Hacker News: ryankshaw

New comment by ryankshaw in "California is free of drought for the first time in 25 years"

ryankshaw — Fri, 23 Jan 2026 23:28:11 +0000

It absolutely is about storage capacity. If California built out a better system of reservoirs, it wouldn't need to take water from other states in the Colorado river basin.

New comment by ryankshaw in "Nest 1st gen and 2nd gen thermostats no longer supported from Oct 25"

ryankshaw — Sat, 06 Sep 2025 04:31:33 +0000

If I am looking to get something that works with Home Assistant or esphome to replace my first gen nest thermostat, what should I get?

New comment by ryankshaw in "Willow, Our Quantum Chip"

ryankshaw — Fri, 13 Dec 2024 02:30:01 +0000

I had the same question and this article was really helpful in explaining the threat models

https://www.deloitte.com/nl/en/services/risk-advisory/perspe...

New comment by ryankshaw in "New Calculation Finds we are close to the Kessler Syndrome [video]"

ryankshaw — Thu, 21 Nov 2024 15:42:10 +0000

Thanks for the explanation.

So you don’t think the 1:10k odds compounded over every space launch are enough to be a problem?

I was thinking that maybe as you get to a scale where you have things coming and going all the time, and each time they have to pass through the debris layer, and if they have bad luck they become part of that debris, that eventually you get to a point where even just passing through that layer is untenable. But you don’t think that is likely even for a society sending out interplanetary vessels every day?

New comment by ryankshaw in "Ford lost $3.7B on its EV sales"

ryankshaw — Thu, 21 Nov 2024 04:35:10 +0000

It’s because the sweet spot of EVs is replacing Toyota Corollas but cheaper (like BYD), not trying to replace the thing you haul your boat or trailer with (f-150 lightning).

BYD like cars at BYD like prices are the future of EVs. And yes, that will wreck the us auto makers

New comment by ryankshaw in "New Calculation Finds we are close to the Kessler Syndrome [video]"

ryankshaw — Wed, 20 Nov 2024 23:17:27 +0000

Is Kessler syndrome the Great Filter (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Filter)?

As in, is it the thing that makes it so no one else has broken out of their planet to come visit us?

I could totally see it being the case that as soon as a civilization gets good enough at putting stuff into space, they start putting a lot of stuff into space and then things start crashing into each other to the point that they can’t ever launch any more things into space and become stuck. Trapped by the artifacts of their own progress

New comment by ryankshaw in "Jeff Bezos killed Washington Post endorsement of Kamala Harris"

ryankshaw — Sat, 26 Oct 2024 19:22:01 +0000

WaPo endorsing Harris would have changed exactly 0 minds. Everyone that would have read it already agrees with them. But it would have made them feel good about their existing world view.

Them _not_ endorsing _will_ change minds. There are people that read Washington Post that would take that as a sign that not even their trusted left-leaning paper is 100% comfortable with the candidate they should have endorsed, so maybe there's something there they should have hesitancy about too.

New comment by ryankshaw in "Air Con: $1697 for an on/off switch"

ryankshaw — Thu, 29 Aug 2024 17:38:47 +0000

I did something very similar with my Pioneer minisplit. but i used this esp module you can just buy. Super simple and cheap:

https://smartlight.me/smart-home-devices/wifi-devices/wifi-d...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f6GEfzVhwCE

New comment by ryankshaw in "Economic Termites: Monopolies not noticeable enough for most of us"

ryankshaw — Tue, 11 Jun 2024 21:48:21 +0000

My understanding is that T-mobile solved their spectrum issue in the failed deal with AT&T. As part of the penalties of the deal not going through, AT&T had to give them a bunch of spectrum, and some cash to build out towers to deploy that new spectrum.

New comment by ryankshaw in "The world has probably passed peak pollution"

ryankshaw — Fri, 10 May 2024 23:31:46 +0000

Something affecting Mormon fertility rates specifically is the dramatic increase in housing costs in the “Mormon Corridor” (the inter mountain us west strip of geography where most Mormons live). It’s simply too expensive for most young Mormon families to live the lifestyle they used to; with large homes and large families.

That area of the US has some of the most newly unaffordable areas in the country

New comment by ryankshaw in "Brother have gotten to where they are now by not innovating"

ryankshaw — Mon, 27 Nov 2023 22:06:36 +0000

I don't know, if that's one of these ports than it does https://drive.google.com/file/d/1pOcfLm3yjtwB-uIJ_v8Un6afZmX...

oh and here's a bonus pic showing the $6 price tag from when I bought it 20 years ago https://drive.google.com/file/d/1oAFemqYAfiHp2lWLqjwYCTI4WW0...

New comment by ryankshaw in "Brother have gotten to where they are now by not innovating"

ryankshaw — Mon, 27 Nov 2023 21:42:51 +0000

I'm still using an HP LaserJet 5m that I got used from the local university's surplus sales department for $6 twenty years ago. It was made in 1995, so was 10 years old then and almost 30 years old now. I've had to replace the toner once. Works like a champ!

nothing else to add, other than "they don't make 'em like they used to"

New comment by ryankshaw in "Utah is first US state to limit teen social media access"

ryankshaw — Sun, 26 Mar 2023 01:11:34 +0000

I live in Utah. If that's what happens, that would be awesome! "Sorry kids, no fb/tiktok/insta and there's nothing I can do about it. None of them work where we live"

Would be a huge win for all parents. No social media, and we don't have to be the bad guys taking it away.

New comment by ryankshaw in "Cyclists now outnumber motorists in City of London"

ryankshaw — Mon, 20 Mar 2023 18:51:18 +0000

what do people do that have kids between the "too big for cargo bike" and "too young to drive their own car" category?

I used to take my kids all the time on my e-bike with a burley bike trailer. Now I have a 13 year old and a 10 year old. I'm pretty sure the middle schooler would get made fun of if his friends saw him showing up to school or soccer practice in the cargo bucket of my bike.

For people that have hit that milestone before me, what do you guys do for your older kids?

New comment by ryankshaw in "Amazon employees push CEO Andy Jassy to drop return-to-office mandate"

ryankshaw — Tue, 21 Feb 2023 23:08:56 +0000

> WFH will continue to proliferate among lower tier companies who simply don't have the same levers around prestige and compensation

...as it was for all of the tech world's history before 2020.

Not a comment on if that's a good or bad thing, just stating that we're seeing a reversions to what was considered normal.

Pre-2020, if you met a random guy living in small town Idaho or some random suburb in Indiana, working out of his house, completely remotely, it was more likely that they worked at some company you've never heard of than one of the highest-paying FAANGs, and that their income was more similar to his neighbors than the FAANG worker making $400k.

New comment by ryankshaw in "Amazon employees push CEO Andy Jassy to drop return-to-office mandate"

ryankshaw — Tue, 21 Feb 2023 22:58:06 +0000

Same. I do like the flexibility but miss the "bustling office culture" as you call it.

Seems like the idea for me would be some kind of hybrid where 2-3 days a week at least most co-workers are together in-office and the other days people are where they are personally most productive.

Wouldn't have to be draconian, leaders could say "I highly encourage" and provide things like lunches and expectations that that's when collaboration, meetings, etc would happen and then also have expectation that there would be "get shit done" days on those non-collaboration-focused days

New comment by ryankshaw in "The Aral Sea has shrunk because of the re-routing of its source rivers (2022)"

ryankshaw — Sat, 07 Jan 2023 20:51:36 +0000

The same is going to happen to the (once) Great Salt Lake. It's going to be a disaster, the vast majority of the population of Utah lives along the Wasatch Front nextdoor and downwind from it, and all the heavy metals and toxic chemicals that are stably suspended in it from the Kennecott copper mine and the old Geneva Steel mills are going to turn into dust and go straight into their lungs. There's going to be a ton of cancer just like all the towns along the shores of the dried up Aral Sea

New comment by ryankshaw in "Ask HN: Does anybody still use bookmarking services?"

ryankshaw — Thu, 23 Jun 2022 16:07:33 +0000

I have the pocket extension installed in chrome. Not so much because I actually refer back to the things I have added to it but so that when I have wayyyy too many tabs open I can click the "add to pocket" button on a few of them and not agonize about closing them.

New comment by ryankshaw in "Meld for Macs"

ryankshaw — Mon, 16 May 2022 23:51:08 +0000

yup. protip:

Put this in your ~/.gitconfig

  [merge]
     tool = opendiff

then next time you get a merge conflict, just do:

  `git mergetool`

it will open xcode's FileMerge.app, which is the best mergetool I've ever used.

New comment by ryankshaw in "The scourge of Rec dot gov (2021)"

ryankshaw — Fri, 13 May 2022 21:44:17 +0000

to me, the biggest problems with recreation.gov are:

1) the incentive to have lotteries for things (like angels landing in Zion, half dome cables in Yosemite, etc) where you have to pay just to enter the lottery and are out your money even if you are not selected. none of that money goes to actually help maintain that national park. BOA just pockets it

2) it has completely changed the landscape of who is in the campgrounds from local families that went up the canyon for the weekend with their kids to professional #vanlife / RVers that pay memberships into these services that tell them exactly which spots to book at exactly which time 8 months in advance so they can continue their year round lifestyle of living on the road