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Are you serious or doubling down on my -3 so far sarcasm? Hacker News hates sarcasm.

Yes, Wayland is pretty good.

https://www.niche.com/places-to-live/wayland-middlesex-ma/ra...

Unfortunately the whole Linux display thing has rather confounded searches about the town. Any open source contributors who live here are probably mildly annoyed.

Why don't then name projects the way Amazon sellers name products, with a semi-random agglomeration of letters instead of taking a perfectly sensible name that is already in use. Would you call your display driver brooklyn?

jakedataon The Bathyscaph Trieste: Technological and Operational Aspects (1962)

Slightly obligatory Futurama quote:

Leela: Depth at 45 hundred feet, 48 hundred, 50 hundred! 5000 feet!

Farnsworth: Dear Lord, that's over 150 atmospheres of pressure.

Fry: How many atmospheres can this ship withstand?

Farnsworth: Well it's a spaceship, so I'd say anywhere between zero and one.

jakedataon The world's largest "radio" station (2005) [pdf]

While I was passingly familiar with the system previously, this came as a bit of a surprise: "...faculty and researchers at the Michigan Technological University (MTU) School of Forestry and Wood Products have found that the Project ELF’s antenna grid makes the trees grow faster."

jakedataon Microsoft’s Azure portal down following new claims of DDoS attacks

Flawless instant access for me. Clearly not a total impact. Didn't even notice until I saw the headline.

jakedataon Classic components could be replaced by rubber in next-gen loudspeakers

Don't confuse magneplanar speakers with electrostatic speakers. Other than them both being flat they are quite different beasts.

jakedataon Ask HN: How does archive.is bypass paywalls?

Alas it doesn't allow access to the comment section of the WSJ which is the only reason I would visit the site. WSJ comments re-enforce my opinion of the majority of humanity. My father allowed his subscription to lapse and I won't send them my money so I will just have to imagine it.

jakedataon Ask HN: What is your proudest little invention or discovery?

Back in 1986 I was asked to build a set of "game show" buzzers that would allow a number of contestants to hit their button and it would show who pressed first. I ended up creating a system that used relays that would latch the first button pusher's indicator ON and cut power to the other controllers at the same time. I came up with an improved design to allow an arbitrary number of buzzers to be daisy-chained but they didn't want to pay for version 2.0. It was a fun side-hustle for this high school Radio Shack employee.

jakedataon How much is a smidgen?

A smidgen is the single, slightly oversized bite of food you have after finishing your first serving and are basically full but it tastes too good to stop eating.

OK, just a smidgen more...

Followed in our family by "a stopper" if it is exceptionally good.

jakedataon A novel ultramicro supercapacitor with ultrahigh charge storage capability

wow -3 and counting! Didn't anyone ever toss you a charged capacitor in class?

jakedataon A novel ultramicro supercapacitor with ultrahigh charge storage capability

The danger of improperly handling capacitors is well documented, but if they are deceptively small it might lead to carelessness. One of their little chips is probably innocuous enough. In series you had better be careful. Best case you melt your screwdriver. Worst case you melt your finger.

It sounds like a useful thing for regenerative braking, quick charging phones or perhaps as a replacement for a lead-acid car battery.

jakedataon Al Jaffee, king of the Mad Magazine fold-in, has died

We should train LLaMA and DALL-E on the Mad Magazine archives and create AI-Jaffe.

jakedataon Heat pump disappointment for climate-minded Massachusetts state senator

http://www.worldclimate.com/climate/us/massachusetts/framing...

The averages do not illustrate the extremes very well, we see many days where the nighttime temperatures never rise above 0F.

jakedataon Heat pump disappointment for climate-minded Massachusetts state senator

This is why I couple my heat pump operation to solar output from my panels. Any time I can fully self power it is a 100% win. During the darkest and coldest months however, the existing gas boiler takes the lead.

My heat pump is 5 years old and has never leaked refrigerant. I also collect the condensate for the gardens.

jakedataon Wi-Fi over Coaxial (2006)

Fortunately I am working on my home, not yours. I have RG6 quad shield home runs to lots of useful places but I didn't want to pop for MOCA bridges.

jakedataon Wi-Fi over Coaxial (2006)

For houses that have coaxial cable tv runs to many rooms it would be great to find a 75 ohm f-connector wi-fi antenna that you could just screw onto the wall plate. You would need to match impedance with the WiFI device at the other end but the result would be reasonable WiFI in whatever room you want while the ugly blinkenboxen remain in the basement. Rather than use splitters it would be best to use one cable per antenna. Something to ponder while staring at my basement parts bin for sure. edit: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wi-Fi_over_Coax

jakedataon Pausing AI Developments Isn't Enough. We Need to Shut It All Down

The sun has already fired a warning shot at us this month. If we as a species need a timeout, a Carrington-class event would certainly do the trick. If there is a huge uptick in hardening power and information systems then we should be looking at the sources of that activity. It might be the first glimmerings of an instinct for self preservation.

jakedataon Infinite Mac: Infinitemac.org

Then why is it randomized? Oh yeah...

jakedataon Infinite Mac: Infinitemac.org

First impression: "oh god, I'm old"

Second impression: "I should dig out the SE30 and let the kid have a go at it"

Third impression: "I'm probably being emulated too."

jakedataon China crisis is a TikToking time bomb

When someone shows you who they are, believe them the first time. - Maya Angelou

jakedataon Bitcoin ATMs drained after hackers exploit zero-day bug

After this hack I have zero Bitcoin.

jakedataon The genie escapes: Stanford copies the ChatGPT AI for less than $600

AI bootstrapping AI is a sci-fi trope that goes back decades. I first encountered it in The Cybernetic Samurai while in high school. While the details differ, the reality is that AI is a catalyst for more of itself.

I don't remember many books where this ends particularly well. Perhaps the Culture universe could be a survivable outcome. Hopefully we don't get Berzerkers first.

jakedataon Launch HN: Electric Air (YC W23) – Heat pump sold directly to homeowners

I wouldn't try to over complicate things. A 5KW DC solar controller does not need to be included in every product. The system could allow for DC power input in a manner controlled by software that could offset power delivery from the AC stage.

Individual panel optimizers can already tune output voltage and current, it is just a matter of telling them what you want. If you are really clever you can set operational parameters to cap power consumption based on available solar power, but that's all for later.

jakedataon Launch HN: Electric Air (YC W23) – Heat pump sold directly to homeowners

You should give some thought to offering an AC-DC power supply. Being able to dedicate several solar panels directly to heating or cooling might get people out of a regulatory bind with crazy interconnect fees and local regulations.

The trick would be to supply supplemental DC solar power in a manner that would not be considered grid-tied. That would eliminate a whole level of installation costs, permitting fees and time consuming approvals. Plus you could run the system at some capacity during a grid outage which could be a lifesaver.

jakedataon Fake sugars sneak into foods and disrupt metabolic health

Diet Coke vs really really OG classic Coke.

jakedataon Fake sugars sneak into foods and disrupt metabolic health

"When given a choice between cocaine or water sweetened with saccharin, rats will almost always choose the artificially sweetened beverage."

This is how I know I am not a rat. Not that I am in the habit of drinking cocaine water but I am absolutely one of the people who are revolted by the taste of artificial sweeteners.

Black coffee all day long for me, though usually decaf nowadays.

jakedataon How peptide injections became the answer to everything

Ox bile is very helpful for folks who have had their gallbladder removed. It becomes more difficult to digest fats which can lead to "discomfort".

jakedataon The Surprisingly Scientific Roots of Monkey Bars

While the monkey bars/climbing frame provided exercise and adventure in my elementary school playground, there was also this rotating hoop called a witch's hat which taught early lessons in conservation of momentum and unbalanced mass rotation.

I still remember the ringing sound of steel as someone on the opposite side lost their grip and was flung outwards, causing the person on the opposite side to crash into the pole.

See slide 15 for an illustration: https://honey.nine.com.au/parenting/retro-dangerous-playgrou...

jakedataon We Have a Real UFO Problem. and It’s Not Balloons

If we can see it we can shoot it with a laser. Getting spectra on whatever it uses for a shell might be illuminating (ahem). If it runs away at Mach 1 we have also learned something valuable - like "use 2 lasers".

jakedataon Ongoing Incident in Google Cloud

https://www.google.com/appsstatus/dashboard/incidents/5ML14k...

They claim the Gmail specific issues are resolved. We shall see...

Feb 27, 2023 2:03 PM UTC We experienced a brief network outage with package loss, impacting a number of workspace services. The impact is over. We are investigating and monitoring.