Hacker News Reader

herendin2on A 2,500-mile radius in Asia contains half the world's population (2017)

Hard to define, but not important for this stat, because the ancient global population of proto-humans was so small that it's not even a rounding error in 107BN (the estimated total humans to ever have lived)

herendin2on EU: Call to introduce common charger for all mobile phones

It's not a terrible idea. There are technical, business and regulatory reasons why that could be more difficult than you expect, but ultimately consumers have to want it, and to want it, they have to understand it, which is the greatest problem.

herendin2on CPU Introspection: Intel Load Port Snooping

I read this. It's quite interesting, but I think it is short of a few clear basic definitions of terms.

Could anyone help explain, in a few sentences, what is a Load Port, and why is it interesting in this context?

It appears to be some type of indicator of the proportional time slice given to certain opaque internal processes which are not normally visible to users.

herendin2on Gold Value in CPUs and Computer Chips

List of gold quantity and value in some old CPUs : http://www.ozcopper.com/computer-cpu-gold-yields/

Interesting to see that the pure gold cost was often a significant percentage of the CPU's price!

herendin2on PayPal Sues U.S. Regulator over Prepaid-Card Rule

Have you tried opening the "Web" link in an incognito or private browser window?

herendin2on Ask HN: Founders (and CFO's) – what do you wish your bank did better?

Suggest could you start the conversation by saying more about your own experiences and requirements?

herendin2on Ask HN: How do you keep your backup server safe?

After ransomware attack an unusually large number of old files will have changed. Maybe the backup server can monitor that metric?

herendin2on Ask HN: Google Calendar spam, is it a universal problem?

>the only solution I have read online is to disable automatic event invites

It could be that setting

herendin2on Twitter prepares for cull of inactive users

What you said is true, but they will free up old usernames

FTA- "previously unavailable usernames will start coming up for grabs after the 11 December cut-off"

herendin2on How to remove condescending language from documentation

In any learning situation, this type of language can be deeply demoralizing, because it makes struggling students feel that their teacher is totally unable to understand them and their challenges.

Sometimes they may even be right about that!

herendin2on A Startup Trying to Help Car Dealers Weather Hailstorms

Right, those mats wouldn't be small. They would need lots of storage area.

Maybe a few be stored, rolled up, under vehicles at the back of the lot that are less likely to be moved?

And the rest could be stored indoors. They shouldn't be heavy, so maybe they can be stashed in the ceiling, or somewhere high up out of sight?

herendin2on A Startup Trying to Help Car Dealers Weather Hailstorms

Closed-cell foam is designed to prevent this problem, but at the cost of being stiffer and heavier.

You made a good point, anyway. Foam could absorb water, and air, and get dirty, and smell bad.

herendin2on A Startup Trying to Help Car Dealers Weather Hailstorms

Alright! StormShield, YC S20, is officially launched! First round starts at $20m!

OK, maybe it does almost sound feasible, but I wonder what someone with outdoor car dealership experience would say? Is this a practical idea? How often do you need to unroll those mats?

herendin2on A Startup Trying to Help Car Dealers Weather Hailstorms

Maybe a soft one-inch foam canopy secured closely to the vehicle so wind can't catch it, with couple straps under the vehicle chassis? Could that work? Could it be put in place in time?

Alright, that's not really a canopy, more like a shield or body armor.

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herendin2on 14 Things We Learned Creating a Million Dollar Hyperdeflationary Currency

The price peaked at about $12 in July. It has trended downwards. Currently it's about $0.85. Meanwhile about 5% of the 1 million total issue of coins has been deleted or "burned" in transactions, as planned.

herendin2on Total Horse Takeover

Why?

herendin2on Ask HN: Do you ever have 1on1s with your colleagues, not just your manager?

Isn't this normal, but informal?

herendin2on Cormac McCarthy on how to write a science paper

Their guidance might sound clear, but in fact "Venus" is not the kind of repeated word they are talking about, because there's no unambiguous substitute for it.

If you're referring to Venus, then please ignore that advice and say "Venus" every time, don't annoy your readers by calling it the second planet, Aphrodite, the planet of love, the evening star, and etc etc ...

That is an example of the many severe issues with the advice in this article.

herendin2on How Sierra and a Disgraced Cop Made the Most Reactionary Game of the 90s (2018)

If you want to know more, there are more details and background here, https://www.filfre.net/2019/07/chief-gates-comes-to-oakhurst...

herendin2on How Sierra and a Disgraced Cop Made the Most Reactionary Game of the 90s (2018)

There are a lot more details and background here, but not quite so easy to read - https://www.filfre.net/2019/07/chief-gates-comes-to-oakhurst...

herendin2on The making of Warcraft part 3 (2012)

HN's discussion about part two of this series - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4387650

herendin2on Russia Says Small Nuclear Reactor Blew Up in Deadly Accident

Testing is necessary, but if you're only testing "faster", couldn't you replace the nuclear warhead with a rock?

herendin2on Hutter Prize: Compress a 100MB file to less than the current record of 16 MB

A compressor needs to detect patterns in data. Best if it works with general data. General intelligence is excellent at these tasks.

herendin2on Car industry investment plummets in UK

It's Brexit, but I flagged this. Please don't post unsubstantive comments.

herendin2on Russian nuclear submarine: Norway finds big radiation leak

In case of misunderstanding, the sub is K-278, the big nuclear-armed and nuclear-powered Komsomolets, which was lost at 1680 meters in 1989. It isn't the smaller sub that recently had an accident, also in the Barents Sea, but did not sink.

herendin2on Why Stripe is the worst choice for your new startup business

It's hard to believe that tptacek knew that already, but did not say it clearly 3 days ago, when the company was described as a "crypto startup". Why would he waste everyone's time with such rhetoric games?

herendin2on Why Stripe is the worst choice for your new startup business

If you don't know the answer to this question, why are you making these bold declarations about the company?

herendin2on Why Stripe is the worst choice for your new startup business

What do you mean by "these kinds of businesses?"

herendin2on Why Stripe is the worst choice for your new startup business

Why and how is their business of a restricted type?

herendin2on Why Stripe is the worst choice for your new startup business

But the company is not selling that and their customers are not buying it.

Then, does that Stripe TOS rule relate to this case?