HNHacker News
TopNewBestAskShowJobs

DamnInteresting

10,295 karma · joined May 29, 2014

Owner/operator of https://www.damninteresting.com, a domain occasionally seen on the HN front page (much to our webserver's consternation).

* @DamnInteresting@mastodon.cloud

submissionscomments
DamnInteresting··on Does Astrology Work?
In the mid-to-late 1800s, many prominent astronomers were pretty sure there was another planet inside the orbit of Mercury, because Mercury's orbit has a peculiar irregularity. They called this yet-to-be-properly-seen planet 'Vulcan', and it became a fixture in astrologers' horoscopes.

In the early 20th century, Einstein came along with his Theory of General Relativity, and with these equations he demonstrated that the sun's gravity was bending spacetime in a way that perfectly accounted for Mercury's wobble. Vulcan was therefore found to be a myth, nonexistent.[1]

Nevertheless, many astrologers still feature Vulcan in their horoscopes even today, over a century later.[2] The inclusion of an entirely fictional heavenly body seems to undermine any other conclusions drawn from planetary positions.

1: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vulcan_(hypothetical_planet)

2: https://cosmicdeity.com/vulcan-astrology/

DamnInteresting··on Ask HN: Who is hiring? (August 2024)
I would love to work for Automattic. I have been making highly customized sites with WordPress since the early days (I still maintain a WordPress site established in 2005). I applied for an open position not too long ago, and I breezed past the initial screening, but I just couldn't make room in my life for the "trial" part of the process--I have a full time job, a five year old, and a side business. I wish my 20 years of demonstrable comprehensive experience was enough to get my foot in the door. Le sigh.
DamnInteresting··on Sublime Merge
(I'm working from memory, so I may bungle details)

Speaking personally, I enjoyed Sublime Text, so I was happy to pay for a license back in the day ($70 if I recall?). When v2 came out, I paid to upgrade, and again with v3. When v4 was released, I paid yet again, but after a period of normal use (a year if I recall), I got a popup informing me I'd need to pay again to keep using ST4. I felt like I'd been hoodwinked--they had sneakily switched the license from perpetual to subscription.

I assume that the switch to subscription licensing was disclosed somewhere in the small print that nobody reads. I feel that the concealment was deliberate (I suspect they'll disagree, but you know the old chestnut about the relative volume of actions and words). At that point I'd been using v4 for a year, and rolling back to v3 with my previously perpetual license would be a big hassle, and obviously I'd lose functionality.

I would have happily kept paying for upgrades, but now I doubt I'll ever spend money with those folks again.

DamnInteresting··on Internet Archive forced to remove 500k books after publishers' court win
I am an author who relies on copyright for part of my living, yet I agree that copyright protection lasts too long. I feel like it should protect the work for a reasonable time--say 20 years--after which one must pay an initially modest but exponentially increasing fee to renew the copyright every X years. Big players like Disney could afford to keep their stuff out of the public domain for a while, but not forever. And many deceased artists' work would slip into the public domain when their estate could no longer afford the renewal fee.
DamnInteresting··on Internet Archive forced to remove 500k books after publishers' court win
I like ebooks because wherever I go, I always have the book I'm currently reading right in my pocket. If I get stuck waiting somewhere, I can read some diverting, thoughtfully-composed material instead of scrolling through reddit or playing a mindless game. Screens aren't quite as pleasant to look at as a printed page, but it's a worthwhile tradeoff for me.
DamnInteresting··on Ask HN: Is Google deliberately breaking Firefox?
I always use YouTube in Firefox because it allows one to disable autoplay. For the past week I've had frequent issues with buffering/stuttering, but reloading the page tends to fix it.
DamnInteresting··on Google Gemini tried to kill me
You can just add the garlic to the oil a few minutes before you plan to consume it: Crush or mince the garlic, add it to the oil, whisk for 30 seconds, and pour through a strainer (ideally using a wooden spoon to squeeze the garlic against the strainer). This provides plenty of garlic flavor, but insufficient time for problematic microorganisms to multiply.

Source: https://www.seriouseats.com/the-best-caesar-salad-recipe

DamnInteresting··on Ask HN: How to Survive when Life is in Pieces?
What part of Utah are you in? Anywhere near Salt Lake City?
DamnInteresting··on The darker side of being a doctor (2017)
The hedonic treadmill also helps to understand why wealthy people--regardless of how they acquired their wealth--seem desperate to increase their fortunes. They have more money than they could ever need, yet they want more. See Elon Musk and the $50 billion pay package.[1]

I feel like this happens a lot with creative people as well--an artist can become successful and widely respected, but still become deeply unhappy if their skill or audience declines, regardless of financial success. It is the first thing that comes to my mind when I hear about celebrity suicides--Robin Williams, Naomi Judd, Anthony Bourdain.

If there's no increase in wealth or station, there's no dopamine. And that is depressing.

[1] https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2024/06/13/tesla-s...

DamnInteresting··on Ask HN: How to handle a senior hire turning out to be junior?
Your mileage may vary, but I have repeatedly used a particular strategy in difficult work conversations: Explain the problem to the person in direct, plain language, then ask them what they would like to be done about it and/or what they would do in your shoes. You're not committing to actually doing what they suggest, but you're making them aware of the problem and giving them some agency, and some insight into your perspective.

For example: I was hired by a company as a developer, and they loved me, I was very productive there. But just a few months into the employment, a competing company offered me a much higher salary with a much shorter commute. I went to my manager and told him all about the offer, and asked him what he would do in my shoes. He said he'd take the other offer (since he knew that a competitive counter-offer was impossible). I took the offer, and we parted on very good terms.

So you may be able to say something like this to this employee: "There seems to have been a misunderstanding about our expectations and your experience. We thought you had more experience relevant for this role. We don't want to leave you high and dry, but the current arrangement isn't tenable. Would you prefer to restart as a junior developer and work your way back up as you gain experience, or do you feel it would be better to part ways?"

Though now that I've typed it out, I'm not sure the strategy works as well when the one instigating the conversation has more power than the person being asked. Hmm. I'll post this in spite of my self doubt, just in case someone replies with interesting insights. I'm happy to be wrong if I learn something.

DamnInteresting··on Manifest V2 phase-out begins
I have a Manifest v2 extension in the Chrome Web Store, it works absolutely fine, and there is no reasonable reason to change it. But Google says they'll de-list it if I don't rewrite it for Manifest v3. I don't wish to donate my scarce free time to a multi-billion dollar corporation so they can make the world worse.
DamnInteresting··on Manifest V2 phase-out begins
Stop using Chrome yourself, and help your less-tech-savvy friends and family switch to Firefox. During Firefox installation, select the options to migrate everything from Chrome, then set Firefox as the system default browser and uninstall Chrome.
DamnInteresting··on Ask HN: How do I balance all my 200 interests in life?
I have a similar overabundance of interests, and it can be difficult to manage. One thing I found that helps is to just keep a spreadsheet of notes about the various ideas I have--it's quick, and it gets the thoughts out of my meat brain and into my prosthetic electric brain. Later I can actually execute the idea if it rises to the top of my list.

Good luck.

DamnInteresting··on Priced out of home ownership
It appears that this link is to the domain bbc.co.uk, the other is to bbc.com.
DamnInteresting··on Meta Is Shuttering Workplace, Its Enterprise Version of Facebook
Agreed. I am required to use Teams at my day job, and it feels like a rushed product from a soulless company--because that's exactly what it is.
DamnInteresting··on It’s an age of marvels
And a whole aisle full of splinter-free toiler paper![1]

[1] https://www.historydefined.net/splinter-free-toilet-paper-di...

DamnInteresting··on Hertz Charged Member $277 for Not Filling Gas Tank on a Tesla, Won't Remove Fees
From the article:

> This customer actually returned the car with a 96% charge, the same as they’d picked it up at.

DamnInteresting··on New iPad Pro with M4 chip and Apple Pencil Pro
I use my M1 iPad Pro for graphics work (from simple sketches to full illustrations), and for making music with multi-track recording apps. I don't bother with the keyboard since little of my input is text-oriented.
DamnInteresting··on Cybertruck Owner Breaks His Finger Trying to Show Vehicle Is Safe
I have a 2017 Bolt EV, and I feel similarly. GM accidentally made an ideal EV for a reasonable price, and now they are correcting course by ruining future models.
DamnInteresting··on Redesigned 11-inch and new 13-inch iPad Air
I have an iPad Pro that sees infrequent use, but when I do use it, it is excellent. Its primary purpose is making music (background music for a podcast), but on occasion I also use it to sketch out ideas, and sometimes to create polished illustrations. It's not great for everything, but it's amazing at a few things.
DamnInteresting··on What's Going on with ‘Nonplussed’? (2017)
For all intensive purposes.
DamnInteresting··on Google delays third-party cookie demise yet again
The browser extension I created, and presumably many others, will see no benefit from this forced change. To the contrary, Manifest V3 will hinder the functionality of some extensions, including the widely used and beloved uBlock Origin[1].

Nevertheless, if I wish to keep my extension in the Chrome Web Store, and keep it working in Chrome browsers, I am required to bend to Google's demands and spend a considerable chunk of my time to perform this unnecessary update. And it must be done NOW!, with an artificial sense of urgency. Time is precious, and I'd really rather not donate mine to a multibillion dollar advertising corporation. Google is the primary beneficiary of Manifest V3. They are demonstrating why they abandoned their "Don't be evil" mantra[2].

My browser extension doesn't make money. I made it purely to improve my own browsing experience, and shared it for free with others. It's working fine on Manifest V2, and has done so for years. I have no desire to learn Google's crappy new implementation.

[1] https://www.androidauthority.com/google-chrome-manifest-v3-c...

[2] https://gizmodo.com/google-removes-nearly-all-mentions-of-do...

DamnInteresting··on Google delays third-party cookie demise yet again
I have a Manifest V2 extension in the Chrome Web Store that has a "featured" badge, and Google has been sending me emails that feel a bit coercive:

> To maintain your extension's Featured status, you will need to migrate it to Manifest V3 by June 3rd. [...] Extensions that do not complete this transition will see their Featured badge removed

> Manifest Version 3 extensions will be prioritized in the Chrome Web Store, including in search results and recommendations

> Beginning June of this year, we will begin to gradually disable extensions running Manifest V2 for Chrome users

> Thank you for your cooperation and participation in the Chrome extension ecosystem.

I am really dismayed that an advertising company has such a stranglehold on the web. They are not good custodians.

DamnInteresting··on Drive-Through Car Wash Was Too Much for Tesla Cybertruck
> No car with paint you care about

The Cybertruck is bare stainless steel with plastic trim, isn't it? So paint damage shouldn't be a concern.

DamnInteresting··on Drive-Through Car Wash Was Too Much for Tesla Cybertruck
My Bolt EV has a car wash mode, but it is only necessary for car washes where you put the car in Neutral, then get out while the car is pushed through the tunnel. As far as I can tell, all it does is override a safety feature that puts the car in Park (or maybe engages the parking brake) after a a short time in Neutral. I have never had the need to use it, but it's there.
DamnInteresting··on Scientists say they have found evidence of an unknown planet in our solar system
They completely botched the spelling of the astronomer's last name, it is Konstantin Batygin, not Konstantin Bogytin.
DamnInteresting··on Startup Idea: Reverse Amazon
I built something similar to this for a client in 2002, I still have the Java source code. It was called CurbDiver [1], and the idea was that a local agent (a "broker") would list the thing for you on eBay (including taking nice photos), and if it sold, they would package/ship it for you and give you a percentage of the selling price (80% if memory serves).

It had some promising early uptake, but it fizzled after a few years. There just wasn't much money to be made, even when being discerning about what items were allowed. It was a weak, inconsistent stream of nickels and dimes, and a lot of work to get it.

One element that we underestimated was the volume of low value/no value stuff people wanted to try to push through. Pretty quickly agents learned when/how to say no, but even saying no consumes some resources.

At its core it's not a bad idea, but such an operation would have to be very optimized to be profitable.

[1] https://www.damninteresting.com/temp/curbdiver.jpg

DamnInteresting··on Ask HN: What impact does remote work have on your life?
Pros:

• No commute

• I can work for a company on the other side of the continent

• No one steals my lunch

• Can work from my treadmill desk

Cons:

• Lots of interruptions from family

• Always feeling like I'm at work

• Lack of human contact

• There's no "second place," let alone a third

I feel like the pros outweigh the cons, especially with regard to commuting. Driving to work is just more sitting, more fuel cost, more time lost.

DamnInteresting··on Washington's Lottery forced to pull site after creating AI porn of lotto user
When it comes to AI image generators and questionable content, I've wondered if AI companies can address the problem by using a pair of AIs. Use one AI to generate the image, then feed that image to another AI with a list of questions, such as "Does this image show nudity?", and "Does this image depict violence?" Just a list of everything the AI provider wants to omit from its output. If the answer to any is Yes, discard the image and try again (or just refuse to furnish any image).
DamnInteresting··on U.S. Navy Submarine First in World Fitted with Silent Caterpillar Drive
I had the same thought. Also, it seems wildly improbable that a real news story about this tech would lack even a passing mention of The Hunt For Red October, yet here there is none.
← PreviousPage 10 of 23Next →