mountain_peak

> if it is better than the rest then the whole genre of stick vacuum cleaners should be taken out back and shot

Great (and amusing) comment; we have three vacuums in the house: a 1984 Central Beam, a 2002 Miele corded canister, and a Dyson cordless stick vac. I've replaced the bearings, motor brushes, power head belt and beater, and smooth floor head exactly once each on the Beam. Other than changing bags and HEPA filters, the Miele hasn't needed a thing, and the Dyson, well as I detest throwing things out, I've fixed it several times to-date, but it truly is shoddy quality for the price.

The battery pack died twice - the first time, I replaced it with another Dyson pack thinking I could repair the original - no such luck as the PCB is sealed with a thick layer of silicone, and the thermal cutout pretty much has to be destroyed to be removed as it's epoxied between two of the batteries. I managed to remove all six batteries and found one faulty cell, damaging the PCB in the process. I repurposed the rest of the cells to fixing a laptop battery pack.

We were careful with the second pack and ensured it was only charged for three hours at a time after the batteries were drained, but it also died, while its cheap ($60 vs. $250) Amazon replacement has been solid ever since.

Then the powerhead stopped working. After taking it apart, it was obvious that the wires traveling through the swivel joint lacked mechanical protection from repeated stress . Most of the wires on "good" vacuums that pass through a swivel joint are protected by a coiled spring with plenty of slack. In the Dyson, there are two 18GA wires with thin insulation passing through the joint. The positive wire was severed, and the negative wire was very close to failure. I managed to strip away enough insulation to attach two new wires with appropriate slack within a protective spring (from a ballpoint pen). So far, so good.

I'd have to say Dyson stick vacs are engineered to fail in several ways. Interestingly, my wife purchased a Dyson canister vacuum for the night cleaners at her office, and it's still going strong 10+ years later.

Ken's site is fantastic for education; my kids and I regularly re-visit the 'rare' chip that turned out to be a touch-tone generator, and (as an owner of classic synths) this series is better than that. I don't have a DX7, but do have the 'competition' - a Casio CZ-101, which uses phase distortion to work around Stanford patents (I think).

I'm secretly hoping one day Ken will pop the top of a classic CEM or SSM chip, which were (are?) the mainstay of many classic synths.

I also wonder if Ken prefers his MG-1 over the DX7 sound...

Love the 'fantasy' scene [0] in Annie Hall where Woody Allen's character 'pulls out' Marshall McLuhan to put an intellectual blowhard back into place. McLuhan says, "I heard what you were saying. You know nothing of my work - you mean my whole fallacy is wrong. How you ever got to teach a course in anything is totally amazing."

Maybe a cameo in a movie meant that McLuhan didn't take himself too seriously. I find his ideas relatively 'approachable', although I'm fairly skeptical whenever reading any philosophical work. Just recently, I had to deal with phenomenological and heuristic approaches to qualitative studies. I see some value, but (as a scientist) the lack of rigor and consistency makes my head spin.

[0] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jRcMsqCbzWk

Great suggestion; I've never tried gum arabic in anything, but it looks like it's close profile-wise to the other thickeners, so I'll pick some up and give it a shot. I should have mentioned that I do cook the egg yolks over a double boiler (as if I'm making a hollandaise sauce), but the almond milk really thins out the mixture, plus I have to cut back the cream to half the amount (9g is too many carbs in a cup). Thanks for the tip!

As someone who loved eggnog as a child (my favourite was eggnog with Honeycomb cereal), and who has since become glucose intolerant (surprise, surprise), I've made a low-carb version of Alton's recipe in recent years, and it's not bad, but nowhere near the original as I remember it.

The only drawback is that without sugar, it's missing a 'thickness' element. I've tried erythritol, but (despite a glycemic index of 1), it seems to affect my blood sugar and I have to stick with stevia powder. I've also tried thickeners such as xanthan gum and inulin, but they end up making the eggnog 'slimy'. Egg yolk, cream, and almond milk all supply some net carbs, and in liquid form, they raise blood glucose levels rather quickly, which isn't great for someone who can't easily counteract a sudden rise in glucose, but a small glass doesn't seem to affect me. Ironically, the rum has zero carbs, as does the bourbon, but cognac is definitely out - can't say I notice.

I've even tried to steam the mixture with my espresso maker wand to add thickness - making sure I stay under 140 degrees. Unfortunately, I think even though the overall temperature of the liquid is less than 140, the steam seems to 'cook' the egg as it exits the wand, making the eggnog a but 'chunky' - it was worth a shot!

Alum crystals in a disposable pie pan on a hot water radiator turned out brilliantly in my youth.

Fast-forward many years, and my daughter wasn't having much luck with salt, sugar, or even copper sulfate (that one looked like a melted smurf).

I remembered my alum crystals, which she tried, and lo and behold...nothing! Desperate (on the night before the assignment was due), I remembered someone mentioning that you can make crystals with mothball flakes. We picked a bag of flakes up and heated them up in a dish, and were able to make long, beautiful crystals on the bottom of a cold glass over the heated solution.

The only problem was that as soon as we moved the glass away from the solution, the crystals evaporated, so she took a picture of the crystals as they were forming and received full marks. A happy ending, but the house smelled of mothballs for a few days!

Completely my experience as well (x3 kids)...can you enlighten me on what the author meant by, "drinking beer from a small and dainty glass"? If there's a social reference or analogy, I'm missing it.

My first job out of university was working with a very large firm that bought into Computer Associates' product suite - including 4GL code generators such as Telon ("green-screen" generators) and Easytrieve (4GL report generators). From what I recall, we spent 90% of our time trying to work around the code generators to accomplish tasks, as opposed to simply using native CICS, which was difficult to master (hence the 4GL). I've since used a number of 4GL-type tools, and they've all had the same limitation in that the tail wags the dog, to use an old idiom. Quite fast and seemingly magical if you stay within the guardrails, but as soon as you veer off course (and unless you don't want any differentiators, you will) they quickly become far more onerous than hand-coding, plus lock you into their 'forced march': cost, upgrades, incompatibilities, and so on.

As an aside, it was a very interesting time to be a developer as we had a mix of youngsters (me), who were raised on personal computers, many people seasoned on mainframes/mid-range computers, plus a few "old-timers" who started coding in the 1950s without any formal training. Everyone had great stories, and I feel lucky to have been exposed to people firsthand who were some of the first programmers (and they universally thought everything above assembly language was 'cheating'). Their stories and perspectives have stayed with me throughout my career.

It's also interesting to look at how Taiwan historically built knowledge and expertise in technology manufacturing.

In the mid- to late-1970s (far before Korea entered the fray), Taiwan was the global epicenter of illegal clone manufacturing. Markets around the world - but especially Hong Kong - had a steady supply of cheap Taiwan-made Apple and (later) IBM clones.

The ironic part of the story is that cloning provided Taiwan with manufacturing expertise, and in short order, they were awarded legal contracts to manufacture legal computers from US companies for export to Europe and America. The Taiwanese government sent Taiwanese engineers to the US for training, and they returned to kickstart companies such as Acer, which originally started out manufacturing OEM clones for Canon and Siemens, but later started releasing computers under its own brand.

The conditions for incubating talent in Taiwan arose from piracy and a demand for cheap computers and parts - not sure if there's any modern equivalent to start the next wave of talent in Europe and North America.

As much as I appreciate the freedom e-bikes provide to people who wouldn't otherwise venture outside, without proper cycling infrastructure, e-bikes are quickly becoming a serious hazard to pedestrians. As a long-time runner who is usually struck by at least one cyclist on the sidewalk per year, e-bikes are in a completely different class. The other day, a kid on an e-bike was careening down a bridge while my kids and I were running up. I'm a decent judge of speed, and the cyclist was definitely going over 40 km/h with dog walkers and other children nearby. I didn't do the math, but that's a great deal of kinetic energy to transfer to a pedestrian (I assume e-bikes are heavier, and most cyclists going that fast are dedicated cyclists on the road). I caught up to another e-bike at a stop light and asked him why he wasn't on the road, "Too dangerous," was his answer - sadly typical. A non-trivial number of cyclists are adopting the "Uber" mindset - break the law until laws or infrastructure changes, but with complete disregard for fellow citizens in the meantime. I've expressed my concerns several times on local biking forums (when a "cycling on the sidewalk doesn't hurt anyone" message is raised)- it's usually met with ridicule, anger and disbelief, but I experience it practically every day.

Wow - thought I'd never find anyone else with my diet on HN, but (other than half & half, ice cream and Brussels sprouts), we're surprisingly close. I'd also add a few things, such as almond milk, homemade mayo, flax, cocoa powder, 100% cocoa squares, and head lettuce for burger wraps, but that's about it. Like you, I tried things like carbalose flour and erythritol with bad results, but stevia powder seems ok. I'm glucose intolerant but thin and would likely need some sort of drug if I wasn't eating this way - which I have been since 2008.

Definitely curious about the negative reaction to NoScript - I did some digging and there appears to have been (or still is?) some controversy around the NoScript author displaying 'dubious' ads? Not sure I've even seen a NoScript-injected ad, but I'd definitely be interested in why HN doesn't like recommend it anymore. One commenter on an older HN thread said that all script blockers eventually 'give in' to some form of monetary gain in exchange for ads - I wasn't aware that NoScript was in that category.

About 10 years ago, I was in a meeting with our security czar and I asked him what he was 'fiddling' around with in his browser toolbar. He replied, "NoScript. Highly recommended." Ever since then, I've become adept at picking out the 'minimum' amount of JS required to enable as much website functionality as I require and don't think about it much anymore (unless I'm visiting a new site). Highly recommended!

Coincidentally, I was just reading "See Wayne Run. Run, Wayne, Run." [0] yesterday. Not sure if it's a character assassination or a valid warning to others. Lots of other interesting reading in the collection regardless.

[0] https://archive.org/details/Wayne_Green_Misc

Is a good ol' .com with no ads and minimal JS - originally launched in 2011. Thanks again for your insights; I've bookmarked your site and will check back every so often to see if my site's been indexed.

Thanks for the advice; not hacked, but I have "resurrected" many WP sites that have been (including my wife's non-profit). Just running on an EC2 micro instance, but I tried adding "site:" and received "No such domain". Actually, I think it's because I haven't enabled "HTTPS" yet! That's on my to-do along with migrating off EC2-Classic to VPC...

Likewise, I co-maintain the only "fan" site on one of my all-time favourite composers/performers, and gave the engine a shot with a unique string query. While my text-heavy WP-driven site didn't seem to make the cut, the results were highly relevant in that they were links to former band members and collaborators - a couple of which I didn't realize existed. That being said, there were a few sites (including my own) I expected to be returned, but no dice. Still, a fascinating experiment that many at HN have been clamouring for.

Quick tip on moving Canada Geese out of the way without aggressive behaviour (from you or them): lift your arm up just above your head to make an "S" shape and pinch your fingers to make a goose "beak", then move your hand horizontally in a back-and-forth motion. The only threat geese seem to understand is a larger goose and they are "programmed" to back down when encountering a much larger goose (i.e. you). If you are wearing a black long sleeve shirt, the effect is even more apparent, and the geese will run away and bow their heads as a sign of submissive behaviour. You can even make your own "hissing" noise and the geese will scatter very quickly. Note that this will not work if a nest is being guarded, or if there are goslings. In those cases, it's best to just avoid the geese, if possible.

My wife had a kidney infection when she was pregnant with our middle child in 2003, and the walk-in clinic doc prescribed Ciprofloxacin. She filled out the prescription, but I did a quick search just to make sure it was safe during pregnancy. The research at the time indicated it was generally safe, but I came across one study that indicated negative outcomes on experiments on pregnant dogs; the resultant puppies had issues with joints, cartilage development, and general 'lameness'. Called the clinic and had the prescription changed to a penicillin-based antibiotic, with was prudent, since Cipro-class drugs (fluoroquinolones) have since been removed from the drugs recommended in pregnancy or while breastfeeding.

As much as I love pork rinds, I haven't been able to coax them into a "bread-like" form yet. I have had some success with Peter Reinhart's "Toasting Bread"; this [0] site's recipe is very close.

[0] https://www.thepearlofsenecalake.com/menu-recipes/gluten-fre...

"Scienziato pazzo italiano" fares slightly better at 16 results (that's a literal translation; I'm sure there are better ones). Amusingly, one of the results refers to "John Lithgow", which I instantly recognized from Buckaroo Banzai - one of his characters is "Dr. Emilio Lizardo"

According to "The Song Machine" [0], track-and-hook has largely replaced singer/songwriter for top hits. The book details how Dr. Luke (a very talented guitar player) himself works with a ProTools tech to lay down beats, chord progressions, and instrumentation, then outsources the melodies to "hook writers/topliners" - the working song is sent to ~20 topliners and they aren't compensated whatsoever unless their hook is selected for a song. Also, virtually all the lyrics are outsourced to lyricists, and so on. It's funny that, in turn, the producers themselves seem to outsource much of the songwriting - it's turtles all the way down!

[0] https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/28789721-the-song-machin...

My understanding is that the last application code Gates was involved in was the TRS-80 Model 100 [1] circa 1982; I taught my kids assembly on the Model 100 and think it's great.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TRS-80_Model_100#ROM_firmware

Yes - I certainly didn't want to impart 'the obvious' in my response, but I'm not sure if there's an answer to your more literal question. If there was, we would have read an HN post on how there's a great new AI that develops compelling literary works, art, and music based on analyzing past masters and current psyche. Of course, there are AI writing, painting, and music composition systems, but other than seemingly random chance, they have yet to produce something compelling (novel, yes).

I do believe many great artists had a certain degree of mental affliction - not so much to incapacitate, but to provide additional insight. For example, it's been said that Ravel's Bolero was written in the early throes of his mental affliction, hence the repetitive theme. I completely agree with you - compositions (classical and modern) ultimately take us on small adventures from one place to another and back - happiness, despair, melancholy, and so on. As you mention, the melodies are the main 'characters' in the story, supported by chord sequences, rhythmic patterns, ostinato, and so on, all perversely using our ancient and deep auditory instincts of baby wails, hurt fellow tribe members, dangerous animals, thunder, laughter, etc. against us to elicit an emotional response. A great song creates a personal story in the listener's mind based on past experiences. Great painters and authors strive for the same response, but I think it's a more difficult task; for some reason we're more susceptible to auditory emotions vs. visual or the written word. Of course, soundtrack composers combine the visual with auditory very effectively; the whole being more than the sum of individual parts.

As for creating an entire world on which to base novels and characters on, Hemingway does touch on this as well, stating roughly that he could have made The Old Man and the Sea 1,000 pages with every detail exposed and examined (and that approach has successfully been used before), but it was much more compelling (and difficult) for him to eliminate all unnecessary things and have the town exist under the waterline as internal experience and just let the novel show whats important, which connects the reader with the story, as they have to fill in the details with their own experiences and ideas as opposed to Hemingway's.

That interview with George Plimpton (I think) is great, but Hemingway does eventually go into a bit more detail when pressed. My interpretation is that he admires people who have a deep well of talent and knowledge and use that to push art and science in a new direction. Bill Watterson is an excellent classical painter and painted the Creation of Adam on his dorm room ceiling, and although Calvin and Hobbes doesn't look like Michelangelo, that painting and experience is "in" his comics. Dali, Cezanne, and Mozart could have easily mimed past art and music, but they saw beyond what was done before to push in new directions. For his part, Hemingway goes on to explain that (to him) writing is like an iceberg - 7/8 of it is experience and knowledge hidden from the reader - they only see the part sticking above the water.

Was diagnosed with IBS just after university, then (similarly) spent 10 years suffering and experimenting when I ended up switching to an ultra-low carb diet for unrelated reasons. Within weeks, I started to feel better and for the next 12 years felt great - so much so, that my family (wanting me to enjoy something sweet) started buying me "Keto-friendly" bars with < 2g of net carbs, but also with erythritol. That was a mistake, as within weeks of enjoying the bars, I was back to dealing with IBS. I'm six weeks into trying to undo the 'damage', and starting to feel a bit better, but I'd definitely advise people who have IBS to always be cautious with trigger foods - certainly the ones that personally cause them issues, but also others on the list.

Not claiming that the science is settled, but I when I entered keto over 10 years ago (TL:DR daily 10K+ 'performance' runner, neuropathy from glucose intolerance - genetic, avoid all drugs), I wanted to be sure that I could run without ingesting carbs (since everyone said you couldn't).

Read "The Art and Science of Low Carbohydrate Performance" and can absolutely say that after an initial horrible period that lasted for months, I was eventually able to run further and just as fast as I used to when I was carbo-loading. I can honestly say that running is more difficult now - my legs are generally sore and I don't feel like I'm 'flying along', but I've always tracked my times with Garmin, then Apple, and the stats belie how I feel.

From the book: "[Keto-adaptation] allows even a very lean (10% body fat) athlete access to more than 40,000 kcal from body fat, rather than starting a prolonged event depending primarily on ~2000 kcal of glycogen."

I think the studies you quoted would back-up the authors, but I also wanted to lend my long-term personal experience. I can't recall where I read it, but thought adaption also occurred in leg muscles where they found a massive increase in the number of mitochondria for athletes on keto.

I tested myself daily for years until I found a combination of diet and exercise that worked. My body definitely adapted and became much more efficient at burning fat - there's no performance 'wall' anymore, but I think the experience is different for everyone.