HNHacker News
TopNewBestAskShowJobs

Arrath

5,097 karma · joined January 29, 2021

submissionscomments
Arrath··on I can't upgrade to Windows 11, now leave me alone
The added scrutiny at some border crossings can be problematic too. Explaining to the inspectors at the Turkey/Bulgaria border why I had two phones and two laptops (and dissuading them of the suspicion that I was smuggling electronics to friends/family) through language barriers was a pain.
Arrath··on Helldivers 2 on-disk size 85% reduction
I had assumed the practice started to die off when installing games became dominant over streaming from the disc even on consoles. Seems I was wrong!
Arrath··on Valve is about to win the console generation
If anything the Tarkov ban treadmill is a way to drive sales. Even if some of them get disputed as fraudulent due to stolen card numbers, BSG may still come out ahead.
Arrath··on Britain's railway privatization was an abject failure
Maybe so, but I would contend it is worth considering the broader implications of those investments and the effects that new and upgraded infrastructure could have on the greater economy.

Speaking only for myself, I would be okay with a lower return if it also means we as a society have good public transit, roads that aren't more pothole than asphalt, water that doesn't have to be boiled on occasion, reliable power, modern internet, and so on.

Arrath··on Judge denies request to exempt Flock footage from Public Records Act
> Such records shouldn't exist in the first place.

Oh I agree 100%

Arrath··on The modern homes hidden inside ancient ruins
Oh man I would love to see pictures of this.
Arrath··on Judge denies request to exempt Flock footage from Public Records Act
Good, such records shouldn't be exempt. So what if they were gathered by a third party, it was a service carried out under request of the local government/law enforcement, and paid for by public money.
Arrath··on NoLongerEvil-Thermostat – Nest Generation 1 and 2 Firmware
How absurd, that official, first party addons would flatly void the warranty. Shouldn't be legal.
Arrath··on Tell HN: X is opening any tweet link in a webview whether you press it or not
>The previous comment was not talking about the browser viewer, it was talking about various website viewers, like the one by Jira.

Which tend to be, imo, even worse! I think I'd rather have a toner container explode on me than try to suffer through the experience of using Aconex's PDF utility ever again.

Arrath··on Tell HN: X is opening any tweet link in a webview whether you press it or not
Seriously. I have a featureful PDF viewer I am intimately familiar with. I want it to be the default for all PDFs, ever. This gimped viewer in the browser is not what I want.
Arrath··on New South Korean national law will turn large parking lots into solar farms
>Poorly executed parking solar could reduce sightlines and escape routes by crowding ground level

There's certainly no need for the support superstructure to need more pillars and members than your typical multi deck parking structure and while yes some have bad sightlines a majority are totally fine.

Arrath··on Printed circuit board substrates derived from lignocellulose nanofibrils
Good point but perhaps coatings or impregnated fire retardant compounds can be utilized?
Arrath··on You can't refuse to be scanned by ICE's facial recognition app, DHS document say
Bullshit! The alternative is mentioned in the article, trust the official documents presented by the 'suspect', as that's the purpose of the documents. As in OP's quote:

“ICE officials have told us that an apparent biometric match by Mobile Fortify is a ‘definitive’ determination of a person’s status and that an ICE officer may ignore evidence of American citizenship—including a birth certificate—if the app says the person is an alien,”

"Trust the word of the black box" is pure technocratic dystopian nonsense.

Arrath··on Estimating the perceived 'claustrophobia' of New York City's streets (2024)
Its funny for me, born and raised in the endless river valleys of the PNW, that I am so used to this topology that I'm much more comfortable in cities with an "opposite valley wall" (even if it's a building facade on the other side of the street and not the next row of hills a couple miles distant) in sight, than I am in Florida, on islands, or other big flatlands areas with nothing at all to break up the great sweep of the horizon.
Arrath··on Tell HN: Azure outage
"They'll learn their lesson and be rock solid after this! I better invest now!"
Arrath··on How the brain's activity, energy use and blood flow change as people fall asleep
I can confirm that anecdotally, taking those big 10mg pills did help me get to sleep, but also gave me some of the most fucked up dreams I've ever had the mispleasure of experiencing.
Arrath··on 10M people watched a YouTuber shim a lock; the lock company sued him – bad idea
Nah just an unremarkable subdivision development in middle america.
Arrath··on 10M people watched a YouTuber shim a lock; the lock company sued him – bad idea
Oh man, reminds me of one project where theives rolled up with a truck, hotwired a forklift and loaded up 3 of these boxes.
Arrath··on Cheap DIY solar fence design
I have the privilege of being licensed and insured for such and have a working relationship with the county fire marshall who issues the permits, so I used a rock bar to open a little hole to the right depth and then sprung the hole with a small binary explosive charge. Covered with matting hung from a borrowed tractor's bucket, so no danger of launched projectiles.

Saved a whole lot of backbreaking digging, do recommend.

Arrath··on Iceland reports the presence of mosquitoes as climate warms
My record is 51 with one slap of the hand.

That camping trip suuuuuuucked

Arrath··on Poker fraud used X-ray tables, high-tech glasses and NBA players
My cousin (submarine nuke plant operator) has stories of his compatriots using lead foil to line their pants.
Arrath··on Poker fraud used X-ray tables, high-tech glasses and NBA players
Yeah this is really the best way to do it, I've even played friendly family games with candy or baked goods as the chips. Great fun! Problematic when you're munching on your bank though.
Arrath··on Poker fraud used X-ray tables, high-tech glasses and NBA players
It entirely depends on the vibes, the company, and the game, in my opinion.

At one job, we used it as a social time, 6 to 15 people from work (had to run two tables for those big nights) got together Saturday night, bbq'd some food, maybe watched a game on tv if there was a good one, and played a friendly game. Had a few drinks and enjoyed the company, while cards were played in the background.

Mildly competitive, but it was a flat $40 buy in with no more money allowed so the stakes were never incredibly high.

At another company, one guy in particular was the driver to get games going and he always wanted the stakes too high (for my taste) with lots of money moving around. I only went to two of those, wasn't my style.

Arrath··on Tesla Recalls Almost 13,000 EVs over Risk of Battery Power Loss
The inertia of established supply chains and industry norms can be a real mother to overcome.

Hobbyist computing could benefit from a move to 48V as well, if only to keep the problematic 12VHPWR from killing expensive video cards.

I say hobbyist because AIUI 48v is making inroads in server hardware but that's not my area.

Arrath··on Tesla Recalls Almost 13,000 EVs over Risk of Battery Power Loss
For the powertrain, sure obviously and absolutely.

But e.g. why have different electric window motors, wiper motors, turn signal solenoids etc etc?

Arrath··on Windows 11 25H2 October Update Bug Renders Recovery Environment Unusable
I can't wait to try this. Long have I feuded with the Task Scheduler and its slippery ability to reenable the update services when I look away. Thanks!
Arrath··on How to Assemble an Electric Heating Element from Scratch
The article seems to recommend wrapping several coils of nichrome around the wire supplying electricity, and just globbing a load of tin solder on. Not ideal, I'd say.
Arrath··on Flies keep landing on North Sea oil rigs
Aurora by Kim Stanley Robinson dealt with a generation ship and the implications of the mission on subsequent generations born on the ship who had no say in signing up for it. Great book!
Arrath··on How to turn liquid glass into a solid interface
You're not wrong, and I share the sentiment. "Modern" panels are near worthless, I have to dig down to something crusty to actually expose useful settings I can tweak.
Arrath··on The cost of turning down wind turbines in Britain
This still faces the rather fundamental problem of getting the excess power from point of generation across the grid to somewhere than can consume it.
Page 1 of 34Next →