Hacker News: ikerrin1

Bird Course – a short memoir of physics

ikerrin1 — Tue, 02 Jun 2026 19:19:00 +0000

Article URL: https://kennerg.substack.com/p/bird-course

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48374898

Points: 2

# Comments: 0

New comment by ikerrin1 in "Reliance on Middle East Oil and Gas Supplies by Country"

ikerrin1 — Wed, 13 May 2026 14:34:47 +0000

It’s good to be a Canadian.

New comment by ikerrin1 in "Show HN: Gemini Pro 3 imagines the HN front page 10 years from now"

ikerrin1 — Tue, 09 Dec 2025 17:48:59 +0000

You can criticize it for many things but it seems to have comedic timing nailed.

New comment by ikerrin1 in "Harvard Law paid $27 for a copy of Magna Carta. It's an original"

ikerrin1 — Fri, 16 May 2025 13:21:30 +0000

That is just such a Harvard thing to do.

Harvard: Sorry we can’t give you a discount in our outrageous tuition; yes I know how big our endowment is.

Also Harvard: Will you take $27 for this priceless artifact?

New comment by ikerrin1 in "I'm the Canadian who was detained by ICE for two weeks"

ikerrin1 — Wed, 19 Mar 2025 21:47:54 +0000

Canadian here. I recall in 1991 being woken by Swiss border guards in a train carriage full of Germans and Italians. After inspecting their passports they shined the light in my face. They saw my maple leaf on my bag and asked “Est-tu Canadian” bleary eyed I replied “oui” and they said,”it’s fine, we don’t need to see your passport”. Of course 9 years later I was thrown off a train to Czechoslovakia” because they changed the visa requirements at the last minute and my “Let’s Go” guidebook was out of date.

Oh being young, stupid and crossing boarders without a clue.

New comment by ikerrin1 in "Why are cassette and CD players so bulky now? [video]"

ikerrin1 — Mon, 09 Dec 2024 18:44:37 +0000

It becomes an issue when you think of the electricity source of your power generation. Clearly storing and listening to MP3s in green electricity jurisdictions like Ontario and Quebec is better than using plastic because computers are powered by nuclear and hydro power. But in Ohio and places with coal electricity generation, you should forgo recorded music altogether and only listen to live accustic music in well lit buildings that don’t require electricity.

Yes I am joking.

New comment by ikerrin1 in "Why are cassette and CD players so bulky now? [video]"

ikerrin1 — Mon, 09 Dec 2024 18:39:16 +0000

I’m of the opinion that you should have a cassette deck for music that never made it to CD or if they did didn’t make it to streaming. Some bands only released on cassette. True I digitize those sometimes. Also, since cassettes are two bucks a pop, it is a very affordable way to listen to music from the 90s and 80s. There is a whole different sample of music that you see in a cassette bin than that you see in CD bin. It’s older music.

I’ve got a great cassette deck as part of my stereo so it sounds great. I definitely don’t listen to it on a Walkman though.

I’m a big fan of Sarah Harmer and her first band, the Saddletramps, only released two cassettes and they didn’t release CDs. That only happened with her next band. I think this is a common occurrence for bands of the 80s and 90s.

I grant you that this is a fringe obsession that most people wouldn’t care about.

New comment by ikerrin1 in "Why computers are ridiculous now"

ikerrin1 — Sun, 17 Nov 2024 04:44:37 +0000

I agree with the general thrust of this article. You should be able to use a computer you buy until it physically stops working, not just until the hardware isn’t supported by the new OS.

But I can’t agree at all that Linux is only useful as a server. When my old MacBook Air died, I switched to a Dell XPS with preinstalled Ubuntu. It works like a dream. The hardware is all supported and I can do anything I could do on my Mac. I just installed a new battery and hopefully it has another 6 years left in it.

The thing is. I’m a somewhat technically competent Artsy. I’m no engineer or CS specialist. Linux can work fine as a daily OS if it is supported. Dells new Ubuntu is $1800 which is ridiculous, but there is no reason why they couldn’t bring the price down. And of course there are Linux standalone manufacturers.

It might not be the year of the Linux desktop but not because Linux isn’t a perfectly viable OS for you and your mum and your technically phobic uncle. Whatever is stopping wider use, it’s not the underlying state of the software or hardware.

New comment by ikerrin1 in "A literary history of fake texts in Apple's marketing materials"

ikerrin1 — Wed, 20 Sep 2023 13:22:11 +0000

Could the boss asking for photos be passive aggressively asking for proof to show why the people aren’t at work?

New comment by ikerrin1 in "The U.S. housing market vs. the Canadian housing market"

ikerrin1 — Sun, 10 Sep 2023 01:28:50 +0000

I can’t speak to SF, but there have been so many construction towers in Canadian cities. They are densifying rapidly, but a lot of it have been condos and apartments.

New comment by ikerrin1 in "The U.S. housing market vs. the Canadian housing market"

ikerrin1 — Sat, 09 Sep 2023 16:47:16 +0000

It may have something to do with urban design and zoning in the two countries. Candace has far fewer exurbs and higher suburban density. You can’t just add new housing stock by moving beyond a city’s boundaries.

New comment by ikerrin1 in "Canada geese beat humans in longstanding territory battle: study"

ikerrin1 — Tue, 29 Nov 2022 21:05:00 +0000

Canadian Geese regiments were one of the principal tactics British and Colonial forces used to protect Upper Canada in the War of 1812. Sadly, the geese never were able to adjust to civilian life and now are just real jerks.