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LarsAlereon

586 karma · joined March 8, 2022

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LarsAlereon··on Why streaming compression breaks binaural beats
Based on my experience and some brief research I don't think this is generally accurate. While I'm sure some combinations of encoder and bitrate might be an issue, YouTube is actually delivering rather high quality audio on HD videos. There's nothing inherent to Joint Stereo encoding that would make binaural audio not work, it's the default choices encoders make at low bitrates.
LarsAlereon··on [dead]
Good. The investigation is politically motivated and intended to suppress protected speech that the administration disagrees with.
LarsAlereon··on Bohemian Tragedy: the SF-based society may have logged its old-growth forest
This was a disappointing article, primarily because it felt like the author used this as an excuse to break into Bohemian Grove and talk to rich people, rather than the stated purpose of investigating their forestry practices. It seems like in a properly managed forest you would only be cutting old-growth trees, as the point is to cut them at the point of maximum growth before they begin to decay.
LarsAlereon··on Americans Choosing Cremation at Historic Rates, NFDA Report Finds
I'm interested in either human composting for end of life, but it tends to cost significantly more than cremation, but not as much as burial. For a cost effective alternative I've researched "water cremation", which instead of burning the body and releasing it into the air dissolves it in an alkaline solution and sends it to the sewage treatment process. Costs tend to be similar to cremation.
LarsAlereon··on Slop Is Slop
"It either is AI-generated slop or it looks like AI-generated slop for no artistic or thematic reason whatsoever."

The artistic and thematic reason is obvious. It's a commentary on the show and AI art in general. To ignore this message because it "looks like AI" devalues the entire concept of human art.

LarsAlereon··on Former ULA President and CEO Tory Bruno Joins Blue Origin
Tory Bruno seems cool, and my impression is that he's been held back by a conservative, risk-averse culture in the ULA board that really only worked until SpaceX and other competitors proved themselves.
LarsAlereon··on I'm returning my Framework 16
So basically this article is 50/50 insightful and helpful feedback from a Framework customer, mixed with gripes by someone who bought the wrong laptop for them. Part of the reason this is getting a sour response is that most laptop companies don't even offer the choice of a larger, more expandable model. Framework does, and you bought it despite not actually wanting that, then dinged it for the compromises inherent in the design you chose. It seems like the 13.5" Framework was the obvious fit for your needs?

To use a silly food analogy, imagine there's a popular salsa company. The customer base has been clamoring for them to release an extra-hot salsa that also has corn in it, though that's a polarizing combination. A purchaser gives it a bad review because, in addition to some very legitimate critiques of the spice flavors, it's too hot and corn doesn't belong in salsa. People who wanted the extra-hot salsa with corn have a point when they say that person should have reviewed the medium salsa without corn.

LarsAlereon··on Technical experts have zero customers
It's one thing to advocate not over-engineering your minimum viable product, but it's quite another to normalize releasing Potemkin village products and hoping customers pay before they realize the product doesn't work.
LarsAlereon··on Amazon Plans to Cut as Much as 15% of Its HR Staff
I agree. From what I've been told, people's supervisors just wash their hands of it and say "talk to HR to work it out."
LarsAlereon··on Amazon Plans to Cut as Much as 15% of Its HR Staff
From what I've heard from low-level employees, HR was basically entirely automated some years ago and the HR staff existed as a kind of helpdesk to solve exceptions. A simple example I heard is that employees are automatically fired after 3 days of unexcused absences, but occasionally an employee's doctor's note somehow doesn't excuse their absences, so they get an e-mail saying they are fired, call a phone number in the footer of the e-mail to talk to HR and open a ticket, and HR marks their absences as excused and unfires them.
LarsAlereon··on New England's last coal plant has stopped operating, according to its owners
It looks like the top-end estimate is that the Fukushima disaster may have caused up to 500 additional total lifetime deaths from cancer. Roughly 23,000 people per year died of diseases attributed to coal power plants in the United States alone from 1999-2020.

Edit: Changed "linked to" to "attributed to", because this is the estimated count of people who would not have died of disease if coal power plants were not running.

LarsAlereon··on New England's last coal plant has stopped operating, according to its owners
I think it's primarily a fundamental cost issue. It's simply far cheaper to get an equivalent amount of energy from fracking a natural gas formation than having to literally dig coal out of the ground.
LarsAlereon··on USDA website blames "Radical Left Democrats" for shutdown
I was wondering if it was just me noticing a severe and rapid decline from that speech. If I didn't know better I would have assumed he was drunk.
LarsAlereon··on The Trauma You Need to Learn
I feel like this is the opposite lesson than you should learn. Firing people sucks for everyone involved, but investing a lot of time trying to interpret tea leaves to determine if candidates are a good fit doesn't have a return-on-investment in finding better candidates and firing people less often. Instead it always makes sense to take more chances, support new employees, and use some mechanism like a probationary period to exit those who won't thrive before it's too painful.
LarsAlereon··on Stirring Bars Are Superstition?
Anyone who has done any level of chemistry, including home chemistry, has observed how important stirring is to dissolution. If you just dump some ingredient into a container with solvent without stirring, you're going to end up with undissolved solids on the bottom covered by a heavy super-saturated solution. Over a long enough time with changes in temperature, or heating from below causing convection, you'll eventually end up with a uniform solution. But if you need the product for some purpose, waiting an arbitrary time maybe isn't the best plan.
LarsAlereon··on I'm Concerned Excerpt
I'm thinking this might be related to voice-over-WiFi registration, I'd be curious if that was previously enabled while a SIM was installed. Alternatively, if the phone was purchased through the carrier it will have their provisioning software preloaded. Honestly this is better than the bad old days when phones would fall back to sending an SMS to a random international number to register.
LarsAlereon··on Windows 11 Update KB5063878 corrupted my 8TB Seagate drive (RAW, data loss)
This seems more like a hardware or controller failure. There's no way Windows could cause all sectors to return identical contents even if it wanted to without hours of writes.
LarsAlereon··on Ask HN: Would you swap your desk for a restaurant shift?
They're struggling with employee turnover because the boss won't pay competitive wages. Why won't the boss pay competitive wages? I have some ideas, but rather than project I'll just say that's the problem to solve.
LarsAlereon··on US Navy is retiring the last of its cruisers, 'the pinnacle of naval power'
This is more of a change in terminology than a reduction in capabilities. They are replacing 9,600 long ton Ticonderoga-class guided missile cruisers with 9,700 long ton Arleigh Burke-class guided missile destroyers.
LarsAlereon··on People from U.S. base in Antarctica evacuated in high-risk rescue operation
The 2026 US budget has a 70% funding reduction. This evacuation was for medical reasons, so for privacy the information released will be limited. In an emergency it makes more sense to fly from New Zealand than all the way from the USA.
LarsAlereon··on Show HN: I built a satirical Dowry Calculator to highlight a harmful tradition
As a man who is not from India, could you please provide some cultural context on this number? Is this the price that would be expected to be paid to the family of a woman who matched these specifications in order to get married?
LarsAlereon··on Six traits that make someone cool, according to science
Being cool is about being cringe without being apologetic about it.
LarsAlereon··on A Shocking Amount of People Say Car Cupholders Are 'Difficult to Use'
My main complaint in older cars is that the cup holders are too small. My main complaint in newer cars is that they are to shallow. A common way to describe the torque in electric cars is "enough to dump all the cup holders" which honestly says more about the cup holders than the vehicle.
LarsAlereon··on The obesity trap, and common misconceptions about obesity
I never lost weight through increased physical activity because my hunger levels always scaled to match my Calorie burning. Two things that have made major durable differences for me include reducing my sugary beverage intake and increasing my fiber intake. High-fiber foods make me feel full longer so significantly decrease my overall Calorie intake. Snacks like Triscuits and whole grain Goldfish crackers are good for this.
LarsAlereon··on Precious Plastic is in trouble
In general landfilling (in modern, properly designed landfills) should be regarded as a kind of carbon sequestration. It's actually pretty hard to be better for the environment than that.
LarsAlereon··on Caffeine induces age-dependent brain complexity and criticality during sleep
From the paper: "Maximal complexity arises in systems that achieve an optimal balance between order and randomness. According to criticality theory, this critical point characterizes the state of maximal computational efficiency and optimal information processing."
LarsAlereon··on A South Korean grand master on the art of the perfect soy sauce
Kikkoman has a double-fermented soy sauce in their product line, brewing starts with their regular soy sauce instead of salt water. The flavor is much deeper and more complex, it's actually less salty than regular soy sauce.
LarsAlereon··on Old Growth Wood
It's true that old-growth wood is stronger and denser than modern wood, but it's absolutely not true that obsolete windows made of old-growth wood are better than modern windows or should be retained in a restoration if not required by code. Wood is a terrible material to make window frames out of, and there's simply nothing you can do to a single-glazed window that makes it comfortable to live with.

We have this thing called "building science" now, you can do better than just copying your grandpa.

LarsAlereon··on Show HN: I built a knife steel comparison tool
Looking at some of the comparisons, the data appears to be (I could be wrong) scraped from this article by Dr Larrin Thomas based on his personal research and testing, possibly also including some of the other articles on his website: https://knifesteelnerds.com/2021/10/19/knife-steels-rated-by...
LarsAlereon··on Using NASA’s SMAP satellite to detect L-band interference
It seems it's because Japan allows LTE service on 1427.9Mhz and higher. It looks like Europe starts at 1452Mhz, and the US keeps this entire band clear from consumer applications.
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