Hacker News: wa2flq

New comment by wa2flq in "All phones sold in the EU to have replaceable batteries from 2027"

wa2flq — Mon, 20 Apr 2026 16:23:18 +0000

I trust that most batteries from iPhones are currently recycled through proper means either by Apple or third party firms.

I don't know how most people will dispose of user replacement batteries, but I suspect the recycle rates will be lower. If you want to ensure higher rates you also need to do something they do in the USA for car lead acid batteries. Charge a deposit fee on the new battery that is returned only when the battery is turned into a valid recycling entity.

New comment by wa2flq in "Programmers and software developers lost the plot on naming their tools"

wa2flq — Fri, 12 Dec 2025 03:15:11 +0000

"...When you see “libsodium,” you must context-switch from problem-solving mode to detective mode: “What does this do? Let me check the README. Ah, it’s a crypto library... "

I would not mind the command names whose etymology was complex or inspired, if the README files would do a better job of giving context and function. Even though I have a wide set of wheelhouses in computer systems, I frequently encounter README files that still leaves me saying "Huh?". I shouldn't have to google three levels down before I get a clue.

New comment by wa2flq in "Nuvistor Valves"

wa2flq — Sun, 17 Aug 2025 16:05:11 +0000

The Lafayette HA460 6M AM transmitter used a 6CW4 Nuvistor as a preamp. Mine survived a lightning strike to my 6M beam, which melted the Gamma Match and destroyed the front end harmonics filter. All tube, expect for a set of DC inverter transistors that allowed for mobile operation. Relatively good RF sensitivity for an AM rig of the era.

Gingerly repaired it served me many years in the late 1960's and still sits in the shack. Sporatic-E was strong in those days, to the extent you could easily DX low channel TV channels cross country. I turn it on every few months for 10-15 minutes in an attempt to keep the electrolytic capacitors polarized.

New comment by wa2flq in "Research suggests Big Bang may have taken place inside a black hole"

wa2flq — Thu, 12 Jun 2025 02:13:14 +0000

"Tau Zero" by Poul Anderson

Is it the same universal every time? If so, see you later alligator.

New comment by wa2flq in "In 1870, Lord Rayleigh used oil and water to calculate the size of molecules"

wa2flq — Tue, 24 Sep 2024 01:56:50 +0000

When we did it in high school (70's) we just used compound that had a long chain (soap?) and only one end dissolved in the water. It was very easy to measure and calculate the size of the molecule . We had a series of these simple experiments. Another I recall was measure the speed at which certain volatile compounds moved through the air.

I definitely learned that all science doesn't have to involve complex equipment.

New comment by wa2flq in "Internal NeXT video by Steve Jobs (1991)"

wa2flq — Tue, 04 Jun 2024 02:40:31 +0000

This was very much spot on. As a middle level manager I tried to bring these in our Healthcare business, but got very little traction. The senior executives could not or would not appreciate the benefits. A portion of the development team were more interested in skills for their next job. I cannot understate the amount of time, money and people we burned through by taking another path.

I am glad this technology survived in MacOS and its hardware.

New comment by wa2flq in "The forgotten war on beepers"

wa2flq — Thu, 18 Apr 2024 18:37:38 +0000

There were two way pagers (receive and send). The receive only ones rarely interfered with medical equipment. But occasionally the local oscillators on receive only pagers would interfere with medical or sensitive research equipment.

New comment by wa2flq in "FAA Aviation Maps"

wa2flq — Tue, 06 Feb 2024 00:49:19 +0000

Carter, I can see my house /s

New comment by wa2flq in "What does a research grant pay for?"

wa2flq — Mon, 10 Apr 2023 11:52:38 +0000

I would be curious to know what proportion of PI time is spent preparing and getting approval for research grants for the various disciplines. Is it normal to have several different proposals submitted to the same or different agencies?

New comment by wa2flq in "Imaging a Hard Drive with Non-ECC Memory – What Could Go Wrong?"

wa2flq — Sun, 05 Mar 2023 03:32:05 +0000

The Mac Pro has ECC and is still sold.

My iMac Pro has it as well.

New comment by wa2flq in "Recovery at California's most beleaguered reservoir"

wa2flq — Sun, 19 Feb 2023 19:52:20 +0000

Also https://cdec.water.ca.gov/cgi-progs/products/rescond.pdf

New comment by wa2flq in "Someone stole my car and now I own hundreds of vinyl records"

wa2flq — Thu, 19 Jan 2023 03:40:46 +0000

Legal specifics or requirements aside for the moment, I for one would not feel obligated to contact anyone who stole my car to deal with these records. There are risks here that I would not be comfortable with in this scenario. I would not initiate or consent to any meeting with this person or their representatives.

New comment by wa2flq in "NYC Slice"

wa2flq — Wed, 11 Jan 2023 22:57:36 +0000

The deep-dish is really a cheese pie and has nothing to do with pizza. The thin crust has the texture of the local newspapers. Square cut is only found in taverns and has been cooking all day in such.

The good NYC pizzas are heaven compared to anything Chicago offers.

New comment by wa2flq in "Rehex – Reverse Engineers' Hex Editor"

wa2flq — Sat, 14 Nov 2020 03:06:09 +0000

Do any of these hex editors handle RADIX50 (RAD50) ?

New comment by wa2flq in "The Internet That Wasn’t: Review of “The Friendly Orange Glow” by Brian Dear"

wa2flq — Mon, 27 Nov 2017 16:02:13 +0000

PLATO was the Concorde of its time. It showed how technology and social interaction would create new tools and cultures.

Since ubiquitous computing and communication were far in the future, it never had the breakthrough it deserved.

New comment by wa2flq in "To fix L.A.'s traffic, we need tolls"

wa2flq — Wed, 08 Mar 2017 00:18:15 +0000

There is significant reverse commute and congestion from Chicago into the suburbs The travel times are typically longer than the conventional flow.

Suburb to Suburb mass transit is bus but challenging for long transits. There are only two major ring type highways. Attempts to get a suburban ring "STAR" train or outer Chicago "Circle" Loop line never get past the study stage.

New comment by wa2flq in "Dd is not a disk writing tool (2015)"

wa2flq — Sun, 08 Jan 2017 21:04:15 +0000

If you use block multiples on media with defects to speed things the good data fills the buffer first, then the remainder is zero padded for the blocks in error. This shifts good data relative to its original position and most likely further corrupts your attempts at recovery - BTDT.

This page explains the challenge - https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/disk_cloning

New comment by wa2flq in "Dd is not a disk writing tool (2015)"

wa2flq — Sun, 08 Jan 2017 19:17:26 +0000

Agreed,using dd on media with flaws is not straight forward.

See http://www.noah.org/wiki/Dd_-_Destroyer_of_Disks