Hacker News Reader

ShakataGaNaion UV-K5 is the most hackable handheld ham radio yet

Provided you are broadcasting within bands you have license for, under the power limits for that band/license, and it's not encrypted... yea, you're good.

Historically the FCC hasn't care about modding radios, until people start doing illegal shit with them... like broadcasting FM on AM Airband freq's

ShakataGaNaion UV-K5 is the most hackable handheld ham radio yet

https://youtu.be/1dt6ykstvOo?si=itGvWonj4MPQaSrq&t=384

Mentions that it's a basic scrambler. I doubt a $30 radio has a chip powerful enough for real-time (proper) encryption.

ShakataGaNaion Real time weather balloon tracking

What about youSOMETHING.com and SOMETHINGtube.com ? There is youtube? But what about youporn and redtube!?!?

There are a lot more SOMETHINGhub sites that are not-porn (ex: scihub, github) than the one pornhub site.

ShakataGaNaion Apple cider vinegar for weight management

Makes total sense. You can find Sea Salt & Vinegar chips in most grocery stores. I love it. So why not bread?

ShakataGaNaion How I keep myself alive using Golang

He has that. The problem is not the CGM, it's everything around that (and the fact that both Freestyle Libre, and Dexcom, don't readily expose the data for the DIY types to do anything with).

While the Dexcom is "better" (than Freestyle Libre) in my opinion because the recent revision can talk directly to your phone continuously (the Libre only sends alerts, getting data requires you tapping phone to arm)... your insurance may cover only one or other. Either is way way better than nothing, but both are still a long way from automation.

ShakataGaNaion Using a solar oven as a radiant refrigerator at night

I installed a new pool solar (water) heating system a few years ago. It's got electronic controls for when to send the water up based on temperature etc. It has an integrated cooling mode, which does exactly what you described. Not useful for my location but I've learned in more warm climates it can be quiet a problem.

ShakataGaNaion Unidentified balloon belongs to amateur balloonist: US official

You're right, incorrect implication on my part. Fixed.

ShakataGaNaion Unidentified balloon belongs to amateur balloonist: US official

Amateur balloonists have been running these sorts of things for a really really long time without issue. Unfortunately due to China (Spying? Meteorology? we'll never know), now every time there is a balloon spotted there will be an issue.

While I'm not a fan of regulation, we should have some sort of optional transponder/beacon system that can be voluntarily registered. ADSB-like, which I know balloons can do...but true ADSB is expensive.

That way hobbits can continue doing their thing, the cost per balloon goes up by some minor amount, and we don't scramble jets and make national news constantly.

ShakataGaNaion City Street Orientations Around the World

I would guess its based on the number of named streets. To the north and south of downtown you've got hundreds and hundreds of tiny streets all NESW, and not that many in downtown that are "off" the cardinal.

ShakataGaNaion Please don't make me use another QR code restaurant menu

I like the mobile order option the best, but very few places I've been have that.

The QR option is nice, as long as it's just an option. A physical menu is, generally, much nicer to use. That being said, sometimes you want to go back and reference what you ordered, or other options (like for drinks) and ... the menus have all been taken away.

ShakataGaNaion "432 Hz tuned music can decrease heart rate more than 440 Hz tuned music"

I would love to see some direct comparison music. Listened to one quick guitar riff on youtube that I could find and 432 just sounded out of tune to me. Which, I suppose, it would be.

I question how much effect this would have over time. 8Hz would be a shockingly small amount of change to not have accidentally stumbled on to this being "better" hundreds of years ago. So I'd wager it's maybe something to do with the music sounds just enough "off" from normal that the mind becomes more engaged with the music.

ShakataGaNaion Haier hits Home Assistant plugin dev with takedown notice

This is stupid and just like Chamberlain with their MyQ snafu [1]. Assuming the developer did not steal the code, then this sort of work should be protected. If you have a public API, people should be legally allowed to use it and work against it. If you as a company don't like that, then make it harder for 3rd parties. If the open source code is abusive, then use a freaking WAF to protect yourself. But unless they are hacking yours system, stealing code, or being intentionally abusive there should be no legal recourse here.

Or... better yet, engage with these clearly VERY passionate customers. This is someone who not only bought your product but has donated hundreds or thousands of hours of their free time to making your product better. Better how? Because its works in a way your customers want that you don't otherwise offer. Instead of demanding take down, file a bug report with them to explain how the code is misbehaving. Bugs happen, maybe the developer didn't include an exponential fall off for outages. Whatever. Let them know and they'll probably fix it. Heck, you could use one of the in house developers to file a pull request to fix it yourself.

That's how you be the good guys. Instead of stomping on small projects of passionate customers, you engage with them. Make them even more a fan of your product, rather than a lifetime hater.

[1] https://www.home-assistant.io/blog/2023/11/06/removal-of-myq...

ShakataGaNaion Chicago-area Tesla charging stations lined with dead cars in freezing cold

My "favorite" thing about these stories is all the anti-EV'rs coming out and going "hahaha, stupid EV drivers". Except they don't realize their ICE car is part of the problem. These extremely unusual storms and cold snaps are part of climate change and their pointing and laughing is only going to make things worse.

At the end of the day, the real story is that EV's are having teething problems in unusual cold conditions. It's still relatively new technology (on the scale of cars in general), and we need to learn how to handle these different scenarios properly. My grandparents in Northern Minnesota had an engine block heater that they'd leave plugged in anytime their ICE car (decades ago) was home. Why? Because it'd get so cold you couldn't start the car. But this wasn't laughed about on the news because it wasn't new. We as a society had learned how to deal with it and it wasn't a big deal. EV's will get there one day.

ShakataGaNaion Removing data transfer fees when moving off Google Cloud

That's a cool thing for them to do, an interesting business choice, but cool. It certainly helps the companies feel a little better about vendor lock-in, which is terribly plentiful in the cloud.

The TLDR is that when you tell them you want to cancel, you have 60 days to do so and during that time you'll have no egress fees. Makes sense.

Biggest problem though is... if you have a substantial amount of data or need to do a complex and seamless transition - this probably won't work for you. I would have to be on the DevOps team that's told to move a complicated and data-heavy application, and they only had 60 days to do so. Also the bulk of the data movement is, in my experience, one of the first steps of migration - not the last.

My hope is that, if nothing else, this will spur similar behaviors in other large cloud providers ::cough::aws::cough::.

ShakataGaNaion Hertz to sell 20k EVs in shift back to gas-powered cars

> Why give them props?

Because they were trying to be forward-thinking and do the right thing, environmentally speaking.

> they are meant to be running a business!

By this logic we should still be using coal for all power or maybe crude oil. And kids should still be working in factories. Not everything is just about running a business. You can be a successful business and still make good choices for the world.

ShakataGaNaion Hertz to sell 20k EVs in shift back to gas-powered cars

This is not really surprising due to the business model Hertz was going after. They expect their used vehicles to have better resale values than what they currently have... which is a bunch of Tesla's bought at more or less the peak of pricing and now to be sold when prices have come down to sanity. They rode the market and lost.

Also they got a LOT of EV's, I give them props for doing so... but rental cars should be a little more diverse of fleets. I realize it's easier to maintain a few types of vehicles, but that's not the business they are in. Additionally, Tesla is not yet the type of company that can readily support fleet purchasers. It'll be a while before they are, so until then you're looking at a lot of pain.

Its really no different than buying Apple for business use in 2010 (give or take). Lots of companies were starting to do it, but at that time there were only 4 Apple stores in the US that even had a "business team". Apple was not setup to handle it and still, to this day, are very very slow to roll out business centric features and functionality.

ShakataGaNaion Hertz to sell 20k EVs in shift back to gas-powered cars

My favorite rental car in recent history was a Fiat 500 we nicknamed "The Little Brown Toot" [1]. A 2 door with 4 seats, but we had to fold down the back seats in order to fit our suitcases. For my wife and I having a long weekend in upstate Mass for a friends wedding? It was perfect, we didn't need anything else. And it was a hell of a lot less stressful to get around and find parking in Boston at the end of our trip.

I don't think I've ever rented an SUV in my adult life. Other than the one time I needed a vehicle to go to the snow (and in that case, we ended up with an AWD equipped minivan anyways).

I would much prefer a Tesla Model 3 to most SUV options. Granted I have an EV so it doesn't scare me, but that's not everyone. A rental fleet should be diverse. Just because I don't want an SUV doesn't mean others don't. Different people, different wants and needs.

[1] https://imgur.com/a/khw5Lx5

ShakataGaNaion Mercy Dogs of World War 1 who brought care and comfort to the wounded and dying

> The dogs were trained in triage, able to indicate who needed aid the most and who was too far gone to establish any medical care.

That's a crazy concept to even conceptualize. As a non-medically trained person, if I was to triage 5 injured people, assuming it wasn't terribly visually obvious (ex: missing leg)... I'd probably do a terrible job of it. Somehow they trained dogs to do so? Which really begs the question: What is the smell the dogs are looking for?

ShakataGaNaion What I learned from using a Raspberry Pi 5 as my main computer for two weeks

Much of this article is simply "I don't know Linux" and basically in no way reflects the Raspberry Pi itself. Clearly, the author doesn't know much about the ecosystem either; they suggest running a cheap intel machine because then you can run Windows... even though you can run Windows on a Raspberry Pi as well [1]. Not that I don't disagree with their general end sentiment, that you can often get a whole lot more, for relatively little extra cost.

The author seemed to think that "Raspberry Pi = Easy" then promptly ran into early adopter pain combined with a general lack of knowledge. I'd like to see someone repeat this experiment, that was actually understanding of what they were getting into. Anyone with half a tick knowledge of RPI knows that it's not an amazing desktop machine, it's not supposed to be. It's a good "desktop" when you're in an environment that lacks significant technology access, infrastructure, and most importantly...power.

[1] https://www.tomshardware.com/how-to/install-windows-11-raspb...

ShakataGaNaion United finds loose bolts on plug doors during 737 Max 9 inspections

If it's Boeing, I ain't going.

ShakataGaNaion FAA orders grounding of more than 170 Boeing 737 Max 9s

If it's Boeing, I ain't going.

ShakataGaNaion Alaska Airlines 737 Max makes emergency landing due to depressurization

If it's Boeing, I ain't going.

ShakataGaNaion Boeing wants FAA to exempt MAX 7 from safety rules to get it in the air

Boing is working really hard to write that old marketing limerick [1] for a new era:

> If it's Boeing, I ain't going.

[1] https://www.aerotime.aero/articles/23039-if-it-aint-boeing-i...

ShakataGaNaion Ask HN: Any felons successfully found IT work post-release?

One of the people on the other side of the table here. There are programs out there for the "rehabilitation" of those formerly convicted. Some of what I've seen is probably not helpful for you, but part of their work is job placement with companies whom are cooperative. It's hit or miss who is willing to go through the extra work of hiring those with a record, which is silly because it's not that much extra work. Depending on the role, it does add extra hoops which some managers will just shrug and find someone with less baggage.

Consulting is an excellent other option as well. Plenty of work in the security field if you get your name out there. Independent experts on small limited projects. Especially if you're doing things like external pen tests.

ShakataGaNaion NERV Disaster Prevention

I was so confused when I clicked this link. I saw "NERV" and knew it was related to Evangelion. But then reading the website it seems so real and legit. But then they're using the real NERV logo from Eva, even with the "God is in his heaven, all is right with the world" subtext. Which makes seem like it must be some sort of spoof. But who'd set up something like this, in light of the recent disaster, and even publish real apps.

Man... the cognitive dissonance I went through mentally bouncing back and forth for a few minutes. I don't think I've ever experienced anything like that before in my life.

I'm glad all the top comments on HN are about Eva though.

ShakataGaNaion Apple allows some iOS apps to track user locations via lists of nearby SSIDs

Hanlon's razor: Apple is just lazy and defaults all these things to on, rather than keeping tract of the settings since they are used or needed by 99% of people. Apple loves its Bluetooth keyboards and mice, after all.

ShakataGaNaion My failed attempt at using a closet as an office

Yea. To the left of my desk is a southern facing window that in the morning is blindingly bright. It's also subject to fun weather effects like partly cloudy days where the light can vary wildly. If I'm doing something I need to care about, then I just close the shades as much as possible and rely entirely on my lighting setup. It's a little annoying to be blocking out the nice sunny day in favor of artificial lighting...but that's what it takes sometimes.

Then on my breaks I just make sure to go outside and enjoy said sun.

ShakataGaNaion My failed attempt at using a closet as an office

In regards to the lighting.

> "best lighting is actual daylight in front of you ... Replacing the existing office lights with very warm toned lights"

So Daylight is good, yes. That's 5500k to 6500k, depending on how you measure it. It's NOT very warm-toned; in fact, it's cool white. The lights linked are 2700k. You can use them, but your camera is just going to try and compensate for the yellow hue. If you're going to buy something specifically for lighting video calls/recording, you should find something daylight with a higher CRI ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/High-CRI_LED_lighting ). You don't need to go crazy, but the difference between those $1 LED's and the $20 LED's you see at the store, is probably the CRI.

If you want GOOD lighting setup, go for 3 or 4 point lighting. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Three-point_lighting -- You don't need a huge number of expensive lights, just lights set off to the side. Personally, I hate ring lights because they are designed for you to put the camera in the middle of them. If you have glasses, all you can see in the camera is the ring reflection. Even if you don't have glasses, you're now staring into the center of a giant blinding light. No thanks.

ShakataGaNaion Cybertruck Launch

I'd wager you're right, similar to a modern DMC Delorean. After all they already share the stainless-steel body and "reputation for poor build quality and an unsatisfactory driving experience".

ShakataGaNaion The Knight Capital Disaster

They say, in Aircraft, safety regulations are written in blood. While no one died from this event, its clear the the metaphorical corporate blood spilled probably did wonders to help a lot of other groups.