<rss version="2.0" xmlns:dc="http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/" xmlns:atom="http://www.w3.org/2005/Atom"><channel><title>Hacker News: jbarham</title><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/user?id=jbarham</link><description>Hacker News RSS</description><docs>https://hnrss.org/</docs><generator>hnrss v2.1.1</generator><lastBuildDate>Sun, 26 Apr 2026 11:48:02 +0000</lastBuildDate><atom:link href="https://hnrss.org/user?id=jbarham" rel="self" type="application/rss+xml"></atom:link><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by jbarham in "Stathat Is Shutting Down"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>What other services have you used to track stats?</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Thu, 05 Mar 2026 04:33:56 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47257618</link><dc:creator>jbarham</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47257618</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47257618</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by jbarham in "Python Software Foundation gets a donor surge after rejecting federal grant"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p><a href="https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=41234180">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=41234180</a></p>
]]></description><pubDate>Sun, 09 Nov 2025 23:25:48 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45870327</link><dc:creator>jbarham</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45870327</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45870327</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by jbarham in "My thoughts on renting versus buying"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>Condo means an apartment that you own (vs rent).</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Mon, 15 Sep 2025 01:02:04 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45244983</link><dc:creator>jbarham</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45244983</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45244983</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by jbarham in "Australia widens teen social media ban to YouTube, scraps exemption"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>> I pushed for anonymous temporary age verification tokens generated through a government app.<p>Cute. Let's see the reviews for an existing Australian government auth app: <a href="https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=au.gov.mygov.mygovapp">https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=au.gov.mygov.m...</a><p>And the kicker is that the above app doesn't even need to exist since myGov could just use industry standard TOTP two-factor auth like the dozens of other services I use.<p>Aussie politicians once again conforming to their lucky country stereotype:<p>"Australia is a lucky country run mainly by second rate people who share its luck. It lives on other people's ideas, and, although its ordinary people are adaptable, most of its leaders (in all fields) so lack curiosity about the events that surround them that they are often taken by surprise."</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Wed, 30 Jul 2025 23:33:18 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44740772</link><dc:creator>jbarham</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44740772</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44740772</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by jbarham in "Google will develop Android OS behind closed doors starting next week"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>According to <a href="https://worldpopulationreview.com/country-rankings/iphone-market-share-by-country" rel="nofollow">https://worldpopulationreview.com/country-rankings/iphone-ma...</a> iPhone also has > 50% market share in Canada, Norway, Sweden, Australia and Japan. FWIW I live in Australia and most group chats are via WhatsApp vs SMS/iMessage.</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Wed, 26 Mar 2025 22:30:19 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43488206</link><dc:creator>jbarham</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43488206</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43488206</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by jbarham in "Distributed systems programming has stalled"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>> This reminds me of Rob Pike's article "Systems Software Research is Irrelevant," written about 15 years ago.<p>25 years ago: <a href="http://herpolhode.com/rob/utah2000.pdf" rel="nofollow">http://herpolhode.com/rob/utah2000.pdf</a> (Time flies.)</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Thu, 27 Feb 2025 22:26:08 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43199228</link><dc:creator>jbarham</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43199228</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43199228</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by jbarham in "Electric Cars Are Suddenly Becoming Affordable"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>Tesla has cut prices very aggressively here in Australia [1] such that the "driveaway" prices for the Model 3 and Y are now ~AU$60k (or $US40k). There aren't a lot of government subsidies to buy EVs in Australia so that's what most Telsa buyers will pay, but those prices are very competitive given that many popular ICE SUVs now cost AU$50k+.<p>[1] <a href="https://www.carexpert.com.au/car-news/tesla-model-y-model-3-receive-major-price-cuts-in-australia" rel="nofollow">https://www.carexpert.com.au/car-news/tesla-model-y-model-3-...</a></p>
]]></description><pubDate>Tue, 04 Jun 2024 09:29:03 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40572413</link><dc:creator>jbarham</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40572413</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40572413</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by jbarham in "Ask HN: Founders who offer free/OS and paid SaaS, how do you manage your code?"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>I think that should be <a href="https://datasette.io/" rel="nofollow">https://datasette.io/</a></p>
]]></description><pubDate>Mon, 13 May 2024 23:19:10 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40349723</link><dc:creator>jbarham</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40349723</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40349723</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by jbarham in "EU countries already hitting some of their sustainable energy targets for 2030"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>Ironically despite Australia being a major producer of uranium, its current Minister for Climate Change and Energy, Chris Bowen, constantly denigrates nuclear power [1]. But that's par for the course in Australian politics ("Australia is a lucky country run mainly by second rate people who share its luck").<p>1: <a href="https://www.google.com.au/search?q=site%3Ahttps%3A%2F%2Ftwitter.com%2FBowenchris+nuclear" rel="nofollow">https://www.google.com.au/search?q=site%3Ahttps%3A%2F%2Ftwit...</a></p>
]]></description><pubDate>Wed, 28 Feb 2024 22:30:51 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=39544318</link><dc:creator>jbarham</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=39544318</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=39544318</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by jbarham in "Google to pause Gemini image generation of people after issues"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>Prompt: draw a picture of a fish and chips shop owner from queensland who is also a politician<p>Results: <a href="https://twitter.com/jbarham74/status/1760587123844124894" rel="nofollow">https://twitter.com/jbarham74/status/1760587123844124894</a></p>
]]></description><pubDate>Thu, 22 Feb 2024 11:30:15 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=39465634</link><dc:creator>jbarham</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=39465634</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=39465634</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by jbarham in "Why we stopped building cut and cover"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>There's a short cut & cover freight railway "tunnel" near me in Footscray, Victoria, Australia (just west of central Melbourne). Here's the Google street view: <a href="https://www.google.com/maps/@-37.8035409,144.9065655,3a,75y,112.96h,76.11t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1sRAtD3Q8cBLHJq2b7e6klyg!2e0!7i16384!8i8192?entry=ttu" rel="nofollow">https://www.google.com/maps/@-37.8035409,144.9065655,3a,75y,...</a><p>I used to walk over it almost every day when I worked at a coworking space in the old Lonely Planet HQ building. I think a lot of locals drive over it without ever realizing it's there.</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Sat, 17 Feb 2024 09:12:01 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=39407791</link><dc:creator>jbarham</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=39407791</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=39407791</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by jbarham in "Nine US states are teaming up to accelerate the adoption of heat pumps"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>>> will do nothing for emissions
>  How can that be?<p>Because a reduction of domestic gas usage will just be diverted to less efficient LNG exports.<p>Given that by far the largest source of Victoria's electricity generation capacity is from dirty brown coal [1] if anything banning domestic gas usage might even make emissions worse since it will force people to use only electricity for cooking and heating.<p>> Direct consumption emissions are eliminated.<p>Ah, so burning Aussie natural gas in Asia (after it's been liquified and then turned back into gas) is somehow better for the environment than just burning it in Australia?<p>1: <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Energy_in_Victoria#Electricity_generation" rel="nofollow">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Energy_in_Victoria#Electricity...</a></p>
]]></description><pubDate>Sat, 10 Feb 2024 04:37:48 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=39323632</link><dc:creator>jbarham</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=39323632</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=39323632</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by jbarham in "Nine US states are teaming up to accelerate the adoption of heat pumps"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>The only reason that natural gas prices in Australia have gone up in the past 10 years is that gas producers in the eastern states were able to start exporting gas as LNG.<p>As of 2023, Australia is the world's second largest LNG exporter (source: <a href="https://www.statista.com/statistics/1262074/global-lng-export-capacity-by-country/" rel="nofollow">https://www.statista.com/statistics/1262074/global-lng-expor...</a>) after the US (take that Russia!) and ahead of Qatar. Great for the gas exporting cartel but not so great for ordinary Australians in eastern states who now pay the same for gas as people in Tokyo. (And Aussies wonder why manufacturers keep leaving...)<p>Banning domestic gas usage for new homes (which the fools running Victoria, the state I live in, have done) will do nothing for emissions but will mean that the gas cartel can make even more money exporting LNG to Asia. Bravo!<p>The exception is Western Australia which is also a massive LNG exporter but has stricter domestic reservation requirements than the eastern states.<p>All of the above has been extensively documented at <a href="https://www.macrobusiness.com.au/" rel="nofollow">https://www.macrobusiness.com.au/</a> (source: <a href="https://www.google.com.au/search?q=site%3Ahttps%3A%2F%2Fwww.macrobusiness.com.au%2F+gas+cartel" rel="nofollow">https://www.google.com.au/search?q=site%3Ahttps%3A%2F%2Fwww....</a>).</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Sat, 10 Feb 2024 03:58:18 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=39323437</link><dc:creator>jbarham</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=39323437</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=39323437</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by jbarham in "300-year-old Tokyo comb company sells 30k-yen ($200) wooden hair combs"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>Re: architecture in Japan the typical lifespan of a house is less than 30 years: <a href="https://robbreport.com/shelter/home-design/japanese-homes-are-ephemeral-facing-demolition-just-22-years-in-heres-why-1234608438/" rel="nofollow noreferrer">https://robbreport.com/shelter/home-design/japanese-homes-ar...</a><p>I'd recommend the book Jutaku by Naomi Pollock to get a sense of how uniquely innovative Japanese housing architecture is. Ironically a major reason is tax depreciation rules for houses which encourage homeowners to demolish and rebuild rather than renovate.</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Sat, 02 Dec 2023 02:04:11 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38495140</link><dc:creator>jbarham</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38495140</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38495140</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by jbarham in "The new Polaroid I-2 instant camera"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>Fujifilm also sells Instax printers (<a href="https://instax.com/printer/" rel="nofollow noreferrer">https://instax.com/printer/</a>) that you can print to using smartphone apps. Note that the printers use the same film cartridges as the Instax instant cameras.</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Mon, 11 Sep 2023 00:34:00 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37461492</link><dc:creator>jbarham</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37461492</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37461492</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by jbarham in "Canada Woos American H-1B Visa Holders Fed Up with U.S. Immigration System"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>Ironically the #2 post on /r/canada right now is titled "'I'm done with Canada': High cost of living leads some to leave the country" (<a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/canada/comments/1538vpj/im_done_with_canada_high_cost_of_living_leads/" rel="nofollow noreferrer">https://www.reddit.com/r/canada/comments/1538vpj/im_done_wit...</a>)</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Wed, 19 Jul 2023 00:56:53 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=36780949</link><dc:creator>jbarham</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=36780949</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=36780949</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by jbarham in "The Perfect Laptop"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>I have a ThinkPad X1 Carbon Gen 9 and I'm very happy with it. It's fast, quiet, absurdly light, has a 16:10 screen, a decent selection of ports and the famously good ThinkPad keyboard. I dual boot Windows and Ubuntu without any issues. For me it's the perfect laptop.</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Mon, 17 Jul 2023 22:40:37 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=36765062</link><dc:creator>jbarham</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=36765062</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=36765062</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by jbarham in "Tesla on track to smash targets after producing almost a million EVs in 6 months"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>Thanks, my mistake! I did misread it as China having a surplus of EV cars instead of ICE cars. Either way Africa is a tough market. But I think my point about a stable electric grid as a prerequisite for EV take-up still stands.</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Mon, 03 Jul 2023 13:11:29 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=36572391</link><dc:creator>jbarham</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=36572391</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=36572391</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by jbarham in "Tesla on track to smash targets after producing almost a million EVs in 6 months"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>Africa doesn't have the grid capacity to support a shift to electric vehicles. Right now South Africa (i.e., the richest country in Africa) has daily rolling power cuts (aka "load shedding") because they don't generate enough electricity for current demand, let alone for widespread EVs.<p>The major advantage of liquid fuel compared to electricity is that it's easier to transport and store, and harder to steal, which is why I don't think EVs will see significant take up in the third world.</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Mon, 03 Jul 2023 12:16:23 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=36571831</link><dc:creator>jbarham</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=36571831</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=36571831</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by jbarham in "Tesla on track to smash targets after producing almost a million EVs in 6 months"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>Sure, but I only used the roof box on occasional long trips when we had lots of luggage (e.g., visiting the grandparents interstate for Christmas). So I might have paid a few tens of dollars extra in fuel, but it was certainly far cheaper than buying a bigger car when we otherwise didn't need the extra space.<p>The roof rack and Thule box cost maybe $1200 AUD. But the rack was also useful for attaching bicycle carriers.</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Mon, 03 Jul 2023 07:49:00 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=36570039</link><dc:creator>jbarham</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=36570039</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=36570039</guid></item></channel></rss>