Hacker News: mwexler

New comment by mwexler in "The Apple Calculator Language"

mwexler — Thu, 30 Jul 2026 12:26:01 +0000

This reminds me of Frink https://frinklang.org/ which cleverly carries units through calculations. It borrows from many other languages and has some "clear text" commands like parent post, but it's emphasis on unit consistency helps avoid conversion slop.

New comment by mwexler in "How we can reduce traffic congestion"

mwexler — Tue, 14 Jul 2026 13:09:06 +0000

Also, just saw this mention of a new book from Vaclav Smil: Speed, which delves into some of these topics.

https://vaclavsmil.com/book/speed-how-it-explains-the-world/

New comment by mwexler in "How we can reduce traffic congestion"

mwexler — Mon, 13 Jul 2026 13:34:03 +0000

I'm a fan of Beaty's work from 1998. Nothing I've seen has been as easy to implement: leaving space in front of each car creates smooth motion.

https://trafficwaves.org/trafexp.html or easier at https://web.archive.org/web/20260114173129/https://trafficwa...

https://web.archive.org/web/20251214172912/http://trafficwav... has some nice visualizations.

MIT got more press when they "rediscovered" this in 2017:

https://people.csail.mit.edu/bkph/Traffic_Flow_Animation

I'm a car fan, so I'd rather reward drivers for optimal behaviors vs broad car-reductions. I'll probably turn out to be on the wrong side, but maybe we'll find a good compromise.

New comment by mwexler in "Combustion engine web-based simulator"

mwexler — Sat, 11 Jul 2026 16:09:30 +0000

I wish this had a stepper so I could see how things change at each point in the cycle. But even without, quite cool to play with.

New comment by mwexler in "Organic Maps"

mwexler — Mon, 06 Jul 2026 12:35:20 +0000

Did some digging: yeah, looks like they are keeping some things for themselves.

https://github.com/orgs/OvertureMaps/discussions/298

That being said, it's hard to fault them for trying to monetize some dimensions that are not well supplied by the public, and that companies work to acquire. Still, I agree, it's disappointing.

New comment by mwexler in "Organic Maps"

mwexler — Sun, 05 Jul 2026 17:43:55 +0000

While default osm data is great, I've been very impressed with the partnership/collective of Overture Maps data. It's osm + esri/tomtom + corporate processing/funding.

https://overturemaps.org/

While not updated as frequently, their releases have a pretty high quality and coverage.

New comment by mwexler in "AI fake news complaining about how AI fake news is the death of real news"

mwexler — Thu, 02 Jul 2026 13:41:55 +0000

Every time I read a piece from Nieman, it reminds me both of how much we've lost in journalism, but also that there's always hope to swing the pendulum back towards truth (well, more truthiness).

The US Used to Demand the Best Tech. Now We Ban It

mwexler — Sun, 28 Jun 2026 19:07:49 +0000

Article URL: https://www.pcmag.com/opinions/the-us-used-to-demand-the-best-tech-now-we-ban-it

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48710437

Points: 150

# Comments: 102

New comment by mwexler in "Sweet Jeebus, macOS 27 Golden Gate Removes the Dumb Icons from Menu Items"

mwexler — Thu, 11 Jun 2026 13:05:28 +0000

Got a vote just for the wonderful title, which captured my feelings exactly and was SFW.

New comment by mwexler in "Buy a train, bridge or tracks from the Swiss Railway"

mwexler — Wed, 10 Jun 2026 13:03:03 +0000

I just want the clocks. Mondaine tries, but they aren't the same. That 58.5 second rotation then pause is quite clever.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swiss_railway_clock

New comment by mwexler in "Greek Alphabet Cards"

mwexler — Sat, 16 May 2026 14:43:40 +0000

Very handy. My math education would have gone much better if my notes weren't full of "lambda is the half stickman; sigma is upside down Q or broken E" and other really silly things

OpenAI launches ChatGPT for personal finance, will let you connect bank accounts

mwexler — Sat, 16 May 2026 14:38:52 +0000

Article URL: https://techcrunch.com/2026/05/15/openai-launches-chatgpt-for-personal-finance-will-let-you-connect-bank-accounts/

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48160655

Points: 2

# Comments: 2

New comment by mwexler in "Learning Software Architecture"

mwexler — Tue, 12 May 2026 13:22:09 +0000

Can you explain the last one? What types of communications are you suggesting an arch would avoid?

Otherwise, a very wise list!

New comment by mwexler in "Show HN: WhatCable, a tiny menu bar app for inspecting USB-C cables"

mwexler — Fri, 01 May 2026 13:36:33 +0000

Looking forward to seeing this one in action

New comment by mwexler in "What if database branching was easy?"

mwexler — Mon, 20 Apr 2026 14:06:14 +0000

I thought this was a repost but I was thinking of dolt which has similar capabilities but a different approach. As in https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38109880

New comment by mwexler in "Changes in the system prompt between Claude Opus 4.6 and 4.7"

mwexler — Sun, 19 Apr 2026 14:16:04 +0000

Interesting that it's not a direct "you should" but an omniscient 3rd person perspective "Claude should".

Also full of "can" and "should" phrases: feels both passive and subjunctive as wishes, vs strict commands (I guess these are better termed “modals”, but not an expert)

New comment by mwexler in "The AI Great Leap Forward"

mwexler — Thu, 09 Apr 2026 15:09:10 +0000

I actually found the examples to be both on theme and reflective of "If history doesn't repeat, it certainly echoes".

New comment by mwexler in "What category theory teaches us about dataframes"

mwexler — Sat, 04 Apr 2026 14:05:26 +0000

With some of the newest 3.x changes like copy-on-write, I find pandas getting quite verbose now as well.

In a world where AI is writing the code, I guess I shouldn't complain, but when I am discovering something the ai of choice yet again missed, both pandas and polars still feel verbose and lacking sugar.

New comment by mwexler in "A nearly perfect USB cable tester"

mwexler — Sun, 29 Mar 2026 15:11:11 +0000

Wasn't aware of this level of testing. $1300 for a Beagle is a big step up.

New comment by mwexler in "LinkedIn uses 2.4 GB RAM across two tabs"

mwexler — Sun, 29 Mar 2026 15:05:53 +0000

Much like X, it's what you choose to use it for. Papers are posted, approaches are debated, and loose groups form to align. It's easy to scroll past the pandering, but there is useful stuff in the dross.

But agreed, it is getting harder and harder to dig to the gems.