Hacker News: pimlottc

New comment by pimlottc in "Everything Is BOM: Bill of Materials Encyclopedia"

pimlottc — Thu, 18 Jun 2026 23:06:31 +0000

What meme?

New comment by pimlottc in "Apple is about to make Hide My Email useless"

pimlottc — Tue, 16 Jun 2026 21:47:52 +0000

SPF/DMARC/DKIM make this all a bit more complicated now. There are plenty of MTAs out there that will refuse to send you mail if it's not all correct.

New comment by pimlottc in "An interview with an Apple emoji designer"

pimlottc — Tue, 16 Jun 2026 17:16:05 +0000

That's a good question. Comparing the Softbank emoji from June 2008 [0] and the initial batch of Apple emoji that shipping in iPhone OS 2.2 (Nov 2008) [1], it doesn't look like there are any missing at all, it's a perfect 1:1 mapping.

0: https://emojipedia.org/softbank/2008

1: https://emojipedia.org/apple/iphone-os-2.2

New comment by pimlottc in "Triple Shockwave from Sun Crossing Rocket"

pimlottc — Mon, 15 Jun 2026 15:55:47 +0000

There’s a hyphen missing from the original title that changes the meaning significantly… it should read “Sun-Crossing Rocket”

New comment by pimlottc in "Nobody ever gets credit for fixing problems that never happened (2001) [pdf]"

pimlottc — Fri, 12 Jun 2026 13:13:48 +0000

Genuine heroism - a willingness to step up when needed - isn't a bad thing in itself. But /needing/ a hero just to function means the system is fundamentally broken. Maybe it's a bad process, maybe it's understaffing, maybe it's neglected maintenance, maybe it's a lack of contingency planning. But there's no reason everyone can't go home at 5 PM every night and still get things done.

New comment by pimlottc in "World Capitals Voronoi"

pimlottc — Wed, 10 Jun 2026 23:28:17 +0000

I would love to see some stats with this. What countries gain/loss the most? Which countries are the last changed? What areas are the now the most countries away from their original country?

New comment by pimlottc in "Why all new flags look the same"

pimlottc — Mon, 08 Jun 2026 19:48:02 +0000

It’s fine if you have a differing opinion on flag design, but comparing vexillology advocates to murderous cultists is a bit unhinged

New comment by pimlottc in "Social Cache Busting"

pimlottc — Sat, 06 Jun 2026 15:31:29 +0000

Exactly, for a busy celebrity, having a canned answer is a polite way to acknowledge a fan and give them a little thrill. They don't have time for a genuine, heartfelt conversation with everyone they meet.

New comment by pimlottc in "Several injured in Boeing 787 nose-gear collapse in Frankfurt"

pimlottc — Thu, 04 Jun 2026 20:17:02 +0000

There may have also been additional ground crew on board the plane for changeover duties (cleaners, catering staff, etc)

New comment by pimlottc in "Learn SQL Once, Use It for 30 Years"

pimlottc — Thu, 04 Jun 2026 18:49:27 +0000

> >The Only Programming Language Built on Mathematics, Not Fashion

Fortran would like a word. The name literally means "Formula Translation"

New comment by pimlottc in "Sagrada Família Lego set"

pimlottc — Thu, 04 Jun 2026 18:29:11 +0000

That would actually be really cool if each stage of the build reflected the actual construction history

New comment by pimlottc in "CT scans of BYD car parts"

pimlottc — Wed, 03 Jun 2026 00:13:00 +0000

Ah, I misread your earlier revision's enthusiasm at the end as being about the mechanical key, not the CT scan.

New comment by pimlottc in "Gmail thinks I'm stupid, so I left"

pimlottc — Tue, 02 Jun 2026 22:29:23 +0000

Every OS is opinionated, that doesn’t mean they all automatically equally good or bad. Individual implementation choices matter.

New comment by pimlottc in "CT scans of BYD car parts"

pimlottc — Tue, 02 Jun 2026 22:20:21 +0000

I assumed this was referring to the early days of the Ford assembly line

New comment by pimlottc in "CT scans of BYD car parts"

pimlottc — Tue, 02 Jun 2026 22:14:32 +0000

Having a mechanical key hidden in the electronic key fob is nothing new, it’s common on many cars.

New comment by pimlottc in "I was just scammed by Polymarket"

pimlottc — Tue, 02 Jun 2026 15:59:16 +0000

I don't like to be glib but this is literally playing stupid games.

New comment by pimlottc in "Shakespeare's World – I thought this would be simple but"

pimlottc — Sat, 30 May 2026 22:10:50 +0000

This is interesting but what would be more helpful is context about what contemporary audiences would have known and thought about these places. After all, Shakespeare undoubtedly had good reasons to choose these references.

New comment by pimlottc in "What are locusts and what happened to them?"

pimlottc — Sat, 30 May 2026 14:03:56 +0000

This answers the title question but the most interesting part about the article is the fascinating way in which the locust’s behavior is triggered by crowding. An amazing biological adaption.

It’s well-worth reading the whole thing.

New comment by pimlottc in "Shift will clean homes for free to train future robots"

pimlottc — Sat, 30 May 2026 13:39:03 +0000

We don’t really know the details. Perhaps they had “good state” photos that were rejected by Airbnb for not being recent enough.

New comment by pimlottc in "Bricks and Minifigs Stole a Man's $200k Lego Collection"

pimlottc — Thu, 28 May 2026 21:17:11 +0000

Ah, I thought that could be the case but didn't see it listed in Merrium-Webster [0]. Seems like it is legal jargon, so might be better to use plain language here.

0: https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/trespass