Hacker News Reader

_whiteCaps_on Giving friends custom text buzzes based on Morse code

https://www.youtube.com/@alexjh47/podcasts

I publish CBC and BBC News Feeds in Morse Code in various speeds if you're looking for another way to learn Morse Code.

_whiteCaps_on Neal Stephenson responds with wit and humor (2004)

Another classic of his, Mother Earth, Mother Board: https://www.wired.com/1996/12/ffglass/

_whiteCaps_on What California is learning from solar panels built over irrigation canals

Although Singapore does do this:

https://www.key.aero/article/exercise-torrent

_whiteCaps_on HERMES radio enables voice and data communication over vast distances

Going to be super pedantic here - in ham radio you don't broadcast, you transmit.

_whiteCaps_on HERMES radio enables voice and data communication over vast distances

Depends on your jurisdiction. In Canada it's allowed if you publish your keys.

https://www.rac.ca/encryption/

_whiteCaps_on Adventures in Microcontroller Circuit Debugging

Oh this reminds me of when I was working on embedded Linux devices for vehicles.

We had a new batch of hardware come in that had a failure rate of about 50%. Normally it was on the order of < 1%. Our CM was very good at troubleshooting.

Nothing had changed in the BOM so we were left scratching our heads.

Hooked up the JTAG debugger to see where it was failing to start, and the CPU wasn't even coming up. Power rails looked good, but the CPU just wasn't booting.

Eventually we discovered that the supplier had given us a batch of crystals that were slightly more sensitive to the capacitance, and our design was just on the margin of working.

Lowering the caps to the proper values according to the xtal's datasheet got everything working again.

_whiteCaps_on AirPods 5

I'm saying that many people do it wrong in other cases, and stick an 's' on the end (or worse, also add an apostrophe). Like surgeon generals, attorney generals, court martials, etc. I'm impressed that people aren't doing it in the case of airpods.

_whiteCaps_on AirPods 5

I can't get over how Apple is getting everyone to refer to them with proper pluralization, ie AirPods 5 vs AirPod 5's.

_whiteCaps_on Discovery of a new OpenAI agent message board

This reminds me of how kids were bypassing school rules around social media:

https://www.bark.us/blog/google-maps-safety/ https://www.mcafee.com/blogs/family-safety/social-undergroun...

_whiteCaps_on Fish bad, sugar good, and other medieval ideas about food

"Pickling" things in vinegar is a relatively modern invention.

_whiteCaps_on Artificial beaver dams saw juvenile coho salmon survival rates go from 8% to 60%

There's a really good book about a homesteader that did something similar to this in the 1930's in British Columbia, "Three Against The Wilderness". Basically he restored the dams that had been dynamited by the ranchers, and that restored all of the wetlands in the area.

Later on, the government brought him some beavers from elsewhere, and they flourished.

_whiteCaps_on I Don't Have a Smartphone

> they couldn’t call me on WhatsApp

Some might consider that a benefit.

_whiteCaps_on Mushroom hunting with LLMs: what can go wrong?

They're still on my bucket list to find. Lots of false morels around here. :(

_whiteCaps_on Mushroom hunting with LLMs: what can go wrong?

Considering that some mushrooms need a spore print to tell them apart, I'd say that you can't ever trust an LLM.

_whiteCaps_on Mushroom hunting with LLMs: what can go wrong?

Some mushrooms like chanterelles can't be reliably farmed, and are quite tasty! I love being able to spend a day hiking and coming back with a meal.

_whiteCaps_on Dutch central bank moves share of gold from U.S., Canada to London

I think purposely spoiling your ballot is a better signal to the parties that none of them are acceptable. Is that possible in your elections? Around here, a spoiled ballot is scrutinized by the party observers, so your message would definitely be heard.

I'd love to see a ballot with ranked choice voting that includes a none of the above option.

_whiteCaps_on Dutch central bank moves share of gold from U.S., Canada to London

IMO if you don't vote, you're tacitly agreeing with whoever gets voted into office.

(Although US voter suppression weakens this argument)

_whiteCaps_on “I just chose words carefully”

Is this not common outside of Japan? I've often seen this used here in Canada.

Sometimes as NFG after a particularly bad day.

_whiteCaps_on The Twelve-Factor App

That drives me crazy. The RBC app does this although it eventually times out and gives me the number.

_whiteCaps_on Canada will match US tariffs 'dollar for dollar' as trade talks break down

New Zealand apples are literally the same price as the US ones around here in BC.

_whiteCaps_on Canada will match US tariffs 'dollar for dollar' as trade talks break down

I honestly believe that it's because he saw people making fun of him in the picture where Melania is admiring Justin Trudeau:

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2019/aug/26/melania-trum...

_whiteCaps_on Stop eating Lady Gaga's Oreos

I don't know about Lady Gaga's Oreos but the Selena Gomez ones are quite good. I bought them as a joke and ended up liking them.

_whiteCaps_on Sol loves to cheat

My company's rules deny permissions for Read("secret") but not "mv secret not-secret" :-/

_whiteCaps_on Los Puesteros, solitary men who look after ranches and livestock in Patagonia

AFAIK no - you need basic first aid, a radio operator license, and other things like that. But I actually haven't looked at it that seriously since there aren't any openings right now.

_whiteCaps_on Los Puesteros, solitary men who look after ranches and livestock in Patagonia

We've got a lot of coastline here. :)

_whiteCaps_on Los Puesteros, solitary men who look after ranches and livestock in Patagonia

I was just looking up lightkeeper positions in my province. Unfortunately no openings right now. But it would be an interesting job for an introvert like myself.

_whiteCaps_on Seven books I keep close because I love them

I bought Redwall for my kids a few years ago, and was stopped by three different people while walking from the back of the store to the checkout who commented on how good the books are!

_whiteCaps_on Why does Opus 5 feel worse to work with?

Verbing weirds languages (Calvin and Hobbes)

_whiteCaps_on Picking berries is my meditation

If you're looking for a place to find things to pick: https://fallingfruit.org/about/welcome

_whiteCaps_on Why Are There Statues of Beavers on Top of This Oxford Street Shop?

If you're interested in learning more about the ecological impact of beavers, I highly recommend "Three Against The Wilderness" by Eric Collier. He homesteaded in BC in the 1930s-60s and encouraged the re-introduction of beavers after being on the brink of extinction here.