<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: foobar1962</title><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/user?id=foobar1962</link><description>Hacker News RSS</description><docs>https://hnrss.org/</docs><generator>hnrss v2.1.1</generator><lastBuildDate>Mon, 13 Apr 2026 20:58:54 +0000</lastBuildDate><atom:link href="https://hnrss.org/user?id=foobar1962" rel="self" type="application/rss+xml"></atom:link><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by foobar1962 in "Apple's accidental moat: How the "AI Loser" may end up winning"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>A lot of the people that bought iPhones are now buying Macs as well.</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Mon, 13 Apr 2026 04:14:16 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47747518</link><dc:creator>foobar1962</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47747518</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47747518</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by foobar1962 in "Lost Doctor Who episodes found"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>I worked in a broadcast company archive (doing database work). Tapes were often reused. Fragments of previous recordings -- sometimes just a few frames, occasionally many minutes -- may remain at the beginning or end of the tape. AFAIK tapes were never completely erased before recording over top.<p>I was invloed in a digitisation project, the scanning companies were instructed to process the whole tape in case there were fragments of older programs at the end. A 30 minute tape may have 15 minutes of program, then a period of blank/black, then the remains of an older program for several minutes after that.</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Sat, 14 Mar 2026 05:12:30 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47373577</link><dc:creator>foobar1962</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47373577</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47373577</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by foobar1962 in ""Scholars Will Call It Nonsense": The Structure of von Däniken's Argument (1987)"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>The gottcha moment in the article was when the questioner's name was revealed as PLAYBOY.<p>Myth Busted: Some people really did only buy it for the articles.</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Mon, 12 Jan 2026 00:18:50 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46582068</link><dc:creator>foobar1962</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46582068</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46582068</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by foobar1962 in "The World Happiness Report is beset with methodological problems"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>Really? Satisfied people lack the ability to dream?</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Wed, 17 Dec 2025 02:05:25 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46297359</link><dc:creator>foobar1962</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46297359</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46297359</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by foobar1962 in "The World Happiness Report is beset with methodological problems"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>> ..the top of the ladder represents the best possible life for you and the bottom of the ladder represents the worst possible life for you... on which step of the ladder do you feel you personally stand at the present time?<p>10, I'm living my best possible life. It's conceivable that my "best possible life" may not be as happy as the lifes of other people, but I have achieved the maximum that's possible for me.<p>Any other "possible life" would require some combination of different genes, being in a different place and living at a different time.</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Wed, 17 Dec 2025 00:43:04 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46296804</link><dc:creator>foobar1962</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46296804</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46296804</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by foobar1962 in "Loose wire leads to blackout, contact with Francis Scott Key bridge"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>Ships were a lot smaller when the bridge was designed and built.</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Thu, 20 Nov 2025 03:14:59 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45988483</link><dc:creator>foobar1962</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45988483</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45988483</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by foobar1962 in "A worker fell into a nuclear reactor pool"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>A bite requires teeth. Sharks bite. Snakes bite. Bees and wasps sting. Jellyfish and bluebottles sting.<p>Not sure about spiders. Are their fangs considered to be teeth? Platypus have venomous spurs, not sure what that’s called.</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Sun, 26 Oct 2025 02:18:15 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45708618</link><dc:creator>foobar1962</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45708618</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45708618</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by foobar1962 in "AWS multiple services outage in us-east-1"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>That or a Windows update.</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Mon, 20 Oct 2025 10:17:42 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45642211</link><dc:creator>foobar1962</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45642211</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45642211</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by foobar1962 in "AWS multiple services outage in us-east-1"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>I use the term “unexpected error” because if the code got to this alert it wasn’t caught by any traps I’d made for the “expected” errors.</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Mon, 20 Oct 2025 10:15:14 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45642193</link><dc:creator>foobar1962</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45642193</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45642193</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by foobar1962 in "What Happens to Artists' Studios After They Die?"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>Some Australian artist studios open to the public in Sydney:<p>Brett Whitley
<a href="https://www.artgallery.nsw.gov.au/visit/brett-whiteley-studio/" rel="nofollow">https://www.artgallery.nsw.gov.au/visit/brett-whiteley-studi...</a><p>May Gibbs
<a href="https://www.maygibbs.com.au" rel="nofollow">https://www.maygibbs.com.au</a></p>
]]></description><pubDate>Fri, 26 Sep 2025 03:49:43 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45382423</link><dc:creator>foobar1962</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45382423</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45382423</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by foobar1962 in "Grapevine canes can be converted into plastic-like material that will decompose"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>I'm old enough to remember when supermarkets only had brown paper bags. They were weak and the handles tear off easily, and anything cold will make the bag wet and it will fall apart usually from the bottom. Supermarkets must have spent a lot of money replacing customer's broken items when bags failed even before leaving the store.<p>So when doing the calculus for brown paper bags don't forget to include the cost goods wasted when they fail.</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Mon, 15 Sep 2025 09:53:35 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45247927</link><dc:creator>foobar1962</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45247927</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45247927</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by foobar1962 in "Betty Crocker broke recipes by shrinking boxes"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>Probably a good place to post a 400 year old recipe for pancakes. I've made them, they are very good. Note that what is considered a "pancake" has changed over the years and changes with location.<p><a href="https://rarecooking.com/2021/12/14/john-lockes-recipe-for-pancakes/" rel="nofollow">https://rarecooking.com/2021/12/14/john-lockes-recipe-for-pa...</a></p>
]]></description><pubDate>Mon, 15 Sep 2025 02:53:58 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45245627</link><dc:creator>foobar1962</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45245627</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45245627</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by foobar1962 in "The effects of algorithms on the public discourse"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>The "old" internet still exists and is alive and well on what I'll call "single issue" web based forums. Photo.net is still here, as are similar groups for cars, bikes, and rabbit holes I have yet to break my ankle in.<p>Unlike social media, few of these forums have mechanisms to "like" or upvote posts so there is no reward for posting just to attract attention, whether it be positive or negative. That changes the dynamic IMHO. People post to seek answers to their questions, or to share their knowledge and answer other people's questions. This is the way.<p>I'd include HN in this group of ye olde internet forums. It does have a mechanism to vote, but it's different and the expectation of the readers are brutal to frivolous posts (of which I have made only couple and paid for dearly).</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Fri, 12 Sep 2025 02:29:58 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45218087</link><dc:creator>foobar1962</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45218087</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45218087</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by foobar1962 in "How Potatoes Evolved"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>I picked that up too. Awkward.  I think they mean that 80% of all calories are provided by wheat, maize, rice, and potatoes.</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Sun, 10 Aug 2025 09:22:33 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44853913</link><dc:creator>foobar1962</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44853913</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44853913</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by foobar1962 in "Stone blocks from the Lighthouse of Alexandria recovered from seafloor"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>Motor powered ships don't zig zag. Sail powered ships need to tack and gybe to go directly upwind and downwind, but TBH in busy harbours with navigation hazards and a lot of commercial traffic most would furl the sails and use the motor for safety.<p>You might be interested in "lead marks" which are two signs visible from a distance. They "lead" ships by providing a straight path through difficult passages when the two signs line up. Very simple and effective.<p>Note that modern lighthouse lights either rotate or blink, the flash frequency is unique and marked on charts to further help identify location at night.</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Tue, 22 Jul 2025 01:31:35 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44642365</link><dc:creator>foobar1962</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44642365</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44642365</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by foobar1962 in "Stone blocks from the Lighthouse of Alexandria recovered from seafloor"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>To help ships navigate. Being 100 meters tall it would be visible from quite a distance off shore, something like 36km or 22 miles, before land itself could be seen.<p>> The Lighthouse, or Pharos of Alexandria... stood more than 100 meters tall above the island of Pharos, guiding ships safely through Alexandria’s treacherous coastal waters<p>Note that making navigation safer would also benefit trade. Given the choice of landing in a port that was difficult to find and one that had such a lighthouse as a guide...</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Fri, 18 Jul 2025 02:31:29 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44600617</link><dc:creator>foobar1962</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44600617</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44600617</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by foobar1962 in "Price of rice in Japan falls below ¥4k per 5kg"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>> Despite the fall, the average rice price was still ¥1,772 higher than that of a year earlier.<p>So this price isn't surprising or unusual at all.</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Tue, 01 Jul 2025 00:54:20 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44429516</link><dc:creator>foobar1962</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44429516</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44429516</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by foobar1962 in "Children in England growing up 'sedentary, scrolling and alone', say experts"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>It's been going on forever. "Stop looking at the cave art and take the garbage out."</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Mon, 23 Jun 2025 00:08:40 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44351305</link><dc:creator>foobar1962</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44351305</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44351305</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by foobar1962 in "Research suggests Big Bang may have taken place inside a black hole"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>> In practice, atheists are people who think they know there is no god.<p>Many atheists find a verdict of "not guilty" on the charge "that god exists". It's the equivalent of saying "I don't believe you." That's about it.<p>Saying "god does not exist" is a claim that itself has a burden of proof. Most people agree there is no need to provide proof that fairies and unicorns don't exist. If you think they do: show your evidence. The default position is to think they don't exist.</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Mon, 16 Jun 2025 05:57:41 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44286963</link><dc:creator>foobar1962</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44286963</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44286963</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by foobar1962 in "Research suggests Big Bang may have taken place inside a black hole"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>Atheists are people that don't <i>bleieve</i> there is a God. Agnostics are people who don't <i>know</i> they are atheists. -- Aron Ra</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Thu, 12 Jun 2025 07:49:08 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44255090</link><dc:creator>foobar1962</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44255090</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44255090</guid></item></channel></rss>