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thePhytochemist

191 karma · joined November 30, 2023

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thePhytochemist··on Filing the corners off my MacBooks
Yes, the electrical shocks are very annoying! I don't know if it's related to an older/failing battery but I've certainly noticed this on an old Macbook Pro. Thanks for mentioning this - I guess at 24VDC it isn't a regulatory issue but it really does feel like a small insect sting or something and it's irritating.

My newer Air doesn't seem to have this problem. Also the screen is brighter, together with a mat finish it is better for using outside.

thePhytochemist··on The threat is comfortable drift toward not understanding what you're doing
I totally agree - the article misses this point in a very conspicuous way. It suggests that Alice and Bob will both graduate at the same level.

What may well happen instead is that Bob publishes two papers. He then outcompetes Alice based on the insistence that others have on "publish or perish". Alice becomes unemployed and struggles, having been pushed out.

The person who puts the time and effort in doesn't just sit at the same level and they don't both just find decent employment. Competition happens and the authentic learning is considered a waste of time, which leads to real and often life threatening consequences (like being homeless after being unable to find employment).

thePhytochemist··on Show HN: A weird thing that detects your pulse from the browser video
Love the attempt, but after giving it a good image and letting it run for a while it's totally off. I measure my heartbeat at 100 bpm and it's reading around 50. I see some cool looking UI stuff but the actual measurement isn't accurate.
thePhytochemist··on Ask HN: How do I bridge the gap between PhD and SWE experiences?
Consider laboratory automation?

I work in that now. I am going through the same issue as you after studying science (there are many of us!). Jobs rarely overlap, wanting both skillsets. Am I ever going to do this scientific work I learned about? I feel entering this area has been progress.

I'm on the 'science' side right now, after doing CAD, software and firmware for a few years. The previous robots I made were not for scientific work. Now I make liquid handling robots for laboratories and I hope that my scientific skills will be valued in the workplace.

In the workplace, people mostly seem to want you to choose a box and stay in it rather than using a varied skillset. Right now I can say I "make robots" but mostly I take parts, put them in the machine we make and use them for a bit then send them on their way as tested items. The robot is largely a black box - I'm not allowed to see the CAD, software or firmware it runs, certainly not use my skills in those areas. But I'll keep trying - to bring value to the employer and find more interesting/valued work using the skills I've gained over the years. Entering a workplace for whatever they want then moving within it over time is a time tested strategy, especially in government because they are unionized and very rarely fire anyone.

Keep in mind funding sources during your search. In Canada we have SRED, which is a tax rebate for scientific work and easy to get. People, even if they studied science, seem to perceive scientific work as expensive and mostly useless so subsidies like this really help. Since it's a rebate that means you must work for a company that already has revenue, not a small startup. Look for a company with at least a room they call a lab and they will keep time sheets for all "R&D" work.

thePhytochemist··on Willison on Merchant's "Copywriters reveal how AI has decimated their industry"
This is a crucial point. Freelancers who are asked to edit AI generated content should be charging more per hour, not less. A lot more - something that ends up with the client saving money, and ALSO them saving time and making money. If automation is implemented like this, both parties can win and somehow split the difference.

However, we live in a world where people have to compete to survive. Since a major portion of the task is automated, all of a sudden there are many available copywriting editors looking for work. The abundance tends to drive down the wage on sites like Fiverr.

And that's why unions are so important!

thePhytochemist··on Being poor vs. being broke
I see a lot of musing and wondering here about the cause of poverty.

One thing that's missing that I have seen a fair bit is crime and scams. People who are victims of crime can get dumped into the poverty trap through no fault of their own. For a while I was living in my car because my signature was forged by and an employer decided to simply opt out of payment. I took the employer to arbitration and won but that took 2.5 years - that's obviously a structural problem when eviction happens in 30 days.

thePhytochemist··on Being poor vs. being broke
That's a really good point about the free stuff people with wealth get.

Free objects are an easy to understand example. If you're in an expensive neighborhood you can walk down the street and really good get free stuff because people are throwing it out - like the nice 42" Samsung screen I'm using right now. In a poorer neighborhood that just doesn't happen.

thePhytochemist··on The Beginning of My Programming Journey (2022)
I would also love to read a 2 year follow-up story that gives us an update.

This article reminds me of my own attempt to transition into software from chemistry and agriculture. Four years later I'm worried that I've poured a lot of time and effort into yet another educational program which will not help find employment. That's after two science degrees and a bunch of learning about digital design and rapid prototyping.

I see a lot of optimism in this post about how it's all going to be worth it. But I'm afraid that may not be the case as I face the cold while sleeping in my car again this fall.

thePhytochemist··on Toothpaste made with keratin may protect and repair damaged teeth: study
Yes! I've seen people with some very striking white teeth in India which is a place where people often do have horrible teeth (often from betel nut use). So the twig users sometimes really stand out. The Wikipedia article has a good point about frequent use though - some people clean their teeth with these twigs almost like a nervous habit and are very intense about it.

What the article doesn't mention is the salivation that Neem twigs cause! Neem trees also produce a biocide called azadirachtin and although the concentration is low in twigs maybe it helps clean the teeth when used a lot?

thePhytochemist··on Trump Just Militarized the Capital – What Comes Next?
Gun control is the main reason we have less violent crime in Canada. There is still violent crime here though, it's not a safe wonderland.

There is often impunity given to certain people for serious but nonviolent crime like identity theft and selling schedule 1 narcotics (the most illegal kind of drug in Canada). They simply keep what they steal or the profit and are allowed to carry on even if there is clear proof in possession by law enforcement. I don't think an authoritarian response is really what we need but it does make a mockery of the criminal system when this is the policy. And the damage is real, with the victims left to just put the pieces back together on their own.

thePhytochemist··on Vanishing from Hyundai’s data network
I found the "wave damping" link inside that article a very interesting description of why not only some traffic jams happen but how we can actually drive to prevent or fix them. Thanks for posting.

This is the wave damping articl http://amasci.com/amateur/traffic/traffic1.html

thePhytochemist··on Car has more than 1.2M km on it – and it's still going strong
Lol, I agree it's a good example of an odd reporter metric. How about 30 times around the earth, isn't that impressive too?
thePhytochemist··on LLMs should not replace therapists
I live in Canada as well. As far as I can tell there is basically no access to psychologists under the public healthcare system. You're just supposed to pay cash at about $150/hr to talk to a therapist (if you know differently please tell us!). For some people that's fine, but it's an absurd situation if, for example, you're underemployed/poor and facing related mental health challenges. Obviously paying that much to talk to someone can just aggravate the underlying problem.

Some people can access mental health care in the public system through their family doctor. But most people do not have access to this because there are not enough of this type of doctor. As far as I know the only other way is to wait until some sort of crisis then enter the hospital and there -might- be a chance to talk to a psychiatrist.

thePhytochemist··on In a milestone for Manhattan, a pair of coyotes has made Central Park their home
There have been some hilarious and unfortunate disasters using introduced populations for pest control. But coyotes are not introduced. They are native to the area which means there are many checks and balances in place.

Rat control is not just a nice bonus option to reduce an irritation - we need to take it seriously in light of the Black Death. The fact of the matter is I see people having trouble with rat control in my area and we could use help to manage something that is potentially a lot more dangerous than coyotes.

thePhytochemist··on In a milestone for Manhattan, a pair of coyotes has made Central Park their home
Thanks for posting this, such a nice story and writeup!

Where I live in Vancouver the coyotes have been very noticeable this year. I love to hang out with them in the park and garden, and hear them howl with the cop cars at night. They are not pets though - I always keep my distance and keep aware of the possibility that they might sneak up on me.

I take care of an outdoor cat in the neighborhood, and yes it's possible that a coyote will eat a cat or small dog. I worry about her but there are many fences, she is smart as well as a good climber. There are many hazards in the city that don't have the positive sides that coyotes do, and I think it's important that we learn to live with them and honour what they bring to our lives. That includes rat control, which we rather need here.

thePhytochemist··on PWM flicker: Invisible light that's harming our health?
This is a timely article for me since I'm building an indoor light display and the client specifically mentioned flicker. It's supposed to be a cosy warm light setup (that animates to show the movement of our planets, each represented by a lantern in the building). They were so concerned about flicker they suggested using incandescent but I'd really like to use leds for the obvious reasons (power consumption, fire risk, lifetime, color choice).

What I chose is an ESP32 controller attached to WS1812B LEDs. It turns out these operate at a PWM of nearly 20Khz and my low key tests confirm this. Even at the lowest dim level I can't detect any flicker when I move the led quickly or move something quickly in front of it.

It's amazing to me that you can get off the shelf hardware with WLED installed that works at 20Khz with these cheap RGB LEDs for less than the leading brands like a Philips Hue!

thePhytochemist··on In praise of “normal” engineers
I think this is key when people talk about "ownership". Actually owning a product means that if it fails you're holding the bag, if it succeeds you take the profits. And you have full control over it. Unless a company actually wants to do this I wish they wouldn't use that english word.

Trying to hire an employee and tell this story that they "own" the product is just silly. It's like companies that try to describe themselves as a family - just kind of a weird and incorrect use of a real word that has other meaning.

thePhytochemist··on Ask HN: What are you working on? (March 2025)
I'd love to turn my spectrogram tool into something more of a scientific tool for sound labelling and analysis. Do you use a spectrograph for your project?
thePhytochemist··on Ask HN: What are you working on? (March 2025)
I made this spectrum analyzer/music visualizer recently. It's meant to be easy to use by just going to the URL and looks great on a 4K screen, jameskdouglas.github.io/frequenSee/

For some clients, electronics for a low impedance guitar pickup (pick up all the signal then process it later instead of building in filtering to the pickup).

And an automated design app that turns a 3D model from Fusion into something that's easy to change the parameters on. That way people can easily just type stuff in and move on to manufacturing. This started for staircases - for companies that make like 20 sets of wood staircases on site every day they want to turn that 1hr of drawing into 60s of data input.

thePhytochemist··on Utah becomes first US state to ban fluoride in its water
The chlorine you are tasting in your water is an active, reacting compound. It has to be because it literally reacts with cells to kill them and keep the water (relatively) free from living organisms. It's great as a cheap way to keep living things out of the water but at the end of the pipe it should be removed - a simple Brita filter is fine.

Flouride added is in a chemical state that makes it stable, like the chlorine in table salt. It will stay at the same concentration as it travels in the pipe.

I remember this from a water chemistry course at university.

thePhytochemist··on Stoop Coffee: A simple idea transformed my neighborhood
I suppose the trick is that these people won't come out and drink coffee with you! The people who do come out will be more fun and social, and these two you mention would just stay home like usual.
thePhytochemist··on Ask HN: Who is hiring? (March 2025)
I'm quite interested in this and I see you've indicated REMOTE (US, Canada). I'm Canadian.

But when I go and look at the open roles they are all indicated as US only.

Can you clarify for us if you're open to Canadians applying?

thePhytochemist··on Finland's zero homeless strategy (2021)
This issue is very relevant for me since I have been homeless since May. It's been a bad run of being a target of criminal activity, unemployment and just running out of money during my job search. I cope with a mix of volunteering, overpriced housing (think $1200/month for a room in a rural area before I ran out of money for that), catsitting, house-sitting, staying with family and sleeping in my ancient car. Although I'm a citizen I don't qualify for any government support or programs, even though we have employment insurance here which I paid into for years.

I'm from Ottawa where the cold is obviously deadly, as it is in Finland. I do feel that we need to take shelter more seriously in public policy compared to warm areas because of that. Last week someone froze to death overnight a few blocks away from where I was crashing on a couch with family. Walking through downtown Ottawa and seeing the huge empty, lit, warm buildings with people freezing to death right outside is striking. Any practically minded person can see the problem is political and philosophical, not practical.

I can tell all the posters who think people choose to be homeless that I'm certainly not one of them. The comments about the importance of avoiding a downward spiral are certainly correct. Searching for work is hard enough normally and becomes increasingly difficult without access to things like a kitchen and toilet.

What I see in this Finnish policy is the starting assumption that doing nothing is not a good option. After reaching that point there can a rational discussion about what to do with whatever money is being spent - do you pay more people to hand out blankets and conduct surveys or just use it to buy housing units? As a homeless person I would really like to see Canada have a policy like I'm reading in this article instead of what we are doing now. The crappy temporary shelters and bureaucratic spending strategy obviously isn't working.

Even just economically, to have a government pay for years of schooling and subsidize advanced degrees then just be ready to let that person die on the street when they are ready to work but can't happen to find something seems like a waste. I'd rather see a functioning "social safety net" as described in this article.

thePhytochemist··on Cultivating minds: The psychological consequences of rice versus wheat farming
Interesting topic, but the agronomy/plant science assumption that the article is based on is lacking.

Rice doesn't require complex irrigation - dryland rice farming is common. Rice and wheat both give more yield when irrigated properly using complex irrigation systems. I don't see any reason to claim that growing wheat is just generally easier than growing rice.

thePhytochemist··on JetZero: Ultra-efficient blended wing body jet
Haha, nice timing that this appears after the "why are airplanes so hard to build?" article! Putting the engines to radiate sound upwards does make a lot of sense.
thePhytochemist··on Inside the Massive Alleged AT&T Data Breach
Yes! Equifax has very lax security. Last year they leaked my social insurance number to a fraudster. When they were describing this on the phone they didn't seem to think they did anything wrong. What makes it worse is I never even gave it to them - they just get it straight from the government I guess?
thePhytochemist··on How to ripen and store avocados
A durometer, acoustic impulse-response and special UV-VIS spectrophotometer are all instruments used to detect avocado ripeness and usually work well.

A durometer is the cheapest at about $40. If you're right that it's impossible to tell by hardness then it wouldn't work. But you might find that it's more sensitive than your fingers and so it can work?

I would be interested to know the result of a durometer test on your fruits because about 85% of consumers report firmness as a useful measure - a lot but certainly not everyone. So yes maybe there is some granularity to discover there: specific situations where firmness just doesn't work well?