Hacker News: kitten_mittens_

New comment by kitten_mittens_ in "The US added a record 20.2 GWh of battery storage in just 3 months"

kitten_mittens_ — Thu, 29 Oct 2026 12:45:54 +0000

Isn’t the MWh more like 2-4x in the US for grid sized batteries?

New comment by kitten_mittens_ in "US Job Market Visualizer"

kitten_mittens_ — Mon, 16 Mar 2026 20:29:26 +0000

When did upper middle class start meaning upper class? Something like 90% of Americans identify as middle class now.

New comment by kitten_mittens_ in "US economy sheds 92,000 jobs in February in sharp slide"

kitten_mittens_ — Sat, 07 Mar 2026 15:23:27 +0000

U-3 Unemployment doesn't include people not actively looking for work, people making less than they'd like, or working less than they'd like.

https://www.lisep.org has alternate measures that try accounting for take home wages as well as seasonal variability (construction is noted as being volatile but relatively well paying).

New comment by kitten_mittens_ in "27-year-old Apple iBooks can connect to Wi-Fi and download official updates"

kitten_mittens_ — Wed, 18 Feb 2026 23:04:40 +0000

Turning transparency off significantly improves the look and responsiveness imo.

New comment by kitten_mittens_ in "Comparing the power consumption of a 30 year old refrigerator to a new one"

kitten_mittens_ — Sun, 19 Oct 2025 17:03:52 +0000

In the US, at least, there are some utilities that charge based on maximum kW (demand) and total kWh used (energy). ComEd in Chicago is a utility with a demand rate plan option.

New comment by kitten_mittens_ in "American solar farms"

kitten_mittens_ — Mon, 13 Oct 2025 17:58:34 +0000

Idaho Power’s local generation is quite clean. But…during the summer in Idaho, almost a third of energy comes from Wyoming and Utah where coal is still a substantial part of generation.

New comment by kitten_mittens_ in "Meta is spending $10B in rural Louisiana to build its largest data center"

kitten_mittens_ — Tue, 26 Aug 2025 20:47:55 +0000

If you look at the all years view on electricity maps (https://app.electricitymaps.com/zone/US-MIDW-MISO/all/yearly), 25% is share of generation from coal in MISO.

I'd be curious to test the GP's point. Since electricity maps doesn't have cost data for most US balancing authorities, you maybe could try figuring out power costs per balancing authority to end customers by using something like the https://www.eia.gov/electricity/data/eia861/ "Sales to Customers Customer Sited" data. Revenue over Megawatthours for Industrial service.

New comment by kitten_mittens_ in "Helsinki records zero traffic deaths for full year"

kitten_mittens_ — Sun, 03 Aug 2025 12:03:26 +0000

I agree vision zero hasn’t been particularly effective in the US. In Boston, we have roads like Jamaicaway where the speed limit was lowered to 25mph and people regularly drive 50. Speed limits are functionally unenforced.

Human behavior as a focal point of blame is skewered in a book that just came out.

https://a.co/d/21guqjp argues that traffic engineering and design is what has resulted in the much higher death rate in the US than its peer countries. If lanes are wide (3.5m or larger), people will drive as fast as is enforced.

New comment by kitten_mittens_ in "Use Your Type System"

kitten_mittens_ — Thu, 24 Jul 2025 15:43:14 +0000

There seem to be two competing nomenclatures around strong/weak typing where people mean static/dynamic instead.

New comment by kitten_mittens_ in "A big problem for Tesla isn't getting much attention"

kitten_mittens_ — Tue, 22 Jul 2025 17:01:54 +0000

Doesn’t BYD have a bus factory in LA already?

New comment by kitten_mittens_ in "JavaScript broke the web (and called it progress)"

kitten_mittens_ — Fri, 20 Jun 2025 10:15:56 +0000

Why are em dashes a giveaway? They’re auto inserted on Windows for two hyphens still, aren’t they?

New comment by kitten_mittens_ in "Apple's Liquid Glass is prep work for AR interfaces, not just a design refresh"

kitten_mittens_ — Fri, 13 Jun 2025 21:18:21 +0000

I updated to avoid paying the new American tariffs. The advertised AI features were decidedly underwhelming.

New comment by kitten_mittens_ in "The metre originated in the French Revolution"

kitten_mittens_ — Fri, 23 May 2025 17:49:25 +0000

If you’re interested in a what an analog clock in decimal time might look like: https://decimal-time.netlify.app/

New comment by kitten_mittens_ in "Designing Cities for Families"

kitten_mittens_ — Wed, 14 May 2025 12:54:27 +0000

On the northern edge of Jamaica Plain (east of Brookline in Boston proper), there's a pretty stark example of Brookline's accumulated advantages. On the Boston side of the pond that separates the two, there's Jamaica Way. It's a four lane road with few pedestrian crossings, and drivers regularly going way over the 25mph speed limit. The multi family housing on the Boston side is significantly cheaper and denser as well. It too has a trolley (the E branch of the Green Line), but unlike the Brookline side, the trolley on the Boston side isn't grade separated, so it's quite slow. It also typically runs older rolling stock.

New comment by kitten_mittens_ in "Caltrain's electric fleet more efficient than expected"

kitten_mittens_ — Sat, 25 Jan 2025 03:30:23 +0000

Massachusetts has a state level Transit Police, at least.

New comment by kitten_mittens_ in "How Boston City Hall was born"

kitten_mittens_ — Fri, 20 Dec 2024 18:56:46 +0000

Some of parcels in the doc on page 58 (K) in particular are interesting. The city ended up widening the road there pretty significantly. When they built https://maps.app.goo.gl/7yVzp4vm72Js3w618 back in '22, there was just one tower. The original plan had two towers instead of one (https://bpda.app.box.com/s/lsw68tzgu4g788h9dr4zvorlc6ohy0oy). The resulting sub area is only two buildings now, where there were tenements before.

New comment by kitten_mittens_ in "The Lion of St. Mark's Square in Venice Is Chinese"

kitten_mittens_ — Fri, 25 Oct 2024 12:22:15 +0000

At the time, Romans would have said they spoke Roman (Romaic[1])--not Greek.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Medieval_Greek

New comment by kitten_mittens_ in "Can solar costs keep shrinking?"

kitten_mittens_ — Thu, 29 Aug 2024 20:01:50 +0000

My parents spent $18K on rooftop solar in the Boise metro area. One Tesla powerwall battery and install on top of that will be another $15K.

New comment by kitten_mittens_ in "Emoji History: The Missing Years"

kitten_mittens_ — Sun, 12 May 2024 14:39:42 +0000

Neither of these terms seem to exist on wiktionary.

New comment by kitten_mittens_ in "A useful productivity measure?"

kitten_mittens_ — Mon, 06 May 2024 18:55:50 +0000

A good chunk of the English lexicon was foreign at one point or another: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inkhorn_term