Hacker News Reader

kabanossenon A battery has replaced Hawaii's last coal plant

True but we should also celebrate successes like this. If we wait acknowledging progress until all emissions are replaced we miss the good deeds that happen.

kabanossenon Homes need to be built for better internet

What we really need is Ambient Connectivity. Check out Bob Frankston's (inventor of the spreadsheet) writings.

https://rmf.vc/ambientconnectivity

kabanossenon Interoperability can save the open web

What link is that, very curious?

kabanossenon The world’s largest wind turbine has been switched on

Depends, regular ones as a single blade since they're assembled in the factory. But there are attempts to do it differently because of the inconvenience. A swedish company make wind turbine towers out of wood that can be assembled on site: https://modvion.com/

Here are some images to give you an idea of the size of large wind turbines https://growsverige.se/2023/02/11/storleken-svindlar-pa-nya-...

kabanossenon Threads isn't ever going to connect to Mastodon, so stop pretending that it is

Supporting ActivityPub can be done in a million ways and Facebook will likely do it in a way where they keep control of users. If you think they won't, mention something they have done where users remain in control of... anything?

kabanossenon Apple Vision Pro: Apple’s first spatial computer

For someone who hasn't really tried this kind of thing (VR goggles...), what's it like after thirty minutes? Two hours? I feel reluctant because it's a huge thing wrapped around my head, isn't that something a twelve year old likes but not a 32 year old?

kabanossenon Ask HN: What other news feeds do you read besides Hacker News?

Once a week: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Portal:Current_events

kabanossenon Donald Hoffman: Do we see reality as it is? (2015) [video]

There is our perception of reality but also how we make meaning of our perceptions, how we understand. For example colors that do not exist in the physical reality but are products of our perceptions and our interpretation of those perceptions.

"The structure of the system of color categories is shaped by the neurophysiology of color vision, by our color cones and neural circuitry for color. Colors and color categories are not "out there" in the world but are interactional, a nontrivial product of wave length reflactances of objects and lighting conditions on the one hand, and our color cones and neural circuitry on the other. Color concepts and color-based inferences are thus structured by our bodies and brains."

https://www.edge.org/3rd_culture/lakoff/lakoff_p4.html

kabanossenon Start a fucking blog

On the other hand, you don't have to post regularly.

kabanossenon Ask HN: Has anyone here turned around their life in their 40s?

You have a wonderful life ahead of you. 43 is nothing and you can have all the things you long for.

So I've ripped what people in the thread has written and compiled for you, like an action list. Hope it helps.

- CONTACT A THERAPIST to find out if you have a depression or some other mental illness. Illnesses are things you can get help to deal with.

- MEDITATION! Preferably do it in the morning but works any time of the day (when it fits your day) I like this one

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EwQkfoKxRvo

If it's too dopey for you try this

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=inpok4MKVLM

or this

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZToicYcHIOU

Repetition is what makes meditation work, you'll be more present, more aware of the world you're in with less disturbing thoughts and feelings.

- CHANGE TO A POSITIVE OUTLOOK OF YOUR LIFE. Your problem is your framing of where you are in life. Visualize building your ideal life and repeat the visualization every day. I googled "visualizing a better life" and got these, you can probably do better

https://www.happierhuman.com/visualization-techniques/

https://jamesnussbaumer.com/visualize-a-better-life/

https://taminglife.com/improve-life-goal-visualization/

- BROWSE THROUGH THESE MOTIVATIONAL IMAGES at breakfast and before bed, take notice when something applies to your life. Repetition is key, do this every day (and if you miss a day it's no biggie, just do it again)

https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1yTrJkmUUFAzlhuQ5ZzyG...

- AVOID NEWS if you can, it feeds your mind with fear, angst and anxiety

- JOIN A SOCIAL GROUP (music, art, volunteering, courses, church, craft...)

- YOUR LOOKS CAN HELP YOU - change your haircut and clothes to imitate your image of a happy and successful person

- VISUALIZE THE HOME YOU'D LIKE TO LIVE IN, repeat regularly.

kabanossenon Ask HN: How do you deal with the human ability to never take responsibility

In workplaces I'd say it happens if there's an empathetic culture, if leadership and employees see each other and care about more than the product, care about the team. This manifests in many ways, for example leaders asking for and appreciating critique, building on it, maybe instituting a shorter workweek instead of a pay raise (if that's what employees want).

kabanossenon Ask HN: How do you deal with the human ability to never take responsibility

It has to do with how much you empathize with people. Responsibility follows from empathy. When you care about someone enough you also take responsibility for your actions toward this person. So we need to show care for each other, empathize with those closest to us as well as everyone else.

kabanossenon Solar Metal Smelter

The trick to doing this cheaply is by using two parabolas and mirror the light into a point.

https://youtu.be/qKcVwmkJbQM

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Td_c8fIiu4M

kabanossenon The Canon Cat

Agree, it's an eye-opener. Must-read for everyone working with design or UX.

kabanossenon Is there such a thing as good taste?

So the only purpose of art is to consume it? What is this guy five?

kabanossenon Coal replaces wind as most important energy source in Germany in H1

So what was H1 for 2019? Pretty obvious that the numbers for 2020 would be lower because of Corona. More interesting to compare 2021 with 2019.

kabanossenon The Presence of One’s Own Smartphone Reduces Available Cognitive Capacity (2017)

On the contrary, they will be awesome, possibly the best thing you ever do!

kabanossenon CO2 emissions set to fall nearly 8% this year, the largest drop in history

https://grist.org/climate/the-world-is-on-lockdown-so-where-...

kabanossenon Vladimir Lukyanov's hydraulic computer

Pretty cool. Reminds me of MYST

http://myst5.com/images/mystgallery/channel_2.jpg https://lparchive.org/Myst/Update%2015/3-1103_Switchflip.gif

kabanossenon Best of Hacker News

Yep, same for me. I did this to limit how often I check HN and this was the most obvious way. Glad to try whatever you come up with :)

kabanossenon Why We Should Watch Less News

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Portal:Current_events

kabanossenon Now Is the Perfect Time for an RSS Renaissance

RSS is a protocol, not a service. Email doesn't have analytics, nor does html or http or any other protocol. Analytics is functionality you connect to services or tools, generating logs of how you use something. It's not on the same level of abstraction as a protocol.

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

kabanossenon Now Is the Perfect Time for an RSS Renaissance

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

kabanossenon It's time to head back to RSS?

Here's a feed I made with pages that have reached number 1 on Hacker News: http://enklo.se/hackernews/best-of-hacker-news.xml

kabanossenon Groups funded by the Koch brothers are campaigning against municipal broadband

The Private depends on the Public - https://georgelakoff.com/2017/11/26/protect-internet-freedom...

kabanossenon Why do many math books have so much detail and so little enlightenment? (2010)

There is an exception, "Calculus Made Easy" by Silvanus P. Thompson from 1910. http://www.djm.cc/library/Calculus_Made_Easy_Thompson.pdf https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Calculus_Made_Easy

kabanossenon Is Silicon Valley getting too big for its boots?

Read Steven Johnson's post about Packer's article, interesting and clarifying

https://medium.com/the-peer-society/410c644cebe4