Hacker News: needSomeCoffee

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.

New comment by needSomeCoffee in "What were the best books you read this year?"

needSomeCoffee — Thu, 28 Nov 2024 22:04:35 +0000

Matterhorn by Karl Marlantes. Probably the best expose about the vileness of politicians and command ladder climbers within the service as they related to Vietnam.

New comment by needSomeCoffee in "Ask HN: Teach a 5-year-old math and science over the summer?"

needSomeCoffee — Mon, 09 May 2022 15:12:40 +0000

I wrote an app for my daughters years ago using Adobe Air and it was quite successful in the early days of the app store when it was easy to load such apps. Was really useful for my daughters as they have always excelled at math. May not be suitable for a 5 year old, but depends on the kid and parent. The idea is to provide a simple interface for learning single digit arithmetic "patterns".

The objective was to create a UI that let kids relax re: feeling the need to always find the right answer. They just need to "imagine" (right mind) the right answer and click on the answer presented. Over time associative memory response leads them to recognize the patterns for single digit arithmetic, and the "arithmetic" part of math becomes instantaneous. That makes things like factoring fractions (an early hurdle) quite a lot easier because no real thought is involved in seeing the common denominator, etc. (See the chart of one of my daughter's progress in the video below to see how she learned associatively.)

After mastering single digit arithmetic, the app allows kids to move on to seeing how the "algorithmic" approach for multi digit problems is easy. (Note: the reliance on the algo approach is very much WRONG in the current "common core" approach to math in the USA. I acknowledge the "additional understanding" provided by the common core, but I do not see the algo/memory approach as the evil many common core folks see it as.)

I knew some older kids who really hated math (middle school), and found they really struggled when asked "What is 6 x 9 ??" or any other simple arithmetic problem. Finger counting and taking 10-20 seconds for just one step in the process of doing multi-digit multiplication or division is a real hindrance which definitely keeps them from progressing/appreciating math.

Some of the older kids did work though my App, and it had a very, very positive effect. Some sampling issues re: who I knew so YMMV.

I ported the app to a pure HTML/JS app, and hope to soon release it as an Github open source app that can be run locally as a PWA. Unfortunately I am way behind getting this done. Happy to share the code via my private Github account if anyone wants to help with this relatively trivial task.

Right now it runs fine, of course, in a browser with the exception of Safari because Apple is pretty aggressive about not supporting Indexeddb for local storage. Just be sure to be aware of how all the browsers will automatically delete local storage is an app is not used within N days. Any Chrome-based browser should be fine. (The fix for Webkit is not hard as it involves a very longterm bug Apple has never address, so well understood. Again, just have not had time to get to it.)

From the early Air app (current app is very similar although there are some differences e.g. graphs). https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UK3wzeGVRQ4

MathFlashApp (will be active for a few more months until Google shuts down its free Workspace users): www.mathflashapp.com

HTH, nsc

New comment by needSomeCoffee in "Ask HN: Any piece of hardware that was more of game changer than you expected?"

needSomeCoffee — Sun, 06 Feb 2022 14:59:20 +0000

Makita Brushless 5amp drill combo set. I have used a wide variety of battery powered drills and drivers for decades. If you do a lot of home projects building things, you will use these tools often. Never was dissatisfied with other brands (Ryobi, Bosch), but decided to treat myself one year as I believe Makita Brushless is top of the line today and I wanted more powerful batteries. Best decision ever. So much power, the 5 amp batteries last so long. I have driven 1/2 x 6 inch lag bolts into fence posts with the driver and it did not complain. Just an amazing upgrade (notably because of the 5 amp batteries). If you are starting out building a tool set, splurge and get these. Just remember to store them in your house not the garage as heat/cold cycles can really reduce the batteries cycle count. Only negative is that the driver is so powerful one must be careful when driving smaller screws. Also, spend the extra money to get a good set of bits. I went with Makita for this as well, and the bits are very, very good relative to the many, many others I have used (Dewalt, Milwaukie, etc.) Links (I bought the drill/driver set at a good price thru Amazon with the smaller/lighter drill which proved a very good decision for me): https://www.makitatools.com/products/details/XT269T https://www.makitatools.com/products/details/E-01644

New comment by needSomeCoffee in "Ask HN: Have you found something you love to do? If yes how?"

needSomeCoffee — Sat, 25 Dec 2021 18:06:14 +0000

Actually there is. When my daughters were on the Airgun 10 meter team (recent national champs), I spent some time investigating how to create a low-cost SCATT system using a relatively inexpensive laser with 3D-printed mount, USB connected cameras, and OpenCV. Something kids could use in a hallway at home vs. the range. The solution was very feasible as I got to the point of mocking it up and testing it. Daughters decided to drop shooting, and other side-dev projects took over. But you sound like you might love doing this. Cheers.

Show HN: Associative Memory, Perceptions, and Unconscious Bias

needSomeCoffee — Fri, 26 Oct 2018 01:41:34 +0000

Article URL: https://www.perceptionsharing.net/psharing/getPsharingPage?idproj=3180001&key=aaa&iduser=HNDEMO

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18306119

Points: 2

# Comments: 0

New comment by needSomeCoffee in "Ask HN: We have a great team and capital but can't find a good idea"

needSomeCoffee — Mon, 30 Oct 2017 21:29:15 +0000

I have a proven, novel means to gain insight about System1 response. Issued a patent for it (which I think is reasonably well written). Worked great applying it improve response to P&G's branded ads (then was part of McD's SG&A cuts). Would love to use it to improve romantic outcomes (better than survey response measures; e.g. "love at first [System1] sight" would make Kahneman/Tversky proud). Etc. Same coin, opposite side. If I was you, I would hang around some grabybeards who are 50+ and have been working in logistical positions for corporations, expand your network, and hire a great salesman. The GB's will have ideas, but not the where-with-all to act -- notably if they have a family HC plan. The network (also a good GB win), and your sales team are more important than a great idea. You really just need a "good enough" idea, execution, plus sales to get started, then adjust. HTH.

New comment by needSomeCoffee in "Ask HN: We have a great team and capital but can't find a good idea"

needSomeCoffee — Mon, 30 Oct 2017 21:21:25 +0000

I have a proven, novel means to gain insight about System1 response. Issued a patent for it (which I think is reasonably well written). Applied it working with P&G to improve response to their branded ads. Would love to use it to improve romantic outcomes (better than survey response measures). Etc. Almost too old and tired now after a decade+ of having proven I am a terrible salesman. Same coin, opposite side. If I was you, I would hang around some grabybeards who are 50+ and have been working in logistical positions for corporations. They will have lots and lots of idea, but no where-with-all to act. HTH.