tomalpha

6 ms·

1.
by tomalpha 1mo ago
A relatively simple system of lights is used at Portsmouth Harbour to help the aircraft carriers navigate the narrow channel in and out of port. This looks to be similar to the 3-light system that the author talks about. https://
2.
by tomalpha 3mo ago
It’s always hard to tell whether a comment like this is supportive or sarcastic so this is either me agreeing or disagreeing with you… For me this kind of simple, straightforward, educational content is part of the reason I’m proud to pay
3.
by tomalpha 4mo ago
One of my favourite quotes from the late Terry Pratchett: > When the first explorers from the warm lands around the Circle Sea travelled into the chilly hinterland they filled in the blank spaces on their maps by grabbing the nearest nat
4.
NTSB LaGuardia Aviation Investigation Preliminary Report(data.ntsb.gov)
3 points by tomalpha 5mo ago|1 comments
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by tomalpha 5mo ago
NTSB preliminary report into the March LaGuardia crash
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by tomalpha 10mo ago
It might be in the original French, but it’s been anglicised and adopted as an English language term: https://www.oed.com/dictionary/toot-sweet_adv?tl=true
7.
by tomalpha 1y ago
Sorry, I should have been clearer. I too get the same for Mac apps, but for iOS apps still see the same competitor results returned first. For me, that's the same whether I use the App Store from my phone, or laptop.
8.
by tomalpha 1y ago
I just searched within the (edit: iOS App Store) App Store app for ublock origin lite “ublock origin lite” For the unquoted search, there are twelve different apps/items returned above it - you really have to scroll down
9.
by tomalpha 1y ago
I wonder if this has survived the recent cutbacks to USAID? And recently they are celebrating some big news on the lead fighting front: This week, UNICEF and the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) announced a n
10.
by tomalpha 1y ago
Wonderfully, the official government webpage[1] lists his duties as: Larry spends his days greeting guests to the house, inspecting security defences and testing antique furniture for napping quality. His day-to-day responsibilities als
11.
by tomalpha 1y ago
It seems wrong that each individual sysadmin human in Space X would need to (a) login to my device remotely, and (b) require individual credentials to do so. Having some way to remotely push updates, and having some kinda of (preferably wit
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M&S stops online orders and issues refunds after cyber attack(bbc.co.uk)
3 points by tomalpha 1y ago|0 comments
13.
by tomalpha 2y ago
https://www.detective-store.com/optical-fibre-micro-camera-s...
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by tomalpha 2y ago
I too would have asked the same question as GP, and also meant it genuinely. It feels like HN is a place where someone could summarise the (presumably strong) arguments against this? Or links to a good source as suggested by a sibling comme
15.
by tomalpha 2y ago
In the UK, they tend to rate highly in terms of reliability. They can’t be that differently made to the US? For example [1], [2] [1] https://www.warrantydirect.co.uk/blog/most-reliable-used-car... [2] https:/&#
16.
by tomalpha 3y ago
Better link to the original announcement: https://www.spreadsheet.com/blog/spreadsheet-com-will-be-ret...
17.
Alaska Airlines flight 1282 NTSB preliminary report [pdf](ntsb.gov)
266 points by tomalpha 3y ago|266 comments
18.
by tomalpha 3y ago
This was a regular court process, with an independent judge and jury. It’s just the prosecution was run directly by the post office and not the public prosecutor. It still had very bad outcomes, and clearly with the prosecution not being in
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by tomalpha 3y ago
The killer features of BBC Basic for me were: - instant-on - you turned on the power switch at the back of the BBC Micro, got the double beep, and in less than a second were dropped into a REPL / shell with the language - integrated as
20.
by tomalpha 3y ago
The yahoo link you reference in [1] notes “All numbers in thousands” I think you might be off by 3 orders of magnitude and google could “afford” to pay every homeless person a thousand times more than you’re suggesting. I further think that
21.
by tomalpha 3y ago
How much cheaper are RISC-V chips in reality? I get there might be a saving for not having to pay ARM a royalty of some kind, but are RISC-V chips cheaper in practice as a result? I was under the impression (rightly or wrongly) that the arm
22.
by tomalpha 3y ago
A sibling comment makes the more relevant point about powerline, but it’s worth considering that whatever the power company has to pay, you the consumer will be paying for in the end. You could make the case (a good one I think) that a home
23.
by tomalpha 3y ago
> Elon will allow people he disagrees with on the platform I’m not comfortable relying on a single “benevolent” dictator decided what is and isn’t allowed on the platform. Particularly because the benevolence or lack thereof is, at best,
24.
by tomalpha 3y ago
I like to think some awards are less bad than others. See Autocar’s blog[1] about how they voted for the Car Of The Year award which they do every year. It seems to be reasonably transparent. [1] https://www.autocar.co.uk/
25.
by tomalpha 3y ago
To be fair, a glance at her LinkedIn profile (top google search result for her name) suggests that 1969 could well be her birth year.
26.
by tomalpha 3y ago
I’d go further for the specific example of the book. For me the price of reading a good book isn’t a price at all. It’s a gain. I’ve paid the first up front price to be able to read the book and gain enjoyment from it. I get that there are
27.
by tomalpha 4y ago
A single game of Factorio can take a long time. Mine usually take around 100 hours. The craving to (tweak|move|refactor|grow) the base for certain personality types that are richly represented on HN can mean you can spend hundreds more on i
28.
by tomalpha 4y ago
Such a summary can be very helpful to disambiguate the subject matter and save me (and I’m guessing many other folks too) the time of reading every article to find out whether it’s interesting/relevant to me.
29.
by tomalpha 4y ago
I’m guessing you’re referring to a jurisdiction within the US? In the UK the law is clear and explicit: it’s on the retailer (and not the manufacturer or wholesaler) to make sure the goods are “Fit for purpose”, “As described”, and of “Sati
30.
by tomalpha 4y ago
It very much is to protect vulnerable customers, but it’s not wholly altruistic. UK Banks are (mostly) required to make customers whole if they’ve been defrauded unless they’ve been grossly negligent. The banks have tried to interpret the “

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