<rss version="2.0" xmlns:dc="http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/" xmlns:atom="http://www.w3.org/2005/Atom"><channel><title>Hacker News: dmckeon</title><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/user?id=dmckeon</link><description>Hacker News RSS</description><docs>https://hnrss.org/</docs><generator>hnrss v2.1.1</generator><lastBuildDate>Thu, 23 Apr 2026 16:55:53 +0000</lastBuildDate><atom:link href="https://hnrss.org/user?id=dmckeon" rel="self" type="application/rss+xml"></atom:link><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by dmckeon in "The Rise of the Japanese Toilet"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>If anyone wants to explore the bidet space without replacing an entire toilet, I can recommend the Neo line of products from <a href="https://luxebidet.com/" rel="nofollow">https://luxebidet.com/</a>  They sell kits for under $70 USD that attach to existing toilets, using the space between the seat and bowl,  and attach to the toilet's water supply with a tee fitting and one-way valve, either at the wall valve, or at the bottom of the tank.  Installation should take less than 30 minutes for anyone handy with a screwdriver and a crescent wrench.<p>Their bidets are surprising effective, and do not require any electricity or hot water, as the water volume needed to be effective is small, and the water has usually been sitting in the pipes in a home's walls at ambient temperature.  10/10, would spritz again.</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Sat, 31 May 2025 22:14:56 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44147309</link><dc:creator>dmckeon</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44147309</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44147309</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by dmckeon in "They used Xenon to climb Everest in days – is it the future of mountaineering?"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>> hypoxic tents, which lower oxygen levels in the air<p>I wonder if the shorter time at altitude also reduced the chances of slower-to-develop high-altitude cerebral edema and pulmonary edema (HACE, HAPE).  Some climbers have been sleeping in camp in small tubular pressurized tents to reduce daily apparent density altitude.</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Thu, 29 May 2025 12:19:16 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44125282</link><dc:creator>dmckeon</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44125282</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44125282</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by dmckeon in "Modification of acetaminophen to reduce liver toxicity and enhance drug efficacy"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>Tylenol markets a 650mg Extended Release for Arthritis and Joint Pain:
<a href="https://www.tylenol.com/products/arthritis/tylenol-8hr-arthritis-pain" rel="nofollow">https://www.tylenol.com/products/arthritis/tylenol-8hr-arthr...</a>
  It is effective for me for general analgesia.<p>Trigger warning for self harm.<p>The real tragedies with acetaminophen are "cry-for-help" situations where someone thinks it is the same as aspirin, and swallows a handful, perhaps washing it down with alcohol.  What might have been a suicide hesitation mark becomes an entry on a liver transplant list - if they are lucky.  If you have children, make sure they know which one can be deadly, especially before going off to college.</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Sat, 24 May 2025 07:15:02 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44079345</link><dc:creator>dmckeon</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44079345</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44079345</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by dmckeon in "GPS Needs to Toughen Up, or Get Trampled Down"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>The MagNav tech, using maps of magnetic anomalies as a global reference, and getting
accuracy down to 3 meters sounds interesting.</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Wed, 21 May 2025 17:00:02 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44053497</link><dc:creator>dmckeon</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44053497</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44053497</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by dmckeon in "British naval dominance during the age of sail"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>While the "weather gage" and heeling does have an effect on cannon range, the more important issue is that the upwind ships (that have the weather gage) 
thus have more maneuverability, and can more easily pursue a ship trying 
to flee downwind. Of course, one could always:
"Never mind manoeuvres, go straight at 'em”</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Fri, 16 May 2025 18:01:31 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44008216</link><dc:creator>dmckeon</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44008216</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44008216</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by dmckeon in "High-school shop students attract skilled-trades job offers"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>> paying your dues. Its more about that than aptitude it seems to me.<p>Yes, paying dues, both in the sense of putting in the time to learn the trade well, and very likely for a good paying career in the trade, paying union dues.
People have been doing this since the rise of professional guilds in the middle ages.<p>Today's kids can show aptitude, capability, and interest by doing well in shop class.  An employer can take that interested teen or tween on at an entry level, add to their skill level, and make a profit on their labor.  The worker can protect their labor value through a union, and probably should if only for the side benefits apart from negotiating contract labor rates.<p>Should they just go to college instead?  Sure, if they have that interest,
and can get out without a student loan debt bigger than some mortgages.</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Sun, 11 May 2025 19:26:17 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43956347</link><dc:creator>dmckeon</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43956347</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43956347</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by dmckeon in "Bloat is still software's biggest vulnerability (2024)"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>I agree.  Here's a different perspective:<p>Bloated and crafted software - a rant:<p>The state of software is the state of the structures 
of primitive societies: some in cave shelters, some
under roofs of sticks and leaves, some in mud huts.<p>We talk of Cathedral and Bazaar, but there are very 
few carefully designed Cathedrals of software,
and those probably have plenty of barely hidden flaws.<p>The Bazaars are all around us, jammed together, spreading
for miles and miles, tent walls
and roofs billowing in the breeze, all awaiting a strong
zephyr to carry many of them away, and leave most of the rest in ruins.<p>What software needs is building blocks.   Bricks of uniform size,
easily joined together.  Concrete masonry units.  Tilt-up walls.
Trans-oceanic shipping containers (connex, seabox).<p>Solid, composable, engineered, units.   We should be able to
pull a well-known and heavily tested package or function to use,
just like a contractor would call for a delivery of 200 8x8x16"
CMU blocks, and be able to expect they will get just that,
with no gaps, weak spots, or broken webs.<p>But, no , all of us software crafts-folk want to  carefully create
our very own artisanal version of whatever library functions,
that are needed for the project at hand.  In a world that could be 
made of solid concrete blocks, we are crafting our very own adobes,
with our own special blend of straw and mud, and we think we have advanced far beyond the folks living in mud huts.<p>Some of us will say they are master masons, crafting cathedrals out
of hand cut stones, each carefully measured and chiseled, and each
stone unique.  We're still duplicating effort when we could be using 
commercial off-shelf libraries.  And all the while the project deadlines
go zipping past as we try to craft our way to local perfection.<p>All I can suggest as a solution is a multi-government and 
multi-corporate effort to design and build fairly universal
functions, libraries, and packages that are robust,
exhaustively reviewed by humans, 
and tested thoroughly.  I won't ask for provable correctness, yet. :-)<p>Would the result be an Ada on steroids?  
Depends on who is involved.<p>Choice of language should not matter.  
The APIs would matter, a lot.
A few competing teams would be a possibility.
Passing several existing functions to an AI, with a 
"do like these, only perfectly" might be useful, or useless.<p>And yes, then we would have 15 competing standards.
<a href="https://xkcd.com/927/" rel="nofollow">https://xkcd.com/927/</a>
(Well, we probably already have at last 1,500, so, go figure.)</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Thu, 08 May 2025 05:56:31 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43923460</link><dc:creator>dmckeon</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43923460</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43923460</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by dmckeon in "Deadly Screwworm Parasite's Comeback Threatens Texas Cattle, US Beef Supply"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>And now those positions are listed as open.
Disruption, but to what end.  Sigh.
<a href="https://text.npr.org/nx-s1-5384961" rel="nofollow">https://text.npr.org/nx-s1-5384961</a></p>
]]></description><pubDate>Sat, 03 May 2025 23:43:08 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43883272</link><dc:creator>dmckeon</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43883272</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43883272</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by dmckeon in "How a single line of code could brick your iPhone"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>Thus, perhaps "loafed" as in something brick-like, but which may also be soft.
And a "loafed" device, being idle, would be loafing.</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Mon, 28 Apr 2025 03:16:38 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43817170</link><dc:creator>dmckeon</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43817170</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43817170</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by dmckeon in "Potatoes in the Mail"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>Various live animals, queen bees and up to 8 attendant bees by air, but bee hives by ground only.  Fair warning: the recipient of mailed bee hives may get a phone call at any time of day or night to "please come get them ASAP".<p><a href="https://about.usps.com/posters/pos138/pos138__v04_revision_082014_tech_012.htm" rel="nofollow">https://about.usps.com/posters/pos138/pos138__v04_revision_0...</a>
<a href="https://pe.usps.com/PUB52_Archive/NHTML/PUB52_Archive_20220404/pub52c7_014.htm" rel="nofollow">https://pe.usps.com/PUB52_Archive/NHTML/PUB52_Archive_202204...</a></p>
]]></description><pubDate>Thu, 17 Apr 2025 23:31:00 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43723367</link><dc:creator>dmckeon</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43723367</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43723367</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by dmckeon in "CVE program faces swift end after DHS fails to renew contract [updated]"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>People trying to ignore politics are like fish trying to ignore water.</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Wed, 16 Apr 2025 07:09:37 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43702391</link><dc:creator>dmckeon</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43702391</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43702391</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by dmckeon in "YAML: The Norway Problem (2022)"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>Narrow escape for people from Yemen (YE).</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Sun, 13 Apr 2025 04:57:24 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43670201</link><dc:creator>dmckeon</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43670201</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43670201</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by dmckeon in "Air pollution fell substantially as Paris restricted car traffic"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>Regenerative braking would tend to reduce particulates from friction braking.</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Sat, 12 Apr 2025 17:33:21 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43666387</link><dc:creator>dmckeon</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43666387</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43666387</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by dmckeon in "Take this on-call rotation and shove it"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>Have a minimum of say, 60 minutes, and if that is exceeded, the issue gets escalated or deferred.  If deferred, presumably to the next day shift, the cost is limited.  If escalated, the second person must also defend the time spent.  If management still doesn't trust their workers to be honest, then the company has other issues that tweaking on-call will not solve.</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Thu, 27 Mar 2025 23:25:03 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43499429</link><dc:creator>dmckeon</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43499429</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43499429</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by dmckeon in "Alice Hamilton waged a one-woman campaign to get the lead out of everything"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>It is worth noting that Midgely was also awarded multiple prizes for helping invent Freon, which reduced our earth's ozone layer.  <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Midgley_Jr.#Freon" rel="nofollow">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Midgley_Jr.#Freon</a></p>
]]></description><pubDate>Wed, 19 Feb 2025 18:23:08 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43105456</link><dc:creator>dmckeon</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43105456</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43105456</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by dmckeon in "Decision to dump water from Tulare County lakes altered after confusing locals"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>People in the US who work with large volumes of fresh water use acre-feet and cfs (cubic feet per second) almost exclusively.  If an article refers to gallons or comparisons like swimming pools instead, consider it popular journalism rather than engineering.  Science can use metric, if preferred.</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Sat, 01 Feb 2025 07:18:26 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42896497</link><dc:creator>dmckeon</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42896497</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42896497</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by dmckeon in "Older adults disproportionately hindered by touch screen interfaces (2023)"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>We could ease into more driver testing by requiring retesting after certain types of incidents - vehicle goes off roadway for no apparent reason, collision in a manner suggesting impairment - but that might rely too much on the discretion of a responding law enforcement officer.  Perhaps better to let insurance companies do a carrot/stick approach: discounts for periodic driver retraining/testings, required retesting after an older driver is at-fault in a claim.  Disclaimer: am older driver by TFA standards.</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Fri, 31 Jan 2025 22:05:08 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42892751</link><dc:creator>dmckeon</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42892751</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42892751</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by dmckeon in "65% of all ski resorts in the US have closed since 1960s (2022)"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>Many states[0] have explored this.  IIRC, the New Mexico legislature once, back in the 1980s, helpfully defined alpine skiing as a "hyper-dangerous" activity, trying to place all liability on the skier, but a reference eludes my google-fu.
[0] <a href="https://caselaw.findlaw.com/court/pa-supreme-court/1528129.html#footnote_15" rel="nofollow">https://caselaw.findlaw.com/court/pa-supreme-court/1528129.h...</a></p>
]]></description><pubDate>Fri, 31 Jan 2025 05:15:49 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42884894</link><dc:creator>dmckeon</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42884894</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42884894</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by dmckeon in "Falcon 9 Rocket Launch Scrubbed After Delta Air Flies into Restricted Airspace"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>> Delta: "The Delta crew on flight 480 continues to follow ATC instruction along its journey from Los Angeles (LAX) to Honolulu (HNL). The flight is en route to HNL with no issue.”<p>Apparently ATC (Air Traffic Control) was unaware of the TRF (Temporary Flight Restriction) around Vandenburg for launches.  Perhaps this will prompt an improvement in communication and cooperation in future.</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Mon, 20 Jan 2025 21:46:19 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42773430</link><dc:creator>dmckeon</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42773430</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42773430</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by dmckeon in "LA wildfires force thousands to evacuate, NASA JPL closed"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>Note that Getty Villa != Getty Museum.  The Villa is near Malibu, the Museum is miles away near the 405.</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Wed, 08 Jan 2025 23:03:14 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42639485</link><dc:creator>dmckeon</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42639485</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42639485</guid></item></channel></rss>