Hacker News Reader

CharleFKaneon Whatever Happened to the Internet of Things?

People realized it was the Internet of Stupid Broken Things and decided it wasn’t worth the trouble.

CharleFKaneon Do not call: States sue telecom company over billions of robocalls

The car warranty people always hang up on me when I tell them I want an extended warranty…

…on my 1909 Stanley Steamer.

CharleFKaneon Cops say they're being poisoned by fentanyl. Experts disagree

I thought this was a pretty smart take on the whole “got fentanyl on my skin” issue, by a retired law enforcement officer:

https://thelawdogfiles.com/2023/05/fentanyl-and-you.html

CharleFKaneon Ask HN: Any tech help out there for a techno-thriller inspired by post on HN?

You might check out John McPhee’s The Curve of Binding Energy, a non-fiction book.

There’s a lot of stuff in there about how his interview subject (a former nuclear weapons designer) would approach the problem of designing an improvised nuclear device (circa about 1974)…

CharleFKaneon Robert Lucas, Economist Who Won 1995 Nobel Prize, Dies at 85

With all due respect to the late Dr. Lucas, the prize is the Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel.

It was not one of the prizes established by Nobel in his will. This prize was created in 1968.

It is not a Nobel Prize. It is wrong and misleading to call it a "Nobel Prize".

CharleFKaneon Ask HN: What websites are you inspired by?

https://jvns.ca/

https://zombo.com/

CharleFKaneon The man who invented the modern cop novel

I enjoy the Wambaugh I’ve read, but I had some issues with this article.

Version_five is right about Martin Beck. (I wouldn’t count Maigret or Chandler as “police procedurals”.)

Also on the list and predating Wambaugh: Ed McBain’s “87th Precinct” novels. First one published in 1956, last one in 2005.

CharleFKaneon What does an AR-15 do to a human body?

"Some overweight Trump fan in the middle of Arkansas or Montana with an AR-15 has no chance against a single 5th gen Fighter, let alone an entire military with nuclear weapons, and a whole range of classified weaponry that us citizens can't even dream of conceptualizing. "

Yeah! That's why the US military had such overwhelming victories in Vietnam and Afghanistan, against primative peoples who couldn't even conceptualize our advanced weaponry!

CharleFKaneon What does an AR-15 do to a human body?

“… there's a reason you don't see gun control advocates arguing for banning single-shot hunting rifles or basic handguns.”

Actually, you do see that. “Single-shot hunting rifles” are “sniper weapons”. Handgun bans have been advocated since the 1960s.

CharleFKaneon Excuse Me Sir, Would You Like to Buy a Kilo of Isopropyl Bromide? [pdf]

I got introduced to this by way of Derek Lowe's blog:

https://www.science.org/blogs/pipeline

and I really enjoyed it.

The same site also has a PDF version of "Ignition!" which is both darn interesting and a lot funnier than a history of the early days of liquid fuel rocket propellants has a right to be.

CharleFKaneon Ben Bernanke among 3 American winners of Nobel Prize in economics

The prize is the Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel.

It was not one of the prizes established by Nobel in his will. This prize was created in 1968.

It is not a Nobel Prize. It is wrong and misleading to call it a "Nobel Prize".

CharleFKaneon Gun jams during bid to kill Argentina vice-president

The reports I have seen (for example, from the AP) say it was a Bersa (a company based in Argentina), not a Taurus.

CharleFKaneon Ask HN: What's the worst innocent mistake you've done at work?

Pulled the wrong drive out of a RAID.

CharleFKaneon Ask HN: Are you using StackOverflow as much as you used to?

No. I deleted my account and stopped using all Stack Overflow sites after the Monica Cellio issue.

CharleFKaneon The last Howard Johnson's restaurant closes in Lake George, N.Y.

And to kind of tie several things together at once:

The podcaster Simon Majumdar recently did an interview with Jacques Pepin.

https://www.eatmyglobe.com/season-8/jacquespepin

During that interview, he mentioned that, as a special event, with Paul Freedman (author of "10 Restaurants that Changed America", they cooked one dish from each of the 10 restaurants for about 100 people.

Some of these dishes were from really high-end restaurants like Le Pavillon (where Pepin also worked).

"But the dish that everybody loved was the fried clams from Howard Johnson’s."

CharleFKaneon ‘How to Murder Your Husband’ Writer Convicted of Murdering Husband

“Some circumstantial evidence is very strong, as when you find a trout in the milk.” ==H.D. Thoreau

CharleFKaneon The Case of the Eleven Blue Men (1948)

Berton Roueché was an extremely underappreciated writer.

Thank you for posting this.

CharleFKaneon Ask HN: Who are some of your favorite bloggers / internet people?

Julia Evans - https://jvns.ca/

Rachel By the Bay - https://rachelbythebay.com/

Monica Cellio - https://cellio.dreamwidth.org

Mark Dominus - https://blog.plover.com/

Morlock Publishing - https://twitter.com/MorlockP

Admiral Cloudberg - https://old.reddit.com/r/AdmiralCloudberg/

CharleFKaneon Ask HN: What would you like to do for a living if you weren't doing what you do?

I’d like to decide who lives and who dies.

Second choice: philosopher king.

CharleFKaneon Dutch Publisher Apologizes over Disputed Anne Frank Book

Alternative link:

https://archive.is/RwCx6

Previous HN coverage:

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=29996333

CharleFKaneon LTO Tape data storage for Linux nerds

I would like to thank the author for bringing back memories. Not all of which are good...

(I used to work for a four letter computer corporation doing enterprise technical support, mostly on tape-based products.)

CharleFKaneon Howl App, Local Commmunity Alerts – Available on All Mobile Devices

I saw the best minds of my generation destroyed by apps, ADHD hysterical naked, swiping through the Internet streets at dawn looking for an anger fix, angelheaded hipsters burning for ancient heavenly upvotes from the starry dynamo in the machinery of night...

CharleFKaneon Requiem for Our “Dash Board Lights”

So what I hear you saying is that you'll do anything for love...but you won't do that?

CharleFKaneon Smart guns finally arriving in U.S., seeking to shake up firearms market

There was a presentation at DEFCON 25 (2017) by someone who obtained one of the then available smart guns and defeated it with $15 worth of common magnets.

Here's a video of the presentation from YouTube:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J3f0p3vTY-c

I think it was also covered on HN at the time.

CharleFKaneon Ask HN: What book should I buy for my 18th birthday?

The answer I really want to give, but which isn't very helpful, is: go to a bookstore or to Amazon, find something that looks interesting to you, and buy it.

Don't worry about buying the right book at the right time, or if you'll like it in 50 years, or whatever. You'll have plenty of chances to get this right in the future.

The possibly more helpful, but self-promoting answer: I did a post twelve years ago on my personal blog about ten (plus five) books that were major influences on me. Many of those (11 out of the 15) are non-fiction, and you might get an idea or two from that list.

https://www.sportsfirings.com/?p=1401

CharleFKaneon Ask HN: What is your favorite book that you've read this year?

I’m going to name several, as I have odd tastes. I hope there is at least one here that someone will enjoy.

“A Fatal Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum: Murder in Ancient Rome”, Emma Southon

“How Dante Can Save Your Life: The Life-Changing Wisdom of History's Greatest Poem”, Rod Dreher

“The Club: Johnson, Boswell, and the Friends Who Shaped an Age”, Leo Damrosch

“The Year of Dangerous Days: Riots, Refugees, and Cocaine in Miami 1980”, Nicholas Griffin

“The Ingenious Language: Nine Epic Reasons to Love Greek”, Andrea Marcolongo

“One Day: The Extraordinary Story of an Ordinary 24 Hours in America”, Gene Weingarten

CharleFKaneon 25-Dec. Shout-out to everyone else at work

“ But in my organization (military) it is normal for the more senior people to work those shifts.”

I remember reading a story about Jim Mattis (back before he was famous). A fellow general showed up, found Gen. Mattis was the duty officer on Christmas Day, and asked him how he got stuck with that.

Gen. Mattis told him, “Well, the young man who was scheduled for duty today has a family, and I decided it was more important for him to spend the time with them. So I took his place.”

CharleFKaneon Ask HN: What's the best Christmas present you ever received?

That’s a tough call.

Two of the best were:

* a moped when I was 14 (if I remember right). I told that story on my personal blog a while back and am not sure it is kosher to link here.

* a camera (specifically, a Pentax K-1000) a couple of years later, which gave me a lifelong photography bug. Not that I’m any good at it, but I still take photos (and still have the K-1000).

There was also the Christmas my dad gave me my first rifle, but I don’t want to stir the pot on HN…

CharleFKaneon Millennials Killed the Mayonnaise Industry (2018)

Good!

Death to the vile emulsion!

CharleFKaneon A&W Turns its 'Worst Marketing Fail' Into a New Burger, Launches 3/9lb sandwich

Around me (Austin, TX) there are a few A&W restaurants combined with other fast food franchises. The one I see most often is a combined A&W/Long John Silver’s.