Hacker News: pedvide

New comment by pedvide in "Can You Find the Comet?"

pedvide — Tue, 28 Apr 2026 12:07:32 +0000

I've taken long exposures using film (analog, so no stacking or any other funny business) and saw the same thing. I always thought they were planes but now it seems they may have been satellites. I'm curious if someone knows why this happens

New comment by pedvide in "I wrote my PhD Thesis in Typst"

pedvide — Mon, 23 Jun 2025 08:14:27 +0000

I've always understood "free as in beer" as: if someone hands you a beer and says it's free, you know that you don't have to pay to consume the beer, but that doesn't mean that you also get the recipe, brewing instructions, factory plans, glass making instructions etc. The only thing that is free is the liquid itself, nothing else.

New comment by pedvide in "Electron band structure in germanium, my ass (2001)"

pedvide — Wed, 02 Apr 2025 09:37:41 +0000

Part of my PhD involved lots of fluoride synthesis using HF. I always used gloves (changing them very frequently). My advisor never used them for the following reason: if a droplet of HF lands on your glove you won't notice, but HF will go through the glove. If it lands on your bare hand chances are you'll notice it and wash them immediately. I could never follow his advise, but I did change gloves pretty much every step in the synthesis just in case.

New comment by pedvide in "Towards a test suite for TOTP codes"

pedvide — Mon, 03 Mar 2025 20:45:26 +0000

Not sure if you are aware of speed tape https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Speed_tape

Passenger jets can fly with duct tape on their wings

New comment by pedvide in "Using GPS in the Year 1565"

pedvide — Sat, 23 Nov 2024 15:06:34 +0000

Cool idea! I can't seem to be able to find information about the maps though, like date, author or something similar. I'd really like that!

New comment by pedvide in "Seeing America by train"

pedvide — Sat, 31 Aug 2024 19:16:22 +0000

There are a lot of "temporary" internal border checks within Schengen [1], especially in the last 5 years. Wiki has lots of info [2]

I've personally been checked in trains crossing from the east towards Germany multiple times, including the night train.

1. https://www.reddit.com/r/MapPorn/comments/17yy61g/current_re...

2. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schengen_Area under "regulation of internal borders"

New comment by pedvide in "EU Digital Identity Reform: The Good, Bad and Ugly in the EIDAS Regulation"

pedvide — Wed, 08 Nov 2023 08:07:28 +0000

In the Netherlands, instant transfers have been possible for at least 5 years. I think also in Belgium. This is indeed being rolled out to the whole EU.

[1] https://www.betaalvereniging.nl/en/focus/giro-based-and-onli...

New comment by pedvide in "What's New in Python 3.12"

pedvide — Wed, 18 Oct 2023 17:13:19 +0000

In pandas for example that can happen often: `df["count"] == 5` and `df.count == 5` are logically different expressions that will give different answers