Hacker News: needSomeCoffee

New comment by needSomeCoffee in "The lamps in my house"

needSomeCoffee — Mon, 05 Oct 2026 22:51:40 +0000

Thanks for the correct info. I must admit to a very hasty Google search, and the highest number likely caught my eye.

New comment by needSomeCoffee in "The lamps in my house"

needSomeCoffee — Mon, 05 Oct 2026 19:02:36 +0000

One lamp featured was a "mini Tizio". I bought the full-size one many, many years ago. (E.g. uses a Halogen bulb.) This article prompted me to think... So I just Goolged it. My vintage Tizio is now selling for about $1,200. (Cannot remember what I spent, but very likely my <$150 filter kicked in when buying.) So if you like these lights, maybe consider the cost an investment. If after a few decades you may want to sell, and you might do well. Note: My Tizio is not for sale as it is a superb desk lamp.

New comment by needSomeCoffee in "macOS Golden Gate Is a Buggy Mess"

needSomeCoffee — Tue, 29 Sep 2026 15:34:43 +0000

This one really bugs me. Could be my setup (have a few Menu-bar utilities). Anyway... I do Finder Searches a lot to find files in the current directory or system-wide using either find by file name or file contains. Get a list of files fine in response. Then close the search, and my Finder window is blank. Have to click to another folder in the Sidebar, then back to my original folder to get the full folder contents to show. All previous OS versions returned back to list all the files.

Also not a bug, but a bad recession ihmo. I always used to have Finder>Show-Hidden-Files option on. Now it is always off, and one must Cmd+Shift+. to show hidden files each time one opens a directory. Why take that option away ??

If anyone has insights about what might be causing my blank "after search" window, and/or a way to make show hidden files the default please advise. Thx, NSC

New comment by needSomeCoffee in "Why 'What's Opera, Doc?' looks like that"

needSomeCoffee — Thu, 24 Sep 2026 16:42:53 +0000

I could not tell reading the article if Jones et. al. initial inspiration was a "love of opera" or whether it was just an interesting new challenge/storyboard. It sorta read as the latter, but my hope is that the former was the starting point. This story is very on point today as Mamdani is providing tens of thousands the opportunity to go to the Met -- hopefully each and every one would not have had this opp without M. That is going to be interesting.

Interesting anecdotes to follow if you want to continue...

When I worked in Portland late 80s Coffee People was just one store in the NWest district. Went there every morning for a coffee. They played lots of non-opera, non-classical Muzak. I suggested that perhaps they might consider adding an Opera highlights CD (no streaming then) into the mix. Surprisingly one day I go in and Opera was playing. A few weeks later Opera was playing again, and the barristas were silently singing along with the lyrics when a climactic passage was playing. Made me laugh. Then late 90's I again go every morning to an independent coffee shop this time in Corvallis. Told the owner who was the barrista that I would gift her a CD if she would play it occasionally. She agreed, and I gifted her Cecilia Bartoli singing Rossini's Heroines (a favorite). A while later the owner told me she was going to move to Australia. Asked her if the Rossini was going to be left in the shop, and she said it was going with her.

Edit: Just re-watched the original. I literally remember watching this on TV when it debuted. Anyway... did not know then, but do know now that Mel Blanc did all the voices. In this one Mel's singing. What a unique talent. Studios have tried to replace him, but all efforts fall short. A once-in-a-lifetime talent who most folks enjoy, but know nothing about.

New comment by needSomeCoffee in "Show HN: Check if any of the $656M in unclaimed royalties at The MLC is yours"

needSomeCoffee — Thu, 20 Aug 2026 16:27:18 +0000

This is really interesting. Thanks for doing this. Checked one of my favorite artists who I would think is a very minor player in all this, and who is pretty original (Keb' Mo'). If I am reading the results right, he has $7,059 – $16,345 at risk. Wow. I hope this is widely used by the artists to understand the situation. Again, great work imho (I know virtually nothing about the music industry).

New comment by needSomeCoffee in "Judge a book by its first pages"

needSomeCoffee — Sat, 18 Jul 2026 23:30:57 +0000

Clicked the link. Selected "Literary". First sample was quite good. Vaguely caught the name of the author. Closed page. Then decided to go back. Could not find the first sample which I decided I might want to read. Got just enough of the author name to get Google to find "Colson Whitehead" when I entered "Colston". The book was "Cool Machine". Went to borrow it from Sno-Isle.org. Placed a hold on the physical book. Number 51 in the hold line (all time record for my holds -- got plenty to read until its likely availability). Glad I found this site, but on my second visit did not find any "Literary" first pages that resonated. Blind luck. Good site idea though. HTH, NSC

New comment by needSomeCoffee in "The Computer at the Bottom of a Canal"

needSomeCoffee — Sat, 18 Jul 2026 16:28:30 +0000

Very interesting and well written article. This sentence in particular:

"Linn Products is the Glasgow company Ivor Tiefenbrun founded in 1972, and if you know it at all you know it for the Sondek LP12, still widely regarded by its partisans as the finest record deck ever made."

I was a big audiophile right at that time. Auditioned both Sondek and Sota Star Saphire. Went with the latter which I still proudly own (Alphason Tonearm). Note how carefully the author phrased "...by its partisans..." when describing the Sondek as the best. Nothing, not even programing code style zealots today can compare to audiophiles and their "take" on what made for the best playback. Pretty sure the author did not want to open that can of worms by simply declaring the Sondek the best.

Turntables back then were pretty damn detailed re: technology. Not surprised Linn could make a great computer (in the day).

HTH, NSC

New comment by needSomeCoffee in "CD sales growth outpaced vinyl in the first half of 2026"

needSomeCoffee — Thu, 16 Jul 2026 20:42:50 +0000

Buy. Rip. Own forever. Compensate artists fairly. My prefered method.

New comment by needSomeCoffee in "Acronym Fatigue Series Introduction: why I'm wary of acronyms"

needSomeCoffee — Tue, 07 Jul 2026 01:58:14 +0000

My pet peeve = authors who start using an acronym without ever "introducing" it. Suddenly there is an acronym used throughout an article, and one has to carefully go back and find the phrase to which it refers. Necessitated because the author was too lazy to introduce the acronym in parens after first using the phrase. Not sure how AI does this, but this problem predates AI by quite a bit.

New comment by needSomeCoffee in "The Fall and Rise of Screwworm"

needSomeCoffee — Fri, 03 Jul 2026 16:34:52 +0000

Thanks to the author. That was a great read imho. Loved the early parts about the guys who -- despite the ridicule and lack of resources -- achieved eradication. Again, great read.

New comment by needSomeCoffee in "Canyon HUD helmet for road riding"

needSomeCoffee — Mon, 22 Jun 2026 23:45:20 +0000

I also did many miles commuting and riding in the city. A key, absolute rule after too many close calls was to never cross in front of a car about to enter or cross-over the road I was on unless I could see the driver looking at me. No matter how clear my right-of-way was or how obvious I thought I was. One close call about every 10K miles or so was enough for me to realize only purely defensive riding in the city would keep me uninjured (or worse). Sure a lot of riders rail at bad drivers, but that doesn't help in the end if you get t-boned. Hope this helmet helps with that.

New comment by needSomeCoffee in "Tacky men with ridiculous glasses want you to wear them too"

needSomeCoffee — Mon, 22 Jun 2026 22:15:20 +0000

I read in another thread on another site that the Snapchat SPECs were targeted at developers. If not are they going to market with what Evan is attempting to wear at over $2K ?? Insights appreciated, NSC.

New comment by needSomeCoffee in "A new bill takes aim at government pressure to silence lawful online speech"

needSomeCoffee — Fri, 19 Jun 2026 18:58:01 +0000

JAWBONE == Justice Against Weaponized Bureaucratic Overreach to Networked Expression. Max Kudos. Ron and Ted owe a staffer (or staffers) a few drinks.

New comment by needSomeCoffee in "CRISPR tech selectively shreds cancer cells, including "undruggable" cancers"

needSomeCoffee — Fri, 12 Jun 2026 17:22:11 +0000

Jennifer Doudna again. What an amazing scientist. Wow.

New comment by needSomeCoffee in "Apple's MacBook Neo makes repairs easier and cheaper than other MacBooks"

needSomeCoffee — Thu, 12 Mar 2026 18:23:47 +0000

Wow. Beautiful engineering. Please, please Apple use this ethos for all future major laptop re-designs e.g. MBA & MBP.

New comment by needSomeCoffee in "The MacBook Neo"

needSomeCoffee — Wed, 11 Mar 2026 23:57:33 +0000

"...handily...". Apple set the power limit for the A19 at 4 watts. The M1 does not have this limit. So in all tests using processes that tax the CPU, the M1 wins. Apple ignored the greater thermal cooling available with the new case. The A19 would beat the M1 if Apple did not do this. But no one really cares cause... it is Apple. The other points re: Walmart are valid. However, it goes to the point that Apple could sell the M1 at this price point, but chose not to. Seems likely the Walmart M1 at $599 had lower margins (My Guess), so the Neo was born.

New comment by needSomeCoffee in "The MacBook Neo"

needSomeCoffee — Wed, 11 Mar 2026 19:35:21 +0000

I do not really understand why the Walmart $599 M1 MBA comparison is so lost in the MSM. The Neo is the same price (without edu discount). The Neo CPU benchmarks slightly better until the 4W performance limit factors in more real-world cases (then the M1 wins handily). So much is given up with the Neo: Worse screen, Worse keyboard, No TouchId, Worse Trackpad, etc. Yet Apple is praised for the Neo. No longer matters of course as it appears that the Walmart M1 is history, and we now have the Neo -- worse in almost every way vs. M1 MBA. The only real beneficiary is undoubtedly Apple's margin. I guess the MSM and Apple fanbois hatred of Walmart and the "losers who shop there" influences this, but even so. Neo only benefits Apple vs. Walmarts M1 MBA deal.

Edit / Link: https://www.macworld.com/article/2986234/walmart-m1-macbook-...

New comment by needSomeCoffee in "A Lament for Aperture"

needSomeCoffee — Sun, 25 Jan 2026 16:05:24 +0000

Just a comment to the author. Very much appreciate how you go about explaining this, and your writing style. Thanks for taking the time. NSC...

...an ex-Arpeture user.

New comment by needSomeCoffee in "Dubai Reality Check: An Indian VC's Year of Truth"

needSomeCoffee — Sat, 28 Jun 2025 06:33:18 +0000

Agree completely. Writing was brilliant. Kudos to the author.

New comment by needSomeCoffee in "Show HN: We built a Plug-in Home Battery for the 99.7% of us without Powerwalls"

needSomeCoffee — Tue, 11 Mar 2025 22:32:07 +0000

Puget Sound Electric here in Western WA has a very nice feature showing usage by hour by day (using their smart meters). We live in a relatively small home, and do not use electric heat. Yesterday our "vampire draw" was about 0.5 kwh per hour (12am to 5am -- nothing really active). Once we got up, fired up the coffee pot, and lights, etc. we used 1.3 kwh from 6am to 7am. Pia looks like a good UPS for standard appliances, but as a whole house solution... Folks really need to understand how their home would work using a combinations of Pias. For us, we spent about $1k for a Westinghouse 9,000 kwh generator which runs on propane, and I put in the fairly inexpensive breaker and lock-out in our service panel. Costs were well below $2K. When our power goes out (which it does A LOT), simply fire up the gen, shut down all the high amp circuits in the house panel, and switch service panel input to the gen. Takes less than 5 minutes, and everything works apart from some high amp devices which we can easily live without short term. Having a good backup is important -- moreso with the power system strained and more "once a century" events.