Hacker News Reader

naragon Spanish archaeologists discover trove of ancient shipwrecks in Bay of Gibraltar

That's the main reason. Also marine archeology is expensive. I once heard an archeologist saying that if the rests have passed centuries underwater, one more is less harmful than looters.

naragon A programmable watch you can actually wear

Some applications that we use in smartphones are very useful, like the alarm clock. I have begrudgingly adapted to their quirks and privacy implications. I'd rather program my own versions, same for smartwatches.

naragon Ask HN: Any interesting niche hobbies?

I glanced at this question at work, now reading it to find interesting ideas, but also want to share something: six months ago I bought a motorcycle. It was a no-brainer, commuting time is now half compared to the subway and after decades it's invigorating to be back to two wheels, not only physically but also mentally.

Maybe not very niche, but you'll quickly find there are many sub-cultures around biking (some of them very friendly) and an endless variety of interesting tech: engines, suspensions, electronics, injection mapping, IMUs, gear materials, GPS... routing is its own rabbit hole.

It's not necessarily very expensive. A middleweight bike that will take you everywhere can be bought for less than 10k. Add a grand more for gear and insurance.

naragon Help Keep Thunderbird Alive

lol, kind of expected someone would notice... it's my personal mail and I don't get much. In my experience, it's better for low volume. I just connect, download, delete it from the server and have it in an easily readable format. I keep my archives from the 90's with no issues.

naragon Help Keep Thunderbird Alive

After reading a bunch of negative comments here, let me add a little on the bright side. I've been using Thunderbird for many years, currently both at home and at work to manage gmail accounts, pop at home, imap in the office. It works great for me, with a few annoyances but nothing serious.

As for the donations, Thunderbird seems to be somehow apart from Mozilla now, so I don't think much about specific org structure and will gladly donate.

Maybe on paper there're dozens of alternatives, but when I consider my specific requirements, I haven't found anything better, YMMV.

naragon I Won't Download Your App. The Web Version Is A-OK

Ouch! Netscape 4.7 reloaded...

naragon Why are executives enamored with AI, but ICs aren't?

It's absolutely replacing their jobs, but not their positions. They use it extensively to create all the paperwork, communications, emails, translations... and they work fine for these tasks so they think it's equally useful for everything.

I believe that it's pretty close to the article thesis, just more prosaic.

And yes, the AI works great for some programming tasks, just not for everything or completely unsupervised.

naragon Ask HN: How to be alone?

I don't know what "being with the wrong person" means.

Congratulations.

naragon Fix your tools

Thank you, I had not hear of that method (my comment was more about wetware) but I doubt it will be unfamiliar to me, I've done everything refactor related, mostly successfully... when they let me (see https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47163985 )

naragon Technical Excellence Is Not Enough

That's exactly what happens in some organizations. I couldn't believe it the first time I saw it, but it is what it is. And the reason is some bosses are addict to consensus. Infuriating but there's really no other option than shrugging off the problems, waiting for staff changes or looking for another job.

naragon Fix your tools

Aside from the origin, there're situations in which you need to somehow shave the yak.

Yes, it's about procrastination, but not of the task at hand. You procrastinate in some older task that's really blocking what you need to do now.

It's chain procrastination. Oldest task blocks older task that blocks old task that blocks current task. It's evil because it overflows the task planning buffer. Also you get used to say nah when you start to think in a task in that general direction.

Maybe you should shave the fricking yak already. Or maybe you should use fake yak hair, idk.

naragon Systems Thinking

You can't physically but the logic is the same: you need beams, foundations, walls and roofs, with strenghts adjusted for scale. Software mindset :-)

In this sense, web applications haven't changed so much in the last twenty years: client, server, database...

naragon Systems Thinking

IMHO, the key is where you add complexity. In software you have different abstraction layers. If you make a layer too fat, it becomes unwieldly. A simple system evolves well if you're adding the complexity in the right layer, avoiding making a layer responsible for task outside its scope. It still "works" if you don't, but it's increasingly difficult to maintain it.

The law is maybe a little too simplistic in its formulation, but it's fundamentally true.

naragon Dead Internet Theory

A couple of different uses of AI, recently detected in YouTube:

1. There are channels specialized in topics like police bodycam and dashcam videos, or courtroom videos. AI there is used to generate voice (and sometimes a very obviously fake talking head) and maybe the script itself. It seems a way to automatize tasks.

2. Some channels are generating infuriating videos about fake motorbikes releases. Many.

naragon Gentoo Linux 2025 Review

"Mostly because of the continuous attempts to force Copilot usage for our repositories, Gentoo currently considers and plans the migration of our repository mirrors and pull request contributions to Codeberg."

naragon Scientists discover oldest poison, on 60k-year-old arrows

You can throw the arrow with just a piece of rope rolled around your hand and using the same grip as in the atlatl. Romans called those slingshot arrows tragulae.

naragon You can't design software you don't work on

The article incurs in the very same problem it's describing. It's generic advice that might not be appliable to specific situations.

naragon Publishing your work increases your luck

Sorry to say, but the article is complete BS. Publishing is only desirable when your work is top-notch ;)

naragon A school locked down after AI flagged a gun. It was a clarinet

Are you interested in the statistics or in knowing if I know any?

I hate camera proliferation but, judging by the YouTube plenty of bodycam footage, it does work.

You won't likely find the numbers you want because the very nature of the problem is that cameras make visible something that wasn't.

naragon A school locked down after AI flagged a gun. It was a clarinet

The post you are responding to is about punishing the victim because teachers are too lazy/cowards to punish the culprits. Cams incentivize them to do the right thing.

naragon Are you stuck in movie logic?

I agree, but...

Sometimes problems are real. That guy will never be my friend because he wants my position. That other guy is scared because he thinks my work is a threat to his silo, and he's right: the management is after him.

No frank conversation is going to change those situations.

naragon Paris had a moving sidewalk in 1900, and a Thomas Edison film captured it (2020)

The slow strips on the outside moved at five miles an hour; the inner ones faster and faster...

Not good enough. The same strip should go faster and faster over time and decelerate near its end. It sounds impossible, but I can think of a few ways to make it work.

naragon Internet's biggest annoyance: Cookie laws should target browsers, not websites

But, but... we're the good guys, we're just fighting those evil advertisers!

I don't know if they'll finally find a way to control the spying, but how many years have passed since they made the law?

naragon Internet's biggest annoyance: Cookie laws should target browsers, not websites

The world a program works in and the computer it runs on are often very malicious, or they sure act like they are. Not to talk about users, some are pure evil :-)

We put a lot of safeguards, exception handling and all kind of measures to control errors.

naragon Internet's biggest annoyance: Cookie laws should target browsers, not websites

That's a very absolute outlook. The fact is that they were very naive and, althoug they seem to be adjusting, it's been painfully slow and the harm has been done and the public is suffering meanwhile.

Law making is a way of predicting the future and setting up incentives to achieve a goal. You need to foresee what can go wrong, talk to incumbents and anticipate the response. It's a technical matter and this has been a debacle.

It's useless to put the blame in the advertisers. Even if they're evil, that doesn't make the situation any better for the public.

naragon What do we do if SETI is successful?

Honestly, I can't get myself to worry about "societal damage"... what would the contact mean for individuals? Medical and technical advancements would extend our lifespans and could add enjoyment to our lives.

A civilization capable of space travel doesn't seem that would be so interested in slaving or torturing humans for the sake of it. Would "our culture" disappear? I still doubt it. It'd be kept as History.

I like visiting museums and learning about the history of ancient civilizations but by no means I'd like to live in the any of those past environments.

naragon What do we do if SETI is successful?

There's a joke about a speeding BMW that crashes into the back of a hay cart. The driver complains that the cart should had a red rag to signal its presence. The carter responds "you didn't see the cart, would have you seen the rag?"

The info in Voyager is just a vanity plate... or a time capsule. Nothing wrong with that anyway. Some time in the future, humans will locate it and put it back in a museum.

naragon Internet's biggest annoyance: Cookie laws should target browsers, not websites

Lawmakers must consider enforcement. What are the practical consequences of those rulings?

naragon Internet's biggest annoyance: Cookie laws should target browsers, not websites

You don't need to write the perfect law. Just write a law that has more or less the intended effect.

Imagine you write a program to do something and it doesn't work at all as expected and at the same time it causes endless annoyance to users.

A law is very similar to a program. It's software for the society. It didn't work and the authors are blaming everybody except themselves.