Hacker News: realityking

New comment by realityking in "German men 18-45 need military permit for extended stays abroad"

realityking — Sat, 04 Apr 2026 21:48:50 +0000

Deutsche Welle is not funded by the “Rudfunkbeitrag” but part of the federal budgetz

New comment by realityking in "New laws to make it easier to cancel subscriptions and get refunds"

realityking — Thu, 02 Apr 2026 16:09:53 +0000

> Is it harder than implied to make that declaration?

It involves going in person to a court or to a notary public. Pretty high friction which, I believe, is largely intentional.

New comment by realityking in "The three pillars of JavaScript bloat"

realityking — Sun, 22 Mar 2026 18:00:50 +0000

There’s been a lot of progress (Temporal, URL, TextDecoder, Base64 encoding, etc.) but there are still gaps.

Math.clamp is a big one (it’s a TC39 proposal). I’d also love to have the stats functions that Python has (geometric mean, median, etc.).

On the more ambitious end: CSV reading/writing and IPv4/IPv6 manipulation.

New comment by realityking in "Starlink militarization and its impact on global strategic stability (2023)"

realityking — Sat, 14 Mar 2026 22:24:25 +0000

Most European countries (except France and the UK) are not interested in projecting power outside of a fairly narrow geographic area (mostly the European continent and adjacent seas).

These “military starlinks” will be much smaller systems than actual Starlink. The German one plans for 100 satellites.

Source: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2026-03-07/airbus-te...

New comment by realityking in "Qatar helium shutdown puts chip supply chain on a two-week clock"

realityking — Fri, 13 Mar 2026 20:39:45 +0000

Most MRIs vent their helium in an emergency shutdown. https://medprotech.de/en/what-is-an-mri-quench/

New comment by realityking in "Ireland shuts last coal plant, becomes 15th coal-free country in Europe (2025)"

realityking — Wed, 11 Mar 2026 17:37:16 +0000

Look at the graph labelled “ Share of generation (%)” to see the (relative) decline of coal.

New comment by realityking in "The engine of Germany's wealth is blocking its future"

realityking — Tue, 10 Mar 2026 14:21:54 +0000

From the OECD report you cited:

> In Germany, the tax wedge for the average single worker decreased by 5 percentage points from 52.9% to 47.9% between 2000 and 2024. During the same period, the average tax wedge across the OECD decreased by 1.3 percentage points from 36.2% to 34.9%.

Sounds like Germany is getting better.

New comment by realityking in "Ireland shuts last coal plant, becomes 15th coal-free country in Europe (2025)"

realityking — Mon, 09 Mar 2026 17:00:46 +0000

Yes the share of electricity produced by coal plants is going down: https://ember-energy.org/countries-and-regions/china/

So it appears they’re building more renewable capacity than coal capacity.

New comment by realityking in "Proton Mail Helped FBI Unmask Anonymous 'Stop Cop City' Protester"

realityking — Fri, 06 Mar 2026 07:48:05 +0000

What do you think they should’ve done when faced with a legal warrant from the jurisdiction they operate in?

New comment by realityking in "NRC issues first commercial reactor construction approval in 10 years [pdf]"

realityking — Thu, 05 Mar 2026 12:55:48 +0000

Heat pump exists. I’d rather burn gas in the (mostly existing) gas plants than put more gas pipes into the ground.

New comment by realityking in "Apple Studio Display and Studio Display XDR"

realityking — Tue, 03 Mar 2026 22:27:29 +0000

> Can you point me to said list?

There’s no list per-se. The MacBook Pro (2021 and later) is listed as supported. The M3 Pro and M3 Max are not listed as only supporting 60Hz while the M3 and M1 Pro are.

New comment by realityking in "Apple Studio Display and Studio Display XDR"

realityking — Tue, 03 Mar 2026 15:52:19 +0000

I don’t think so. My M3 Pro is on the list as supporting 120 hz but it only has Thunderbolt 4.

Also the base M4 doesn’t habe Thunderbolt 5 and it support 120 hz.

New comment by realityking in "iPhone 17e"

realityking — Tue, 03 Mar 2026 14:48:55 +0000

It‘s also generational. My 18yo sister in law is now applying for colleges and the word “application” immediately made her look for an app. That the whole process happened on a (not mobile friendly) website was rather surprising to her.

(English is her 3rd language)

New comment by realityking in "Don't use passkeys for encrypting user data"

realityking — Sat, 28 Feb 2026 08:21:40 +0000

> For someone like me who already uses a password manager for everything, passkeys seem to add no security while reducing usability and control.

One advantage of passkeys is that they’re phishing resistant. They’re bound to the website that you created them for, it’s impossible to use them for a different website.

New comment by realityking in "Mac mini will be made at a new facility in Houston"

realityking — Wed, 25 Feb 2026 22:46:19 +0000

> There was an APAC trade treaty called the TPP that Rodham-Clinton/Obama pulled out of which would have done exactly that.

I think you got your timelines crossed - it was Trump who pulled out of TPP (though Clinton also opposed it during the campaign).

New comment by realityking in "Adoption of EVs tied to real-world reductions in air pollution: study"

realityking — Sun, 25 Jan 2026 09:24:03 +0000

I can only speak about Germany. Here the technical safety and exhaust check are mandatory every two years. The exhaust check is relative to what the manufacturer specified when they first started selling the car. No one is getting their car taken away because technology improved but you can‘t let your car degrade (or modify it) so it becomes more dirty.

New comment by realityking in "European Alternatives"

realityking — Fri, 23 Jan 2026 19:02:50 +0000

For clothes Zalando is a big one.

Beyond that it gets fragmented into companies serving only a few markets. Alza, Cool Blue, and Media Markt are some that come to my mind.

New comment by realityking in "Amazon is ending all inventory commingling as of March 31, 2026"

realityking — Mon, 19 Jan 2026 15:18:41 +0000

> This one bit me recently when I bought a package of budget light fixtures (in Canada, from amazon.ca) and then my licensed electrician informed me that he wouldn't be able to install them as they didn't have a CE mark.

The CE mark signifies compliance with European Union standards and regulations. Why would you expect Amazon Canada to care about that?

New comment by realityking in "10 Years of Let's Encrypt"

realityking — Tue, 09 Dec 2025 21:14:20 +0000

EV certs also showed the legal name of the company that requested the certificate - that was an advantage.

New comment by realityking in "What will enter the public domain in 2026?"

realityking — Tue, 02 Dec 2025 07:35:30 +0000

Estate is a common law concept. There’s no direct equivalent in German law.