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engx

138 karma · joined October 11, 2015

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engx··on Elon Musk's Boring Company Begins First Tunnel
Public transist in LA is akin to mild torture. I feel for those who have to take it every day for work.

Aside from the haphazard and oblique bus scheduling routes, the ride itself is jarring and agnozing. Unnecessary repeated montoned annoucements bombard your trip with sudden jerking stops.

Of course, the homeless and drug addicted use the bus and trains for temporary shelter. The train has even more mind numbing announcements with a ridiculous annoucement system that could be replaced by screens.

And if you want to go anywhere beyond one bus route, your trip time will be 3 to 4 times that of driving.

We're supposed to commend those who take public transist, but the City of LA doesn't care. Corrupt, incompetent, indifferent -- whatever it is, they don't have a clue what they are doing.

engx··on High rents force some in Silicon Valley to live in vehicles
I agree, but there's a range of people who live in their cars. Some cause destruction, trash and probably aren't employed or trying to work in a legitimate way. Hard drug use, crime etc are all likely.
engx··on Why Chinatown Produce Is Cheap (2016)
America should be helping fight for a world where we don't need fish police. In other words, we should encourage governments that naturally want to act in a reasonable, secular-based manner.
engx··on Why Chinatown Produce Is Cheap (2016)
I'm not directly responding to your comment but some of the best sushi chefs use fish that was frozen. And this says all sushi served in the US has to be freezed to kill any bacteria-

https://mobile.nytimes.com/2004/04/08/nyregion/sushi-fresh-f...

engx··on Why Wallflowers Don't Make Friends
Good comment but I wouldn't suggest saying you look like you are from someplace far away. Just sticking with the standard where you are from is good.

Better to have traveled out of the country a few times so you can relate.

Best advice is to talk about doing something. This art museum, this meetup, this new great restaurant. "Oh join me and my other friends. Or let's go explore together." You can kind of bluff your way through this even if you have no other friends (go find them!).

engx··on N.S.A Halts Collection of Americans’ Emails About Foreign Targets
General Hayden was recently on Sam Harris' podcast and he briefly explained the 'retroactive collection' concept-

https://www.samharris.org/podcast/item/privacy-and-security

I'd say his arguments appear clear and convincing, even to a skeptic like myself. I wonder what can be done to counter his seemingly perfect narrative so Americans can be rightfully concerned about what's happening.

To be clear, I don't believe Hayden, he is likely lying about aspects of it, these systems will inevitably be used in the future for regular law enforcement purposes and the previous abuses by NSA staff is understated. Plus, it is unequivocally illegal and a violation of natural rights. And just a bad idea which will lead to a dangerous future.

engx··on Tesla's Musk Paid at Least $593M in Income Taxes in 2016
The video clip seemed unusually harsh. The reporter said he'd announced the Hyperloop to "thrill and confuse"? Followed by several skeptical tones and questions all while contrasting it with saying he'd done things no one else had.
engx··on Plastc will cease operations and will not fulfill any pre-orders
But fraud is up. Chip & Pin has just motivated them to use online methods. Or load other pay to load cards without a chip.
engx··on Analysis of the United Airlines passenger removal incident
Aren't cops supposed to be a neutral party? Shouldn't they have inquired what was happening and tried to find all possible ways to communicate without force?

Cops in the US seem way too ready to snap into a confrontation. They could have spent 30 minutes discussing with the guy and it would had caused less disruption and delay to the other passengers.

This concept of a comply or die mentality is a real problem.

engx··on America Needs a 'Metropolitan Party'
The first thing Trump was supposed to do was introduce an Amendment for term limits (Washington Post). Cruz proposed one that would limit Senators to 2 terms and Representatives to 3 terms.

This seems like an idea almost everyone would support and would do so much to move politics forward.

engx··on Twitter allegedly deleting negative tweets about United Airlines incident
Facebook is like a network TV sitcom, produced around advertising. Everything is artificially distorted for that purpose.
engx··on Open Philanthropy Project awards a grant of $30M to OpenAI
And your suggestion about classism is moral relativism.

Who is corrupt? The guy giving away $8 billion or the one who founded GiveWell? And one of their focuses is criminal justice reform and trying to improve prison conditions.

If you want to look at something truly corrupt, look at the criminal justice system in the U.S.

engx··on Open Philanthropy Project awards a grant of $30M to OpenAI
It's not a business, it's a non profit founded by Elon Musk, Sam Altman and others, with $1 billion in committments to funding.

How is this controversial? Just because some people know each other?

engx··on Open Philanthropy Project awards a grant of $30M to OpenAI
It seems objectively better for some people to have access to money -- in this case the GiveWell founder. He's done great work there and now he's helping OpenAI all via a Facebook founder's billions.
engx··on Palmer Luckey Leaves Facebook
I don't think a rich 24 year old kid, doing something that was widely considered an attack against the Establishment, is something that is highly unusual or bad.

It doesn't seem fair to forever conflate Palmer with Trump or assume that he completely agrees with him. Maybe his tactics and philosophy are flawed, but I don't think his intentions are. Everyone's so quick to judge, demonize and forever cast people as bad.

He admitted to funding trolling memes to support the current President of the United States? He has to go away forever now, and we all have to pretend not to like him?

engx··on When ‘he’ll be kept on payroll, somewhere’ is where you are
When things go bad, the tendency for people to lie is shocking.

I lived with a business partner, and decided to move out. Him and his girlfriend begged me to stay but I wanted privacy (it was a big house with other roommates).

Few months later we get into a dispute involving our third partner, everything falls apart and suddenly they started telling people I was "evicted" from their house and a terrible person.

engx··on To fix L.A.'s traffic, we need tolls
A bus anyway in LA is substantially longer than driving. LA traffic is so annoying that a lot of people would likely take the bus if it was faster.

If there were 10x more busses, and I could pay $10 for an all day pass, I'd take the bus every other day. Especially if the higher cost limited those who unfortunately use mass transit as temporary shelter. (And find some alternative temporary no strings attached shelter for them.)

engx··on Ask HN: Who really gives your personal info to Intelius, Instant Checkmate, etc?
I went to Pavilions grocery store the other day, and when I got home, the Facebook app said, "Have you been to Pavilions recently? Click here." I want Facebook to find friends and events nearby me, not track where I go.

I can only imagine all the location data Google, Apple and Facebook is collecting and what they're actually doing with it.

engx··on Netflix Earnings Are Driven by Investment in Original Content
That service still exists for $5-12/month (dvd.netflix.com) for 1-2 discs at a time.
engx··on Bridges Supercomputer Used to Build AI Model for Beating Humans at Poker
I disagree. One reason, is that in a 6 or 9-handed game, most players will be folding 70-80% of the time. The AI will be able to understand players tendencies faster than heads-up. And in those games, the strategies and ranges are more predictable than heads-up.

It's much easier to determine the best strategy in a multi-way game than it is in a heads-up game.

engx··on Psychiatrists Must Face Possibility That Medications Hurt More Than They Help
I've had ten friends take Adderall and all of them exhibited the same characteristics as a person on meth. They are not fun to be around. Sometimes they would be highly productive, other times they just bounce around the house, doing nothing. My current roommate takes Vyvanse and it's incredibly difficult to deal with.

To me, it's okay to say it's a performance enhancing drug and that some people need more energy (e.g. coffee) to get going. But I find it incredibly dangerous to suggest a person needs to take an amphetamine every single day to be normal.

I am open to change my opinion, especially if things like EEGs can conclusively establish ADHD. But all the troubles you describe, are universally human. If Adderall helps you overcome them, I'm all for your ability to take it. I'm just cautious about labeling everything a disorder or disease.

engx··on Understanding Uber’s Bleak Operating Economics
I assume he's referring to the guaranteed boost rates which range from 1.1 to 2x the fare.

So a passenger could pay $30 for a $60 ride. It's not practical since you'd be losing the increased rates and still having to drive, netting like $10/hour.

There are GPS hacks that can supposedly spoof your rides though.

engx··on Wikileaks: Julian Assange's internet access 'cut'
Yeah, that's the same as admitting to hiring mentally ill people, homeless guys and young kids to start violent interactions.
engx··on Wikileaks: Julian Assange's internet access 'cut'
You are expressing a possibility that has a low probability of being true.

The hidden video he released today looks incontrovertible. One can only imagine all the other things these dark political operatives do if they were willing to discuss what they did so explictly with people they presumably don't know well.

engx··on A Brief History of Who Ruined Burning Man
There's some interesting parallels between Burning Man and the Cremation of Care. The latter started at the Bohemian Grove in 1881-

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cremation_of_Care

engx··on N.S.A. Contractor Arrested in Possible New Theft of Secrets
Whatever happened to the other "second Snowden" where it was reported DoJ was reluctant to prosecute?

http://news.yahoo.com/feds-identify-suspected--second-leaker...

engx··on Snapchat Releases First Hardware Product, Spectacles
He is like Jobs in the sense that he didn't invent Snapchat and he didn't code it. Maybe he articulated the philosophy of it being an anti-Kodak moment app.

The article quotes someone saying Evan's the "best product visionary" they had ever met. Give a smart kid a hot app, millions in funding and thus more smart minds, and great things can happen. But let's not overly romanticize it.

I am impressed by Snapchat's evolution, Stories etc but all that is somewhat obvious iterations on someone else's initial idea.

Snapchat is fun and sexy for a variety of reasons, none of which correlate well with people wearing clunky glasses. Spectacles aren't cool and won't be. It's a head-mounted camera. It needs to be more sleek, more expensive, and have some novel features to be considered a status symbol.

engx··on Uber starts self-driving car pickups in Pittsburgh
This is just impossible in some cities, especially when pedestrians are crossing a 5 lane road.

In LA, if you did this you'd cause significant traffic issues.

engx··on Overselling A.D.H.D.
Why do people on meth enjoy cleaning? There is little difference between meth and Adderall. Taking any type of stimulant even coffee helps people do menial tasks and be more optimistic while doing them.

Maybe millions of people are effected by some problem of distraction and lack of focus. But to suggest there's some biochemical reason for this that's cured by amphetamines seems like pseudoscience to me.

Drugs do work. If you want to take amphetamines to improve your work performance, go for it. But to suggest that it's a disease seems disingenuous.

There's something like 16 million Americans who take Adderall, which has drastically increased in used (300%+ from 2008-2012). Another poll said 35% of college students had said they'd tried Adderall.

The science of ADHD is ambiguous. The science of moderate uses of amphetamine or methamphetamines for improving work performance is easier to understand.

engx··on A Meth Addict Gets Sober in Orange County Community Court
I agree with them. If LA county sheriff's deputies didn't smuggle cellphones in, how else would an undercover FBI agent get a phone to the FBI's witness that was being hidden in the jail by Sheriff Lee Baca?

http://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-ln-sheriff-jail-sca...

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