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dmckeon

2,568 karma · joined April 13, 2012

https://news.ycombinator.com/user?id=dmckeon
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dmckeon··on The Unlikely Survival of the 1,081 Year-Old Redwood El Palo Alto
Big Basin is mostly closed just now after the CZU fire, but I can recommend Henry Woods [1] if you are visiting Mendocino.

[1] https://www.parks.ca.gov/?page_id=438

dmckeon··on NASA can't figure out what's causing computer issues on the Hubble telescope
> Mission controllers, very tired now that the end of their 24-hour shift was approaching

Are shifts this long still common practice in US or RU space programs?

dmckeon··on Useful and useless code comments
How, why, which, where, when, what, who.

The code says how. The commit says what, and where the edited lines were/are in which files, when the edits were committed, and who committed them.

The comments should say why, iff a why is needed.

dmckeon··on Ask HN: Tools you have made for yourself?
Starlink has an app to measure obstruction levels:

https://apps.apple.com/us/app/starlink/id1537177988

dmckeon··on The U.S. government’s failed 1890s attempt to forge unity through currency
The key issue for “Free Silver” is not paper certificates, nor unlimited coinage, but the fixed exchange rate between silver and gold, in which the two metals were considered primarily as money, and not as commodities with separately varying supply and demand patterns.

Imagine briefly a market in which APPL and TSLA common stock were subject to a fixed price ratio. Crazy idea, yes? But a 16:1 ratio for silver:gold makes just as much sense from a market point of view.

For the consumer, investor, banker, a fixed ratio is a nice convenience, but if the supply or demand for either gold or silver were to change significantly, opportunities for arbitrage could become very profitable. Now think of the California gold rush, the Comstock silver lode, and the hundreds of other mining booms between 1850 and 1896.

Who benefited, and who paid? Were WJ Bryan and other orators and politicians champions of the masses or tools of the robber barons?

dmckeon··on HN “Why Not Simply”
> because of the assumption that anyone using Linux already knows more than the average user.

Or approximately as much as the assumer.

dmckeon··on The DNS Camel (2018)
It seems like having a working and testable reference implementation should be a prerequisite for adoption of core internet technologies. In other words, more running code than rough concensus.
dmckeon··on The problem with reinforced concrete (2016)
No mention of epoxy coatings for steel rebar? Look for green-coated rebar as you pass highway construction sites.
dmckeon··on Bitdefender find flaw in Darskide Malware, hackers fixed if and attack Colonial
This seems to call for a different version of “responsible disclosure”. Perhaps CISA could set up a clearing house for vetted ransomware targets to connect with white hats who have solutions. Tricky, especially for publicly traded companies, but could be doable.
dmckeon··on Grazing Goat Problems
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Round_barn
dmckeon··on I found my Grandpa’s notes 20 years after he died (2020)
> They had to work a lot as prisoners, so I guess both sides wanted their share of work from war prisoners

As a practical matter, it may also be easier to guard and manage prisoners who are busy and tired from work, rather than idle and restless. For a detailed view of the late-war and early post-war years, I can suggest: _Savage Continent_, by Keith Lowe - https://www.npr.org/2013/07/24/204538728/after-wwii-europe-w...

dmckeon··on We mailed one hundred letters to test the postal service
I have lived at a non-delivery address for the past 5 years. The “every address” myth seems to be propagated by people who support USPS and conflate “we deliver to people all over the US” with “every address”.

That sounds similar, but is significantly different, and can be a major pain when dealing with people or businesses that believe the myth, and try to send important paperwork to a physical address, which may end up in our P.o. box if the USPS person handling it recognizes the name and can match it to a box number.

Putting both the physical and P.o. box addresses into an address block, in that order, works well, but then shippers can balk at finding a box number. (see also “Falsehoods programmers believe about addresses, etc.”)

dmckeon··on NASA Found Another Way Into Nuclear Fusion (2020)
Meanwhile, gravitic containment is working now, and the results are only eight minutes in the future.
dmckeon··on FCC finally starts tackling America's robocall scourge
Try nomorobo.com - free for Voip numbers, $20/year for mobile. Not 100% perfect, more like 95%, but it will suffice until the FCC improves the situation ... soon. Other similar services exist, and would likely be as effective.
dmckeon··on Why do so many companies incorporate in Delaware?
Delaware is not the only US state that has tuned its laws to attract certain types of business and financial activity:

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/nov/14/the-great-amer...

dmckeon··on IBM COBOL for Linux on x86
Predicting apparently highly effective file compression benchmark results due to files with larger LRECLs whose lines are padded out to 80 or 252 with space characters. “iZip-in-Cobol on Linux now 3x better - order now!”
dmckeon··on How to Manage a Dark Ages Estate
Pigs would have been expected to forage in the forests, for “mast” - acorns from oaks and other trees - and anything else a pig might eat. Oak trees tend to produce a small amount of acorns in most years, and much more in a “mast year” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mast_(botany) .

Before refrigeration, meat animals might be kept alive as long as there was stored fodder to feed them, or slaughtered when the weather turned colder, or slaughtered when time and other tasks allowed for preserving meat by salting or sausage-making.

So, think of this as an end-of-harvest status report on when the crown court can expect to start getting sides of bacon delivered, and how many of them.

dmckeon··on How to Manage a Dark Ages Estate
Serfs (“our” people) were beaten, free folk were fined. In the US, think W2 employees versus 1099 workers. :-)
dmckeon··on The beauty of the ampersand and other keyboard symbols
pound, sharp, hash, even octothorpe predate “hashtag”.
dmckeon··on Extreme weather events of 535–536
Shortages can easily occur based solely on the perception that a shortage is likely: https://www.nist.gov/blogs/blogrige/johnny-carson-blame-1973...
dmckeon··on Nobody designs for small iPhone devices anymore
Alternately, Apple could choose a different and non-binary way of curating apps. An app store with 4 or 5 scales of 0 to 9 scores: UX, privacy, cost/benefit, user reviews, etc. would be a lot more useful to me than a store with x00,000 apps all in an undifferentiated pile.

Even trying to find specific app from a specific vendor, while being sure to not get some lookalike evil clone from J. Random Hacker can be challenging.

dmckeon··on Firefox Release Includes Total Cookie Protection and Multiple Picture-in-Picture
Put any preferred tweaks in a user.js file in the profile directory, // commented with meanings and reasons, and save wetware memory.
dmckeon··on Extruding Ice from Steel Fences and Pipes with Diurnal Freeze/Thaw (2008)
Similar growth patterns occur in calcite https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Helictite but the effort of reproducing and documenting with water ice is impressive, and much more reproducible.
dmckeon··on 1921 Duesenberg Model A Belonged to the Same Family for Almost a Century
Ah, facepalm! Fords are much more accessible. Here is a rundown on two large national groups: https://www.fordbarn.com/forum/showthread.php?t=46185&showal...

There also appear to be a number of state/regional groups. Decide if your near-term goals are a) a safe running car b) a clean looking unrestored car c) restoration/concours with a big budget and then try to connect with a retired enthusiast who has plenty of spare time and a willingness to share info and advice. Safe travels.

ps. Everything jacquesm wrote, plus grasp the crank gently with your thumb still next to your index finger, not around and on the other side of the crank. Avoids a broken thumb on backfire.

dmckeon··on 1921 Duesenberg Model A Belonged to the Same Family for Almost a Century
Generally, find a club, or group, or forum that specializes in whatever vehicle you have. But, Fred & Augie only made 444 Duesenbergs, so I would start with the ACD museum to get a recommendation for someone who could look it over for you and show you the quirks. Leno’s YouTube channel has several videos about them to start you off. Trivia: they were all made in the same year, but the depression struck, and so they were all sold and titled over the following decade.
dmckeon··on France has passed a law protecting the sounds and smells of the countryside
Much of the recent complaining is due to concentration of near-ground routes as a side-effect of the NextGen routing system.

http://soseastbay.org/jet-noise-in-a-nutshell-nexgen/

https://www.faa.gov/nextgen/faqs/

dmckeon··on Ask HN: Anyone know any funny programming jokes?
A salesman, an engineer, and a programmer drive a rental car up Pikes Peak. On the way down, the brakes fade, and the one driving manages to skid to a stop in a cloud of dust at the edge of a precipice.

The salesman wants to call for a tow truck, the engineer wants to try to fix the brakes, but the programmer says: “No, first we should drive back up and confirm that we can reproduce the issue.”

dmckeon··on California’s container-ship traffic jam
Oakland is improving recently, to some extent: https://www.portofoakland.com/press-releases/biggest-contain...

The really interesting changes will be in the ports on the US Eastern seaboard which planned to take advantage of the super-panamax cargo ships dimensioned for the new channel at Panama.

dmckeon··on Why do they still make car alarms? (2015)
Why? Because fear is known to be an effective sales tool. Just ask a very successful marketer of car alarms: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Darrell_Issa#Business_career
dmckeon··on Decluttering low-Earth orbit: It's time to tidy up space
Remote propulsion by ablation: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laser_broom
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