Hacker News: unzadunza

New comment by unzadunza in "I went to America's worst national parks so you don't have to"

unzadunza — Mon, 13 Apr 2026 14:29:25 +0000

I also did one of the hikes to the CO river in the 90s with 3 friends when we were in college. We got off to a late start so jogged down a good deal of the way (dumb). We carried a 1 gallon water jug each (not even close to enough). We had no extra clothing (dumb). Two of us (me being one) made it out that day. The other two didn't. A group of smart hikers with water filters and iodine tablets found them belly up on the path in the direct sunlight. I'm certain they would have died if the hikers didn't give them tablets, water and emergency blankets. Man we were dumb.

New comment by unzadunza in "Bird brains (2023)"

unzadunza — Mon, 30 Mar 2026 15:29:41 +0000

Chickens are not dumb, check out:

https://thehumaneleague.org/article/are-chickens-smart https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC5306232/

New comment by unzadunza in "Bird brains (2023)"

unzadunza — Mon, 30 Mar 2026 15:04:56 +0000

Isn't that what humans do too? We mimic noises we've heard before and we associate meaning to the noises. Parrots can do that. Our quaker parrot would bite you, then say 'not supposed to bite'. He clearly associated some kind of meaning to that phrase.

New comment by unzadunza in "Why the global elite gave up on spelling and grammar"

unzadunza — Wed, 11 Mar 2026 19:37:39 +0000

Or Pueblo, Salida and Buena Vista CO

New comment by unzadunza in "ABC yanks Jimmy Kimmel’s show ‘indefinitely’ after threat from FCC chair"

unzadunza — Thu, 18 Sep 2025 12:14:33 +0000

I canceled my espn/disney+ account. I hope lots of people are doing that too.

New comment by unzadunza in "Harvey Mudd Miniature Machine"

unzadunza — Wed, 10 Sep 2025 23:57:01 +0000

Haha, fine! I messed it up 2x.

New comment by unzadunza in "Harvey Mudd Miniature Machine"

unzadunza — Wed, 10 Sep 2025 22:07:14 +0000

Dammit, I messed it all up. I meant Harry Mudd from Star Trek, as most correctly guessed.

New comment by unzadunza in "Harvey Mudd Miniature Machine"

unzadunza — Wed, 10 Sep 2025 19:36:14 +0000

I got all excited until I realized Harvey Mudd isn't Henry Mudd. This project would have had a lot more cred, in my book, if it were the latter.

New comment by unzadunza in "Vibe Debugging: Enterprises' Up and Coming Nightmare"

unzadunza — Fri, 22 Aug 2025 16:18:18 +0000

> 81% of developers agreed that AI increases their productivity

I've had a few AI generated PRs come my way and the code-review process is, shall we say, not fun. It takes me a lot more time to review these PRs, there is way more back-and-forth between me and the 'developer', and it takes much more time to get the PR merged. That's not saying anything about the increased difficulty in modifying this code in the future.

I have a feeling these claims of being more productive don't account for the entire development cycle.

New comment by unzadunza in "ZEUS – A new two-petawatt laser facility at the University of Michigan"

unzadunza — Thu, 22 May 2025 00:08:55 +0000

Go green

New comment by unzadunza in "Universe expected to decay in 10⁷⁸ years, much sooner than previously thought"

unzadunza — Mon, 12 May 2025 18:16:33 +0000

According to The End of Everything (https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/52767659-the-end-of-ever...) decay is only one of the ways it all ends. Unfortunately most (all?) the other ways happen way earlier.

New comment by unzadunza in "Kmart lied to me, so I hacked their lamp [video]"

unzadunza — Tue, 15 Apr 2025 11:55:31 +0000

Shoot, I was expecting to see a hacked blue light special.

New comment by unzadunza in "Ask HN: What are you working on? (March 2025)"

unzadunza — Mon, 31 Mar 2025 12:29:23 +0000

A German equatorial telescope mount. Right now I'm learning to make gears. After building the hardware I'd like to write the firmware/software for tracking stars and planets. This will be a long term project for sure.

New comment by unzadunza in "Do you want to be doing this when you're 50?"

unzadunza — Sat, 22 Feb 2025 13:46:41 +0000

Yes, I do and I am and I still love doing it.

New comment by unzadunza in "Pink Floyd's 'The Wall': A Complete Analysis"

unzadunza — Fri, 13 Dec 2024 00:53:10 +0000

When I was 14 or so I took a long bus ride downtown to buy The Wall on vinyl. The ride back home was torture, gazing at that beautiful art work and not being able to listen.

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

unzadunza — Wed, 09 Oct 2024 13:59:36 +0000

I'm a lefty and I played right handed guitar growing up. I never got very good at strumming and picking. Five years ago I switched to left-handed guitars and I think I'm much better than I ever was as a righty. Picking the strings well, to me, is the most difficult part of playing a guitar.

New comment by unzadunza in "What's Going on with ‘Nonplussed’? (2017)"

unzadunza — Mon, 29 Apr 2024 14:48:30 +0000

Travesty is another one, thanks to sports announcers.

New comment by unzadunza in "Jeff Lawson buys The Onion"

unzadunza — Fri, 26 Apr 2024 00:46:14 +0000

My vote goes to “Supreme Court Overturns ‘Right V. Wrong’”

New comment by unzadunza in "The "10k-hour rule" was debunked again"

unzadunza — Tue, 09 Jan 2024 20:52:20 +0000

Thanks! You inspired my to order 'Berklee Guitar Theory'. Next up: 'finding someone to play with' (which has proven difficult so far).

New comment by unzadunza in "The "10k-hour rule" was debunked again"

unzadunza — Tue, 09 Jan 2024 15:26:24 +0000

I've been practicing guitar pretty hard for 4 years. Certainly not 8 hours a day since I have a job and wife, but at least 1 or 2 every day. I feel like maybe I'm not practicing the right things.

When you were playing guitar 8 hours a day, do you remember what you were doing for those 8 hours? Learning new songs? Practicing scales? Transcribing songs? I know all those things are important, but I'm still trying to figure out what I should really be spending my practice time doing.

I think my goal is just to be able to play with friends for fun, no gigs or anything like that, and sound decent, rhythm or lead. And maybe write a few songs.