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Comment by kragen | Hacker News Reader

I wasn't expecting to see Dernocua at the top of HN today with 53 comments. You can download Dernocua as a whole from http://canonical.org/~kragen/dernocua/ if you're interested.

I'm happy to answer any questions. (Well, almost any.)

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What's up with the dercuano, derctuo, and dernocua naming? Are there just these three? Does the naming follow some pattern?

Well, "Dercuano" sounds like "Dirk One Oh" in English, so clearly the sequel should be "Dirk Two Oh". And "Dernocua" is the properly formed vesre of cuaderno, unlike "Dercuano", which unfortunately certain people were too polite to inform me was ill-formed until too late.

:-)

Mostly I wanted a name that was short, easy to remember, and unique.

My current notes are in http://canonical.org/~kragen/sw/pavnotes2.git/

Does aluminum foil contain PFAS and does cooking on them on the grill for example expose the food to forever chemicals?

It does not, but aluminum oxide is even more of a "forever chemical" than teflon is, though less so than, for example, the nitrogen that constitutes 78% of the atmosphere.

i guess in that case the question would be if one should be as worried about the biological effects of PFAS as much as these two other forever chemicals you cite

I think it's a little late to be worrying about Nitrogen in the atmosphere.

If it's any consolation I believe it's mostly harmless.

Also true of teflon, aluminum oxide, and Earth as a whole. Perfluorooctanoic acid, by contrast, is not mostly harmless.

The irony is that the more 'forever' (non reactive) the chemical, the less effect they have on the body, generally speaking. You do not want something with a short half-life in your body

No, there should be no PFAS. The surface will be covered in trace amounts of oil from production, but other than that it should be entirely aluminum alloy.

https://www.epa.gov/system/files/documents/2025-04/foil-stud...

seems like the cert may have expired

Thanks! I keep unintentionally using https links to canonical.org since basically the whole web is https now. Fixed.

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