Hacker News: fundatus

New comment by fundatus in "I bought Friendster for $30k – Here's what I'm doing with it"

fundatus — Mon, 27 Apr 2026 11:19:37 +0000

> If you want to build a limited distribution app Apple has mechanisms for private distribution which is used by companies for internal apps etc

Yeah, but that wouldn't be an option for this app obviously.

> They don’t want the App Store filled with app that can’t be used by the vast majority of people that might see and download it.

Then they should add alternative methods. Instead they are actively sabotaging such efforts, for example by the EU. Want to distribute an iOS app in the EU through the web? Yeah, as a requirement you need an app with 1m annual downloads[1] already in the AppStore before they allow you to do that. Which completely defeats the point.

[1] https://developer.apple.com/support/web-distribution-eu/

New comment by fundatus in "Has electricity decoupled from natural gas prices in Germany?"

fundatus — Tue, 07 Apr 2026 15:11:44 +0000

Well, the electrons arriving in your home will the same as your neighbours, regardless of which supplier you choose. But by choosing a different supplier you can steer which energy sources will be used to feed that grid, so it still makes a difference, just not exactly where you live.

New comment by fundatus in "Has electricity decoupled from natural gas prices in Germany?"

fundatus — Tue, 07 Apr 2026 14:44:12 +0000

Levelized Cost of Energy for Germany's existing nuclear fleet was roughly 13ct/kwh.[1] The averaged costs (YTD) from the linked article currently stands at 9.71 ct/kwh. So nuclear in the mix would have increased the costs.

[1] https://www.bundestag.de/resource/blob/877586/4e4dce913c3d88...

New comment by fundatus in "Has electricity decoupled from natural gas prices in Germany?"

fundatus — Tue, 07 Apr 2026 14:36:48 +0000

An installed solar panel will continue producing electricity, no matter how the relationship with the country that produced it develops. Unlike natural gas, oil or uranium where the fuel itself is the actual imported good.

New comment by fundatus in "Renewables reached nearly 50% of global electricity capacity last year"

fundatus — Thu, 02 Apr 2026 19:22:16 +0000

Modern grids favour flexibility over fixed baseload generation (like nuclear) though. When you turn off a nuclear power plant its operating costs basically stay the same, which is horrible when you could cover your whole consumption with basically free solar/wind.

New comment by fundatus in "Why the US Navy won't blast the Iranians and 'open' Strait of Hormuz"

fundatus — Wed, 01 Apr 2026 11:46:09 +0000

Well, the US is still dependent on foreign heavy oil for their refineries as it mostly produces shale oil (for export). So it very much isn't independent even though it looks like it when you see the numbers.

New comment by fundatus in "Why the US Navy won't blast the Iranians and 'open' Strait of Hormuz"

fundatus — Wed, 01 Apr 2026 11:33:52 +0000

> Why this wasn’t done already is beyond me.

Pipelines would have to run through multiple countries, meaning you now not only have to share your income with someone else (transit fees etc) but it also means that you have to stay on good terms with these countries.

New comment by fundatus in "The Markets of Old London (2024)"

fundatus — Mon, 09 Feb 2026 22:05:53 +0000

Much fewer / slower cars. Nowadays people have been pushed aside to make room for cars.

New comment by fundatus in "Microsoft forced me to switch to Linux"

fundatus — Wed, 28 Jan 2026 15:19:14 +0000

Somehow I think the stars might be aligning this time though. People are genuinely fed up with Windows and governments around the world are loudly thinking about how to reduce dependence on US tech. And then there is Proton which makes it much easier for Gamers to jump ship. To me it feels like there is more momentum than ever for this.

On the other hand I am also a realist and I don't think that Linux will take over the Desktop, but it will certainly have its biggest growth year ever in 2026.

New comment by fundatus in "If you tax them, will they leave?"

fundatus — Wed, 28 Jan 2026 13:15:40 +0000

Do people move solely because of property taxes? They rarely do unless they are in financial distress. So I'd say: Give it a try.

New comment by fundatus in "LED lighting undermines visual performance unless supplemented by wider spectra"

fundatus — Mon, 26 Jan 2026 13:22:59 +0000

> LEDs aren't mandated per se, but they are the most attractive alternative.

Yeah, basically what the EU did was to say: For X Watts of electricity at least X Lumen of light has to be produced. And this number was gradually increased. Since old school light bulbs are quite inefficient when it comes to producing light, they slowly had to be phased out.

New comment by fundatus in "In Europe, wind and solar overtake fossil fuels"

fundatus — Fri, 23 Jan 2026 10:04:04 +0000

It was Putin that cut off gas supply to Europe almost completely in autumn 2021 in preparation of the invasion and then completely shut it off during 2022. That was before the pipelines were blown up.

New comment by fundatus in "Proton spam and the AI consent problem"

fundatus — Fri, 23 Jan 2026 09:35:14 +0000

Over in the Proton subreddit we've been wondering if there is currently some kind of Anti-Proton campaign going on. Constantly people will loudly complain about completely benign things and get lot's of people agreeing with them.

New comment by fundatus in "Proton spam and the AI consent problem"

fundatus — Fri, 23 Jan 2026 09:23:39 +0000

What's the issue with a privacy-focused AI assistant that doesn't store all your data?

New comment by fundatus in "In Europe, wind and solar overtake fossil fuels"

fundatus — Fri, 23 Jan 2026 08:50:16 +0000

And the reason for that? Fossil fuels. Cited from one of your articles:

> “Our industry continues to face difficult market dynamics and challenging energy costs, with European gas prices around three times higher than the US,” Arnaud Valenduc, business director for Ineos Inovyn, the Ineos business that makes chloromethane, says in the press release.

New comment by fundatus in "How London cracked mobile phone coverage on the Underground"

fundatus — Sun, 18 Jan 2026 14:28:37 +0000

> It's worth noting that 450MHz was listed as one of the GSM bands, but apparently was never used

It's specified for 4G/LTE (Band 31, 72 & 73) and 5G (Band n31 & n72) as well! The bandwidth is pretty low though at just 5 MHz, but it's used for special purpose stuff like electricity meters. I'm not aware of any consumer devices that use this frequency.

New comment by fundatus in "US electricity demand surged in 2025 – solar handled 61% of it"

fundatus — Sun, 18 Jan 2026 14:08:02 +0000

> Nuclear can be curtailed

I know, that's why I said it's basically never done. And it's usually not even done even if the price is zero or below, because a lot of nuclear power plants have fixed prices that are guaranteed by the government. Also, operating costs of nuclear power plants stay the same even if you curtail it 100%, so it's more economical to curtail something else.

New comment by fundatus in "US electricity demand surged in 2025 – solar handled 61% of it"

fundatus — Sat, 17 Jan 2026 14:25:48 +0000

> undispatchable resources

Solar is not dispatchable like a gas power plant is as the sun needs to shine to produce electricity. But it can very much be curtailed to any percentage you want. And that is being done globally every day exactly when it would be uneconomical to generate that electricity.

Interestingly this is as opposed to nuclear energy, which is basically never curtailed and always runs at 100% unless needed for maintenance or safety. Which is one of the main factors why nuclear energy is not economical anymore in a modern grid that values flexibility over constant generation.

New comment by fundatus in "Happy 50th Birthday KIM-1"

fundatus — Sun, 11 Jan 2026 18:40:52 +0000

The 8-Bit Guy did a great episode about the history of the Commodore PET and it starts with the KIM-1 and how it was basically turned into the PET. Highly recommended!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eP9y_7it3ZM

New comment by fundatus in "Interview with RollerCoaster Tycoon's Creator, Chris Sawyer (2024)"

fundatus — Wed, 03 Dec 2025 12:15:17 +0000

I initially found his channel when he build a working calculator from roller coasters in RCT2.[1] It's been fun since then learning about how guests decide to enter a toilet or why guests will always get stuck in certain maze designs etc.

[1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RQGa0DPwes0