Hacker News Reader

havblueon Over Engineered Cars Are Pushing Technicians Away

So I'm not looking up the numbers for this but to devils advocate...

Acceleration is way up since then, gasoline cars included. Crash tests are better. Collision avoidance and rear views make us safer as well. Reliability probably peaked already though.

havblueon David Lynch has died

I think if you're giving original opinions about movies it guarantees that you're going to be on the wrong side of history eventually. His reviews aren't any less interesting even when you disagree with him.

havblueon The Closely Guarded Secrets of Manhattan Doormen

I occasionally watch CBS Sunday morning where they frequently have longer portraits of what day to day life in New York is like. While this is interesting and well, inevitable since their headquarters is there anyway, it does get a little old after awhile. New Yorkers are talking about their favorite subject again... Themselves.

So the comments point to a similar issue. Yes, it's an interesting story... Yes, the city is great. We know. We get it.

havblueon "All your base are belong to us" intro to my 2004 MIT Spam Conference talk

As a kid I thought the announcer voice for Blades of Steel was excellent at the time. Despite it being distorted it gave the feeling that you were watching an actual hockey game. Of course, most of the games I played then didn't have much in the way of human voice.

havblueon A simple math error sparked a panic about black plastic kitchen utensils

What exactly are you saying the problem with ceramic is? Could you be more specific?

havblueon A simple way to scale pixel art games

It also reminds me of that Arcade Fire song about how "we used to wait" for letters to arrive. The novelty isn't just in the thing, it's also in anticipation of the thing that you had to take out of the dust jacket and set up.

havblueon Surrealism, cafes and lots of cats: why Japanese fiction is booming

>against depicting women in leadership roles;

>keep any mention of transgenderism away from their kids

>want to see more racist jokes about Mexicans

>So, in the context of western comics, what does "too much woke" mean to you?

I think you're demonstrating the optimal strategy that people should take. If an opinion can easily get you labeled as a bad person, it's probably better to just not talk about it.

havblueon Surrealism, cafes and lots of cats: why Japanese fiction is booming

Things have definitely come a long way since the nineties where you would read a book or comic and wonder about how great it will be when the property will get adapted and reach a wider audience. It's kind of like listening to a band before they became popular or maybe rain on Arrakis. We got what we wanted and the thing that we anticipated isn't nearly as special anymore. Dinniman and Brandon Sanderson definitely deserve their wider audiences but it just seems anticlimactic as these shows and movies inevitably roll out.

havblueon What made Dostoevsky's work immortal

Slavophilia is a concept that is hundreds of years old and is essential in understanding the historical and cultural differences between the West and Russia and of course how they interpreted the Enlightenment. This is on the level of importance of Orthodoxy versus Catholicism. It's fine of course to disagree with or dislike historical figures whose views you find abhorrent. Saying that they should not be discussed comes across as McCarthyism.

havblueon Seer: A GUI front end to GDB for Linux

I like how gdb with qt creator works without any complicated configuration. You click on some breakpoints then hit play and the ide takes care of the rest.

havblueon The business of gutting failed Bay Area tech companies

I don't envy the prospect of talking to a future employer when you work in a public space. Every day, you frequently respond, "uhhh no thanks" or, "maybe... Hold on I'll call you back" while you step outside the room suspiciously.

havblueon Trump wins presidency for second time

Just to point out, the Baltic states are part of NATO so I don't think invasion from Russia is likely anytime soon personally.

havblueon Ham Radio 101: What is WSPR?

On the "old white dudes" claim, I noticed something funny during my technician exam: most (all white men) had glasses, plaid shirts, and worked in engineering or tech fields. Crew cuts. It was like a Twilight Zone episode of meeting people exactly like me at different ages.

havblueon Five minutes of exercise a day could lower blood pressure

It sounds like diet might have worked in this case.

havblueon Trump wins presidency for second time

https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/world/us/us-presidential...

I have no idea whether the Times of India is an acceptable source or not, but here is a quote from them on what happened last time.

"Immigration attorney Kripa Upadhyay told TOI, “During the last Trump administration, there was significant disruption due to the introduction of ‘extreme vetting’ for visa interviews. Certain job categories, such as ‘Computer Occupations, All Other,’ may no longer be an option, as they may require applicants to demonstrate specific technical skills and knowledge.”"

So, likely more tightly vetted candidates who are paid more under Trump 47 but not necessarily fewer.

havblueon Trump wins presidency for second time

The anecdote would imply that if you're a tech worker, hiring more H1B's or outsourcing development is financially beneficial to shareholders and management while it puts downward pressure on wages for employees.

havblueon Trump wins presidency for second time

Parent discusses immigration in terms of xenophobia. The anecdote is an example of how an employee not wanting to be replaced by a lower salary individual isn't xenophobic. The desire to drive down wages though is in the economic interests of employers.

havblueon Trump wins presidency for second time

One of my "friends" bragged to me this year about how he threatened to replace one of his underperforming programmers with someone from Pakistan for $10 an hour.

Say you're on the receiving end of this threat. Do you really care what country your replacement is from? Is my "friend" really all that benevolent to fire someone for less money?

havblueon Trump wins presidency for second time

I think the policy positions do matter though... The Democrats were pro labor before Clinton helped to pass NAFTA. Limbaugh would even mock Democrat voters who thought Bill would "find you a job". There's no illusion of that anymore. There's just people dropping out of the workforce and the unemployment numbers being fudged to make it look like everything is fine.

Neither party responded to this until Trump came around. Meanwhile, the Democrats also seemingly gave up on the whole social safety net argument as well. Obama at least ran on helping people but, well, I don't see that anymore. While I agree that their messaging has failed, I ultimately think they've failed to provide any substance to their argument.

havblueon Stop saying "just" (2019)

Doesn't the use of the word "just" frequently imply that someone is violating the yagni principle? Being rude can certainly be unproductive as well, but an infinite amount time and money can be wasted on unnecessary features and process. I think the question of whether effort actually helps move a task to completion is a crucial one, so getting down to brass tacks "just do this task and stop talking about metrics" has to happen eventually.

"I can't spare this man. He fights." -Lincoln

havblueon Cheap Thrills, an album cover by Robert Crumb (2020)

Is that where the subplot of the chicken poster in that movie came from? I was just thinking about Ghost World as I was reading the comments above, thinking, "now that's a subject Hollywood doesn't want to touch anymore."

havblueon Jaywalking legalized in New York City

One time when I jaywalked in NYC I could have sworn that a cab, who was a half block away, accelerated when he saw me crossing the street. My impression has always been that people hate having their time wasted.

havblueon Writing in Pictures: Richard Scarry and the art of children's literature

We aren't talking about children here exactly, but I think adults tended to do a disservice to teenagers as I was growing up by not citing the mean employment statistics of certain jobs, especially ones related to the arts. We can thank the generation who survived the great depression and the boomers for this eternal optimism. "Oh well, by the time things really go south I'll be long gone anyway, sorry!"

havblueon Rethinking School Design

I cringe whenever I hear people praise Scandinavian schools: if we raise taxes and get rid of private schools, (to copy what they did in Norway) our public schools will be just as good. Copying Hermione Granger's homework does not make you Hermione Granger.

One amusing thing I noticed was the lack of stuff in the classrooms. At my kid's class there needs to be room for bags, books, television, a PC for testing, headphones, Chromebooks etc. no way all that would fit in these new-age spaces.

havblueon 'Entire ecosystem' of fossils 8.7M years old found under Los Angeles high school

If I remember the movie, Paulie Shore presented him as "Estonia Man".

havblueon Is the world really running out of sand?

Meanwhile, the group "Led Zeppelin" also avoided the ambiguous spelling to prevent people from pronouncing their name "leed zeppelin". You can't win with lead.

havblueon Max Headroom and the World of Pseudo-CGI (2013)

Money for Nothing is underrated now? I thought MTV even uses it when they splash their logo. Everyone knows it's great, video as well. I think it's neither underrated nor overrated. It's just rated.

havblueon I Hate the Term "Modern"

TFA should be arguing for use of the phrase "du jour" instead.

havblueon Jack Welch Screwed Up GE and Boeing, and with Them Much US Climate Action

We could just as easily argue that Welch kept their turbine business afloat. Or, that someone else tanked it. Or that they were just beat out by competitive foreign markets! So we basically know nothing.

havblueon Panasonic Toughbook 40

Going through security, a TSA agent inspected my Toughbook and was really impressed by how cool it looked. I didn't have the heart to break it to him that the laptop was outdated at the time. It was just a laptop that you could drop, nothing special about it.