Hacker News Reader

Tasker is a great, mature alternative that will tickle the fancy of most hackers.

Knee-jerk reactions are a big problem on this site. Perhaps there should be a delay between a story posting and comments being allowed.

dskhatrion Coke Engineers Its Orange Juice—With an Algorithm

Trader Joe's sells fresh squeezed orange and tangerine juices.

dskhatrion Stay focused - New research on how to close the achievement gap

The article seems to contradict what I previously read about KIPP [1]. I thought KIPP also heavily emphasized 'emotional intelligence' going so far as to giving their students t-shirts emblazoned with the "Don't eat the marshmallow" slogan. The words refer to the famous Stanford experiment on delayed gratification.

It seems the article (or Paul Tough) does not provide a balanced, complete analysis. Perhaps the colleges the kids dropped out of overemphasized academic achievement. It could be that emotional intelligence plays a role in the long-term success, of which college may or may not also be an ingredient.

[1] http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2009/05/18/090518fa_fact_...

dskhatrion You’re not anonymous. I know your name, email, and company.

Dataium does this too, as covered by WSJ's recent article on the subject [1]

The article goes into depth about how much personal information is sent along to advertisers including a popular dating site's apparently anonymized information about drug use, and sexual orientation.

I think we need a non-profit service that defines a set of privacy licenses (akin to CreativeCommons' licenses) which companies can opt to label their websites/apps with. There would be no policing/auditing [2], but companies found to violate the privacy licenses would be obliged to donate a sum to an organization like the EFF.

That the privacy policies would be encompassed by one simple privacy licence badge would allow users to quickly and easily identify a company's privacy policies. I believe users would gravitate toward using services that display this license.

Edit: it appears such a service is in the works - http://privacycommons.org

[1] http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1000142412788732478440457814...

[2] The auditing process would likely become complex, costly and corruptible

dskhatrion Internet Explorer becomes Korean election issue

It will be a good thing for non Koreans too. I tried purchasing tickets on Asiana Airline's website recently. Landing on their home page, I was greeted with a message saying the website was optimized for Internet Explorer. Sure enough, I couldn't select my destination from the drop down menu on Chrome.

dskhatrion Apple iPhone charger teardown: quality in an tiny expensive package

That's correct. In my experience, with such high volume opportunities, most semiconductor suppliers will provide their engineering expertise in doing (or supporting) not only the development but the reliability processes.

dskhatrion A hacker creates his own version of Google Project Glass

Mann is a Media Lab alum. The Media Lab did extensive work on wearable computing a decade ago [1]. Rich DeVaul [2] is another alum who worked extensively on wearable computing there, and is possibly involved in Project Glass.

[1] http://www.media.mit.edu/wearables [2] http://devaul.net/

dskhatrion Sal Khan is MIT's 2012 Commencement speaker

Wow, what an amazing year for him! I enjoyed this recent talk where he spoke a lot more freely than at TED: http://techtv.mit.edu/videos/15484-rethinking-education---sa....

dskhatrion ME student discovers a unique fact about polar bears

There's actually a lot of research money and time put into the field called biomimetics.

One of the more publicized examples of this research was Stickybot [1], a gecko-inspired robot that can climb vertical surfaces. Commercial examples in robotics are not hard to find either: Boston Dynamics' robots, ASIMO, Festo's Seagull UAV etc.

The Ortiz Lab does fascinating research [2] on the material properties of exoskeletons.

Then there's the study of the camouflage exhibited by cephalopods. This video report on Science Friday is worth watching: http://www.sciencefriday.com/program/archives/201108053

[1] http://bdml.stanford.edu/twiki/bin/view/Rise/StickyBot [2] http://web.mit.edu/cortiz/www/

dskhatrion Watch a VC use my name to sell a con

I appreciated the final words too. I've noticed an increase in the number of people offering advice about how to do things "right", followed by comment streams about why that's wrong, and "right" would be doing things a different way. But what's right for one person is not for another. I too find myself working super hard on projects that may seem worthless to some, trading off my sleep once in a while. It makes me feel good.

Maybe, rather than give advice, authors should do more of simply describing their experiences, and let the readers make inferences for themselves.

Edit. Deleted the first word (Amen). Another growing practice, and one that I am guilty of in this case, is the overzealous use of showy phrases solely to draw attention.

dskhatrion Amazon to Unveil the "Kindle Fire"

Doesn't anyone else see how the Kindle Fire is very significant for Google, despite the fact that Google may see no revenue from this product?

Google now has a strong partner in its Android patent war, unless Amazon has paid license fees to the likes of Oracle, which would then undermine Google's position.

dskhatrion Teagueduino source code released: includes Arduino realtime interpreter

It makes me uncomfortable seeing the the phrase "learning to solder" used as an analogy to "learning to code". Soldering is actually a very trivial process and has little to do with learning about circuits. One can build a circuit without having to solder anything.

Maybe it's time for another phrase? What about "learning to wire an op-amp" or "learning to design a circuit"?

dskhatrion XXX TLD Officially Open

It reminds me of the .mobi silliness. Why would a TLD, meant for the mobile devices, require one more keystroke, AND for the unfortunate people stuck using old phones with telephone keypads, require hitting 6 twice?

dskhatrion Bored People Quit

My point is that a lot of engineers I know (irrespective of being introverted or extroverted) would not be comfortable with such a harassing approach. Unless the author used 'look me in the eye' metaphorically as 'be frank with me'.

dskhatrion Bored People Quit

"I’m going to keep digging until you look me in the eye"

Are you sure you want to do that to engineers? There's a joke that goes something like:

How do you tell an introverted engineer from an extroverted one? The introverted engineer stares at his/her shoes when talking to you. The extroverted one stares at your shoes.

I don't think it's a good idea to "keep digging until you look me in the eye".

dskhatrion Has Dropbox set the stage for a privacy revolution?

You've mirrored my thoughts, and quite succinctly. However, I feel that it's not the media that is the seed of the manipulation but other geeks (through their blogs or comments on news.yc). Remember, the media lurks on sites like news.yc, picking up and amplifying trends for mass-market consumption. It's what makes News.YC so special, if not a little dangerous.

dskhatrion What's yours stays yours. - Dropbox Terms Update

That's somewhat of a sensationalist comment. What they're doing is actually very positive and different. TOS are generally viewed as complex legal verbiage that shouldn't be touched with a 10m pole. Many startups avoid dealing with the issue by adopting existing TOS without questioning the harsh and extreme language used. To me, it appears that the Dropbox team is setting an important precedent by questioning, through user feedback, the need for unfriendly terms that have become the norm. To that I say: Good job, Dropbox!

dskhatrion Google just launched prizes.org

You don't need to log in: http://prizes.org/home

dskhatrion Why Retired Aircraft are Stored in the Desert

Aerial maps view of Davis Monthan: http://www.bing.com/maps/?v=2&cp=pbskp45rxh0y&lvl=16...

dskhatrion The pi is a lie… Happy Half Tau Day!

MITLeaks: http://www.mitadmissions.org/topics/apply/the_selection_proc...

dskhatrion The pi is a lie… Happy Half Tau Day!

Tell that to my 12-year old nephew who memorized π to 128 decimal places in celebration of today! He'll be heart-broken to find out he memorized an inconsequential number.

dskhatrion What do you think of our new team page? (type "dance" for party mode)

Really digging your Company Overview video too: http://wistia.com/about/company

dskhatrion How to Launch a Camera Into Space (with FAA Approval)

Their project dates back to 2009. One of the students went on to start a very noble project: http://grassrootsmapping.org/about/

dskhatrion Business Insider Turns A $2,127 Profit On $4.8 Million In Revenue

I think it's okay to use revenue as a measure of valuation as long as there is strong growth. A company may have 0 profit now but as it grows, it can control costs and hence turn a profit (economies of scale).

dskhatrion Socialcam Now Available

I would be more excited about this if I didn't have to log in via Facebook.

  Socialcam is requesting permission to do the following:
  * Access my basic information
  * Access my data any time ("Socialcam may access my data 
    when I'm not using the application")
  * Access my friends' information ("Current Cities, Photos,
    Videos and Photos and Videos of Them")

Granted I'm already having a tough time keeping up with all the permissions' changes when apps get updated on my phone, seeing the above (especially #2 & 3) gives me the heebie-jeebies. Maybe explain why you need these permissions on socialcam.com? Also, I would rather just create a socialcam user account and share a video on Facebook when I want to; I realize that would take the social out of socialcam.

dskhatrion Stanford's Mechanical Engineering department's Product Realization Laboratory

It appears there is an Open Access Fab Lab at the South End Technology Center in Boston (http://www.tech-center-enlightentcity.tv/)

MIT students have access to several shops such as the Edgerton Center Shop: http://web.mit.edu/Edgerton/www/Shop.html. Others are described here: http://www.mitadmissions.org/topics/learning/libraries_facil...

dskhatrion Stanford's Mechanical Engineering department's Product Realization Laboratory

If you are in Los Angeles, there are several affordable machine shops here. I'll be taking the Venice Machine Shop class starting next Monday (http://venicemachine.com/). For only $55, you get 6 hours of machine shop access for 3 months! El Camino College has a more modern machine shop with all sorts of cool prototyping machines but the classes are on weekday mornings (http://southbaymachine.com/). Machine shops in other parts of our fair & sprawling region are listed here: http://venicemachine.com/expandedinfo/machineshopclasses.htm

There are also Fab Labs around the world: http://fab.cba.mit.edu/about/labs/

dskhatrion The 19 Senators Who Voted To Censor The Internet

Why are you shocked? The entertainment industry is centered in Los Angeles.

dskhatrion Startup Tackles Rural Transportation Problem in Africa

'The cost of buying the things' matters quite significantly in developing countries as is evidenced by Tata's high-profile release of the $2200 Nano (http://tatanano.inservices.tatamotors.com/tatamotors/) in India. As discussed on the site (http://mobiusmotors.com/demand/alternatives.html), high-capacity public transport vehicles already exist in rural Africa. Making the American school buses rugged enough for the typical rural African roads and longer travel distances would certainly increase their cost. Mobius Motors is targeting a market segment similar to that of the Tata Nano.

I posted this article to highlight the growing entrepreneurial confidence in Africa (Kenya in this case).