 19 Apr 2023 10:05:09 +0000

Sun

New comment by cwingrav in "Sucralose is a negative modulator of T cell-mediated responses in mice"

cwingrav — Mon, 20 Mar 2023 10:55:46 +0000

I’m chemistry, tiny changes to structure or single atoms can produce drastically different properties.

New comment by cwingrav in "Google to reduce workforce by 12k"

cwingrav — Fri, 20 Jan 2023 11:58:39 +0000

> It’s an easy time to fire a bunch of people..

Totally agree. This is just cutting in places they’ve probably wanted to cut for a while. They’ll hire back in a year or two as things ramp up, and on projects they consider important.

New comment by cwingrav in "EPA proposes to strengthen air quality standards"

cwingrav — Sat, 14 Jan 2023 01:06:06 +0000

Agree on the economic approach and with a preference for cap and trade. Create a certain amount of emission billets and auction them off. Then restrict the amount each bullet allows over time. It has economics, planning and reductions all in one.

New comment by cwingrav in "Ask HN: Do you hate software engineering but love programming?"

cwingrav — Sat, 14 Jan 2023 00:59:08 +0000

Agile is to Lenin as Agile processes are to Stalin.

Read the Agile Manifesto. That’s what Agile is. All else is either: - (good) trying to implement the Agile Manifesto, or - (bad) trying to make current process appear like Agile.

New comment by cwingrav in "Do heat pumps work in cold climates?"

cwingrav — Thu, 12 Jan 2023 12:38:39 +0000

Mine cuts off at 35F and I have to manually switch on the oil. I live where winter is normally below 35 at night. Very annoying system. (I didn’t pick it)

New comment by cwingrav in "Fusion energy breakthrough by Livermore Lab"

cwingrav — Tue, 13 Dec 2022 02:35:54 +0000

Fukushima, Kyshtym… those are the other bad ones.

New comment by cwingrav in "How to build software like an SRE"

cwingrav — Mon, 17 Oct 2022 10:43:05 +0000

The stage of testing is important here. Early on, I agree with the author. Catch code/config bugs early with no wiggle room for retries. But later, testing in a live system that lives with unreliability, you need those configs that allow for it. This enters the chaos testing phase, where you can assume with some degree that the code works deterministically, but now you have to test how it works in non-deterministic settings. Or more likely, why it failed in retrospect and how it recovered previously. This is much harder.

New comment by cwingrav in "Experimenters’ sex modulates mouse behaviors in ketamine trial"

cwingrav — Tue, 30 Aug 2022 23:55:35 +0000

This is a scientific article and the terms are used with precise definitions. If translated to a more vernacular venue, the language would either be different, or the terms defined in the article.

New comment by cwingrav in "The great junk transfer is coming"

cwingrav — Wed, 25 May 2022 10:29:37 +0000

I bought a used book online, and it had a person's last name and a book club in it. I was able to trace it back to a woman in the Carolinas that died without family. Her obituary gave a bit of her life story and I treasure the book all the more because I know a bit about the woman and how she loved reading and gardening (it was a gardening book).

Somethings do get passed on.

New comment by cwingrav in "Fragment of lost 12th-century epic poem found in another book’s binding"

cwingrav — Fri, 19 Nov 2021 14:10:38 +0000

Corn? Must refer to something else besides what we call corn today. A different grain? Or “corns” of salt maybe?

New comment by cwingrav in "Top officers of a Navy nuclear sub have lost their jobs over undersea collision"

cwingrav — Fri, 05 Nov 2021 11:40:07 +0000

Passive sonar picks up bounces. A mountain bounces background noise plus currents flow around it which would show that something was there (currents create temp differences and affect sound waves). They might not have had a clear picture, but they would have known something is there. (Source: a bit of experience)

New comment by cwingrav in "Borax"

cwingrav — Sun, 05 Sep 2021 12:20:22 +0000

Borax is incredible stuff. I used it as an insecticide in Florida. I could puff it into places behind cabinets and appliances. It doesn't kill by chemical means, but by getting stuck in insect chitin, ripping it apart and then desiccating it. It's safe for pets too. Amazing.

New comment by cwingrav in "A man growing lettuce for space station salads"

cwingrav — Sun, 15 Aug 2021 12:18:12 +0000

If you've ever eaten freeze dried, canned and dried foods for extended periods of time, you'll know the joy of something crisp and fresh. Leafy greens are spot on what you'd want. Before refrigeration, greenhouses and global shipping, our ancestors were the same way. It's why something like Polk salad (one of the first greens in Spring) or storing chicory roots for their mid-winter chicon (a single crisp leaf that sprouts from a single root) were so enjoyed. Fresh and green used to be celebrated, before it became too normal to worry about.