Hacker News: nilram

New comment by nilram in "They're made out of meat (1991)"

nilram — Fri, 10 Apr 2026 04:17:52 +0000

Although there's other's that are a little more true to Bisson's dialog, that's my favorite for the actors, and especially the background music.

New comment by nilram in "Show HN: Travel Hacking Toolkit – Points search and trip planning with AI"

nilram — Sun, 05 Apr 2026 20:00:50 +0000

Having accumulated points on various platforms, in my experience, United and Alaska had much better availability for close-in flights than Delta. Dunno if there's a difference between redeeming on the Chase site versus transferring to United and then redeeming, but might be worth playing with.

New comment by nilram in "Show HN: Travel Hacking Toolkit – Points search and trip planning with AI"

nilram — Sun, 05 Apr 2026 19:54:22 +0000

Agreed. Anyone interested should check out a report out of Vanderbilt, "The Loyalty Trap: How Loyalty Programs Hook Us with Deals, Hack our Brains, and Hike Our Prices."

https://consumerlaw.berkeley.edu/news/price-loyalty-how-rewa... https://cdn.vanderbilt.edu/vu-URL/wp-content/uploads/sites/4...

Small counterpoint: Working in a spot where I had visibility to various loyalty programs, several of them definitely rewarded loyalty. Big spenders would get better conversion rates than the regular consumer.

New comment by nilram in "Show HN: Beats, a web-based drum machine"

nilram — Sun, 18 Jan 2026 22:47:13 +0000

Not great waveforms, to my ear. Decent UI for a first cut -- trying it out, I found it really addictive. Makes me want to learn more about beats.

New comment by nilram in "'Autofocus' specs promise sharp vision, near or far"

nilram — Sun, 13 Jul 2025 20:17:56 +0000

Unasked & unanswered: over what range of myopia will these be effective? Minus 5, -7, -13? Can they handle astigmatism, either automatically or from an initial prescription? They need to send a high-myope reporter in to ask questions.

New comment by nilram in "Why does the U.S. always run a trade deficit?"

nilram — Tue, 20 May 2025 19:02:02 +0000

>The solution is a non-national global reserve, calculated on a basket of national currencies. This was Keynes argument at Bretton Woods, but the US would not have it then, and does not want it now.

But what does the US want now? It's government's actions are making it more difficult for other countries to trust it for the global reserve currency. If it really wanted manufacturing to return to it's shores, there's other ways to accomplish that without rewiring the global economy: carrots, not sticks.

New comment by nilram in "Dilbert creator Scott Adams says he will die soon from same cancer as Joe Biden"

nilram — Tue, 20 May 2025 04:26:13 +0000

"admitting" could also be in the sense of "disclosing". I wouldn't expect anyone, even an elected leader, to immediately disclose a health issue that requires some amount of understanding and decision-making.

There's a segment of the population that thinks he knew while he was running for president but didn't disclose or "admit" the issue to the public. Given that this is an aggressively metastatic cancer, and Biden's campaign ended nearly 10 months ago, I think that's implausible to the point of being ludicrous.

New comment by nilram in "LibreOffice downloads on the rise as users look to avoid subscription costs"

nilram — Mon, 31 Mar 2025 08:30:12 +0000

Thanks for the replies re OO's security issues, they're lighting a fire under me to make the move.

New comment by nilram in "LibreOffice downloads on the rise as users look to avoid subscription costs"

nilram — Fri, 28 Mar 2025 02:51:43 +0000

I started using OpenOffice a couple decades ago when I got tired of pirating the market leader. Not wanting to start any religious wars, but I still haven't made the leap to Libre.

New comment by nilram in "HP ditches 15-minute wait time policy due to 'feedback'"

nilram — Sat, 22 Feb 2025 05:20:22 +0000

My HP 1320m Laser Printer is still printing after 20 years. No streaks or blotches. It has issues when drawing paper from the lower tray, but still printing and duplexing fine. No proper drivers for newer OSX versions, but the generic driver is working fine. I usually use 600dpi, but it's fine with 1200dpi (and so am I).

New comment by nilram in "Apple Introduces News+ Food"

nilram — Sat, 22 Feb 2025 03:43:04 +0000

Available to devices "with iOS 18.4 and iPadOS 18.4." Apple, yet again: you must, MUST upgrade, whether you want to or not. Apple will rearrange buttons for no discernible reason and change behaviors without giving any setting to adjust them.

Press here to accept.

New comment by nilram in "When your last name is Null, nothing works"

nilram — Fri, 21 Feb 2025 07:29:26 +0000

Have you come into the scenario where a doctor's office is trying to find your medical records? Or a hospital? Or an emergency room, trying to fetch them from an office in another town or country? Better to have a good attitude than not, but the phrase "it's all fun and games till someone loses an eye" comes to mind.

New comment by nilram in "What makes a great mocktail? (2018)"

nilram — Sun, 02 Feb 2025 04:09:14 +0000

"Does the booze really cook off?"

No, not all of it. Even a long-cooking stew can have 5% of the alcohol that was added at the start.

https://www.isu.edu/news/2019-fall/no-worries-the-alcohol-bu...

And, somehow, the smell of my mom's fresh-baked bread ties in with my adult sense of the odor of alcohol to say--yeah, there was some alcohol there, even if a small amount.

New comment by nilram in "AI and two hundred dollar tasks"

nilram — Sun, 02 Feb 2025 03:53:35 +0000

I see discussion that the OP was about headshots for a different frame of reference, but passport/visa photos are an interesting comparable. Every country has their own standard (dimensions, framing, glasses/no glasses, smiling/not, etc). Although they might not vary too much, it used to be easier for an international traveler to go to a "passport photo" shop (as I did, years ago), but now, as you point out, it's a problem that can be solved with a computer.

New comment by nilram in "Airlines are running out of 4-digit flight numbers"

nilram — Mon, 05 Aug 2024 02:08:06 +0000

The amount of travel industry software is huge, and a mix of ancient and new. Makes sense, but would take years.

New comment by nilram in "Jeff Lawson buys The Onion"

nilram — Fri, 26 Apr 2024 04:14:16 +0000

Experts Agree, Giant Bioengineered Crabs Pose No Threat

https://youtu.be/-Uq9pp586AE?si=NxdI4vwYZQr817QI

Reporters having a panel discussion on teevee. I stopped the video and read each of the supporting print stories that flashed by and they were perfect, too.

New comment by nilram in "The Guide to Stock Options Conversations"

nilram — Sun, 14 Apr 2024 20:09:35 +0000

Any more, I'd rather they just gave me lottery tickets. My payout rate has been the same.

New comment by nilram in "Suspicious discontinuities (2020)"

nilram — Sat, 23 Mar 2024 22:53:04 +0000

I had a friend in that situation one year. He reported some imaginary income that brought him up over that limit. Paid the tax on it, received the subsidy, and was able to continue with his existing ACA healthcare plan (and doctors, and etc).

New comment by nilram in "Trucking startup Convoy closes operations with no buyer"

nilram — Thu, 19 Oct 2023 23:59:58 +0000

My favorite start up, with regard to cashflow, was where the CEO would tell us at every company meeting how many months of cash we had in the bank at our current burn. They pissed me off in other ways, though, and I never heard how they treated people when they finally shut their doors.

New comment by nilram in "Trucking startup Convoy closes operations with no buyer"

nilram — Thu, 19 Oct 2023 23:46:55 +0000

Under US bankruptcy law, cash first goes to employees, then creditors (including contractors), then owners.