rationalist's comments

On: How the Turner twins are mythbusting modern technical apparel

[rationalist]

It appears the only drawback in the article, was moisture.

[IAmBroom → rationalist]

Which is your greatest enemy in cold weather.

Seriously, I'll take -5 C and dry over +5 C and rainy, if I don't have protection from the rain. Any day. Or over sweaty clothes and +5 C.

On: Drugwars for the TI-82/83/83 Calculators (2011)

[rationalist]

Are they valuable? They seem a little rare but findable on eBay. I have one in my closet just gathering dust.

[Dwedit → rationalist]

New TI graphing calculators are sold today for the same price as they were in 1999.

(Obligatory XKCD: https://xkcd.com/768/)

On: Aliens.gov ~ domain registered 17MAR2026

[rationalist]

It used to be anyone with a fax machine could register any .gov but they fixed that when there was a news report about it.

[afn → rationalist]

I was curious about this, so for anyone else who’s interested, here’s a KrebsOnSecurity article from 2019 about how easy it was to fraudulently register a .gov domain:

https://krebsonsecurity.com/2019/11/its-way-too-easy-to-get-...

I haven’t seen any follow-up reporting, but it looks like the process now requires some semblance of identity verification:

https://get.gov/domains/before/

On: Neighbors Say SF Tesla Supercharger Lot Has Become Urine Dumping Ground

[rationalist]

Considering another comment talks about someone taking a dump on the sidewalk; maybe.

On: Ask HN: What is it like being in a CS major program these days?

[rationalist]

> reading code is very different to writing it

As I was reading this exchange, I was wondering the same thing, why isn't a person learning the code from reading the code that was produced. I guess people learn differently when it comes to code.

On: Hollywood Enters Oscars Weekend in Existential Crisis

[rationalist]

There's a higher chance you will die in a car wreck or on the subway, etc, getting to the theater... in any country.

[rationalist → rationalist]

Is someone letting emotions get in the way of facts?

On: Grandparents are glued to their phones [video]

[rationalist]

> I hook them up with each other. There are parties.

OnlyGrandparents.com?

(I looked it up, the domain name was registered six days ago!)

[alwa → rationalist]

If anybody wants to do something with instagran.org, I know somebody who would be willing to part with it for a good cause…

[rationalist → alwa]

Sounds like it's worth a good Cease and Desist from Instagram.

[rrr_oh_man → rationalist]

OnlyGrans.com is available for only $50k

[Wistar → rrr_oh_man]

That’s worth about $5

On: NetBlocks says Iran blackout enters day 16 as arrests target Starlink users

[rationalist]

Does your family work at military installations?

Is the U.S. (or other) government posting somewhere publicly that they're going to be bombing some military installation in X minutes/hours?

On: Qatar helium shutdown puts chip supply chain on a two-week clock

[rationalist]

It sounds like it won't affect prices that much?

> South Korean memory giant SK hynix has since said it had diversified supplies for helium and secured sufficient inventory. Meanwhile, TSMC said that it doesn’t currently anticipate a notable impact following Ras Laffan going offline, but that it’s monitoring the situation.

[Cyph0n → rationalist]

It also just be the typical “don’t scare the shareholders just yet” PR speak. Time will tell.

[xphos → rationalist]

I mean you are talking about 30% of the world supply I don't think you can spin up the amount of equipment need to replace that in a few weeks.

On: Qatar helium shutdown puts chip supply chain on a two-week clock

[rationalist]

You can find all types of people on the Internet, even some without noses :-)