Hacker News Reader

jakedataon Lucent 7 R/E 5ESS Telephone Switch Rescue (2024)

Visiting Bletchley Park and seeing step-by-step telephone switching equipment repurposed for computing re-enforced my appreciation for the brilliance of the telecommunication systems we created in the past 150 years. Packet switching was inevitable and IP everything makes sense in today's world, but something was lost in that transition too. I am glad to see that enthusiasts with the will and means are working to preserve some of that history. -Posted from SC2025-

jakedataon Photos: New Phoenix Microcenter is a 'tech-heaven' for geeks

The Microcenter in Cambridge (MA) finally updated their sign to modernize the rainbow Apple logo a few years ago. I hope it's stashed somewhere, to me it's more iconic than the Citgo sign a few miles away. They have added some components and kits but it doesn't fill the yawning void left by You-Do-It Electronics shutting down a year ago, or Radio Shack's slow motion demise.

jakedataon Rivian's TM-B electric bike

I don't plan to bike commute in the winter, it is too dark AM and PM. Have you tested your LiFePO4 batteries in low temperatures?

jakedataon Rivian's TM-B electric bike

Sure if you can't DIY. It's a 20 year old Fuji chromoly-frame mountain bike with Shimano components. My biggest expense was new batteries, followed by heavy duty e-bike brake pads. What did you pay to build yours?

jakedataon Rivian's TM-B electric bike

Oh, clearly. But for that money I'd buy a really nice BMW i3 REX. Obviously not an option for everyone.

jakedataon Rivian's TM-B electric bike

I am using 3x 12v 185wh batteries in series. Realistically I can count on around 500wh. They are only 3 lbs each and fit neatly within the frame of the mtb. I don't like having them up on the rear rack, they tend to make the tail of the bike wag a bit compared to low and centered.

https://old.reddit.com/r/ebikes/comments/1o0qthk/dynagirl_ri...

I just 3d printed protective covers for them last week when marketing turned their back on the new Bambu printer.

jakedataon Rivian's TM-B electric bike

I just added strips of fake fur to the straps my boring old helmet to diffuse the wind noise the same way a "dead cat" cover on a microphone does. They look a bit like muttonchops which is a bonus as far as I am concerned. I use wraparound bone conduction headphones that don't block my ears. I would be afraid of losing an expensive earbud.

jakedataon Rivian's TM-B electric bike

$4500 is ten or more of my homebrew 750 watt electric mountain bike originally built in 2004. I just repowered with LiFePO4 after 10 years in storage and the new batteries really pull. It has a front hub motor with a throttle control limited to 20 mph. My commute is 10 miles, 6 on a dedicated bike path. Life is good.

jakedataon A magnetic field orientation that changes the fundamental design of motors

It reminds me of a cylindrical Hallbach array that has been split in two.

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

jakedataon Some graphene firms have reaped its potential but others are struggling

There are two distinct use cases spelled out in this article. Electronic and photonic technology incorporating graphene to improve performance and efficiency and "we added graphene to stuff". Graphene cement, graphene carbon fibre - 3000 tons of graphene expected from one company in 2026.

Try not to breathe any, studies are still pending but that stuff gets everywhere.

jakedataon A $6B Nuclear U.S. Navy Aircraft Carrier 'Sunk' by $100M Diesel 'AIP' Sub

My takeaway from this story is that as an (aspiring) billionaire I can buy an awesome Swedish submarine for less than the cost of a crazy megayacht.

Unfortunately, skull shaped volcano islands are harder to come by.

jakedataon The Burrows-Wheeler Transform

This transformation in and of itself does not perform any compression. In fact it adds an additional string marker to the data. Performing compression on these strings is addressed here: https://www.cs.cmu.edu/~15451-f18/lectures/lec25-bwt.pdf#pag...

jakedataon Anduril and Palantir battlefield communication system has flaws, Army memo says

I thought the Department of WAR was switching over to a hacked version of Telegram Messenger for all its secure communications. If you see someone you don't know in the chat, don't worry it's probably just a journalist. Probably... (edited to add that this is based on actual events, not snark)

jakedataon Kevo app shutdown

"ends support for smartphone enabled"...

If anyone thought for one second that any device which requires external "cloud" support would continue work beyond what is convenient/profitable for the provider then I have a wifi-only dishwasher to sell you. No, really - please buy it from me.

jakedataon Cat Aquariums

Make the platform removable and it becomes a hat aquarium.

jakedataon Job mismatch and early career success

I was a mismatched match for my first job and it led to a career in IT. My qualifications were that I was young, cheap and didn't know any better.

jakedataon With AI Boom, Dell's Datacenter Biz Is Finally Bigger Than Its PC Biz

My company sells them all. Dell, Lenovo, Supermicro, HP (if you insist). I can have anything I want and pretty much for free. Internally we are 90% Dell, our remote employees all have laptops with ProSupport and on-site service because the price is lower than a single day of downtime. They have the infrastructure and logistics to fix anything nearly anywhere. No qualms about recommending them for anything.

jakedataon Why is LED light so bad?

I am one of the people that perceive flicker even at high frequencies. Slight variations in color temperature also drive me bonkers. It has made me incredibly picky about the type of LEDs I light my home with. I have invested in costly dimmable LED drivers and gotten to the point where I can live with the results but I have a boneyard of reject bulbs in the basement.

I purchased a violet pumped LED from Soraa to light some artwork and the results are quite pleasant but they are still super expensive.

jakedataon Tom Lehrer has died

https://tomlehrersongs.com/

I, Tom Lehrer, individually and as trustee of the Tom Lehrer Trust 2007, hereby grant the following permissions: All copyrights to lyrics or music written or composed by me have been permanently and irrevocably relinquished, and therefore such songs are now in the public domain. All of my songs that have never been copyrighted, having been available for free for so long, are now also in the public domain. In other words, I have abandoned, surrendered and disclaimed all right, title and interest in and to my work and have injected any and all copyrights into the public domain.

The permission granted includes all lyrics which I have written to music by others, although the music to such parodies, if copyrighted by their composers, are of course not included without permission of their copyright owners. The translated songs on this website may be found on YouTube in their original languages. Performing and recording rights to all of my songs are included in this permission. Translation rights are also included.

In particular, permission is hereby granted to anyone to set any of these lyrics to their own music, or to set any of this music to their own lyrics, and to publish or perform their parodies or distortions of these songs without payment or fear of legal action.

Some recording, movie, and television rights to songs written by me are merely licensed non-exclusively by me to recording, movie, or TV companies. All such rights are now released herewith and therefore do not require any permission from me or from Maelstrom Music, which is merely me in another hat, nor from the recording, movie, or TV companies involved.

In short, I no longer retain any rights to any of my songs.

So help yourselves, and don’t send me any money.

NOTICE: THIS WEBSITE WILL BE SHUT DOWN AT SOME DATE IN THE NOT TOO DISTANT FUTURE, SO IF YOU WANT TO DOWNLOAD ANYTHING, DON’T WAIT TOO LONG.

Tom Lehrer November 26, 2022

jakedataon Bringing a decade old bicycle navigator back to life with open source software

I have a waterproof Garmin Nuvi GPS that will directly accept OpenStreetMap data on micro-SD card. It is in bicycle mode and running on a DC-DC converter from my e-bike pack. I am quite satisfied with it despite being 20 years old. The external storage and well defined format have saved it from becoming e-waste.

jakedataon Solar-plus-storage technology is improving quickly

Meanwhile in the WSJ opinion section there is a hit-piece warning of power shortages because of wind and solar subsidies. We should be subsidizing gas turbines, if only the market would listen!

"The Real Risk to the Electric Grid" https://archive.ph/avp9N

Ooga-Booga!!!

jakedataon YASA's axial flux motor achieved a record, doubling industry benchmarks

"delivering a whopping 550 kW of power from a package weighing a mere 13.1 kg (28.9 lbs.). That power density ratio equals 42 kW/kg or 19 kW/lb."

Something that compact and energy dense will require a powerful cooling system in a very small amount of surface area.

jakedataon The ChompSaw: A Benchtop Power Tool That's Safe for Kids to Use

Unlike the woodburning tool...

jakedataon The ChompSaw: A benchtop power tool that's safe for kids to use

Looks a lot like my glass grinder. Nice idea but only cuts cardboard and $249 is crazy expensive.

jakedataon Border search safe TOTP authenticator app?

Not a superspy. Oblig: https://xkcd.com/705

jakedataon Data Centers, Temperature, and Power

I have had high hopes for passive daytime radiative cooling since I read about it 10 years ago. Converting waste heat to an infrared wavelength that flies off into space day or night is apparently not that easy or cost effective right now.

https://www.asme.org/topics-resources/content/new-solar-ener...

https://www.skycoolsystems.com/

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41377-023-01119-0

jakedataon Snow - Classic Macintosh emulator

It turns out there has been some discussion on emulating or passing through ADB hardware keys but nothing conclusive seems to have come of it.

jakedataon Snow - Classic Macintosh emulator

Several, yes ;-)

jakedataon Snow - Classic Macintosh emulator

Good advice of course. It is not valuable, and it is not my product - I merely worked on it. The real value was guiding me _away_ from a career as a programmer (and the friends we made along the way).

jakedataon Snow - Classic Macintosh emulator

Much of my early post-college work is stored across a stack of Mac formatted Bernoulli disks. The software requires an ADB dongle to run, so physical hardware is required. I wonder if any of those ADB to USB adapters could be mapped into the emulator?