<rss version="2.0" xmlns:dc="http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/" xmlns:atom="http://www.w3.org/2005/Atom"><channel><title>Hacker News: quantumfissure</title><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/user?id=quantumfissure</link><description>Hacker News RSS</description><docs>https://hnrss.org/</docs><generator>hnrss v2.1.1</generator><lastBuildDate>Fri, 17 Apr 2026 17:51:58 +0000</lastBuildDate><atom:link href="https://hnrss.org/user?id=quantumfissure" rel="self" type="application/rss+xml"></atom:link><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by quantumfissure in "House vote keeps federal "kill switch" vehicle mandate"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>> Do you really dispute there have been major changes in executive branch behavior?<p>No, but recent actions in the last 20 years, and certainly the last year have absolutely proven to me the Executive Branch, as I've been saying since the Reagan administration, has always had too much power.<p>> I don't see how that is related to the current warrantless home invasion policy.<p>While I agree, the point is the methods are the same as they were back then. INS and Border Patrol is exempt from (some) warrants.  Border Patrol handled that raid.  Badly.<p>I mean, we can talk about other Executive branches abusing their power all day (Waco; Homeland Security/TSA searches; DEA Searches; Iran-Contra; CIA Operations in the 60s-80's) etc... the point is, nothing ever changes.</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Fri, 23 Jan 2026 20:11:35 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46737244</link><dc:creator>quantumfissure</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46737244</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46737244</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[Clone Wars: IBM Edition]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>Article URL: <a href="https://hackaday.com/2026/01/14/clone-wars-ibm-edition/">https://hackaday.com/2026/01/14/clone-wars-ibm-edition/</a></p>
<p>Comments URL: <a href="https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46620162">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46620162</a></p>
<p>Points: 2</p>
<p># Comments: 0</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Wed, 14 Jan 2026 18:25:35 +0000</pubDate><link>https://hackaday.com/2026/01/14/clone-wars-ibm-edition/</link><dc:creator>quantumfissure</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46620162</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46620162</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by quantumfissure in "The unbearable joy of sitting alone in a café"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>For me, the issue is not being alone, or quiet.  I don't even own a cell phone.<p>It's everyone else with the incessant noise; non-stop music; speaker/video calls; and now AI talking back to you via phone.  Speakerphones are the worst, I cannot believe we normalized having a two way conversation via speakerphone while holding it up to your ear.<p>I used to enjoy nature and just sitting and staring, with portable bluetooth speakers and phones blasting music, I can't do that anymore.  I used to enjoy the library and just sitting, reading whatever random facts I could find.  Last couple times I went, I was yelled at to mind my own business by people when I asked them to take their phone conversations to the lobby.  So I went to another library, librarians were loud and several meetings via Teams were going on by different people.<p>Local rail trails are similar, I can't just take a walk in peace and quiet anymore.  Honestly, removing the 3.5mm port is when I started noticing when it all got worse.</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Sun, 04 Jan 2026 19:25:11 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46491249</link><dc:creator>quantumfissure</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46491249</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46491249</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by quantumfissure in "Screenshots from developers: 2002 vs. 2015 (2015)"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>It's been a long, long time.  I think Red Hat 8/9 (from 2002-2003) had a default KDE build.  Even in Fedora Core 1 Gnome was default.<p>Now, there's a separate build to download for KDE.  It's likely because Gnome is default install for Red Hat Enterprise Workstation.</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Sun, 07 Dec 2025 00:36:00 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46178099</link><dc:creator>quantumfissure</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46178099</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46178099</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by quantumfissure in "Screenshots from developers: 2002 vs. 2015 (2015)"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>It's been well known for awhile now that it's his preferred setup.<p>He seems to want as much stability as possible; while being as minimal as possible; with as little fuss to install and keep up to date as possible.  Fedora meets those needs.  Gnome is Fedora's main concentration.</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Sat, 06 Dec 2025 23:58:43 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46177811</link><dc:creator>quantumfissure</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46177811</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46177811</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by quantumfissure in "Air India flight to London crashes in Ahmedabad with more than 240 onboard"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>There is a media difference though since the DCA crash.  Military and small planes (<10 PAX) crash all the time.  We just never heard about it until after January. My point is the same, media sees crash, tries to drive clickage.<p>On a personal level, I know three people that have died in small plane crashes in the Alaska wilderness in the last 15 years, which is so common that it didn't even get on local news. I have acquaintances that were in involved in two others elsewhere over the last few years.  Small planes are unbelievably dangerous.  Commercial jets, not so much.</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Thu, 12 Jun 2025 14:02:56 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44257939</link><dc:creator>quantumfissure</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44257939</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44257939</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by quantumfissure in "Air India flight to London crashes in Ahmedabad with more than 240 onboard"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>4 in the last year (365 days), not calendar year.</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Thu, 12 Jun 2025 13:21:00 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44257488</link><dc:creator>quantumfissure</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44257488</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44257488</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by quantumfissure in "Air India flight to London crashes in Ahmedabad with more than 240 onboard"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>No, it's not worse.  If you look through the list of deadly plane accidents, the last year has been average (4 vs. 3 avg).<p>Since the deadly DCA collision in January, there are things making the news now that would never have in the past, so it seems like it's worse. Especially if the plane has "Boeing" written on the side.  For example, hitting animals, tire blowouts, or ground equipment bumping into planes, which grounds them for inspection.  When I worked for a major airline, those things are all actually pretty common and happen everywhere, all the time.<p>It's just a method used to stoke fear and feed clicks.<p>People find the most minute thing to complain about.  Recently, there was an article about the antiquated FAA system using floppies.  While the system is old and showing it's cracks, saying it uses floppies just makes it sound worse then it is.  As of 2020, our mx crew were still plugging a Windows 98 laptop with DOS into Embraers and Bombardier Dash8s, and used floppies in Boeings (no Airbus or ATRs in our fleet for comparison).</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Thu, 12 Jun 2025 12:44:55 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44257117</link><dc:creator>quantumfissure</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44257117</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44257117</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by quantumfissure in "Air India flight to London crashes in Ahmedabad with more than 240 onboard"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>And there were 7 in one year during 2018 and 2019.<p>Looking through the chart you linked, averages around 3 per year.  Considering how many planes are currently in the sky at this very moment, this is a wildly useless statistic used to cause fear and panic.</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Thu, 12 Jun 2025 12:29:13 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44256970</link><dc:creator>quantumfissure</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44256970</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44256970</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by quantumfissure in "Solar grants held hostage in Pennsylvania legislature – as demand soars"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>I mentioned this in another parent comment: Tunhannock doesn't even need a bond, they can easily pay for it just with what the town has made from gas extraction in the last 15 years.</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Sun, 18 May 2025 18:49:07 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44023495</link><dc:creator>quantumfissure</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44023495</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44023495</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by quantumfissure in "Solar grants held hostage in Pennsylvania legislature – as demand soars"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>> Solar has won the market's backing. Whatever Pennsylvania politicians decide, they better take that into account.<p>I would argue it really depends and is highly dependent upon the region.  British Columbia, Canada is mostly hydro-electric.  Are we going to get rid of all the dams for solar in a mostly cloudy and rainy province?  We have to choose what works best for the region.  Solar works great in Southern California; Arizona; Florida; Spain; Southern France, not as well in places like Washington; British Columbia; or Scotland where alternatives are more conducive to the climate.<p>Pennsylvania already has a strong market in nuclear; hydro; and wind, with very reliable power when not flooded or ice-stormed.  We are also larger then some EU countries, and get lots of snow in the Western/Northern areas of the state that are better served by those other methods over solar.  I have also never paid over .12kW/h (.09kW/h now) near a major river.  When I was looking into solar panels, my average was going to be between .16-.25kW/h (own-lease range).  That's a hard sell to a lot of people with little payoff for most individuals in the state.<p>In PA, for most of the state, solar is better provided by requiring new public buildings or parking garages/lots have panels, rather then individuals.</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Sun, 18 May 2025 18:36:40 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44023420</link><dc:creator>quantumfissure</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44023420</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44023420</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by quantumfissure in "Solar grants held hostage in Pennsylvania legislature – as demand soars"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>As a Pennsylvanian with a personal connection to the school district in the article, there are several things not mentioned that are critical to this conversation:<p>1. Tunhannock is in a prime area for Marcellus shale natural gas extraction.  About 15 years ago, there was an extraction "boom."  The town made a fortune off of it and took the town from very low income, PA "dump" to using it for massive improvements.  Still not a booming town by any sense of the word, but much nicer then it was.  Still a small population.<p>2. The town has a fortune in its coffers from the gas companies; employees; and other income related to above.  In my opinion, they should use that for their solar, instead of getting a grant from the state that could be better used for solar in Philadelphia; Pittsburgh; Lancaster; Allentown; or other densly-ish populated areas without large land available for solar/rooftop panels.<p>3. Tunkhannock is also outside a former major coal and manufacturing region, on the Susquehanna, about 45 mins from Scranton/Wilkes-Barre.  Except for employees of Proctor and Gamble, it's a relatively poor population compared to most of the rest of the state.  They hear "improvements to school district" they think "higher taxes."  PA taxes, especially school taxes are quite high, with little payoff or bang for the buck.  When you're small town blue-collar, earning an OK income and your property tax goes up 1 mill (the antiquated way PA calculates property tax), there's obvious pushback.<p>4. PA is Philadelphia in the East; Pittsburgh in the West; Lancaster/Harrisburg in the south and nothing else in the rest of the state.  Except for it being mostly woods/forest, it's prime for solar, but we also already have lots of environmentally friendly ways of producing energy as it is: hydro-dams; nuclear; windfarms (as well as coal and natural gas).  Our power is also pretty reliable, outside of ice storms, so it's a hard sell to people to want to give up anything else.<p>5. PA is slow moving in general.  We have the second largest full-time legislature in the US (we're 7th in population, 33rd in size).  There's a lot of logistics; committees; and procedure with that.  Most of our power is in the Towns; Townships; Counties; State (in that order).  Just because it seems to be held up now, is not unusual for us.  We tend to do things in slow steps, instead of one big leap that freaks people out.  Pot legalization is a good example.  We started medically; and there's very recent bills being proposed to legalize.  However, that didn't fly.  What will end up happening is decriminalization then eventual legalization after a few years of that.  Everything works that way in PA.  We're slow-progressive, with a priority on small region rights.  Except for liquor sales.  That's stuck in 1929.<p>6. And last, the most important, and probably most obvious, PennDOT sucks.</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Sun, 18 May 2025 18:11:16 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44023265</link><dc:creator>quantumfissure</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44023265</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44023265</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by quantumfissure in "In praise of grobi for auto-configuring X11 monitors"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>There are still plenty of reasons to use X11, mostly for software that doesn't support Wayland yet.</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Sat, 10 May 2025 20:19:28 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43948645</link><dc:creator>quantumfissure</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43948645</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43948645</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by quantumfissure in "Former Supreme Court justice David Souter has died"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>First thing I thought of too when I saw he died.<p>Homer's random knowledge of Supreme Court Justices mentioned throughout the years never ceases to amaze me.</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Fri, 09 May 2025 19:19:07 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43940117</link><dc:creator>quantumfissure</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43940117</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43940117</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by quantumfissure in "James Harrison, whose blood donations saved >2M babies, has died"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>There was one point I was trying to make, you said there are no locations currently near you, I posted three, plus mobile units.<p>There is also no selection bias.  I said that in the 90's there were several near West Chester and KoP. You say ChesCo is the wealthiest. Wealth in ChesCo is entirely concentrated within the KoP; West Chester; and Valley Forge area. Which would be accurate to what I said.  I did not grow up anywhere near there, rather in a very poor region, which is most of the county.  It is a large county.</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Sat, 08 Mar 2025 22:58:04 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43304351</link><dc:creator>quantumfissure</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43304351</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43304351</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by quantumfissure in "James Harrison, whose blood donations saved >2M babies, has died"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>Not to be snarky, but I grew up in ChesCo, and could've sworn there were donation centers way back even in the 90's, near KoP and West Chester.<p><a href="https://www.giveapint.org/" rel="nofollow">https://www.giveapint.org/</a> Locations in Pottstown/Exton, plus St Luke's Hospital<p>Red Cross, lots coming up: <a href="https://www.redcrossblood.org/give.html/drive-results?dt=WB:DR&ed=03%2F17%2F2025&order=DATE&range=10&sd=03%2F04%2F2025&zipSponsor=19405" rel="nofollow">https://www.redcrossblood.org/give.html/drive-results?dt=WB:...</a><p>Supposedly CHOP has locations too.  They do wonderful work.</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Tue, 04 Mar 2025 18:43:05 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43258456</link><dc:creator>quantumfissure</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43258456</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43258456</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by quantumfissure in "James Harrison, whose blood donations saved >2M babies, has died"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>Where at? Where I live in Pennsylvania, and not the most populated of areas, there are at least 3 groups open all the time for donations (two local Hospital systems and the regional Blood Bank).  Plus, there are no less then three mobile blood drives at fire halls; schools; churches; civic centers (i.e. VFW; Lions; Elks, etc...); libraries; etc... seemingly every week.  If you don't see signs, you often see it posted in grocery stores, libraries, anywhere a community billboard might be.</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Tue, 04 Mar 2025 15:56:56 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43256347</link><dc:creator>quantumfissure</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43256347</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43256347</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by quantumfissure in "School smartphone ban results in better sleep and improved mood: study"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>Please keep in mind, these lists are usually completely arbitrary and have very loose definitions of "school shootings", based around the usual theatrics of security and terror theater.<p>Some examples that have been on these lists in the past:<p>- A school resource officers firearm that accidentally went off when a child hugged around his waist. No injuries (there are other questions, but doesn't qualify in the same way)<p>- An empty .22 casing found in a random school parking lot, probably fell out of a car or got caught in a boot or similar.<p>- A gang fight at 1am on a Saturday near to school property.<p>- My personal favorite: The two schools closest to me that showed up on one of the lists (Everytown, I believe?) because the police were dealing with an active robbery situation about 1/2 mi away and they asked the schools to go into lockdown.  Apparently "lockdown" immediately and only ever means schools shooting.<p>- 2/3rd of school shootings that NPR couldn't verify happened.[1]
[1] <a href="https://www.npr.org/sections/ed/2018/08/27/640323347/the-school-shootings-that-werent" rel="nofollow">https://www.npr.org/sections/ed/2018/08/27/640323347/the-sch...</a></p>
]]></description><pubDate>Sun, 15 Dec 2024 02:35:28 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42421065</link><dc:creator>quantumfissure</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42421065</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42421065</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by quantumfissure in "Congress fights to keep AM radio in cars"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>I agree.  Subaru did have them for a bit in the early-mid-2000's.  I had it in our 05 Forester.  Stock radio.  Our 2011 Outback and my mother-in-law's 2017 Forester lacks it though.  No clue why they removed it.<p>It was wonderful going through New England mountains trying to know what the weather will do in 5 mins when it inevitably changes.</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Sun, 06 Oct 2024 18:59:42 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=41759274</link><dc:creator>quantumfissure</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=41759274</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=41759274</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by quantumfissure in "Japan’s Temple-Builder Kongō Gumi, Has Survived Nearly 1,500 Years"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>This was fascinating and lead me down the "Oldest Companies" Wikipedia.<p>However, I was watching the second video linked in the article made by Endevr and it just sounds like it was made by and read by ChatGPT.  The pauses are off and inflections are exactly the same on some words sounding unnatural.  Is it me, or does anyone else feel that way about it?  This isn't a new trend, is it?</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Mon, 02 Sep 2024 14:19:18 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=41425579</link><dc:creator>quantumfissure</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=41425579</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=41425579</guid></item></channel></rss>