Hacker News: mslate

New comment by mslate in "Brood War Bench"

mslate — Sun, 20 Sep 2026 11:15:43 +0000

I also entered the competition as an undergrad—I contacted Ben Weber 10 years later (2020) and interviewed him on my podcast:

https://theaccidentalengineer.com/adversarial-machine-learni...

A Stop Sign for $1k

mslate — Fri, 18 Sep 2026 22:36:59 +0000

Article URL: https://maxmautner.com/2026/09/17/stop-sign.html

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49761199

Points: 3

# Comments: 0

Killing with a car costs $1.6M, California requires drivers to carry $30K

mslate — Sat, 12 Sep 2026 22:22:31 +0000

Article URL: https://maxmautner.com/2026/09/11/liability-coverage.html

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49677836

Points: 53

# Comments: 73

New comment by mslate in "Paying for Driving"

mslate — Sat, 12 Sep 2026 03:37:37 +0000

There is some double counting, and you can size it: NHTSA priced US crashes in 2019 at $340B in actual bills: medical, lost wages, property damage, legal. Private insurers paid ~54% of that, so call it $185B.

But the bills are the small part. Count the deaths and the permanent injuries themselves and NHTSA's total estimated annual cost from crashes in the US is $1.4T. So insurance covers ~13% of the harm. The other trillion has no payer. Taxpayers pick up $30B of it, about $230 per household, and the rest lands on whoever got killed or disabled.

Minimum bodily injury liability runs $25,000-$30,000 per person in most states. That's the check amount that gets written when someone dies (if one gets written at all!).

If victims of traffic were made whole then car insurance would be staggeringly expensive and either (1) only extremely rich people would afford to drive or (2) a ton of un-insured drivers would be out on the roads.

Paying for Driving

mslate — Fri, 11 Sep 2026 20:51:54 +0000

Article URL: https://maxmautner.com/2026/09/10/paying-for-driving.html

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49665196

Points: 18

# Comments: 3

New comment by mslate in "Stripe acquires Clerky"

mslate — Thu, 27 Aug 2026 20:10:52 +0000

Clerky when I last used it nearly a decade ago was lead generation for Delaware's business franchise tax.

Nothing ever came of my incorporated business (no spend, no revenue) and I received extremely menacing "collections" physical mail over many months about delinquent business incorporation franchise tax payments and escalating fees + fines (which I never paid).

The experience left me a very negative opinion of Clerky (and Delaware).

New comment by mslate in "U.S. State Department pauses immigrant visa applications"

mslate — Thu, 27 Aug 2026 14:40:52 +0000

But titzer, are you not a wealthy resident as well? I thought we were among friends!

A scooter is cheating, a cargo bike is rude, the car is fine

mslate — Thu, 27 Aug 2026 04:25:47 +0000

Article URL: https://maxmautner.com/2026/08/25/scooter-is-cheating.html

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49459687

Points: 16

# Comments: 3

If there's a war on cars in the USA then the cars have won

mslate — Mon, 10 Aug 2026 03:15:01 +0000

Article URL: https://maxmautner.com/2026/08/08/war-on-cars.html

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49238827

Points: 8

# Comments: 0

New comment by mslate in "Nobody Died – and That's the Scary Part – Oshkosh 2026 [video]"

mslate — Fri, 07 Aug 2026 15:42:22 +0000

Holy em dash

New comment by mslate in "How working with a blind client revealed invisible accessibility gaps"

mslate — Fri, 03 Jul 2026 21:36:33 +0000

What exactly does this have to do with the article?

Moving Car-Free as a Parent

mslate — Mon, 29 Jun 2026 05:31:27 +0000

Article URL: https://maxmautner.com/2026/06/27/moving-as-a-parent.html

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48715196

Points: 3

# Comments: 0

Voting with Feet

mslate — Sat, 27 Jun 2026 20:10:49 +0000

Article URL: https://maxmautner.com/2026/06/25/voting-with-feet.html

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48701288

Points: 2

# Comments: 0

New comment by mslate in "How Madrid built its metro cheaply (2024)"

mslate — Thu, 18 Jun 2026 12:42:50 +0000

Why would anyone prefer to drive when you can be driven?

New comment by mslate in "Atherton spent $145K to delay train electrification. The rest of us paid $400M"

mslate — Mon, 01 Jun 2026 15:58:06 +0000

That is a very uncharitable read.

New comment by mslate in "Atherton spent $145K to delay train electrification. The rest of us paid $400M"

mslate — Mon, 01 Jun 2026 03:12:48 +0000

Ironically, your sentence structure here carries the feint smell of LLM

New comment by mslate in "Atherton spent $145K to delay train electrification. The rest of us paid $400M"

mslate — Mon, 01 Jun 2026 03:08:28 +0000

From the article's first source:

https://calelectricrail.org/how-environmental-law-holds-back...

Atherton spent $145K to delay train electrification. The rest of us paid $400M

mslate — Sun, 31 May 2026 21:55:33 +0000

Article URL: https://peninsulaforeveryone.org/blog/atherton-spent-145k-to-delay-caltrain-electrification-the-rest-of-us-paid-400-million-and-waited-3-extra-years/

Hacker News: mslate

New comment by mslate in "Brood War Bench"

A Stop Sign for $1k

Killing with a car costs $1.6M, California requires drivers to carry $30K

New comment by mslate in "Paying for Driving"

Paying for Driving

New comment by mslate in "Stripe acquires Clerky"

New comment by mslate in "U.S. State Department pauses immigrant visa applications"

A scooter is cheating, a cargo bike is rude, the car is fine

If there's a war on cars in the USA then the cars have won

New comment by mslate in "Nobody Died – and That's the Scary Part – Oshkosh 2026 [video]"

New comment by mslate in "How working with a blind client revealed invisible accessibility gaps"

Moving Car-Free as a Parent

Voting with Feet

New comment by mslate in "How Madrid built its metro cheaply (2024)"

New comment by mslate in "Atherton spent $145K to delay train electrification. The rest of us paid $400M"

New comment by mslate in "Atherton spent $145K to delay train electrification. The rest of us paid $400M"

New comment by mslate in "Atherton spent $145K to delay train electrification. The rest of us paid $400M"

Atherton spent $145K to delay train electrification. The rest of us paid $400M

California's Anti-Density Consensus Isolated the Homeowners Who Built It

Moving at Human Speed