Onavo

Joined 3 years ago

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987

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1,055

Member since

May 20

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Recent submissions

Comment · 1 hour ago

The Soviets allegedly used the same principle to make cheap single sensor missile seeker heads.

Comment · 14 hours ago

I never really saw the point of Anubis. It feels like a anti DDoS tool that's being repurposed for web scraping.

Comment · 18 hours ago

> Err...have you actually asked someone to get into a Cessna?

Yes? In practice once you convince them to get into the plane the only real issue in the air for those new to flying is air sickness.

Also fun fact a good number of pilots claim to have a fear of heights (never met one irl except online in aviation forums).

If you are in aviation/aerospace, don't be afraid to share the joy of flying. There's nothing quite like cruising at 90-100 knots @ 3000-4000ft AGL on a nice clear day.

Comment · 18 hours ago

I believe this is when the term "okay boomer" is warranted.

Comment · 18 hours ago

Best is still the apple privacy proxy.

Comment · 18 hours ago

Also fun tip, if you are ever stuck behind the Anubis PoW proxy, node.crypto is sufficient hardware acceleration to solve it in under a second.

Comment · 23 hours ago

Half of aviation safety (especially for commercial aviation) is done on the ground and has nothing to do with aerospace engineering. Stuff like shift times for pilots and ATC, mandated rest periods, proper ground equipment in zero visibility conditions etc. Many developing countries cut corners on maintenance and spare parts. Mandated use of safety technologies (the DC helicopter incident was entirely preventable). Airports that are designed with safety in mind. If you have a dual engine failure immediately after take-off on an airliner in the middle of a built-up city you are generally fucked. Midwestern airports are the best if you have to do a forced approach. Transport category aircraft (basically anything bigger than a 12 seater plane) don't really have many options, they can't easily land on the runway like smaller planes. That's why the Hudson was a miracle. Your airliners stay safe through constant maintenance and inspections. Dual engine failures are very rare (unless through deliberate pilot action like the recent case in India).

On the engineering side you can look up ETOPS and the various ICAO and FAA and EASA standards for airliner class aerospace engineering https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ETOPS

Trust me, y'all think airplanes are "safe" because of some sort of magical protocol. No single protocol actually works. It's mostly lots of layers that are stacked on top of each. It's why in aviation, catastrophic failure modeling uses something called the Swiss Cheese model; you need every single hole (error or failure) to line up to generally trigger a complete breakdown in safety. It may sound counter intuitive, but by aviation safety philosophy, a canvas and wooden frame plane operated under commercial standards and kept to a strict inspection schedule is "safer" than e.g. a privately operated 737 that doesn't follow manufacturer maintenance standards.

NASA has plenty of guidelines for writing "safe" aviation software. I doubt any software engineer will be willing to entertain the level of effort and certification needed to comply with those for e.g. their Django side project.

Comment · 1 day ago

Oh yeah, and you will find very quickly that most people are a bunch of flaming hypocrites when it comes to flying. Lots of wannabe aerospace engineers in tech. Half the people I have met who put aviation on a pedestal hate flying but love to trumpet the statistics of how safe commercial aviation is. Try asking them to get into a Cessna and all of a sudden the excuses come out. It's oh noes I have a fear of heights, oh noes general aviation is less safe and only slightly safer than a motorcycle, oh noes the FAA is corrupt and allowed the helicopter crash in DC to happen, oh noes I have a family etc.

Aviation safety discussions on hacker news have barely more more depth than biotech and healthcare discussions here. It's extremely ironic because a tremendous number of pilots are engineers, and especially software engineers. It's not exactly a cheap hobby. But you don't see massive numbers of English majors come crawling out of the woodwork to join a discussion on the safety of C++ vs Rust, but tech bros flock to worshipping aviation as a platonic safety idol like moths to a flame.

Comment · 1 day ago

Fuck aviation, stop using it as a dead horse metaphor for safety through human protocols. I am private instrument rating holder and there's very much a top down push for single pilot ops. Your newer jets (even the jetliners) are all designed with that in mind even though they may not be certified as such.