Hacker News: jcsager

New comment by jcsager in "Windows Drops Under 60% in Global Desktop OS Share for the First Time in Years"

jcsager — Wed, 08 Jul 2026 16:30:30 +0000

My last desktop before Linux was SunOs4 on a Sun Pizza box. Before that I used Macs. I had to use Win3.1 as road warrior kit until I got a laptop that would run Linux. So I've been using a Linux desktop for at least 30 years both at work & at home. I still use Windows (not 11!) sometimes where I can't avoid it but that's in a VM under Linux.

New comment by jcsager in "Every new car sold in the European Union must include a driver monitoring camera"

jcsager — Wed, 08 Jul 2026 14:37:23 +0000

The lane asist totally annoyed me in my replacement car (2022 VW Golf) -jerking the steering around when it felt like it. I eventually bought a OBD2 dongle with associated app and managed to change the setting to 'remember last setting'. I recently rented a Renault Clio in France and that was always beeping at me about the speed limit. I was very grateful to the rental lady for pointing out how to disable the lane assist when starting the car!

New comment by jcsager in "Long Wave radio era set to end with switch-off"

jcsager — Sun, 28 Jun 2026 19:48:34 +0000

My dad helped me build a crystal set when I was about 7. I still remember listening to a serialisation of Lorna Doone on the (MW) Home Service on headphones under the bedclothes.

Sad that the LW sevice had to close but the BBC is short of cash and it won't get better either.

New comment by jcsager in "Britain's prime minister to step down, Burnham puts himself forward as successor"

jcsager — Mon, 22 Jun 2026 12:04:06 +0000

He's not a Manc, he's a Scouser originally.

New comment by jcsager in "Bare-metal STM32: vector table, linker script, and startup code from scratch"

jcsager — Fri, 15 May 2026 08:50:21 +0000

I found that, even using the STM32 IDE and HAL/CMSIS, I needed to deep dive into the hardware documents, compiler section attributes and linker scripts to build what I wanted (a digital graphic equaliser with optical I/O and a display/control screen on a Nucleo-H753ZI board). DMA and cacheing don't mix! That was my first adventure in ARMland but the experience helped a lot for subsequent hacking on RP24040/2350 kit.

New comment by jcsager in "CATL's new LFP battery can charge from 10 to 98% in less than 7 minutes"

jcsager — Wed, 22 Apr 2026 12:57:13 +0000

Fjord ferries in Norway are up around that sort of charge rate, but for 30 mins instead of 5. That kind of battery charging performance is pure marketing until our local LV supply network is uplifted!

New comment by jcsager in "High-Altitude Adventure with a DIY Pico Balloon"

jcsager — Thu, 05 Feb 2026 16:46:32 +0000

'Balloon Gas' for inflating party balloons is a mixture of Helium and Oxygen, at least in the UK, to stop Tweety Pie asphyxiating him/herself breathing the gas. So although it still is lighter than air, it's not as good as pure He.

New comment by jcsager in "Bedlam Cube Solved (ALL 19,186 solutions)"

jcsager — Wed, 24 Dec 2025 23:33:54 +0000

We got one of those years ago. I had already written a Sudoku solver using Knuth's Dancing Links, so I modified it to find the Bedlam solutions. The program worked mostly but gave duplicates for some of the solutions. It was also fun to develop solution search criteria for placing the pieces, e.g. to get the reds all down one corner.

New comment by jcsager in "The biggest heat pumps"

jcsager — Tue, 16 Dec 2025 10:44:57 +0000

Planning rules conflict with building regs in the UK. Planning means that most new houses are little boxes made of little more than ticky-tacky. So adding insulation to the walls makes them even smaller inside.

New comment by jcsager in "The Ofcom Files, Part 4: Ofcom Rides Again"

jcsager — Fri, 05 Dec 2025 09:04:02 +0000

Spot on. The letter is a prime example of a boilerplate process that Ofcom have developed to meet the requirements of the law as it currently stands. By now I expect they have no illusions about 4Chan's likelihood of complying. I wonder how long they will carry on sending similar letters and giving Preston Byrne an opportunity to have another laugh.

New comment by jcsager in "France threatens GrapheneOS with arrests / server seizure for refusing backdoors"

jcsager — Mon, 24 Nov 2025 17:47:09 +0000

I think EncroChat scared them pas-de-merde, and this may be an overreaction by untutored civil servants.

New comment by jcsager in "Digital ID – The New Chains of Capitalist Surveillance"

jcsager — Fri, 03 Oct 2025 07:23:56 +0000

'the government playing by its own rules' generally means they change the rules, often arbitrarily, when some new crisis demands a 'solution'.