Hacker News: jerlam

New comment by jerlam in "Are Yelp Reviews Harsher in Your City? (2019)"

jerlam — Wed, 29 Jul 2026 21:05:27 +0000

I linked to the archive page since the original page has lost its images. It's available at

https://nycdatascience.com/blog/student-works/are-yelp-revie...

Are Yelp Reviews Harsher in Your City? (2019)

jerlam — Wed, 29 Jul 2026 21:05:27 +0000

Article URL: https://web.archive.org/web/20201127091203/https://nycdatascience.com/blog/student-works/are-yelp-reviews-harsher-in-your-city/

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49103075

Points: 3

# Comments: 1

New comment by jerlam in "Show HN: CheapFoodMap – A map of good meals under $10"

jerlam — Wed, 29 Jul 2026 20:41:27 +0000

It depends on the type of establishment.

A full service restaurant where you are directed to a table, someone takes your order, then brings food to you, and then you pay would require a tip, because that is considered service.

A counter service restaurant or cafe where you walk up to a counter, give your order, pay, then pick up your food and find your own table would not require a tip.

New comment by jerlam in "Keychron announces first open-source firmware for gaming mice"

jerlam — Wed, 29 Jul 2026 20:19:55 +0000

A seam ripper will "de-compile" any garment you like.

New comment by jerlam in "Keychron announces first open-source firmware for gaming mice"

jerlam — Wed, 29 Jul 2026 20:13:06 +0000

That file appears to be either copied from a completely unrelated repo or vibe-coded.

> This repository is a lightweight analysis and report-generation workspace.

And "please contribute to our blank open-source project" can be taken with a grain of salt.

New comment by jerlam in "Keychron announces first open-source firmware for gaming mice"

jerlam — Wed, 29 Jul 2026 17:28:54 +0000

This would be more exciting if Keychron had mice of more interesting / experimental form factors and functionality. Just like their keyboards, their mice are mostly differentiated by obscure technical features (polling rates!).

I'm a bit worried that a decent, modern replacement for the extremely obsolete multi-button mouse I have now (Logitech G602) will never be available.

New comment by jerlam in "A.I. companies are recruiting electricians and carpenters by the thousands"

jerlam — Wed, 29 Jul 2026 16:31:52 +0000

I would think that data centers would be using as much prefab / modular construction as possible and on-site work would be as limited as possible.

Those prefab factories may not exist though, and companies want to build out now before the market is mature, instead of a long-term play.

New comment by jerlam in "Una GPS smart watch – Repairable, USB-C charging, developer-friendly"

jerlam — Wed, 29 Jul 2026 07:24:40 +0000

You can plug in a Garmin to a computer with a cable and pull the files off the watch, as it acts like a USB drive. No app required.

New comment by jerlam in "Leeaky Catches hidden fees draining your travel budget"

jerlam — Wed, 29 Jul 2026 00:13:36 +0000

This "app" just seems to catch four things, which are listed here and you should know before you go on a trip:

https://leeaky.vercel.app/app/checklist

Logging them afterwards doesn't save you any money.

New comment by jerlam in "Una GPS smart watch – Repairable, USB-C charging, developer-friendly"

jerlam — Tue, 28 Jul 2026 22:52:06 +0000

There are zero spare parts available on their website.

If repairability is one of their selling points, not having spare parts immediately available is a big misstep.

New comment by jerlam in "Una GPS smart watch – Repairable, USB-C charging, developer-friendly"

jerlam — Tue, 28 Jul 2026 19:45:35 +0000

Garmin doesn't really upgrade the firmware after the next model release.

But you'd be a fool to believe a hardware startup would do so anyway.

New comment by jerlam in "The iPhone Upgrade Program is being replaced by Apple Upgrade"

jerlam — Tue, 28 Jul 2026 19:27:05 +0000

Visible has a family/friends plan - called "Inner Circle" - that comes with a $5/month discount on the Visible+ or Pro plans, and allows one account to pay for all the others.

New comment by jerlam in "Una GPS smart watch – Repairable, USB-C charging, developer-friendly"

jerlam — Tue, 28 Jul 2026 17:44:21 +0000

Any "open ecosystem" product needs to be a competitive product out of the box, otherwise it's just a development toy. Developers aren't going to enhance your product to fill in all the gaps unless there are customers, and preferably paying ones.

New comment by jerlam in "Una GPS smart watch – Repairable, USB-C charging, developer-friendly"

jerlam — Tue, 28 Jul 2026 17:36:12 +0000

One of the tiles on the buy page says "HR BAND SUPPORT Connect compatible BLE chest straps". But one single connection type doesn't compare to Garmin's list of supported ANT and BLE accessories.

New comment by jerlam in "US DOT deleting bike lane references"

jerlam — Tue, 28 Jul 2026 00:02:44 +0000

You are assuming that with or without bike infrastructure, there is a fixed number of cyclists.

Many drivers either believe there are no cyclists; or that the number of cyclists should be reduced to zero, and they should drive instead, like normal people.

Also, everything is zero-sum, so any money spent on bike infrastructure is less money spent to widen the freeways or subsidize parking.

New comment by jerlam in "BMWs shows in-car ads for Spiderman"

jerlam — Mon, 27 Jul 2026 23:47:36 +0000

Maybe if they pay the driver, but it seems like they'll be paying BMW instead.

New comment by jerlam in "America's Big Cities Are Rapidly Losing Kids"

jerlam — Mon, 27 Jul 2026 17:08:42 +0000

NYC is so different than any other US city that it defies comparison. It has no equals in terms of population, population density, and public transit. Its population exceeds most entire US states.

The definition of big cities is also pretty arbitrary. The first city mentioned, El Paso in Texas, has a lower density than the suburb I grew up in, but it's classified as a "big city" because its borders are simply larger. The suburb I grew up in is adjacent to multiple other suburbs, and if you add them all up it meets the article's definition of "big city" - 500k people. There are various definitions of urban area (CSA, MSA, etc) which are the correct methods of comparison.

New comment by jerlam in "Walmart and Target are watching you. I saw the "lab" for myself"

jerlam — Sat, 25 Jul 2026 02:52:37 +0000

They've been rolling a lot of these theft prevention measures back here, because people aren't going to wait 5 minutes for someone (if they come at all) to unlock the toothpaste case.

New comment by jerlam in "Facebook considers giving up and becoming TikTok"

jerlam — Fri, 24 Jul 2026 17:35:34 +0000

Is this after Meta failed to convert Instagram into TikTok?

New comment by jerlam in "For most US drivers, EVs offer emissions benefits and cost savings"

jerlam — Fri, 24 Jul 2026 07:47:32 +0000

Used EV prices are rising, especially at the low end:

https://www.recurrentauto.com/research/used-electric-vehicle...

People who want EVs to save money aren't interested in buying brand new, expensive luxury EVs but that's where the supply was.