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jaak

134 karma · joined April 21, 2014

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jaak··on Show HN: Z80-μLM, a 'Conversational AI' That Fits in 40KB
I've been playing the Z80-μLM demos in your CP/M emulator. Works great! However, I have yet to guess a correct answer in GUESS.COM! I'm not sure if I'm just not asking the right questions or I'm just really bad at it!
jaak··on Philips allegedly hid 3700 complaints about sleep apnea machines from U.S.
It's almost that simple. There are many online medical equipment providers that will send you an at home sleep study kit. Their goal is basically to sell you a PAP machine (plus ongoing related supplies), pretty much anyone can get one if they make a minimum of effort.
jaak··on Trsvid, a video player for TRS-80 Model 1, 3 and 4
To me, I thought the interesting part was how he had to modify the hard drive emulator firmware to remove CPU wait states and support a streaming mode - I would have thought even the slowest SD card would be enough to overwhelm any 8 bit computer (I didn't even know SD cards had a special rarely used streaming mode).
jaak··on Snow Crash Related Items Auction
It's probably because it has something to do with Stephenson's notorious failed Kickstarter sword fighting game "Clang."

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/260688528/clang

jaak··on The Rise and Peak of Japanese Semiconductors
Out of curiosity, would you pronounce S-RAM as sram?
jaak··on PostScript Cartridge Plus for HP LaserJet III
I had one of these back in the day. I seem to remember it cost a lot less than buying a PostScript printer. A major downside was that it was extremely slow!
jaak··on Games for IBM AS/400
I believe the AS/400 calls it Field Exit. One of the things I used to do for new users was remap Field Exist to Enter in the IBM 5250 emulation software. Then the enter key acted like the user expected (on a real 5250 terminal there is a separate physical Enter key located where the right control key is on modern keyboards).

Explaining Field Exit vs Enter was something most users didn't get. However, they did understand Enter as like a submit button (like on web pages) and were fine selecting fields with the mouse.

jaak··on Tesla drivers left unable to start their cars after outage
The Tesla App seems to be divided into convenience features (which use an Internet connection) and a key (which uses Bluetooth).

The key part does not rely on Tesla's servers to operate (except probably for initial setup?). I had no problem unlocking or starting my Tesla during the outage.

Sadly, the App (convenience part) isn't 100% reliable. It occasionally fails to connect to the car and the only way to get it to work is to force close it. However, I have never had the key part fail to work.

jaak··on Coca-Cola can dissolve gastric phytobezoars (2012)
So what the hell are gastric phytobezoars?

Apparently they are a form of intestinal blockage.

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

jaak··on Nintendo Sues ROM Site into Oblivion
In the US, this depends a bit on which state you live in.

For wage garnishment usually it is the LESSOR of 25% of disposable income (income after taxes and involuntary deductions) OR the amount that your income exceeded 30 times federal minimum wage (currently $217.50/week).

Nintendo could still go after other assets (bank accounts, property, etc) and the defendant can also declare bankruptcy.

jaak··on Tesla Model 3 and Y vehicles will no longer be equipped with radar for Autopilot
Looks like Tesla has deleted their old blog post about how great their radar is!

https://web.archive.org/web/20210418114757/https://www.tesla...

jaak··on Ōta Chōu’s Vaccination: Medicine and Modern Girls in 1930s Japanese Painting
I have to agree with tasogare that the focus is the vaccination and both characters are looking directly at it.

Here is larger version that clearly shows their gaze: https://pbs.twimg.com/media/ExdDvo_WUAEmp6g.jpg

jaak··on Intel ordered to pay chip fab worker almost $1m after he was gassed in 2016
Employer negligence is not covered by workers' comp.
jaak··on Workman Keyboard Layout (2010)
Actually, vi was made for a keyboard with arrow keys - the arrow keys were non-dedicated and used the HJKL keys.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arrow_keys#HJKL_keys

jaak··on Ask HN: Advice for passing a FAANG background check with a criminal history
Not a lawyer and not in California.

As others have pointed out, most companies don't care about misdemeanors. And, technically you were arrested when you turned yourself in - at that moment you were not "free to walk away" even if you weren't physically taken into custody.

The company I work for (multi-state) does national criminal background checks on every employee. It's been my experience that if you have a record it'll probably come up (sealed or not). The reliable background check companies have multiple sources and odds are probably pretty good your history will be in some database. I would assume whatever you did is going to show up, at least partially.

If they ask, be honest. If they don't ask, don't tell. At larger companies the recruiters will know very well what they can and can't ask (asking the wrong questions can result in an expensive lawsuit), so they will be very careful about that.

At my company lying about a criminal background is not automatic grounds to dismiss a candidate (we will still take into consideration the circumstances, nature of the crime, and length of time since release from supervision), but it will not impress the hiring manager if you are caught lying.

jaak··on CPU of the Day: Motorola MC68040VL
This is correct. It had one MMU for instructions and one for data.
jaak··on The Kindle is fine, but could’ve been much more
I'm going to have to call you out on this. You can't criticize a person for not taking the time to type out text-to-speech and then yourself use "1000ms" - because if I Google "1000ms" it returns 2236.94 Miles per hour!
jaak··on Apollo Guidance Computer switching power supply works after 50 years
I'm not an expert on this, but there's a famous case from 1998 where the Galaxy IV telecommunications satellite developed "tin whiskers" on it's soldered connections which caused an electrical short resulting in a total loss.

So, at least in this case solder was used on a satellite.

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

jaak··on Let's build a circuit that displays an image on a VGA monitor [video]
Not to take away from Quinn Dunki's accomplishments, one big difference is the Veronica used an ATmega 324PA - basically an 8 bit 20 MIPS RISC CPU.

Generating a VGA signal is trivial for this powerful chip. Entire retro game consoles have been built with similar ATmega chips alone

Ben Eater is building a VGA card from discrete components, a somewhat more difficult task. The first part covers building the H/V timing sync circuit (no programmable clock source here!). It's worth taking a look if you're into this kind of thing.

jaak··on The Adafruit PyGamer, a New Maker-Friendly Handheld Console
That and the onboard flash is only 32MB. No networking support (WiFi or BT). Mono audio, no headphone jack. Some interesting limitations for a 32 bit portable console.
jaak··on Why Tesla's dashboard touch screens suck
Personally, I hated the Lexus mouse. Compared to the prior generation (which used a touchscreen) it was slow and awkward to use.

The newer touchpad style they're using is almost as bad.

The touch screen was basically tap-tap done.

I know touch screens get some hate here, but CarPlay with a touch screen is about the best I've seen so far.

jaak··on How to Improve MacBook Pro Performance and Thermals
I would disagree - to give an electronics example, this level of work is done all the time at large scale on PCB manufacturers with solder mask, solder paste, silk screens, etc.

Print shops can do this kind of work, too (precise amounts, sub-millimeter accuracy, irregular surfaces, almost any kind of coating, etc.).

jaak··on Decoding Photographs of the IBM 5100's Executable ROS
There's a picture in the repo it looks like he is using a logic analyzer. He also mentions the backplane is wire wrapped, making it easy to connect wires.

https://github.com/stepleton/5100ExecutableROSDecode/blob/ma...

jaak··on A backyard mechanic who is taking on Tesla
If you have an inalienable right to repair/rebuild/modify your Tesla do you also have the right to do the same to your future level 5, fully-autonomous self driving car?

Absolutely you do. I expect there to be a certain amount of certification and oversight in safety critical systems - perhaps similar to how the FAA regulates repair and maintenance for general aviation.

jaak··on Ford Stole Tech for Best-Selling Trucks from MIT, Professors Say
I'm curious as to who funded the research in the first place.
jaak··on We demand BuzzFeed pay out earned paid time off to its recent laid-off employees
The company I currently work at uses the term "awarded" instead of accrued for PTO. This is their way of justifying not paying out unused PTO at termination (ie. it was not "earned" therefor they don't have to pay it out).
jaak··on The art of creating very tiny programs for the 80x86 family of CPUs
LOL this reminds of old flame wars on Usenet about the smallest possible "Hello World!".

Someone would always eventually post "echo Hello World!" and the endless arguments would ensue about whether or not that was actually a program.

jaak··on Anyone on the same itenerary as a person with TSA Precheck also gets Precheck
It's still the same case now, Norwegian Airlines doesn't participate in PreCheck (just flew to Europe last week).

However, you can sort of mitigate that if you're also a member of Clear. At my local airport Clear lets me use the PreCheck lines even if the ticket isn't PreCheck (which is contrary to my understanding of how it's supposed to work, but I'm not complaining!).

jaak··on Sabre (computer system)
Our main customer has a global network of AS/400 systems. The employees make fun of the "old" looking text interface, but that system is pretty much bullet proof. The only times I ever see it go down are when their Windows based DNS servers crash.
jaak··on iMac Pro 18-core Follow Up Review
> My 10-core test unit prices out at $9,599, and a comparable 18-core unit would be $11,199, a 17% increase in cost.

All I can say here is "Wow!!!" That's an amazing price for a computer that is completely user hostile to upgrade or repair.

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