Hacker News: zhivota

New comment by zhivota in "WiiFin – Jellyfin Client for Nintendo Wii"

zhivota — Tue, 14 Apr 2026 07:47:22 +0000

I love it mostly as well so far, the only sticking point on both my TVs is constantly having to re-enter my server IP address. It sticks around for a couple days, then it's gone again.

New comment by zhivota in "A blind man made it possible for others with low vision to build Lego sets"

zhivota — Wed, 08 Apr 2026 07:43:12 +0000

The top comment on the article itself has a great idea to map colors to textures so the blind could identify the colors as well. With the rise of cheap knock offs of LEGO these days, I wonder if one of those could do that.

New comment by zhivota in "I'm betting on ATProto"

zhivota — Tue, 31 Mar 2026 04:05:51 +0000

Nothing is accessible to non members. It's only $5/mo and the fee is explicitly to filter out people who don't care enough about the subject matter to pay a nominal fee.

I found it because someone I followed in my Twitter days hated how nasty conversations inevitably got there, and wanted a place to have in depth, non-ephemeral conversation with like minded people.

These days you'd probably discover it via X where they still post, or their Substack.

New comment by zhivota in "I'm betting on ATProto"

zhivota — Tue, 31 Mar 2026 03:51:57 +0000

The only social stuff I interact with anymore is a private forum that's paid, which is by far the best discussion on the internet for me, and other than that some discord servers for games I play.

Global social networks are cancer no matter the protocol, that's my opinion after many years trying to carve out a use for them in my life. No matter how hard I try to curate my feeds, inevitably they make me more angry, sad, and combative in my online life.

New comment by zhivota in "Have a fucking website"

zhivota — Wed, 18 Mar 2026 06:14:21 +0000

So how do I do that? I can't host it easily on the machine in the office because NAT and dynamic IPs have trained us that this is not really possible (it is, buty you have to know what you're doing).

Pay a hosting provider, but who? Do I need to buy an SSL certificate, because we decided we need HTTPS everywhere for some reason? What about if my site gets DDOSed? Do I get charged more?

So I can use something free like Github Pages, but now I'm under a different tech overlord, no?

I can see why people just say screw it and go back to IG/FB. The web is too complicated now.

New comment by zhivota in "Bus travel from Lima to Rio de Janeiro"

zhivota — Mon, 16 Mar 2026 10:06:05 +0000

Same phenomenon in the Philippines. Always bring full coverage clothes for the ride.

New comment by zhivota in "Don't become an engineering manager"

zhivota — Wed, 04 Mar 2026 06:27:51 +0000

I didn't know freelance interim em was a thing, interesting role.

New comment by zhivota in "Don't become an engineering manager"

zhivota — Wed, 04 Mar 2026 06:22:01 +0000

A lot of people think this until they become managers and discover all the bullshit they have to deal with from above and below. You're literally something of a human shock absorber, and in the analogy when the road is smooth there's not much to it, but when things get bumpy, you're the one taking the hits.

New comment by zhivota in "A16z partner says that the theory that we’ll vibe code everything is wrong"

zhivota — Sun, 22 Feb 2026 12:02:33 +0000

I don't know, I mean for most SaaS products this is true. But for something like Salesforce, the feature set is incredibly broad. The coding is not hard, so much as it is just an enormous volume of code.

New comment by zhivota in "Shifts in U.S. Social Media Use, 2020–2024: Decline, Fragmentation, Polarization (2025)"

zhivota — Sun, 08 Feb 2026 23:20:30 +0000

It's honestly a good thing. People should have social outlets where things are forgotten, not memorialized for all eternity.

New comment by zhivota in "Heritability of intrinsic human life span is about 50%"

zhivota — Wed, 04 Feb 2026 05:04:46 +0000

I've been playing Factorio and the base game is 100 hours easily, there are mods that ratchet it up to 500+. It's great brain exercise too, constantly refactoring, solving for bottlenecks, etc.

New comment by zhivota in "Pretty soon, heat pumps will be able to store and distribute heat as needed"

zhivota — Tue, 03 Feb 2026 02:15:21 +0000

Heat pump dryers work at a much lower heat as well since much of the heating of a traditional dryer is lost out of the vent. The heat pump condenses the water out of the hot air so you don't lose the heat.

I've stopped needing to sort my clothes out as a result, I used to hate putting synthetics in a regular dryer because they get worn out so fast that way.

New comment by zhivota in "Treasures found on HS2 route"

zhivota — Mon, 02 Feb 2026 03:27:49 +0000

This should be the gameplay in Civilization, instead of the thing where you train and archaeologist who goes to excavate magically known locations.

Excavation of tunnels and such should just come with a chance of finding artifacts, but it only materializes with the right culture tech unlocked (before some point, buried treasures were just scrapped or sold, not put into museums).

New comment by zhivota in "Two days of oatmeal reduce cholesterol level"

zhivota — Fri, 30 Jan 2026 08:40:47 +0000

Given that horses regularly eat grass and hay, oats are comparatively one of the most calorie dense foods they eat.

New comment by zhivota in "Ask HN: Why all the sudden people are writing browsers with AI?"

zhivota — Wed, 28 Jan 2026 04:47:17 +0000

Why did Alex Honnold climb Taipei 101 when he could just take the elevator?

I know the analogy is not perfect but it's the kind of project that wasn't feasible for a single dev before LLMs so now it just seems like a fun thing to try for some people.

New comment by zhivota in "Amazon closing its Fresh and Go stores"

zhivota — Wed, 28 Jan 2026 04:42:04 +0000

This is the opposite of my experience. Safeway is usually the most expensive, more than the Kroger/Albertsons chains.

The only place that competed with Walmart on price for me was WinCo.

New comment by zhivota in "62 years in the making: NYC's newest water tunnel nears the finish line"

zhivota — Mon, 29 Dec 2025 02:56:58 +0000

Yeah that makes sense but if growth dictates another tunnel... And it takes another 60 years, your capital expense starts to look a lot like an operating expense. Not to mention one of the big stated purposes of this tunnel is actually to facilitate maintenance of the other tunnels. There is probably more operation cost hidden here than seems obvious.

New comment by zhivota in "Why I Disappeared – My week with minimal internet in a remote island chain"

zhivota — Mon, 29 Dec 2025 02:54:43 +0000

Ignoring the obvious contradictory nature of the post (a trip to a place that is generally so expensive and time consuming that only the wealthy leisure class can access it yields polite people), what is the alternative to the fast news cycle?

I've been toying with different solutions over the years but haven't found anything great. Magazine subscription to something like the Economist? Weekly Sunday paper subscription?

How to keep up on the news without being jerked around by the engagement machine?

New comment by zhivota in "62 years in the making: NYC's newest water tunnel nears the finish line"

zhivota — Mon, 29 Dec 2025 01:24:22 +0000

My immediate thought is at what point does desalination tech + clean energy reach the crossover where building a 60 mile tunnel over 60 years not make sense?

It feels like very soon, and coastal cities can stop relying on hinterland reservoirs for water.

New comment by zhivota in "CO2 batteries that store grid energy take off globally"

zhivota — Mon, 22 Dec 2025 10:39:04 +0000

Here's a quote I got for a solar install in the Philippines this week:

51.2v 314ah cells (15kwh battery) 16x 580-590w solar panel

Installed for 310k PHP = $5,275

I've also specced out 15-16kwh batteries using the Yxiang design for around the price of your Solix. The problem in the US is regulatory and a particularly predatory tradesman market at the moment.