Hacker News: flyingfences

New comment by flyingfences in "Bosch's brake-by-wire system may be the next big leap in automotive tech"

flyingfences — Tue, 18 Feb 2025 14:08:15 +0000

That is not the point at all; We're not talking about a spring rate that increases as you push on the pedal. In a proper braking system, the driver can feel through his foot what the tires are doing, because there is direct mechanical feedback through the brake lines. This is an important safety consideration, and manufacturers are throwing it out for... what?

New comment by flyingfences in "Bosch's brake-by-wire system may be the next big leap in automotive tech"

flyingfences — Mon, 17 Feb 2025 05:08:18 +0000

The lack of information on how it /feels/ is telling. Feedback is important for safe driving.

New comment by flyingfences in "Why so many families are "drowning in toys""

flyingfences — Fri, 22 Nov 2024 17:11:48 +0000

My family has passed down through the generations an old farmhouse in the mountains where we go on vacation. When my father was growing up, they would pack the family of five and their bags into a Volkswagen Beetle and head up for a weekend. When I was growing up, we were also a family of five and we filled a minivan to the brim for a weekend.

New comment by flyingfences in "Room inspections at Resorts World confuse, annoy DEF CON attendees"

flyingfences — Tue, 13 Aug 2024 11:29:11 +0000

The "alternative" is to arrest people who commit violent crimes, not people who write provocative messages.

New comment by flyingfences in "300-Year-Old House Transported Piecemeal Japan to California, Then Reconstructed"

flyingfences — Tue, 23 Jul 2024 12:25:55 +0000

HNers in the Boston area can see a similar feat at the Peabody Essex Museum, where they have reconstructed in detail the house of a merchant from the Qing Dynasty.

https://www.pem.org/yin-yu-tang-a-chinese-home

New comment by flyingfences in "Girls in Tech closes its doors after 17 years"

flyingfences — Wed, 10 Jul 2024 13:51:21 +0000

The popularization of computer science degrees absolutely did push down the price of software engineers on average. The Big Names in SV are outliers; the rest of the industry employs us at wages far closer to other professions than they could a generation ago.

New comment by flyingfences in "T-Mobile to acquire most of U.S. Cellular in $4.4B deal"

flyingfences — Tue, 28 May 2024 17:22:24 +0000

Google Fi used T-Mobile, Sprint, and US Cellular behind the scenes. At least, they did at the time I signed up, which was why I signed up. Sprint merged into T-Mobile a few years ago; Fi dropped US Cellular last spring.

Since then, I've stayed on from inertia. I'll probably switch to T-Mobile's $15 / 5 GB plan soon, since it's half the price I'm paying for now-no-better service from Fi and I rarely use more than 1 GB per month.

New comment by flyingfences in "T-Mobile to acquire most of U.S. Cellular in $4.4B deal"

flyingfences — Tue, 28 May 2024 15:49:31 +0000

US Cellular has great coverage back home (Maine) but shoddy coverage where I live now (New York) and T-Mobile vice versa. I've been on Google Fi for the past ten years because it is the only option (at least when I last looked) that jumps seamlessly between the two, and at a reasonable enough price (for a guy who doesn't use much data). If this merger makes another carrier that has good service throughout the northeast, that could change the game for a lot of customers.

I'm not optimistic, though; the T-Mobile - Sprint merger was supposed to improve their service but ended up [0] jacking their prices.

[0] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40379028

New comment by flyingfences in "Discussion: Job seekers can't find a job and Employers can't find an employees"

flyingfences — Mon, 20 May 2024 14:45:26 +0000

The jobs that I both want and can do are all in places where I both don't want to live and can't afford, either. If I and my cohort could buy a decent home in Boston or New York or California, the equation would be very different.

New comment by flyingfences in "A game magazine that spent two years taunting a Final Fantasy VIII hater"

flyingfences — Fri, 01 Mar 2024 17:01:42 +0000

> when is the line crossed between "friendly banter" and straight-up harrassment?

I don't think he could call it harassment if he were still buying the new issues.

New comment by flyingfences in "The Death of the Internet as a Haven for People with Autism"

flyingfences — Sat, 14 Oct 2023 18:51:56 +0000

This article started as a nice reflection on the old internet creativities and communities that we used to have and a lament for its loss at the hands of corporate social media. Then it turned out to just be a lament that one of those social media corporations that swallowed the old internet is now being run by the another wrong person, one who's now fashionable to hate. What a disappointment.

New comment by flyingfences in "The case against hiring people from Ivy League schools"

flyingfences — Wed, 27 Sep 2023 17:44:26 +0000

The real core gist I'm getting from this article is that "the case against hiring people from Ivy League schools" is that ivy league grads don't want to work ridiculous overtime for someone else's dream -- not exactly a scathing indictment in my view.

New comment by flyingfences in "Court Says California’s Age Appropriate Design Code Is Unconstitutional"

flyingfences — Tue, 19 Sep 2023 18:39:22 +0000

Court Says California's Age Appropriate Design Code might be Unconstitutional. A ruling has not been made in the case; only a preliminary injunction has been issued.

New comment by flyingfences in "Ask HN: What programming languages are you using at $WORK?"

flyingfences — Thu, 14 Sep 2023 19:20:55 +0000

GNU C99 for dev, Python 3 for V&V

New comment by flyingfences in "Graphics card generation is over and it was mostly trash"

flyingfences — Mon, 11 Sep 2023 15:01:30 +0000

Likewise, the last time I can recall a notable increase in my own enjoyment from a new GPU was my GTX 660. It ran all the games I was playing back then (TF2, Skyrim, Civ V, Bioshock Infinite...) on mid to high settings. The newer cards I've bought since then have only felt like marginal improvements. Yeah, the graphics have more detail, more effects, better lighting. So what? Do the games actually look better, aesthetically? Are the worlds more immersive? Is the gameplay any better? Nope.

New comment by flyingfences in "Ask HN: Why is 1776 a black-holed keyword on YouTube?"

flyingfences — Fri, 01 Sep 2023 15:07:20 +0000

United States Independence Day

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/b1/Goddard_...

New comment by flyingfences in "The end of cool small cars"

flyingfences — Wed, 30 Aug 2023 15:47:10 +0000

There aren't even wagons for sale in America anymore. There are a few crossover-wagon options, with lifted suspension and plastic cladding a la Subaru Outback; there are a few overlarge hatchbacks, e.g., the Honda Civic; but, look for a normal wagon with traditional four-pillar proportions and normal car handling and styling and the only option you'll find for sale here is the Porsche Panamera Sport Turismo, which is not an affordable family vehicle. Gone are the days of the Volvo 240 or VW Golf wagons; long gone are the big old American wagons.

New comment by flyingfences in "The end of cool small cars"

flyingfences — Wed, 30 Aug 2023 15:39:53 +0000

Except that the Toyota Yaris has been cancelled entirely in the US market, along with the Prius C, the Honda Fit, the Nissan Versa hatch, the Ford Fiesta (and all Ford cars except the Mustang), the Fiat 500, the Smart Car, the Mitsubishi Mirage, and every small hatchback except the (overpriced and controversially styled) Mini and a couple of electric models.

New comment by flyingfences in "It’s time for Americans to embrace small cars"

flyingfences — Fri, 18 Aug 2023 17:25:26 +0000

It's not an "individual choice" when the options are entirely unavailable due to regulatory discrimination.

New comment by flyingfences in "Legacy and Athlete Preferences at Harvard (2020) [pdf]"

flyingfences — Fri, 30 Jun 2023 15:20:31 +0000

It's never brought to the courts because there's no law about it. Complain to Congress; it's their job.