Hacker News: zemvpferreira

New comment by zemvpferreira in "Finnish sauna heat exposure induces stronger immune cell than cytokine responses"

zemvpferreira — Sun, 05 Apr 2026 17:58:26 +0000

Not to beat my own dead horse but at the heat stress needed to cause an adaptation there’s nothing pleasant about the experience. If it’s not causing nausea and palpitations, it’s not hot enough.

New comment by zemvpferreira in "Finnish sauna heat exposure induces stronger immune cell than cytokine responses"

zemvpferreira — Sun, 05 Apr 2026 15:09:20 +0000

Have you tried submerging yourself in moderately hot water, I wonder? And have you spent some time pondering the difference in heat transfer between convection and conduction?

New comment by zemvpferreira in "Finnish sauna heat exposure induces stronger immune cell than cytokine responses"

zemvpferreira — Sun, 05 Apr 2026 14:55:56 +0000

Yes, if by hot bath you mean submerging yourself to neck level in 40ºC or above water for 20-30 minutes. There's no reason to believe any "heat therapy" modality is superior to another as long as you suffer equal heat stress.

For the record, if you're not acclimated, intense heat exposure is a lot more agonising than 30 minutes of exercise for less benefit. If you haven't experienced a properly tuned sauna in your life you are in for a ride. What's being studied in the literature is nothing like your standard hotel experience.

New comment by zemvpferreira in "Samsung Magician disk utility takes 18 steps and two reboots to uninstall"

zemvpferreira — Fri, 03 Apr 2026 19:28:03 +0000

PartitionMagic was one of the first programs to make me feel like I was in control of my computer. I don't think about it much but looking back it was an important part of my development as a technologist. You made a difference in lots of lives I'm sure!

New comment by zemvpferreira in "SpaceX files to go public"

zemvpferreira — Thu, 02 Apr 2026 16:42:51 +0000

So we are now hypothesising fully-developed multi-planetary civilisations to justify an IPO price in 2026? By the same leap of logic Coca-Cola is worth 1 trillion times its current price since it's poised to be the galaxy's drink of choice. And I'm being reasonable with my estimate here, how many galaxies could we actually be talking about in potential?

New comment by zemvpferreira in "The SpaceX IPO: retail investor notes"

zemvpferreira — Thu, 02 Apr 2026 15:42:22 +0000

You can praise the technological achievements while still thinking the underlying business is trash. Plenty of horrible companies have generated great advances, but your money in them before mine thank you very much.

New comment by zemvpferreira in "Padel Chess – tactical simulator for padel"

zemvpferreira — Sat, 21 Mar 2026 18:33:06 +0000

I don't mean to nitpick but really the only thing they have in common is a)rackets b)being played in pairs and c) being very popular at the moment. Padel is orders of magnitude richer and more complex than pickleball. Pickle is a lot of fun though.

New comment by zemvpferreira in "'The Secret Agent': Exploring a Vibrant, yet Violent Brazil (2025)"

zemvpferreira — Wed, 18 Mar 2026 08:41:49 +0000

That's perfectly nice idea but still doesn't make for a good movie. Making a good movie comes before a nice idea, if a movie is what you're making.

New comment by zemvpferreira in "'The Secret Agent': Exploring a Vibrant, yet Violent Brazil (2025)"

zemvpferreira — Tue, 17 Mar 2026 21:56:59 +0000

Fair enough if you enjoyed it. I'm no stranger to the period or the director's movies and still found this one overly contrived. The tense bits are so engaging that the fantastic/anachronistic felt like it detracted from a great story.

New comment by zemvpferreira in "Heart, head, life, fate"

zemvpferreira — Tue, 17 Mar 2026 20:52:24 +0000

Am I getting old or did it use to be much better 10 or 20 years ago? Half the LRB feels so politicised to me now, and the other half barely feels erudite. Was I just too young to pick it up back then?

New comment by zemvpferreira in "'The Secret Agent': Exploring a Vibrant, yet Violent Brazil (2025)"

zemvpferreira — Tue, 17 Mar 2026 20:42:44 +0000

I found it unsatisfying. Such a strong opening let down by a meandering movie with no payoff. Made all the sadder by great moments and performances spread thinly through the 2-something hours. I remember coming out of the movie theatre thinking there was a really enjoyable film buried underneath the crud if they could have had more restraint in the editing room. To each their own I suppose.

New comment by zemvpferreira in "Harold and George Destroy the World"

zemvpferreira — Sun, 15 Mar 2026 15:12:25 +0000

There is no difference.

New comment by zemvpferreira in "MacBook Neo"

zemvpferreira — Wed, 04 Mar 2026 15:52:14 +0000

A perfectly performant, luxury-feeling laptop with a secure OS for under $500? This thing is going to eat Chromebooks and budget HP shitboxes for lunch. Sure a lot of niceties are missing but compared to the experience most people have with their $500 laptops, this is going to be night and day.

New comment by zemvpferreira in "MacBook Air with M5"

zemvpferreira — Tue, 03 Mar 2026 15:27:40 +0000

A 10 or 20 gram usb-c cable will literally solve this problem forever for $2.99

New comment by zemvpferreira in "VTT Test Donut Lab Battery Reaches 80% Charge in Under 10 Minutes [pdf]"

zemvpferreira — Mon, 23 Feb 2026 14:02:44 +0000

“Soon” is likely 5-10 years easily though.

New comment by zemvpferreira in "Sub-$200 Lidar could reshuffle auto sensor economics"

zemvpferreira — Mon, 23 Feb 2026 12:30:00 +0000

Limited resources? Billions per year are being thrown at the base technology. We have the capital deployed to exhaust every path ten times over.

New comment by zemvpferreira in "Sub-$200 Lidar could reshuffle auto sensor economics"

zemvpferreira — Mon, 23 Feb 2026 08:44:30 +0000

I think we’re well past the point where mass surveillance was a technical challenge. Mass oppression through autonomous violence however…

New comment by zemvpferreira in "Sub-$200 Lidar could reshuffle auto sensor economics"

zemvpferreira — Mon, 23 Feb 2026 08:25:35 +0000

The mind salivates at the idea of sub-$100 and soon after sub-$10 Lidar. We could build spatial awareness into damn near everything. It'll be a cambrian explosion of autonomous robots.

New comment by zemvpferreira in "All Look Same?"

zemvpferreira — Thu, 19 Feb 2026 13:01:38 +0000

It’s nothing. This is not a test to take a value judgement from.

New comment by zemvpferreira in "Semaglutide improves knee osteoarthritis independant of weight loss"

zemvpferreira — Wed, 11 Feb 2026 09:12:06 +0000

No, it's more like arguing a Miata will fit the same need as a GT3 at 1/20th the cost. Some people don't fit a Miata, but it's still a valid option for many. Though I am at a sub-clinical dose (not a microdose) I'm still losing between 1 and 3 pounds per week. Lots and lots of people optimise their dose and their pen size to make the economics and side effects more manageable. This is not at all unique to me. It's unfortunate if it doesn't fit your case but it is widely applicable nonetheless.