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bnycum

465 karma · joined October 15, 2010

Brent Nycum. Louisiana.

http://itsbrent.net

[ my public key: https://keybase.io/brentnycum; my proof: https://keybase.io/brentnycum/sigs/jSYvpjXZzleJW-ggIpncOEmiVl06r54mFnfOIt3krhU ]

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bnycum··on Pressed Penny Machine Map
If you are into the ones at Walt Disney World, https://www.presscoins.com/
bnycum··on Meta to receive $3.3B in tax breaks for its $10B Louisiana data center
After Meta in Louisiana, Amazon is currently building 3 separate data centers across Shreveport-Bossier. Have to imagine they are receiving the same treatment. I’ve driven by the Bossier Parish grounds and the cleared land alone is massive. Each are expected to be 2-3 million sqft.
bnycum··on U.S. stocks are set to deliver their worst quarter in nearly four years
Eggs may be cheaper than when they were during culling/avian flu, but food sure isn't. Where I am most grocery items are now 50-70% more expensive than last January. The milk I buy weekly at the grocery store has increased 67% since then. Beef is roughly 50% more, and I haven't even had steak since late 2024 at this point. That isn't sustainable.
bnycum··on I am directing the Department of War to designate Anthropic a supply-chain risk
It's nice to see Anthropic sticking to their terms. I just have one question in all this. Why is Anthropic being singled out when it seems all the other big players are down to play with the DoD? Is this just a pissing match, or have the Anthropic models been proven the real winner for them?
bnycum··on Favorite Tech Museums
I’d also tack on National Videogame Museum in Frisco, TX to your lists.
bnycum··on Dietary omega-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids as a protective factor of myopia
No surgery and I don't wear any vision correction, they aren't gone 100% just reduced greatly. I really only ever notice them when going from dark to light. Typically never inside my house under normal light, mainly just outdoors.

My diet does lack seafood overall. While I love salmon my family doesn't. If we eat seafood it's mainly catfish and shrimp though, as we are in Louisiana.

bnycum··on Dietary omega-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids as a protective factor of myopia
I also started taking the Sports Research omega-3 capsules early this year. Seems the consensus for taking any omega-3 is that it's single-source and wild caught which is why I chose that brand. My biggest benefit has been my eyesight with way less floaters.

However I started taking creatine this summer to help with my recovery from running now that I'm older. I will say I feel it's done more for my cognitive function than the omega-3 did.

bnycum··on What Does One Billion Dollars Look Like?
"The average American household spent $87,432 in 2021." That number seems awfully high to me? That's more than I am seeing the average household makes in 2023.
bnycum··on Ask HN: What codebase would you like to see rewritten, updated, or modernized?
I wouldn’t say it’s a full replacement for homebrew, but I am enjoying mise so far after hearing about it earlier this week.

https://github.com/jdx/mise

bnycum··on Falsehoods programmers believe about aviation
I develop software for flight data analysis at a company that makes flight data recorders. Our focus is mainly helicopters, but some fixed wing. Dealing with aircraft that may takeoff or land at a base, hospital, roof, parking lot, football field, airport, golf course, etc I feel like most of my days are spent on all sorts of falsehoods about aviation.
bnycum··on CarPlay Ultra, the next generation of CarPlay, begins rolling out today
I have wired CarPlay in my Honda Accord, it's like 95% fine. My wife has wireless CarPlay in her Honda Pilot, and it's got the weird disconnection issues. We found that if our kids are using the wireless tethering it really kills the connection. However this really compounds when we drive into major cities, the interstates seem mostly fine. Once we hit Dallas proper we have to turn off tethering or else it won't connect at all.
bnycum··on Switching from Pyenv to Uv
I decided to give uv a shot on my new machine over pyenv and I've been enjoying it. Just last week I had to generate out 90 slides from some data last minute. Quickly created a project added in my dependencies (pandas, matplotlib, python-pptx), then crunched out some code. Absolutely zero friction with a much easier to use set of commands in my opinion.
bnycum··on Walt Disney's MultiPlane Camera (Filmed Feb. 13, 1957) [video]
It’s in Walt Disney Presents at Hollywood Studios. There is a bunch more Disney models and memorabilia inside as well. Feels like a hidden gem because it’s always pretty empty, plus there is even a character meet and greet with little wait.
bnycum··on Best Pens for 2025
I always enjoy reading this list yearly, and the research that goes into it. As someone who prefers thicker gel pens I used the Uniball Signo 207 as I could easily find these locally as well. Then after reading their recommendations I switched to the Zebra Sarasa Dry because I always smear my writing.

Through Jetpens I’ve also discovered my favorite mechanical pencil, the Uni Kuru Toga.

bnycum··on Meta's memo to employees rolling back DEI programs
I’ve been working with a large European company and it surprises me that they insist on using “master”. They even make other master named branches on the repos as well.
bnycum··on Solaar is a Linux manager for many Logitech keyboards, mice, and other devices
Been using Solaar for a few years with a Logitech K400 keyboard with the built-in touchpad. Running on a Raspberry Pi connected to my TV. No issues and works very well. Have never even connected to Logitech's software on a Mac or Windows.
bnycum··on YouTube Premium Showing Ads
I’ve noticed Disney+ showing “ads” as well despite being on the Disney+ and Hulu (No Ads) bundle. They claim it’s “promotional content” not ads, and they are all Disney related. Regardless it feels scummy.
bnycum··on Launch HN: Sorcerer (YC S24) – Weather balloons that collect more data
Awesome project. I currently work on flight data recorders. As you are aware, weather plays a big part in aviation. We do collect some weather information and it’s always one of the more exciting topics in the work we do. Understand a lot of the pain points with data and satellite communication. Sounds like something to keep my eye on.
bnycum··on It's Now Cheaper to Lease a Tesla Model 3 Than a Toyota Camry
Guess that depends where you are, as that is not the case where I'm at. When we were car shopping recently multiple dealers tried a 20% markup, that was an immediate walk away for me. Inventory still seems thin as well.
bnycum··on Standard Ebooks' 1,000th title: Ulysses
I was gonna comment on the sorting being less than ideal too. Only sort by release date (not publication date), author, ease, and length. Can't even sort by title.
bnycum··on TwitchAdSolutions – Blocking Twitch Ads
Along with the pre-roll ad system that also causes me to nope out of a stream, their ad system just seems fairly buggy in general. I will constantly be hit with a long ad break into a stream, just for the stream to come back and another ad break rolls again. It's frustrating and I find myself on Twitch less and less. Definitely less inclined to pay for Turbo.

I don't typically mind the ads for streamers who run them between games or set aside an ad break. However if a streamer doesn't manually run the ads live streams never really have a good spot for them to automatically run. Such a double edged sword.

bnycum··on My speed cubing page
As someone who used that site forever ago to learn cubing algorithms, I was surprised to learn that Badmephisto is actually Andrej Karpathy (OpenAI, Tesla).

These days I prefer to use though: http://algdb.net/

bnycum··on Mastermind Solver
Reminds me of the 3Blue1Brown video about Wordle, and then it's followup video. I guess that's kind of a spoiler, but still worth a watch.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v68zYyaEmEA

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fRed0Xmc2Wg

bnycum··on Why aren't black box flight recorders better?
Currently the upcoming Starlink for Aviation terminal is for much larger aircraft than we are operating on at the moment. Plus the cost is $150k for hardware, and up to $25k monthly.

https://www.starlink.com/aviation

bnycum··on Why aren't black box flight recorders better?
I work on flight data recorders, mainly in rotorcraft but some small fixed wing aircraft. The current generation does use a satellite connection for real time tracking, as well as sending high level caution information, and a few data parameters. Really the cost of sending data over the satellite is the real issue. However this is coming down.

Outside of that, the ADS-B requirement is a huge help in knowing where aircraft are and where they are going.

bnycum··on Retro Computer Museum
National Videogame Museum in Frisco, TX https://nvmusa.org/
bnycum··on Best Smart TV?
I have this same TV, but the Google TV version. However we use Amazon Firesticks instead of using the Google TV. Very much like the TV.
bnycum··on DJI drone flight log viewer
Just as a reference, I work on flight data recorders for rotor and fixed wing aircraft. 1/10 of a second is pretty common in that world as well.
bnycum··on The Computer Science Book (2020)
Looks like you can at the base URL: https://thecomputersciencebook.com/
bnycum··on Lego Is Discontinuing Mindstorms
My kid was selected into the robotics club this year, and they are using the Spike Prime kit. Seems like a decent set all things considered for younger kids. My child is in 5th grade and first year robotics. Probably wouldn't invest into it if your child is middle-school or older, but from what I've seen of it a very good kit.
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