Hacker News: jerlam

New comment by jerlam in "SF could have dense, fine-grained, family-friendly Neighborhood, Not Megaproject"

jerlam — Thu, 08 Oct 2026 00:32:56 +0000

Reinventing an HOA from first principles.

New comment by jerlam in "Visa, Mastercard, major banks facing new litigation over 'anticompetitive' fees"

jerlam — Wed, 07 Oct 2026 23:21:55 +0000

Others have already mentioned that the credit card surcharge is something that the customer has control over. But in regards to the other fees:

> Why not add on an additional fee for every other thing like, fuel surcharge on delivery costs, employee surcharges (I don't live in a place where tipping is expected), or even energy surcharges?

A lot of companies already do this. As long as those fees are mentioned somewhere before purchasing, it's legal here:

https://abc7news.com/post/what-are-surcharges-bill-when-eat-...

California banned all these surprise fees, and then the restaurant industry got their own exemption:

https://calmatters.org/commentary/2024/06/california-restaur...

New comment by jerlam in "We Asked Starbucks Why Their 'Sugar-Free' Drinks Have Sugar"

jerlam — Wed, 07 Oct 2026 17:32:11 +0000

We also have "nitrite-free" ham and bacon that have nitrites: "No nitrates or nitrites added except for naturally occurring nitrites in celery powder."

New comment by jerlam in "Plastic Waste and Oceans: Banning Straws Won't Help Much"

jerlam — Wed, 07 Oct 2026 17:26:08 +0000

(2018)

New comment by jerlam in "Google's AI Phone Calls May Soon Chat to Your Mom for You"

jerlam — Wed, 07 Oct 2026 17:22:43 +0000

And you can send voice messages if you want that personal touch.

Having AI make a phone call and then be unable to say much else doesn't seem too useful.

New comment by jerlam in "Visa, Mastercard, Major Banks Facing New Litigation over 'Anticompetitive' Fees"

jerlam — Wed, 07 Oct 2026 17:16:32 +0000

And the US already capped debit card fees back in 2010:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Durbin_amendment

This is explicitly about credit card fees.

New comment by jerlam in "AI firm HUMXN offers free plumbing and HVAC service in Minnesota to train robots"

jerlam — Wed, 07 Oct 2026 17:11:09 +0000

> My guess is that people in skilled trades who are used to working with their hands are going to be even more skeptical than white-collar folks about an AI revolution

If I was confident that an AI couldn't do my job, I would happily sign up to do this "training" because it's free money and my job is at zero risk.

New comment by jerlam in "Advanced Stats and $500 Bats: Why Baseball for 6-Year-Olds Is Breaking the Bank"

jerlam — Wed, 07 Oct 2026 16:56:46 +0000

syndicated link: https://www.msn.com/en-us/sports/baseball/advanced-stats-and...

New comment by jerlam in "California closed the Montana license plate loophole"

jerlam — Wed, 07 Oct 2026 04:20:09 +0000

Non-enforcement of laws might be its own separate subject in CA.

New comment by jerlam in "Florida weighs ditching property taxes and sticking Canadians with the bill"

jerlam — Sun, 04 Oct 2026 19:45:26 +0000

It makes sense if you want to prioritize a population of landowners who don't work.

New comment by jerlam in "Disney World has a better underground cable infrastructure than most cities"

jerlam — Fri, 02 Oct 2026 00:10:34 +0000

Disney World also has a better public transportation infrastructure than most cities: https://www.disneytouristblog.com/walt-disney-world-is-ameri...

> By international transportation standards, there’s only one great ‘city’ in the United States: Walt Disney World.

Silencing AirTags enables stalkers and domestic violence

jerlam — Thu, 01 Oct 2026 22:08:58 +0000

Article URL: https://sixcolors.com/post/2026/10/silencing-airtags-enables-stalkers-and-domestic-violence/

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49927646

Points: 3

# Comments: 2

New comment by jerlam in "I am so tired of this bullshit"

jerlam — Thu, 01 Oct 2026 18:40:43 +0000

A lot of internal presentations and documents are never looked at or read; they're basically used as proof of work.

New comment by jerlam in "Suits Are Better Tech Than Modern Clothes"

jerlam — Thu, 01 Oct 2026 16:31:07 +0000

Jeans are the weirdest default style, a throwback to when they were a symbol of the US's cultural domination. They're often designed to project an image of hard work and use that very few of us do today. They are one of the few pieces of clothing that we intentionally buy pre-damaged with fades, rips, and holes since it skips over the actual hard work we would need to do to achieve those fades, rips, and holes.

In modern times, there are better options than jeans for almost all work tasks, and modern jeans are usually not designed for work as they're cut too slim and made with spandex. Jeans are basically a costume.

New comment by jerlam in "Suits Are Better Tech Than Modern Clothes"

jerlam — Thu, 01 Oct 2026 16:21:20 +0000

> Suits, neckties etc are decorations to project status, they are not functional, IMO. Same with shoes.

The function of suits is to flatter the imperfect human body, by adding structure and bulk in places like the shoulder, to slim the waist, and basically make the typical male look like a V. The necktie adds visual interest, basically an arrow pointing to your face and not the rest of your body. The wig hides an obvious indicator of aging. Hats were very useful when people spent a lot more time outside.

I don't know of many who think shoes aren't functional, other than the most diehard barefoot advocates.

You can think that appearance isn't functional, but tons of studies show that people do judge each other on appearances. Projecting status is the function of clothes, suits just occupy a rung above what is currently popular and what people usually want to project. People wear jeans all the time even though they don't work in the trades.

New comment by jerlam in "McDonald's Is Using AI to Dynamically Price Its Burgers"

jerlam — Wed, 30 Sep 2026 01:24:34 +0000

Same thing that happened to Starbucks. Online and drive-through orders make more money with less work, so they concentrated on optimizing those while killing the brand.

New comment by jerlam in "Una watch review: A modular, repairable GPS watch is a good first step"

jerlam — Tue, 29 Sep 2026 23:51:52 +0000

They slashed the price from the claimed retail price in the Kickstarter ($350) and the discounted "backer" prices ($275) to an actual price of $200, what a slap in the face to the entire crowdfunding process.

New comment by jerlam in "Portland Real Estate Is Such a Mess That All Housing Is Affordable Housing"

jerlam — Mon, 28 Sep 2026 17:22:03 +0000

Lower rent is good, unless you're a landlord.

New comment by jerlam in "Toyota is taking the Corolla electric"

jerlam — Thu, 24 Sep 2026 22:46:18 +0000

Toyota's EVs share most of the same components as their non-EVs, like door handles and screens. They have become the fourth best selling EVs behind the Teslas and the Hyundai Ioniq 5 in recent months.

New comment by jerlam in "Comma's hands-off driving tech under investigation after 2 fatal crashes"

jerlam — Wed, 23 Sep 2026 16:07:53 +0000

Adaptive cruise control will detect a stopped car and come to a complete stop - but only sometimes. Might depend on speed difference or even the color or shape of the car or object. So it's very possible that the car stopped in previous situations, and the driver completely expected it would do the same, especially with such a large emergency vehicle with flashing lights. By the time the driver realized the car did not detect the emergency vehicle, it may have been too late.

These systems are unable to detect when intervention is required.