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kesslern

205 karma · joined December 18, 2020

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kesslern··on Airport Simulator
There's a VR version called Final Approach that's quite fun

https://store.steampowered.com/app/380670/Final_Approach/

kesslern··on Carl Sagan's Baloney Detection Kit: Tools for Thinking Critically (2025)
If software were undetectable by any means, we'd have no way to run software or tell which software is running at a given time.
kesslern··on Orchestrate teams of Claude Code sessions
Not saying $200/mo isn't a lot, but I think you're underestimating used car payments these days. The average US used car payment is above $500 now.
kesslern··on I spent the day teaching seniors how to use an iPhone
I have put multiple cheaper keyboards through the dishwasher over the years. No heat, no soap, and I make sure to thoroughly dry it of course. I wouldn't do it with a mechanical keyboard for obvious reasons, but I have done it many times with membrane keyboards.
kesslern··on Electric bill may be paying for big data centers' energy use
This is not the case for AEP customers in Ohio. Our transmission costs have increased so much over the last few years that many are paying almost as much for transmission as generation (on $200+ bills). The Columbus Dispatch recently wrote about it after so many people posted their bills in the Columbus subreddit.
kesslern··on Untangling the myths and mysteries of Dvorak and QWERTY (2023)
This mirrors my experience. When I was a teenager I could type rather quickly using only two fingers on each hand. I figured I'd be typing a lot my whole life and it'd be easier to re-train proper typing habits on a whole new layout rather than trying to adapt my QWERTY habits I picked up while playing Runescape in elementary school.

It took about a month to learn, but on the side it largely fixed my QWERTY habits too, and I can freely switch between them pretty easily.

kesslern··on VIN: The 17-character code that runs the automotive world
Japanese Domestic Market cars have a chassis number instead of a VIN. It serves the same purpose, but a different format.
kesslern··on Google nerfs Pixel 6a batteries following fire hazard
I just ran into this on my wife's phone. I started removing the tempered glass screen protector to replace with a new one and the whole screen came up. The battery had started to puff up enough to lift the edge of the screen.
kesslern··on Ocarina of Time Randomizer
Ship of Harkanian, the PC port of OoT created from the decompilation project, has the randomizer built in. It's the best way and probably easiest on PC.

You can also build an actual N64 rom and play in an emulator or on a real N64 using a flashcart. RetroArch N64 cores will work fine with it.

kesslern··on Framework Laptop 12 review
I do, but they should be paired with half height Page Up and Page Down keys. It's weird with the left/right keys as full size.
kesslern··on Trying to teach in the age of the AI homework machine
This matches my experience. I attended the local community college, which works closely and matches curriculum with Ohio State University. The same classes, with the same content, were taught at both schools.

The biggest difference between them is the community college offering class sizes of about 20 people, while the university equivalent was taught in a lecture hall with hundreds of students, and cost significantly more.

kesslern··on LA wildfires force thousands to evacuate, NASA JPL closed
Nobody wants to live here, but Ohio is pretty safe. There are tornadoes but they're very localized and not common. Really not much else to worry about, aside from being in Ohio of course.
kesslern··on React 19
Why is fast guaranteed with two way binding frameworks?
kesslern··on Alaska Airlines flight 1282 NTSB preliminary report [pdf]
This is the reality for a large number of truck drivers who bear a significantly lower responsibility.
kesslern··on Data leak contains 26B records from numerous previous breaches
I can log into chase.com with my password in any case. Banking security is an absolute joke.

The interesting part is that if I have to do a 2FA SMS challenge, I am required to re-enter my password. At this point the password checking becomes case sensitive.

kesslern··on AI’s big rift is like a religious schism
What is that opinion?
kesslern··on YouTuber sentenced to 6 months in prison for obstructing probe into plane crash
I feel like the Toupee Fallacy is lurking around in this conversation. We know how many cover-ups are successful, and the ones we know about are nearly universally unsuccessful.
kesslern··on Richard Stallman reveals he has cancer in the GNU 40 Hacker Meeting talk [video]
I have had 4 of these running Tasmota for a couple years now. They have been rock solid.
kesslern··on Philips Hue will soon force users to create an account
You can connect Hue lights to a generic Zigbee connector and control them with Home Assistant.
kesslern··on Ask HN: What cool desk ideas do you have for a home office?
If you're a bit DIY inclined, this would be pretty easy to do with a butcher block desk. You could use a router (the wood kind, not the network kind) to create a pocket for your ideal keyboard size and affix it to most any desk legs.
kesslern··on Amendment introduced to limit remote working in Ohio
It's not mentioned in the article but the language is such that state employees are limited to 8 hours of working from home. Coffee shops, a neighbor's house, restaurants, all fine.
kesslern··on Reddit subs with millions of followers plan to extend the blackout indefinitely
People use Reddit because the alternative is blogspam. When I try to find DIY or home improvement advice, I see the same points repeated without much detail. The articles are intended to push Amazon affiliate links or other services.

I want to see real problems other homeowners are facing and the knowledge many other homeowners have to fix it. That's not something I see on any platform other than Reddit.

kesslern··on How Spotify's podcast bet went wrong
I worked around this by using uBlock Origin to hide the podcasts section.
kesslern··on Let Teenagers Sleep
My school bus arrived at the school at 7:05 every morning. We were allowed in the building at 7:15. At 7:28 we were allowed to go to our lockers. Classes began at 7:30. My bus time varied by year, but the earliest pickup time I had was 6:20.
kesslern··on I bought a CO2 monitor and it broke me
A furnace shouldn't be adding CO2 or CO to your air. Those combustion products should all be exhausted out of the house.
kesslern··on The downfall of smart TVs: From promises of seamless viewing to ad tool
Sony did too. I tried to bypass it by getting a relatively expensive nVidia Shield. It got home screen ads about a year later.
kesslern··on Amazon’s Roomba deal is about mapping your home
There is! It's not supported by very many models though.

https://github.com/Hypfer/Valetudo

kesslern··on Ploopy open source thumb trackball
That's how their classic trackball is set up. I've had mine for at least a year and really like it.

https://ploopy.co/classic-trackball/

kesslern··on Ask HN: How do you sync your computer’s development configurations/environment?
I wrote a utility for this problem. I had 3 computers -- Linux with HiDPI, Linux with a normal DPI, and Mac. They all used the same dotfiles with slight differences. It was impossible to keep them in sync. I created a super simple template utility designed for working with dotfiles.

https://github.com/kesslern/dot-templater

kesslern··on It’s Still Stupidly, Difficult to Buy a ‘Dumb’ TV
Are there any TV models that are proven/documented to do this? I hear this claim all the time but I can't find a single demo of it happening. A previous HN thread [0] couldn't come up with any examples either.

[0] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25275350

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