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random42_

258 karma · joined May 26, 2017

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random42_··on US Administration announces 34% tariffs on China, 20% on EU
People that support him don't care about evidence. It's a cult following.
random42_··on US wants to un-fire nuclear safety workers can't figure out how to reach them
I don't think they ever said they knew they were the only one to know the admin passwords. Looks like they've heard it from former colleagues after they left:

> I heard from former colleagues that no one knew the admin passwords for their critical systems except me

And looks like they tried to address the fact that the entire sysadmin operation depended on them and management did nothing?

That's a lot of hostility and assumptions about some person on the internet and by the looks of it I'll make the assumption you've never worked on chaotic places where management is just shitty? I'm in the same situation at my company where I'm the only person managing our legacy CI/CD pipelines which are quite complex and nobody wants to learn it and management keeps saying they'll hire somebody as backup but they never do so I can relate to parent.

random42_··on Ask HN: What skills do you want to develop or improve in 2025?
The course I did back in 2015 had a really good focus on the fundamentals; it helped immensely. At some point I also did DAB although I didn't follow it all the way to the end, but it also helped, especially with perspective.

One thing that distract me is the amount of stuff I need to learn as my goal was to learn digital painting. Drawing is very important but it's just the first step, then you have lots of other stuff like values, color, light, composition, etc. So you start to look into these things and there are an obscene amount of material to learn so it gets overwhelming and it put me off every now and then.

I confess that I need to improve my organization skills to be able to go through all that stuff without getting frustrated.

random42_··on Ask HN: What skills do you want to develop or improve in 2025?
I loved to draw as a kid and in 2015 I tried to really learn so I bought a cheap course in one of these learning platforms (I think it was udemy). I haven't really kept drawing and have been on and off since then. Last year I decided to get back at it again and have been drawing a bit more consistently but I still can't keep it a daily routine.

TL;DR: I draw, not consistently, but I do enjoy it.

random42_··on Switched Back to Windows After over 10 Years on Linux
I must be the luckiest person alive to use Linux because I keep reading people writing about issues with Linux, issues with Fedora, and meanwhile I have been using Fedora since version 16 and I had virtually zero issues. I'm on my second laptop since then, now running Fedora 41, and still, zero issues.

Sure, I had limitations back then using an external monitor (HiDPI) but all that went away once Wayland got stable. My new laptop has a GeForce and I needed a few commands to make it work nice.

I'm glad I have never had to resort to going back to windows except for gaming since I started using Linux as my main driver in... 2006 I guess?

random42_··on The mystery of why left-handers are so much rarer (2016)
I thought I was the only one like that, except my dominant leg for kicking is the right one, and I eat with fork on right hand, knife on left; and I use scissors with my right hand. I also play the guitar as a right-handed person.

When I tell people these things, I can see total confusion on their faces. Quite funny.

random42_··on Dr Pepper is now as popular as Pepsi. It's still shrouded in mystery
I don’t drink soda anymore, but when I did, it was mostly Coca-Cola. After moving to the US, I decided to try Dr. Pepper. Couldn’t get past the first sip, because this thing tastes like cough medicine (the bad kind). I know taste is very subjective and individual, but it puzzles me how people can drink—and like—this thing.
random42_··on 25 Years of Krita
Conceptually yes (and Krita might be more feature rich than Procreate), but Procreate is an iPad only app and Krita is not available on that platform, unfortunately.
random42_··on The creator of 'Magic: The Gathering' knows where it all went wrong
D&D artwork was something else back then. I remember spending hours and hours just looking at it.

For anybody interested, there is a documentary about the history of the art in D&D: https://m.imdb.com/title/tt8888186/ It’s quite interesting.

random42_··on Everything Hikers Know About Lightning Safety Is Wrong
> One bit that doesn't make sense to me is how caves or rock overhangings don't provide protection.

There is a hiking in my home state that takes about 2 days to complete. Along the way, there is a huge rock that fits that description; it sits in the middle of an open area. We are taught to never seek shelter under it when there is lightning. When asking why, we’re told that that rock is informally called “The Microwave”, because, well, exactly what the article says.

This has been common knowledge in the area for a very long time already (not sure if specific to that rock or for any cave or overhanging rock in general like the article says).

random42_··on Ask HN: What laptop are you using to daily drive Linux?
I have an Asus ROG Zephyrus with an AMD CPU and a dedicated Nvidia RTX 3060. It also has integrated Radeon graphics.

When using the Nvidia, the system is quite unstable (I get some weird issues with KDE on Wayland) but when using the integrated graphics it works fine. Since I only play games on Windows (this laptop is dual boot), I haven’t missed the Nvidia yet.

The WiFi has an issue though and it seems related to the adapter used. Sometimes when I boot into Linux, the WiFi is not detected (drivers can’t be loaded or something like that); things only get back to normal after power off/on.

random42_··on VATSIM: The International Online Aviation Network
Contacting a local organization is mostly finding their website to figure out how they train and approve ATCs.

Years ago, the region I was part of had a progression training where you had to read materials, shadow an active ATC for an X number of hours and then take a test. This was for each ATC level - you started as Ground, then Tower, Approach and Departures, and so on. For each level there was reading material, shadowing, and a test. It was quite demanding but very rewarding.

random42_··on Ask HN: What was the outcome of Reddit blackout?
I know quite a significant number of people that said the same thing. But it's not that they can't watch movies in itself: they can't _sit_ through an entire movie so what they do now now is watch those movies on TT, one short clip at a time, spread over a few days.
random42_··on Tell HN: Firefox has madea lotof progress. Let the browser wars continue
I keep seeing these kind of comments and wonder why that might be. I personally run Firefox on 2 different laptops running Windows 11, one of the laptops is dual boot and I also run Firefox on Linux (Fedora). In my previous company I also used Firefox on MacOS.

I've had exactly zero performance issues. I watch YouTube, Netflix, AppleTV+, HBO. I access many SPAS. I use Google Meet for conference calls at work. I use websites that have a custom video player to watch their stuff.

CPU and memory usage are always low. No freezing. Nada.

I'm not questioning you or anything, I'm genuinely curious why some people seem to have these issues.

random42_··on I changed my name on a food delivery app to a masculine name
When I ask for the no contact option, normally the drivers will ring the bell after they left the food at my door. I know the food arrived and I don't have to meet the driver. I have the impression that that's her expectation.
random42_··on Meta Reports Third Quarter 2023 Results
> every second or third post is a fucking ad.

Maybe that's where the money is coming from?

random42_··on Photographer showcases the power of iPhone 15 pro max
I learned to play guitar on a very crappy guitar. It was from a brand known for being cheap and poor quality, and I've bought it second hand. Still, I learned to play on it. Chords. Scales, arpeggios; you name it. Execution was really bad though, because the instrument was the limiting factor. So, I agree that, in some ways, the instrument was a limiting factor.

One day I got to play on a very good guitar. All the stuff I struggled to play on the cheap guitar came out almost flawless. It felt like before I was racing F1 with a scooter, and then I've finally gotten a proper F1 car.

So, all this is to say that yes, maybe if I had started with a good guitar I wouldn't have struggled as much but, I think the fact I had to put in twice the effort to learn the same things on the crap guitar actually helped me improve (faster? better?). Of course, at one point I had to upgrade the guitar because there were things I couldn't do and it was holding me back but, I think starting with the bad guitar was a good thing (for me personally).

random42_··on Gnome 45
I'd say that maybe the fact I didn't have to think about it is a good sign. To me it means that the desktop is out of my way. I can customize it for my liking and I don't need to keep fiddling with it. Sometimes the overly minimalist approach that GNOME is taking bothers me a bit, but not too much.

I also use KDE sometimes and I quite like it but it feels a little bloated and a bit unstable sometimes. Still love it though but I'd rather use GNOME as my daily driver.

I'm still trying to get used to tilling window managers and 8 have been giving Sway a try, but the radical metaphor change takes some time to get used to.

random42_··on Gnome 45
The usability on GNOME is the best of all Desktops I have ever used. It's my daily driver and it feels so natural to use. To each their own, I guess.
random42_··on Did you know Git was originally created in 10 days?
Not mentioned in the article but I think what triggered BK to pull the license was Andrew Tridgell (SAMBA and rsync) reverse engineering BK's protocol to implement a third-party client.
random42_··on Ask HN: Which distro do you use? (2023)
In 2011 I moved to Fedora (v16 at the time) and have been using it since then. This year I stopped using GNOME and moved to KDE, seeing if I'll make the switch permanent.
random42_··on Ask HN: What is the most memorable game you played?
Max Payne. I think that was the first game I played that had a really deep, somewhat emotional, story.

The game mechanics with bullet time was just the cherry on top.

random42_··on Life before cellphones: The after-work activities of young people in 2002
> 3 line synopsis if it's worth trying.

That was a good thing. Now Netflix--at least for me--doesn't even give me that for most series/movies; it only says crap like "This movie was the most watched in US this month" or something useless like that.

random42_··on A coupon-crazy Brazilian app figured out how to beat Uber Eats
This is actually awesome and it is how it always have worked; before smartphones, you would make a phone call from a landline and pay the delivery person with cash. When CC readers with simcards became a thing, restaurants started to accept Credit and Debit cards as well. Pharmacies also worked that way, by the way (not sure how it is today but last I've heard they stopped doing late night deliveries due to robbery).

When I moved to the US more than a decade ago I was baffled with the lack of options for food delivery (and pharmacies).

random42_··on Everything happening on Bluesky
The argument I was replying to was about people disliking invitation codes. If that's practical or not for a social network is beyond this comment.
random42_··on Everything happening on Bluesky
I remember a time when people sold invites for GMail and the list of buyers wasn't short at all.
random42_··on Netflix has job with almost $1M listed salary range, to comply with new CA law
These questions are optional, in my experience. I’ve never seen a form in a job application where these were required.
random42_··on Argentina Wins the World Cup
There is a story that when penalties were first introduced they were seem as unfair by both players and goalkeepers. That was because at the time, the box (or perhaps just the penalty line) used to run from side to side. Rumor has it that players, because of that sense of unfairness, would miss the penalty on purpose.

Eventually the box was reduced and now penalties are a (99%) sure way of scoring.

I don’t know why you mentioned Messi and etc., I was replying to what you said about trying to optimize for PKs during a game.

random42_··on Argentina Wins the World Cup
If you follow soccer you will know that diving in the box trying to get a PK is a thing since… I don’t know, PKs were added to the rule? Seriously though, I’ve seen my share of games where a player had a good chance of scoring but decide to dive and try to get a PK instead. These days, with VAR, it might not work as well as it did before.
random42_··on Egg whites can be transformed into a material capable of filtering microplastics
As already mentioned in this thread, this is done mostly for aesthetic purposes, like when making a consommé - which is judged also by how clear the liquid is, besides flavor. Other than that, you shouldn’t bother if you’re using the stock to make other dishes.
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