Hacker News: pyk

New comment by pyk in "Nvidia to buy assets from Groq for $20B cash"

pyk — Thu, 25 Dec 2025 15:22:17 +0000

As a relative laymen in this hardware inference space, I am curious what exactly was Groq useful for vs. the typical hardware architecture? Or was this a “step in before they become more generally useful” situation for Nvidia/Groq?

New comment by pyk in "ICE and CBP agents are scanning faces on the street to verify citizenship"

pyk — Wed, 29 Oct 2025 17:36:51 +0000

This and ezpass readers are already everywhere in cities (even outside toll points) to track movement.

New comment by pyk in "Floss Before Brushing"

pyk — Wed, 29 Oct 2025 17:34:46 +0000

Incredible for post-popcorn, and for $10 nowadays a no brainer. I still find floss does a better job at scraping the sides of the tooth vs water flossers for dislodging.

New comment by pyk in "PEZ Robo Dispenser Using Arduino"

pyk — Mon, 01 Sep 2025 02:43:57 +0000

Fun project! For HN Pez fans, The Pez Outlaw is an amazing “hacker” collector documentary on Netflix that follows Steve Glew - who made his own dispensers semi-legit through connections in Europe (Pez Europe operated separately from Pez USA, and still does in many ways). Has some parallels to the scrappy nature of tech as well.

New comment by pyk in "Impacts of adding PV solar system to internal combustion engine vehicles"

pyk — Mon, 14 Jul 2025 12:29:58 +0000

The 2010 Prius IV had this as an option - one of my favorite cars due to low maintenance (the lowest maintenance visits per year for its era). The solar panel air vent circulation is a nice feature (even if slightly gimmicky) and I suspect extends the hybrid battery life as well by preventing some marginal battery heat death while parked.

The newest (2023+) Prius brought back the solar roof as an option - and this time it charges the battery (albeit marginally / but not bad for those that drive minimally).

New comment by pyk in "Dow plunges 2,200 points, Nasdaq enters bear market"

pyk — Fri, 04 Apr 2025 22:09:29 +0000

During a world war, you cannot trade with your international “enemies.”

This level of tariffs is to discourage international dependency and trade as a prelude to war. Look who does not have a tariff.

This is not good policy - leading economists have written about this [1] as “…perhaps the worst economic own goal I have seen in my lifetime.”

[1] https://www.thefp.com/p/tyler-cowen-liberation-day-was-even

New comment by pyk in "We need a permanent solution for universal broadband access"

pyk — Fri, 05 Apr 2024 14:18:23 +0000

For telco at least, some countries have exactly that and unfortunately it does not run more efficiently and centralizes potential content control. Innovation comes from competition, and privatization keeps content more freely flowing. If we can solve those two while centralizing that would be amazing but maybe unrealistic with current policy.

New comment by pyk in "We think this cool study we found is flawed. Help us reproduce it"

pyk — Sun, 01 May 2022 09:50:04 +0000

If you have two people, you can have person A ask person B to “pick a random number”, and use heads for odd, tails for even. Don’t tell person B why you’re asking and my guess is you’re relatively random heads/tails. No studies that I am aware of to back this up, so people could be biased towards odd/even, but a bias correction could correct that too.

New comment by pyk in "Order your rapid tests from the USPS (US only)"

pyk — Wed, 19 Jan 2022 14:34:49 +0000

Until a PCR can be done within 15 min instead of 2-3 day turnaround, there will always be a gap in using PCR for public health purposes. That time may come in the future for faster PCR, but it is simply not the reality yet today and we have to rely on antigen tests to at the very least rely on detecting the most virulent days to prevent super spreader events.

New comment by pyk in "Order your rapid tests from the USPS (US only)"

pyk — Tue, 18 Jan 2022 18:30:24 +0000

Best I’ve heard it described is that Antigen tests are best for detecting high virulence on days 3-5 (e.g., when the spread is happening from tons of viral production, including in the nasal passages). They are more for public health usage to prevent spread rather than diagnostic like PCR.

New comment by pyk in "Monitoring my home's air quality with AirGradient's DIY sensor"

pyk — Thu, 09 Sep 2021 01:22:04 +0000

Still an active field of study but your intuition seems to be right. One study is here [1]. Combustible “types” of PM are usually worse (think smoke / carbon) vs. vaporous types of PM. The method of action is hypothesized to be the carbon particulate getting lodged in your lungs (similar problems from smoking, carbon nanotube inhalation, or charred foods).

[1] https://ehp.niehs.nih.gov/doi/full/10.1289/ehp.0800185?url_v...

New comment by pyk in "Bottled water is 3,500 times worse for the environment than tap water"

pyk — Sun, 15 Aug 2021 19:19:14 +0000

One note that these articles and comparisons miss almost every single time - including the linked article. Bottled water is better for your health vs. the alternatives it sits next to in-store - sugar filled drinks, soda and/or diet soda - all of which are just as bad for the environment or worse.

When that health comparison is made, it becomes difficult to understand how banning or restricting bottled water makes sense when the alternative is not really tap water.

New comment by pyk in "Improving ventilation will help curb SARS-CoV-2"

pyk — Sun, 30 May 2021 23:15:44 +0000

If you have forced air, you can get a UV bulb that all air passes by for $200-300 - just requires drilling some holes and an AC plug. Also helps with killing mold and bacteria as an added benefit (and some of the original intention for the devices, e.g., OdorStop).

New comment by pyk in "Apple Fixes Bagel Emoji (2019)"

pyk — Sat, 09 Jan 2021 21:10:56 +0000

For those lactose intolerant out there, Tofutti makes a great no-lactose cream cheese alternative pretty widely available (Trader Joe’s, Whole Foods) that weirdly does a great texture-wise match to “real” cream cheese.

New comment by pyk in "The U.S. Divorce Rate Has Hit a 50-Year Low"

pyk — Wed, 11 Nov 2020 17:10:32 +0000

Several states have or have had laws against allowing unmarried partners or friends from making medical decisions. This was a huge deal for the legalization of gay marriage - before that you were in rough shape if your unmarried partner even wanted to visit you if you were incapacitated in the hospital.

TSP Tour in 3D through 2,079,471 stars

pyk — Sat, 17 Oct 2020 02:49:08 +0000

Article URL: http://www.math.uwaterloo.ca/tsp/star/gaia1.html

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24807080

Points: 44

# Comments: 9

New comment by pyk in "D-Wave announces general availability of first quantum computer for business"

pyk — Thu, 01 Oct 2020 02:34:52 +0000

I would safely say that it does not solve TSP faster than the best TSP code available - Concorde.

More info here, and note there is an iOS app too (Concorde TSP on the App Store) that you can play with that solves TSP to optimality: http://www.math.uwaterloo.ca/tsp/concorde.html

New comment by pyk in "The battle to invent the automatic rice cooker"

pyk — Sat, 01 Aug 2020 14:03:10 +0000

1 cup rice 1.25 cups water is what I use as a ratio for short-to-medium grain white rice (I recommend kokuho rose extra fancy). That also is the one typically inscribed on the side of a rice cooker pot. You can go a little over water-wise for a mushier rice, or under for a chewier/drier rice - white rice is forgiving.

New comment by pyk in "My thoughts in response to the lawsuit against the Internet Archive"

pyk — Thu, 23 Jul 2020 22:28:48 +0000

Any way to refocus on the bully publishers? Boycott these folks (Hachette, Harpercollins, Wiley, and Penguin Random House) so they respect the public service IA is giving to millions of people - beyond just the content in question. Actions can speak wonders.

New comment by pyk in "Past Time to Tell the Public:It Will Probably Go Pandemic, We Should Prepare Now"

pyk — Sun, 23 Feb 2020 15:22:41 +0000

Recommendations for what individuals can do are buried but very practical:

* Try to get a few extra months’ worth of prescription meds, if possible.

* Think through now how we will take care of sick family members while trying not to get infected. Cross-train key staff at work so one person’s absence won’t derail our organization’s ability to function.

* Practice touching our faces less. So how about a face-counter app like the step-counters so many of us use?

* Replace handshakes with elbow-bumps (the “Ebola handshake”).

* Start building harm-reduction habits like pushing elevator buttons with a knuckle instead of a fingertip.