Hacker News: readthenotes1

New comment by readthenotes1 in "Sharla Boehm, the programmer whose code underpins the Internet"

readthenotes1 — Wed, 20 May 2026 19:37:50 +0000

And married to Barry Boehm of Software Engineering Economics fame. That was one smart couple!

New comment by readthenotes1 in "Sharla Boehm, the programmer whose code underpins the Internet"

readthenotes1 — Wed, 20 May 2026 19:36:50 +0000

Since it was a simulation written in Fortran, the odds of it actually being used for routing is pretty small.

New comment by readthenotes1 in "Tracking Starbucks' 'widely recyclable' cups: none ended up at recycling"

readthenotes1 — Wed, 20 May 2026 19:20:27 +0000

There are some recycling bins in Jackson Wyoming that make clear what a scam the standard recycling bin is. Different bins for different color glass, no labels, purified, etc.

New comment by readthenotes1 in "560-610 minutes of exercise a week needed for substantial heart benefits"

readthenotes1 — Wed, 20 May 2026 17:04:29 +0000

"exercise doesn't mean planned / scheduled exercise, like going to the gym."

Most of the people I see in the gym are sitting on the benches on their phone 9 minutes out of 10. I'm pretty sure going to the gym is not helping at all...

New comment by readthenotes1 in "The lasting influence of Netscape Time"

readthenotes1 — Tue, 19 May 2026 18:44:48 +0000

Keeping that bar open is a testimony to obsession.

Sound, sidewalks, toilets, pizza, overreach, the story is full of tragedy and perseverance.

New comment by readthenotes1 in "Colonization of Venus"

readthenotes1 — Tue, 19 May 2026 18:33:10 +0000

At least two...

New comment by readthenotes1 in "Hanoi’s humble beer glass and the memory of a nation"

readthenotes1 — Tue, 19 May 2026 18:23:10 +0000

"But in some corners of Hanoi, government officials still have exclusive access to special shops selling goods at subsidized rates. "

Surely in a communist government access would be equal to all? Why would there be elites?

New comment by readthenotes1 in "As of April 2026: Iran has destroyed 42 U.S. Military Aircraft in Op: Epic Fury"

readthenotes1 — Tue, 19 May 2026 07:15:24 +0000

The more wow part is that you didn't hear about this in March. I did and was surprised at how little reaction it got.

New comment by readthenotes1 in "WHO declares Ebola outbreak a global health emergency"

readthenotes1 — Mon, 18 May 2026 14:50:58 +0000

In this case, it'd be one that says "if you're going to allow people from those countries to enter your country make sure they're quarantined until clear" without being stopped by "it so nazi racist"

New comment by readthenotes1 in "The Global Fertility Crisis Is Worse Than You Probably Think"

readthenotes1 — Mon, 18 May 2026 12:56:31 +0000

Are they paying for it in the countries with high birth rates? I don't think so...

New comment by readthenotes1 in "Tesla Solar Roof is on life support as it pivot to panels"

readthenotes1 — Sun, 17 May 2026 20:06:55 +0000

Any article on Solar Roof that doesn't mention Tesla buying solar roof from Elon musk's cousin when solar roof was going under is an article not worth reading

New comment by readthenotes1 in "US is starting to see heavy job losses in roles exposed to AI"

readthenotes1 — Sat, 16 May 2026 21:43:34 +0000

I had a car dealership, used an AI agent to set up an appointment. It was so efficient. It's the only reason I asked if it were a real human. It was not. Far better than the norm

New comment by readthenotes1 in "Cursing the government does not fix potholes. Spray-painting them does"

readthenotes1 — Sat, 16 May 2026 00:54:57 +0000

The way greed applies to the public purse is mediated by zero cost accounting wherein a government agency is compelled to spend all of their year's allocation without completing their work so that they can justify getting more in the next budget cycle.

New comment by readthenotes1 in "Heritability of human life span is ~50% when heritability is redefined"

readthenotes1 — Thu, 14 May 2026 16:32:22 +0000

This author seems disagrees with you:

"Heritability does not indicate what proportion of a trait is determined by genes and what proportion is determined by environment. So, a heritability of 0.7 does not mean that a trait is 70% caused by genetic factors; it means that 70% of the variability in the trait in a population is due to genetic differences among people."

https://medlineplus.gov/genetics/understanding/inheritance/h...

New comment by readthenotes1 in "Heritability of human life span is ~50% when heritability is redefined"

readthenotes1 — Wed, 13 May 2026 15:45:02 +0000

"heritability depends on society"

Seems like the author is doing some redefining here like he's accusing the paper's author.

Perhaps the statement was meant to mean "fulfillment of hereditary characteristics change when society changes" but it wouldn't be that hard to say it if that's what it was supposed to be...

New comment by readthenotes1 in "“I applied to be pope”: Losing grip on reality while using ChatGPT"

readthenotes1 — Wed, 13 May 2026 15:12:36 +0000

I have a now homeless relative who went through the same thing...

New comment by readthenotes1 in "Show HN: I asked AI to write Sci-Fi for eternity"

readthenotes1 — Wed, 13 May 2026 15:06:37 +0000

Most of the golden age sci fi is 200 pages or so.

Even Dickens, who was often paid by the word, would be appalled at the length of some books today, not to mention the epic cycles like Wheel of Time, that go on forever and in which the author carefully doles out plot points

New comment by readthenotes1 in "Houses are for living, not for speculation"

readthenotes1 — Wed, 13 May 2026 03:09:04 +0000

My news feed article just before this one had the title

"Trump Urges Congress To Pass Bill To Prevent Corporations from Scooping Up Single Family Homes"

New comment by readthenotes1 in "As researchers age, they produce less disruptive work"

readthenotes1 — Tue, 12 May 2026 22:36:11 +0000

I was surprised that the article did not mention that Einstein was not originally given the Nobel prize for relativity because the Old guard did not like the work...

New comment by readthenotes1 in "As researchers age, they produce less disruptive work"

readthenotes1 — Tue, 12 May 2026 22:35:14 +0000

I was shocked that the article did not mention Kuhn as the source for the two paradigms. Has he been forgotten already?

And of course if you haven't read that book, it's insightful and easy