HNHacker News
TopNewBestAskShowJobs

ben010783

126 karma · joined March 27, 2013

@ben010783
submissionscomments
ben010783··on A group of middle-aged whites in the U.S. is dying at a startling rate
They do mention it. They suggest that those types of ailments are increasing, but not at a pace that would explain these deaths.

"...the study clearly shows they are not the result of diseases such as lung cancer or diabetes, which are declining and increasing slowly, respectively."

ben010783··on Inside The Fine Art Factories of China
To add to your tip about standard frame size, you can also add a mat to make a piece fit into a standard frame.
ben010783··on Years You Have Left to Live, Probably
I don't think that's a good fit for a person in your situation. It's so unlikely that you'll die in that period. I don't know about if you have kids, a house, or your work situations, but I would consider lowering the the payout and investing the rest in a retirement account. If you dropped it down to $500,000, your wife would still be fine for years after you died. If that freed up $40 that you could invest every month, it would result in over $50,000 that you would have at retirement.
ben010783··on Lawrence Lessig wants to run for president in an unconventional way
I don't think #1 is as bad as you think. It works if you make it easier for people to vote, but don't force them to vote. Additionally, emphasizing that citizens have a right to vote and giving them more time to do so can lead more a more engaged population and voters that are more informed.
ben010783··on Safari is the new IE
I doubt it will ever be as good as Safari, but Google is working on this: http://www.macrumors.com/2015/06/12/chrome-os-x-performance-...
ben010783··on Dollar Shave Club Is Valued at $615M
I think the subscription model is a big part of the valuation. Investors love seeing steady (and predictable) income.
ben010783··on How MIT Students Won $8M in the Massachusetts Lottery (2012)
I think the tone of the article is because the lottery officials did nothing to stop the practice.

"The inspector general’s report claims that lottery officials actually bent rules to allow the group to buy hundreds of thousands of the $2 tickets, because doing so increased revenues and made the lottery even more successful."

ben010783··on Well, We Failed – Wattage is shutting down
Just the other week I was listening to a podcast where they were talking about how Apple seems to be moving in the opposite direction now. They have the MacBook, MacBook Air, MacBook Pro (and a non-Retina version), iMac (and a Retina version), Mac Pro, and a Mac mini.
ben010783··on Show HN: A tool that transforms your whole list with just one example
This is a very cool tool. I wouldn't trust it with any sensitive info though. The lack of terms, https, and the fact that it's closed source means I have no idea of what could happen to the data I put in there.
ben010783··on Are master’s degrees on their way out? Alternatives grow as enrollment fades
You don't get the same bang for buck out of a master's degree, but it's not clear that enrollment won't rise again when the economy slumps again. Getting a Master's Degree gets you classes, experience, connections, and it also gives you access to a lot of services, like Lynda.com. When you look at how many colleges offer free access to Lynda.com or how many colleges supply courses for Coursera, you realize that many of these services are trying to supplement college, rather than replace it entirely.

Continuing education has been necessary long before the rise of online video. I think these services will have a bigger effect on the publishing industry than the Master's Degree programs.

ben010783··on Nordstrom's robots.txt
I can't think of a single reason. Some of the URLs still work too.
ben010783··on Netflix Long Term View
I've been confused about why the website seems so counterintuitive. I really hope someone at Netflix understands this problem and pushes for a fix.
ben010783··on Doxxing defense: Remove your personal info from data brokers
I'm just guessing, but they could be using info that was obtained when a user was trying to get a loan. Typically, your info is sent to multiple lenders so you can get the best rate. Somebody could be collecting the info somewhere along the line.
ben010783··on An Imaginary Town Becomes Real, Then Not
There's a Wikipedia article on this: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beatosu_and_Goblu
ben010783··on Facebook Takes Steps Against ‘Click Bait’ Articles
The submitted article is shorter and more concise, but you're not missing anything by only reading the official announcement.
ben010783··on Uber Sets Valuation Record of $17B in New Funding
I feel your pain, but you completely left out the option of the train. I usually use it to get to the airport. It is slower, but it costs a lot less and runs 24 hours a day. If you're lucky, the train will even take you up the escalator.
ben010783··on Lyft Plus
It's kind of annoying. If you click the link to request an invite or become a driver and then close the popup, you can't use the back button to go to the previous page.
ben010783··on 100 Days of GitHub Contributions
I don't get why BitBucket hasn't realized this yet. Their profile pages could look so much better.
ben010783··on The Absurdity of LinkedIn
What's more likely is that people that you contact via email are allowing LinkedIn to search their contact list.
ben010783··on LinkedIn is not using email contacts to find people who have an account already
I have seen this too, but I suspect that someone you contacted (or vice versa) allowed their contacts to be shared with LinkedIn. LinkedIn could then use the info from the other person to recommend contacts.
ben010783··on AOL chief cuts 401k benefits, blames Obamacare and two “distressed babies”
I think he was just using that as one example of AOL's questionable business practices. The company has been known for things like charging customers for service they don't need, making it difficult to cancel service, and pumping out a large volume of low quality content (pulled from original sources) to get higher search rankings.
ben010783··on How a Math Genius Hacked OkCupid to Find True Love
> McKinlay had popped up in her search for 6-foot guys with blue eyes near UCLA...

I find it interesting that he did so much analysis based on interests, beliefs, etc. and he ended up getting messaged because of a search that was pretty superficial.

ben010783··on Today my startup failed
Having Christopher Poole as CEO probably helps raise money too.
ben010783··on Sherlock Holmes Is in the Public Domain, American Judge Rules
It seems like you're confusing a judge's interpretation of a law with extensive lobbying to get a law changed. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Copyright_Term_Extension_Act
ben010783··on The PC is not dead, we just don't need new ones
GTA4 was actually a sore spot for PC gamers. The game was not optimized, so it ran like crap if you didn't have a higher-end set-up.
ben010783··on LinkedIn Intro: Doing the Impossible on iOS
That is an interesting note, but if the business is using Gmail (http://www.google.com/enterprise/apps/business/products.html) maybe that's because they trust Google's services. Trusting one third party doesn't imply that you trust all third parties.
ben010783··on IE seems right, Chrome seems wrong
I think they just wanted to consistently handle the port, rather than exclude it when it is the default. I can understand wanting to be consistent, but their implementation even goes against the W3 specs: http://www.w3.org/TR/url/#url-decomposition-idl-attributes
ben010783··on My Friends and I Bought an Island
When talking about watercooled VWs, it refers to this jack: http://www.quickcashauto.com/How-To-Articles/images/Jack.jpg

The term seems to be used for all sorts of things.

ben010783··on It's the real thing
Using Apple Computer as an example is funny because it's similar to what happened when Apple Corps sued Apple Computer for trademark infringement (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apple_Corps_v_Apple_Computer). I don't understand how a computer company would harm the holding company for the biggest band to ever exist, but this fight went on for over two decades.
ben010783··on Google Chromecast
The power chord is a USB cable. My guess was that you set it up on your computer via USB.
← PreviousPage 2 of 2