Hacker News: dghughes

New comment by dghughes in "Student beauty and grades under in-person and remote teaching"

dghughes — Wed, 25 Mar 2026 01:48:35 +0000

That reminds me of when I was undiagnosed with hypothyroidism only in reverse. In my late 20s I made an effort to dress better, no jeans or dirty sneakers, hair cut, gel, gym at least three times a week. Then all that started to slide, brain fog, stay at home, just no energy.

It took probably 10 years but finally I was diagnosed with hypothyroidism. I wonder if a lot of overweight people started out like me but were never diagnosed. At diagnosis I wasn't overweight but I have since gained weight just due to my metabolism now. I was always slim all my life now I'm on the low end of overweight.

So yeah weight can be a problem but so can other issues. It's difficult to be yourself when you have hidden weights you don't even realize are dragging you down.

New comment by dghughes in "“Microslop” filtered in the official Microsoft Copilot Discord server"

dghughes — Mon, 02 Mar 2026 16:11:30 +0000

Someone misheard iris for anus? lol

New comment by dghughes in "U.S. science agency moves to restrict foreign scientists from its labs"

dghughes — Mon, 02 Mar 2026 14:49:53 +0000

Here in Canada when the new CPC took power its leader PM Harper muzzled scientists from speaking about most things but most of all anything about climate change. It also destroyed climate data claiming the ledgers were old fashioned, but they were the only copies.

The CPC political are the old centre-right PC party that combined with more right secessionist and (evangelical) Christian political parties.

Harper is still lurking in the shadows and pulling strings decade after being ousted as Prime Minister.

New comment by dghughes in "Babylon 5 is now free to watch on YouTube"

dghughes — Sat, 14 Feb 2026 15:21:32 +0000

Believe it or not I've never seen it. I'm a big sci-fi fan but it was never on any station in my region of Canada years ago. Plus over the years it seemed to be really hard to find in any form whether torrents, DVDs, or anywhere really.

New comment by dghughes in "I Built a 1 Petabyte Server from Scratch [video]"

dghughes — Fri, 16 Jan 2026 13:24:37 +0000

You hear of media companies that delete old music and video from their own archives. People saving what they can may have the only copy left in existence.

New comment by dghughes in "CBP is monitoring US drivers and detaining those with suspicious travel patterns"

dghughes — Thu, 20 Nov 2025 23:03:02 +0000

But not where it is in real-time or its location history.

New comment by dghughes in "What Is the Fourier Transform?"

dghughes — Fri, 05 Sep 2025 11:27:53 +0000

Bill Hammack The Engineer Guy has a video series on this subject.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6dW6VYXp9HM

New comment by dghughes in "What does it mean to be thirsty?"

dghughes — Tue, 12 Aug 2025 10:38:55 +0000

I'm 56 now and I'd agree. I bike in the summer for exercise and I drink while on the go as needed. I always got a headache after exercising. A regular headache not a migraine (never had one).

My discovery was Pedialyte it's meant for children but it's like the adult version or Gatorade. I drink it before I exercise and also drink as needed. I feel normal no headaches not dehydrated.

edit: I also have hypothyroidism so my hypothalamus must also be crap at regulating my thirst maybe?

New comment by dghughes in "Wikipedia loses challenge against Online Safety Act"

dghughes — Tue, 12 Aug 2025 01:49:42 +0000

Here in Canada there is Bill S-210 Protecting Young Persons from Exposure to Pornography Act aka "think of the children".

I don't think the politicians thought of or could conceive of the technological requirements needed if this passes. It's just a knee-jerk bill sponsored by self-professed Conservative Senator Senator Julie Miville-Dechêne. Conservatives of the CPC party in Canada are much farther right of center more evangelical religious than the old Progressive Conservatives PCs were.

Note that Senators in Canada are not like US Senators.

New comment by dghughes in "A CarFax for Used PCs: Hewlett Packard wants to give old laptops new life"

dghughes — Sat, 19 Jul 2025 15:02:48 +0000

It started off as a way for people to get info on cars via fax machine. You ask or enter the vehicle VIN and you get a report. If it was in a crash, in a flood, see if mileage matches actual odometer. It's all web-based now.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carfax,_Inc.

New comment by dghughes in "New sphere-packing record stems from an unexpected source"

dghughes — Thu, 10 Jul 2025 13:09:47 +0000

>our weird lack of fur, the strange way we never clean ourselves by licking, and how bad we are at catching small animals to eat.

Or some of us with our tail on backwards.

New comment by dghughes in "A Typology of Canadianisms"

dghughes — Thu, 10 Jul 2025 13:07:55 +0000

Here in PEI I'm sure every isolated community has thousands of sayings. The island as a whole I'm sure has many. Canada is probably like that small communities with slang none of us have ever heard. The ones that break out regionally still may not make it to other areas even after decades being in use.

New comment by dghughes in "A Typology of Canadianisms"

dghughes — Thu, 10 Jul 2025 13:06:15 +0000

The term Hydro for electrical power (power lines) is not used in PEI the older generation would call it the "light bill" younger people now may call it the "power bill". If it was out we'd just say the power is out.

New comment by dghughes in "A Typology of Canadianisms"

dghughes — Thu, 10 Jul 2025 13:01:55 +0000

> Renoviction

That's very common word these days at least here in PEI. Kicking people out to "renovate".

It basically means renovate as in sweep the floor and paint a small patch on the wall, done. All so they can kick out the tenant and up the rent 1,000%.

New comment by dghughes in "New sphere-packing record stems from an unexpected source"

dghughes — Tue, 08 Jul 2025 13:32:00 +0000

I've often thought how my cat must think I am insane. I sit in from of a medium-sized glowing rectangle, I occasionally look at a small glowing rectangle, then in the evening stare at a really large glowing rectangle.

New comment by dghughes in "Neanderthals operated prehistoric “fat factory” on German lakeshore"

dghughes — Mon, 07 Jul 2025 13:09:26 +0000

>neanderthals were "outcompeted" because homo sapiens had language

I think any small groups of humans were just one virus away from extinction. Even we almost disappeared. A species that has a very low population for the entire species then all get sick that is bad even if all do not die. Your species loses genetic diversity and then another virus or even a large natural disaster strikes the group wiping it out. Maybe we just were lucky and survived not due to any skill better than other species.

New comment by dghughes in "Sega mistakenly reveals sales numbers of popular games"

dghughes — Sat, 21 Jun 2025 14:18:21 +0000

Sega in 2025? I thought they disappeared decades ago.

New comment by dghughes in "Chimpanzees yawn when observing an android yawn"

dghughes — Fri, 20 Jun 2025 15:07:15 +0000

I did the same after imagining it. Plus I have a half eaten banana in front of me. My life is an illusion!

New comment by dghughes in "Chimpanzees yawn when observing an android yawn"

dghughes — Fri, 20 Jun 2025 15:04:57 +0000

I yawned after reading the title and imagining a chimp yawn at a robot.

New comment by dghughes in "We’re secretly winning the war on cancer"

dghughes — Wed, 11 Jun 2025 11:09:22 +0000

That graph! It's like in 1991 someone flipped a switch and the line just drops.