Hacker News: detourdog

New comment by detourdog in "Stewart Brand on how progress happens"

detourdog — Sun, 12 Apr 2026 11:50:42 +0000

He also was the A/V guy for the "mother of all demos".

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Mother_of_All_Demos

New comment by detourdog in "Creating the Futurescape for the Fifth Element (2019)"

detourdog — Thu, 09 Apr 2026 13:09:01 +0000

I was flipping channels in a hotel and I assume the Peter Jackson hobbit/Lord of the Rings were on. The scene I watched was some sort of interior castle scene and it looked really bad. I felt like it was very flat and cardboardy and filmed on VHS.

New comment by detourdog in "Apple approves driver that lets Nvidia eGPUs work with Arm Macs"

detourdog — Sun, 05 Apr 2026 12:40:17 +0000

That was the what the trial about. If you wanted to contract with MS you had to pay for a license on every box shipped. Dell, Compaq, Gateway, HP, IBM, Acer, and others had to sign the contract or ship only alternate OS’s If one sold a computer with OS/2 they also paid for a windows license.

New comment by detourdog in "Iranian missile blitz takes down AWS data centers in Bahrain and Dubai"

detourdog — Sun, 05 Apr 2026 04:51:52 +0000

I never made any claims regarding my literacy.

New comment by detourdog in "Iranian missile blitz takes down AWS data centers in Bahrain and Dubai"

detourdog — Sat, 04 Apr 2026 23:48:14 +0000

IF there literacy rate is 94% then it makes sense that Amazon wants them as customers.

New comment by detourdog in "Iranian missile blitz takes down AWS data centers in Bahrain and Dubai"

detourdog — Sat, 04 Apr 2026 22:09:18 +0000

I don't think you really understand Middle East countries. 94% of Iranians are literate. They are a very sophisticated culture that dates back to pre-history.

They certainly may appear backwards from our western culture but that is only superficial.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Education_in_Iran

New comment by detourdog in "Apple approves driver that lets Nvidia eGPUs work with Arm Macs"

detourdog — Sat, 04 Apr 2026 21:22:45 +0000

The PC manufacturers had to pay MS for a license no matter what operating system was installed.

New comment by detourdog in "Remembering Magnetic Memories and the Apollo AGC"

detourdog — Sat, 04 Apr 2026 12:55:34 +0000

Another magnetic memory system is the Nixdorf rod cell memory form the Nixdorf 820.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=kiGZrSB9uo8&pp=ygUOTml4ZG9yZiB...

https://www.computerhistory.org/revolution/memory-storage/8/...

New comment by detourdog in "Solar and batteries can power the world"

detourdog — Fri, 03 Apr 2026 22:13:14 +0000

Thank you for the encouragement. I have all the units rented. I'm now trying to balance upgrades to reduce energy costs vs. maintaining a cash horde.

New comment by detourdog in "Solar and batteries can power the world"

detourdog — Fri, 03 Apr 2026 15:55:03 +0000

In the northwest corner of Massachusetts I converted an old school into an apartment building. I installed 2" of polystyrene on the outside and about a foot of cellulose in the ceilings. We relay on heatpumps for HVAC. I also installed a 50kW solar array. We don't start paying for heating until Nov/Dec and stop paying in Apr/May. Our Electric usage goes through the roof in Jan/Feb/Mar. Our weak point is that the exterior walls are about 40% windows. I hope to install better thermal shades which will cost about $80k. We also last fall installed a solar thermal array to for hot water and heat the hallway which is radiant floor. I would like to think we could achieve net-zero but I will likely need to expand the solar array by about 200%.

Thermal curtains are more effective than good windows. Good windows are minimally helpful.

New comment by detourdog in "Artemis II's toilet is a moon mission milestone"

detourdog — Fri, 03 Apr 2026 00:00:23 +0000

High stakes situation:)

New comment by detourdog in "Artemis II's toilet is a moon mission milestone"

detourdog — Thu, 02 Apr 2026 22:26:12 +0000

One of the good laughs I had watching 2001 was Haywood reading the instructions for the toilet. The joke being we have evolved to the point that our most basic human functions has become complex.

https://sites.google.com/site/theageofplastic3d/2001s-zero-g...

New comment by detourdog in "Apple at 50"

detourdog — Thu, 02 Apr 2026 15:27:07 +0000

The SE has a single NUBUS slot which is how we installed the Ascente ethernet cards. I would say the SE is probably the same generation of the II. I think the II the SE and the CI were probably all the same generation. I also think the II's code name was the Open Mac.

New comment by detourdog in "Apple at 50"

detourdog — Thu, 02 Apr 2026 01:00:39 +0000

True, but to each their own. There was trend line towards usability. I would say the Mac was a big step towards where they were going.

If you want hackability there were other choices. Usability was there focus. Having a floppy disk was a major advancement even though a cassette tape was technically usable.

New comment by detourdog in "Apple at 50"

detourdog — Wed, 01 Apr 2026 22:13:31 +0000

Apple clicked with me when our middle school computer lab conisted of an Apple II+ and a TRS-80. The TRS-80 seemed unusable as it required a cassette tape to save and retrieve files and the Apple II+ had floppy disks. I remember reading about the Lisa being a computer so simple that a 2 year old could use one. I thought that was the craziest thing I ever heard. I tried to imagine how that could be case. Years later my Mom (someone with a masters in english and made her living as a potter) happened upon a demo of the Mac 128k. She couldn't believe the experience and purchased one. Changed her career with desktop publishing.

My training was Industrial Design but I Have spent my whole career administrating Mac Networks. My first job involved networking a 30 person design firm. The computers were half Macs and half PCs. When System 7 was released the Macs we purchased Ascente ethernet card for them and they all worked. We needed to purchase ethernet cards for the PCs we had to move them off DOS, switch the from Word Perfect 5.1 (pissimg off the writers) and install Novell 3.11 to network the PCs and added a Mac NLM to the server to exchange files between the 2.

I love OS X but System 7 was better. I think the Mac lost it's simplicity when the Desktop was moved into the home directory. Everything became more complicated. I still think Apple caters to the founding spirit of simple computing tools for people. Computing has just become too complicated.

New comment by detourdog in "Neanderthals survived on a knife's edge for 350k years"

detourdog — Wed, 01 Apr 2026 14:01:10 +0000

I think rope, twine, and weaving needs to be recognized as significant technical development. That has little record but would have been combined with wood for simple machines.

New comment by detourdog in "Why are executives enamored with AI, but ICs aren't?"

detourdog — Sat, 28 Mar 2026 16:04:02 +0000

Must be from the divide and conquer school of management.

New comment by detourdog in "Why are executives enamored with AI, but ICs aren't?"

detourdog — Sat, 28 Mar 2026 00:10:42 +0000

I'm sure an IC is not an integrated circuit or independent contractor. So what is it?

New comment by detourdog in "Iran-linked hackers breach FBI director's personal email"

detourdog — Fri, 27 Mar 2026 23:52:45 +0000

Almost all phishing attempts at my domain are from google. Many Norton subscription bills for around $350. I report every single one to google. I can’t believe they aren’t using there AI to figure this out.

New comment by detourdog in "New York City hospitals drop Palantir as controversial AI firm expands in UK"

detourdog — Thu, 26 Mar 2026 23:00:03 +0000

Also he has stated that critics should be sprayed with fentanyl laced urine.

https://www.thecanary.co/skwawkbox/2026/02/17/palantir-piss/

Why should we feel good about him running any company.