Hacker News Reader

Maximus9000on I’m putting a WiFi router into a wall charger

or make it look like a blank wall faceplate on the consumer facing side, but on the other side it has a plug in to get power. Ideally, no tools are required to "install" it.

To consumers, it should look like this: https://www.homedepot.ca/product/leviton-1-gang-midway-nylon...

Maximus9000on Feds order Google to track people searching certain names or details

Is there a better source on this? Daily Mail is terrible:

https://mediabiasfactcheck.com/daily-mail/

Maximus9000on Meat and mental health: Meat eaters suffer less depression, anxiety

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/life/health-and-fitness/arti...

"Previous studies have linked a higher fibre diet to protection from heart disease, type 2 diabetes, obesity and certain cancers."

Maximus9000on TekSavvy takes pirate site blocking battle to Canada’s Supreme Court

Me too and I want to support them. Please give them a good review on google - they currently sit at 2.3 stars.

Maximus9000on They thought they were going to rehab but ended up in chicken plants (2017)

Yes. There was a TED talk on it:

https://www.ted.com/talks/johann_hari_everything_you_think_y...

Maximus9000on The humble water heater could be the savior of our energy infrastructure woes

If I recall correctly, these are not suitable for residential use, right?

Maximus9000on Asking developers to do QA is broken – why anyone should own QA

The PM is busy doing their own job (writing new stories, managing old stories, talking to clients, etc). They typically only do a superficial amount of testing on new features (and usually only on their pet-features). The vast majority of testing comes from QA and Dev.

Maximus9000on Asking developers to do QA is broken – why anyone should own QA

I've been a QA Automation Engineer for 15 years. This is the best thread ever on HN! I've read every single comment.

I've found the best approach is for QAs to be embedded right into the product team - where the product team manager is the same person for both Dev and QA. QA and Dev all review each others code. QA reviews the Dev unit tests, and Devs review the QA integration tests (API and UI). QA may not be able to provide in-depth reviews on dev code, but at least they can double check that unit test coverage is adequate.

As for UI automation, one point of friction that often happens is that QAs want unique IDs on each UI element. If the devs fail to provide those unique IDs, then QAs are often forced to do some convoluted workaround. However, there is a better option where QAs simply add the unique IDs themselves and request a code review from the dev. This works well because the change to developer code is benign and QA is not slowed down.

Maximus9000on The Electrification of Everything

* Saves space in utility room

* uses less energy

* never run out of hot water

* units are longer lasting

Maximus9000on The Electrification of Everything

I need to update my home hot water heater. I'd like a tankless instant hot water heater. Despite wanting to do my part for climate change, all indications point me towards getting as natural gas unit instead of electric.

Maximus9000on Facebook still ‘secretly’ tracks your iPhone

The original quote is: "Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic". ~Arthur C. Clarke

Maximus9000on White House eyes subsidies for nuclear plants to help meet climate targets

Technically, from your own numbers... Denmarks intermittent renewables (wind + solar) is 43%. Germany is 34%. Biofuel & Hydro are not intermittent.

I don't know, that's pretty impressive. Maybe they have international connectors with other countries? I think Germany buys Nuclear power from France? or maybe they have a super stable kind of wind.

Maximus9000on White House eyes subsidies for nuclear plants to help meet climate targets

I agree, but not with the "50%" number.

“Without technological breakthroughs in efficient, large scale energy storage, it will be difficult to rely on intermittent renewables for much more than 20-30 percent of our electricity.” Steven Chu, Secretary of Energy - 2010.

https://grist.org/article/2010-02-22-energy-secretary-steven...

Maximus9000on Tech Tent: Bye-bye Silicon Valley, hello global workforce?

Hey, I'm also from Ontario and looking to change jobs for the right price. Any suggestions for where I should start? Should I be looking mostly at American companies with USD pay? Should I be using a Canadian recruiter? My current title is Sr. QA Automation engineer. I think I could easily be lead or even QA Manager.

Maximus9000on Why is the deathbed perspective considered so valuable?

Agreed. I've travelled a lot with my wife (We've been to 24 countries). I enjoy travelling with someone. A few times, I travelled alone... it's kind of boring alone. There are lots of people who say positive words about travelling alone like "empowering", "liberating"... but I didn't find that at all.

Maximus9000on The U.S. Air Force just admitted the F-35 stealth fighter has failed

I cannot find any other sources on this topic.

Maximus9000on Before buying a NYT subscription, here's what it'll take to cancel it

Same with "The Globe & Mail" here in Canada. You can only cancel via phone.

Maximus9000on Before buying a NYT subscription, here's what it'll take to cancel it

Somewhat related, the GDPR regulations do explicitly spell out that unsubscribing from an email list should be clear and simple.

Ideally, the same kind of regulation could be put in place for stopping a service on the internet (like NYT).

Maximus9000on Ask HN: What if Stack Overflow suddenly decides to shut down?

Funny enough, the inception of stack overflow was because another Q&A site called "Experts exchange" suddenly put up a paywall.

Maximus9000on Vancouver seaplane company to resume test flights with electric plane

They use jet fuel for most of their planes. Here is an environmental report. Jet fuel is basically diesel. See page 4

https://www.harbourair.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/Harbou...

Maximus9000on Ask HN: What are you surprised isn’t being worked on more?

hmm, I'm still confused. Are you saying there are just too many APIs and my app's little API is insignificant in a world overflowing with APIs? What if several customers want access to my API? Is there an alternative that I should be using (like GraphQL)?

Maximus9000on Ask HN: What are you surprised isn’t being worked on more?

Why "Less APIs"?

Maximus9000on Ask HN: What are you surprised isn’t being worked on more?

Check out the "eden alternative". It replaces sterile, medical-like settings with settings more akin to a home. With dogs, cats, birds, etc. Also, they try to integrate kindergarten age kids into the home where possible. It looks amazing.

Maximus9000on Ask HN: What are you surprised isn’t being worked on more?

Out of curiosity, what is wrong with the solutions available today? I see Elon Musk before and after and his procedure appeared to have gone great. Is that just because he could afford a more expensive procedure?

Maximus9000on Building my own HomeKit Thermostat

Does homekit automatically mean the device has better cyber security?

Maximus9000on CAPTCHAs don’t prove you’re human – they prove you’re American (2017)

Even so, it's easy to make a mistake with that much information so poorly organized. There are better alternatives out there, like this:

https://www.lamag.com/driver/hidden-costs-parking-signs-easy...

Maximus9000on Ask HN: Are you depressed?

Indeed. I wish there was more nuance here. This has been the second worst year of my 39 years on this planet... but, with that said, I'm not depressed, just kind of shitty.

Maximus9000on Bill introduced to promote prescribed fire intends to reduce fire risk

Has that ever happened?

Maximus9000on Why is Apple acting like an asshole?

I totally agree. Apple is great for privacy - and that's important to me - but I'm slowly starting to think I might move to something else. Sadly, it seems my only real option is Android. I miss windows phone and blackberry.

Maximus9000on Google says its carbon footprint is now zero

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