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dakna

1,241 karma · joined August 3, 2011

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dakna··on More than 100 rally against data centers at Michigan Capitol
> So where do they ask to put a small data center? Right in the city's entertainment district! Makes less sense than putting it on farmland. Look Michigan needs the jobs, just a little common sense would go a long ways.

The site of the old GM Fisher Body plant is a sixty acres brownfield. The proposed downtown data center location is a one acre unused parking lot. It is close enough to LBWL, Lansing's utility company for water/electricity, to reuse the generated heat [1].

I don't think this really compares to the 270 acres data center for OpenAi/Oracle planned in Saline Township, which will be connected to one of the few 345kV transmission lines in Michigan. [2]

[1] https://www.lbwl.com/community/newsroom/2025-11-05-deep-gree...

[2] https://openinframap.org/#11.64/42.1244/-83.8008

dakna··on Slashdot effect
At the time, a standard LAMP stack setup wasn't prepared for the https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/C10k_problem. Quite often you had no DB connection pool and every request for dynamic data opened/closed a DB connection. Having a fixed number of connections available also quickly hit the limits unless it was a dynamically configured pool. Which also filled up eventually.

If you were lucky you could reduce load by caching the URLs taking up the most resources and generate a webpage copy in the filesystem, then add some URL rewrite logic to Apache to skip going through your application logic and bypass the DB.

Then you discovered there is a limit of open file descriptors in Linux. After updating this and also shutting down all log files you ran out of things to change pretty quick and started pricing a beefier server. For next time.

dakna··on How big a solar battery do I need to store all my home's electricity?
> and I am surrounded by very tall trees.

https://www.suncalc.org works great for shade calculations, I was surprised when I checked tree shadows for different times a year.

dakna··on Food, housing, & health care costs are a source of major stress for many people
Same here, our freezer has lots of home made dumplings in dinner size packages.

Pancakes also work well for us, we usually put fresh chopped greens into them. We still eat the Bok Choy pancakes prepared months ago, usually when we just want a quick side for leftovers.

dakna··on The “Frankfurt Kitchen”
Still browsing those pictures, what a lovely project. Kudos for turning a school into housing units, that's a lot of surface area to work on.
dakna··on The “Frankfurt Kitchen”
Hey, this looks nice, great kitchen/bath module. How did you seal the plywood in the shower, just lots of clear coat? Or is this an epoxy layer? Thanks.
dakna··on Michigan 10th century farming – drone-based survey of 330-acre area using Lidar
Archaeologists uncover massive 1,000-year-old Native American fields in Northern Michigan that defy limits of farming
dakna··on Claude 4
Google demoed an automated version upgrade for Android libraries during I/O 2025. The agent does multiple rounds and checks error messages during each build until all dependencies work together.

Agentic Experiences: Version Upgrade Agent

https://youtu.be/ubyPjBesW-8?si=VX0MhDoQ19Sc3oe-

dakna··on Google is building its own DeX: First look at Android's Desktop Mode
Google needs a widely used platform for AI integration into every computing task, based on interactions with and data on that device. Their best bet is to expand the reach of Android into traditional desktop tasks.

Android already made lots of progress on multi screens and adaptive layouts, and there is now a new developer center with guides for what they call productivity apps.

dakna··on Why is everyone trying to replace Software Engineers?
> The current AI hype might not actually pose a real threat to engineers but the fact that most of our colleagues do not understand the value that we bring is a serious problem that we need to address.

> We need to start meeting our colleagues where they are and explain what we do in ways that make sense to them. The goal is not to turn them into engineers but to help them get a high level understanding of what it takes to build a software product.

See, why stop at software engineers? Because coding is text based? There is a whole class of IT middle managers in non-tech companies making good money due to "responsibility" and "team supervision". How about they start explaining the value that they bring?

If it is not more than the usual

- check a list of incoming jobs to be done submitted by other departments

- assign the jobs to be done to someone on their team, mostly the person who worked in the same area before

- ask every person (daily/weekly) for status updates and an estimated completion date for the jobs assigned

- ask if the job was done sufficiently and can be reported as completed

- report the weekly/monthly completion rate and hours spent to their supervisor.

- every now and then review contractor bids for open RFPs

then the current state of LLMs can do this just fine.

Is there a good reason not to eliminate most of the little kingdoms in a large org and instead invest the money saved into more AI supervision, better QA and a lot more marketing?

dakna··on An Interview with Bill Watterson (1987)
You can also make yourself a Hobbes costume and put that on when you read to your kid.
dakna··on The Impact of Jungle Music in 90s Video Game Development
I don't have any advice on how to get started, but please take a look at one of the legends of the 8/16-bit era:

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chris_Huelsbeck

Maybe I'm nostalgic, but these tunes were amazing. https://youtu.be/7dJrsmt9BOY

Oh, and if you haven't invested 30 minutes of your remaining lifetime listening to Orbital - The Box (Full Version) you are missing a masterpiece.

Here is Orbital's Paul Hartnoll playing with his gear:

https://youtu.be/VjlWypTclec

dakna··on IKEA launches secondhand marketplace to compete with eBay
We have a modular sofa system that has moved with us two times already and there are no connector or stability issues at all. Same for a large dining table and various bed frames.

Everything that has metal connectors with fasteners on both sides still works well on 2nd or 3rd assembly in my experience.

dakna··on National Park Service Will Cite AWD Drivers for Driving on 4WD-Only Trails
> I have to wonder what the difference is between a Tacoma sport and an AWD vehicle, I think it’s 2WD mode and maybe clearance

As a long-time AWD driver who entertains the idea of getting an offroad vehicle at one point, this is my current understanding:

AWD: If one wheel slips and starts spinning, all other wheels stop turning. You are stuck. Clever electronics applying the brakes on the spinning wheel can help to redistribute the torque to other wheels, you might get unstuck.

4WD: If one wheel starts spinning, only the other wheel on the same axle stops turning. The transfer case is locked, and the other axle still receives torque. If both axles have one spinning wheel, you are stuck.

4WD with one locker: If one wheel on the axle with a locker starts spinning, the other wheel on the same axle still receives torque. If both axles each have one spinning wheel, you can still move the vehicle with one wheel still receiving torque.

4WD with locker on both axles: If you manage to get stuck with all 4 wheels spinning you should reflect on how the heck you ended up in that situation.

dakna··on Group buys up large tracts of land in Romania to create 'European Yellowstone'
There is already a lot of illegal logging in Romania. Timber is a very valuable resource, and capitalism doesn't care if something is legal or not. As long as there are no revenue streams with less risk available, everyone local will have an incentive to exploit this resource.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timber_mafia

dakna··on Microsoft is ending support for the Windows Subsystem for Android (WSA)
I had high hopes for WSA as an enterprise platform, not as a consumer platform. Give enterprises an easy way to build one custom workflow app for mobile incl. offline support and syncing, then use the same app on your desktop. There is already great tooling for work profiles and mobile device management. Too bad this didn't get enough traction.
dakna··on Surf the web like it's 1999
Friends don't let friends use anything but web safe colors. Everyone else can enjoy dithering on their 8-bit CRT
dakna··on Aldi: Culture and Operations of a Hard Discounter (2023)
You know what is a sign of a good neighborhood?

When you are comfortable approaching a stranger in a parking lot with a quarter in your hand, saying "Hey, I'll take that cart, no need for you to return it".

An even better sign is when that stranger declines to take the money and just asks you to pay it forward.

I've done both several times, in rural areas and big cities and have seen others doing the same.

Give it a try some day, it's fun.

dakna··on Things engineers believe about Web development
> How else are you going to achieve that?

People already thought about that problem when the World Wide Web was invented and they came up with Server Side Includes [0], a scripting standard that predates the Apache HTTP Server.

Looks like this inside the HTML document:

<!--#include file="header.html" -->

<!--#include file="footer.html" -->

Not many people use this anymore, but it is easy to share common markup and very accessible for people with just basic HTML knowledge. Major web servers of today still support it.

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Server_Side_Includes.

dakna··on Will US companies hire fewer engineers due to Section 174?
I expect that there will be some sort of code reviews by software experts in the future during a large scale tax audit. Because there is a distinction between regular software maintenance (including diagnosing and debugging) and an actual upgrade or enhancement. So it's not like you just capitalize 100% of the salary, unless it is clearly a support role. But even for testing and quality control, they make a distinction between before and after putting the software into service.
dakna··on Will US companies hire fewer engineers due to Section 174?
Because it's not about the lifetime of the person creating the software, it's about the lifetime of the software created during employment. The created asset can be used indefinitely after the employee has left. The salary is now considered the capital investment to create the asset.

At least that's now how the IRS sees it. Similar to buying machines to create a physical product.

Maybe they read all these articles about developers working in a feature factory.

dakna··on Why don't grocery stores stock pawpaw fruit?
Do you have any recommendations about the newer variants and where to find them? A brief search turned up Peterson Pawpaw, but maybe you have others in mind.
dakna··on Software engineering salaries come from one of three budgets
It has come up several times now on HN, but just as a reminder: With the changes to IRC Section 174, all software development expenses must be capitalized now. This even includes all expenses connected to software development.

https://www.eisneramper.com/insights/tax/impact-174-software...

dakna··on Toyota Reveals Maverick-Sized Electric Pickup Concept We've Been Waiting For
It is a concept truck, unveiled at the Japan Mobility Show. If you attend the show, you can check it out in person. Or watch the many videos about it on YouTube.
dakna··on The history of Rob 'CmdrTaco' Malda [audio]
Still waiting for the year of the Linux desktop. We did get Duke Nukem Forever eventually, so I'm optimistic. Next year for sure...

It would be more in reach if we would just accept that Android is that desktop for billions of people worldwide.

dakna··on My solopreneur story
Thank you for the response and taking the time to list recommendations, much appreciated.
dakna··on My solopreneur story
> Don't waste time. Get results.

Alright. Let's imagine I'm already in the boat 5km from shore, and I have one day left before I'm dropped into the ocean. What should I read, watch or listen to in order to catch up on today's approach to selling, do you have some recommendations?

dakna··on Farms that create habitat key to food security and biodiversity
It's one of those things where you have to take a look in person before you buy it. 600 miles round trip is relatively easy to drive in a day without staying overnight.
dakna··on Things I wish I knew before moving 50K lines of code to React Server Components
I wonder if you could use it to call some existing C libraries. Maybe just add some wrapper functions to execute the compiled binaries, and return the result. As long as you keep the same order of arguments for the function call, this could be quite straightforward. /s
dakna··on Mariadb.com is dead, long live MariaDB.org
To be fair,in those days MyISAM was pretty much the only DB engine that could keep up with the traffic growth rates of the early web, because it didn't enforce constraints. It was optimized for reads, not writes, and was fast enough to hold all state in one DB server for heavy traffic sites. Combined with stateless PHP and memory caching it was the best tool to use for this use case.

That it wasn't the best engine for all use cases and also corrupted data on disk occasionally is a different story. Once InnoDb was ready, you could just mix and match engines in one DB server as far as I remember and use referential constraints where needed.

Later MongoDB marketed itself as "web scale" due to no schema constraints at all. Fun times.

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