Hacker News Reader

83on The Upper Atmosphere Is Cooling, Prompting New Climate Concerns

This is especially true for vehicle repairs. Often what could be accomplished in 2 paragraphs and some pictures is instead a 15 minute production you have to sit through to make sure you don't miss a step.

83on Logitech Partners with iFixit for Self-Repairs

Yeah, most mice I've opened up have the same rectangular black switch (Omron d2fc or similar). They're pretty easy to replace.

83on Electronics Lab Bench Setup Guide

I fight with this a lot. Best solution I've found is add a 'bulk' label to the bin so I know to refill from my 'warehouse' stockpile when something gets low.

83on No more hard drives will be sold after 2028

tldr: CEO who sells flash storage says spinning disks are old tech and will be replaced entirely by flash storage by 2028 due to rising electricity costs.

I suspect his reasoning for picking such an aggressive timeline is to get headlines like above, not any factual basis.

83on Study finds elevated levels of toxic metals in some juices and soft drinks

Minor nit, but you really don't want to trust companies to send a sample. You would need to ensure samples are acquired through the consumer supply chain by the FDA.

83on U.S. Hits Z-Library with New Domain Name Seizures

I haven't checked exactly how much juice the server is pulling now. It was somewhere in 120-150w range with low utilization when I first got it, but I have considerably more disks and VMs now so probably around 200 to 250ish.

I did some rough estimates to see if the big disks were more cost effective than the 6tb ones and came to the conclusion small disks were worth it for me. The long term cost was pretty close though in the midwest where electricity is like 15 cents per kWh, giant disks would definitely be the better choice in CA.

83on Squad Solar City Car

True, deals can sometimes be found but that's more work and worry when you should be relaxing on vacation. Combine that with the other drawbacks (dealing with pickup/return, worrying about scratches/damage, not able to have customizations like roof racks, going offroad or through mountains with crap rental tires, etc) and it's easy to see why renting is not more popular.

83on Squad Solar City Car

Munificent is not referring to Zipcar. He literally quoted the line about car rentals and then said "it's likely cheaper to rent".

83on U.S. Hits Z-Library with New Domain Name Seizures

I run a 36 bay supermicro server I got for $900 on ebay which could easily host all this. I buy used 6tb sas drives off ebay for $26 a piece. They'd be even cheaper in bulk. That's $4.33 a tb, or about $520 total. You'll want to add a handful of drives for redundancy (we are talking used drives here) but either way it's entirely possible to host this entire thing including hardware for under 1500. Well within reason for someone passionate about it.

83on Squad Solar City Car

Not sure why gas is on there, it's not like rentals come with unlimited free gas.

And at $250ish to rent a vehicle for the weekend it only takes a couple weekends to pay for the insurance, registration, and taxes (or is it just that much more expensive on the coasts? I'm in the midwest). There's a reason people own instead of rent, and it isn't because renting never occurred to them.

83on Squad Solar City Car

You can argue that the cost of car rental is way less than the amortized cost of an actual car

I don't think people arguing this have ever actually run the numbers and realize just how expensive rentals get. Every year my wife and I plan a week long road trip. If I price out this years trip from the midwest to Utah in a full size suv or truck (need 4wd and space for climbing/camping gear):

Base rental: $970

mileage fees: $350 (1400 miles at 25 cents a mile)

Tow fees: $180 (optional, but I like to bring my small teardrop so $20 a day for the tow package fees)

We're now close to $1500. At this price I can buy a truck, title it, insure it, and then sell it at a slight loss when I get home and still come out ahead of the rental. In just one trip.

*edit - formatting

83on Ask HN: Why do some electronics use 6.2 volts DC?

90% efficiency for $2.50ish. Pretty cool, thanks for making me aware of these.

83on Apocalypse Sow: Can Anything Stop the Feral Hog Invasion?

No license required, no bag limit. They're tough to kill and tough to find in the brush. A decade of sport hunting them has not even made a dent. I hear you can bbq them but it's not the best meat, no experience there.

From the article: Miller authored the “pork chopper” bill, passed in 2011, which famously allowed licensed Texans to snipe at pigs from helicopters. Hunters, emboldened further by 2019’s Senate Bill 317, which waived the need for a license to kill wild pigs, now stalk them year round, on land and aerially.

83on Farmers Win the Right to Repair Their Own Tractors in Colorado

I just want to be able to install replacement parts without paying a dealer to tell the car everything will be ok.

Or even changing options like the passenger seat seatbelt alarm (I often have heavy boxes or a dog jumping in my passenger seat so get this alarm a lot). You can ask a dealership to uncheck the box for that alarm, but you are entirely at their mercy and many will refuse.

83on Farmers Win the Right to Repair Their Own Tractors in Colorado

Now if only we could get software to unlock parts for our cars :(

83on Heavy EVs Could Collapse Old Parking Garages: Report

Hard to blame someone for not wanting huge tires on their vehicle, once you get over 33s the prices for tires seems to climb exponentially. Plus the hit you take to gas mileage (or range in this case).

83on I fixed a parasitic drain on my car in 408 days

Can't recall where, but I recently learned this was a common issue at airports in the early days of wireless key fobs. The radar sweep at the airport would wake up the receivers causing cars parked there for a while to have dead batteries.

83on Video shows ‘ghost co-driver’ added to trucker’s ELD to skirt HOS rules

They already have these inspections, though I don't know that they bother checking ELD stuff. Truck weigh stations are on almost every interstate near state lines where they check trucks coming into the state for compliance with weight/lighting/legal cargo/licensing/etc.

83on The EV Transition Is Harder Than Anyone Thinks

My first car the sensor was clearly at the back of the tank.

Going uphill? Gauge says 1/4 tank left.

Steep downhill? Out of gas.

Not sure which end the pump was on, but I never ran out despite what the gauge would say.

83on T-Mobile is buying Ryan Reynolds’ Mint Mobile for up to $1.35B

It really comes down to where you use it, it's amazing in a clover club and some other cocktails. I wouldn't use Aviation in a gin and tonic where you want some juniper flavor, I'd get a proper london dry for that.

83on Man Accidentally Drove Away in Someone Else’s Tesla Using the Car’s App

People who drive Teslas are usually pretty well off, probably not the type to risk arrest by rummaging around in another person's car.

83on T-Mobile is buying Ryan Reynolds’ Mint Mobile for up to $1.35B

Aviation gin is quite good, at least he's smart enough to hawk something decent.

83on The lost art of lacing cable (2018)

Or buy the right tool for the job.

Panduit zip tie guns are expensive, but once you experience the joy of having zip ties correctly tensioned and trimmed flush with no effort you'll never look back.

83on The toxic tide of ship breaking

Theyre still allowed to put it in brake pads in the US.

83on Eggspensive

I would be shocked if Walmart hasn't done the research to determine how high they can raise prices in a given area before people venture further out or to competitors. I'd be willing to bet affluence of area and distance to alternatives are significant factors in the pricing algorithm.

83on Experts discover how zebra stripes work to thwart horsefly attacks

In my part of the woods (Wisconsin) horseflies are quite large, between 1/2 and 1 inch but mostly around 3/4. Deer flies are much smaller with a distinctive triangular shape made by their wings when they land.

Both have a very irritating bite, but the deer fly is a small sting of pain that goes away quickly while the horsefly tends to leave a large welt that sticks around for at least a day or two.

83on Bug identified after Alaska Airlines planes bump runway while taking off

Article says that bug was introduced in an update that morning. Somewhere there was a developer familiar with the code and exactly what changed. Wouldn't be surprised if he smacked himself on the forehead and knew immediately what the issue was when he heard about the bug.

83on Every Coastal Home Is Now a Stick of Dynamite

https://archive.is/ei92s

83on Throughout the rich world, the young are falling out of love with cars

Not everyone want to spend their whole life in an urban environment. Perhaps there is not much opportunity for this in the Netherlands, but I can't imagine not having a vehicle to go camping/rock climbing/kayaking/mountain biking/hiking which requires going to remote areas not typically serviced by public transport.

83on What’s Wrong with Bananas (2018)

Red delicious are great for dehydrated apple chips. Though I admit I haven't found any use for them outside of that.