Hacker News: rssoconnor

New comment by rssoconnor in "Why are we still using Markdown?"

rssoconnor — Sat, 04 Apr 2026 11:54:28 +0000

I was lamenting the other day that we used to have SGML SHORTREF, then XML came along because supposedly SGML is just too hard to parse. But XML is for computers, not for humans. So then we got Markdown, which is worse than where we started from.

New comment by rssoconnor in "The whole thing was a scam"

rssoconnor — Sun, 01 Mar 2026 00:57:30 +0000

https://totalrealreturns.com/n/VTI,VXUS?start=2025-01-20

New comment by rssoconnor in "Rivian R2: Electric Mid-Size SUV"

rssoconnor — Wed, 11 Feb 2026 15:21:42 +0000

Not that I'm disagreeing with your main point, but I will say that Toyota's hybrid design is one of the best ICE engines out there. The transmission is replaced with planetary gears and the starter and alternators are replaced with a pair of motors to control the throttle and continuously variable transmission, making it one of the gentlest engine designs out there.

But yes, there is engine oil to be replaced and whatnot.

And also, to your point, my experience with my PHEV is my short range driving is electric, but it turns out most of my miles is consumed by annual long range trips. If I commuted to work, things would tip more in favour of EV driving. All to say how much EV you get out of your PHEV will depend highly on the type of driving one does.

New comment by rssoconnor in "Canada slashes 100% tariffs on Chinese EVs to 6%"

rssoconnor — Sat, 17 Jan 2026 04:19:00 +0000

I'm pretty sure Carney is a Progressive Conservative.

New comment by rssoconnor in "US will ban Wall Street investors from buying single-family homes"

rssoconnor — Wed, 07 Jan 2026 21:47:29 +0000

I don't actually know anything, but I've been wondering lately: is higher house prices simply a consequence of Baumol's cost disease? If so, then there is kinda nothing we can do about it, right?. Higher house prices is simply a consequence of improved productivity elsewhere, and thus it is necessary to spend a larger fraction of one's income on housing.

New comment by rssoconnor in "ICE is using facial-recognition technology to quickly arrest people"

rssoconnor — Mon, 05 Jan 2026 14:24:40 +0000

> I think the answer to the question “how do we stop technology X from destroying us?” lies in licensing and regulation enacted through legislation.

In the golden age of the 90's we were able to ban CFCs, but I'm skeptical we could do that today. We no longer have that political ability, and I doubt we will get it back any time soon.

New comment by rssoconnor in "James Moylan, engineer behind arrow signaling which side to refuel a car, dies"

rssoconnor — Fri, 02 Jan 2026 14:33:50 +0000

When I'm trying to plug my PS/2 keyboard into the port in back of my computer which I cannot see, instead of needing to try two orientations, I need to try every orientation.

New comment by rssoconnor in "ACM Is Now Open Access"

rssoconnor — Thu, 01 Jan 2026 19:47:21 +0000

How does the arXiv manage the same feat for one tenth the cost?

New comment by rssoconnor in "I announced my divorce on Instagram and then AI impersonated me"

rssoconnor — Mon, 22 Dec 2025 14:57:58 +0000

PhysicsForums and the Dead Internet Theory -- https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42816284

New comment by rssoconnor in "Engineers who dismiss AI"

rssoconnor — Fri, 19 Dec 2025 23:09:10 +0000

Sure, I get that most humans aren't programmers, but the thrust of the article here is defending the position that "AI Can Write Your Code. [It Can’t Do Your Job.]" However, this task is literally the sort of code that I write. So if AI cannot do the above task, then AI cannot (yet) write my code.

I don't know what other programmers are doing, but a lot of my time is spent on tasks like this.

Here's another random task: Write an analytic ray - cubic Bézier patch intersection routine based on the based on the "Ray Tracing Parametric Patches", SIGGRAPH 82 paper. This is a task I did as part of my final project for my undergraduate graphics class.

These are both straightforward tasks to take well-described existing algorithms from literature and implement them concretely. Very few design choices to consider. In theory it ought to be right up the alley for what AI is supposedly good for.

New comment by rssoconnor in "Engineers who dismiss AI"

rssoconnor — Fri, 19 Dec 2025 15:33:08 +0000

Let me know when AI can create functions for the secp256k1 library that adds a point in jacobian coordinates to another point in jacobian coordinates, both in variable time and in constant time. i.e. add functions

    void secp256k1_gej_add_gej(secp256k1_gej *r, const secp256k1_gej *a, const secp256k1_gej *b);

and

    void secp256k1_gej_add_gej_var(secp256k1_gej *r, const secp256k1_gej *a, const secp256k1_gej *b);

As with the other functions in the library the parameters r and a are allowed to alias.

New comment by rssoconnor in "Pricing Changes for GitHub Actions"

rssoconnor — Wed, 17 Dec 2025 02:53:09 +0000

I also unsubscribed, but even with you and me out, from what I read, it was a profitable move on Netflix's part. I guess I can't fault them.

New comment by rssoconnor in "Analysis finds anytime electricity from solar available as battery costs plummet"

rssoconnor — Sat, 13 Dec 2025 21:19:23 +0000

Do not try this at home, but I replaced the lead acid battery in my UPS with a LFP battery. From what I read online, the charging curves for lead acid batteries and LFP batteries are very similar. The LFP batteries have a slightly higher charging voltage, so I expect my LFP battery to only charge upto about 80% capacity or so due to the charging voltage being slightly too low. I'm hoping the battery will last 10 years instead of 2 or 3 years.

Do not try this at home, as changing battery chemistry is quite ill advised.

New comment by rssoconnor in "Sick of smart TVs? Here are your best options"

rssoconnor — Sat, 13 Dec 2025 15:39:57 +0000

I used my rooted TV to root my PS4. I'm not even joking.

https://youtu.be/NzBBfGnAWM0

New comment by rssoconnor in "Size of Life"

rssoconnor — Wed, 10 Dec 2025 17:25:27 +0000

Not that I'm qualified to reply, but I think this is debated. I seem to recall reading in "Immune" by Philipp Dettmer that there is an argument that a virus is analogous to a spore stage of life, and the virus begins "living" when it plants itself inside a cell full of "nutrients", sheds it's skin and begins consuming and replicating.

New comment by rssoconnor in "Unison 1.0"

rssoconnor — Wed, 26 Nov 2025 17:30:10 +0000

How does the implementation of unique types works? It seems you need to add some salt to the hashes of unique type data, but where does the entropy come from?

New comment by rssoconnor in "Markdown is holding you back"

rssoconnor — Wed, 26 Nov 2025 01:25:21 +0000

I've use archforms in my custom markup before: https://r6.ca/HtmlAsSgml.html

For example added an attribute to turn all spaces into non-breaking spaces, and used archforms to remove the attribute afterwards.

But yeah, maybe for Makrdown you don't need archforms. On the other hand, perhaps there is some super clever way to use archforms to get your reference links working.

New comment by rssoconnor in "Unison 1.0"

rssoconnor — Wed, 26 Nov 2025 01:18:25 +0000

How do you deal with "branded" types, if you know what I mean.

Edit: I mean structurally identical types that are meant to be distinct. As I recall Modula 3 used a BRANDED keyword for this.

New comment by rssoconnor in "Markdown is holding you back"

rssoconnor — Sun, 23 Nov 2025 14:10:35 +0000

I've been meaning to see how close I can come to Markdown syntax using SGML's SHORTREF and perhaps architectural forms.

New comment by rssoconnor in "The Dollar Is Dead"

rssoconnor — Mon, 04 Aug 2025 01:42:14 +0000

How much is it down over the past 30 years?

FWIW, my mental CAD/USD price anchor was set when I was coming of age at 0.75 CAD / USD. Today it at 0.73 CAD / USD, and I've seen it touch 0.60 ish and pass parity in my lifetime.