Hacker News Reader

hnphillipjon DOJ made secret arguments to break crypto, now ACLU wants to make them public

EFF

hnphillipjon We are Google employees – Google must drop Dragonfly

The amount of additional profit Google can extract from an existing consumer pales in comparison to the profits generated from attracting a new user.

hnphillipjon We are Google employees – Google must drop Dragonfly

Given how trash of a search engine Baidu is, Google would likely achieve market share dominance in China within a couple years - should they move forward with Dragonfly. Complying with demands of the Chinese gov't is the only way they can penetrate the Chinese market.

Search engine advertising constitutes close to 85% of Google's revenue. And unlike Project Maven, which was ended due to internal resistance from employees, doing business with the second largest economy in the world isn't an expendable venture.

Curious to see how they move forward. My guess is they will: human outrage never really lasts long, especially when their livelihoods are far from in jeopardy.

hnphillipjon Half of lonely people think no one will notice if something bad happens to them

This is a very selfless way of living, and for that you have my respect. But the chief cause of loneliness for many people is the fear that the person they were waiting for will never come:

There is a fire which burns inside me, but no-one stays 'round long enough to warm themselves.

Knowing this, if you can truly remain steadfast in your positive outlook on life, then you have achieved true strength. Hard to do in an oversocialized world.

hnphillipjon How Cheap Labor Drives China’s A.I. Ambitions

never thought of this.

hnphillipjon Ask HN: Have you ever regretted working on a product?

The OP said he would have felt fine had his returns been limited to 10%. I hope you realize your characterization of returns ("profit without creating value") can be applied whether his program yielded 10% returns or 400%. The moral dilemma for someone who has a conscious that you describe would be choosing to invest in the first place (is investing on the stock market creating value?) or choosing an investment strategy (is this certain strategy creating value?).

hnphillipjon You Snooze, You Lose: Insurers Make the Old Adage Literally True

That got me.

hnphillipjon What's Going on in Your Child's Brain When You Read Them a Story?

Actually, it was a tasteless joke on my part.

>Well that is the usual way of getting kids in an MRI.

Wait, is chloroform still used as anaesthesia?

hnphillipjon What's Going on in Your Child's Brain When You Read Them a Story?

It rhymes with bloroform

hnphillipjon The human costs of Black Friday, explained by a former Amazon warehouse manager

Hey, it's in to criticize tech companies. That's not to say there aren't problems, but most people get outraged at whatever society tells them to get outraged at in that moment. No thoughts of their own. This place is mostly a safe haven from that.

Now, it will be interesting to see how soon Amazon workers unionize and how that'll play out.

hnphillipjon Boss as a Service – Hire a boss, get stuff done

howzit bru

hnphillipjon Texas Is About to Create OPEC’s Worst Nightmare

Air is listed right beside that, which is probably closer to what he was referring two. Combined, they sit at 10%. Not as much as he thought, but nothing to scoff at.

hnphillipjon Texas Is About to Create OPEC’s Worst Nightmare

> To be fair it's not much (less than 5%)

https://www.eia.gov/tools/faqs/faq.php?id=427&t=3

Here's a better source. It's 0.5%. I felt that was enough to warrant using "not used in developed countries," but fair enough.

>Be careful about blanket statements unless you're an expert in the area because other HN readers are experts.

Easy there hotshot

hnphillipjon Texas Is About to Create OPEC’s Worst Nightmare

I'll change my comment from not -> hardly.

https://www.eia.gov/tools/faqs/faq.php?id=427&t=3

While your number seems like a lot, it's really just a drop in the bucket. The US consumes close to 8 billion barrels of oil annually. I was, however, surprised that it was still as high as 0.5%.

hnphillipjon Texas Is About to Create OPEC’s Worst Nightmare

You should know that oil is hardly used for elec. gen in developed countries. They are only indirect competitors - through the automobile.

hnphillipjon Texas Is About to Create OPEC’s Worst Nightmare

Did your desire to use the word fungible outweigh the fact that the US has drastically reduced its dependence already?

Anyway, you're right that decreasing oil demand will lessen dependency on foreign oil. You're wrong that our current approach "isn't feasible". Our oil imports from Saudi and worldwide are falling. See: https://www.eia.gov/dnav/pet/pet_move_impcus_a2_nus_epc0_im0...

How do you anonymously host a service from your home computer? I'm new to all this.

I also checked out your site. I hope to be at your level of expertise one day.

hnphillipjon Silent and Simple Ion Engine Powers a Plane with No Moving Parts

https://sci-hub.tw/https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-01...

see the top of page 534, figure b. You are correct that the initial forward momentum is from the launch rail, but the graph clearly shows that the ion engine provides thrust.

Is the title of the HN submission misleading? Yes.

Did the plane achieve flight with the ion engine alone? No.

Was the plane able to maintain and gain altitude because of the ion engine? Yes.

A step forward in the right direction but not as much of a breakthrough as the submission title would have you think.

>As far as I can tell it doesn't exist outside of the person's mind.

Based brah. I'm being serious when I say that I think HN needs more of this type of comment. They seem to love rigidity in comments, but not any bluntness or banter thrown in there.

hnphillipjon Silent and Simple Ion Engine Powers a Plane with No Moving Parts

https://youtu.be/boB6qu5dcCw?t=128

>But it is not a viable propulsion source. At least not on Earth for things larger than a meter or so.

It's 5m wide

hnphillipjon Ask HN: Have you ever regretted working on a product?

> I feel immoral for being so successful on the stock market!!!! I just couldn't help it, my program was TOO successful

Next time you want to covertly brag in a thread about regret, at least make the moral dilemma believable.

hnphillipjon Dead sperm whale found in Indonesia had ingested '6kg of plastic'

I've only heard of them scrapping carbon cap + trade and fighting against carbon tax. If they've also dismantled regulations regarding more acute, pressing types of pollution I'd like to know.