Hacker News: hairywalt

New comment by hairywalt in "The Letter S, by Donald Knuth (1980) [pdf]"

hairywalt — Thu, 21 May 2026 06:03:12 +0000

Maybe another old example of this scanner bug?

https://www.dkriesel.com/en/blog/2013/0802_xerox-workcentres...

New comment by hairywalt in "Ask HN: Most beautiful personal blog UI you have ever seen?"

hairywalt — Mon, 09 Mar 2026 12:26:07 +0000

Nice. One snag, your About link on the homepage points to your test site: https://bryson.test/about

New comment by hairywalt in "Ask HN: Life-changing purchases since 2020? (Under $100 and under $1000)"

hairywalt — Thu, 07 Nov 2024 21:17:34 +0000

Yep, a few days of olive oil is generally recommended by GPs... I used to do this but now I self treat I don't really bother. But I guess it I'd have even more success if I did.

New comment by hairywalt in "Ask HN: Life-changing purchases since 2020? (Under $100 and under $1000)"

hairywalt — Thu, 07 Nov 2024 21:15:39 +0000

Forgot to add the link: https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC2148238/

New comment by hairywalt in "Ask HN: Life-changing purchases since 2020? (Under $100 and under $1000)"

hairywalt — Thu, 07 Nov 2024 21:15:15 +0000

Here's a UK study that concludes:

"Advising patients with ears blocked by wax to try bulb syringing before irrigation is effective and acceptable, and could significantly reduce the use of NHS resources."

So I feel they are a safe method of self treatment.

New comment by hairywalt in "Ask HN: Life-changing purchases since 2020? (Under $100 and under $1000)"

hairywalt — Thu, 07 Nov 2024 21:11:30 +0000

Those never did much for me I'm afraid

New comment by hairywalt in "Ask HN: Life-changing purchases since 2020? (Under $100 and under $1000)"

hairywalt — Thu, 07 Nov 2024 20:34:56 +0000

Mine is very similar to this one: https://www.simplymedsonline.co.uk/cold-and-flu/portia-ear-s...

Unlike a trip to the doctor, when two to three flushes sorts it out, at home it is a case of maybe 10-20 repetitions depending how bad. But each one is really quick and I find there is no pain as the pressure is very low, unlike the doctor which did quite often hurt.

New comment by hairywalt in "Ask HN: Life-changing purchases since 2020? (Under $100 and under $1000)"

hairywalt — Thu, 07 Nov 2024 19:58:51 +0000

Under $100

- an ear bulb syringe

I get blocked ears due to wax and it's really negatively impactful to conversation etc. Plus they would block when flying/swimming which ruined a few holidays. I used to go to my local (UK) GP which was very inconvenient due to appointment timings etc.

Then somebody recommended buying a bulb syringe for self-treatment. Mine cost about £4 and has been totally game changing.

I can sort myself out whenever and wherever I want. If you suffer the same, get yourself one immediately!

New comment by hairywalt in "An NFC movie library for my kids"

hairywalt — Tue, 10 Sep 2024 14:46:03 +0000

Makes sense, cheers. Might give it a go

New comment by hairywalt in "An NFC movie library for my kids"

hairywalt — Tue, 10 Sep 2024 08:11:31 +0000

Love the simplicity of this. Out of interest, do you trigger just the web player or is there a URL pattern that can launch onto a specific device?

New comment by hairywalt in "Ask HN: What is the origin of the term "edge case"?"

hairywalt — Tue, 12 Mar 2024 17:56:53 +0000

Yep, I'm struggling to find a use outside of computer science where I'm starting to suspect it originated

New comment by hairywalt in "Ask HN: What is the origin of the term "edge case"?"

hairywalt — Mon, 11 Mar 2024 21:17:25 +0000

Cheers for these, appreciate everybody taking a look.

You've given good examples of what I am finding myself... your Researchgate link is indeed aeronautical, but is also a software machine learning related paper from 2023. So unfortunately doesn't prove this doesn't come from the modern software usage rather than the other direction.

And when I read the second Wikipedia entry previously I'd hoped to see an attribution... So could very well be correct, just there is no reference to look up.

New comment by hairywalt in "Ask HN: What is the origin of the term "edge case"?"

hairywalt — Mon, 11 Mar 2024 20:47:42 +0000

That would make sense, and was something I'd heard but I'm struggling to find an actual example of usage?

New comment by hairywalt in "Ask HN: What is the origin of the term "edge case"?"

hairywalt — Mon, 11 Mar 2024 20:44:23 +0000

When I previously looked into the examples returned, most were accidental connections across a sentence boundary in scientific papers e.g. "Case 1 - both poles on the edge. Case 2 - ..."

The ones that related to aerospace seemed to refer to leading edge and trailing edge which doesn't seem to fit the modern meaning?

Ask HN: What is the origin of the term "edge case"?

hairywalt — Mon, 11 Mar 2024 20:22:31 +0000

For reasons, I've become interested in the background to the term "edge case". I'd presumed it was old school engineering terminology that had been ported over to software.

But searching on Google Books etc. all the uses that fit the modern meaning are related to programming/software testing, and even those examples are relatively recent.

Is this correct or am I missing something?

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=39672824

Points: 4

# Comments: 8

New comment by hairywalt in "Open Source Tensegrity"

hairywalt — Mon, 05 Feb 2024 22:54:20 +0000

Obligatory link to the Lego version: https://stickyhat.com/tensegrity-lego-moc/

New comment by hairywalt in ""Millennium Camera" to take a 1k-year long-exposure photo"

hairywalt — Sun, 14 Jan 2024 07:51:34 +0000

My attempt was a 6-month exposure from a winter to a summer solstice using a Solarcan pinhole camera (https://solarcan.co.uk/)

Fairly pleased with the result, would definitely recommend having a go: https://stickyhat.com/a-6-month-pinhole-camera-exposure/

New comment by hairywalt in "Japan Airlines lays on extra plane after sumo wrestlers make too heavy to fly"

hairywalt — Tue, 17 Oct 2023 10:13:04 +0000

The most common usage I can think of is "they laid on a great spread" which would mean a fantastic buffet was provided.

Northern England native.