Hacker News: useless_foghorn

New comment by useless_foghorn in "The 60 Minutes report that Bari Weiss censored is now internet contraband"

useless_foghorn — Tue, 23 Dec 2025 06:42:50 +0000

It's true that these patterns and problems have existed and will likely continue. It's also true that common rhetoric and bias have changed dramatically in the last 10-15 years. I don't forsee any simple or easy ways to replace the social and political dams that tamed the pressures of power. It's very difficult to make power useful instead of destructive and it's very unlikely that this entropy will reverse. It's also illogical to do nothing about it.

New comment by useless_foghorn in "(Re)Introducing the Pebble Appstore"

useless_foghorn — Sat, 11 Oct 2025 22:52:30 +0000

Garmin's Enduro 3 claims 13.3 days[1] of continuous GPS tracking with solar recharge and is tested to have 5 continuous days without[2].

[1] https://www8.garmin.com/manuals/webhelp/GUID-7AD1A592-9044-4... [2] https://www.outdoorgearlab.com/reviews/camping-and-hiking/gp...

New comment by useless_foghorn in "Noise cancelling a fan"

useless_foghorn — Wed, 17 Sep 2025 20:25:23 +0000

If you have a single amplitude wave then a delayed playback could be inversion of the wave. Not very sophisticated, but good enough for canceling a single frequency.

New comment by useless_foghorn in "12ft.io Taken Down"

useless_foghorn — Mon, 21 Jul 2025 20:00:19 +0000

I'd partake in a microtransaction system that pays based on the percentage of the article I finished. Some assurance of high-quality journalism would be helpful. If HN existed as pay-to-play for instance (it probably wouldn't), I wouldn't be opposed to paying based on my usage for the curation - knowing that I'm supporting the creators/authors of the content I'm enjoying. I don't think an unlimited plan makes sense - instead pay per article. I think the amount you pay per should be chosen when you create your account, not every time you open an article. I think this is most fair to the creators and consumers with the least organizational bloat.

New comment by useless_foghorn in "U.S. national-security leaders included me in a group chat"

useless_foghorn — Tue, 25 Mar 2025 22:35:18 +0000

Power is less appealing if you aren't seeking to abuse it. I agree that an ethics and morality lens is both useful and necessary, but I fear it doesn't illuminate the actions and motivations of the powerful. Perhaps in contrast or relief, but not directly.

New comment by useless_foghorn in "Show HN: Physically accurate black hole simulation using your iPhone camera"

useless_foghorn — Wed, 20 Nov 2024 19:47:22 +0000

A lot of light would be absorbed by the black hole. A lot of light paths would be bent and miss or nearly miss the black hole, making edges of the black hole quite bright. The dimming effect would be much larger than the (brighter) immediate periphery.

New comment by useless_foghorn in "Show HN: Physically accurate black hole simulation using your iPhone camera"

useless_foghorn — Tue, 19 Nov 2024 19:27:10 +0000

I think that’s why this demonstration is interesting. It’s showing how the light can be bent around the black hole. Anything that crosses the event horizon won’t be coming back, but because of the lensing of the light you can “see” behind a black hole.

New comment by useless_foghorn in "First Impressions: Lenovo T14s with Qualcomm Snapdragon ARM64 CPU"

useless_foghorn — Sat, 16 Nov 2024 04:14:04 +0000

Thunderbolt port

New comment by useless_foghorn in "Internet Archive: Security breach alert"

useless_foghorn — Thu, 10 Oct 2024 17:21:07 +0000

I use Bitwarden coupled with AnonAddy (0) for simple and free on demand email alias generation.

0. https://bitwarden.com/help/generator/#username-types

New comment by useless_foghorn in "Sainsbury Wing contractors find 1990 letter from donor"

useless_foghorn — Tue, 27 Aug 2024 16:58:15 +0000

That would make more sense! I was misreading this article: https://architecturetoday.co.uk/learning-from-venturi-scott-...

Thanks for the correction!

New comment by useless_foghorn in "Sainsbury Wing contractors find 1990 letter from donor"

useless_foghorn — Tue, 27 Aug 2024 16:16:48 +0000

The columns: https://atlive-wp.s3.eu-west-2.amazonaws.com/wp-content/uplo...

New comment by useless_foghorn in "WinDirStat – Windows Directory Statistics"

useless_foghorn — Thu, 23 May 2024 17:18:08 +0000

Wiztree and WinDirStat will both double count hard links. I have a 12TB hard drive holding "17TB" because of sparse files and hard links. Windows file manager properties agree with Wiztree and WinDirStat as far as space used. I think the file manager looks for free space and calculates that separately, while Wiztree and WinDirStat are just adding up used space.

New comment by useless_foghorn in "When Laws Make Divorce Easier, Women Benefit, Outcomes Improve (2019)"

useless_foghorn — Sun, 11 Feb 2024 18:57:31 +0000

“If you are profiting from being unhappy you will find ways and reasons to be unhappy.”

I believe the idea expressed in ‘appetite comes with eating’ is that your desire to indulge in an activity is correlated (caused even) with that activity. IE skydivers will likely have a larger appetite or desire for skydiving than a layman.

In a larger context I believe cjbgkagh is arguing that women can retain an advantageous position in a marriage by pretending or presenting unhappiness because exiting a marital contract would be an especially poor outcome her partner.

New comment by useless_foghorn in "When Laws Make Divorce Easier, Women Benefit, Outcomes Improve (2019)"

useless_foghorn — Sun, 11 Feb 2024 18:48:34 +0000

All social pressures have a cost and an optimal balance. Men tend toward a less bonded mating strategy, and divorce law seems to seek to punish that behavior (which, again, can be offset by prenups). A symptom of a social pressure that is out of balance might be disproportionate male suicide rate.

New comment by useless_foghorn in "The quiet cost of family caregiving"

useless_foghorn — Thu, 08 Sep 2022 01:23:48 +0000

you could get a freezer door alarm similar to this: https://www.amazon.com/FRIDGGI-Fridge-Alarm-Seconds-white-pa...

New comment by useless_foghorn in "Show HN: Kvak.io – Online Notepad"

useless_foghorn — Wed, 05 Aug 2020 22:41:48 +0000

adding a QR code generator would make this super mobile friendly.

New comment by useless_foghorn in "AWS Snowcone"

useless_foghorn — Wed, 17 Jun 2020 17:36:43 +0000

I would assume that this would be for gathering information from remote data collection nodes or from computers that don't access networks. Instead of hooking up with a laptop and some kind of portable NAS, you could connect a snow product to slurp up the data and then mail it to Amazon to upload. I think their selling point is the reliability of the snow family, and not having to worry about the data after the initial upload which can be super critical for some business models.