Hacker News: dbjacobs

New comment by dbjacobs in "Frontier AI on Your Own Hardware"

dbjacobs — Mon, 21 Sep 2026 21:40:02 +0000

s/CSU/CMU

New comment by dbjacobs in "The dank case for scrolling window managers"

dbjacobs — Fri, 30 Jan 2026 07:30:31 +0000

If you are a KDE user Karousel[1] a Kwin script is an easy way to try out a scrolling style.

1. https://github.com/peterfajdiga/karousel

New comment by dbjacobs in "Show HN: Onlyrecipe 2.0 – I added all features HN requested – 4 years later"

dbjacobs — Thu, 04 Dec 2025 20:25:45 +0000

Since a recipe can be for multiple services, the ability to scale a recipe down would be helpful.

New comment by dbjacobs in "Show HN: Cactoide – Federated RSVP Platform"

dbjacobs — Tue, 11 Nov 2025 19:22:47 +0000

Any plans to add the ability to have waiver/release forms for an event that need to be signed?

New comment by dbjacobs in "Yoni Appelbaum on the real villians behind our housing and mobility problems"

dbjacobs — Mon, 21 Jul 2025 23:22:46 +0000

Reference please. I'm not aware of any state or federal law that prohibits mixed gender children from sharing a room in a private residence (foster care and other institutional situations do have regulations).

New comment by dbjacobs in "65% of all ski resorts in the US have closed since 1960s (2022)"

dbjacobs — Fri, 31 Jan 2025 04:56:39 +0000

Mt Aggie, a synthetic ski slope is the only one in Texas I know of.

New comment by dbjacobs in "From Myth to Measurement: Rethinking US News and World Report College Rankings"

dbjacobs — Thu, 19 Sep 2024 01:22:25 +0000

From webster - relating to or concerned with wholes or with complete systems rather than with the analysis of, treatment of, or dissection into parts

So it is more the opposite of specific than objective. I think your confusion comes from colleges using holistic to mean they looks at things beyond beyond objective measurements like test scores and GPA

New comment by dbjacobs in "Why doesn't advice work?"

dbjacobs — Tue, 30 Jul 2024 18:13:21 +0000

After verifying that the person isn't just venting and looking for empathy, I'll put in my plug for learning about the transtheoretical model of change [1]. Step one is determining whether the person even sees a problem. If they don't, you can ask questions about what would things look like if there was a problem. But there is no point in giving advice until the preparation or action stages. Before that your best avenue is asking the right questions (see motivational interviewing [2]).

[1] - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transtheoretical_model [2] - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Motivational_interviewing

New comment by dbjacobs in "America's 60-Year-Olds Are Staring at Financial Peril"

dbjacobs — Sat, 27 Jul 2024 22:31:31 +0000

That's simply not true. If you did not pay into Social Security for at least 40 quarter, the only way you can get retirement Social Security is through marriage (spouse benefit or survivor benefit). You can qualify for both benefits even if you're divorced if you were married at least 10 years. I'm ignoring disability benefits for the moment.

For those who qualify for Social Security the minimum benefit for 2024 is $50.90/mo (10 yrs of work) and $1,066.50 for 30 years of work [1].

[1] - https://www.ssa.gov/OACT/ProgData/tableForm.html

New comment by dbjacobs in "America's 60-Year-Olds Are Staring at Financial Peril"

dbjacobs — Sat, 27 Jul 2024 22:17:49 +0000

I have to agree. When I was working with a carpenter union, one of their big problems was that members would see their pension balance get large at which point they would stop working long enough to trigger emergency access to the pension and then withdraw the money to buy a truck or other expensive item they wanted. As a result, even though the union had a pretty good pension system, many of their members were sabotaging their retirements.

New comment by dbjacobs in "MIT: Raising State Minimum Wages, Lowering Community College Enrollment"

dbjacobs — Wed, 03 Jul 2024 06:00:57 +0000

If you transfer within the state system probably 95% to 100% of the credits will transfer depending on how careful you are in your choices. If you transfer to another state's system you can probably get 70% to 90% of the credits to transfer. Some state systems are more compatible than others. If you are going to a private school the percentages are typically much worse 20% to 50%. There are a few like USC which do a lot better.

New comment by dbjacobs in "Ask HN: What were interviews like before Leetcode?"

dbjacobs — Wed, 03 Jul 2024 05:48:36 +0000

In the eighties it was completely nonstandardized and depended heavily on each person you talked with. You would typically visit with a company for the day while they passed you around from person to person. One might have you code something on a whiteboard. Another might ask you a brain teaser. Someone would go through the experience on your resume. And another might ask you something like "how would you figure out the number of pixels needed to make this wall indistinguishable from a picture (i.e., retina display)" just to see how you think. Lunch was often where team fit was assessed.

New comment by dbjacobs in "The Rise of the Forever Renter Class"

dbjacobs — Tue, 07 May 2024 19:21:20 +0000

> It used to be that if you sold one house and bought another for same price then there would be no appreciation taxes, but that stopped a few(?) years ago.

In the US from 1964 to 1997 you could upgrade your home (i.e., buy one equal or more expensive) and avoid capital gains taxes and after age 55, you could downsize once and not pay capital gains taxes.

From 1997, we've had the current regime of $250K/single, $500K/couple exclusion if you lived there 2 of the previous 5 years from the sale.

New comment by dbjacobs in "Home schooling's rise from fringe to fastest-growing form of education"

dbjacobs — Tue, 31 Oct 2023 20:36:33 +0000

We let our 3 kids choose between homeschool and private school. As a result they tended to bounce back and forth between the systems depending on their priorities. By the time they reached 4th grade I was mostly a coach when they chose homeschooling. I would let them know the things they needed to learn and help them find curriculum. And when they got stuck on something they would come to me for help, but in general they were responsible for themselves. Mostly they would only do schoolwork for 3 hours a day or so.

They had no problems reintegrating into regular school when they chose to do so. Our youngest stayed on the homeschool track the longest (from 7th grade because they got involved in competitive Call of Duty. So they ended up doing the homeschool->community college->GaTech track.

> But it boggles my mind how people can assume, with a straight face, that they are equipped to educate their child alone - something which is normally a profession for which you have to study O(years) (and even then most people aren’t really good at). What gives parents this confidence? And what gives parents the right to squander the future of their children on a whim?

There are awesome resources to educate you kid on just about anything. The real distinguishing attribute on whether a parent can be a good educator is whether their children can spin them up emotionally. If a parent can't stay calm when their child is pushing their buttons homeschooling probably won't work. And then secondarily, a parent should know when they are over their head and need to bring in assistance. Not every parent is equipped to help their children learn calculus and other advanced courses.

New comment by dbjacobs in "Opposites don't actually attract: meta-analysis study"

dbjacobs — Fri, 08 Sep 2023 02:42:37 +0000

Over 40% of marriages in Hawaii are interracial and around 15% of new marriages nationwide are [1]. And this is 10 year old data. I'm sure it's more now.

[1] - https://www.staradvertiser.com/2012/02/16/breaking-news/hawa...

New comment by dbjacobs in "How fast should you accelerate your kid in math?"

dbjacobs — Sat, 29 Jul 2023 20:47:54 +0000

Like everything else in schooling, the social gap is highly child dependent. Our kids were a mix of home-school and private schools and the kid who did the most homeschooling was the most socially adept.

New comment by dbjacobs in "California is a rooftop solar giant. New rules could change that"

dbjacobs — Thu, 13 Apr 2023 20:33:25 +0000

Here in Hawaii the electric company is installing smart meters so they can charge different rates during the day evening and night. So your solar production during the day will credit you at the day rate, then your usage in the evening charges you at the evening rates (about triple the day rate). And then late night usage is about double the day rate.

This mostly solves the retail/wholesale/base rate problem.

New comment by dbjacobs in "Maybe treating housing as an investment was a mistake"

dbjacobs — Mon, 06 Mar 2023 18:41:41 +0000

Don't forget the opportunity cost of that $200K of equity. If that money invested earned 5%/yr on average that is another $10K/yr bringing your $700/mo to $1,533/mo. If you sell at $450K after 30 years, that mostly just makes up for that opportunity cost (30yrs at 5% would be 432K).

New comment by dbjacobs in "Ask HN: Whatever Happened To Freelancing?"

dbjacobs — Fri, 10 Feb 2023 19:44:49 +0000

California's AB-5 [1] is one issue. It basically says the independent contractors that are working on your core business are employees not independent contractors. This makes California companies very hesitant to use one person shops.

[1] - https://www.ftb.ca.gov/file/business/industries/worker-class...

New comment by dbjacobs in "The Starter House Is Nearly Extinct (2022)"

dbjacobs — Thu, 26 Jan 2023 07:41:10 +0000

Hawaii triples the property taxes for non owner occupied residences over $1 mil.