Hacker News Reader

elthranon To Lose Weight, Eating Less Is Far More Important Than Exercising More (2015)

I absolutely agree with the "sad side veggie" concept - with one exception. Plain, sliced, boiled carrots, with (a probably unhealthy amount of) salt. For some reason I'm able to put away a whole bowl of these and enjoy it, no other vegetable comes close. Even better if I've managed to get some higher quality carrots

elthranon How a software glitch at the UK Post Office ruined lives

This sort of thing is why I've always hated the concept of a random jury from the general populace - In this example, I don't want Joe Bloggs the butcher's understanding of complex computer systems being the determination of whether I am criminally convicted, I want 12 people who have at least some experience programming.

elthranon A Visit to the Museo Nacional de Antropología, Mexico City (2023)

I second the Templo Mayor - wasn't expecting much from the outside, but the layout and explanations in the main museum were second to none, one of my favourite museums i've visited

elthranon A Visit to the Museo Nacional de Antropología, Mexico City (2023)

Brit here that just visited CDMX. It's absolutely similar to a number of the Spanish palaces in feel/design, but also has some unique elements, such as the garden on the top floor. Plenty of signage in English and Spanish, explaining the history of the place too. It's right on the top of the hill, so on a good day you get an amazing view out over the city.

We went on a Saturday, and it was fairly busy, but the park the was absolutely buzzing with locals and generally had a chill party vibe to the whole area.

Ultimately, it depends how interesting you find castles and palaces - personally I love seeing different ones and comparing/contrasting to others I have visited, following the history of the development over time.

elthranon Bricklaying robots can now build tennis-court-sized walls in 4 hours

I also used to use it....and never noticed the pun based name until you pointed it out just now! Maybe I just think about the Roman Empire more now?

elthranon Great Pyramid of Cholula

I think it's the reduced vinegariness and thicker consistency - eggs of any kind with lashings of cholula is a regular breakfast for me

elthranon Great Pyramid of Cholula

Make that 2 people - thoroughly disappointed! I was expecting something along the lines of the strategic food reserves various countries have

elthranon Steam turns 20 today: “We had to try a lot of different things over the years”

Ah The Orange Box - probably one of the best gaming purchases I ever made.

Bought just so I could play Portal, then ended up trying this random game I'd never heard of called Team Fortress 2 - and happily losing over 1500 hours of my life to it. Eventually called it a day when the loot crates and cosmetics got too out of hand.

elthranon People who work from home spend their time ‘napping, doing DIY and having sex’

This is The Telegraph - it's already solidly into right wing, blame the kids for everything OK Boomer territory.

For example, an article title from this week - "How Gen Z is exploiting the talent war to grab pay rises – and propping up inflation"

elthranon Movie-Theater Behavior Has Gone Off the Reels

It's also not just movies - there's been lots of reporting and commentary about bad behavior in London's West End theatres this year too.

https://theface.com/culture/why-are-theatre-audiences-gettin...

elthranon Anchor Brewing Company ends national distribution, kills Christmas Ale

Sink the Bismark was an interesting experience too - much like drinking a whisky more so than a beer

elthranon Relic lays off 121 employees

I really wish when layoffs were announced that the media would report how many employees the company actually has.

I have no idea how big Relic actually are - Is 121 employees 1%? 10%? 50%?

elthranon Google workers in London stage walkout over job cuts

Total Compensation

elthranon UK airport scraps 100ml liquid rule with new scanners

Ugh, don't remind me of Singapore. Transferring after a flight from London, I see a water bottle refill fountain, which I use. We're running late, so I head straight to the gate...and then have to immediately dispose of my newly filled 2L water bottle.

I've never known another airport to have this security setup, and as a massive transit hub, I really can't make sense of why they chose to put it at that point - but then again, what of airport security actually makes sense when subjected to reasonable logic?

elthranon Journey Planner Challenge – You need to visit 5 tube stations

Yeah - to me it seems pretty much to rely on how well you've memorized the TFL network, and London's geography as a whole.

As someone that works, but doesn't live in London, I found this mildly fun, but can definitely appreciate that it would be near impossible for someone that doesn't visit frequently.

edit: It would also be nice to know some of the technical implementation details - Is the TFL journey planner data exposed via an API?

elthranon Twitter sued by landlord at S.F. HQ after alleged $6.8MM in missed rent payments

Also in London

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-64381582

elthranon The Plastic Paradise of Tokyo’s Famous Kitchen Town

agreed - had a great time searching the street for the perfect design of donburi bowl, squeezing in amongst the narrow aisles stacked floor to ceiling with different designs and sizes

elthranon California tried to save the nation from tax filing, then Intuit stepped in

Not just Japan, also true for the UK with our Pay As You Earn system - you get assigned a tax code, and the appropriate amount is automatically deducted from your payslip. No need to file anything, and refunds/demands get generated automatically each year if you've been changing jobs/not working/other odd circumstances meaning that the amount you paid doesn't match what you were expected to

elthranon The Lure of H Mart, Where the Shelves Can Seem as Wide as Asia

Weirdly for sure - referring to Charlize Theron as "African-American" always sound odd, even if it is technically correct

elthranon Take sheep across Southwark Bridge

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freedom_of_the_City_of_London

tl;dr basically an award you can be given by the government of the City of London

elthranon A comparison of city building games

Agreed with Tropico - great tongue in cheek setting and feel. For whatever reason though, which I can't quite put my finger on, the gameplay in T6 just feels worse to me than T4/5, as if its been dumbed down

elthranon Boeing CEO ousted as 737 Max crisis deepens

Replaced on an interim basis by the CFO, and permanently by the chairman, who runs private equity at Blackstone with a background in accounting.

Not convinced Boeing have learnt their lesson.

elthranon Madoff whistleblower Harry Markopolos calls GE a ‘bigger fraud than Enron’

To paraphrase Matt Levine - everything is securities fraud

elthranon Visa card network crashes, causing increased decline rates across UK and Europe

In the UK they do

elthranon Rare wooden escalators lead down into a staggeringly monotonous tiled tunnel

This utterly fascinates me. I don't know whether to treat this as someone who actually believes this stuff, a bit like the Mandela Effect, or if it's all just satire

elthranon Becoming a Lawyer Without Going to Law School (2015)

He's referencing the main character of the TV show "Suits"

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Suits_(U.S._TV_series)

elthranon The problem of game developers receiving abusive messages

I think if your emotional reaction to a developer not developing their game in the way that you want is "hatred" you should probably consider that you might be overreacting?

elthranon Ask HN: Great science fiction movies?

Event Horizon - a wonderful blend of sci-fi and horror.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Event_Horizon_(film)

elthranon A book claims that Americanisms will have absorbed the English language by 2120

Not a misleading title - necessary for the last sentence in the first paragraph.

And should the non-clarified form of the language not automatically be assumed to be the original form of it? Compare Spanish Spanish vs Mexican Spanish, it feels an unnecessary clarification

elthranon Google translates German “halb zwei” to French “deux heures et demie”: 1h off

It's a colloquial contraction of "half past 2". To me, the German makes no sense - half of 2 is 1.

Agreed though that the French is the most easily understood internationally.