Hacker News: fferen

In Search of the Leisure Class

fferen — Mon, 23 Feb 2026 02:53:14 +0000

Article URL: https://libertiesjournal.com/articles/insearch-of-the-leisure-class/

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47117486

Points: 3

# Comments: 0

New comment by fferen in "What If Heavy Files Felt Heavy?"

fferen — Wed, 31 Dec 2025 05:52:19 +0000

Well, they already do in that large files take more time to copy which subconsciously discourages moving them.

New comment by fferen in "Sora 2"

fferen — Tue, 30 Sep 2025 18:52:00 +0000

Very first frame of the video: green digital text is messed up. Stopped watching after that :)

New comment by fferen in ""AI" on a Calculator: Part 1"

fferen — Sat, 04 Jan 2025 19:42:57 +0000

I first started coding in high school on the TI-84 calculators. My 1st language was TI-BASIC, 2nd was Z80 assembly - quite a big step - and I quit when I faced some tricky bugs that my teenage self could not figure out :-) Back then, I don't believe they had a C/C++ toolchain. Some time later, I tried using Small Device C compiler (SDCC), but encountered several compiler bugs which I couldn't fix but duly reported. Great to see there is such excellent tooling nowadays.

New comment by fferen in "Cognitive load is what matters"

fferen — Wed, 25 Dec 2024 19:50:59 +0000

Disagree with first example. If that condition is only used once, adding a variable introduces more state to keep track of, that could just be a comment next to the conditional.

New comment by fferen in "Is my vision that bad? No, it's just a bug in Apple's Calculator"

fferen — Sun, 08 Sep 2024 05:35:48 +0000

Edge on Mac, but IIRC it happens on Windows as well. Just checked in firefox/mac and seems OK.

New comment by fferen in "Is my vision that bad? No, it's just a bug in Apple's Calculator"

fferen — Sat, 31 Aug 2024 16:56:38 +0000

On the topic of calculator font bugs, Google's calculator randomly switches between two fonts:

https://pasteboard.co/lmbr4iE6BJej.png

https://pasteboard.co/sU3GA5psIaT0.png

New comment by fferen in "Why is everything an orchid?"

fferen — Tue, 16 Jan 2024 20:03:16 +0000

Fails to mention the actual reason people are fascinated: their diversity of appearance. Typical AI summary with many words not saying very much.

New comment by fferen in "Bram Moolenaar's programming language, Zimbu"

fferen — Thu, 24 Aug 2023 23:50:38 +0000

Reminds me of TI-BASIC for the TI-83 graphing calculators... The closing ')' is optional at the end of a line, and omitting it could make your program slightly faster...

New comment by fferen in "The Fill and Flush deplaning method"

fferen — Thu, 17 Aug 2023 16:08:47 +0000

Idea: deplane by row. Each row leaves when a light in that row turns on. An algorithm decides when to turn them on based on several factors: keeping large groups together, expected speed of deplaning (eg. elderly may be slower), current occupancy of the aisle. Advantage: should be very fast, easy to follow, groups stay together.

New comment by fferen in "I went to 50 different dentists: almost all gave a different diagnosis (1997)"

fferen — Sun, 06 Aug 2023 17:13:52 +0000

My tentative advice would be to find the one with the best reviews. Only pay attention to the lowest reviews, even a few 1-stars are informative.

My story: I brush and floss every single day. At my regular checkup, the dentist measured 2-5mm gum depths, and insisted on doing a deep cleaning, which involves anesthesia and multiple visits. I argued that the 5mm depths were borderline, and could very well be 4mm with measurement error. (They did seem to be pushing rather hard.) They also pointed out some tiny supposed "pockets" on the X-ray that looked like just imaging blur or something. Feeling very suspicious, I left, and found another dentist with, surprisingly, zero bad reviews on Yelp. They measured 2-4mm gum depths, and did a much less aggressive cleaning.

New comment by fferen in "Silicon, Silica, Silicates and Silicone (1998) [pdf]"

fferen — Sun, 23 Jul 2023 03:08:26 +0000

When I started grad school in semiconductor electronics, I noticed everyone pronounced it "si-li-cun", while normal people usually say "si-li-con". Maybe it's just a west coast thing.

New comment by fferen in "A third of North America’s birds have vanished"

fferen — Sun, 16 Jul 2023 00:04:25 +0000

At least from the graph, it's leveling out?

New comment by fferen in "Ask HN: Could you share your personal blog here?"

fferen — Tue, 04 Jul 2023 17:40:27 +0000

https://diffxweyl.wordpress.com/

Theoretical physics blog. Something for everyone.

New comment by fferen in "On the State of the Web"

fferen — Mon, 03 Jul 2023 20:13:52 +0000

I've been using Cloudhiker lately to replace the good old stumbleupon days and it does capture some of the magic of the old web. (not affiliated)

New comment by fferen in "Leo Tolstoy on why people drink (2014)"

fferen — Fri, 30 Jun 2023 05:41:59 +0000

Everyone warns you about alcohol, but I have only had positive experiences, and in fact, wish I started drinking sooner in life. When I was going through a period of general anxiety and loneliness, I used to drink alone every weekend. It was a lot of fun and led to some of my best decisions, such as applying for a new job. Nowadays, I'm in a more stable place and only drink socially.

I feel like my mind is by default "extra sober", and drinking helps bring it to a normal level of sobriety.

New comment by fferen in "Why ChatGPT and Bing Chat are so good at making things up"

fferen — Fri, 07 Apr 2023 17:18:10 +0000

I've found they serve almost exactly the opposite purpose as search engines. When I want reliable info and don't need hand-holding: search. When I have no idea what to search, or want a quick intro to something: ChatGPT. Together, they are very powerful complementary tools.

New comment by fferen in "A suspiciously criminal portfolio website"

fferen — Sat, 11 Mar 2023 18:53:08 +0000

Would be better if you could pan around the board. Having only linear scrolling kinda defeats the concept.

New comment by fferen in "What is Chess? What to think and for how long"

fferen — Wed, 01 Mar 2023 19:28:24 +0000

Something I wonder: are computers better at chess because they can think faster? What if we give a team of top grandmasters 1 day per move, versus like 1 hour for Stockfish. Will they at least consistently draw? To my knowledge, top human vs computer matches these days only use piece odds, not time odds.

New comment by fferen in "The art of the shadow: How painters have gotten it wrong for centuries"

fferen — Wed, 15 Feb 2023 05:40:56 +0000

Sometimes you can get too carried away with drawing exactly what you see. Once I drew a person based on a photo I had on my desk, only to realize that since I was looking down at an angle to it, the drawing was all distorted. :)