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palm-treeon Vessel An EGA adventure about whether machines can grieve

I think I got to the end of act 2, but there was some text I couldn't scroll through on a smartphone screen, so couldn't get past it. Will have to try again when it isn't 1am!

palm-treeon The electromechanical angle computer inside the B-52 bomber's star tracker

Am I right in thinking it didn't matter which star it locked onto, and it didn't need to know which star it was? Would it be a problem if it locked onto another celestial body (e.g. Venus)?

palm-treeon Uv is the best thing to happen to the Python ecosystem in a decade

I started using poetry abiut 4 years ago and definitely hit a lot of bugs around that time, but it seems to have improved considerably. That said, my company has largely moved to uv as it does seem easier to use (particularly for devs coming from other languages).

palm-treeon Ask HN: What are you working on? (May 2025)

Out of interest, how are you approaching this? Are you trying to "refactor" in specific areas, or is it somewhat more ad-lib? Do you have something in mind for the next "volume"?

palm-treeon At Amazon, some coders say their jobs have begun to resemble warehouse work

You joke, but there are plenty of companies working on something similar to this, for example: https://www.sw.siemens.com/en-US/technology/generative-desig...

I haven't touched CAD for a couple of years, but I get the impression that (inevitably) the generative design hype significantly exceeds the current capability.

palm-treeon O2 VoLTE: locating any customer with a phone call

I'm no expert, but I'm fairly sure that UK GDPR applies, which is effectively the same as the EU version https://ico.org.uk/for-organisations/data-protection-and-the...

palm-treeon Mexico City may be just months away from running out of water

"Years of abnormally low rainfall" - at what point does "abnormal" become normal?

palm-treeon How a software glitch at the UK Post Office ruined lives

Except when it's critical software in an aircraft, nuclear power plant, submarine, financial institution etc etc

palm-treeon Decline in independent activity as a cause of decline in child mental health

Wow, a yard AND a driveway?

I think the idea here is that children need to have the opportunity to explore the wider world independently, not just a 50 metre circle around their home.

palm-treeon The UX Research Reckoning is Here

> - Super smart designs causing the page layout to change after it's loaded.

This seems to happen far too much. Nowadays usually causes me to give up on a site and go somewhere else. Feels like eliminating stuff like this should be low-hanging fruit UX-wise (albeit not especially exciting, I guess)

palm-treeon Waymo's collision avoidance testing

How is this an intense road? It looks pretty wide and clear of traffic with a few parked cars. If it can't handle this, it's got no chance in an average city in Western Europe.

palm-treeon The importance of exponentially more computing power

Surely this is showing correlation, but not necessarily causation. There are probably many fields where improvements in X have happened, along with greater compute power. How much the improvement in X is attributable to greater computing power is surely very hard to quantify. Or am I missing something?

palm-treeon The fragmented nature of modern-day railways

Interesting to see the ways in which even railways have technical debt!