eulers_secret

I think accessibility is going to become more important as Millennials start to age. I'm only in my mid-30's and already have RSI and CTS due to decades of mouse use & bad ergonomics. I suspect I'm not alone.

I bet many folks want to play videogames once retired/aged, and old hands can be painful, arthritic, or simply worn out. I love to see things like this, and OpenBCI - it gives me some hope that I can continue a hobby I love well into old age. Despite my body rebelling.

I've been thinking of a career change lately... I might dedicate myself to fixing this problem so I can game in my 80's and keep schooling n00bs. Looks like Microsoft is doing something in this space, and I've heard Valve is interested in brain-control interfaces.

> waste their time watching tv, drinking with friends or getting high.

How much time per week would you find acceptable to spend on these activities? I refuse to believe that number is "0 hours", that would be an inhuman (without an 'e') expectation.

Time to decompress is super important, and frankly, it is the very essence of living. It is not at all a waste of time - it's their time anyways, who are you to judge? To anyone reading this: The attitude displayed above is toxic and actively harmful. Please ignore what they've said; you can be successful AND drink with friends or get high, even a lot.

Balance is important, but you are not obliged to work on self-improvement at all times (or at ANY TIME - full stop). This insinuation smacks of victim blaming and a superiority complex. The concept that you're 'wasting time' by spending it enjoying yourself is absolutely absurd, insidious, offensive, and IMO just plain mean.

I understand this knee-jerk reaction, but please don't judge engineers by what they post on HN. This place is... odd. (as I'm sure you know!)

If I formed my opinion only from HN, I'd think most engineers love: big-tech, advertising, electric cars, Apple, tech-enabled tracking (autos, web, cell-phone, watches, exercise machines, music players - it's ok if business profits!), and tend toward self-righteousness, narcissism, and virtue-signalling.

Of course, most of us are just living our lives and trying to get by. I don't know where this self-important insufferable attitude comes from, but I suspect it's a few folks who are very noisy. Most 'normal' people don't spend much time posting to sites like these, so there is a selection bias. Sadly, I also suspect that this attitude is an advantage in today's environment. It is a mirage of self-confidence, and telling the two apart can be very hard (especially for a potential employer).

> That said, isn’t part of the allure of apartments being close to your destinations? Walking to the park, a 1-mile trip to the grocery, etc.

It can be, but there is another reason to chose living in an apartment: It's cheap. I live here because it's inexpensive (< $1000/mo) and I can save that large down payment quicker.

My apartment is not convenient: 45 minutes from my work, 15 minutes from an affordable grocery store. But there is a very nice park within walking distance.

> You could look at home chargers around you and strike up a friendship.

This is true, I could. But that's a lot less convenient than buying another hybrid when the time comes. Gasoline is 5 minutes away, refueling is fast, and I only need to do it every other week.

I live in a smallish suburb, and unfortunately, they do not provide street chargers (I'm also signed up for the city's newsletter and there is never discussion about it).

I checked where chargers are located in my area, and it's mostly gas stations and some shop chargers in the more posh suburb a few miles away. None of my local grocery stores have chargers. The posh stores are too expensive for me to shop at continually - I can't/won't afford to shop at whole foods for my normal food... but they have chargers.

Even if they were provided, I (and most others here) don't park on the street - but in the lot attached to my apartment (built in the late 80's). I'm also lucky I don't pay for parking (or rather it's part of my inexpensive rent).

Another adoption hurdle: A lot of folks live in apartments as well.

I've accepted I won't be going electric until I buy a house. There is no way my complex will install chargers, until it's required somehow. No garages here. House prices are hovering around $500,000 in my area. With a traditional mortgage, 20% down is a lot to save up (100K).

--

This has made electric cars a unique form of social signaling: It basically states "I'm a homeowner!" (or can afford house rental, which is also very expensive... or went with an FHA loan/can afford that mortgage payment)

There are some apartments that have charging ports, but they're very high-end, with rents comparable to a single-family detached house anyways. They're also very rare in my area. Sure you can charge at whatever ports are available (not many here), but (IMO) it just doesn't make much sense to go electric and not have the ability to charge your car at home.

Doesn’t hyperthreding gain about 25% extra perf per core?

Is geekbech single core test a single thread test or two threads pinned to one core (if the cpu supports HT)?

Drove up new car prices, too: https://economics.td.com/us-vehicle-sales

"From an automotive standpoint, dealership inventory remains lean – currently sitting at a nine-year low and down 22% for year-ago levels – which has already led to some reversal in the very generous summer incentives", which indicates higher prices. I couldn't find pricing data.

This new shortage + current shortages + low interest rates = high prices on used/new. I was thinking of buying something last year, but now I think I'll wait until '22 or '23. (or if I can WFH, never!)

I was (and still am)!

I even currently run one of these: https://koolance.com/pc2-601bw-liquid-cooling-system-black - I've had to replace the pump this last week. It didn't die, but the plastic got brittle and cracked. I ran it, without flushes, adding tap water when low, for about 18 years. No corrosion, all liquid looked great! I modified the old Swiftech WB to mount to my 3930K, overclocked to 4.5GHz and am typing on that system right now! If you're curious, it tops out at about 75*C at ~150W CPU power usage.

I still have a CCFL (and my $5 blue LED to replace the power light), and have been thinking of incorporating it into my next build. I plan to build a sleeper system using a case from the 90's, but fully watercooled and upgraded (along with an ESP32-powered fan control/thermal monitoring system I'm coding up now - this is where the magic still is in 2021 IMO)

I also did cut a window into a PC with a dremel. Those cases are quite thick and hard to cut! I totally don't miss hauling that big PC case and a 17 (or 19?) inch CRT to a friends place to LAN. Was really fun, though.

There are differences depending on which state you live in. In my state, I need to have my vehicle inspected (to pass air quality tests - DEQ) and re-registered (pay tax and get a sticker) every other year. I don't think people really make it clear what 'going to DMV' means, it probably includes an inspection like this - despite being a distinct location. Yes, every other year I must drive to two locations to complete this process.

Many American families have multiple vehicles. Usually both parents work, and when children are old enough they get a hand-me-down car. So, it's not unusual to have to manage 3+ vehicles. Depending on when registration is 'due' one could visit from 1x to 3x a year.

There are online resources, but to pass the air quality tests you must appear in person. The only way around this in my state is own vehicles which are exempt (pre-1974, and motorcycles), or be in a county which is exempt (most of the land area of the state, but not where most people live). I only know this because my project car is from 1972: I just pay taxes online and they mail me my registration and stickers.

Add into it that DMV visits are common-denominator and tend to be unpleasant (long wait times, confusing processes, having to start over if you mess up... then wait in the line AGAIN) and I think that's why you may see so much talk about it. FWIW, I think there are very few people who enjoy this. It's a past-time, but not one we choose.

Drone racer here, too! 18650s are amazing as far as power density is concerned.

Here's a guy who takes a 3" 1S quad, adapts an 18650 and gets 29 minutes of flight time: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BOZStU-QCSc

There's a few others, and in fact I considered doing this myself! But, I'd get bored of slowbelly 'flying' after about 15 minutes. I like to go fast.

I completely believe 40mins of flight time if you had actual resources to assign to this. Imagine using the 18650 as the frame and strapping motors to sticks, or other crazy ideas to bring weight down and time up.

Wouldn’t the other risk be that after you’re dead and stop paying the data is deleted or inaccessible? Maybe if you could prepay 100 years it’d work?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Autopilot#Autopilot_for_ILS_la... Specifically in the case of fail-operational autopilots "[...] the approach, flare and landing can still be completed automatically." There is a whole organization responsible for defining these features of autopilots!

You can argue wikipedia isn't a valid source, but IMO that's not in good faith. So, 'autopilot' has a shifting meaning depending on aircraft capability.

I have a 9310, and the stock Ubuntu was OK. The biggest issue is thermald was older and limited the frequency boosting (so lower perf). I run 20.10 now with thermald master and kernel 5.10.1 (includes patches which enable pc10 sleep states and 400mhz cpu idle speed). Now it boosts and idles appropriately.

What’s “backlight oder hw acceleration” are you referring to refresh rate or something like PSR? I want to know if it’s something I need to check on my 9310...

Same here, same experience with my meniscus looking like loose egg white (though I was under general for the procedure, I saw pics afterward).

I did PT before (didn't help, I had mechanical locking) and after (did help).

PT doesn't help some physical issues, but I had shoulder problems that PT fixed 100% and they've stayed fixed for years. IMO, it's important for a physician to treat each case as unique, and start with conservative therapy and move to more invasive measures.

Now I'm doing PT yet again because I have an onset of carpal tunnel syndrome, but it looks like I'll probably be going under the knife for it...

I responded because I am empathetic.

> What part resonates with you?

Her losing her job, not being able to be re-hired at a similar salary, spending her savings, and winding up in poverty despite doing everything 'right'. At 55, she has an uphill battle to get another job. Why hire her when someone with 15 YOE costs less and will work for more than 5 years? Employees are not that unique.

Ageism is also a large problem in tech, but we just don't talk about it much. How common is it to be on track to retire for 25+ years after aging out? What if someone forgot to change their 401(K) investment strategy and happen to be 'retired' (laid off due to age) during a market downturn? Does everyone know that's a thing you should do about 5 years before retirement?

There are too many 'gotchas' that can seriously alter retirement plans. I think it is cruel to treat people this way, and I can see it happening to myself. Even if I do everything 'right' (and I certainly have not). That is what I respond to - the warning that even if you play your hand well, you can still lose and have miserable twilight years.

I wonder if this is an American phenomena and might be different in a place with a stronger social safety net?

Frankly, losing your job IS an actual physical danger and a real mental danger. No income, no insurance, have to play the interview game again... Time running out, savings getting gutted (too bad COBRA costs are so high). If you can't find work, well homelessness is a very real possibility (there goes years or decades of equity). There isn't a 'limit' to how far we let people fall, and that's a shame.

I would absolutely expect people in this environment to fight tooth-and-nail for their jobs, and that might result in this kind of resistance to suggestions. Gotta keep yourself and family healthy first and foremost.

It also depends on personalities - my wife and I share 650 square feet, have for years. This year has been pleasant even though there’s no “time apart” and no privacy. We also have a dog in that small area.

There’s more to it than just affording large luxury housing.

I wonder if I’m lucky as well, I’ve had I think 1 fan failure in 25 years of computing.

My desktop has 3 80mm fans that are 18 years old and work fine. My switch is 4 years old, my server NUC is 5 years old, my laptop was about that same age, gaming pc has 10 year old fans - all no fan failures!

I wonder if it’s environment dependent; I imagine if you live in a dusty or sandy place it could decrease lifetime...

Chiming in to say: This is me to a T! I cannot afford children (or, more accurately: I cannot give children the life I want to give them). Houses are far too expensive to even dream about, and uncertainty in continued employment incentivizes me to just save all the money I can while living as cheaply as humanly possible.

It's not the best life, but at least I have some cash to fall back on when my at-will employment is terminated for no cause and I can't find a job for a couple years. Or maybe my carpal tunnel syndrome will drive me out of the (extremely competitive) job market.

Either way, I'm not going to spend more money than I need to so I can have at least some semblance of "stability". And I sure as hell am not raising another generation of wage slaves. This terrible way of life ends with me.

Tiger Lake matches M1 in single-core perf, but gets trounced in multi. AMD has some good options, but I haven't seen a thin&light style AMD based laptop come out yet.

Check out System76, their Linux support is unparalleled. The lemur pro is interesting. I don't know if you'll find the specs for the screen/speakers, though.

I got the XPS 13, myself, but it still requires 'tweaks' - like running thermald master so your system doesn't throttle down too much after a short 'boost', and running kernel 5.10 because it allows your CPU to enter the PC10 power-saving state (Ubuntu's oem-5.8 may have this backported, I haven't checked).

As always, install your favorite user-agent spoofer as well. I just ran into a problem with some web videoconferencing software that works fine, but you have to tell it your running Win/Chrome.

This is why people say desktop Linux isn't here yet. It kinda is, but only if you're an expert (or want to be forced to become one)... I still love it, though, and always will.

I'm with you. I live in a very inexpensive apartment, where most people are low-income or on gov't subsidy, or both. I also walk my dog daily and interact with 3-5 different neighbors each day - so I have a view into their lives.

It's bad here. I'd say at least 1/3 have lost their jobs and are having a really hard time finding work. More uber/lyft signs have popped up in cars in the parking lot. One of my neighbors had to move their family of 3 from an already-small 2br to a 1br (2 kids). I don't know how they can make it work. There's more people who sit on the sidewalk curb and drink cheap beer and chain smoke. They're nice folks (I talk to them), but they can't find work.

On the flips side, anyone who can WFH is doing better than ever before. They save money by not driving, eating out, or doing the other things they'd normally do. I've also seen A LOT of brand new cars show up, presumably buying because of low interest rates. WFH folks seem happier than before.

The disparity between the haves and have-nots looks like it's been rapidly accelerating. If you always stay in the HN bubble, you won't see these people. They're 'invisible', but I assure you they are real. They need help, and they're not getting it. It's honestly very, very sad - it makes me sad. My empathy is on overdrive because it's so easy to see myself in that position. If I hadn't chosen tech, I'd be right there with them with a 6-pack, Marlboros, and no hope.

Moving heat does take energy, true.

A restive electric heater (AKA joule heating) is by definition 100% efficient: All energy consumed by the device is turned into heat (if you're mega-pedantic, you could argue some is lost as light and sound).

A heat pump just moves heat from outside to inside. Sure, it's 42*F out, but that's still heat energy that can be moved. This process is more efficient than converting electricity into heat because you get more heat energy in the room than the electric energy you put into the device.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joule_heating#Heating_efficien... explains it even better than I did.

That'd be quite a decline, last year Intel reported $72B in revenue...

> but Intel's 14nm is what Apple gets to compete against today, right now.

Intel's 10nm node is out, I'm typing this on one right now. It's competitive in single-core performance against what we've seen from the M1. Graphics and multi-core it gets beat though...

Or do you mean what Apple used to use? (edit: the following is incorrect) It's true Apple never used an Intel 10nm part.

EDIT: I was wrong! Apple has used an Intel 10nm part. Thanks for the correction!

There’s still good reasons. Mine is using public computers (library or school), or being able to use any computer at work in private browsing mode.

It’s also trivial to have passwords which are secure and easy to remember (literally off the top of my head): MyD0gb@rk$...

System 76 makes a nice looking thin/light 14" laptop (Lemur pro).

Dell's XPS 13 line has Linux support (the Dev Edition comes with Ubuntu), I bought one of these and it's great. Only big problem was thermald/RAPL would keep the SOC at 15W after a very short 'boost' - updating to master fixed this problem... but Linux still requires 'tweaking'.

Another example: sleep on the XPS is not S3, but S2Idle - so it uses extra power when sleeping (A compromise so it wakes up faster). This can be fixed with some tweaking, if desired.

I've also heard good things about Lenovo laptops running Linux.

I'd check the archwiki (even if you don't want to run arch) for any laptop you're considering. There's good advice in the articles.

If I had to buy again, I'd look closer at what S76 offers. I really liked my old Chromebook Pixel 1 because of its open firmware (after I re-flashed) and excellent Linux support. I wish I had looked closer at S76, honestly.

Thank you for posting this! I was so confused when folks were saying 16GB of ram was too little.

I run Linux on all my machines, and even running many (5-10) containers, 16GB was plenty. I now understand a bit better.

I'm into off roading as well, my weapon of choice was a Cherokee 4.5" lift on 32" tires. Lots of time in the woods. Built it up myself.

I'm super excited for electric off road vehicles, but when you're way out there you really still need a gasoline engine. It's just too convenient to store 100+ miles of fuel in ~60lbs strapped to the back of your truck, your friends truck, and every other person's truck who you meet on the trail. On a longer trip it's easy to be a day or more from fuel (because the roads are bad, and average speed is very low)

Torque from 0 and independent control of each motor is going to be a game changer. Add in new suspension possibilities when you don't have differentials and axles (hub motors?) and next-gen trucks could be extremely capable. If we can figure out the range/refueling problem (...and I don't think we can for 10+ more years for this use-case)

I think folks are getting confused about 'off road' in the comments here. Image search '4x4 rock climbing' - that's the stuff many trails have short (or long) sections of. Add in the isolation, constant use of aircon or heat (or both), high power demands to go very short distances, and electric just won't do it right now. We need better batteries or some way of producing electricity from liquid fuels.

Privacy is already dead (or at least, on life support).

I'm personally not giving in easily, and certainly wouldn't buy a car with a camera I don't control pointed at my face. That is absurd to me.

However, most people just see this only as a safety issue. They're willing to compromise a lot of privacy for a little increase in safety.

That's not objectively wrong, but I disagree with it.

If I could audit my records, store everything locally, and be ensured there's no way to access this data without my consent, then I'd be more into the idea. But right now... I'm just going to keep my old Prius going for as long as I can.