<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: klaff</title><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/user?id=klaff</link><description>Hacker News RSS</description><docs>https://hnrss.org/</docs><generator>hnrss v2.1.1</generator><lastBuildDate>Tue, 22 Sep 2026 06:32:12 +0000</lastBuildDate><atom:link href="https://hnrss.org/user?id=klaff" rel="self" type="application/rss+xml"></atom:link><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by klaff in "OpenAI's Misalignment Framework: A Tactical Bid to Preempt Global AI Governance"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>not this one</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Thu, 17 Sep 2026 16:01:19 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49742736</link><dc:creator>klaff</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49742736</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49742736</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by klaff in "America's Driver's License Breach Is a National Security Disaster"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>Does anyone know what "disabling advertising identifiers" actually means?</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Tue, 15 Sep 2026 20:08:09 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49718152</link><dc:creator>klaff</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49718152</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49718152</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by klaff in "Global shortage has led to motor oil rationing at Costco"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>There's no maintenance to shocks, springs, tie rods, motor mounts, or wheel bearings. Every one of those announces their failure with clicks or clunks or bouncy ride. I'm not sure when chassis lubrication went away as a maintenance activity but I'm guessing around the '80s. I can remember using a grease gun on my parents' cars but none I owned. EVs obviously eliminate all the engine internals, so no spark plug replacements, no ignition modules, no accessory belt, no timing chain or belt, no engine air filter, no oil filter, no manifolds, catalytic converters or mufflers.<p>Brakes need to be inspected but my last ICE vehicle went about 90k miles between needing pads. My EV has sealed drums in back (a choice VW made to reduce friction when brakes aren't in use and I think trying to slow corrosion of the components) and conventional large discs in front. If we have issues with the front brakes it will be due to corrosion as I don't expect to put enough wear on them to ever wear through the pads. In normal driving the brakes are only applied at full stops.<p>I don't expect EVs to have motor mounts like an ICE vehicle, as the motor is a few orders of magnitude smoother (commutation ripple vs cylinder firings) and shouldn't need fluid-filled rubber isolation mounts.<p>If I think of what I've had to replace on my cars over the years, half-shafts and CV joints and wheel bearings might now be the least reliable mechanical things on the car, plus the oddball failures, like a clock spring in the steering wheel or a window motor.<p>So I still have to keep tires inflated, rotated and balanced, keep good wipers installed, change the cabin air filter occasionally, and listen to the rest.<p>My source for my opinion is having done the vast majority of the maintenance and repair of our cars over roughly 4 decades and more than a million miles.</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Tue, 15 Sep 2026 14:07:33 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49712756</link><dc:creator>klaff</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49712756</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49712756</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by klaff in "Global shortage has led to motor oil rationing at Costco"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>Metric isn't magic but as an engineer who's had to use both systems for my whole career[^1] I despise the imperial system. Factors of 3, 8, 12, 640, 5280! Fractions used in carpentry. Just centering a picture on a wall is annoying.<p>I will agree that a temperature interface in °C should read in increments of 0.5 in order to have roughly the same resolution as when in °C (and many don't, but that's poor UX). I don't care about 0-100 being roughly aligned to human environments - 0-100 being aligned to freezing/boiling of water is just as good a reference.<p>[1] of the many things that Reagan should be despised for, cancelling metrication is probably not in the top 5, maybe not top 10. I still despise him for it.</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Mon, 14 Sep 2026 18:25:07 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49701577</link><dc:creator>klaff</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49701577</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49701577</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by klaff in "Global shortage has led to motor oil rationing at Costco"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>What ticking time bombs? Please be specific. I'm an EV owner who has done no maintenance in 26k miles. I want to know which system, if I don't do maintenance, will create some hidden wear which will progress silently until too late.</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Mon, 14 Sep 2026 18:09:02 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49701290</link><dc:creator>klaff</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49701290</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49701290</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by klaff in "Houthis 'take control' of key island in global shipping route"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>China is also reducing gasoline and diesel use by adoption of EVs.</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Fri, 11 Sep 2026 16:23:24 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49661030</link><dc:creator>klaff</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49661030</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49661030</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by klaff in "One woman's Tesla was remotely controlled by an abusive ex-partner"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>Answered in the article. He used the excuse of helping her navigate the technology to get in a position of control.</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Wed, 09 Sep 2026 15:55:28 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49628605</link><dc:creator>klaff</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49628605</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49628605</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by klaff in "Paramount Caught Using 'Astroturf' Group to Drum Up Fake Support for Merger"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>Um, the organization is real. The "grass roots" part of it is clearly fake.</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Tue, 08 Sep 2026 17:01:01 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49613088</link><dc:creator>klaff</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49613088</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49613088</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by klaff in "How an MIT research project became the Julia programming language"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>Is your ex named Julia?</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Fri, 04 Sep 2026 17:39:30 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49567742</link><dc:creator>klaff</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49567742</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49567742</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by klaff in "How an MIT research project became the Julia programming language"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>Can you give an example of general purpose use? It's not great if you want to make a standalone program and distribute it to other users. It's awesome if you are doing exploratory stuff, quickly exploring different ideas or algorithms. The ecosystem has a lot of high quality stuff but where it lacks you can of course call out to python or R or other languages.</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Fri, 04 Sep 2026 17:38:49 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49567731</link><dc:creator>klaff</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49567731</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49567731</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by klaff in "UN votes to adopt new map that makes our world look different"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>You can get your own copy here <a href="https://equal-earth.com/" rel="nofollow">https://equal-earth.com/</a></p>
]]></description><pubDate>Fri, 04 Sep 2026 17:28:47 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49567588</link><dc:creator>klaff</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49567588</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49567588</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by klaff in "How an MIT research project became the Julia programming language"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>What's with all the throwaway snide comment accounts?</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Fri, 04 Sep 2026 16:30:18 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49566848</link><dc:creator>klaff</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49566848</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49566848</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by klaff in "How an MIT research project became the Julia programming language"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>I'm an electrical engineer and I use Julia for all kinds of analyses that I might have earlier in my career done in a spreadsheet (Lotus 1-2-3 at first!), or later in python (when I had to choose between Numeric or NumArray).<p>I started using python for various engineering analysis problems around 2001 and I loved it for how fast (due to minimal boilerplate and automatic memory management) I could code up some thought relative to using C or Java. I could tackle problems in ways I just wouldn't have tried otherwise because I couldn't afford the longer time to write it in other languages. However, for problems which needed speed, of course it bogged down.<p>I started using Julia for ODE stuff in 2018 or 2019 and was thrilled with the speed and conciseness. As others have said, it looks much more like math and a lot of better design choices were made.<p>Python obviously has a much larger ecosystem and probably always will, and it will remain a safe choice, but you don't set yourself apart by doing the same thing as everyone else.</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Fri, 04 Sep 2026 16:28:21 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49566825</link><dc:creator>klaff</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49566825</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49566825</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by klaff in "California's new tire efficiency rules could save drivers $1B a year"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>> those tires are literally 4X the price of my other car a Honda</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Tue, 18 Aug 2026 17:24:50 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49349145</link><dc:creator>klaff</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49349145</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49349145</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by klaff in "California's new tire efficiency rules could save drivers $1B a year"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>EVs are already using tires which are optimized for low rolling resistance because when you make the car that much more efficient, smaller losses become more visible.</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Tue, 18 Aug 2026 17:20:36 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49349069</link><dc:creator>klaff</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49349069</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49349069</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by klaff in "Heart aerospace completes first flight of largest electric aircraft"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>Jet A prices near me range from $6.75 to $8.52 (I used <a href="https://www.airnav.com/fuel/local.html" rel="nofollow">https://www.airnav.com/fuel/local.html</a>) so more like $2k/hour!</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Fri, 14 Aug 2026 19:27:48 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49303496</link><dc:creator>klaff</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49303496</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49303496</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by klaff in "Heart aerospace completes first flight of largest electric aircraft"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>Yeah, fully charging my EV (0-100%) at home on night-time discounted electricity of $0.07/kWh would cost me $6, so even allowing for really cheap electricity this doesn't feel right.<p>A Dornier 328 (roughly similar in size) has two 1625 kW engines. Heart stated they "delivered more than one megawatt of power" during the flight, so maybe comparable to one of the Dornier's engines at 60% power? Even the DC-3 could take off with one engine but 60% seems iffy.<p>At 1000 kW and $0.10/kWh (being very generous I think), the plane would be using  $100/h (at 1000 kW level) or $1.67/minute. You'd blow past $5 in 3 minutes.<p>I don't like that they don't share the basic numbers. It's as if they don't want folks doing the math.</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Fri, 14 Aug 2026 17:22:11 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49301794</link><dc:creator>klaff</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49301794</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49301794</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by klaff in "Waymo in Dallas"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>Max power consumption of the compressor in my car is 5.5 kW (see pg. 28 of <a href="https://www.scribd.com/document/783343319/MEB-220169869" rel="nofollow">https://www.scribd.com/document/783343319/MEB-220169869</a>). The blowers would draw additional power. These values would only be hit in extremes and I'm not certain the compressor can run at 100% duty cycle.</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Mon, 10 Aug 2026 19:12:46 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49248308</link><dc:creator>klaff</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49248308</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49248308</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by klaff in "Study links GLP-1 drugs to bigger jump in women's employment than a degree"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>We (tall people) die sooner.</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Mon, 10 Aug 2026 18:54:32 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49248038</link><dc:creator>klaff</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49248038</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49248038</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by klaff in "EA to pay $1.8B in interest annually on buy-out debt"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>Having worked at a company that became saddled with huge debt, I am leaning to look at this the other way. The bank(s), in cooperation with the buyers, found a target to extract money from. The goal for them may not be long term health of the company but to suck as much out of it as they can without immediately killing it until eventually there's nothing left.</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Thu, 06 Aug 2026 14:40:28 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49197339</link><dc:creator>klaff</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49197339</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49197339</guid></item></channel></rss>