Hacker News Reader

elliottkemberon A Small Telescope That Surprised Me

That’s correct. But don’t let that put you off. They’re simply for different things!

I have both an S30 Pro and an 8” motorized SCT. The wow factor of a real scope is not lost, I can assure you.

But I don’t take my big telescope camping, for example. It’s too big and awkward. The Seestar fits in a backpack, and spits out beautiful galaxy photos to use as phone wallpapers. I just leave it running all evening. It’s very neat.

elliottkemberon Olo (Color)

Is it perhaps a scintillating scotoma? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scintillating_scotoma

elliottkemberon What happens if an entire class of workers loses faith in their careers

Look at the replies. You’re telling junkies to stop using. It won’t work. This is addiction.

elliottkemberon Waymo – Dallas Open to All

Mistakes aren’t glitches when the environment is so dynamic. I imagine they are making errors constantly, and constantly learning from them.

When a robot car makes a mistake, all robot cars learn from the experience. When a human messes up, only that human learns from it.

elliottkemberon The old-school way of keeping the summer heat out of your home

You’re simply never going to get through to someone who has internalized the idea that AC is perfect and free. They have accommodated to the luxury and will burn the planet to keep it.

elliottkemberon Tell HN: CloudFront VPC Origins is down

yup https://health.aws.amazon.com/health/status

elliottkemberon Has_not_been_viewed_much

> imagine you develop a product with a number of features with a public API, and telemetry points that a feature goes unused

The cost of maintaining a book is much, much less than a product feature!

elliottkemberon "Fix" MacBook Neo Cursor Lag: Record 1 Pixel of the Screen Every 10 Seconds

I think the implication is they focussed on the huge efficiency gains, and didn't focus on the small ones?

elliottkemberon Separate the Cord from the Device

One very practical reason that comes to mind is waterproofing. Kitchen counters get wet, and office desks do not. Anything with a plug is at greater risk of shorting.

elliottkemberon What Apple and Google are doing to push notifications

> if that's how you feel, you haven't tuned your setup

The withering cry of the software engineer "just tune your setup!" This is simply not a thing that people will do.

The defaults are so, so important. They are crucial. The vast majority of people rely on the defaults to be sane. The defaults should be sane.

elliottkemberon My two-part desk setup (2025)

Impressive. Very nice. Let's see Paul Allen's book-case.

elliottkemberon Chewing gum restores dad's taste and smell years after Covid

Doing what, getting vaccinated against infectious diseases?

elliottkemberon Florida judge rules red light camera tickets are unconstitutional

It’s not a crime, it’s an infringement (NZ) or civil infraction (FL), and there’s no criminal record associated. There’s a material difference between an infraction and a crime.

elliottkemberon Florida judge rules red light camera tickets are unconstitutional

I’m not European. Many countries have speed cameras.

It differs how you’re caught. We treat a red light camera or speed camera violation as an infringement offence, like parking. If you’re pulled over, you can have your license suspended or be charged with reckless driving on the spot, because they know who you are.

There’s no case, and no guilt, just a penalty. It’s not about guilt but responsibility. You’re responsible for the car when it’s registered to you.

If you want an analogue, try carpool lane tickets. Same thing.

elliottkemberon Florida judge rules red light camera tickets are unconstitutional

Yes, there is a distinction. But it’s irrelevant in this case because you can be ticketed for either. The speeding ticket goes to the registered owner and there are no demerit points as there is no proof of driver identity.

elliottkemberon Florida judge rules red light camera tickets are unconstitutional

You get a parking ticket regardless of who parked

elliottkemberon Long Range E-Bike (2021)

I was working on an LED project that involved some reasonably-sized lithium batteries, and the guy in the hardware store said "I don't want to hear about you in the news tomorrow". That really stuck with me, and I say it sometimes when I think someone's going to do something dangerous.

elliottkemberon Study: emotional support from social media found to reduce anxiety

Maybe social media is like cigarettes, in that it cures the anxiety it causes. A powerfully addictive cycle.

elliottkemberon Shipmap.org

I'm surprised more people don't know about the Northampton Canal

elliottkemberon Get an AI code review in 10 seconds

https://cursor.com/bugbot

I didn't see this mentioned, but we've been running bugbot for a while now and it's very good. It catches so many subtle bugs.

elliottkemberon My Impressions of the MacBook Pro M4

Paper, books, and construction documents all use reflected and not refracted light.

elliottkemberon Low Earth Orbit Visualization

Objects not to scale. Not even close, and no mention of it (that I saw).

Graphing scale honestly is extremely important. A lot of people are convinced our sky is full of satellites because of visualizations like this.

elliottkemberon AI coding made me faster, but I can't code to music anymore

> discover that everything I've coded is unnecessary and there is an easier way to achieve the same goal

In my experience, there is no good shortcut to this realization. Doing it wrong first is part of the journey. You might as well enjoy the necessary mistakes along the way. The third time’s the charm!

elliottkemberon In Defense of Car-Centered Society

> I want my

So much of the argument for cars, housing, indedpendence, "freedom", boils down to this simple sentence, "I want my".

elliottkemberon Germany's identity crisis: The trains no longer run on time

Moving to the US, the traffic light system was a big culture shock for me. No major/minor dendritic road system laid out like a tree like I was used to — more like right angles everywhere and so many delays. Traffic lights on every single intersection. So inefficient.

And when you mention it, a surprising number of people say “that would never work here. People don’t know how to drive”. So little faith!

elliottkemberon Gaslight-driven development

It vibrates and tries to gently guide you. It will absolutely not overpower you if you are swerving in an emergency. You are talking hypothetical nonsense.

elliottkemberon The Last Letter

> Adjectives in English absolutely have to be in this order: opinion-size-age-shape-colour-origin-material-purpose Noun. So you can have a lovely little old rectangular green French silver whittling knife. But if you mess with that word order in the slightest you’ll sound like a maniac. It’s an odd thing that every English speaker uses that list, but almost none of us could write it out.

Foreign languages always sound strange. There are rules that are invisible even to the native speakers who know them. The romance is not in knowing them, but the fun of figuring them out.

elliottkemberon On Not Carrying a Camera – Cultivating memories instead of snapshots

The word “entirely” was what I was pointing out. The photographer stopped bringing his work home.

elliottkemberon Reviving a modular cargo bike design from the 1930s

The comment asking about riding positions drop bars was hilarious.

Lots of Americans in the comments is probably why, plus the Hacker News tendency toward armchair expertise.

The American grid system tends to produce hills that are unmanageable on a town or cargo bike, so bicycles are a fitness/enthusiast thing. And US cities are much more spread out, too. In more walkable European cities, these bikes make a lot of sense.