Hacker News: jackgavigan

New comment by jackgavigan in "Failing grades soar with AI usage, dwindling math skills in Berkeley CS classes"

jackgavigan — Thu, 04 Jun 2026 16:03:55 +0000

I've avoided using AI* for precisely this reason. I don't want my brain to get lazy and rot.

(* I can count on one hand the number of time I've used an AI tool.)

New comment by jackgavigan in "Nintendo announces price increases for Nintendo Switch 2"

jackgavigan — Fri, 08 May 2026 11:08:35 +0000

> The value of the yen compared to other currencies has fallen through the floor since 2022...

That would normally allow them to keep prices of export goods low...

New comment by jackgavigan in ""Roadrunner": a bipedal, wheeled robot for multi-modal locomotion [video]"

jackgavigan — Mon, 30 Mar 2026 10:43:01 +0000

I wonder whether the extra weight of a third, retractable/foldable leg would negate the power savings that could accrue from being able to switch to 3-wheeled mode when appropriate (thereby allowing the gyro to be spun down).

New comment by jackgavigan in "Man accidentally gains control of 7k robot vacuums"

jackgavigan — Mon, 23 Feb 2026 11:14:25 +0000

iRobot is now Chinese-owned.

New comment by jackgavigan in "A Crisis comes to Wordle: Reusing old words"

jackgavigan — Mon, 02 Feb 2026 08:17:17 +0000

Yet the current word list apparently doesn't include "Irish" (even though Welsh, Scots and Brits are all valid). ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Woz's Toolbox and Tolkien's Desk being auctioned

jackgavigan — Thu, 11 Dec 2025 15:59:04 +0000

Article URL: https://www.christies.com/auction/auction-23878-cks/browse-lots

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46233003

Points: 2

# Comments: 1

Relocating a floating bog on Wisconsin's Lake Chippewa

jackgavigan — Tue, 18 Nov 2025 10:35:32 +0000

Article URL: https://thekidshouldseethis.com/post/relocating-a-floating-bog-on-wisconsins-lake-chippewa

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45963446

Points: 4

# Comments: 1

New comment by jackgavigan in "Counter-Strike's player economy is in a freefall"

jackgavigan — Fri, 24 Oct 2025 07:26:43 +0000

> That's also a lesson on how a closed economy (and open ones too, to some extent) can collapse based on a single actor controlling the rules. That's fair to learn.

A timely lesson!

New comment by jackgavigan in "United MAX Hit by Falling Object at 36,000 Feet"

jackgavigan — Mon, 20 Oct 2025 07:18:46 +0000

Exactly! If you think about it, every meteorite has passed through 36,000 feet at some point!

New comment by jackgavigan in "United MAX Hit by Falling Object at 36,000 Feet"

jackgavigan — Mon, 20 Oct 2025 07:15:41 +0000

ISWYDT. :-)

New comment by jackgavigan in "Teen suspect surrenders in 2023 Las Vegas casino cyberattack case"

jackgavigan — Sun, 21 Sep 2025 07:36:17 +0000

Likely linked to other recent arrests in the UK: https://www.theregister.com/2025/09/19/scattered_spider_teen...

New comment by jackgavigan in "UK backing down on Apple encryption backdoor after pressure from US"

jackgavigan — Mon, 21 Jul 2025 17:55:22 +0000

We've had a serious problem with policy-making in this country for a loooooong time, stretching right back to when RIPA was drafted, nearly three decades ago.

With a few notable exceptions, the level of knowledge, expertise and understanding amongst government advisers and policy makers is abysmally low. c.f. https://jackgavigan.com/2015/11/23/how-well-advised-was-the-...

New comment by jackgavigan in "A glob of 99M-year-old amber trapped a zombie fungus erupting from a fly"

jackgavigan — Mon, 30 Jun 2025 17:48:42 +0000

Apparently set to become a movie, starring Liam Neeson: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cold_Storage_(film)

New comment by jackgavigan in "JavaScript Trademark Update"

jackgavigan — Mon, 30 Jun 2025 15:33:11 +0000

What, "JavaThcript"?

New comment by jackgavigan in "JavaScript Trademark Update"

jackgavigan — Sun, 29 Jun 2025 07:03:37 +0000

Maybe it’s time to revert to Javascript’s original name: LiveScript.

A glob of 99M-year-old amber trapped a zombie fungus erupting from a fly

jackgavigan — Thu, 26 Jun 2025 21:25:45 +0000

Article URL: https://www.cnn.com/2025/06/24/science/amber-insect-zombie-fungi-fossil

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44391590

Points: 128

# Comments: 68

New comment by jackgavigan in "Make little apps for you and your friends"

jackgavigan — Wed, 18 Jun 2025 07:19:59 +0000

I love the concept. I think the trick to being successful with a project like this is cracking the user experience in a way that makes it powerful enough to be truly useful, while keeping it simple enough that a child can build (scr)apps (c.f. Super Mario Maker).

Making it possible to lookup and store data in a spreadsheet (maybe using something like the Google Sheets API) could unlock a huge amount of use cases.

I'll be watching this project with interest!

New comment by jackgavigan in "Why SSL was renamed to TLS in late 90s (2014)"

jackgavigan — Mon, 16 Jun 2025 07:18:01 +0000

It also enabled cipher strength "step up". Back during the '90s and early 2000s (I'm not sure when it stopped, tbh), the US government restricted the export of strong cryptography, with certain exceptions (e.g. for financial services).

If you fell under one of those exceptions, you could get a special certificate for your website (from, e.g. Verisign) that allowed the webserver to "step up" the encryption negotiation with the browser to stronger algorithms and/or key lengths.

British pubs have their own set of rules. Here's what you need to know

jackgavigan — Fri, 13 Jun 2025 18:31:38 +0000

Article URL: https://www.cnn.com/travel/british-pubs-rules-etiquette-beer

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44270973

Points: 3

# Comments: 2

Nintendo Switch 2 Sells over 3.5M Units Worldwide in First Four Days

jackgavigan — Wed, 11 Jun 2025 22:09:18 +0000

Article URL: https://www.nintendo.co.jp/corporate/release/en/2025/250611.html

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44252372

Points: 2

# Comments: 0