Hacker News: rovolo

New comment by rovolo in "AWS outage shows internet users 'at mercy' of too few providers, experts say"

rovolo — Fri, 24 Oct 2025 17:42:14 +0000

Fauci said the following on 2020-03-08: https://www.factcheck.org/2020/05/outdated-fauci-video-on-fa...

> When you’re in the middle of an outbreak, wearing a mask might make people feel a little bit better and it might even block a droplet, but it’s not providing the perfect protection that people think that it is. And, often, there are unintended consequences — people keep fiddling with the mask and they keep touching their face.

> But, when you think masks, you should think of health care providers needing them and people who are ill... It could lead to a shortage of masks for the people who really need it.

He said that there's a shortage, and that he didn't trust that people would wear the masks correctly. I remember that most of the early anti-mask guidance I heard was claims that they weren't likely to prevent yourself from getting infected because: the mask would become an infectious surface; and people wouldn't handle the mask as infectious.

Opinions started to shift over March, and the CDC put out guidance on 2020-04-03 to wear cloth masks in public. https://www.npr.org/sections/coronavirus-live-updates/2020/0...

> It is mainly to prevent those people who have the virus — and might not know it — from spreading the infection to others.

> U.S. health authorities have long maintained that face masks should be reserved only for medical professionals and patients suffering from COVID-19, the deadly disease caused by the coronavirus. The CDC had based this recommendation on the fact that such coverings offer little protection for wearers, and the need to conserve the country's alarmingly sparse supplies of personal protective equipment.

I used wikipedia for dates and sources: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Face_masks_during_the_COVID-19...

New comment by rovolo in "Software development topics I've changed my mind on"

rovolo — Wed, 05 Feb 2025 22:37:53 +0000

I agree that the time unit should be in the variable name. The code itself should do a good job of explaining "what" is happening, but you generally need comments to explain "why" this code exists. Why is the test advancing the time, and why are we advancing the time at this line of the test?

    networkTimeMs++; // Callback occurs after timeout

    timeSec++; // Advance time to check whether dependent properties update

    utcTime++; // Leap second, DON'T advance ntpTime

New comment by rovolo in "Reining in America's $3.3T tax-exempt economy"

rovolo — Fri, 21 Jun 2024 21:30:44 +0000

There isn't a clear trend to more taxes in the US (scaled to GDP). Federal tax receipts were higher in the 90s (17-20%) than the 00s/10s (14-18%). Local and state receipts have been basically flat at ~8.8%.

Federal: https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/FYFRGDA188S

State & Local: https://fred.stlouisfed.org/graph/?g=1pltN

New comment by rovolo in "'Right to roam' movement fights to give the commons back to the public"

rovolo — Fri, 24 May 2024 00:45:53 +0000

~60/year of <5yo Australian kids in the 90s, down to ~25/year in the 10s. That's a death rate reduction of ~3/100k, which is about the rate of <5yo deaths from cancer. 50% of the <5yo drownings in '93-'18 were in pools.

https://www.royallifesaving.com.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/00...

https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/causes-of-death-in-childr...

New comment by rovolo in "Can turning office towers into apartments save downtowns?"

rovolo — Wed, 08 May 2024 00:37:00 +0000

I understand electrical and plumbing, but why does the HVAC need to be bigger/smaller?

New comment by rovolo in "Can turning office towers into apartments save downtowns?"

rovolo — Wed, 08 May 2024 00:31:49 +0000

The CA $950 threshold is when the theft switches from a misdemeanor to a felony:

https://www.hoover.org/research/why-shoplifting-now-de-facto...

In comparison, Texas has a $2,500 threshold for upgrading from a misdemeanor to a felony:

https://www.criminaldefenselawyer.com/resources/criminal-def...

New comment by rovolo in "Other People’s Problems"

rovolo — Fri, 26 Apr 2024 00:45:32 +0000

The "better ways" listed in this book were often worse at the metrics the old solution was targeting. They won out because they gained flexibility by loosening requirements. Personal computers were worse than minicomputers, but they were so much cheaper that they largely won out. The book is focused on the solution provider, not the consumer. The old providers lose out because they don't understand what the consumer values. OP is saying that the provider may be misunderstand the problem the consumer has when they offer a simple solution.

New comment by rovolo in "For twenty years, PostSecret has broadcast suburban America’s hidden truths"

rovolo — Sat, 06 Apr 2024 00:33:23 +0000

The generous interpretation of "suburban America" is that both the author and interviewee live in the suburbs:

> I grew up in Temecula, a California suburb

> his house in Laguna Niguel, in a trim suburban neighbourhood

But the project started off in an urban area:

> In the fall of 2004, Frank [would] drive through the darkened streets of Washington, D.C., with stacks of self-addressed postcards

I think though that "suburban" is playing the same role as "middle-class". Despite the technical definition, I think both terms imply everyday, normal, boring, "real" Americans. I agree this usage is weird and I wish people would stop using "suburban" this way.

New comment by rovolo in "Dark Star at 50: How a micro-budget student film changed sci-fi forever"

rovolo — Thu, 04 Apr 2024 20:18:17 +0000

Euros were introduced in 1999, and the preceding "European Currency Unit" (just for accounting) was introduced in 1979.

New comment by rovolo in "Sam Bankman-Fried sentenced to 25 years in prison"

rovolo — Thu, 28 Mar 2024 19:33:32 +0000

I found it a lot easier to understand the harmonic and geometric averages when I learned about the "generalized f-mean". Many averages are arithmetic averages of a transformation of the value. "f" refers to the function which transforms your values. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quasi-arithmetic_mean

- The geometric average is the arithmetic average of the logarithm. It places emphasis on the ratio between numbers, rather than the absolute difference.

- The harmonic average is the arithmetic average of the multiplicative inverse. It averages values by a constant numerator rather than denominator. For example, the average fuel economy of multiple vehicles makes more sense per-distance, so miles/gallon should be rewritten as gallons/mile.

- The (RMS) root-mean-square is the arithmetic average of the square. Electrical power is proportional to the square of the amperage or voltage, so AC current and voltage uses the RMS average to make the power calculations correct.

New comment by rovolo in "The rise of batteries in six charts"

rovolo — Tue, 30 Jan 2024 23:43:53 +0000

Taking the numbers from: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S030626192...

- Diesel has a peak efficiency of 40% but an average efficiency of 20-25% (depending on the type of driving)

- Gasoline has a peak of 35% and an average of 16%–20%

- Battery has a peak of 85% and an average of 80%

New comment by rovolo in "Your small imprecise ask is a big waste of their time"

rovolo — Mon, 13 Nov 2023 20:06:44 +0000

JFYI, scare quotes are also indicating the it is "the literal language used". The quotes are added to say that you are quoting literally what other people/the culture uses, but that you disagree with how that term/phrase is used.

New comment by rovolo in "My rude-ass car"

rovolo — Wed, 01 Nov 2023 22:27:57 +0000

You're correct about it being mandatory:

> At the left front designated seating position (driver's position), a warning system that activates a continuous or intermittent audible signal for a period of not less than 4 seconds and not more than 8 seconds and that activates a continuous or flashing warning light visible to the driver for not less than 60 seconds (beginning when the vehicle ignition switch is moved to the “on” or the “start” position) when condition (A) exists simultaneously with condition (B) ...

> (A) The vehicle's ignition switch is moved to the “on” position or to the “start” position.

> (B) The driver's automatic belt is not in use, as determined by the belt latch mechanism not being fastened, ...

https://www.ecfr.gov/current/title-49/part-571/section-571.2...

New comment by rovolo in "Small business owners say they're pressured to hire off-duty cops for security"

rovolo — Thu, 19 Oct 2023 21:45:42 +0000

This report [1] is specific to "Firefighter Arson", so they're looking for things to screen for during hiring for firefighters. The section you'll be interested in is on page 20: "PREVENTION OF FIREFIGHTER ARSON". They list some actions departments have taken: background checks for arson; requiring an affidavit the applicant hasn't conducted arson; "scared straight" lectures on the consequences of being jailed; and screening firefighters with a questionnaire.

But yeah, the profiling section some sound like a way to pathologize arson. I found the motivation section and case studies more interesting. The only corroboration from the case studies is for the age; there's no evidence included for the personality traits.

[1] https://web.archive.org/web/20190811142354/https://www.usfa....

New comment by rovolo in "Small business owners say they're pressured to hire off-duty cops for security"

rovolo — Tue, 17 Oct 2023 17:58:32 +0000

"White male, age 17–25" is an entire trait. "Homosexual" is a *part* of a trait: "Alcoholism, childhood hyperactivity, homosexuality, depression, borderline personality disorder, and suicidal tendencies". It's significant because of the other descriptors it's grouped with in that trait. It would be weird to have "homosexual" as a trait on its own, but it's obviously weird to group it with these other descriptors in a single trait.

New comment by rovolo in "Oil sector is lobbying for inefficient hydrogen cars to delay electrification"

rovolo — Thu, 12 Oct 2023 19:48:11 +0000

Why does a city need ~100 L3 chargers per km2? People don't need to drive as far within a city, so even home L1 chargers should handle most city residents needs. The L3 chargers seem most useful on highways exiting the city.

New comment by rovolo in "Oil sector is lobbying for inefficient hydrogen cars to delay electrification"

rovolo — Thu, 12 Oct 2023 19:40:23 +0000

2016 means you're talking about ST3, and 2039 means you're talking about Ballard [1]. It looks like the date in ST3 for Ballard was originally 2038 [2], so it doesn't seem delayed that much *yet*.

That said, I'm not sure large-scale transit projects are too comparable to electric infrastructure. The ST1 project had a lot of delays due to disagreements about where the rail line would go, and the cost of purchasing land [3]. It's a system designed to move people to places, so a lot of people have opinions on which places the system should go. By contrast, people mostly care that enough electricity is getting delivered to where they live, and don't really care how it gets there.

[1] https://www.soundtransit.org/system-expansion/west-seattle-b...

[2] https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/transportation/sou...

[3] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Link_light_rail

New comment by rovolo in "Chomsky explains why nobody is a moral relativist"

rovolo — Thu, 28 Sep 2023 21:00:49 +0000

Foucault was working in Tunisia from 1966-1968. HIV is thought to have spread to NYC in '71, and SF in '75 which is where Foucault probably was infected. AIDS was first clinically described in '81, and Foucault died in 1984 from AIDS.

New comment by rovolo in "A basic guide to using Asian names"

rovolo — Thu, 21 Sep 2023 19:09:04 +0000

> Isn't 'th' just the aspirated version of 't'?

'th' is only an aspirated 't' for loan words in English. Most English words pronounce 'th' as the fricatives /θ/ or /ð/.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Th_(digraph)

"Thyme" is odd because it used to be spelled "tyme" in Middle English (1066-1400s). I assume it was changed to 'th' to be more similar to Latin and French. Something similar happened to "island" (iland) and "isle" (ile) where a silent 's' was added to make the words closer to the Latin "insula".

https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/thyme

https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/isle

New comment by rovolo in "I can tolerate anything except the outgroup (2014)"

rovolo — Wed, 06 Sep 2023 23:17:18 +0000

> The relevant outgroups animating Afrikaner nationalism aren't the Zulu ... It was the perceived "threat" of racial integration driven by English liberals

The article compared "South African whites and South African blacks". It sounds like you're comparing Afrikaners and the English?

The article links "narcissism of small differences" to the wikipedia page which says:

> [It] is the idea that the more a relationship or community shares commonalities, the more likely the people in it are to engage in interpersonal feuds and mutual ridicule because of hypersensitivity to minor differences perceived in each other.

I don't think this even slightly describes the "outgroup conflict" in South Africa. Furthermore, I think that Scott using this as an example minimizes the sources of conflict, e.g. Apartheid, because the rest of the article is solely about outgroup hatred.