Hacker News: ianburrell

New comment by ianburrell in "Notes from tired Egyptian whose job is explaining that humans built the pyramids"

ianburrell — Thu, 18 Jun 2026 22:12:16 +0000

It is a weird argument because we totally could build a Great Pyramid replica. Ships and trains hauling stone and tower cranes plopping them into place. We are really good at moving things and lifting them. It would probably be the quarries that be the bottleneck.

If wanted it in concrete, would be faster. Or could do it in steel or steel/concrete with some interior space (Luxor in Las Vegas is size of smaller pyramid).

New comment by ianburrell in "US Air Force B-52 bomber crashes after takeoff, Edwards Air Force Base says"

ianburrell — Mon, 15 Jun 2026 22:45:08 +0000

If you want cheap missile truck, then Rapid Dragon, dropping missiles from cargo aircraft, is the answer.

The B-21 is the B-52 successor, and has to worry less about being shot down.

New comment by ianburrell in "US Air Force B-52 bomber crashes after takeoff, Edwards Air Force Base says"

ianburrell — Mon, 15 Jun 2026 22:42:24 +0000

Northrup has built a couple of prototypes and supposed to deliver first one next year. The B-21 program is going really fast. Air Force are ordering 145, which is slightly more than the B-1, B-2, and B-52s.

New comment by ianburrell in "US Air Force B-52 bomber crashes after takeoff, Edwards Air Force Base says"

ianburrell — Mon, 15 Jun 2026 21:56:37 +0000

The B-21, a cheaper version of the B-2, makes more sense as new bomber since it can do the normal bomber jobs and the B-52 job of nuclear cruise missiles.

B-52 engine refurbishment is going to cost $15 billion for 70 odd bombers, or $214 million each. $750 million is current cost of B-21.

New comment by ianburrell in "USB Power Delivery: Plugging into the Benefits"

ianburrell — Sun, 14 Jun 2026 22:31:25 +0000

Those are called trigger boards. I haven't found one with buck converter to make 12V. 12V is in earlier PD standard so lots of chargers support it but you have to check each charger and lots don't say. The guaranteed solution is PPS chargers that have variable voltage.

New comment by ianburrell in "USB Power Delivery: Plugging into the Benefits"

ianburrell — Sun, 14 Jun 2026 19:05:28 +0000

I think you are confusing the devices with USB-C that require USB-A, and devices that charge the standard USB-C 5V/3A/15W. The USB-A ones cheaped out in including the resistors that signal legacy USB mode, they work with the ones in the cable or adapter.

Lots of people assume that USB-C always uses USB-PD, but the basic signalling is done with resistors. Lots of devices only need 15W, and it is better than USB-A charging. If you want faster charging, buy more powerful chargers.

New comment by ianburrell in "Arch Linux Now Believes Malware Incident Under Control: More Than 1,500 Packages"

ianburrell — Sat, 13 Jun 2026 21:59:37 +0000

The build process is just as vulnerable.

New comment by ianburrell in "Sequoyah’s syllabary created a written language for the Cherokee"

ianburrell — Thu, 11 Jun 2026 02:32:49 +0000

English is a West Germanic language with vocabulary from other languages, primarily French and Latin. But most of the core words are Germanic. It is not a pidgin whose defining feature is simplified grammar.

New comment by ianburrell in "Raspberry Pi 5 – 16 GB, $350"

ianburrell — Wed, 10 Jun 2026 21:57:14 +0000

What are you wanting to use it for? There is using Pi as desktop, which was only option for a while, but now mini PCs are much better. There is using it as server, where mini PCs are better for homelabs and multiple services but Pi is good for lightweight single service. Then there is hobbyist use, where Pi is cheap when get lightweight one and has ecosystem of hardware and software.

New comment by ianburrell in "A €0.01 bank transfer could compromise a banking AI agent"

ianburrell — Wed, 10 Jun 2026 21:35:00 +0000

This is similar to scam where people are sent messages about bad transaction with a fake link to the bank to verify it. Some attackers have gotten Paypal to send notifications that have the link. People are supposed to check the source and go directly to bank, and this will bypass that.

New comment by ianburrell in "Raspberry Pi 5 – 16GB RAM"

ianburrell — Wed, 10 Jun 2026 21:21:52 +0000

I have decided that the Pi4 1GB is the ideal for hobbyists. Faster than Pi3, takes normal USB-C charging, and can do most single server or electronics jobs. Which is why it is currently sold out.

New comment by ianburrell in "Why are so many young people getting cancer?"

ianburrell — Tue, 09 Jun 2026 03:33:26 +0000

That doesn't talk about an increase in radiation. If there was an issue, we would see it in flight crew. There is also a difference with altitude and soil composition, and that would show up in the data.

New comment by ianburrell in "We Think the SpaceX IPO Is Overvalued"

ianburrell — Tue, 09 Jun 2026 03:16:48 +0000

Planet wide high speed rail doesn't make much sense, it is better of medium sized trips. Flights are will always be better for intercontinental trips. Vacuum trains could be faster but would be so expensive to build. Issues would be big deal in evacuated tunnels.

CA HSR is slow partly because the state government has limited funds and giving out slowly. The federal government should have been contributing more. The other problem is it kept getting delayed from legal issues, mainly from acquiring land. Going forward is bad because they decided to do the easy part first and leave the hard tunnels for later.

New comment by ianburrell in "We Think the SpaceX IPO Is Overvalued"

ianburrell — Tue, 09 Jun 2026 03:10:48 +0000

150 kW is tiny, that is a single rack. Would have to launch a huge number of them to match the GW data centers being built. There is also a lot of overhead for each one.

If Starlink didn't exist, then it could make sense to put edge data centers in orbit. But Starlink means can put edge computing everywhere on the ground.

New comment by ianburrell in "Astronauts told to return to ISS after sheltering over air leak repairs"

ianburrell — Fri, 05 Jun 2026 15:54:52 +0000

There aren’t even doors between sections. Airlocks are serious things, there is one or two for station for EVA. There are multiple hatches for docking spacecraft.

One of the innovations of ISS is larger docking adapter with bulkhead that is removed after docking. Russian section still uses hatches. All of the cables go through the docking adapter or hatch which makes impossible to close door or quickly disconnect.

New comment by ianburrell in "IPv6 zones in URLs are a mistake"

ianburrell — Fri, 05 Jun 2026 03:31:13 +0000

There is the .arpa domain used for reverse lookups. ipv6.arpa is already used for that. But combining the ipv6-literal from Microsoft, gives ipv6-literal.arpa.

New comment by ianburrell in "Stop Killing Games"

ianburrell — Wed, 03 Jun 2026 23:16:23 +0000

I have books that link to online content. I've had one that had printable workbook that that no longer worked because the site had disappeared.

Are you going pay the extra money to the developers to keep the servers running? What will people choose, the 5 year support for game that might never play again, or the forever support? Game companies will raise prices, by a lot, if forced to maintain or release games.

New comment by ianburrell in "I built a ceiling projection mapping of the planes flying over my house"

ianburrell — Wed, 03 Jun 2026 18:09:29 +0000

Unlike models with lots of memory, the Pi3 1GB and Pi4 1GB are still cheap, but the Pi4 1GB is sold out everywhere. I think the Pi4 is sweet spot for small projects.

New comment by ianburrell in "Morningstar values SpaceX at $780B, half its IPO target"

ianburrell — Tue, 02 Jun 2026 18:56:57 +0000

Kessler syndrome is way overstated. One way to tell is talk about it closing off space. That can't happen, it is possible to cross debris bands with low danger.

People also don't talk about different orbits. We can use higher low earth orbits if lower orbits are blocked.

Also, it is possible to clean up debris. The low cost launch means lower cost cleanup. My understanding is that big objects are most dangerous cause they would cause a lot of debris.

New comment by ianburrell in "Blue Origin's New Glenn blows up during static fire test"

ianburrell — Fri, 29 May 2026 18:07:18 +0000

Nuclear rockets aren't suitable to get orbit, they are too heavy. Also, nuclear rockets can separate the reactor and the propellant, called close cycle. I think the solid core reactors that are feasible send propellant through reactor but all of the fuel is encased.