<rss version="2.0" xmlns:dc="http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/" xmlns:atom="http://www.w3.org/2005/Atom"><channel><title>Hacker News: softgrow</title><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/user?id=softgrow</link><description>Hacker News RSS</description><docs>https://hnrss.org/</docs><generator>hnrss v2.1.1</generator><lastBuildDate>Thu, 30 Apr 2026 17:55:31 +0000</lastBuildDate><atom:link href="https://hnrss.org/user?id=softgrow" rel="self" type="application/rss+xml"></atom:link><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by softgrow in "OpenTrafficMap"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>Reading the translation of the talk, public transport vehicles have a persistent MAC but for private cars the MAC address changes every 15 minutes.</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Thu, 30 Apr 2026 00:21:49 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47956441</link><dc:creator>softgrow</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47956441</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47956441</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by softgrow in "Malus – Clean Room as a Service"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>To understand speeding you need to understand the concept of "speed choice". Everyone chooses how fast to drive, only those who choose above the speed limit are speeding. If your environment gets you to choose a speed below the speed limit you won't break the law. Your choice can be influenced by many factors such as:<p>* narrow looking roadway
 * speed limit signs
 * your car has self driving
 * what everybody else is doing
 * speed limiter on your car
 * curvy road
 * bad weather
 * male or female
 * risk appetite
 * driving experience
 * experience of that route
 * perceived risk of getting caught<p>If you fix "speed choice" the problem of speeding diminishes.</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Fri, 13 Mar 2026 00:36:37 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47359273</link><dc:creator>softgrow</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47359273</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47359273</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by softgrow in "Malus – Clean Room as a Service"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>If you ring for the ambulance, (Australian context), you will be told what to do! The telephony scripts have first aid baked in. The paramedic will come (not necessarily with an ambulance) and start appropriate definitive treatment as good as what you will get in a hospital. A consequence of a stroke is a cardiac arrest. If you are driving you won't know and won't do CPR.<p>The 1996 movie Transpotting still gives me shivers up my spine by putting someone in a car and drop at ER rather than calling for help. Too many people die needlessly, even today, when well meaning people load shooting victims, stroke victims and heart attacks etc into their car and drive to ER without asking their local emergency services for advice.<p>PS. You can't 100% of the time get to ER faster than the ambulance. There are more ambulances than emergency rooms by number. If an ambulance is at the county hospital they'll be faster than you.</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Fri, 13 Mar 2026 00:27:06 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47359200</link><dc:creator>softgrow</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47359200</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47359200</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by softgrow in "Employers, please use postmarked letters for job applications (2025)"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>I'd really like a rejection physical letter back saying thankyou for application but no thanks signed by a human. I put some effort in to applying, they could at least exert some effort coming back, rather than simply ghosting. A reasonable barrier to bots collecting CV's.</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Fri, 30 Jan 2026 01:14:18 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46819371</link><dc:creator>softgrow</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46819371</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46819371</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by softgrow in "NYC Spends $200 Million on Cell Service for School Chromebooks"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>I hope the students can choose to use their own wifi at home if they have it, much better service for them. Depending on how it's setup, the cellular contract may be not be that crippling. When enterprises buy thousands of services they pool data across the SIM's and get quite reasonable rates for what is used, be it a fleet of IOT devices with low usage or laptops with some high usage. If you are just buying one service, you are really at a disadvantage compared to enterprise deals.</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Tue, 23 Dec 2025 02:46:43 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46361863</link><dc:creator>softgrow</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46361863</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46361863</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by softgrow in "Rubio stages font coup: Times New Roman ousts Calibri"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>As documented at <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Google_Easter_eggs" rel="nofollow">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Google_Easter_eggs</a> google search for "times new roman font" and the results are returned in that font. (<a href="https://www.google.com/search?q=Times+New+Roman+Font" rel="nofollow">https://www.google.com/search?q=Times+New+Roman+Font</a> for the lazy). Looks terrible on my screen.</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Wed, 10 Dec 2025 02:22:12 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46213293</link><dc:creator>softgrow</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46213293</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46213293</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by softgrow in "My dad could still be alive, but he's not"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>I don't think my taxes/insurance costs/donations to charity are high enough. London (donation funded) has a helicopter service that attends 6 serious trauma cases a day. Denmark, Germany and others has a Helicopter Emergency Medical Service which delivers a senior doctor and paramedic. It probably doesn't scale well.<p>Basic issues like overhead powerlines make life difficult for helicopters. They are used in rural  Australia as an alternative to road, but only due to time saving. In a city, well you get a road ambulance/paramedic/medical team.<p>The (Melbourne) Victorian Ambulance Cardiac Arrest Registry claims third best in the world in out of hospital cardiac arrest.</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Thu, 13 Nov 2025 05:08:29 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45910925</link><dc:creator>softgrow</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45910925</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45910925</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by softgrow in "My dad could still be alive, but he's not"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>Sounds like Hatzolah Melbourne,  <a href="https://hatzolah.org.au" rel="nofollow">https://hatzolah.org.au</a> since 1994<p>Since 1998, in Melbourne for anything that might need a defibrillator a fire engine is sent at the same time as the ambulance (EMR Emergency Medical Response Program). <a href="https://www.mja.com.au/journal/2002/177/6/cardiac-arrests-treated-ambulance-paramedics-and-fire-fighters" rel="nofollow">https://www.mja.com.au/journal/2002/177/6/cardiac-arrests-tr...</a> Medical Journal of Australia article. There is also GoodSAM <a href="https://www.ambulance.vic.gov.au/goodsam/" rel="nofollow">https://www.ambulance.vic.gov.au/goodsam/</a> for individual helpers</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Thu, 13 Nov 2025 03:44:18 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45910343</link><dc:creator>softgrow</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45910343</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45910343</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by softgrow in "I hate screenshots of text"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>Worse still, I loathe screenshots of text on a website. Please make text is text so it works with a screen reader, can cut and paste etc.<p>Less of it about now but used for multilingual websites for the secondary language, particularly if non-latin alphabet. Will no-one think of Unicode!</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Tue, 11 Nov 2025 05:04:36 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45884299</link><dc:creator>softgrow</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45884299</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45884299</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by softgrow in "Don't Be a Sucker (1943) [video]"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>I watched the film and was surprised when it moved on from gambling and scams. Initially thought it was aimed at avoiding being scammed of your hard earned cash by shysters. I wonder if there is a film produced at the time about that?</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Tue, 14 Oct 2025 01:48:35 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45575388</link><dc:creator>softgrow</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45575388</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45575388</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by softgrow in "Telo MT1"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>At least it has a steering wheel. Wait until that disappears to be replaced by a joystick or worse still a USB port, bring your own mouse.</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Sun, 03 Aug 2025 06:02:06 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44774415</link><dc:creator>softgrow</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44774415</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44774415</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by softgrow in "Why does a fire truck cost $2m"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>Fire and rescue appliances are a bit of a problematic thing to buy as they never go very far and are retired with low mileages.<p>In my Australian State, South Australia, this a huge contrast with police who buy new from the manufacturer, get a three or maybe five year service contract from the manufacturer and then sell them when the warranty expires and they've done around 100,000 km (60,000 miles). So no servicing worries and they get some tax benefits so it works for them.<p>Ambulances have less mileage and my guess is retire after 10 years. Ambulances are very standardised so can swap metro and country vehicles to get value from the asset. There was a "twin life" ambulance (<a href="http://www.old-ambulance.com/Twin-Life.htm" rel="nofollow">http://www.old-ambulance.com/Twin-Life.htm</a>) that had a long life rear bit on a light truck chassis so swap out the motor bit two or three times every 200,000kms, but these days vans are used. There was much sadness in the ambulance fleet buying community when Ford discontinued the F150 type chassis in Australia.<p>But your average (fire/rescue) appliance in the city or country has low mileage. In the city plenty of use but never have to drive far. In the country not much use but do drive further but end up the same a very old vehicle without much mileage on the clock. Trailers can be even older 50 or 60 years before retirement. Another issue with a fire appliance is they carry water which is heavy, three tonnes is a pretty common load. And have other readers have mentioned a monopoly on manufacture wouldn't help.</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Mon, 28 Jul 2025 02:34:55 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44706664</link><dc:creator>softgrow</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44706664</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44706664</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by softgrow in "Light exposure at night predicts incidence of cardiovascular diseases"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>It's in Table 1, of the paper. The "safe" night-time level for the bottom 50% of the population is surprising low, 0-1.21 lux. I've been sleeping for years with 10-20 lux (inner city, blinds open so I can enjoy the city lights). Maybe I'll need to close the blinds?</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Sun, 13 Jul 2025 03:42:01 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44547298</link><dc:creator>softgrow</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44547298</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44547298</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by softgrow in "Bus stops here: Shanghai lets riders design their own routes"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>I'm glad that Shanghai has moved to the next level in public transportation in meeting customer demand. Most cities don't have the funds to buy smallish buses and labour available as drivers. They don't have the money or willpower to get frequencies to turn up and go levels (ie frequent) and leave people with long walks to widely spaced routes.</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Wed, 14 May 2025 05:08:59 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43981034</link><dc:creator>softgrow</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43981034</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43981034</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by softgrow in "Ask HN: What are good high-information density UIs (screenshots, apps, sites)?"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p><a href="https://kakaku.com" rel="nofollow">https://kakaku.com</a> (A shopping comparison and review site) has menus not as long as McMaster-Car (down the left side), then more menus in the body and tabs thrown in to boot when you reach a product. Each product page is jam packed with more information. A lot of information yes, good design, not so sure.</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Thu, 08 May 2025 23:15:09 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43932289</link><dc:creator>softgrow</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43932289</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43932289</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by softgrow in "Live Map of the London Underground"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>It is better, has underground, overground and is womble free. Also has planes and current weather effect (raining).</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Fri, 11 Apr 2025 10:45:45 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43652444</link><dc:creator>softgrow</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43652444</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43652444</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by softgrow in "I tried making artificial sunlight at home"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>I built a very bright light source using a lamp stand from Ikea and the brightest, narrowest beam LED reflector I could find from my big box hardware store. The project works and gave about 10,000 lux but had a few drawbacks. After reading a book for a while a got a headache. The slightest imperfection (read dirt) in the arms of the armchair becomes super obvious. When I look at my right arm holding the book, it's so bright I'm sure I can see veins and arteries. I ended up getting a lamp less bright and that's great for sewing/electronics/fine work but there are limits for how bright you might want to go indoors. I kept the too bright globe for demonstration purposes.</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Fri, 28 Mar 2025 00:00:42 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43499709</link><dc:creator>softgrow</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43499709</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43499709</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by softgrow in "Next generation LEDs are cheap and sustainable"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>Surprisingly or not, isn't a very new idea <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Perovskite_light-emitting_diode" rel="nofollow">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Perovskite_light-emitting_diod...</a><p>Note that extending the lifetime is key to taking advantage of their lower base material cost. Lot of work needed there.</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Fri, 21 Mar 2025 00:04:26 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43430476</link><dc:creator>softgrow</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43430476</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43430476</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by softgrow in "Hackers leak cop manuals for departments after breaching major provider"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>Correction QLD publishes, NSW has bits and pieces due to FOI requests.</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Wed, 12 Feb 2025 06:00:40 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43022347</link><dc:creator>softgrow</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43022347</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43022347</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by softgrow in "Hackers leak cop manuals for departments after breaching major provider"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>Ditto NSW in Australia (but not all states).</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Wed, 12 Feb 2025 02:51:13 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43021285</link><dc:creator>softgrow</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43021285</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43021285</guid></item></channel></rss>