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achy

89 karma · joined March 1, 2012

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achy··on Did removing lead from petrol spark a decline in crime?
It's always interesting when statistics correlate across multiple frames (time, location, etc.); however that still doesn't prove causality. I'm inclined to think that the causes behind an area being slow to remove leaded gasoline could also affect crime rates.
achy··on Facebook acquires Oculus VR
Facebook could make this a promotional win by refunding anyone who funded the dev kit a certain amount of money (down to the material cost for ex.)
achy··on Ask HN: How to disable new Google search styling
The font and underlining change are a non issue for me (other than looking terrible in chrome for windows); however the increased font size is jarring and reduces the amount of information that can quickly be scanned.
achy··on Stack Exchange tag correlations
Interesting. What about including a second column showing the back correlation? An example: 'WPF' appears 6% of the time for 'C#' questions, while 46% of 'WPF' questions include the 'C#' tag. Would be interesting use this to identify ontological hierarchy trends.
achy··on China cloning on an 'industrial scale'
Because evolution relies on survival of the fittest and genetic mutation. Your Chi-Pom-Poodle-Terrier isn't an evolutionary step for the canine. And most of all I don't want creationists to think that 'hand of god' is a valid evolutionary driver ;)
achy··on Why is a minute divided into 60 seconds, an hour into 60 minutes?
This is exactly why metric is so powerful: I also have no inherent concept of a deciliter or decagram, but I can convert to my understood liter and kilogram in moments.
achy··on China cloning on an 'industrial scale'
I didn't click on this link, but I really hope the domestication experiment with foxes is not being called 'evolution'.
achy··on Google to Acquire Nest
This might be a minority opinion, but I think more than home data collection (which they probably have a lot of already from phone / computer usage), that this is about acquiring a company that has cache and a 'cool' factor within both the design world and more importantly the market sector of young tech inclined home owners - a hugely lucrative market.
achy··on Bill Gates takes part in Reddit's Secret Santa
I think there's a middle ground where you are giving the gift of x dollars in real food / livestock to a family in xyz. Then the actual logistics of what that means are figured out and told to you.
achy··on Gravity Battery Concept
A pretty illustration of a terrible idea. Gravity just isn't that strong of a force. Electrostatic forces in chemical bonds on the other hand...
achy··on Why You Should Never Use MongoDB
I agree with you to a point. Joins are your friend. But trying to pull out all of the information about a graph of 'objects' using a single query with multiple one-to-many and many-to-many joins is just as foolish in SQL as in Mongo.
achy··on This basic income crowdfunding campaign reached its goal in less than 48 hours
sorry, price inflation. Supply and demand.
achy··on This basic income crowdfunding campaign reached its goal in less than 48 hours
The problem I envision with a basic income model is that it could have an inflationary effect - shifting the baseline. The only way this doesn't happen is if our basic income economies exploit non basic income economies - and even this wouldn't prevent housing, energy, and (non artificially) scarce items from inflation.
achy··on Amazon Kindle Matchbook is live
What about the other way round? The argument for ebooks costing the same as a paperback is that we are paying primarily for the content not the physical form, so shouldn't this work in both directions?
achy··on Russia: Hidden chips 'launch spam attacks from irons'
I'm thinking hotel rooms could be a target. Irons that are used frequently and in close proximity to people connected to (or sharing) wireless connections.
achy··on OS X Mavericks adoption pushing past 7% in under 24 hours
A lot of people have macbooks and external secondary displays. Just as you said, these people should be able to go fullscreen on their laptop and still utilize the connected display...
achy··on No rare earth metals in the Model S
Does anyone know the relative merits of induction vs brushless with regards to regenerative braking?
achy··on Please, don't buy my book on Amazon
Because a monopoly leads to zero competitive pressure - no matter how much we believe in Bezos' ethos.
achy··on The Coming Dropbox Apocalypse
It's definitely not a source control replacement, but I think dropbox themselves have been pushing their service as a cloud backup solution for quite some time. I don't think it's unreasonable to expect that you are able to use up the space allotted (or payed for) however you may choose.
achy··on Your name is way too long for your ID
Randall Randall?
achy··on Show HN: Very basic Unix-like operating system built when I was younger
'Foregranted' should be a word, I like it.
achy··on A scientific accident that could change the world
I wrote this last time too: Having a better conducting, higher surface area electrode is a huge step. BUT it doesn't really change the fact that a carbon based supercapacitor requires an electrolyte to form the double layer, and all existing electrolytes have a breakdown voltage below 5V. What we need is a better electrolyte. In calculating energy storage in a capacitor, the energy increases exponentially with voltage, while linearly with capacitance.
achy··on VNC Viewer for Google Chrome
Honest question: What is the benefit of running a native application inside a browser window instead of standalone?
achy··on An Iron Man Like 3D Hologram Controlled by Leap Motion and Three.js
This is solely a 2D image reflected in glass. The control via finger is novel, but there is no volumetric or holographic effect whatsoever.
achy··on The Super Supercapacitor [video]
Having a better conducting, higher surface area electrode is a huge step. BUT it doesn't really change the fact that a carbon based supercapacitor requires an electrolyte to form the double layer, and all existing electrolytes have a breakdown voltage below 5V. What we need is a better electrolyte. In calculating energy storage in a capacitor, the energy increases exponentially with voltage, while linearly with capacitance.
achy··on Sorry, Geeks, Microsoft Excel is Everywhere
I came to HN as a distraction from the mind wrenching exercise of compiling 5 different copies of excel documents where everyone has butchered their version in a different, horrifying way. Luckily, this is only used to keep track of procurement data for a billion dollar engineering project... Excel is a powerful, but too easily abused, tool.
achy··on Defense Distributed’s New 3D Printed High Capacity Gun Magazine ‘Cuomo’
That analogy is ridiculous. It's more like having a tub of ice cream and a spoon available at all times. It doesn't make you fat, but if you're depressed or vulnerable, it makes it a hell of a lot easier to take a bite.
achy··on Make the Metric system the standard in the United States
That is a ridiculous argument for a country that is already so heavily reliant on foreign manufacturing. If anything, at this point, the imperial standard is a barrier to having the US become a manufacturing nation once again - because so much industrial technology has been developed without a thought to the archaic measurements.
achy··on Cards Against Humanity: Results of "pay what you want"
They should have randomized the default value within a range that automatically narrowed / increased proportionally against the trending of people accepting the default. They could have optimized their return pretty quickly. 'Pay what you want' can be used for both publicity AND pricing optimization.
achy··on Nokia Unveils a Maps Service
The collision detection on the 3D view is strange. When you hit an object, the zoom level is decreased until you clear the object (in this case the top of a building).
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