HNHacker News
TopNewBestAskShowJobs

dubyah

257 karma · joined November 10, 2011

submissionscomments
dubyah··on LG says we're fake news [video]
As others have said, cut off access and/or factory reset it. My LG has never been granted net access, firmware upgrades through USB drives, and streaming through Onn 4K box(w/ a 3rd party launcher) and Apple TV. No surprise ads, apps, or anything.
dubyah··on The Los Angeles Aqueduct Is Wild
Because the economics of desalination require locking in long term purchase/production rates at prices that dwarf current and other sources of water. SD's Poseidon desal is projected at ~$3.7k per acre ft for 2026 whereas SDCWA SWP water is ~$1.5-1.9k acre ft. Leak fixes, groundwater recharge, local aquifers, water banking, potable reuse, etc. are all more economical means of bolstering water supply.

A big factor in determining desalination placement in the region are the groundwater basins. Limited size and availability makes the case for desalination as means for resiliency. Another is that situating adjacent to power plants so as to use their already coastally degraded intakes/outfalls. Doheny is to use subsurface slant wells for intakes, but it's also lower output too.

As for LA. they're working on getting their potable reuse plants/projects up and running. The largest indirect potable reuse plant in the world has been operating in OC for ~18 years. Lower operating costs than desalination, reduced wastewater discharge, and reduced coastal impact.

dubyah··on ‘I witnessed war crimes’ in Gaza – former worker at GHF aid site [video]
They're medical professionals. Not IDF soldiers. [1]

65 doctors, many of whom signed the letter previously mentioned, also signed an opinion essay on the NY Times. There are CT scans in the article. [2]

The NY Times Opinion editor even chimed in to state they saw corroborating said images, consulted independent experts to attest the credibility of said images, and ultimately decided the 40+ photos & videos of children with gunshots to the head and neck were too horrific for publication.[3]

[1] https://www.aljazeera.com/news/longform/2025/4/16/israeli-so... [2] https://archive.is/w8q7a [3] https://archive.is/1fkOp

dubyah··on ‘I witnessed war crimes’ in Gaza – former worker at GHF aid site [video]
There's a group signed letter by 99 American volunteer medical professionals stating:

Specifically, every one of us who worked in an emergency, intensive care, or surgical setting treated pre-teen children who were shot in the head or chest on a regular or even a daily basis.

https://www.gazahealthcareletters.org/usa-letter-oct-2-2024

dubyah··on ‘I witnessed war crimes’ in Gaza – former worker at GHF aid site [video]
Violations happened immediately[1]. Each phase was to be 42 days(6 weeks) not 3 months.

No, Israel & the US wanted a continuation via a modified version of phase 1 ceasefire rather than proceed to phase 2: securing exchange of Israeli captives but with the temporary cessation of military activities i.e., allowing them to resume.

Phase 2 as originally outlined & agreed would have been a commitment to a permanent cessation of military and hostile activities, withdrawal, and exchange of the remaining surviving Israeli & number of Palestinian captives[2]:

Announce restoration of a sustainable calm (cessation of military operations and hostilities permanently) and its commencement prior to the exchange of hostages and prisoners between the two sides – all remaining Israeli hostages who are living men (civilians and soldiers) in exchange for a number of prisoners in Israeli prisons and detention centers and the complete withdrawal of Israeli forces from the Gaza strip.

Moreover, Israel was supposed to send negotiators for implementation of phase 2 no later than the 16th day of phase 1(February 3rd) per the phase 1 agreement. Instead, Netanyahu met up with Trump, formulated their own agreement without any other mediators, and they delayed sending in negotiators until 2 days(February 27th) before phase 1 of the ceasefire was set to end with a "take it or else" approach.

[1] https://edition.cnn.com/2025/01/24/middleeast/gaza-israel-de... [2] https://archive.is/c82OT

dubyah··on Leaked data reveals Israeli govt campaign to remove pro-Palestine posts on Meta
"By looking at property damage and police injuries, we also conclude that this pro-Palestine movement has not been violent. That is true of both the national protest wave in general and of the student encampments in spring 2024 in particular. The rhetorical core of this pro-Palestine movement has not been a call for violence against Jews, but rather a call for freedom for Palestinians and an end to violence being inflicted upon them. To substantiate this point, we considered two sources of evidence: 1) the banners, signs, and chants seen or heard at pro-Palestine events; 2) the demands issued by organizers of over 100 student encampments." https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/14742837.2024.2...
dubyah··on Fire TV now also displays full-screen video ads on its homescreen
You do if you're using an android device, for which Apple has yet to release any sort of remote app or control scheme.

The general layout for the remote the parent poster was talking about was discontinued in May of 2021 (last being the Siri 1st gen remote), so it wasn't that long ago.

dubyah··on Ex-FBI employee jailed for mishandling classified material
That ruling doesn't support that assertion.

>“We did not hold in Armstrong I that the President could designate any material he wishes as presidential records, and thereby exercise “virtually complete control” over it, notwithstanding the fact that the material does not meet the definition of “presidential records” in the PRA.” Judicial Watch, Inc. v. Nat'l Archives & Records Admin., 845 F. Supp. 2d 288, 297 (D.D.C. 2012)

Additionally:

>“The only reference in the entire statute to the designation of records as personal versus Presidential also calls for the decision to be made by the executive, and to be made during, and not after, the presidency.” Judicial Watch, Inc. v. Nat'l Archives & Records Admin., 845 F. Supp. 2d 288, 300-1 (D.D.C. 2012)

Moreover, that goes in hand with the recently released audio of the events transcribed in US v. Trump Nauta wherein he acknowledges that he could have declassified it, but did not. [https://www.justice.gov/storage/US_v_Trump-Nauta_23-80101.pd...]

dubyah··on My 24 year old HP Jornada can do things an iPhone still can't do
There's an astounding amount of FUD against any prospect of side loading apps for such a supposedly technically oriented community here.
dubyah··on Trapped Under Trucks
The article does talk about US rear underride guards as well, but notes that they were inadequate for many years. I've driven past a hastily draped over fatality from such a collision in the 2000s and have kept a wide berth from trailers since.
dubyah··on Bean leaves don’t let the bedbugs bite by using tiny, impaling spikes (2013)
It's amorphous(non-crystalline) silica gel. Essentially powdered form of what you find in desiccant packs.

It's pretty great as a crack and crevice treatment and lasts a long time.

dubyah··on CA grid: real-time status
I really cannot understand how we went from having excess capacity as described in this article (https://12ft.io/proxy?q=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.latimes.com%2Fproj...) to the current situation.
dubyah··on US Drought Monitor
You mean the county with the largest(and still expanding) indirect potable reuse plant in the world? Poseidon HB desalination was rejected for a variety of reasons: enormously risky in terms of finance and water reliability(located in a flood zone, for example), excessive costs, lack of committed buyers, environmental impact, etc.. The CCC uniformly rejected it for many of those reasons with the staff report also including the lack of mitigation steps Poseidon have yet to undertake for their Carlsbad plant. Doheny desalination is still under consideration due to the use of slant wells, municipally owned, and the lack of aquifers in south county make it more viable as a means of water security.
dubyah··on The fight against drought in California has a new tool: The restrictor
Prop 218 hamstrung the ability to use market-based restrictions. Rate tiers designed to encourage water conservation are substantially harder to bring into force since Capistrano Taxpayers Association v. City of San Juan Capistrano ruling. Water rates need to correspond to the actual cost of providing water and anything beyond needs to be 2/3rds voter approved as opposed to a simple majority.
dubyah··on Nearly all of the Western USA is in drought and it's not even summer yet
Regarding the Poseidon desalination plant proposal for Huntington Beach:

It's an expensive, risky, corporate handout that ranks nearly dead last across the board in terms of water reliability, value, and financial risk relative to any other proposed water projects(including some other desalination projects) per MWDOC's own report.

https://www.mwdoc.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/2018-FINAL-...

That thing with Newsom at the French Laundry was because it was a birthday party for a Poseidon lobbyist.

dubyah··on Nearly all of the Western USA is in drought and it's not even summer yet
A little silly to assert that with respect to Orange County, when it's the home of the largest indirect potable reuse system in the world.

https://www.ocwd.com/gwrs/

Only one out of 19 of the municipal water districts have committed to buying Poseidon water due to the cost and risk.

dubyah··on Great AA Alkaline Battery Test (2016)
Duracell. The Costco CEO mentioned it in some interview a few years ago and they tend to leak as well.
dubyah··on Vegetable Oil for Lubricating Chainsaws (2008)
I don't know about other manufacturers, but Fellowes brand shredder oil is just expensive canola oil.
dubyah··on Comparing SARS-CoV-2 natural immunity to vaccine-induced immunity [pdf]
The particular issue is, why specifically mention "sometimes higher" if there are no studies to back up that assertion or if you're going to rationalize your assertion on inferences about statistical noise? "Sometimes", "could", and "can" are doing the work of Atlas here. It's a genuinely pointless thing to say and somewhat bewildering to see someone continue to defend.

It's important to note the population of those 3 studies. For generally symptomatic individuals that sought testing, were hospital system patients, or were contact traced individuals, respectively, viral loads(Ct values) are similar between vaccinated and unvaccinated.

Even your first cited paper mentions deficiencies for asymptomatic individuals: >It is also difficult to determine the rate of asymptomatic or paucisymptomatic breakthrough infections and to ascertain whether viral loads in such cases are as high as those in symptomatic breakthrough infections. The “true” proportion of breakthrough infections with high viral loads would require comprehensive, frequent surveillance testing of vaccinated populations to identify these individuals.

The REACT-1 study data is from a large, random sampling of the population.

dubyah··on Comparing SARS-CoV-2 natural immunity to vaccine-induced immunity [pdf]
>When we are talking about many variable numbers, especially of a highly transmissible one, if something can be same, then there are also cases of them being higher.

So, you went with your feelings as opposed to scientific backing on that one. By that rational, they could also be lower too. In fact, they could be on average lower. That statement, however, has some backing. From a vastly larger and more random survey:

https://www.imperial.ac.uk/medicine/research-and-impact/grou...

>The 13th round of the REACT-1 study looked at swab test data from almost 100,000 people in England between 24 June and 12 July. The research found that infections were three times lower in people who were fully vaccinated, compared to unvaccinated people. The data also suggested that people who were fully vaccinated were less likely to pass the virus on to others, due to having a lower viral load on average and therefore shedding less virus.

dubyah··on Comparing SARS-CoV-2 natural immunity to vaccine-induced immunity [pdf]
Rate of reinfection is currently rare, but vaccination post infection does lower that rate.

https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/volumes/70/wr/mm7032e1.htm?s_cid=mm...

"Among Kentucky residents infected with SARS-CoV-2 in 2020, vaccination status of those reinfected during May–June 2021 was compared with that of residents who were not reinfected. In this case-control study, being unvaccinated was associated with 2.34 times the odds of reinfection compared with being fully vaccinated."

Additionally, there have also been some preprints indicating reduction of long covid symptoms following vaccination in a good portion of those surveyed.

dubyah··on The Coronavirus Is Here Forever
Round 13 of the Imperial College REACT-1 study did still indicate an average lower viral load(higher Ct values) in vaccinated individuals.
dubyah··on Colorado River drops to record low levels, slashing Arizona’s water supply
I don't get the intense focus on grey water in these threads. Grandparent poster mixes up grey water and tertiary recycled water down thread, so maybe confusion over that or selective use of terms so Arizona comes out on top? Who knows?

Sure, Arizona seems to be leading in grey water, but treated effluent are exponentially higher flows and that absolutely is being used and applied in Southern California. GWRS is currently operating at 100 MGD of indirect potable reuse and in the midst of an expansion to 130 MGD and San Diego is currently building their indirect potable system to 83 MGD. All in addition to the 100s of MGD tertiary recycled water distributed via purple pipes and other means throughout the region. This is not to say the current status is sufficient(I'd love to see an exponential expansion on managed aquifer recharge), but seeing a number of recent threads opining as if no "responsible" water management is being done in the region, which is frankly, absurd.

dubyah··on Colorado River drops to record low levels, slashing Arizona’s water supply
IRWD pioneered the purple pipe system and GWRS is the largest indirect potable reuse system in the world, but because the only means of unpermitted greywater use in California is from laundry machines, "No reasonable person would say anything about Southern California's water policy or water history is "responsibly managed"."?

What municipalities mandate greywater systems?

dubyah··on Amazon Kindles with 3G will start to lose cellular network access in December
Per Android Police, replacement/discount offers are for affected devices that had been "actively reading between January 1 and June 30th of this year".

Was wondering if I could get in on that, but I stopped using my 3G Kindles when they stopped holding charge.

dubyah··on Cities try to phase out gas stoves but cooks are pushing back
>AFAIK, gas delivery wasn't affected.

Gas production fell by almost half.

https://www.eia.gov/todayinenergy/detail.php?id=46896

Researchers found that frozen wells caused natural gas production to fall by 85 percent in the days leading up to Feb. 16, with up to two-thirds of processing plants in the Permian Basin experiencing an outage. Researchers looked at a sample of 27 natural gas processing plants, and found that as many as 18 of them had zero output at the worst of the storm. Natural gas producers are not required to weatherize their equipment in Texas.

https://www.houstonchronicle.com/business/energy/article/UT-...

The desperate scramble to power up natural gas facilities again exposed a major structural flaw in Texas’ electric grid: Oncor and other utilities didn't have good lists of what they should consider critical infrastructure, including natural gas facilities — simply because natural gas companies failed to fill out a form or didn’t know the form existed, company executives, regulators and experts said.

https://www.texastribune.org/2021/03/18/texas-winter-storm-b...

Moreover, this very similar situation happened 10 years ago already and that had natural gas curtailments to retail customers. So, no, not a good backup solution.

dubyah··on Shocked to find smart thermostats raised remotely by “Smart Savers Texas” progrm
They had it installed as part of a home security package and guessing from their thermostat(which appears to be a GoControl Z-Wave thermostat), it was with Vivint. That dark patterns ship has sailed long ago.
dubyah··on Fullerton settles lawsuit against bloggers for publishing City Hall documents
Better article: https://voiceofoc.org/2021/05/fullerton-settles-lawsuit-agai...

They erroneously made the files public on the city's Dropbox account.

dubyah··on There have been 7M-13M excess deaths worldwide during the pandemic
Low income / essential workers & overcrowded homes are a far more significant factor that often go unmentioned when people try to compare the outcomes between state & municipal public health interventions. This was observed well before the winter surge. https://calmatters.org/projects/overcrowded-housing-californ...

How do you isolate when there's more members than actual rooms in the home & only one one restroom?

dubyah··on California population declines for first time in more than a century
https://softwoodlumberboard.org/california-building-standard...

"With this approval, California will adopt the entire series of the ICC approved change proposals for the design of tall wood buildings in California. California will become the fifth state to move forward with early adoption of the 2021 International Building Code"

Page 1 of 4Next →