Hacker News: mds

New comment by mds in "Ask HN: What are you working on? (June 2026)"

mds — Mon, 15 Jun 2026 05:14:38 +0000

Have been working on a modern replacement for Notational Velocity (last updated in 2011), I call it “neonv”. https://github.com/msnodderly/neonv

New comment by mds in "The Eggcorn Database"

mds — Sat, 22 Jun 2024 06:29:21 +0000

"We were in a vicarious position, but we flushed out a solution over instant messenging."

New comment by mds in "GPTZero Case Study – Exploring False Positives"

mds — Sun, 19 Feb 2023 17:59:33 +0000

ChatGPT in particular writes in middle school essay format: introduction, point 1, point 2, point n, conclusion.

New comment by mds in "Infrastructure as Software"

mds — Sat, 03 Sep 2022 01:10:48 +0000

Not as bad as "GitOps".

IaC got people to understand at the idea that your infra code should be treated like your app code. Checked in to source control, deployed via COCD etc. Not defined by clicking buttons and stored in opaque databases somewhere.

"IaS" gets at the idea that it's a continuously running process. It's not a provisioning script you run once, there's a live reconciliation loop running in prod alongside your application code.

New comment by mds in "Two containers with same number detected in Chittagong port"

mds — Sat, 23 Jul 2022 02:16:57 +0000

Sounds like the setup for a William Gibson novel.

New comment by mds in "Knots 3D – Learn how to tie over 150 useful knots"

mds — Sat, 28 May 2022 03:08:56 +0000

Also a big truckers hitch fan, but that animation was hard for me to follow because it doesn't look anything like how it's used in real life. It doesn't really make sense to compare to a bowline, it's basically used like a ratchet strap.

The first part, up to step 6, is just a slip knot. That part could be replaced by a bowline. But the slip knot can be thrown in one-handed in the middle of the line without needing to pull the end through like a bowline. And when you're done you give it a yank and the slip knot pops out.

Step 7 is the real point of the whole thing. You're using the loop and the hook (in this example) to create a pulley system to crank your load down tight. Then the rest of the steps are a hitch to keep it in place.

This is more secure than the version than I typically see used (and would be annoying to untie). I normally don't poke the end through like in step 9, but make another slip knot so the whole thing can be unravelled by pulling on the end of the line like a quick release.

New comment by mds in "Lithium drilling advances at the Salton Sea"

mds — Tue, 19 Apr 2022 03:33:05 +0000

And it is in fact the inspiration for "Sandy Shores" in GTA5.

New comment by mds in "How to quit like a boss"

mds — Thu, 06 Jan 2022 22:13:06 +0000

In a rational environment if you're leaving "for cause", it shouldn't come as a shock to your employer when you quit, in the same way a bad performance review or firing shouldn't come as a shock to the employee. There should be feedback in both directions, if they're not meeting your career goals or you're not meeting their performance goals.

But as a rule I wouldn't tell my boss I'm actively interviewing until I have an offer in hand. Just like, and for a lot of the same reasons, the company as a rule isn't going to inform under-performing employees that they're actively looking to hire someone to replace them before firing them.

New comment by mds in "No limit to maximal lifespan in humans: how to beat a 122-year-old record"

mds — Thu, 16 Dec 2021 06:28:26 +0000

This statement after Methuselah had lived for 969 years, before (it is implied) drowning in a flood.

New comment by mds in "Shortwave Snail Mail"

mds — Tue, 23 Nov 2021 03:26:19 +0000

Or if you actually want to send shortwave snail mail: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ARRL_Radiogram

New comment by mds in "Embrace the Grind"

mds — Sat, 10 Apr 2021 05:01:14 +0000

Reminds me of this Penn and Teller trick with a similar method but the opposite effect -- see https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gnEGedfTrzc (skip to 2 minutes in). Freely think of any card, then miraculously reveal the card in an improbable location. It's "easy", just hide all 52 cards and memorize where they're hidden.

New comment by mds in "In the Beginning was the Command Line (1999)"

mds — Thu, 05 Nov 2020 16:18:26 +0000

And here is the mandatory AvE Hole Hawg tear-down: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qoR59rzqlxw

New comment by mds in "BridgeCom Systems SkyBridge Hotspot Review"

mds — Sun, 20 Sep 2020 22:36:38 +0000

As far as I understand it this is the opposite of that. In other words it only works if you already have internet access. You can use it to talk over the internet with your radio from within your own home wifi.

AREDN is basically trying to do what you want, within its limited coverage. You could install an AREDN mesh node in your car.

Red Hat to remove contentious terms like master and slave from its source code

mds — Tue, 07 Jul 2020 17:13:34 +0000

Article URL: https://www.newsobserver.com/news/business/article243876977.html

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23761419

Points: 30

# Comments: 95

New comment by mds in "Slo Mo Guys created a great video of the Apple Watch water-ejection system"

mds — Sun, 21 Jun 2020 02:41:16 +0000

All of the slow mo sounds are recreations. In fact I’m pretty sure they use that same sloshy sound clip in about half their videos.

New comment by mds in "Embrace, Extend, and Extinguish"

mds — Wed, 20 May 2020 19:46:00 +0000

You laugh, but Minecraft Education Edition -- where lots of kids are getting their first exposure to coding -- is locked to Office 365.

New comment by mds in "Common templates to help you say “no”"

mds — Mon, 06 Apr 2020 22:50:28 +0000

I took a communication class many years ago and this was the main thing I took away from it. If you give a reason or an excuse the other person will try to help you "solve" it. If you give a simple "no, sorry" or "no, thanks" there's nothing for them to latch onto or argue with.

Realize that the other person is free to ask anything they want, but just the act of them asking doesn't create any obligation on your part. Especially with people where you don't have a longstanding relationship, you don't owe anyone anything more than a polite no.

The other piece I learned was this useful phrase to deploy when under severe pressure to give a reason and for whatever reason you can't just disengage or leave: "Sorry, I'm just not comfortable with that". No one can reasonably argue with that, and if they do, having already given your reason you can then simply fall back into a loop of "No, sorry."

New comment by mds in "“Out of an abundance of caution” – An overused phrase (2015)"

mds — Sun, 15 Mar 2020 03:03:12 +0000

The first time I remember hearing the phrase was in 2009 when Roberts flubbed the swearing in oath at Obama's inauguration. They later announced that the oath was administered again privately "out of an abundance of caution."

Was that the origin, or was it in use before that?

New comment by mds in "The text adventure game of exiting a Telnet session"

mds — Fri, 31 Jan 2020 19:50:56 +0000

Oh man, I have the same memory. Back in ‘92 or ‘93, in addition to the “^]” telnet trick, our local dial up gopher could launch vi sessions for sending emails which they hadn’t thought to lock down to prevent it from executing “sh”. Poking around in those university systems was my first exposure to Unix and I’d say pretty directly influenced my career path.

So, thanks telnet!

New comment by mds in "Org-mode on web, built with React, for mobile, synced with Dropbox, Google Drive"

mds — Fri, 19 Jul 2019 23:25:57 +0000

Beorg is awesome, I use it daily, but it's really "TODO" oriented, and not that great for editing documents.

I've often wished there was an iOS text editor that understood org format, even just basic markdown style formatting. I'm going to give org-web a go, I think it could be a good compliment to beorg.