Hacker News: ghaff

New comment by ghaff in "The End of an Era"

ghaff — Fri, 31 Jul 2026 12:48:30 +0000

As someone who does a lot of writing, I ended up doing a lot of re-writing of what I'll call reference architectures in a previous role. I did use an LLM for some of the missing context up-front. It was essentially boilerplate and I did revise it--took out some things I didn't think important and added some things I thought might be.

But I basically never use them for a blog post except maybe to include some boilerplate explanation of some technology. (Which I'm familiar with but don't want to rewrite or copy and paste.)

Could that change? Perhaps. But I don't really use today.

New comment by ghaff in "The End of an Era"

ghaff — Fri, 31 Jul 2026 12:42:37 +0000

The em-dash thing really annoys me. Using them has been house style the last couple of places I worked and I'm not just going to stop using them because some idiot might think they were generated by AI.

New comment by ghaff in "The lost civic life of movie rental stores"

ghaff — Fri, 31 Jul 2026 10:13:12 +0000

I'd probably do it more if it were a convenient walk down the street but the nearest decent movie theater is probably an hour round-trip between driving and parking. The setup I have at home is good enough and I have access to more than enough media even if not always the latest and greatest.

New comment by ghaff in "The Lost Civic Life of Movie Rental Stores"

ghaff — Thu, 30 Jul 2026 19:44:17 +0000

I was on the college's film committee and I often enjoyed hanging out with some of the other members on a weekend night especially if I didn't have anything else going on or it was later. (We also pre-screened all of our films in case there a problem with the print. So I did that too sometimes.) I was also fine, if I had a free afternoon with going to one of the discount theaters in town if there was something I wanted to see.

But, yeah, looking back I think I was a lot less inclined to just eat by myself in a restaurant--partially because I could often rope someone else in or would know people if I went into a dining hall and partly because I wasn't accustomed to just having a meal without anyone else around.

New comment by ghaff in "The lost civic life of movie rental stores"

ghaff — Thu, 30 Jul 2026 17:25:14 +0000

>why "going to a movie" is culturally thought of as an activity one does with a companion, even a date. Much like dining out in a sit-down restaurant.

Let me unpack a little bit.

I very rarely go to movies and really haven't for years. So it isn't a social activity so mostly won't except for the odd shoe in IMAX.

I will go see live theatre with someone or maybe a group. But am also perfectly happy to do so on my own.

As to meals? I'm so inured to solo meals with business travel I don't think twice. Enjoy eating with friend(s) whether in a business or purely social context. But it's not like I'm going to order room service or go to McDonalds if I don't have anyone to sit with.

New comment by ghaff in "The lost civic life of movie rental stores"

ghaff — Thu, 30 Jul 2026 15:57:59 +0000

I used to do a lot of chit-chat with folks I knew on Twitter during the work day. After Musk largely torched it and a lot of people just decided they didn't need that kind of social media any longer, that channel largely went away. I use Facebook some but not the same and LinkedIn even less so.

New comment by ghaff in "The lost civic life of movie rental stores"

ghaff — Thu, 30 Jul 2026 15:24:00 +0000

A bit cruel and there were probably some indie stores that were different but I remember video rentals as a place where you went in, grabbed a movie, and left.

New comment by ghaff in "The coolest use for the Vision Pro"

ghaff — Thu, 30 Jul 2026 12:16:21 +0000

My house has definitely been opened up over time since I bought it. Not really the upstairs but the ground floor is much more open and lighter. In fact, it's where I mostly do stuff on a laptop in spite of having a full-fledged office upstairs.

New comment by ghaff in "Turning a dumb AC unit smart (without losing my security deposit)"

ghaff — Thu, 30 Jul 2026 10:22:33 +0000

I apparently didn't get the intent that TV=panel. Fair enough. But I do know people who put a TV in pretty much every room and I don't know if a projector is a great solution at this point even for a dedicated room given that you can get 75" (or larger) panels.

I will say that when all sorts of stuff got pulled out of my house for smoke damage mitigation, I also made the conscious decision to just not put back a lot of the things/wiring that I really wasn't using to any degree. A lot has changed (both with respect to technology and myself) to the point where it really didn't make sense to put things back like they were.

New comment by ghaff in "Man and the Computer by John G. Kemeny (1972 book by the co-creator of BASIC)"

ghaff — Thu, 30 Jul 2026 01:08:43 +0000

Yes, Athena was a bit after my time. I did take FORTRAN using keypunches and the card reader at the joint computer facility (I was mechanical engineering). And I think VAXs were just coming in shortly after. But attending Dartmouth for grad school, you just had a computer account with no real limits, within reason.

New comment by ghaff in "Man and the Computer by John G. Kemeny (1972 book by the co-creator of BASIC)"

ghaff — Thu, 30 Jul 2026 01:03:02 +0000

Dartmouth had remarkably democratized access to computers (which I mostly used for word processing with some exceptions both for tech and fun purposes). Funnily enough an engineering school I also attended in the Northeast, while I did take a FORTRAN course there, had far less easy access to computer resources unless you were in the EE/CS school or had some other specific academic purpose.

New comment by ghaff in "Turning a dumb AC unit smart (without losing my security deposit)"

ghaff — Thu, 30 Jul 2026 00:29:19 +0000

But you also seem to also be saying that a lot of rooms require TVs.

New comment by ghaff in "Turning a dumb AC unit smart (without losing my security deposit)"

ghaff — Wed, 29 Jul 2026 21:49:56 +0000

A relative likes to have TV on as ambient background. Drives me a bit crazy but, hey, I'm a guest. Also used to drive me nuts when I was on group trips with a roommate and their first reaction on entering a room was to turn the TV on.

New comment by ghaff in "Turning a dumb AC unit smart (without losing my security deposit)"

ghaff — Wed, 29 Jul 2026 20:59:52 +0000

>Multi use rooms require TVs

That seems an overstatement. I now have one in my entire house (don't have kids).

There's a fairly large TV panel on one wall in basically a sitting room. Otherwise I just use a computer. A relative basically has TVs in every room. I guess it maybe made sense when he was rebuilding anyway but it still seems excessive to me who might sit down to watch a movie or show but doesn't have live TV.

But, then, I don't have AC either in Massachusetts.

New comment by ghaff in "Turning a dumb AC unit smart (without losing my security deposit)"

ghaff — Wed, 29 Jul 2026 20:53:34 +0000

When I had a kitchen fire, I told my electrician "no smart stuff" and he was happy to go along. (I had very little previously.) He did simplify and updated my electrical panel and switches which sort of accreted over time.

New comment by ghaff in "The only road in London where you have to drive on the right"

ghaff — Wed, 29 Jul 2026 13:54:04 +0000

And the US and various other countries (like the UK) effectively use hybrid systems for units for many purposes. Science and engineering in the US are heavily metric.

New comment by ghaff in "The iPhone Upgrade Program is being replaced by Apple Upgrade"

ghaff — Wed, 29 Jul 2026 12:49:23 +0000

I think that's right. My M1 MBP suits me just fine. (I do have a lighter MacBook Air but that's because my old Intel-based MacBook finally gave up the ghost and was out of support anyway--and I mostly work downstairs but want my "main" computer in my office. As well as for travel.)

New comment by ghaff in "The iPhone Upgrade Program is being replaced by Apple Upgrade"

ghaff — Wed, 29 Jul 2026 12:44:13 +0000

>"buy the fastest cpu and the most ram you can afford”.

I would append "subject to diminishing returns" for your use cases.

I could afford maxed-out computers (within reason) but, for most purposes, the premiums for the very top-of-line exceeds any discernible increase in functionality I would experience.

New comment by ghaff in "The iPhone Upgrade Program is being replaced by Apple Upgrade"

ghaff — Wed, 29 Jul 2026 12:36:13 +0000

I've handled the Maxes and they're just too big for my taste. It's not a financial thing. I'm by no means a phone size minimalist but my 15 Pro feels like just the right size for a phone at this point.

New comment by ghaff in "The iPhone Upgrade Program is being replaced by Apple Upgrade"

ghaff — Wed, 29 Jul 2026 12:32:59 +0000

I don't think so. Maybe I'm just used to it but I like the gripiness of my Otterbox case in addition to the protection it provides. My prior iPhoen might have survived a hiking trip if I had an equivalently robust case (and the newer Otterbox Defender cases are much less clunky than the older ones were).