Hacker News: geomark

New comment by geomark in "How NASA built Artemis II’s fault-tolerant computer"

geomark — Fri, 10 Apr 2026 03:46:29 +0000

I sure wish they would talk about the hardware. I spent a few years developing a radiation hardened fault tolerant computer back in the day. Adding redundancy at multiple levels was the usual solution. But there is another clever check on transient errors during process execution that we implemented that didn't involve any redundancy. Doesn't seem like they did anything like that. But can't tell since they don't mention the processor(s) they used.

New comment by geomark in "Mathematics is hard for mathematicians to understand too"

geomark — Wed, 03 Dec 2025 12:08:00 +0000

Of course. I just find it hilarious that someone like von Neumann would say that.

New comment by geomark in "Mathematics is hard for mathematicians to understand too"

geomark — Wed, 03 Dec 2025 11:57:26 +0000

I thought we were well past trying to understand mathematics. After all, John von Neumann long ago said "In mathematics we don't understand things. We just get used to them."

New comment by geomark in "LM8560, the eternal chip from the 1980 years"

geomark — Sun, 02 Nov 2025 10:01:32 +0000

Yep. Just used a 555 today to whip up a low frequency clock source.

New comment by geomark in "Introducing a terms of use and updated privacy notice for Firefox"

geomark — Fri, 28 Feb 2025 08:46:29 +0000

Ask HN: Is Brave an ok alternative?

New comment by geomark in "LA wildfires force thousands to evacuate, NASA JPL closed"

geomark — Thu, 09 Jan 2025 06:09:34 +0000

My sister lives in Anaheim Hills. A couple years ago a brush fire burned right up to the property line behind her house. Fortunately her house was undamaged. Last year the insurance company declined to renew her policy. I think you made a wise choice to avoid that area.

New comment by geomark in "Yi Peng 3 crossed both cables C-Lion 1 and BSC at times matching when they broke"

geomark — Thu, 21 Nov 2024 01:17:37 +0000

When people say "unprovoked" do they not know the history, or they think the history doesn't matter, or do they just not care?

New comment by geomark in "Wafer Scale and Trilogy Systems: Part 1"

geomark — Thu, 10 Oct 2024 11:54:09 +0000

Interesting article. I wonder if in part 2 they will cover the work done at TRW as part of the VHSIC Phase 2 program. They succeeded with a WSI chip called the CPUAX that used some of the same redundancy techniques together with a built in self test and configuration system.

New comment by geomark in "When To Do What You Love"

geomark — Wed, 02 Oct 2024 23:54:52 +0000

Then they're doing it wrong. The idea is that you grind when you're young to set yourself up for more free time to spend with your kids when you're older. You can afford for one parent to stay home, both if you've really nailed it

New comment by geomark in "When To Do What You Love"

geomark — Wed, 02 Oct 2024 00:08:50 +0000

Most of my friends had kids young. They were busy working and hardly saw them grow up. A few were fortunate that the mothers could and wanted to stay home. The others all had their kids raised by daycare workers. When they found out what was happening in schools all they could do was scream about it. When covid hit and the schools shut those parents were buried and their kids suffered setbacks in their education. That's the standard routine. No thanks.

New comment by geomark in "When To Do What You Love"

geomark — Mon, 30 Sep 2024 01:56:35 +0000

Have kids later. After early retirement if you can.

New comment by geomark in "When To Do What You Love"

geomark — Mon, 30 Sep 2024 01:53:08 +0000

At a big electronics hardware company a group of us EEs would talk about our dream of owning a bike shop almost every day.

New comment by geomark in "How America's universities became debt factories"

geomark — Sun, 15 Sep 2024 01:49:26 +0000

If everywhere you see "free university" you could replace it with "taxpayer funded university" that would be great.

New comment by geomark in "How I Became the EEVBlog Guy [video]"

geomark — Mon, 19 Aug 2024 14:40:47 +0000

I laughed. It's the same way I got started, taking stuff apart and getting yelled at for it. But I never got one of those kits :(

New comment by geomark in "A Theoretical "Case Against Education""

geomark — Thu, 23 May 2024 12:26:16 +0000

I hear that said but I completely disagree. Being surrounded by mostly game-addicted goal-less classmates is a drag on even a motivated high achiever. It was such a difference to have the flexibility of homeschooling and be able to get him in with some like-minded kids and watch him bloom (my anecdote, n=1).

New comment by geomark in "A Theoretical "Case Against Education""

geomark — Thu, 23 May 2024 11:57:17 +0000

That's a weak reason. Instead of being locked up with a bunch of classmates which you have no choice about you get to associate with people you choose.

New comment by geomark in "All the remedial classes in one place"

geomark — Thu, 23 May 2024 01:22:35 +0000

The recursive nature of your reply should not be lost on HN readers. :)

New comment by geomark in "Scandal at America's top science fair"

geomark — Wed, 22 May 2024 07:55:45 +0000

I judged at some robotics competitions where we interviewed the students. It was usually immediately apparent if the student had not done the work, and as a result they would not receive an award.

I think that's the only way to do it. The student must be able to describe the work they did. A fraudster might still get through with sufficient coaching.

New comment by geomark in "I should have loved biology (2020)"

geomark — Sun, 21 Apr 2024 23:59:01 +0000

Health coverage is nitpicking? And two months of vacation every summer?

New comment by geomark in "The Pentagon's Silicon Valley Problem"

geomark — Thu, 28 Mar 2024 05:40:41 +0000

"Compartmentalization of the work appeases the mind a lot."

Definitely. When I worked at a aerospace co some of the young engineers had internal conflicts they rationalized away by saying "we aren't building bombs." No, they were just building the targeting systems. Pointing the gun but someone else pulling the trigger. So it's all good.