Hacker News: waltbosz

New comment by waltbosz in "Using the railway network as a flatbed scanner"

waltbosz — Tue, 18 Aug 2026 15:00:08 +0000

The wobbly pictures brings me back to my experience as a kid with hand-held photo scanners https://oldcomputer.info/pc/apscan/index.htm .

It was impossible (for me at least) to get a scan without shifting my hand position on the X-axis while also sliding the scanner down the picture.

Also, I seem to recall the scanner I used was only capable of outputting 1-bit dithered black and white pictures. This was late 80s/early 90s tech.

New comment by waltbosz in "German advocacy group lodges criminal complaint over Meta AI glasses"

waltbosz — Wed, 12 Aug 2026 16:12:54 +0000

The LEDs can be disabled with a hardware mod.

https://thenewthings.com/p/i-paid-someone-to-hack-my-meta-gl...

New comment by waltbosz in "USA Today Co., partners with Palantir to analyze audience data"

waltbosz — Fri, 07 Aug 2026 14:47:27 +0000

I dislike USA Today. It feels like lowest common denominator fluffy news.

Also, I remember staying at a hotel once where they delivered one to every guest room.

New comment by waltbosz in "Frank Lloyd Wright’s first home"

waltbosz — Fri, 17 Jul 2026 19:13:58 +0000

I live within walking distance of a Frank Lloyd Wright house. Sadly, it's a private residence and closed to the public.

New comment by waltbosz in "How to build a circular LCD clock"

waltbosz — Tue, 14 Jul 2026 13:47:39 +0000

I have a physical clock that sort of works that way. It's different from a flip clock. It has these sort of 10 sided dice with numeric faces that rotate each minute. But no, the minute hand doesn't take a full minute to rotate the digit. Instead, after a minute it slowly rotates to the next number. After 10 minutes, the 10s column rotates with the 1s column, then the hours column after an hour.

Now I'll have to dig it out of storage.

New comment by waltbosz in "The vintage beauty of Soviet control rooms (2018)"

waltbosz — Sat, 11 Jul 2026 13:26:33 +0000

I like how some of them are/were recently still in use as evidenced by the modern computer monitors.

New comment by waltbosz in "The vintage beauty of Soviet control rooms (2018)"

waltbosz — Sat, 11 Jul 2026 13:25:12 +0000

also see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Go_Away_Green

New comment by waltbosz in "Delta flight hit by firework while landing at Midway Airport on Fourth of July"

waltbosz — Wed, 08 Jul 2026 14:07:14 +0000

There is a fireworks store near me in Pennsylvania that is off I-95 at maybe the first exit over the Delaware line. When you enter the building, you go into an atrium with two doors that go into two separate sub-stores divided by a wall. In the atrium, they check your driver's license. If you have a Pennsylvania license, you have to enter the store that only sells non-explosive, non-aerial fireworks (no rockets, mortars, firecrackers, Roman candles, etc). If you have a Delaware license, you can go in the other part of the store that sells the good stuff. It's illegal to possess explosive and aerial fireworks in Delaware. They also have a waiver to sign that agrees you will use the fireworks legally.

I guess in Pennsylvania it's illegal to sell the good stuff to PA residents, but not to out of state visitors.

New comment by waltbosz in "Delta flight hit by firework while landing at Midway Airport on Fourth of July"

waltbosz — Wed, 08 Jul 2026 13:53:36 +0000

> they let people be there

"there" is in people's front yards. This reddit thread shows how close the planes are to houses.

https://old.reddit.com/r/chicago/comments/1ntyavt/i_wanted_t...

New comment by waltbosz in "Delta flight hit by firework while landing at Midway Airport on Fourth of July"

waltbosz — Mon, 06 Jul 2026 15:00:11 +0000

From his house, no I don't think a consumer mortar could hit a plane. The planes weren't that low.

But the area surrounding the airport is very densely populated. Given all those people, I'm not surprised some dumb kid (or adult) lit fireworks near the airport.

Also, most fireworks are illegal in Illinois. But it's only a 30 minute drive from Chicago to Indiana.

New comment by waltbosz in "Delta flight hit by firework while landing at Midway Airport on Fourth of July"

waltbosz — Mon, 06 Jul 2026 13:07:03 +0000

My uncle's house is under the landing path for Midway Airport. His whole house shakes when a plane comes by. From his front yard you can easily read the numbers on the plane's body.

Parts of the fence surrounding the airport is across the street from a neighborhood. You can sit and watch planes landing not too far above your head. I'm not surprised a consumer grade firework was able to hit one of those planes.

New comment by waltbosz in "German button maker searched rivers of American Midwest for valuable shells"

waltbosz — Thu, 02 Jul 2026 20:10:57 +0000

I think the museum is a different spot nearby.

I found the restaurant on google street view, the pictures go back to 2008! https://maps.app.goo.gl/UxWzN5bcd4cLG6eH9

New comment by waltbosz in "German button maker searched rivers of American Midwest for valuable shells"

waltbosz — Thu, 02 Jul 2026 14:14:34 +0000

I went to Muscatine, Iowa on a work trip once. There was a restaurant there called Button Factory. It was housed in a former button factory. Pretty old building. The bar top had an epoxy inlay with embedded buttons that were produced in the factory.

The meal was pretty good. The restaurant closed in 2012.

New comment by waltbosz in "Weave Robotics launches Isaac 1, a $7,999 home robot with Fall 2026 deliveries"

waltbosz — Thu, 02 Jul 2026 13:32:46 +0000

It reminded me of ET

New comment by waltbosz in "Nintendo has raised its employees base salary by 10%"

waltbosz — Wed, 01 Jul 2026 14:46:23 +0000

Tomodachi Life is so much fun. It's the first time I've seen 1990s voice synthesizer tech used in a fun way. And the item designer makes me nostalgic for Mario Paint.

New comment by waltbosz in "Dostoyevsky isn't difficult"

waltbosz — Thu, 25 Jun 2026 13:45:53 +0000

I found this Librivox audiobook to have a good narrator.

https://librivox.org/crime-and-punishment-version-3-by-fyodo...

New comment by waltbosz in "How many of the 170k English words do you know?"

waltbosz — Fri, 19 Jun 2026 17:07:57 +0000

I got 75,150

New comment by waltbosz in "SpaceX's president is floating a Tesla merger as the company begins trading"

waltbosz — Fri, 12 Jun 2026 14:15:48 +0000

What's the end goal of merging everything into X ?

New comment by waltbosz in "Entanglement Builds Space-Time. Now "Magic" Gives It Gravity"

waltbosz — Fri, 05 Jun 2026 15:00:01 +0000

I've always considered magnets to be the closest thing we have in real life to magic.

New comment by waltbosz in "Ad Blocker Test – Check If Your Ad Blocker Works"

waltbosz — Fri, 05 Jun 2026 14:55:32 +0000

To allow their site, they suggest you add `@@*$redirect-rule` to `My filters` in the uBlock origins settings.

Went from 5% to 84% after I made the change.