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Osiris30on The Piccadilly line’s new air conditioned trains

The biggest question I have is why does it take 47 years to upgrade trains in one of the richest cities in one of the richest countries in the world?

Osiris30on Dude, where's my fuel?

Relevant thread - question asked by Ramez Naam on the feasibility of Prometheus:

https://twitter.com/ramez/status/1516199169911713794?s=21&t=...

Osiris30on Curiosity Is Better Than Being Smart?

What about the effects of 'time spent on the problem' (ie compounding)? If you are only learning for learning sake, then getting to a "101" or "102" or "103" (to use American college level terminology)is fine I would assume. This might take 1-3 years of learning/study/doing.

But if you truly want to "master" something - then does "constantly thinking about problems" mean you will never benefit from the same 'compounding' effect as someone who has spent 3/5/10 years of their time on that problem?

Or - is all your "need for cognition" - mostly in one domain space (e.g. "Computer Science" or "database structure" etc)?

Osiris30on Tesla's Straubel on QuantumScape's new Solid-State battery: it's a breakthrough

One of the only detailed interviews of the Founder/CEO of QuantumScape on the company's past, future and vision:

https://cleantechnica.com/2020/12/19/these-kinds-of-opportun...

Osiris30on Europe's Biggest Vertical Farm Will Be Powered by Wind and Planted by Robots

Also see previous recent discussion of indoor/vertical farming (2017) - (1) and (2).

As discussed on that thread, vertical/indoor farming is great for leafy greens (mainly water but but not much other nutrients or carbon), but much harder for other plants.

See this video [3] - "Why Vertical Farming Won't Save the Planet: Bruce Bugbee, Utah State University Department of Plants, Soils and Climate, has studied plant growth in controlled environments for most of his career. Here he presents the results of his analysis of the environmental effects of Vertical Farming/Indoor Agriculture (September 2015)".

A copy of the slides can be downloaded here (the link shown on the youtube page is dead - correct link[4]).

[1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14809841 [2] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14347288 [3] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ISAKc9gpGjw [4] https://cpl.usu.edu/htm/research/publication=15787

Osiris30on Open Syllabus Project: Computer Science

Also OSSU. See this earlier discussion comment - response by creator of OSSU on OSSU vs teachyourselfcs.com https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21067697

Osiris30on Toyota plans to be the first company to sell an EV with a solid-state battery

Related discussion on QuantumScape’s solid-state news earlier this week: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25376124

Osiris30on NextMind is building a real-time brain computer interface

Seems aimilar to the Swiss startup Mindmaze - 2016 Intro article after their initial fundraise https://www.forbes.com/sites/aarontilley/2016/02/17/mindmaze...

And a more recent Wired article https://www.wired.co.uk/article/mind-maze-virtual-reality-br...

Osiris30on Structure and Interpretation of Computer Programs (1996) [pdf]

Yes please do write a detailed blog post on this.

Osiris30on Brex wants to replace startup bank accounts with Brex Cash

CBW Bank - founded by an-Ex google engineer and an ex-Wall Streeter has been doing this (created a bank from bottom Up - including purchasing an actual bank and creating the software) geared towards startups) since 2014. Don’t know how well they are doing now.

But they wouldn’t have had the in-built In go-to-market strategy, or the prestige/visibility in the funding community, of a YC Alum.

1. 2016 - Why Fintech Startups Are Flocking to a 124-Year-Old Bank in Kansas https://fortune.com/2016/08/24/fintech-bank/

2. 2014 - Small Bank in Kansas Is a Financial Testing Ground

https://dealbook.nytimes.com/2014/12/13/small-bank-in-kansas...

Osiris30on OSSU: A path to a free self-taught education in computer science

Not being harsh to the OSSU team - they've done a great job and hopefully they can comment on this - but I prefer TeachYourSelfCS. - Because (a) they provide both Book AND Video/MOOC resource for each topic and (b) its a lot more apparent what the 'core' knowledge you need to attain to get a solid undergrad level knowledge base is.

I also like this resource site - its a bit dated though: http://blog.agupieware.com/2014/05/online-learning-bachelors...

Also would be nice to get a simple roadmap like this https://roadmap.sh/frontend

Osiris30on OSSU: A path to a free self-taught education in computer science

Interesting. Could you elaborate further on how you do this, study techniques for “meta learning” and what you define by “blowing through”? Thanks

Osiris30on OSSU: A path to a free self-taught education in computer science

There’s wikiversity - https://en.wikiversity.org on all of different topics.

And several others are trying to create mind maps.

But would be great to have a resource like OSSCSU or TeachYourSelfCS for X...

At least for the “main” subjects like Maths, Stats, Chem, Bio, Physics and Humanities - Econ, Anthro, Pschy, Pol Sci, Law, Sociology.

Osiris30on Tesla battery researcher unveils new cell that could last 1M miles

Short thread commentary on the paper by Ric Fulop (co-founder of A123 battery co. and current CEO/founder of Desktop Metal): https://twitter.com/ricfulop/status/1170527207657263104

Osiris30on Tesla battery researcher unveils new cell that could last 1M miles

Would this be a correct summary of the paper?

1) eliminates Cobalt

2) improves energy density (more range)

3) faster charge rate

4) less SOC (state of charge) swing, meaning less cost & weight

4) 5x longer lifespan

Osiris30on Baking bread from a 4,500-year-old yeast from Ancient Egyptian pottery

The author Seamus Blackley is also a co-founder if the XBox amongst other cool things https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seamus_Blackley

Osiris30on Japanese Play-by-Postcard RPGs: Net Games (2017)

Count me in too

Osiris30on What Bodies Think About: Bioelectric Computation Outside the Nervous System

Do you have any good recommendations for books, textbooks, links, lectures or papers for beginners to start to understand this area?

Osiris30on Her six-hour commute each day seems crazy, but her affordable rent is not

A very similar article from August 2017 in the NYT on a 4 1/2 commute from Stockton to SF. "A 2:15 Alarm, 2 Trains and a Bus Get Her to Work by 7 A.M" - discussed previously on HN: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15038433

Osiris30on Elon Musk’s Ideas About Transportation are Boring

Background info to the 'flame war' between Musk and Jared Walker (humantransit.org), which was the catalyst for this post, can be found here - http://humantransit.org/2017/12/elon-musk-responds.html

Osiris30on Ghost Ships: Autonomous Cargo Ships Could Disrupt the Massive Shipping Industry

Relevant article from same source - Google and Rolls-Royce Partner on Autonomous Ships: https://www.therobotreport.com/google-rolls-royce-partner-au...

Osiris30on How to Design Programs, Second Edition

Previous discussion on HN - 3 years ago (1) and even earlier (2).

(1) https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8778569

(2) https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2958108

Osiris30on The Road to Superintelligence (2015)

As a counter, see the previous discussion on Kevin Kelly - the AI Cargo Cult & the myth of a Superhuman AI (1).

See also several other articles making similar points (2).

And "In late 2008, economist Robin Hanson and AI theorist Eliezer Yudkowsky conducted an online debate about the future of artificial intelligence, and in particular about whether generally intelligent AIs will be able to improve their own capabilities very quickly (a.k.a. “foom”)."

(1) https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14205042

(2) http://www.salon.com/2015/10/15/calm_down_artificial_intelli...

(3) https://intelligence.org/ai-foom-debate/

Osiris30on Plenty, Indoor Farming Startup, Raises $200M

See previous recent discussion of indoor/vertical farming (1).

As discussed on that thread, vertical/indoor farming is great for leafy greens, but much harder for other plants.

See this video [2] - "Why Vertical Farming Won't Save the Planet: Bruce Bugbee, Utah State University Department of Plants, Soils and Climate, has studied plant growth in controlled environments for most of his career. Here he presents the results of his analysis of the environmental effects of Vertical Farming/Indoor Agriculture (September 2015)".

A copy of the slides can be downloaded here (the link shown on the youtube page is dead - correct link[3]).

[1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14347288

[2] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ISAKc9gpGjw

[3] https://cpl.usu.edu/htm/research/publication=15787

Osiris30on Vint Cerf savours a life of Claude Shannon

Interesting. Do you have a link for this?

Osiris30on My Father’s Weakness for Beer Never Lessened His Strengths

If you have not done so already, (and for many others commenting on this thread), in your situation you might get a lot out looking up "The Sinclair Method"; "Dr. David Sinclair" and "Pharmacological Extinction". Some useful links below.

[1] http://www.thesinclairmethod.net/community/viewtopic.php?f=5... -

About The Sinclair Method and How It Works [2] http://www.centersite.net/poc/view_doc.php?type=doc&id=11132...

[3] http://www.cthreefoundation.org/about-the-sinclair-method.ht...

[4] http://cthreeeurope.com/the-5-steps-to-curing-alcoholism-exc...

Why Isn’t The Sinclair Method Used More Often and why have so few doctors in the US/UK heard of it?

[4] Best explanation: https://www.quora.com/Can-naltrexone-normalize-the-drinking-...

[5] https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/overcoming-addiction/20...

[6] https://www.addiction.com/expert-blogs/why-isnt-the-sinclair...

Osiris30on p5.js – A library to make coding accessible for artists, designers, educators

Dan Shiffman's youtube channel "The Coding Train", his books and website - are really great introductions/tutorials to general programming, creative programming, natural language analysis, machine learning and a whole bunch of other topics. He has this ability to make technical-sounding (or actually technical) concepts and projects interesting, non-scary for beginners (and non-math background people) and fun. In my view - his books & videos are prolly the best introductions to programming for kids and people who have a fear of programming.

If you read the various blog posts and interviews - the history of Processing at his department (NYU Tisch ITP) had a purpose of encouraging 'creative' people to explore and gain an exposure to programming.

All link to above can be found on his personal site - http://shiffman.net/

Osiris30on EU Prepares "Right to Repair" Legislation to Fight Short Product Lifespans

See the previous discussion on HN - "recraiglist" and "They Used To Last 50 Years" (1) - a well-circulated blog post by a successful used home appliance repair & trading entrepreneur.

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13909365