Hacker News: hermitcrab

Photographer captures images of hundreds of satellites

hermitcrab — Sun, 01 Nov 2026 09:37:40 +0000

Article URL: https://www.stuff.co.nz/culture/361053243/kiwi-photographer-captures-images-hundreds-satellites-night-sky

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50323967

Points: 7

# Comments: 0

New comment by hermitcrab in "UK Green party drops longstanding opposition to nuclear power"

hermitcrab — Sat, 31 Oct 2026 19:47:41 +0000

They don't seem to be terribly interested in the environment for a 'green' party.

New comment by hermitcrab in "UK Green party drops longstanding opposition to nuclear power"

hermitcrab — Sat, 31 Oct 2026 19:43:42 +0000

>there is no way to deal with the long term waste.

Yes there is, bury it. Its what we do with lots of other waste. Of course, you have to be a bit more careful than you would be with a standard landfill. But the engineering is well understood. It is usually just the fact that nobody wants it buried near them that causes political issues.

>The waste will burden hundreds of generations for millenia

Pumping more carbon into the atmosphere is also a huge burden for future generations.

>Climate change is a minor problem in comparison

What do you base that on?

New comment by hermitcrab in "Patrick Stewart has died"

hermitcrab — Sat, 31 Oct 2026 19:29:50 +0000

When the father is away for extended periods, his wife has to manage without him. So when the father comes home, he often feels unneeded.

New comment by hermitcrab in "Patrick Stewart has died"

hermitcrab — Thu, 29 Oct 2026 22:07:36 +0000

It is worth watching the BBC 'Who do you think you are' documentary about his genealogy. He talks movingly about his violent father's war trauma and how it affected the whole family.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b01mfw63

(not sure if it is regionally restricted) also:

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLZsy4Rj7uAiT2NL8RIgH0...

New comment by hermitcrab in "MacBook Pro with PROLED XDR Display and Touch"

hermitcrab — Thu, 29 Oct 2026 09:43:00 +0000

Nobody is putting their greasy fingers on my beautiful OLED screen.

New comment by hermitcrab in "No more icons in every menu by default"

hermitcrab — Thu, 22 Oct 2026 18:12:51 +0000

This seemed like a dumb idea when it came out, making the menus look much more cluttered. I'm glad I didn't waste time adding loads of tiny icons to my application menus.

Apple seems to be dropping the ball on UI recently. Their glass UI also felt like a triumph of eye candy over usability.

New comment by hermitcrab in "Tiny possum and glider thought extinct for 6000 years found in remote West Papua"

hermitcrab — Wed, 21 Oct 2026 20:55:58 +0000

Tiny? Borneo is 723,154.07 km^2 and the 3rd largest island in the world.

New comment by hermitcrab in "Why do we have so many meetings?"

hermitcrab — Tue, 20 Oct 2026 19:56:54 +0000

I've run a 1-man software company for the last 21 years. I don't think I've had anything you would call a meeting in that time. Also haven't worn a tie, commuted more than 1 minute to my office or had to set my alarm clock for work. Living the dream. ;0)

New comment by hermitcrab in "Priest killed by falling crucifix during sermon on fragility of life"

hermitcrab — Mon, 19 Oct 2026 22:05:57 +0000

If there is a God, he has a pretty dark sense of humour.

Priest killed by falling crucifix during sermon on fragility of life

hermitcrab — Mon, 19 Oct 2026 21:31:51 +0000

Article URL: https://www.stuff.co.nz/world-news/361048424/priest-killed-falling-crucifix-during-sermon-fragility

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50158341

Points: 12

# Comments: 4

New comment by hermitcrab in "Rabbits were a medieval royal luxury in England until the Black Death"

hermitcrab — Mon, 19 Oct 2026 16:34:05 +0000

>You realise that rabbits were once so rare in Australia they had to be introduced to salve the British passion for killing small things?

There were no rabbits in Australia, until they were introduced by humans (intentionally or otherwise).

New comment by hermitcrab in "Rabbits were a medieval royal luxury in England until the Black Death"

hermitcrab — Mon, 19 Oct 2026 16:29:11 +0000

Lobster was once considered only fit for prisoners and poor people (due to being a bottom feeder).

New comment by hermitcrab in "Tesla Roadster"

hermitcrab — Fri, 16 Oct 2026 16:41:33 +0000

I'm sure it will happen real soon. Right after the Mars colony and fully autonomous driving.

Fermi Estimation – The Game

hermitcrab — Fri, 16 Oct 2026 15:19:23 +0000

Article URL: https://fermi.gg

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50119503

Points: 1

# Comments: 0

New comment by hermitcrab in "Tesla Roadster"

hermitcrab — Fri, 16 Oct 2026 10:03:51 +0000

Personally, I find that the more tech there is in a motorsport, the more boring it is to watch. F1 being a prime example. YMMV

New comment by hermitcrab in "Celebrating 70 Years of Fortran"

hermitcrab — Fri, 16 Oct 2026 09:54:04 +0000

I remember working with a guy who had programmed in FORTRAN in the days of punch cards. He said he once dropped the stack of cards and had to reconstruct the order. He always numbered the cards after that.

Apparently, programmers would 'unpunch' a hole in a card by taping some paper back in the hole to save repunching a new card! And sometimes these 'chads' would fall out, making for some interesting debugging.

New comment by hermitcrab in "Celebrating 70 Years of Fortran"

hermitcrab — Fri, 16 Oct 2026 09:31:18 +0000

I remember a piece called SPAG (I think) that could turn FORTRAN spaghetti code (with lots of GOTOs) into relatively clean, structured code. It was very useful.

New comment by hermitcrab in "Tesla Roadster"

hermitcrab — Fri, 16 Oct 2026 09:28:31 +0000

While the flip is technically very impressive (assuming they can reproduce it live) I can't see any real world scenario where any of this stuff is remotely useful.

How is the fan going to cope with the debris on a typical road?

How is driving around in close proximity to high pressure gases not an accident waiting to happen?

Given Musk's track record on fulfilling his promises, I'm not holding my breath that it is ever going to make it onto a race track. Let alone beat every track record.

New comment by hermitcrab in "Celebrating 70 Years of Fortran"

hermitcrab — Thu, 15 Oct 2026 17:02:20 +0000

It is way of sharing variable values without using parameters. But it is ugly and easy to make errors, e.g. accidentally missing a variable out of the middle of the list in one function or subroutine means all the later variables have unexpected values.

It is a log time since I did any FORTRAN. Maybe they improved it?