Hacker News: harwoodr

New comment by harwoodr in "Big Banana Car"

harwoodr — Fri, 19 Jun 2026 19:42:42 +0000

I used to drive a 1991 Suzuki Cappuccino - a tiny right-hand drive kei sports car. The first couple of years I drove it, the police pulled me over on a regular basis - no tickets issued but lots of questions asked.

One time while I was waiting for a light, an officer knocked on my window (which is somewhat startling)... I rolled it down and he excitedly asked "What kind of car is this?!"

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Suzuki_Cappuccino

New comment by harwoodr in "Valve hikes Steam Deck prices by more than 40%, blaming rising costs"

harwoodr — Thu, 28 May 2026 16:40:59 +0000

"blaming rising costs" makes it sound like they're actually doing something shady.

It's not exactly a secret that memory and storage costs have gotten more expensive. It should not be a surprise when a piece of hardware that depends on those gets more expensive too.

New comment by harwoodr in "Alberta to hold referendum on whether to remain in Canada"

harwoodr — Fri, 22 May 2026 18:18:37 +0000

I'll give you that currency isn't a huge issue. From what I recall, Quebec wanted to continue using the Canadian dollar if they separated.

If they opted to go with the USD, they'd have to trade all their CAD - which will undoubtedly take a huge hit if they separated.

I still think that separatists would say that Alberta doesn't have to deal with a share of the debt and that would be a sticking point.

New comment by harwoodr in "Alberta to hold referendum on whether to remain in Canada"

harwoodr — Fri, 22 May 2026 17:20:46 +0000

It has been my experience that people always seem to want simple solutions to complex problems.

The result is that the details of how complex those problems are get ignored or their impact is represented in a diminished way.

In this case currency, debt, indigenous rights/claims and existing legislation are some examples of what is being glossed over and ignored.

New comment by harwoodr in "Computer Hobby Movement in Canada"

harwoodr — Thu, 14 May 2026 15:38:26 +0000

I've lived my entire life just "down the road" from Toronto in Canada's 10th largest city. Always in the shadow of Toronto and the butt of many jokes.

Back when I worked in Toronto, people would always ask when I'd be moving there - because why would you want to live anywhere else?

I also remember, circa 2000, when the marketing people at the company I worked at were talking about advertising - they didn't see the point of spending on advertising outside of Toronto.

It's a very different mindset, that's for sure.

New comment by harwoodr in "PySimpleGUI 6"

harwoodr — Thu, 07 May 2026 17:11:11 +0000

https://www.pysimplegui.com/

New comment by harwoodr in "Flock cameras keep telling police a man who doesn't have a warrant has a warrant"

harwoodr — Fri, 01 May 2026 18:19:45 +0000

My Ontario green plate starts with GV...

New comment by harwoodr in "Show HN: WhatCable, a tiny menu bar app for inspecting USB-C cables"

harwoodr — Fri, 01 May 2026 15:43:07 +0000

May Day - like labour day in Canada/USA... but on the first of May

Canada selected to host new multinational defence bank, sources say

harwoodr — Wed, 29 Apr 2026 21:38:54 +0000

Article URL: https://www.theglobeandmail.com/business/article-canada-host-multinational-defence-bank/

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47955092

Points: 5

# Comments: 0

New comment by harwoodr in "Small Engines"

harwoodr — Thu, 09 Apr 2026 13:56:13 +0000

This reminds me of the explanation of why the US primarily uses light water reactors.

Heavy water reactors (CANDU in the case of the explanation) don't scale down past a certain point - the water flow ends up with weird dead spots and that affects the reaction and cooling of the fuel rods. Since they don't scale down well enough, they aren't suitable for portable use, such as in submarines.

I'm not sure if it's still the case, but apparently one of the largest sources of nuclear engineers/scientists in the US was the US navy.

This also lead into the story about Jimmy Carter (nuclear sub naval officer at the time) coming to Chalk River in the 50s to help with the NRX meltdown...

New comment by harwoodr in "No More Hidden Changes: How MySQL 9.6 Transforms Foreign Key Management"

harwoodr — Wed, 04 Feb 2026 21:23:36 +0000

>It's because MySQL apparently does development in-house in a git repository and only occasionally pushes it to GitHub

https://optimizedbyotto.com/post/reasons-to-stop-using-mysql...

New comment by harwoodr in "Show HN: Craftplan – I built my wife a production management tool for her bakery"

harwoodr — Wed, 04 Feb 2026 16:42:43 +0000

Looks like it shares many characteristics with LIMS (Laboratory Information Management System)...

New comment by harwoodr in "Wasp Blower"

harwoodr — Fri, 24 Oct 2025 14:06:38 +0000

Bees or yellowjacket wasps? The first are pretty much "live and let live" the second turn into aggressive starving balls of winged hate in the late summer and early fall.

Bees make honey and pollinate - yellowjacket wasps may remove some pests from the environment, but otherwise bring pain and suffering to the unwary.