Hacker News: donaltroddyn

New comment by donaltroddyn in "An open-source stethoscope that costs between $2.5 and $5 to produce"

donaltroddyn — Wed, 29 Apr 2026 17:06:18 +0000

They can become a lot more expensive than $100, but the difference between a Littman Cardiology and the $15 EMT student stethoscope is night and day.

> Currently, the stethoscope resulting from this project functions as well as the market gold standard, the Littmann Cardiology III

If this is true, it's a major achievement.

New comment by donaltroddyn in "MODNet: Is a Green Screen Necessary for Real-Time Human Matting?"

donaltroddyn — Sat, 28 Nov 2020 16:56:59 +0000

Part of it is that webcams are nearly impossible to buy since the pandemic arose, but apart from that, webcam image quality is terrible - even expensive webcams in the price range of ~100's of Euro.

A recent iPhone will wipe the floor with any webcam I've come across, short of an SLR or mirrorless camera.

New comment by donaltroddyn in "Victoria follows South Australia and imposes electric car road tax"

donaltroddyn — Sat, 21 Nov 2020 20:56:06 +0000

It also is in Ireland, but there are valid reasons, such as as replacing an ECU or dash cluster.

Unless auto manufacturers are required to fit much more secure odometers, I can't see them in their current incarnation used as the basis for a tax.

New comment by donaltroddyn in "Victoria follows South Australia and imposes electric car road tax"

donaltroddyn — Sat, 21 Nov 2020 19:20:25 +0000

I was being slightly facetious in referencing tyre size, although people regularly have to adjust speedo/odometers by 10% or more when fitting large tyres on off-roaders.

Odometers can have their values changed at will, at least in ICE vehicles, often for valid reasons.

New comment by donaltroddyn in "Victoria follows South Australia and imposes electric car road tax"

donaltroddyn — Sat, 21 Nov 2020 18:51:04 +0000

I don't think Odometers are reliable enough, especially as the basis for a tax. You'd certainly see an increase in average tyre size!

New comment by donaltroddyn in "Victoria follows South Australia and imposes electric car road tax"

donaltroddyn — Sat, 21 Nov 2020 18:41:29 +0000

How do you track the number of Kms driven? Is it possible to do so while maintaining the privacy of individuals?

New comment by donaltroddyn in "The first open-source ventilator tested on human patients"

donaltroddyn — Mon, 16 Nov 2020 00:14:51 +0000

Only five US States don't have Sales Tax, and most counties and cities have their own, too.

New comment by donaltroddyn in "Pimp My Microwave"

donaltroddyn — Sun, 15 Nov 2020 13:02:50 +0000

Similarly, in Ireland where we run 230VAC single phase, three phase 400VAC allows up to 22kW to be delivered, which is about to become extremely useful as we migrate to electric transportation.

Also, on safety, I don't know the statistics, but subjectively, electricity feels much more dangerous in the US because of the plug and socket design.

New comment by donaltroddyn in "Pimp My Microwave"

donaltroddyn — Sun, 15 Nov 2020 12:27:28 +0000

And more safely, as there is no possibility of superheating the water.

New comment by donaltroddyn in "British Airways Flight 5390"

donaltroddyn — Sat, 14 Nov 2020 12:51:41 +0000

And the famine was the big hunger (an Gorta Mór).

New comment by donaltroddyn in "British Airways Flight 5390"

donaltroddyn — Sat, 14 Nov 2020 12:48:58 +0000

Interesting. In Ireland, they're referred to as RTCs (collisions), although still referred to as accidents in law. Never come across RTI before.

New comment by donaltroddyn in "The Most Surveilled Cities in the World"

donaltroddyn — Mon, 26 Oct 2020 19:55:45 +0000

New comment by donaltroddyn in "The Most Surveilled Cities in the World"

donaltroddyn — Mon, 26 Oct 2020 19:25:51 +0000

New comment by donaltroddyn in "Simple Opt Out – Links to opt out of data sharing by companies"

donaltroddyn — Sat, 03 Oct 2020 15:52:11 +0000

The GDPR does not allow the processing of personal data at all without out a legal basis, and the prevention of unlawful data processing does not require that you submit any identifying details at all!

A company may verify the identify of a person making a deletion request for data processed under a valid legal basis, which seems unlikely to be the case here.

New comment by donaltroddyn in "I sold my side-project for $30k"

donaltroddyn — Tue, 01 Sep 2020 10:38:06 +0000

The OP is the founder of BetaList.

New comment by donaltroddyn in "An Update on MDN Web Docs"

donaltroddyn — Fri, 21 Aug 2020 22:57:00 +0000

Have you found a way to donate? All the links on that page are dead for me.

New comment by donaltroddyn in "USPS Files Patent for a Blockchain-Based Voting System"

donaltroddyn — Sun, 16 Aug 2020 20:21:08 +0000

> I just think the above argument was made from a fundamental misunderstanding of blockchain technology.

Which misunderstanding of blockchains/merkle trees do you believe has caused the argument above to be incorrect?

The system as described in the patent provides no protection that I can see against voter coercion, and in some embodiments, allows a voter to verify that their vote has been counted as cast, which is significantly more ripe for abuse than in-person or even postal voting.

I did read your other comments in this thread, but it seems to me that you have a fundamental misunderstanding of blockchain technology and the problems that it can solve. Your proposed right-to-vote token solution is worse in every way than paper ballots cast in-person at polling stations with private areas, counted by hand in publicly observable count centres.

New comment by donaltroddyn in "USPS Files Patent for a Blockchain-Based Voting System"

donaltroddyn — Sun, 16 Aug 2020 09:41:33 +0000

It's certainly not a ridiculous argument. Anonymity is a cornerstone of fair voting systems, and any system that allows votes to be deanonymised increases the risk of coercion.

The same type of risk applies to postal voting, although with less severity, as with postal voting there is only one opportunity to check the coerced vote. Blockchain based votes can be checked after the fact.

Still, for this reason, postal voting is rare, and most countries that allow it do so only for citizens living abroad or who cannot travel to a polling station die to injury or illness.

Countries like the UK and Australia that allow any eligible voter to do so by mail are rare.

New comment by donaltroddyn in "A new design ship in the Philippines is partly powered by wave energy"

donaltroddyn — Thu, 06 Aug 2020 14:31:23 +0000

Just a note: at sea, when the ratio of wave height to wave length exceeds 0.17, the wave will break, so a 1m by 1m is impossibly steep.

New comment by donaltroddyn in "Ireland donates contact tracing app to Linux Foundation"

donaltroddyn — Mon, 20 Jul 2020 19:43:26 +0000

Thanks for working on this.