Hacker News: portlander52232

New comment by portlander52232 in "Operation Epsilon"

portlander52232 — Mon, 08 May 2023 14:57:45 +0000

They recorded only selectively (perhaps a cost savings to be fair) and destroyed the recordings after transcribing the relevant parts. So much respect for privacy compared to what we might expect today!

New comment by portlander52232 in "Norton's Dome"

portlander52232 — Wed, 15 Feb 2023 01:03:55 +0000

From the article: “ To see that all these equations of motion are physically possible solutions, it's helpful to use the time reversibility of Newtonian mechanics. It is possible to roll a ball up the dome in such a way that it reaches the apex in finite time and with zero energy, and stops there. By time-reversal, it is a valid solution for the ball to rest at the top for a while and then roll down in any one direction. However, the same argument applied to the usual kinds of domes (e.g., a hemisphere) fails, because a ball launched with just the right energy to reach the top and stay there would actually take infinite time to do so.”

New comment by portlander52232 in "Womp 3D – The New Way to 3D"

portlander52232 — Sat, 05 Nov 2022 16:50:21 +0000

Love a lower barrier to entry for 3D. “A new way to 3D” gets the point across. Just evaluating the homepage, I like the fun aesthetic a lot. However, a large proportion of the examples on the homepage have a slight horror/gross-out element to them. E.g., does the cowboy dude have to have his torso swelling and undulating? I think this comes from trying to demo the SDF model overtly, whereas some demos should just be of cool stuff you can make that doesn’t look like it’s made of gooey balls.

New comment by portlander52232 in "'Big Short' investor says white-collar jobs bubble is 'bursting'"

portlander52232 — Fri, 30 Sep 2022 20:39:05 +0000

How are earnings artificially inflated?

New comment by portlander52232 in "Can Lego play the drums? [video]"

portlander52232 — Mon, 26 Sep 2022 14:21:45 +0000

Once upon a time somebody made a Lego mindstorms robot that walked up to objects and then drummed on them. It was very cute. Can’t find the video now though.

New comment by portlander52232 in "I spent a year designing a low profile, minimal mechanical keyboard"

portlander52232 — Thu, 18 Aug 2022 16:22:13 +0000

I love everything about it. I’d buy today except I’ll committed to split keyboards. They let me keep my shoulders back. If you ever make a versions that’s fully split (two halves that can be well-separated) and still non-ortho, even better if you can figure out how to wirelessly split…

My only other feature request would be a USB port for a yubikey.

New comment by portlander52232 in "Airbnb May 2022 Release"

portlander52232 — Wed, 11 May 2022 13:29:38 +0000

I’ve lived in Airbnbs full-time for the last two years. While the existence of the service has enabled a fun lifestyle for me, my opinion of the company has fallen and fallen over that time:

* I’ve paid them tens of thousands of dollars in service fees. Yet the customer service experience is on par with an airline or cable company. Getting bounced from person to person every hour, having to explain the situation a dozen times (really, a dozen), and in the end they rarely help me.

* Easily 90% of listings contain some kind of misrepresentation. Probably half it’s something egregious. Airbnb doesn’t seem to care.

Hopefully they’re trying to turn the ship here. We’ll see.

New comment by portlander52232 in "FAA, do your damn job"

portlander52232 — Thu, 07 Apr 2022 13:27:34 +0000

Just for one example, Seattle has a lake right in the middle of town in a bowl with tens of thousands of people working and living right around it, and that lake is used as a seaplane airfield with aircraft landing and taking off every few minutes throughout the day.

New comment by portlander52232 in "Ask HN: Are there “regular” SWE jobs that pay $200k+?"

portlander52232 — Mon, 07 Mar 2022 05:49:36 +0000

If you haven’t tried FAANG, it might be worth considering. I took a FAANG job on a lark, intending to stay a short time just to have it on my resume, and ended up liking the job way more than I expected and stuck around much longer than planned. In particular, my expectations about the job were completely inaccurate. The office politics, corporate bureaucracy, interpersonal dynamics, and overall stress level are all way better than I ever experienced at small companies. You cite a lack of small teams as your reason for avoiding FAANG (and I know there are probably others), but I’m generally working with 1–4 people at a time.

New comment by portlander52232 in "Soviet Military Maps of North America and UK"

portlander52232 — Fri, 21 Jan 2022 23:51:35 +0000

Man, it’s creepy to find your house on a Soviet map.

New comment by portlander52232 in "Hooks are the best thing to happen to React"

portlander52232 — Sun, 24 Oct 2021 00:39:47 +0000

It isn’t perfect but this is probably the best explanation that I know of https://overreacted.io/a-complete-guide-to-useeffect/

New comment by portlander52232 in "Hooks are the best thing to happen to React"

portlander52232 — Sat, 23 Oct 2021 15:09:39 +0000

They basically invented a new programming paradigm. You’re not familiar with it so it doesn’t make sense. But it actually more closely matches what’s really going on, so it’s more straightforward to someone familiar with how React works. The class-based API did not closely match how React actually works and so led to various common bugs which don’t occur anymore with the hooks API. You do have to learn the paradigm, but having done that you understand a lot more what you’re doing. This would probably be clearer if it were just a new programming language instead of being shoehorned into Javascript—then it wouldn’t seem so weird to be learning a new paradigm.

New comment by portlander52232 in "All-new iMac features the M1 chip"

portlander52232 — Tue, 20 Apr 2021 18:04:17 +0000

It'd be cool if they made a single-key Touch ID accessory for people who use other keyboards. Since they probably won't, I wonder if it's feasible to take the keyboard and chop it down to a smaller size.

New comment by portlander52232 in "George R.R. Martin Writes Everything in WordStar 4.0 on a DOS Machine (2014)"

portlander52232 — Mon, 05 Apr 2021 03:48:29 +0000

Last I heard David Brin is running a G4 Mac to run OS 9 to run Word Perfect.

New comment by portlander52232 in "Scram Switch"

portlander52232 — Thu, 01 Apr 2021 01:54:44 +0000

I don’t know why the downvotes but I’m scratching my head trying to figure out what words in the OP would be forbidden. But I guess you wouldn’t be able to answer that question.

New comment by portlander52232 in "United B772 at Denver on Feb 20th 2021, engine inlet separates from engine"

portlander52232 — Sun, 21 Feb 2021 04:02:14 +0000

Once had a flight delayed for maybe an hour because an overhead bin wouldn’t close. Mechanic had to tape it shut with special FAA duct tape, then sign the tape, then do an impressive amount of paperwork right there and then.

New comment by portlander52232 in "Greg LeMond’s New 26 LB. Carbon Fiber Ebike"

portlander52232 — Sat, 28 Nov 2020 17:13:05 +0000

Haven’t gotten a flat since I went tubeless, you might want to give it a try. Changing and setting up the tire is more involved but once done you’re much less likely to have to do it again.

New comment by portlander52232 in "Greg LeMond’s New 26 LB. Carbon Fiber Ebike"

portlander52232 — Sat, 28 Nov 2020 01:53:42 +0000

Light weight and stiffness change how a bike feels, far more significantly than it improves objective performance. A light, stiff bike with a fast-engagement hub feels sporty and fun, it’s that simple. It makes you want to go harder and makes you smile as you do it.

New comment by portlander52232 in "Greg LeMond’s New 26 LB. Carbon Fiber Ebike"

portlander52232 — Fri, 27 Nov 2020 16:46:09 +0000

You can buy a carbon bike at any mainstream bike shop, they aren’t just for pros anymore. I ride one because it feels amazingly sporty. I’m an enthusiast but not very athletic. The super light, stiff bike is just fun to ride.

The aero features like integrate stem and bars is mostly found on time-trial and triathlon bikes. In contrast you can get conventional road bikes, gravel bikes, and mountain bikes in carbon at any nice bike shop.

New comment by portlander52232 in "Cellmate: Male chastity gadget hack could lock users in"

portlander52232 — Wed, 07 Oct 2020 00:27:32 +0000

... pen pensive plaint about it