Hacker News: mc3301

New comment by mc3301 in "Japan Bear Incident Map"

mc3301 — Mon, 08 Jun 2026 00:00:52 +0000

Oh, recent sightings in the area I go mountain biking solo... every weekend.

New comment by mc3301 in "3D-printed book turns its own G-code into raised lettering"

mc3301 — Fri, 05 Jun 2026 07:52:01 +0000

I 3d printed a coffee can holder for bicycles with the braille "coffee", so when you're riding and you reach down for a drink, you know which one is coffee.

The product didn't sell well, but it made good gifts!

New comment by mc3301 in "Ian's Secure Shoelace Knot"

mc3301 — Fri, 05 Jun 2026 06:43:30 +0000

slipons, loafers, crocs, sandals for 90% of my life.

BOA for bikes.

Occasionally I have "traditional" lace-up shoes, and replace the laces with those elastic pull-string shoes.

Was gonna teach my kid how to tie shoes only to realize, they also have no shoes with laces.

I just noted that I probably haven't tied laces in over a decade.

New comment by mc3301 in "What happens if Japan takes in zero immigrants?"

mc3301 — Fri, 05 Jun 2026 05:12:21 +0000

"fewer old people" will actually, spoiler alert, happen. Just wait about 20 years. Certain parts of Japan are gonna be completely empty.

New comment by mc3301 in "I'm skeptical about efforts to revolutionize schooling"

mc3301 — Fri, 05 Jun 2026 02:14:53 +0000

Where is this?

In Japan, at least in primary school, boys can get away with anything, as "boys will be boys." Girls must take care of others (first) and themselves (second). If girls misbehave, write sloppily, forget things, and so on, it is much more addressed than if a a boy does the same.

New comment by mc3301 in "Japanese home cooking as a household UX"

mc3301 — Wed, 03 Jun 2026 03:26:58 +0000

That's, like, 70% of all meals in Japan, both in and out of the home. Maybe with an additional tiny side of pickles.

It's what kyushoku (school lunches) basically is, every day, at every school across Japan.

If a meal, especially a dinner, is lacking soup or rice, it isn't uncommon to hear criticism.

New comment by mc3301 in "My Students Can't Read"

mc3301 — Wed, 03 Jun 2026 01:50:24 +0000

Agreed with all of the above, except the "100s of apps."

Turning notifications off of most apps solves a bunch of little problems.

The big problems need to be forcibly named at every chance. In no particular order, youtube, tiktok, insta, facebook (or meta?), are all guilty of making the world a worse place. Reddit and twitter's endless scroll is bad, too, but it seems their content got so bad the addiction is less strong there, like poop-flavored cigarettes.

New comment by mc3301 in "I made my phone slow on purpose"

mc3301 — Tue, 02 Jun 2026 00:37:43 +0000

Doing curls while curls of smoke rise skywards from the glowing ash, no-hands smoking, cigarette specifically yet casually balanced between two lips. Breathe in, breathe out.

New comment by mc3301 in "What if remote working, not AI, is to blame for weak junior hiring?"

mc3301 — Mon, 01 Jun 2026 02:44:19 +0000

Fully agree. I'm all for remote work. However, in my first 2 years of programming, being able to go the the office, put my laptop and notebook down next to a senior dev, point and say, "Help me," was so valuable.

New comment by mc3301 in "Cars collect a startling amount of data about you"

mc3301 — Fri, 29 May 2026 07:46:09 +0000

Climate and terrain allowing, bicycles reign supreme as a transport. Especially with all the new adaptive-, electric-, accessible- cycles out there, cars should be "rare but welcome strange guests" in many neighborhoods, downtowns, etc.

New comment by mc3301 in "The most unlikely school bag"

mc3301 — Thu, 28 May 2026 23:44:32 +0000

My favorite part is a bland photo every two sentences.

New comment by mc3301 in "The real cost of owning a home"

mc3301 — Tue, 26 May 2026 23:56:46 +0000

Plumbing: plumber. Electrics: electrician.

Most other things (besides obvious big things like foundation, drainage, roofing, load supporting areas) can be done with a good "fix it all" kinda person, or (with patience) youtube.

New comment by mc3301 in "Japan is gripped by mass allergies. A 1950s project is to blame"

mc3301 — Wed, 20 May 2026 07:40:48 +0000

Lots of people I know who moved here as adults have developed pollen allergies over the years. Some after a 2 or 3 years, some after 10.

New comment by mc3301 in "Elon Musk has lost his lawsuit against Sam Altman and OpenAI"

mc3301 — Tue, 19 May 2026 00:26:21 +0000

Hmm... I think I could be set for life with, like, $1m.

Obviously age, family, lifestyle and current savings matter.

New comment by mc3301 in "Show HN: I made a macOS app to help me use Japanese websites"

mc3301 — Mon, 18 May 2026 23:54:19 +0000

I do something similar (also working in Japan), but it's just a keyboard shortcut to screenshot and paste into an LLM with instructions.

New comment by mc3301 in "Two EA-18 fighter jets collide at Mountain Home airshow, pilots ejected safely"

mc3301 — Sun, 17 May 2026 23:50:03 +0000

I'm reminded of a short video clip I saw a while back with a dollar-counter on-screen. Different kinds of weapons were fired, each one bigger and more expensive than the last, the counter spinning upwards all-the-while. And here's me thinking: man, just don't shoot two or three of those anti-aircraft missiles, give the cash to me, and I could buy a house and live comfortably with my family.

New comment by mc3301 in "Kickstarter is forced to ban adult content by payment processors"

mc3301 — Thu, 14 May 2026 08:02:35 +0000

Etsy used to be awesome, now it isn't. Lots of mass-produced junk played off as quality made-with-care-and-attention kinda stuff. It's even easier with AI images, videos, description and communications.

I think kickstarter is gonna have (or maybe already has?) a scam problem due to the rise of AI.

I've contributed to about 7 campaigns; only one didn't work out. But the person running it actually refunded me fully (about 200$) after 3 or 4 years of very occasional updates.

New comment by mc3301 in "Hardening Firefox with Claude Mythos Preview"

mc3301 — Fri, 08 May 2026 01:09:18 +0000

Kinda like home-improvement stores, power tools, easily available hardware and youtube tutorials led to both incredibly amazing and durable furniture, as well as janky, ugly and even dangerous furniture.

More tools for more people equals more stuff being made on a wider range.

New comment by mc3301 in "I want to live like Costco people"

mc3301 — Thu, 07 May 2026 23:59:57 +0000

Too bad in Japan that it's about 30USD for an 11 lb (5kg) of bad of rice. Japanese rice, in Japan, is nearly 5 times more expensive.

(Note that last year, 5kg bags were as much as 8000jpy for standard rice, prices have come down a bit, but not a lot.)

New comment by mc3301 in "American Dads Became the Parents Their Fathers Never Were"

mc3301 — Fri, 01 May 2026 05:10:22 +0000

I'm not sure how serious you are about the dismissive "women be complaining" comment. A big part of your perception may be that women have more to 'complain' about; society is measurably unfair for women. Another part could be that when women voice their struggles it is called "complaining," and when men voice their struggles they are "being serious." Also, men get shot down for showing vulnerability and seeking support, so their struggles are internal. And this isn't always good for mental health.