Hacker News: grahamburger

New comment by grahamburger in "South Korea introduces universal basic mobile data access"

grahamburger — Sat, 11 Apr 2026 16:34:48 +0000

I work with a US non-profit that has provided both free and very low cost Internet access over the last 4 years (fixed home wifi, no phone). We have primarily used 4G/5G, including private networks built and owned by the non-profit, public/private partnerships with cities that own a 4G network, and now primarily very low cost wifi hotspots serviced by a major carrier.

New comment by grahamburger in "When do we become adults, really?"

grahamburger — Sun, 29 Mar 2026 19:34:51 +0000

So farmers who take advantage of subsidies in the U.S. to keep their farms going aren't adults? You should tell them that. To their faces.

New comment by grahamburger in "Having Kids (2019)"

grahamburger — Fri, 20 Mar 2026 15:35:52 +0000

The great thing about kids is that just when you start to miss their toddler temper tantrums, they start having teenage temper tantrums!

New comment by grahamburger in "Show HN: Will my flight have Starlink?"

grahamburger — Thu, 19 Mar 2026 02:32:12 +0000

Looks like they may be getting fiber from Bertram Communications soon:

https://maps.psc.wi.gov/portal/apps/experiencebuilder/experi...

That or Starlink may be getting a wad of cash just to keep serving them, courtesy of this administration's NTIA.

New comment by grahamburger in "Harold and George Destroy the World"

grahamburger — Sun, 15 Mar 2026 16:12:09 +0000

I hear this often but I don't really buy it. Variety is good. If I had been routed into a field in first grade or whatever based on what I liked and was good at at the time my life would look completely different, but likely not better. I certainly never would have taken art history or design classes in college, both requirements that I wouldn't have otherwise considered, but among my favorite classes in retrospect.

New comment by grahamburger in "Put the zip code first"

grahamburger — Sun, 08 Mar 2026 05:42:02 +0000

I just placed a delivery order from home depot and this is exactly how they handled it. I put in my zip, they gave me a drop down of the cities that zip covers (there are like 5 of them, incredibly) and I was on my way.

New comment by grahamburger in "Guilty Displeasures"

grahamburger — Tue, 03 Mar 2026 02:08:43 +0000

Alice in Chains for me. I developed my taste for music in the 90s and love the grunge and punk from that era, but just not AIC. I can't explain way exactly, just drives me batty.

New comment by grahamburger in "You can't trust the internet anymore"

grahamburger — Sat, 14 Feb 2026 23:00:03 +0000

This is a cool idea and sounds like a fun project. That said, I imagine you could accomplish roughly the same thing with an invite only Wireguard network, with the benefit of not being geo-locked.

New comment by grahamburger in "Curating a Show on My Ineffable Mother, Ursula K. Le Guin"

grahamburger — Sun, 08 Feb 2026 17:50:08 +0000

I just started reading the Earthsea series to my kids last night, what a coincidence to see this here! I discovered Le Guin relatively late in life and I'm so glad I did.

New comment by grahamburger in "Students using “humanizer” programs to beat accusations of cheating with AI"

grahamburger — Sat, 31 Jan 2026 20:05:18 +0000

I've heard some teachers are assigning their students to 'grade' a paper written by LLM. The students use an LLM to generate a paper on the topic, print it out, then notate in the margins by hand where it's right and wrong, including checking the sources.

New comment by grahamburger in "Police officer plays Taylor Swift song to keep a video off YouTube"

grahamburger — Thu, 01 Jul 2021 19:51:36 +0000

Yeah this seems like an easy way around it. Post the video with subtitles and no audio, and a link to the original video hosted on a PeerTube instance or something.

New comment by grahamburger in "Blood test that finds 50 types of cancer is accurate enough to be rolled out"

grahamburger — Fri, 25 Jun 2021 18:04:28 +0000

Isn't the only way to learn what things we can ignore and what things we can't ignore to do a lot more testing? Is there a better way to learn that? It seems like having a lot more data from tests is the kind of thing that would have some short term harm but massive long term benefits.

New comment by grahamburger in "Stop using your work laptop or phone for personal stuff, because I know you are"

grahamburger — Thu, 24 Jun 2021 20:53:32 +0000

This is a major cultural difference between US and EU. In the U.S., data is only Personal if it's on a Personal device.

New comment by grahamburger in "California will pay off all past due rent"

grahamburger — Tue, 22 Jun 2021 19:16:41 +0000

I can definitely see how someone who sacrificed to pay rent throughout the pandemic, maybe using up some of their retirement funds or defaulting on car loans in the process, would be frustrated to learn now that they could have just not paid rent instead and been fine. They're not getting that money back. It doesn't necessarily mean that they want to see people become homeless.

(I don't have a dog in this fight, I don't live in California, don't rent, don't own rental property.)

New comment by grahamburger in "How many flies are in my apartment?"

grahamburger — Fri, 18 Jun 2021 17:46:43 +0000

Where would you say it falls on the spectrum of animal abuse in relation to going fishing, fly swatting, and walking the dog? Those are all activities I'm personally ok with.

New comment by grahamburger in "How many flies are in my apartment?"

grahamburger — Fri, 18 Jun 2021 17:03:10 +0000

Another fun thing you can do with flies, and also bees and wasps, apart from vacuuming them up, is put them on a leash. But first you have to freeze them.

Catch one in a cup or plastic bag and stick it in the freezer for about 10 minutes. When you take it out it will look dead, but it's not (unless you leave it in too long.) Being careful not to rip it's wings off, tie a small string or fishing line to one of it's legs.

In a few minutes it will thaw and start to walk around, and then start to fly. You can now walk it around the park like you were carrying a balloon.

New comment by grahamburger in "Start Your Own ISP"

grahamburger — Fri, 18 Jun 2021 00:35:43 +0000

Yes, should have specified - I always monitor usage in circuits at no more than 1 minute resolution.

New comment by grahamburger in "Start Your Own ISP"

grahamburger — Thu, 17 Jun 2021 21:37:08 +0000

Thanks! I know some of the folks at Monkey Brains, they're a great ISP and super cool people too!

> I agree with the top post that if you're a engineer who hasn't dealt with low level networking stuff, worked in a DC, or had to be on call, this probably isn't a good first project.

I don't really disagree, but I would just say that if you're interested in doing this, and have money you'd like to invest in it, reach out to me. With our powers combined we can probably make something work!

New comment by grahamburger in "Start Your Own ISP"

grahamburger — Thu, 17 Jun 2021 21:33:21 +0000

> Or for people who are fed up with their ISP options and are ready to take matters into their own hands? Basically, who do you imagine the typical user of your guide is?

If your only motivation is that you are fed up with your ISP (join the club!) that may not be enough. If you are fed up with your ISP, have a spare $25k laying around, and/or have access to grant money, then we should talk. (Many states have grant funding available today specifically for broadband projects in rural or underserved areas.)

I do consulting work on these types of projects as my main gig now. Many of my customers own businesses in other industries, live in a small town, and decided that their Internet sucked and they want to fix it. But it does take some capital.

New comment by grahamburger in "Start Your Own ISP"

grahamburger — Thu, 17 Jun 2021 21:30:51 +0000

I realized after the fact that I didn't elaborate on my meaning here, but it seems like you picked up on it.

What I meant was: You should have experience with at least one and preferably several of the important parts of running an ISP before you start one. NOC experience is one of the things that you could already have experience with, but isn't the only one.

> Your analogy make it seem as being a chef is the only job that exist in the restaurant business.

This actually makes my point better than I did. Being a [chef/network technician] isn't the only job that exists in a [restaraunt/wisp].