Hacker News: stoolpigeon

New comment by stoolpigeon in "Sins of the Children"

stoolpigeon — Mon, 19 Jan 2026 02:13:43 +0000

You might enjoy Beckey Chamber's Galactic Commons series. She does a great job of creating all kinds of interesting characters and exploring them and what makes them unique.

The Sparrow by Mary Doria Russell is very compelling.

And I seconded it below but I'll mention it again - the Bobiverse series is excellent with amazing exploration.

New comment by stoolpigeon in "Sins of the Children"

stoolpigeon — Mon, 19 Jan 2026 01:55:19 +0000

The Bob series by Dennis E. Taylor is amazing, and I highly recommend it. Very positive, very creative.

New comment by stoolpigeon in "Starship Troopers Revolutionize Warfighting"

stoolpigeon — Sat, 17 May 2025 21:28:49 +0000

SpaceX is reusing spaceships, landing them, catching rockets in chopstick contraptions. But a spaceship that lands near its launchpad can also land anywhere in the world. In an hour. Loaded with military might.

No - no they can't. Referencing Starship Troopers is appropriate because this is fiction.

New comment by stoolpigeon in "How the ZX Spectrum became a 1980s icon"

stoolpigeon — Sat, 23 Nov 2024 12:26:10 +0000

In my friend group - those with a Commodore 64 were at the top. The Vic-20 was the middle and the Sinclair the bottom. My one friend with a Tandy Color Computer had no idea what he was doing, his family just had money.

New comment by stoolpigeon in "The mystery of why left-handers are so much rarer (2016)"

stoolpigeon — Thu, 10 Oct 2024 02:24:59 +0000

I'm the same - I call it "pseudoambidextrous".

I lived in Europe for 10 years and that was nice as far as eating goes. Here in the USA I always try to grab a left corner so I'm not bumping elbows with anyone.

I had an uncle just like us, my son is a true full on lefty.

New comment by stoolpigeon in "GM to Cut More Than 1k Software Engineers, Mostly in US"

stoolpigeon — Tue, 20 Aug 2024 03:57:57 +0000

I enjoy the camera for backing up.

New comment by stoolpigeon in "[dead]"

stoolpigeon — Tue, 20 Aug 2024 02:36:38 +0000

I was surprised at how many athletes for other nations live and train the ihe US

I think it would be interesting to see all medals grouped this way, regardless of the country the athlete represented.

New comment by stoolpigeon in "Initial details about why CrowdStrike's CSAgent.sys crashed"

stoolpigeon — Sun, 21 Jul 2024 14:36:45 +0000

I think point 3 of the grand parent indicates admins were not given an opportunity to test this.

My company had a lot of Azure vms impacted by this and I'm not sure who the admin was who should have tested it. Microsoft? I don't think we have anything to do with crowdstrike software on our vms. ( I think - I'm sure I'll find out this week.)

Edit: I just learned the Azure central region failure wasn't related to the larger event - and we weren't impacted by the crowd strike issue - I didn't know it was two different things. So my second part of the comment is irrelevant.

New comment by stoolpigeon in "Anyone else lurk and feel like they understand nothing?"

stoolpigeon — Sun, 09 Jun 2024 00:22:57 +0000

I wouldn't say almost nothing. But the more domain specific things get the less I can track.

My big takeaway has been when that happens, I remind myself I'm not fit to judge if a comment is good/right or not. I try to get a feel for the context of conversations and just kind of mentally file it away.

I've learned a lot here over the years and the discussions sometimes remind of the good old days on slashdot.

New comment by stoolpigeon in "Solar Storm Knocks Out Farmers' Tractor GPS Systems During Peak Planting Season"

stoolpigeon — Sun, 12 May 2024 14:51:42 +0000

I had a discussion with an engineer from John Deer, I'm not a farmer and don't have direct experience with it so I am taking his word but he told me in most cases the person in the tractor is just there to monitor what's going on for safety. I imagine this frees up people for other work if someone maybe less qualified can be in the tractor, or just takes the load off so they can work longer, allow them to do more in less time, etc.

New comment by stoolpigeon in "Nicolas Bourbaki"

stoolpigeon — Thu, 14 Mar 2024 07:28:38 +0000

The Bourbaki dangerous bend symbol is also a part of the lore and symbology for the band. I think that the use of the name is a 'clue' to the meaning of the symbol. The recent new release is the first time I think they've stated this explicitly.

New comment by stoolpigeon in "Paul Erdős, the most prolific mathematician"

stoolpigeon — Tue, 30 Jan 2024 08:29:21 +0000

I never thought about this - I'm aware of Bacon and the mathematicians - but not other famous people.

This is cool - my Winston Churchill number is 3.

New comment by stoolpigeon in "Calibre replacement considerations (2019)"

stoolpigeon — Sat, 02 Sep 2023 20:45:57 +0000

Number 3 makes it worth it alone. If I buy something I want to be able to back it up and own it.

Number 2 is awesome because when people publish without DRM, effectively I don't need to worry about the format.

The first has never been that big a deal to me but I'll always have it on a machine I use for the other two.

New comment by stoolpigeon in "Why I stopped taking photographs almost altogether"

stoolpigeon — Thu, 17 Aug 2023 03:30:08 +0000

I don't usually photograph places and stuff but I do take pictures of people I care about in places and in front of stuff. That I enjoy. But the really cool buildings and things I usually grab a picture online that's way better than what I would make.

New comment by stoolpigeon in "West Virginia University to drop 32 majors including all world language programs"

stoolpigeon — Sat, 12 Aug 2023 15:36:36 +0000

You keep equating killing an industry with killing people - this is a false comparison.

Ending the use of coal saves human lives and does not take any human lives. The batman comparison is irrelevant.

No longer using asbestos saved lives and didn't take lives. Removing lead from consumer products saves lives and didn't take lives.

I'm sure you there were people in the asbestos industry who weren't happy about the change and they would have gladly gone on giving people cancer. Just like people in the coal industry still bemoan the fact they can't keep killing as many people.

New comment by stoolpigeon in "West Virginia University to drop 32 majors including all world language programs"

stoolpigeon — Sat, 12 Aug 2023 13:31:29 +0000

Getting rid of an industry that literally is killing people world wide is not the same as killing a person. It's the opposite, it is saving lives.

New comment by stoolpigeon in "An unconventional LEGO Technic beam sandwich keyboard case"

stoolpigeon — Mon, 07 Aug 2023 00:16:48 +0000

thank you - I appreciate it.

New comment by stoolpigeon in "An unconventional LEGO Technic beam sandwich keyboard case"

stoolpigeon — Mon, 07 Aug 2023 00:05:57 +0000

I've seen a couple of these keyboards that I assume are mechanical in the last couple days or weeks here.

Serious question - do they not have function keys because that's just the models shown? Or is it normal for keyboards like this to not have them and if so why?

New comment by stoolpigeon in "The Right to Lie and Google’s “Web Environment Integrity”"

stoolpigeon — Sun, 30 Jul 2023 22:26:26 +0000

Almost anything one can do, of value to their fellow humans, is a crime somewhere.

New comment by stoolpigeon in "One can scarcely help clarifying him: on the Brothers Karamazov"

stoolpigeon — Sun, 30 Jul 2023 20:47:14 +0000

I've tried 3 times. Haven't made it through yet.

Tolstoy on the other hand, Anna Karenina I binged and had done in like a week (on vacation, reading a good portion of my time)