Hacker News: northwest65

New comment by northwest65 in "Ask HN: How Do You Psychologically Manage Being Thrown Around as an IC?"

northwest65 — Tue, 26 Nov 2024 23:04:33 +0000

> I just wasted a day investigating something for nothing

Nah not for nothing, they paid you. If they want to pay you for dumb shit, that's on them.

You'll have to find a way to let go of the frustration though, that's the real problem here. I just try not to get caught up in what the business is doing, it's just a job, and their goals will never ever ever align with my own, so no point sweating it.

I work at a small company now. When my boss does something stupid, I tell so and why. Sometimes I need to change tact because that's what the business demands, but sometimes he's like huh you're right (generally for technical reasons, although the cognitive cost of task switching is real) and we stay the course. Either way it's nice to have somebody listen at least.

New comment by northwest65 in "Volkswagen to Invest $5.8B in Rivian Through Joint Venture"

northwest65 — Wed, 13 Nov 2024 01:36:21 +0000

I've never met anybody that shuns even VW for VW's reputational issue!

New comment by northwest65 in "3600 MHz Raspberry Pi 5 with Liquid Nitrogen"

northwest65 — Wed, 13 Nov 2024 01:30:21 +0000

I think it's because CPUs don't run faster just because they're colder, they run faster when you overclock them. Often to get them stable at higher clock speeds you need more voltage, which at some point demands more cooling to mitigate that.

AFAICT doing interesting but ultimately trivially complicated stuff as a youngster can still result in scholarships etc, Ahmed Mohamed comes to mind.

New comment by northwest65 in "A road safety plan that will lead to cars communicating with each other"

northwest65 — Tue, 20 Aug 2024 22:56:51 +0000

Only nerds are dumb enough to think that adding LIDAR to every crosswalk in the world isn't a completely ridiculous idea.

New comment by northwest65 in "United States discloses nuclear warhead numbers; restores nuclear transparency"

northwest65 — Tue, 23 Jul 2024 22:23:44 +0000

They don't actually have to. The 5th and 6th fleet coupled with the various large air bases in the vicinity would have little trouble it pancaking the entire site before the Turks managed to make off with anything if it really came down to it. It's tanks all the way down.

New comment by northwest65 in "How Olympics officials try to catch “motor doping”"

northwest65 — Tue, 23 Jul 2024 21:53:56 +0000

I feel sorry for the poor bastards that had to go to Tokyo. As I understand it, clapping the other super fit athletes is a great part of the experience of competing (father was an athletics coach).

New comment by northwest65 in "How Olympics officials try to catch “motor doping”"

northwest65 — Tue, 23 Jul 2024 21:51:43 +0000

Should hurdles be made in a range of sizes to be fair on short competitors?

New comment by northwest65 in "Don't use 7-segment displays (2011) [pdf]"

northwest65 — Tue, 09 Jul 2024 21:29:26 +0000

I'm not a professional, but I find an LCD or OLED is a lot easier to drive from a microcontroller than a 7 segment or 4. Like a hell of a lot easier.

New comment by northwest65 in "How electronic ignition works and also how to make a spark plug play music"

northwest65 — Wed, 26 Jun 2024 21:05:11 +0000

Indeed, I too chuckled at that. Do you remember those hobbyist kits from the 80s for building your own electronic ignition unit? (i.e. points replacement)

New comment by northwest65 in "How electronic ignition works and also how to make a spark plug play music"

northwest65 — Wed, 26 Jun 2024 21:03:04 +0000

At one of my first jobs, the workshop foreman would sidle up beside another mechanic who was working under the bonnet, casually put his arm on their shoulder or whatever, then touch a plug. It would make the other mechanic jump, but he himself seemed impervious (well steeled more like) to the effect.

New comment by northwest65 in "Boeing Starliner launches first crewed mission"

northwest65 — Wed, 05 Jun 2024 23:16:59 +0000

> contributing to huge risks to democratic systems all over the world

Perhaps it was the weird hyperbole about democracy his comment was targeting?

New comment by northwest65 in "7.4 earthquake in Taiwan, 34km depth"

northwest65 — Wed, 03 Apr 2024 01:18:04 +0000

Think of it as a 3m tall bulldozer the width of the country with effectively unlimited pushing power. Watch some videos of the Japan tsunami, it's basically an unstoppable force that gobbles up everything in it's path. Very uncool.

New comment by northwest65 in "7.4 earthquake in Taiwan, 34km depth"

northwest65 — Wed, 03 Apr 2024 01:07:20 +0000

As somebody who has been through more than 10 thousand quakes, it's as significant as the force itself.

7.4 @ 300km deep you just yawn and roll over. @10km deep you pray your concrete roof tiles don't come through the ceiling and kill you in your bed... you basically just lie on top of your wife, give thanks for the time you did have, and hope for the best.

New comment by northwest65 in "Profession by Isaac Asimov (1957)"

northwest65 — Sun, 10 Mar 2024 20:35:32 +0000

No, I don't think they do paint a wrong picture, and it is helpful for people to say it so others realise they're not the only ones thinking it.

New comment by northwest65 in "Blue Lagoon geothermal spa in Iceland closes after series of earthquakes"

northwest65 — Thu, 09 Nov 2023 22:01:59 +0000

I think the implication is, that like the Maoris in New Zealand, they're only faux indigenous, as they arrived on boats. Probably doesn't matter much as there is no grift to be had.

New comment by northwest65 in "Website hosted on ESP32"

northwest65 — Sun, 05 Nov 2023 21:40:18 +0000

Then leave whatever tech backwater you live in and move to the first world.

New comment by northwest65 in "You can use lightguns on LCDs sometimes"

northwest65 — Sun, 15 Oct 2023 23:21:42 +0000

That's great! As another rank amateur I learn quite a few little tidbits from your thread... I'd never ever heard of a resistor array till now!

New comment by northwest65 in "USB inventor explains why the connector was not designed to be reversible (2019)"

northwest65 — Mon, 09 Oct 2023 19:43:14 +0000

You can feel it with the pad of your thumb.

New comment by northwest65 in "Earthquake strikes Southern California with preliminary magnitude of 5.1"

northwest65 — Mon, 21 Aug 2023 00:32:56 +0000

Liquefaction was one of the more miserable results of the Christchurch earthquake.

New comment by northwest65 in "Heat Pumps – The Well-Tempered Future of A/Cs"

northwest65 — Wed, 05 Jul 2023 23:49:01 +0000

Sure they can, you can absolutely use heat pumps to brute force it, been there done that.