Hacker News: giglamesh

New comment by giglamesh in "AirPods 5"

giglamesh — Wed, 09 Sep 2026 19:19:26 +0000

There is always a reason and it usually has something to do with money. We really need to find a cure for Celiac 'cuz wheat is just too ingrained in our culture to be removed. (pun not intended, but also not removed so...)

New comment by giglamesh in "How bicycle coaster brakes work (2018)"

giglamesh — Wed, 02 Sep 2026 11:43:40 +0000

They can also serve an aesthetic purpose. For many years my daily rider was fixed, so no need for a rear brake. I got tired of riding fixed but also wanted to maintain the clean look of less cables and other visual clutter that comes with a brake - so a coaster seemed like a good enough option. I use my front (rim) break as my stopper and the coaster is just kind of a back-up or bad weather brake and for that purpose its worked great.

I'd love a disc up front, but as far as I know, the fork on a circa-1989 bike isn’t compatible with a front disc brake setup, making the upgrade challenging without welding.

New comment by giglamesh in "Asked Reddit support to give me API key so I can delete my data. They refused"

giglamesh — Tue, 01 Sep 2026 20:18:42 +0000

sincerely,

Graham Platner

New comment by giglamesh in "Galactic Compass 2: now with new augmented reality mode"

giglamesh — Sat, 22 Aug 2026 13:47:32 +0000

Love it! Thanks for putting it out there.

There are two apps named Galactic Compass in Apple's App Store now, which I found kind of surprising given how fussy they are about submissions. I was also surprised to find that the other Galactic Compass does not appear to be trying to ride your coat-tails or anything like that. It seems like it may also be someone's "weird side project." I'm happily inspired by this entire situation!

New comment by giglamesh in "Moderna reports first positive Phase 3 for mRNA neoantigen therapy in melanoma"

giglamesh — Thu, 20 Aug 2026 13:18:58 +0000

Sensitivity to poison ivy can change over time. Your friend may have been correct about his past experience.

https://www.fs.usda.gov/t-d/pubs/htmlpubs/htm07672313/index....

New comment by giglamesh in "US strikes $1.2B deal to pay German firm to halt offshore wind projects"

giglamesh — Fri, 07 Aug 2026 13:05:23 +0000

Often (usually?) by requiring workers to do more for less pay. Automation will eventually solve this problem, but because of the need to increase profits, finding an alternative way for companies to economically support human life the way they traditionally have through employment will be a tough nut to crack.

New comment by giglamesh in "Norway became a global salmon behemoth. Now it's facing the consequences"

giglamesh — Mon, 03 Aug 2026 16:22:36 +0000

Like ur ox as in primitive or original ox?

New comment by giglamesh in "Show HN: Ant – A JavaScript runtime and ecosystem"

giglamesh — Sun, 12 Jul 2026 16:06:34 +0000

And could not be bothered to make the tiniest cursory check to see if the name was already in use by a well known project.

New comment by giglamesh in "Single Dose of Frog-Derived Gut Bacterium Eradicates 100% of Tumors in Mice"

giglamesh — Wed, 01 Jul 2026 13:41:52 +0000

I owned a riding mower once. Mice built nests in the engine, blocking enough of the air cooling to result in overheating and blowing the main seal. After fixing that twice I got in the habit of removing enough of the shroudy bits to expose and remove the nests. That took as long as actually mowing the lawn. After a season of that I gave the mower away and now we pay a neighbor to cut the grass. We did consider trying to mouseproof the shed or the mower itself, but we are either too busy or too lazy, depending on who you ask. My long term (probably fantasy) solution is a robotic mower - but we have not much budget for it, are chronically absentee and the property has a lot of odd strips of discontinuous turf.

EDIT: we did revert about 50% of the lawn to native wetland/prairie and we aim to raise that number over time.

New comment by giglamesh in "Tidal AI Policy"

giglamesh — Mon, 29 Jun 2026 15:09:18 +0000

Tool was a kind of metal/funk band (or something like that) and Oracle is a database (management system) that somehow made a lot of money for a lot of consultants (and the oligarch owners) even though open source alternatives were far superior.

New comment by giglamesh in "Tidal AI Policy"

giglamesh — Mon, 29 Jun 2026 15:05:25 +0000

I don't follow this rule strictly, but for most of my adult life I've limited most of my book reading to books > 10 years old. If it still seems remotely relevant and worth reading ten years later, it is far less likely to be a waste of my time. Now sure I'm a bit less prepared for water cooler conversations, but overall the policy has served me well.

> having trouble finding anything actually good to read on Kindle

because of AI slop is new benefit of sticking to older texts that I hadn't anticipated.

New comment by giglamesh in "Reducing tick density along recreational trails in Ottawa, Canada"

giglamesh — Sun, 28 Jun 2026 18:25:56 +0000

I'd love to try it, but I'm having trouble finding sustainable vendors. My use case is mostly gardening, hiking and just being outside as much as possible but still being somewhat protected from the sun (so a super light weave would not be ideal.) I'd be grateful for any suggestions, ideally from a source in the USA.

New comment by giglamesh in "Marfa Public Radio Puts You to Sleep"

giglamesh — Sun, 28 Jun 2026 17:38:08 +0000

Yes. It is pretty wacky. And while it looks like quiet the EV charging desert on paper (the nearest Tesla charger is in Alpine) but by springing for RV sites in Big Bend and Terlingua we made it work just fine. EDIT: My only regret was going during spring break season. It makes for some very nice weather, but during those two weeks or so, the handful of restaurants in Marfa are overwhelmed.

New comment by giglamesh in "Slow breathing modulates brain function and risk behavior"

giglamesh — Sun, 21 Jun 2026 16:32:06 +0000

The houseplants are giving me that look of disapproval.

New comment by giglamesh in "Sam Vimes 'Boots' Theory of Socio-Economic Unfairness"

giglamesh — Wed, 15 Apr 2026 15:51:05 +0000

Funds to buy, space to store and also the means to transport the bulk goods. We do most of our grocery shopping on foot or by bicycle which rules out Costco for us.

New comment by giglamesh in "France to ditch Windows for Linux to reduce reliance on US tech"

giglamesh — Fri, 10 Apr 2026 14:21:27 +0000

The so called free market really did a bang up job didn't it? The proprietary buggy mess of Windows and the walled garden of MacOS which given its *nix underpinnings could have been really fantastically awesome but instead is a proprietary buggy mess.

New comment by giglamesh in "Music for Programming"

giglamesh — Mon, 06 Apr 2026 16:45:48 +0000

Could not love SomaFM more! The past few xmas holiday seasons I've been streaming "Department Store Christmas" which is hugely wacky retro Christmas music. Somehow I'd never heard "What Ever Happened to Christmas" a Jimmy Webb song made famous by Frank Sinatra. It was kind of life changing.

New comment by giglamesh in "Music for Programming"

giglamesh — Mon, 06 Apr 2026 16:39:03 +0000

I have very similar criteria, but for me at least

> zero vocals

can also be vocals in a language I don't understand. In those cases, the voice is just another instrument and not distracting.

New comment by giglamesh in "What does " 2>&1 " mean?"

giglamesh — Fri, 27 Feb 2026 15:04:42 +0000

Do these days include the nearly seventeen years ago when this question was posted? ;)

New comment by giglamesh in "Exercise has 'similar effect' to therapy, study on depression shows"

giglamesh — Fri, 20 Feb 2026 16:37:12 +0000

I hope this phenomenon is not limited to HN, but this is the only place I'm aware of where the comments are often more interesting and useful than the posts.