<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: jeffwass</title><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/user?id=jeffwass</link><description>Hacker News RSS</description><docs>https://hnrss.org/</docs><generator>hnrss v2.1.1</generator><lastBuildDate>Wed, 08 Apr 2026 01:44:48 +0000</lastBuildDate><atom:link href="https://hnrss.org/user?id=jeffwass" rel="self" type="application/rss+xml"></atom:link><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by jeffwass in "Identify a London Underground Line just by listening to it"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>Somehow I got a 7 out of 9, even though I felt like I was mostly guessing.  Surface vs deep lines have more rumble but that’s about it that I consciously knew of.</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Tue, 07 Apr 2026 12:52:41 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47674548</link><dc:creator>jeffwass</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47674548</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47674548</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[The ancient reason there are 60 minutes in an hour]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>Article URL: <a href="https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20260320-the-ancient-reason-there-are-60-minutes-in-an-hour-and-60-seconds-in-a-minute">https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20260320-the-ancient-reason-there-are-60-minutes-in-an-hour-and-60-seconds-in-a-minute</a></p>
<p>Comments URL: <a href="https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47500434">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47500434</a></p>
<p>Points: 2</p>
<p># Comments: 1</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Tue, 24 Mar 2026 09:50:11 +0000</pubDate><link>https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20260320-the-ancient-reason-there-are-60-minutes-in-an-hour-and-60-seconds-in-a-minute</link><dc:creator>jeffwass</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47500434</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47500434</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[Horror Novel 'Shy Girl' Canceled over Suspected A.I. Use]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>Article URL: <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2026/03/19/books/shy-girl-book-ai.html">https://www.nytimes.com/2026/03/19/books/shy-girl-book-ai.html</a></p>
<p>Comments URL: <a href="https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47446827">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47446827</a></p>
<p>Points: 10</p>
<p># Comments: 0</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Thu, 19 Mar 2026 21:54:02 +0000</pubDate><link>https://www.nytimes.com/2026/03/19/books/shy-girl-book-ai.html</link><dc:creator>jeffwass</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47446827</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47446827</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[Surfers in Munich (Yes, Munich) Just Want Their Wave Back]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>Article URL: <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2026/03/07/world/europe/munich-surfing-wave.html">https://www.nytimes.com/2026/03/07/world/europe/munich-surfing-wave.html</a></p>
<p>Comments URL: <a href="https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47287846">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47287846</a></p>
<p>Points: 1</p>
<p># Comments: 0</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Sat, 07 Mar 2026 14:16:06 +0000</pubDate><link>https://www.nytimes.com/2026/03/07/world/europe/munich-surfing-wave.html</link><dc:creator>jeffwass</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47287846</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47287846</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by jeffwass in "Triplet Superconductor"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>I did a bunch of research on similar Tc superconductors back during my
PhD.<p>7K is considered “warm” from a cryogenics point-of-view because you can just dunk your sample into a dewar of liquid helium at 4.2K. You can even get it cooler, down to about 1K, using evaporative cooling techniques. [1]<p>It’s getting to lower temperatures than this when things start getting complicated. Eg a closed-cycle evaporative He3 system can get you down to 200 mK, or you can bite the bullet and use a dilution fridge down to around 10mK.<p>[1] <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1-K_pot" rel="nofollow">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1-K_pot</a></p>
]]></description><pubDate>Sat, 07 Mar 2026 00:56:25 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47283189</link><dc:creator>jeffwass</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47283189</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47283189</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by jeffwass in "Mullvad VPN: Banned TV Ad in the Streets of London [video]"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>FYI link is below, for the off-chance someone is curious.<p>(not sure what are the unwritten rules of self-promotion here, but hopefully providing a link in a sub-comment instead of the comment itself makes it okay-ish?)<p><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qI3xj9cM0jk" rel="nofollow">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qI3xj9cM0jk</a></p>
]]></description><pubDate>Tue, 03 Mar 2026 15:39:36 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47234020</link><dc:creator>jeffwass</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47234020</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47234020</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by jeffwass in "Mullvad VPN: Banned TV Ad in the Streets of London [video]"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>Lol, my band (London-based) has a song and YouTube music video called "Streets Of London".<p>I had a minor panic/WTF moment when I saw the submission saying : "Streets of London [video] (youtube.com)".</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Tue, 03 Mar 2026 15:34:41 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47233936</link><dc:creator>jeffwass</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47233936</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47233936</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[SpaceX rocket fireball linked to plume of polluting lithium]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>Article URL: <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cpd8z4eqlxno">https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cpd8z4eqlxno</a></p>
<p>Comments URL: <a href="https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47079021">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47079021</a></p>
<p>Points: 8</p>
<p># Comments: 0</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Thu, 19 Feb 2026 20:45:16 +0000</pubDate><link>https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cpd8z4eqlxno</link><dc:creator>jeffwass</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47079021</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47079021</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by jeffwass in "Skip the Tips: A game to select "No Tip" but dark patterns try to stop you"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>Does annybody worry about sabotage if you don’t tip? Eg the cashier does something to your food? “Nice muffin you got there, I’d hate for it to get accidentally sneezed on.”<p>I recently bought my mom flowers for her birthday. Despite the price showing no delivery fee, the final price included $15 delivery charge, $8 service charge, taxes, and then asked me for a tip.<p>I chose no tip, expecting the delivery and service charge should cover everything.<p>The flowers were left on her front porch in below-freezing weather, they didn’t even knock or ring the doorbell. Luckily my mom happened to open the door and saw them before they completely froze.<p>So was the delivery person incompetent, or acting out because I didn’t add additional tip?</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Fri, 13 Feb 2026 12:36:45 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47002009</link><dc:creator>jeffwass</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47002009</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47002009</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by jeffwass in "Byte magazine artist Robert Tinney, who illustrated the birth of PCs, dies at 78"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>Some of Robert Tinney's artwork is still available for sale at his website, limited edition runs of several of the Byte covers and other art.<p><a href="https://tinney.net/" rel="nofollow">https://tinney.net/</a></p>
]]></description><pubDate>Thu, 12 Feb 2026 16:38:25 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46990937</link><dc:creator>jeffwass</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46990937</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46990937</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by jeffwass in "Defeating a 40-year-old copy protection dongle"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>I was wondering this actually, why not just skip past the check entirely instead of going through the effort to pass the check without the dongle?</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Mon, 02 Feb 2026 09:11:04 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46853948</link><dc:creator>jeffwass</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46853948</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46853948</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by jeffwass in "Defeating a 40-year-old copy protection dongle"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>Really interesting read, wonder how many other installs are using (and trapped into continuing to use) such obscure legacy software.</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Mon, 02 Feb 2026 09:09:16 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46853936</link><dc:creator>jeffwass</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46853936</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46853936</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by jeffwass in "Doin' It with a 555: One Chip to Rule Them All"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>Two thoughts on situations where the 555 may be preferable, if anyone has experience  how these compare :<p>1. Low-noise applications. I’d naively expect the 555 to be less noisy than a clocked digital microcontroller, though it’s been awhile since I’ve worked in this space.<p>2. Low power applications. How does latent power draw compare between a 555 and a typical low power microcontroller?</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Fri, 30 Jan 2026 08:06:31 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46821754</link><dc:creator>jeffwass</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46821754</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46821754</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by jeffwass in "I stopped following the news"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>At my cousin’s company there are TV’s in the lobby.<p>They used to show news channels.<p>He said clients would come in all stressed out. So they changed to a home improvement channel.</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Wed, 28 Jan 2026 09:31:44 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46793077</link><dc:creator>jeffwass</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46793077</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46793077</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by jeffwass in "Heathrow scraps liquid container limit"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>Even in your own car dropping off your friends or family at a UK airport (at least the London ones) requires paying a £6 fee now. Just to get to the dropoff area, even for 30 seconds as you say.<p>But hey, at least the luggage carts are free…</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Tue, 27 Jan 2026 08:52:27 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46777263</link><dc:creator>jeffwass</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46777263</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46777263</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by jeffwass in "Ask HN: DDD was a great debugger – what would a modern equivalent look like?"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>“The most effective debugging tool is still careful thought, coupled with judiciously placed print statements.”<p>- <i>Brian Kernighan</i></p>
]]></description><pubDate>Mon, 26 Jan 2026 07:36:45 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46762855</link><dc:creator>jeffwass</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46762855</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46762855</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by jeffwass in "Project SkyWatch (a.k.a. Wescam at Home)"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>This is pretty cool project. Have you been able to track satellites with it, eg an ISS flyover?</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Thu, 15 Jan 2026 09:31:09 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46630217</link><dc:creator>jeffwass</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46630217</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46630217</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by jeffwass in "Contact the ISS"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>They’ve been doing this for over a century, it’s probably the top deaf school in the UK, and has the support of nearly the entire deaf community.<p>Most of the students have either some degree of hearing or use cochlear implants. I think nearly all, if not all, students use either hearing aids or cochlear implants.<p>The classes are very small (eg 5-6 max usually), students are arranged in a U-shape around the teacher so they can read lips. And there’s a special wireless broadcast system so the teacher wears a microphone and sends the audio directly to hearing aids or cochlear implants.<p>Regarding deaf culture, most of the students use BSL on their own outside class, and my daughter learned BSL from her friends there that grew up with it. Coming from a mainstream primary, she found “her people” here, discovered deaf culture and a community that shares the same struggles she faces.<p>The idea is that by teaching in BSL the students are further restricted in their ability to function in a hearing society.<p>I’m curious if you are deaf yourself, or work with the deaf. All the teachers at the school are trained teachers of the deaf, some are even deaf themselves. And I haven’t heard any complaints about the aural nature of the learning (except from the reservations of a few parents before sending their kids there, and I don’t think any of these parents regrets this after their children started there.)</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Fri, 02 Jan 2026 18:17:52 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46467670</link><dc:creator>jeffwass</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46467670</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46467670</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by jeffwass in "Contact the ISS"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>My daughter is deaf and goes to a specialist deaf secondary school in the UK.<p>Five years ago ARISS-UK pre-arranged a connection between the school and astronaut Mark Vande Hei on one of the ISS flyovers. Various students got to ask questions directly to Mark in orbit.  It was the first contact between ISS and a deaf school.<p><a href="https://www.arrl.org/news/ariss-confirms-october-12-as-date-for-contact-with-uk-school-for-deaf-children" rel="nofollow">https://www.arrl.org/news/ariss-confirms-october-12-as-date-...</a></p>
]]></description><pubDate>Fri, 02 Jan 2026 12:24:33 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46464096</link><dc:creator>jeffwass</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46464096</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46464096</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by jeffwass in "UK accounting body to halt remote exams amid AI cheating"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>This was going on long before LLMs.<p>When I took quantum mechanics in grad school, I struggled through the weekly (and intense) homework sets. My TA was a hardass, I’d spend hours on some problem, several few pages of math work just for one problem, and make some dumb mistake in an integral somewhere, being off by a factor of 2 at the end and only getting 2 of 4 points.<p>It was painful, and I felt like a dumbass seeing the other kids regularly getting perfect scores.<p>Then the midterm came and I blew them all out of the water. I hadn’t realised they somehow had the solutions manual so just got perfect scores all along but clearly didn’t learn the material like I did.</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Mon, 29 Dec 2025 15:09:27 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46421469</link><dc:creator>jeffwass</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46421469</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46421469</guid></item></channel></rss>