Hacker News: sephamorr

New comment by sephamorr in "CT scans of BYD car parts"

sephamorr — Tue, 02 Jun 2026 22:16:55 +0000

On the platforms I've worked with, the weight isn't the issue so much as the quantity of expensive and vibe sensitive parts that are unsprung.

New comment by sephamorr in "Blue Origin's New Glenn blows up during static fire test"

sephamorr — Fri, 29 May 2026 06:38:40 +0000

The doubt is supposed to stay with you! You need to make sure there aren't other causes or contributing factors hiding behind 'the obvious'. There have been notorious cases in spaceflight where the issue was 'identified' and 'fixed', only for the same thing issue to happen in the next mission.

New comment by sephamorr in "Southwest Headquarters Tour"

sephamorr — Tue, 05 May 2026 05:12:53 +0000

This is correct. If you don't like heights, that's definitely not a reason to skip the tour, but you'll miss out on one piece (that I enjoyed).

New comment by sephamorr in "Southwest Headquarters Tour"

sephamorr — Mon, 04 May 2026 07:16:54 +0000

Seconding this! Make sure you get the "special tour". It was an absolute highlight of my trip. If you are interested in power infrasture it's a must see. If you're afraid of heights, perhaps not so much.

New comment by sephamorr in "Let's Buy Spirit Air"

sephamorr — Mon, 04 May 2026 03:32:24 +0000

JetBlue is a small rival (JetBlue at ~5% of US traffic, Spirit at ~3%) to the big 4 United/American/Southwest/Delta (each with ~17%). At least on the surface, a larger JetBlue might be more competitive rather than forcing them into the unequal partnerships like they have with United at the moment. Certainly, some jobs would be lost, but I do think that Spirit dying is a worse outcome than joining another small airline.

New comment by sephamorr in "Artemis II is not safe to fly"

sephamorr — Tue, 31 Mar 2026 05:19:49 +0000

This is actually what is thought to partially have caused the damage seen previously. The new trajectory is supposed to just have a single heating pulse instead of two.

New comment by sephamorr in "China is mass-producing hypersonic missiles for $99,000"

sephamorr — Wed, 25 Mar 2026 21:51:47 +0000

Well, the IRGC folks actually fighting probably don't have a luxurious future in a reformed Iran, so they might not be far off fighting for their lives.

New comment by sephamorr in "iPhone 17e"

sephamorr — Tue, 03 Mar 2026 02:36:47 +0000

The phones get larger and the UI gets less information dense every release. More padding, more offsets, more dead space.

New comment by sephamorr in "FDA declines to review Moderna's mRNA flu shot"

sephamorr — Wed, 11 Feb 2026 08:55:32 +0000

The document describes proof of effectiveness as supported by demonstrating "non inferiority to... a US licensed product". So yes, a (licensed) benchmark, but I see no references to a requirement for only testing against the best standard of care. It's a separate question about whether it should be though, and the cfr is quite vague throughout, so I would probably expect this isn't an illegal move (assuming arbitrary and capricious isn't held by a court), but I don't see it supported by precedent.

New comment by sephamorr in "FDA declines to review Moderna's mRNA flu shot"

sephamorr — Wed, 11 Feb 2026 05:11:14 +0000

Except this is not how medical regulation has worked in the US. This particularly is a new and stricter standard required for this particular vaccine. Even the new Trump policies for COVID vaccines now specifically requires a placebo -- comparison against standard-of-care would not be accepted.

New comment by sephamorr in "Court orders restart of all US offshore wind power construction"

sephamorr — Tue, 03 Feb 2026 04:07:06 +0000

Well, that's not 'mostly done'

New comment by sephamorr in "Significant US farm losses persist, despite federal assistance"

sephamorr — Thu, 22 Jan 2026 19:02:38 +0000

The point is that it's a technical criteria that allows you to exclude American production from Europe. It's just protectionism.

New comment by sephamorr in "The U.S. Is Funding Fewer Grants in Every Area of Science and Medicine"

sephamorr — Mon, 22 Dec 2025 17:20:54 +0000

Citation needed

New comment by sephamorr in "US Administration halted largest Offshore Wind project in the U.S."

sephamorr — Mon, 22 Dec 2025 16:54:17 +0000

You say economics instead of emotion, but your last sentence is emotion. If capex is your concern, explain the purpose of canceling an almost-complete farm. If energy breakevens are your concern, explain how this breakevens compares against, e.g. oil liquids.

New comment by sephamorr in "The "Wage Level" Mirage: H-1B proposal could help outsourcers and hurt US talent"

sephamorr — Thu, 25 Sep 2025 03:43:05 +0000

In their defense, if "things get bad", they probably lose their job and will be forced to leave. It's hard to put down permanent roots if you can be kicked out in 90 days.

New comment by sephamorr in "Trevor Milton's Nikola case dropped by SEC following Trump pardon"

sephamorr — Fri, 19 Sep 2025 16:56:33 +0000

I had the same thought as GP though, thought it was very clever.

New comment by sephamorr in "Things you can do with a Software Defined Radio (2024)"

sephamorr — Tue, 16 Sep 2025 22:52:54 +0000

There have been numerous issues in the past with 'dead' satellites waking back up and activating transmitters again, generally making a mess of the spectrum. Some satellites have pyro-fuses on the power lines from the solar arrays that are fired during passivation to make absolutely sure that the sat doesn't ever recharge and wakeup.

New comment by sephamorr in "Starship's Tenth Flight Test"

sephamorr — Sun, 24 Aug 2025 22:26:38 +0000

"significant" is doing a lot of work here. spaceX appears to have spent ~$10B on development and infrastructure for Starship so far. NASA has been invoiced for ~50% of their $2.9B contract, so the taxpayer has paid ~15%.

New comment by sephamorr in "Starship's Tenth Flight Test"

sephamorr — Sun, 24 Aug 2025 22:20:33 +0000

The vast majority of CEOs keep quiet about their politics so it doesn't become a problem.

New comment by sephamorr in "US economy shrank 0.5% in the first quarter, worse than earlier estimates"

sephamorr — Thu, 26 Jun 2025 21:15:38 +0000

So you employed 45 employees to do assembly work but bought each of 2000 parts one at a time so the processing fees were meaningful? Surely if the revenue supports that staffing, you should import by the pallet or container?