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alexrson

56 karma · joined May 30, 2012

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alexrson··on X offices raided in France
I think they meant to put a period after raided.
alexrson··on Ask HN: What are some cool interactive audiovisual experiences you know?
This one was fun: https://www.thebroad.org/visit/mirror-rooms
alexrson··on VanMoof, the e-bike darling, skids off track: sales paused, execs depart
I prefer an e-bike over an escooter because I have a lot of prior experience biking in traffic that it feels more natural to be biking. I also find I can't really take one hand off of the handle bars on my scooter (to signal for example) whereas I can easily do that on a bike. There's a whole laundry list of small things I like better about ebikes than escooters.
alexrson··on Mario Kart Live: Home Circuit
I think there was a software update allowing multiple vehicles per switch. The Karts were on sale pretty significantly a couple months ago:

https://en-americas-support.nintendo.com/app/answers/detail/...

alexrson··on Ask HN: Books about people who persevered when no one else believed in them?
Longitude - nonfic by dana sobel About a scientist/engineer who developed a sufficiently accurate clock to calculate longitude on an oceangoing ship in the age of sail. Which was of vast importance to sailing. The establishment was strongly in favor of astronomy based methods of calculating longitude.

Barbara McClintock is a real scientist who fits this mold, but I haven't read a biography of her to specifically recommend.

alexrson··on $1,944 for a coronavirus test? Readers helped us spot an unusual trend
The author of this article, Sara Kliff basically did a smaller version of that for ER visits when she was a reporter at Vox. The reporting did end up affecting policy.
alexrson··on Elon Musk admits Tesla car quality flaws, says mass production is “hell”
In my experience there were two manufacturing issues with my car and they came to my location and fixed them for free. Obviously, it would better to not have them in the first place and I can't speak to the full set of issues people have had.
alexrson··on Show HN: Pluto – In-browser spatial video chat
I had a lot of fun using this to catch up with some colleagues I haven't seen in a while. Very cool!

I have some feedback: It would be cool to have some really interesting sculpture art to sort of seed groups of people talking in the museum level. I'm specifically requesting like a mutating 3d fractal sculpture that might invite people to gather. Or a campfire. I thought that having all the different worlds is cool but if everyone is in one location and you're in a different world it's easy to get isolated. Along the same lines, it would be cool if the size of the level sort of scaled with the size of the group in some way.

alexrson··on Secret gyms and the economics of prohibition
In the cited article, the only statistic I see on weight specifically is that 74% of critically ill UK patients were overweight or obese, which makes it a risk factor but not the be all and end all, given what fraction of the whole pop fits that category (~65%).

It also says that 99% of deaths in Italy were from patients with pre-existing conditions, which would included weight related and non-weight related ones.

Regardless of COVID, maintaining a healthy weight is probably one of more important lifestyle changes one can make to reduce risk of overall mortality.

alexrson··on Why Are Clinical Trials So Complicated?
You may be thinking of Tagrisso: https://www.statnews.com/2020/04/10/astrazeneca-tagrisso-stu...
alexrson··on Should you code well or code fast?
My favorite pithy insight on this subject is from McConnel's code complete (mangled, most likely):

"Code is usually read more times than it is written."

alexrson··on The 120-Hour Workweek - Epic Coding Time-Lapse
Interesting question. I guess it all depends on how much he jumps around between files and different parts of files.

There's a scene in Cryptonomicon by Neal Stephenson which is similar to this problem. The protagonist is in jail with a laptop which has the location of treasure on it encrypted by a WWII Enigma machine. However, the bad guys can see his screen at all times, so he needs to write the code to crack the cipher without looking at the data. I won't spoil how he does it because I recommend reading the book.

alexrson··on The 120-Hour Workweek - Epic Coding Time-Lapse
It's actually cheaper to have two desks, two monitors, two keyboards and mice. Especially if you already extra gear lying around. I have this setup at work and find it faster/easier than an adjustable desk.
alexrson··on The Stanford Startup and the MIT Startup
Fertilizer actually has pretty decent margins, especially lately what with cheap natural gas. In any case, I suspect it would behoove whichever company had the necessary access to capital to invest in such tech.
alexrson··on The Stanford Startup and the MIT Startup
Forget about the VCs. How much would Potash Corp pay to be 20 years ahead of their competition?
alexrson··on How can an undergrad programmer make money over winter break?
Good luck with your plan. My advice on the subject of side programming gigs, is to start now.

I've found, when doing any kind of freelance work, that things generally ramp up slowly and steadily over time through referrals, new leads and whatnot. So if you want to have a reasonable amount of work to do over winter break, start getting out there and finding leads as soon as possible.

alexrson··on The Stanford Startup and the MIT Startup
If the MIT technology described in this story actually existed, its effects on the world population would be incalculable. A third of the worlds population is sustained by fertilizer produced by the Haber process. Half the nitrogen in your body was "fixed" (pulled out of the air) in this way. Half a billion tons of ammonia is made in this way each year. I recommend this article on the hundred year history of the Haber-Bosch process: http://www.theguardian.com/science/2013/nov/03/fritz-haber-f....

My point though is this. Even if these MIT PhD's don't understand marketing and can't raise enough to keep their company afloat, this hypothetical technology would be worth many many billions of dollars to a deep-pocketed chemical supply company. So the comparison is a bit lopsided.

alexrson··on Ask HN: To everybody who uses MapReduce: what problems do you solve?
How strongly does a RNA binding protein bind to each possible sequence of RNA?
alexrson··on Surnames offer depressing clues to extent of social mobility over generations
The example English surname they chose, "Micklethwait" is the name of The Economist's editor. Just a little inside joke.
alexrson··on Yelp reviewers claim to be employees in lawsuit
"...textbook example of a frivolous lawsuit" - Yelp

I have to agree.

alexrson··on Spyder – Scientific Python Development Environment
Does anyone with experience with this IDE have an opinion about whether it is superior to pycharm?
alexrson··on Ask HN: What book are you reading?
Code Complete second edition
alexrson··on Poll: Do you have a 3d printer?
It has saved me ~two dollars so far, namely on this: http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:45262
alexrson··on Ask HN: Would you be interested in reading a book on developer's career
If the software dev was really good and the story was interesting and constructive.
alexrson··on Practical Techniques to Achieve Quality in Large Software Projects
Testing is just one layer or defense against poor quality.
alexrson··on Can We Stop Drawing Trees on Top of Skyscrapers?
Is architects drawing trees on skyscrapers an analogy for something non-function-related we do with software (other than put a bird on it).
alexrson··on Ask HN: What would you want to see in a nutrition facts food label?
Nutrition facts labels often give misleading information about trans fats, which are quite unhealthy.

The RDA for trans fats is 2 grams. Trans fats are listed on the nutrition facts in grams and amounts less than 0.5 grams are listed as 0 (this is often advertised outside the nutrition facts label). But a serving of food with say 400mg of trans fats is actually a lot (especially if a "serving" is defined as much less than the average person actually consumes). The simple correction would be to list trans fats in milligram units instead as sodium (which has a comparable RDA) and ban the misleading phrase "0g trans fats."

This may seem nit picky but I don't think we should put up misleading numbers in the nutrition facts label.

alexrson··on Ask HN: Your favorite to-do list or task manager?
vi
alexrson··on The Start-Up Trap
A useful reminder
alexrson··on Ask HN: Just Quit my job, what now?
Use the leftover salary from your previous high paying job to take a well deserved break. I think your question will answer itself over the course of a month or two of relaxation.
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