Hacker News: mrtomservo

New comment by mrtomservo in "Ask HN: What are the viable alternatives to DuckDuckGo?"

mrtomservo — Mon, 03 Aug 2026 14:29:46 +0000

I've been a Kagi user since 2022, and a paying user since January 2024, and I can say that I have not thought about another search engine in as much time. Absolutely worth the $10 per month.

Using a browser that defaults to another search engine is jarring. I see screenshots of what Google search results look like now, and it's like seeing the neighborhood you grew up in with shuttered storefronts and mouldering houses.

New comment by mrtomservo in "Taxonomy of the Occlupanida (parasitoids on bread bag tags)"

mrtomservo — Thu, 18 Jun 2026 01:52:57 +0000

In my experience, in natural environments that contain a vertical paper towel holder, Torqueroligiverasacculum Genera finds a nest and potential mating area underneath.

New comment by mrtomservo in "The rich aren't your role models"

mrtomservo — Mon, 15 Jun 2026 01:26:10 +0000

I wonder if unchecked capital accumulation combined with cutting the social safety net and major public works will lead to commerce without customers: An economy built on consumption where nobody has the money to consume.

New comment by mrtomservo in "Is news distorting reality and tearing society apart?"

mrtomservo — Wed, 17 Sep 2025 23:38:29 +0000

You've got the crux already:

> Stories are being weaponised by populists who thrive on fear and capitalists who benefit from monetising it. The best storytellers are winning attention and winning power and keeping their power by telling even better stories.

It is increasingly costly to reach an audience (especially one of the size that would be required to have a "shared ground") not only in the sense of cash money, but also the attention cost of convincing that audience that those "better stories" (perhaps more shocking, outraging, etc.) they've been told might not be actually true.

News is becoming yet another industry that rewards the first mover -- write that first shocking headline, and all the other outlets have to work 10 or 100 times as hard to correct it later.

New comment by mrtomservo in "50% of Young Men Would Rather Date an AI Girlfriend Than Be Lonely and Rejected"

mrtomservo — Wed, 03 Sep 2025 23:21:31 +0000

This is a press release from a company that markets an AI relationship platform.

New comment by mrtomservo in "Ask HN: Is there a game where you try to escape a downtown collapsing in slo-mo?"

mrtomservo — Sun, 27 Jul 2025 15:46:39 +0000

It sounds a bit like Canabalt, maybe? https://canabalt.com

New comment by mrtomservo in "Show HN: Turn Any Text into Fancy Unicode Fonts You Can Use Anywhere"

mrtomservo — Fri, 04 Jul 2025 15:21:05 +0000

While fun to look at, it becomes gibberish for assistive software like screen readers.

I shorted $TRUMP coin (and got to have dinner with the President)

mrtomservo — Tue, 27 May 2025 00:40:05 +0000

Article URL: https://www.theverge.com/cryptocurrency/674327/trump-coin-short-sell-hedge-contest-dinner-winner

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44102935

Points: 7

# Comments: 1

New comment by mrtomservo in "Uncle Patrick's Secessionist Breakfast"

mrtomservo — Sun, 18 May 2025 22:59:10 +0000

https://archive.ph/yRCSW

Uncle Patrick's Secessionist Breakfast

mrtomservo — Sun, 18 May 2025 22:58:18 +0000

Article URL: https://www.sfchronicle.com/projects/2025/dave-eggers-short-story/

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44024934

Points: 2

# Comments: 1

New comment by mrtomservo in "What are some app ideas that you think would benefit people on a perosnal level?"

mrtomservo — Sat, 10 May 2025 22:44:24 +0000

I've mentioned this here and elsewhere, but it's an app where you specify a word or phrase, and get a notification when someone else is nearby and has the same word or phrase set. Seems like a nice starter app. Good luck on your journey!

New comment by mrtomservo in "Ask HN: What Problem Would You Solve with Unlimited Resources? [May 2025]"

mrtomservo — Sun, 04 May 2025 00:09:42 +0000

I live in a city with a large number of unhoused people. I think I would use unlimited resources to buy and renovate old buildings[1] downtown to build housing, and fund support services on-site to help people escape homelessness and addiction.

I would want to solve this because unhoused people are suffering, and downtown (as a neighborhood) has been sort of hollowed out by business choosing to leave for practical reasons (WFH) and because of the perception of "too many" unhoused people. I love downtown, it's just not a pleasant place to spend time, especially at night.

I do not have the resources nor the political acumen for these kinds of initiatives, and I think it would take a great deal of resources to not only buy the land but demolish or renovate the buildings. It would create a lot of jobs (construction at first) but I think there's a large amount of activation energy required to get started.

[1]: https://www.cbs8.com/article/news/local/legal-action-taken-a...

New comment by mrtomservo in "Ask HN: Favourite Pen"

mrtomservo — Mon, 28 Apr 2025 22:01:29 +0000

I love my 0.7mm Zebra Sarasa Clips (dark blue). I buy the refills to put in other pens. The ink dries nearly instantly. Not fancy, but a great workhorse pen.

New comment by mrtomservo in "The Constitutional Crisis Is Here"

mrtomservo — Mon, 14 Apr 2025 21:01:13 +0000

https://archive.is/dkkWy

New comment by mrtomservo in "Ask HN: Looking for Retro Website"

mrtomservo — Mon, 14 Apr 2025 20:57:01 +0000

Could it have been https://poolsuite.net?

New comment by mrtomservo in "M 5.2 – 4 km S of Julian, CA"

mrtomservo — Mon, 14 Apr 2025 18:29:51 +0000

This is the first earthquake where I got a ShakeAlert notification _before_ the shaking started. I had a good two seconds to think before I felt it, and that's pretty cool, all things considered.

New comment by mrtomservo in "Show HN: Prefix any URL with `pure.md/` to get unblocked Markdown"

mrtomservo — Mon, 24 Mar 2025 16:53:23 +0000

I did notice some character encoding issues, but this is very helpful and handy, thank you!

https://pure.md/https://unionize.fyi

New comment by mrtomservo in "Colored Bar Paper Colors"

mrtomservo — Mon, 24 Mar 2025 16:45:45 +0000

I agree -- color bars pre-printed on tractor-feed paper would have used a Pantone ink, maybe a tint of 290 for blue, or 358 for green. Mills wouldn't have likely used a C+M+Y build: Why pay for three inks (and the potential for misregistration) when you can just use one? There might have even been a special machine to print the lines at regular intervals, and not run through a traditional offset printing press.

Pantone inks in specific, and printed colors in general, don't convert precisely to RGB. Ambient light reflects off paper to your eyeballs; a screen beams light into your eyeballs.

It's a nice little nostalgic thought exercise, though.

New comment by mrtomservo in "National Weather Service Bulletin for Hurricane Katrina (2005)"

mrtomservo — Mon, 07 Oct 2024 23:20:31 +0000

> Ricks, a native of the Ninth Ward, later told NBC Nightly News that he wrote the bulletin based on his previous experiences with Betsy and Camille. [...] The bulletin, and the rosary that Ricks clutched as he and his fellow forecasters weathered the storm in their office, are both now in the National Museum of American History.[19]

National Weather Service Bulletin for Hurricane Katrina (2005)

mrtomservo — Mon, 07 Oct 2024 23:14:16 +0000

Article URL: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Weather_Service_bulletin_for_Hurricane_Katrina

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=41772122

Points: 3

# Comments: 1