<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: volkl48</title><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/user?id=volkl48</link><description>Hacker News RSS</description><docs>https://hnrss.org/</docs><generator>hnrss v2.1.1</generator><lastBuildDate>Wed, 20 May 2026 06:47:33 +0000</lastBuildDate><atom:link href="https://hnrss.org/user?id=volkl48" rel="self" type="application/rss+xml"></atom:link><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by volkl48 in "Disney erased FiveThirtyEight"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>It implies a close race or a strong reason to believe there's some sort of systemic polling miss, and if it's a blowout you still look pretty bad. Especially if you don't have some kind of good explanation for the miss/you keep making those kinds of misses frequently.<p>Also there's more going in those forecasts besides just the "% chance to win". There's expected results in terms of %'s of the vote for the candidates, and that's what people tend to focus on for actually analyzing your performance and credibility after the fact.<p>You getting the outcome correct but being off by 20 points on the margin is a much worse performance than you getting the outcome wrong but being within 0.5 points of the margin. (ex: Results are 49.75/50.25, you predicted 30/70, another outlet predicted 50.25/49.75).</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Tue, 19 May 2026 21:01:22 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48199582</link><dc:creator>volkl48</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48199582</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48199582</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by volkl48 in "Driver accused of DUI tracks missing laptop to Illinois State trooper's house"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>Generally I'd say public sector unions (especially in essential services) are of very questionable benefit and need limits, but robust private sector unions are much more obviously beneficial to society.<p>-----<p>In the private sector the incentives are mostly aligned for producing reasonable deals, because both sides rely on the business being healthy and making a profit and the jobs fundamentally rely on that.<p>In the public sector they aren't aligned. The politician is most incentivized to avoid immediate political turmoil. Voters are not market analysts who recognize and have a problem with deals that produce massive costs in the long-run (ex: exceptionally young or exceptionally generous retirement). The union is often aware it can extort the public with the threat of causing chaos. Government can raise taxes/take on heavier debt, which further weakens it's negotiating position - in all but the most extreme cases it won't be going into bankruptcy or ceasing to exist, taxpayers in 30 years will just be on the hook for paying a bad deal made by a previous generation.</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Mon, 11 May 2026 16:14:46 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48096977</link><dc:creator>volkl48</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48096977</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48096977</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by volkl48 in "1966 Ford Mustang Converted into a Tesla with Working 'Full Self-Driving'"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>Unless I've missed something here, there are clearly no airbags in the passenger seat or anywhere else in the upper shell (side curtain, etc) from skimming around the video/interior shots.<p>I guess there's probably still one in the stock Tesla steering wheel/unit.<p>You also have none of the heavy structure that makes it so you don't die in a rollover or side-impact in a modern car. Look at how skinny that A-pillar is.<p>Hell, half of this interior is just the raw exposed sheet metal with no insulation/noise-dampening/softer materials either.</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Tue, 05 May 2026 19:53:46 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48027602</link><dc:creator>volkl48</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48027602</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48027602</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by volkl48 in "1966 Ford Mustang Converted into a Tesla with Working 'Full Self-Driving'"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>The Mustang is from before modern safety laws (and feature expectations) and therefore weighed a lot less than your average modern car.<p>A stock '66 Mustang hardtop had a curb weight below 3000lb, in the lightest configuration close to 2500lb.<p>Less mass to move will do a lot for efficiency just like aerodynamics will.<p>Of course, you will also die or be horrifically maimed in an accident in a 1966 Mustang that you might walk away without any serious injuries from in a modern vehicle.</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Mon, 04 May 2026 19:48:46 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48014002</link><dc:creator>volkl48</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48014002</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48014002</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by volkl48 in "New bill would let New Yorkers hang solar panels from windows"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>There's probably an outdoor outlet on the deck/balcony it's plugged into. Would be pretty typical to have on a balcony like hers.<p>The balcony appears to have full coverage on the railing - there isn't a gap at the bottom for anything to fall out through. The metal frame makes it looks like there is at first glance, but look at the seam on the glass - it continues further down than that bottom crossbar.<p>This might fall over <i>into</i> the balcony some day and break but it shouldn't really be a hazard to anyone else.<p>Beyond this, the reality is that plenty of the other balconies likely have string lights or other electronic items plugged in 24/7 and with their connectors sitting on the ground on the balcony. Same with having a bunch of unsecured/poorly items that could theoretically get tossed off it by an extreme storm. Not ideal, but I don't see why we should be acting like this is much different from everything else in that sense.<p>------<p>Now speaking more generally:<p>- Cities should have reasonable regulations (and likely, already do) about securing anything being positioned where it could fall off and hit someone, particularly over a sidewalk or public space. (As mentioned, I don't think this one is a major hazard upon taking a second glance).<p>- Balcony solar kits should probably at least ship with some safety cabling and have integrated mount points for those cables that are sturdy enough to withstand wind + drop shocks.<p>- My concerns in the US/North America are more around how we handle the much lower ratings of our typical residential circuits, it's easier for a consumer to overload a circuit here with something like this than in Europe.<p>- If we're not requiring a dedicated circuit/single-outlet circuit for it seems difficult to maintain safety unless we're capping the maximum power per system quite low. And if we are requiring a dedicated circuit for it/an electrician to approve it we're greatly limiting who will ever be able to install these.<p>Overall though, I'm still positive on the concept and don't want to see it buried in regulatory hell, especially with how well adoption has apparently gone elsewhere.</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Wed, 15 Apr 2026 15:17:17 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47780320</link><dc:creator>volkl48</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47780320</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47780320</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by volkl48 in "Rare concert recordings are landing on the Internet Archive"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>I only know The Pirate Bay history part well.<p>In 2006 there was a message posted by him in the forums that was: "This one is a guilt-free download. (shhhh - I didn’t say that out loud). If you know what I’m talking about, cool."<p>At the same time a user on TPB named "seed0" uploaded:<p>- A previously unreleased, professionally produced, expanded DVD version of Closure<p>- The full Broken movie in DVD quality (which had never leaked - the low-quality leaked versions that had circulated for yeas were missing part of it)<p>- 3 "The Definitive NIN" collections - which included some things that were difficult to find otherwise. (And today there are official playlists/collections by the same "Definitive NIN" name on the streaming platforms).<p>Maybe more but those are the most notable things I recall until all the pro-shot concert footage from the Lights in the Sky Tour got released to the fans to play with a few years later - most prominently turned into the "Another Version of the Truth - The Gift".<p>Not that there was any doubt, and while I don't feel like digging through all the interviews/AMAs I am almost certain that Rob Sheridan (creative director at the time) confirmed years later that the "leaks" were directly from the NIN camp.</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Wed, 15 Apr 2026 14:39:45 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47779674</link><dc:creator>volkl48</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47779674</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47779674</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by volkl48 in "Good Sleep, Good Learning (2012)"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>While there's no consistent standard, most countries appear to be using something in the 10-14g range for what they call a "standard drink"/"unit" of alcohol. (UK is 8g, but the rest of the EU typically uses 10g or 12g, US uses 14g).<p>I actually hadn't realized until I went looking that the "standard drink" isn't much of an international standard unit at all. Will have to keep that in mind when reading papers/recommendations from different health authorities in the future.<p>-----<p>Anyway, it's pretty interesting. I'm not sure I'm going to believe the effect just on one noisy study, but even if the reality is something lesser - like it just not <i>harming</i> memory formation of things you'd learned earlier in the day, the implications are still a bit interesting.<p>It certainly adds a bit to some of the historical social biases against "day drinking", and also does a bit to explain how plenty of high-performing young people seem to use alcohol pretty heavily after they're done learning (college students partying, etc) with limited direct impacts on their educational performance.</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Wed, 15 Apr 2026 13:22:30 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47778625</link><dc:creator>volkl48</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47778625</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47778625</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by volkl48 in "Rare concert recordings are landing on the Internet Archive"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>Oh hey, I certainly know that username!<p>And you're not going to plug yourself I certainly will: Appreciate your work on the NIN Hotline all these years and everything else you've done/added to the community.<p>> Rumor has it that Trent Reznor himself uploaded material to The Pirate Bay,<p>You'd certainly know better than I would but I feel like I recall Rob Sheridan confirming that in one of his interviews years later (not that there was really any doubt).</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Tue, 14 Apr 2026 20:06:53 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47770762</link><dc:creator>volkl48</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47770762</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47770762</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by volkl48 in "Rare concert recordings are landing on the Internet Archive"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>> However, I do notice that for more uncommon music, the record industry sort it just looks the other way. For example Eminem has tons of really old music on YouTube that I’m sure his lawyers could figure out how to get taken down. But it just stays up.<p>Or artists that have seen the merit in tolerating it/somewhat encouraging it. I'm a pretty hardcore Nine Inch Nails fan (seen >30 shows).<p>NINLive.com is a fantastic (unofficial) archive for our community. Close to 2k individual recordings, about 3/4 of all shows they've ever played have at least one recording.<p>NIN's camp is fully aware, the guy who runs the site has gotten invited to meet the band before. (And NIN has tossed unedited pro-shot tour footage to the fans before to play with, as well as things like directly linking to a fan-compiled concert film for another tour on their own home page).</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Tue, 14 Apr 2026 19:10:49 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47770003</link><dc:creator>volkl48</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47770003</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47770003</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by volkl48 in "LaGuardia pilots raised safety alarms months before deadly runway crash"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>It does quiet down eventually. There's no scheduled departures 22:55-5:45 and only a handful of arrivals 23:59-6:45.<p>However, arrivals stay pretty heavy right up until 23:59 even on schedule and if you've got a lot of delayed flights (not exactly uncommon at LGA) - you may still have a lot of departures going out in the 23:00 hour.<p>I would not be surprised to learn that they're staffed to an appropriate level for what the schedule says is <i>supposed</i> to be operating at that time, but a very inadequate level for what actually winds up operating at that time on many days.<p>Initial analysis suggests they were running about 75% of full capacity in flight ops in the 15min prior to the accident. I doubt they were staffed to 75% of the daytime peak.</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Tue, 24 Mar 2026 20:27:53 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47508679</link><dc:creator>volkl48</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47508679</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47508679</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by volkl48 in "LaGuardia pilots raised safety alarms months before deadly runway crash"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>An obvious issue is going to be that while it's supposed to be a lower-traffic time, if you've had delays cascading down the day - it may not be in reality. If the staffing doesn't adjust for delays shifting the time of flights, it would probably often leave you with an overworked controller.<p>Looking at the normal schedules - if all is on schedule there'd be no departures in the 23:00 hour but you'd still have the arrivals side running pretty heavily. However, once you factor in things not being on schedule, as they evidently were not on that night, you get:<p>----------<p>The 15min before the accident had 14 flight operations (per Juan Browne/blancolirio going through the ADSB playback). And that's in marginal weather and at night, which makes things more complicated.<p>That is 75% of the official maximum capacity of the airport - during the main part of the day where there's government-imposed caps on flights, it's capped at 74 operations per hour or about 18.5 per 15min.<p>As such, it seems apparent that you would need just as much staffing (or at least 75% as much) at that time to safely handle the traffic volume that was occurring that night as you did in the main part of the day.<p>Unless the normal staffing here was just 2 people, it seems clear that 1 is inadequate.</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Tue, 24 Mar 2026 20:20:23 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47508562</link><dc:creator>volkl48</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47508562</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47508562</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by volkl48 in "Cyberattack on vehicle breathalyzer company leaves drivers stranded in the US"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>We tried that once. It caused a lot of other problems.</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Mon, 23 Mar 2026 17:39:14 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47492651</link><dc:creator>volkl48</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47492651</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47492651</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by volkl48 in "Cyberattack on vehicle breathalyzer company leaves drivers stranded in the US"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>As is commonly commented on by cartoonists: In plenty of places driving consistently within the lines might be the actual sign you're drunk. Because the roads/potholes are bad enough that you shouldn't be, if you value your suspension.</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Mon, 23 Mar 2026 17:36:56 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47492620</link><dc:creator>volkl48</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47492620</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47492620</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by volkl48 in "Colon cancer now leading cause of cancer deaths under 50 in US"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>I mean, there's a well-documented link between colon cancer and inadequate fiber intake.<p>And it's also well-documented that the average Western diet is highly deficient in fiber and that this is a thing which has gotten much worse in the last 75 years.<p>There also seems to be at least some light evidence that there may be generational effects - that the starting point of your gut is already bad if your mother's was.</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Thu, 12 Mar 2026 17:57:44 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47354744</link><dc:creator>volkl48</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47354744</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47354744</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by volkl48 in "Ireland shuts last coal plant, becomes 15th coal-free country in Europe (2025)"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>Ireland hasn't mined any coal in 35 years, this plant was not operating on domestic resources to begin with.<p>Anyway your actual problem are data center buildouts that are causing demand to skyrocket. They've gone from 5% of your electrical demand to >20% in less than a decade, and are the primary cause of your electricity crunch.</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Mon, 09 Mar 2026 15:21:55 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47310276</link><dc:creator>volkl48</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47310276</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47310276</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by volkl48 in "Tech employment now significantly worse than the 2008 or 2020 recessions"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>I assume that this means you're sending out rejections that include a mention of "we've hired someone else for this role".<p>If your hiring model is hiring multiple people through one posting, then you will probably get a lot fewer angry ex-candidates being weird (because they think you've lied to them since the posting is still up) by just sending out rejections that don't say that and just get the "we're no longer interested in you for this role" message across.<p>Nicer/more corporate language for both, of course.</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Fri, 06 Mar 2026 19:52:49 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47280206</link><dc:creator>volkl48</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47280206</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47280206</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by volkl48 in "Rising carbon dioxide levels now detected in human blood"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>The Biden admin did try to make large-scale investments in renewables and policy changes to encourage the energy transition in the US. The situation at the end of the admin was far better than when it started.<p>Why are you using a tone that implies that's not the case?</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Thu, 05 Mar 2026 19:40:05 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47266268</link><dc:creator>volkl48</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47266268</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47266268</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by volkl48 in "Europe's $24T Breakup with Visa and Mastercard Has Begun"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>Literally just got back from a trip there and didn't find a single business or transaction that I couldn't pay for with various US-issued (Chase + BoA) Visa credit cards via tap.<p>Even more surprisingly to me - a pretty decent chunk of businesses even would accept AmEx. By no means all, but I recall it being basically nonexistent not that long ago.<p>And to be clear - much of my time was not in areas that get a ton of foreign tourist visitors.<p>Not saying your experience didn't happen, but given our very different experiences it might be something with your particular bank/issuer/card?</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Tue, 10 Feb 2026 17:30:19 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46963488</link><dc:creator>volkl48</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46963488</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46963488</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by volkl48 in "CISA’s acting head uploaded sensitive files into public version of ChatGPT"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>Current use is still a problem AFAIK (not sure on weed).<p>That said I can confirm that a few years back a friend who had previously used/experimented with a wide variety of substances (EDM scene, psychs), had no trouble getting a clearance.<p>They disclosed all of it, said they weren't currently using it and wouldn't for as long as they were in the job role, passed the drug test, and that was fine.<p>That said, to add to the "lying is a bad idea" point: I believe some of their references were asked about if they'd ever known that friend to have a dependency + if they were aware of any current/very recent use.</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Thu, 29 Jan 2026 19:16:31 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46815081</link><dc:creator>volkl48</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46815081</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46815081</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by volkl48 in "The hidden engineering of runways"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>Most of Europe sees <i>far</i> fewer freeze-thaw cycles than most of the US does, which are a huge killer of roads.<p>The color scales aren't equivalent here but you can see the difference:<p>Europe - pretty much only unpopulated northern Scandinavia + up in the Alps/Pyrenees getting over 64 days, most of the most densely populated areas with lots of infrastructure below 32 days: <a href="https://www.atlas.impact2c.eu/en/climate/freeze-thaw-days/?parent_id=22" rel="nofollow">https://www.atlas.impact2c.eu/en/climate/freeze-thaw-days/?p...</a><p>US - <a href="https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/Climatology-of-Freeze-Thaw-Days-in-the-Conterminous-Haley/a2bb1c65533c6c6bfb7fab00c67031bc246ba843" rel="nofollow">https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/Climatology-of-Freeze-...</a> (Fig 4.2) - Probably more than 50% is over 75 cycles, and large chunks breaking 100 cycles a year (almost all of New England and some other scattered patches, the Rockies/interior West/Western Plains).</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Tue, 27 Jan 2026 18:30:41 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46784181</link><dc:creator>volkl48</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46784181</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46784181</guid></item></channel></rss>