Hacker News: seanf

New comment by seanf in "The largest acidic geyser has been putting on quite a show"

seanf — Wed, 04 Mar 2026 03:35:03 +0000

Cool. Found my way to this updates page that has a summary of volcano and seismic activity from different observatories if you click the tabs: https://www.usgs.gov/programs/VHP/volcano-updates#yvo

New comment by seanf in "Officials Claim Drone Incursion Led to Shutdown of El Paso Airport"

seanf — Wed, 11 Feb 2026 10:56:50 +0000

No exemptions for medical life flights, local law enforcement, or even the military. You can read a more normal NOTAM posted for New Orleans likely for Mardi Gras (https://tfr.faa.gov/tfr3/?page=detail_6_2231)

As a Minnesotan I wonder what this does to the deportation flights going to and from Camp East Montana.

New comment by seanf in "FBI raids Washington Post reporter's home"

seanf — Wed, 14 Jan 2026 16:31:17 +0000

The FBI working to recover stolen property on behalf of a private citizen who was the victim of a crime is something different. Harder to defend a reporter holding stolen property just because the victim is related to a public official. Would actually feel better about defending O'Keefe if the diary did have launch codes.

New comment by seanf in "Ilya Sutskever's SSI Inc raises $1B"

seanf — Wed, 04 Sep 2024 15:55:44 +0000

Google Deepmind is based in London.

New comment by seanf in "Halo 2 in HD: Pushing the Original Xbox to the Limit"

seanf — Thu, 18 Apr 2024 17:00:36 +0000

Link to the video from the bottom of the article: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O_nk21389u8

The video includes side-by-side comparison between the original upscaled 480p and 720p. Around 7:00 you hear about what it takes to get 720p and maintain around 30fps gameplay. Not only a great article, but also a great video to summarize the changes needed get the higher resolution.

New comment by seanf in "AI and satellite imagery reveals expanding footprint of human activity at sea"

seanf — Thu, 04 Jan 2024 16:14:27 +0000

Found this in the acknowledgement section of the article: https://github.com/GlobalFishingWatch/pyseas

Edit: cool examples here https://github.com/GlobalFishingWatch/pyseas/blob/master/pys...

New comment by seanf in "Borges and AI"

seanf — Wed, 20 Dec 2023 16:08:56 +0000

Collected Fictions[0] is a wonderful group of Borges stories that includes the ones mentioned in this article.

There are some amazing short story collections out there if you are the kind of reader that has a hard time staying with an entire novel. Ted Chiang has a couple[1][2] collections of stories that feel very Borges-like.

[0] https://www.librarything.com/work/25106 [1] https://www.librarything.com/work/28008 [2] https://www.librarything.com/work/23195758

New comment by seanf in "Google discontinues Google Glass for enterprise"

seanf — Thu, 16 Mar 2023 16:41:04 +0000

Taking this opporuntity to link to Charles Proteus Steinmetz[1]. Among the many, many things Steinmetz did, he invented the Metal Halide Lamp which was later refined for mass production decades later. This took the innovation of others less well-known to history[2]. So great example, bringing up the light bulb!

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Proteus_Steinmetz

[2] https://americanhistory.si.edu/lighting/20thcent/invent20.ht...

New comment by seanf in "Why does the US allow a controversial weedkiller banned across the world?"

seanf — Sat, 29 Oct 2022 17:26:58 +0000

Can you provide a better source? I know about the waste in large nonprofits, but am also personally benefiting from grant-supported research that if it otherwise didn't happen would leave me and a lot of others dead.

New comment by seanf in "Ask HN: Where would I find out about leasing land to telcos for 5G?"

seanf — Fri, 21 Oct 2022 21:04:22 +0000

American Tower might have info for you. "If we don’t yet work together, but you have land, towers, or a rooftop you want to sell or lease to us, we want to talk to you about a competitive package." https://www.americantower.com/us/property-owners/

New comment by seanf in "Show HN: With a 9-5 job and 2 kids I have finally finished my first MVP"

seanf — Thu, 26 Aug 2021 23:05:17 +0000

This negative comment got me thinking about why I liked the original post so much.

The URL of the product itself very clearly tells us what the product is (at least, if you are in the target audience)

So many web apps have inscrutable names. This is just refreshingly clear, it's a free option screener .com!

New comment by seanf in "Joe Rogan, confined to Spotify, is losing influence"

seanf — Wed, 25 Aug 2021 21:12:38 +0000

I don't understand at all why an enormous company like Spotify is so neglectful of the entire apple ecosystem.

Part of this might be the legal friction between Spotify and Apple in the past. Here's an article that describes a coalition that Epic Games, Spotify, and others formed just last year to counter Apple's platform cut. https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2020/09/epic-spotify-and-oth...

New comment by seanf in "Afghan women forced from banking jobs as Taliban take control"

seanf — Fri, 13 Aug 2021 16:47:46 +0000

The author has said many times that the Iranian Revolution was part of the origin story of the book. The book is set in America, so what do you expect?

New comment by seanf in "Nuclear Power at McMurdo Station, Antarctica"

seanf — Fri, 18 Jun 2021 19:53:32 +0000

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hyman_G._Rickover Fascinating read, sounds like Robert Moses of the Navy

New comment by seanf in "YInMn, the First New Blue Pigment in Two Centuries"

seanf — Fri, 29 Jan 2021 23:08:48 +0000

The article links to a paint company that is using the pigment, cool video of them adding it to paint. (sorry for FB video)

https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=405127556741940

New comment by seanf in "Google Finance Finally Updated"

seanf — Wed, 16 Dec 2020 15:05:49 +0000

Still missing transaction tracking. Hopefully it will come back some day. I migrated to https://wallmine.com/ when Google Finance announced it was neutering itself. However, I've noticed Wallmine's listings are not always complete. As a couple examples: the insurance company Root isn't listed, the label for JAMF isn't correct.

Haven't looked at what is out there in a while, any other alternatives people are using?

New comment by seanf in "Facial recognition: It’s time for action"

seanf — Fri, 07 Dec 2018 20:18:57 +0000

The photo on the card is already stored in a system somewhere, and already vulnerable to attack. The brain is just for authentication at the door.

New comment by seanf in "Facial recognition: It’s time for action"

seanf — Fri, 07 Dec 2018 20:17:00 +0000

You mean like a photo?

New comment by seanf in "Facial recognition: It’s time for action"

seanf — Fri, 07 Dec 2018 19:57:25 +0000

My gym also uses facial recognition, but does it via a person sitting behind a desk checking that my member ID matches my face. I don't think many people are uncomfortable with this process, and this biometric method has been used for a long time.

New comment by seanf in "New Zealand travellers refusing digital search now face $5k Customs fine"

seanf — Mon, 01 Oct 2018 17:26:05 +0000

The ruling group includes some members of Congress and the executive branch. Current and former presidents and vice-presidents are not screened, nor are cabinet secretaries or members of Congress with security details at US airports. Not sure how the US president is treated when passing through other nations' borders but I'm guessing it is not the same border experience that everyone else goes through.

According to the "Port Courtesy Handbook" it sounds like many foreign dignitaries go through a modified and expedited border check at the US border that the rest of us do not use. "A Port Courtesy or “Courtesy of the Port” provides Foreign Government Officials and their traveling parties expedited processing and clearance upon arrival into the United States. Requests for Port Courtesies are managed by the Office of the Chief of Protocol in coordination with U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP)." https://www.state.gov/documents/organization/170352.pdf