Hacker News: mesofile

New comment by mesofile in "Rare concert recordings are landing on the Internet Archive"

mesofile — Tue, 14 Apr 2026 15:44:09 +0000

Fugazi enjoyers should also know about their own very extensive archive of live shows

https://dischord.com/fugazi_live_series

AWS Engineer Reports PostgreSQL Performance Halved by Linux 7.0

mesofile — Sat, 04 Apr 2026 15:29:52 +0000

Article URL: https://www.phoronix.com/news/Linux-7.0-AWS-PostgreSQL-Drop

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47639884

Points: 7

# Comments: 0

New comment by mesofile in "Why are so many pedestrians killed by cars in the US?"

mesofile — Thu, 09 Oct 2025 13:41:21 +0000

Besides the many other factors mentioned by commenters here, I'll add one other: drivers in the US rarely face consequences for killing pedestrians or, for that matter, other drivers, even when it's the result of willfully negligent or reckless behavior. It's such a longstanding trend that it's become a meme: if you want to get away with murder, make sure to kill your victim with a car. "I didn't see them/I made mistake" works so well that authorities just don't bring charges, because juries are so willing to accept this excuse. Perhaps because so many of them can see themselves doing the same thing.

See: https://freakonomics.com/podcast/why-is-the-u-s-so-good-at-k...

New comment by mesofile in "We all dodged a bullet"

mesofile — Tue, 09 Sep 2025 19:14:50 +0000

This is how I feel about my Honda, and to some extent, Kubernetes. In the former case I kept a 2006 model in good order for so long I skipped at least two (automobile) generation's worth of car-to-phone teething problems, and after years of hearing people complain about their woes I've found the experience of connecting my iphone to my '23 car pretty hassle-free. In the latter, I am finally moving a bunch of workloads out of EC2 after years of nudging from my higher-ups and, while it's still far from a simple matter I feel like the managed solutions in EKS and GKE have matured and greatly lessen the pain of migrating to K8S. I can only imagine what I would have gotten bogged down with had I promptly acted on my bosses' suggestion to do this six or seven years ago. (I also feel very lucky that the people I work for let me move on these things in my own due time.)

New comment by mesofile in "Income Equality in Nordic Countries: Myths, Facts, and Lessons"

mesofile — Sat, 30 Aug 2025 16:57:10 +0000

A number of articles and at least one well-known study have been published highlighting the fact that the ranks of the wealthiest landowning families in Britain are nearly unchanged since Norman times — e.g. https://www.medievalists.net/2014/11/englands-1-remained-sin...

New comment by mesofile in "1Password Is Down"

mesofile — Wed, 21 May 2025 17:14:19 +0000

back up for me (in the US) now https://status.1password.com/incidents/sfrpk9dskthr

If we weren't idiots, Balance of Payments edition

mesofile — Thu, 03 Apr 2025 01:55:54 +0000

Article URL: https://drafts.interfluidity.com/2025/04/01/if-we-werent-idiots-balance-of-payments-edition/index.html

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43563863

Points: 3

# Comments: 0

New comment by mesofile in "China is developing some startling new kit in its quest to invade Taiwan"

mesofile — Fri, 21 Mar 2025 16:56:38 +0000

One term that's specific to this concept of wielding a real but unused military capability is "fleet in being" https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fleet_in_being

New comment by mesofile in "My Scammer Girlfriend: Baiting a Romance Fraudster"

mesofile — Fri, 14 Mar 2025 12:07:00 +0000

Many years ago when advance-fee email scams [0] became common I was likewise amazed that anyone would fall for them. Then it was pointed out that the seemingly obvious warning signs were a feature and not a bug, they are there to filter out everyone with a minimum of common sense and ensure that the scammers, who are casting their nets wide, only get responses from a few people but those people who do respond are quite gullible. The pig butchering thing is just a different filter meant to trap a different kind of vulnerable person.

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Advance-fee_scam

North Korea unveils nuclear-powered submarine

mesofile — Sat, 08 Mar 2025 14:49:34 +0000

Article URL: https://apnews.com/article/north-korea-nuclear-submarine-missiles-kim-us-183cde96a36844fdce559081551fc0a7

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43300680

Points: 4

# Comments: 0

New comment by mesofile in "Ukraine Will Fight On, with or Without the West"

mesofile — Tue, 04 Mar 2025 15:54:31 +0000

I agree the Ukrainian defense industrial base is working miracles given the situation, but my comment was specifically about major assets that not only they but the EU as a whole are not prepared to replace at this time or in the near term. Big-ticket items, not drones, cannon shells or bullets. In some cases there is a similar capability in or perhaps available to Europe but not (yet) the capacity for mass manufacture. In other cases there is nothing else even close. It's just a very very bad situation. I am currently pinning my hopes on Trump getting a lot of pushback from the US defense industry, but this seems like a slim chance as they probably expect they'll be making a lot of money in the next several years regardless of where their products are shipped.

New comment by mesofile in "Ukraine Will Fight On, with or Without the West"

mesofile — Tue, 04 Mar 2025 13:19:47 +0000

I like the sentiment, and I believe that the Ukrainians will fight on regardless, but I am extremely pessimistic about their prospects past the end of this year. US support has been critical from the very earliest stages of this war and indeed even before the invasion of Feb '22. The Rivet Joint flights, HIMARS, Patriot batteries, Starlink access, cyber defense and intel support... I am not a defense expert but to my understanding there is no way that the EU/NATO-minus-US can fill the gap for these programs. Without them the Ukrainian strategic and tactical options are much more limited and they are forced to confront vastly reduced expectations from what only a short time ago was an already not great situation but one that held a chance of rewarding their tenacity.

And all that is just assuming that the US merely withdraws support; I would not be at all surprised if this administration begins pointing US cyber ops and the intel pipeline in the opposite direction and gives Russia a much clearer picture into their targets in Ukraine. In any other era this would be an unthinkable betrayal but now it seems far more likely than not.

A master cartoonist ages alongside his heroine

mesofile — Thu, 27 Feb 2025 20:21:20 +0000

Article URL: https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2025/02/27/books/jaime-hernandez-cartoonist.html

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43198038

Points: 1

# Comments: 0

New comment by mesofile in "David Lynch has died"

mesofile — Fri, 17 Jan 2025 02:17:21 +0000

“The time has come for you to seek the Path. Your soul has set you face to face before the clear light ... and now you are about to experience it in its Reality, wherein all things are like the void and cloudless sky, and the naked, spotless intellect is like a transparent vacuum, without circumference or center... At this moment, know yourself and abide in that state.”

New comment by mesofile in "Ghost artists on Spotify"

mesofile — Fri, 20 Dec 2024 12:47:45 +0000

the ‘sound of surprise’

New comment by mesofile in "A new book shows how the power of companies is destabilizing governance"

mesofile — Wed, 23 Oct 2024 14:30:10 +0000

> I believe someone has coined the term "techno feudalism"

Bruce Schneier, for one, not sure if anyone else had applied the feudal analogy before him. His remarks stand up quite well, I think:

https://www.schneier.com/essays/archives/2012/11/when_it_com...

New comment by mesofile in "Tour de France: How professional cycling teams eat and cook on the road"

mesofile — Wed, 03 Jul 2024 12:58:34 +0000

Sorry, I follow cycling casually but I'm racking my brain trying to think of who 'EDB' refers to.

Michael Saylor and MicroStrategy settle DC tax fraud suit for $40M

mesofile — Mon, 03 Jun 2024 15:10:51 +0000

Article URL: https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2024/06/03/bitcoin-investor-michael-saylor-dc-tax-evasion/

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40563407

Points: 1

# Comments: 0

New comment by mesofile in "“Moveable Type” to end 17-year run in The New York Times’s lobby"

mesofile — Sat, 01 Jun 2024 11:39:55 +0000

I watched this again recently and was struck by how the last few lines of narration land very differently now.

New comment by mesofile in "Roman Emperors' Outrageously Lavish Dinner Parties"

mesofile — Sun, 26 May 2024 16:00:10 +0000

> She argues that in the majority of unearthed royal palaces, the kitchens were very small

This doesn’t seem to allow for the possibility that they would have brought in caterers with their own equipment, as many people throwing a large dinner would still do, and not relied entirely on the house facilities? It’s my (very inexpert) understanding that most kitchens in pre-modern homes were rather cramped, foul spaces, often semi- or fully detached due to odors, smoke, and the risk of fire spreading to the main living quarters. One could see how even in a grand house the kitchen might only be suitable to cook for a small number of people.

Of course I don’t doubt that in these matters Mary Beard knows far more than I do, but that particular line of reading struck me as odd.