Hacker News Reader

alpineon Neither the Will nor the Cash: Why India Wins So Few Olympic Medals

I also think it is a healthy sign that Indian democracy is working well in at least some respects. Their great rival China is apparently kidnapping some children who show signs of athletic potential and subjecting them to a life of intense training for a chance at an Olympic medal to promote the greatness of the mother country. India clearly hasn't chosen this route despite the pressure there must be to match China in all fields.

alpineon The Naked and the TED

I suppose adhering to the echo chamber's rhetoric is where the danger lies. A savvy politician with an ear for techno babble and an agenda detrimental to the hungry listener could make a lot of headway turning his plan into concrete effects before anyone realises what is going on.

alpineon Ask HN: SMS-enabling an app for a startup

If you expect your average customer to send about 50 SMS a week, why not charge them? Offer them a monthly plan to cover the cost of the texts plus some profit.

alpineon How to change someone’s mind on the Internet

Wait until the majority of users posting on the web are robots. Then it really will be hard to change someone's mind.

alpineon 3D slider jQuery plugin

Pretty cool content in the 3D frames. Reminded me of a childhood reading South Sea yarns and Tintin books.

alpineon The Naked and the TED

It might seem odd that Parag Khanna would turn his attention to the world of technology. He established his reputation as a wannabe geopolitical theorist, something of a modern-day Kissinger, only wired and cool

I don't find it strange. Having followed TED for years I have noticed the political under current become more obvious over time. The technocratic political elite like having a forum to promote their agenda, no surprise there really.

alpineon Reversing the Decline in Big Ideas

The founders starting "dipshit companies" are not the same types of founders who would be starting the next billion dollar companies.

Didn't Google try to sell, unsuccessfully, for a few million dollars? I don't think building a multi-billion dollar company was the original plan.

alpineon SpaceX wins $440M contract with NASA to develop Space Shuttle successor

A rocket at infinite distance from the Earth will have infinite PE and can have zero KE.

alpineon SpaceX wins $440M contract with NASA to develop Space Shuttle successor

1 - gold confiscation illustrates the power of the political class over private interests in the US

2 - oil nationalisation illustrates the power of the political class over commercial interests globally

3 - Google is your friend

4 - The future size of SpaceX is mostly irrelevant as to whether they fall victim to the whim of a politician's nationalisation decree. The only excuse they need is SpaceX took the cheque and, after all, we know Musk didn't 'build it on his own'.

Your 'moneyed interests' point hints that you may be a partisan leftist? Since they are generally uninterested in discussing the facts we should probably stop here. If you are not a partisan leftist, I suggest you get up to speed on the abuse of political power in the West since FDR's Executive Order 6102.

alpineon SpaceX wins $440M contract with NASA to develop Space Shuttle successor

Why don't you brief me. I'd be interested in how you invalidate my argument in the above.

alpineon SpaceX wins $440M contract with NASA to develop Space Shuttle successor

If I remember my history correctly, the original shuttle objectives were compromised by US intelligence interests that required the shuttle to attain certain latitudes that were good for launching intel assets? If so, the shuttle program could have been a lot cheaper?

alpineon SpaceX wins $440M contract with NASA to develop Space Shuttle successor

Most of what is kinetic energy? Its job?

A rocket that reaches escape velocity from Earth can have zero kinetic energy.

alpineon SpaceX wins $440M contract with NASA to develop Space Shuttle successor

How many NASA contractors have been nationalized in the past?

Probably not zero, if you are genuinely interested. However, lazy quips aside, the past is not the future.

alpineon SpaceX wins $440M contract with NASA to develop Space Shuttle successor

That's wonderful - the more private contracts they win the better - and the brighter all private space initiatives will hopefully be. Unfortunately, accepting several million dollars from the US government leaves SpaceX (and other Musk ventures) vulnerable to government meddling. When the government starts to meddle in your business, they are the ones that decide where to stop. You cede control of your company's destiny often when you accept the first cheque.

alpineon SpaceX wins $440M contract with NASA to develop Space Shuttle successor

Now extrapolate my argument to the difference between the beach at the Dead Sea and the launch point for earth-orbiting payloads on a space elevator.

alpineon SpaceX wins $440M contract with NASA to develop Space Shuttle successor

He has no plans to sell

It is a brave man that gets in to bed with the government thinking he can withstand the intolerable pressure they can bring, if they decide, to bend his will.

Nationalisation...

How likely do you really think that is?

Surely, it is for the oracles to strike a claim on future events, but when you consider gold confiscation in the 1930s, oil nationalisation in the 1950s, the absurd nationalisations of the 1970s, and the crony-saving bail outs of the 'Too Big to Fails' in recent years, it is obvious, I would think, that politicians are happy to corrupt the free market when it benefits their short term interests.

alpineon SpaceX wins $440M contract with NASA to develop Space Shuttle successor

The higher you are, the greater your tangential velocity to the ground. Launching a rocket from the top of Mount Everest vs a beach on the Dead Sea is cheaper in terms of energy required to attain a given altitude.

alpineon SpaceX wins $440M contract with NASA to develop Space Shuttle successor

Actually, the job of the rocket is to to increase the potential energy of the payload, so using a He balloon to put some distance between the rocket/payload package and the ground is an entirely sensible proposition.

alpineon SpaceX wins $440M contract with NASA to develop Space Shuttle successor

I would hate to see SpaceX become an acquisition of NASA, or a nationalised company of the US Federal Government. Stranger things have happened, of course, but if Musk wants to retire to Mars, he had best be concerned with this.

alpineon Peter Thiel’s startup class notes in PDF

I've turned Blake's blog posts into an audio collection simply using Apple's built in Text to Speech. It makes for a remarkably listenable series.

alpineon Does mathematics have a place in higher education?

I wasn't so much thinking about innate mathematical ability, more the mathematical education most kids should receive. Disparaging attitudes towards maths skills, which is a general rule, is pretty harmful to society, I think.

alpineon Does mathematics have a place in higher education?

So you aspire to be a Renaissance Man?

alpineon Does mathematics have a place in higher education?

'...people brag all the time about not knowing how to do math'. This is true, I think, mostly of Anglo-Saxon countries. It is quite a disgusting attitude. In what way is someone's life-chances or overall happiness degraded by a better understanding or skill in the use of numbers and higher mathematical concepts? I consider this anti-maths meme one of the most pernicious aspects of our culture.

alpineon Is Algebra Necessary?

Do you believe that writers and social scientists have nothing to add to this discussion?

Mostly, Yes.

alpineon Corner Office: Dennis Crowley

One of the smartest interview pieces I've read in a long time. I don't think you can ever over-estimate the benefit of forcing seemingly non-functionally aligned people to sit next to each other. Forcing your enterprise to build social connections is analogous to neurons forming new paths as a novel skill is mastered.

alpineon Is Algebra Necessary?

I stopped reading the moment I encountered 'I say this as a writer and social scientist...'

alpineon Tesco's 'Secure' password storage

Illustrates the danger of passing all PR functions to, well, PR people. They have obviously taken on trust the rational provided to them by their IT contact. We all know this tweet is ridiculous - who are they to know different?

alpineon On Living Below Your Potential

One could argue that the recent wars were started to satiate the hunger for a cause that the Fight Club quote is eluding to.

alpineon Make Yourself a Standing Desk This Weekend

There's one thing I don't think I've seen mentioned when this subject is brought up. If you walked into an office comprising 100% standing desks, would the environment seem a tad more unfriendly than others? Would it be intimidating enough to discourage people from dropping in for a friendly chat? It would be interesting to measure productivity pre- and post- the introduction.