Hacker News: trmsw

New comment by trmsw in "Punctuation Matters: How to use the en dash, em dash and hyphen"

trmsw — Sun, 12 Mar 2023 19:06:48 +0000

Agreed! Plus with my handwriting, who's ever going to be able to tell the difference?

New comment by trmsw in "Biggest Barrier to Biking Is a Fear of Cars"

trmsw — Wed, 15 Feb 2023 00:20:36 +0000

my knee-jerk reaction is: and because streets aren't just for cars!

But more pragmatically, vehicular cycling is often the best choice because of visibility and predictability, and also as regards driver awareness and expectation: it at least seems safer if drivers are accustomed to sharing the road than if they never have to.

New comment by trmsw in "Biggest Barrier to Biking Is a Fear of Cars"

trmsw — Wed, 15 Feb 2023 00:02:57 +0000

Definitely. Brussels was designed for cars (and Belgium is very car-centric in many ways) but it's got much better for cycling in the ~15 years I've been here, thanks to a mixture of incremental improvements and political "big pushes".

New comment by trmsw in "Show HN: I “wrote” a kid's book with ChatGPT and Midjourney"

trmsw — Wed, 25 Jan 2023 08:40:57 +0000

This reminded me of the rules for fiction in Flaubert's Parrot. They don't include any mention of whimsy, in fact, but it was fun rereading them.

New comment by trmsw in "Show HN: I “wrote” a kid's book with ChatGPT and Midjourney"

trmsw — Wed, 25 Jan 2023 07:21:49 +0000

The "all sorts of other whimsical attractions" is especially bad.

New comment by trmsw in "The ThinkPad TrackPoint tried to build a better mouse (2020)"

trmsw — Thu, 19 Jan 2023 10:27:12 +0000

Upping the sensitivity and switching to the soft rim cap makes a huge difference. We have ThinkPads at work and I'm not surprised most of my colleagues don't like the Trackpoint with its default cap and settings; Lenovo aren't doing it and favours.

New comment by trmsw in "How I Felt After Binge-Drinking 'Hangover-Free' Alcohol"

trmsw — Sun, 08 Jan 2023 23:37:13 +0000

So "tightening the DUI laws" here means giving cops greater latitude to charge people below the legal limit - as opposed to, e.g. increasing the penalties for people who are above it?

Here (well, UK and Belgium) I think the police would not charge you if you passed a test (but they might several times).

One explanation I was given for comparatively poor & worsening road safety in the US was the lack of serious penalties for drunk and dangerous driving.

New comment by trmsw in "How I Felt After Binge-Drinking 'Hangover-Free' Alcohol"

trmsw — Sun, 08 Jan 2023 22:48:52 +0000

What would make it a frivolous charge? I mean, if the test is reasonably reliable and shows the driver had more than the legal limit of alcohol in their blood, What's there to contest?

New comment by trmsw in "Forcing Helmets on Cyclists Would Crush Bicycle Use, Says UK Transport Minister"

trmsw — Wed, 07 Dec 2022 22:18:18 +0000

Mandatory helmet laws for cyclists are a red herring intended to shift blame and attention onto cyclists' behaviour rather than address the real problems, namely: bad infrastructure, cars, and drivers. As long as policymakers do nothing to counteract the current trend of cars that are increasingly dangerous to other road users and that at the same time encourage / tolerate inattentive drivers, it would simply be in bad faith to adopt a policy that would impose legal penalties on the victims of this trend.

New comment by trmsw in "Mandatory helmet laws make cyclists less safe"

trmsw — Mon, 05 Dec 2022 20:55:05 +0000

A better way to make cyclists and pedestrians safer would be more stringent laws against dangerous car designs, and some enforcement of the existing laws. We are starting to see US-style monster pickups and SUVs here in Belgium and they are a fucking abomination - far too large for city streets - and their extra weight and height plus reduced visibility make them dangerous for pedestrians and cyclists.

New comment by trmsw in "Author Salman Rushdie attacked on lecture stage in New York"

trmsw — Fri, 12 Aug 2022 20:42:13 +0000

You might lack the emotions, but you've absolutely nailed the mentality. Bravo.

New comment by trmsw in "Author Salman Rushdie attacked on lecture stage in New York"

trmsw — Fri, 12 Aug 2022 16:17:22 +0000

He didn't deeply insult an entire people - have you read the book?

New comment by trmsw in "The case for induction cooking"

trmsw — Sun, 13 Mar 2022 08:51:35 +0000

I found those burners too weak for stir-frying. I suspect that unless you have special ventilation, a burner that's hot enough for wok cooking will not be safe for indoor use. Ours is used outside because that's where the gas bottle has to be kept and because apparently it generates too much carbon monoxide to be safely used inside. And because we have three small children and this thing burns with a foot-high flame like a jet afterburner. It's great fun

New comment by trmsw in "Fountain pen ink properties"

trmsw — Sat, 13 Jun 2020 12:58:35 +0000

For me it's gel pens. Pilot G-Tec ones are great.

New comment by trmsw in "Programming is boring art"

trmsw — Sat, 30 May 2020 20:39:38 +0000

You're welcome. It's an attention economy these days

New comment by trmsw in "Programming is boring art"

trmsw — Sat, 30 May 2020 20:26:29 +0000

Upvoting this just for the title ... and was disappointed by the article. Rats.

New comment by trmsw in "Oslo had 0 pedestrian, 0 cyclist, 0 children and 1 driver trafic deaths in 2019"

trmsw — Thu, 02 Jan 2020 21:29:44 +0000

Well technically it's priority not right of way. My guess is that the concept was only codified with the introduction of traffic laws, which in most places didn't happen before the 20th century. Until then, "priority" in land probably came down to common sense: size, conventions, and social status.

New comment by trmsw in "Oslo had 0 pedestrian, 0 cyclist, 0 children and 1 driver trafic deaths in 2019"

trmsw — Thu, 02 Jan 2020 21:13:45 +0000

Rule 170 of the highway code: "watch out for pedestrians crossing a road into which you are turning. If they have started to cross they have priority, so give way"

New comment by trmsw in "The Road to Scala 3"

trmsw — Sat, 21 Dec 2019 20:00:14 +0000

In what sort of situations have you needed to write more Java to use a Java library from Clojure? I've never felt the need to do this. It's sometimes helpful to write a Clojure wrapper for a Java library on order to use it in a more Clojure-y way.

New comment by trmsw in "Let the Fountain Pens Flow"

trmsw — Sun, 30 Dec 2018 14:07:00 +0000

Gel pens are even nicer IMO. Pilot do very nice ones but the 0.38mm Muji ones are also great and a bit cheaper