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jnsie

995 karma · joined March 3, 2020

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jnsie··on Show HN: AstroHelm – Use your phone camera to aim a telescope or telephoto lens
Ah, that's the piece I was missing. Thank you
jnsie··on Show HN: AstroHelm – Use your phone camera to aim a telescope or telephoto lens
Really dumb question - but how does the phone know the distance from your phone lens to your telescope lens? I assume this varies greatly from mount to mount and will change how accurate the app is?
jnsie··on Warren Buffett Steps Down as Berkshire Chairman, Names Son to Replace Him
Don't grow old
jnsie··on Apple's Siri AI Can Be Swapped Out for Claude, ChatGPT, Code Shows
Alexa's big issue for me was that you had to remember very specific commands and unless you remembered the exact syntax you were out of luck. I genuinely think if the AI had been better and had been able to interpret commands better, skills would have been infinitely more useful.
jnsie··on iPhone Duo
To me it serves two needs really well:

- A phone that fits in the hand for those who have long desired a smaller iPhone. This isn't me, but I know a lot of people who bemoaned the death of the smaller line of iPhones and many have held onto their old phones longer than they otherwise would have (not a bad thing, just a data point...) - A versatile device that allows switching of modes as required. Great for commutes, travel, etc.

It's not for everyone and I'm normally a Pro Max user so definitely don't fit into the first category, but I'm really tempted on this one

jnsie··on Show HN: iPhone app takes simultaneous images from 2 lenses, fuses into 1 photo
Interesting. I wonder if this could be extended to take MPO 3D photos.
jnsie··on Tesla reveals two Robotaxi crashes involving teleoperators
I assume/hope that Tesla teleoperators are required to have drivers licenses in the states in which the cars they are operating are located?
jnsie··on A Primer on Bézier Curves – So What Makes a Bézier Curve?
I haven't thought about Bézier Curves since my undergrad a long time ago. I distinctly remember wondering at the time why so many lecturers added extra hurdles (i.e. the need to understand the intricacies of Bézier Curves) in their assignments rather than letting students focus on the computer science/programming concepts they were meant to be learning.
jnsie··on Apple Has Given Up on the Vision Pro After M5 Refresh Flop
> A lot of people in this thread have mentioned their Vision Pros are gathering dust.

That part is indeed interesting. I would have thought this would be exactly the audience likely to travel with the device, use it as a large monitor for daily work, etc. Apparently not.

jnsie··on Apple Has Given Up on the Vision Pro After M5 Refresh Flop
That price always made it seem like a tech demo. I suspect that they would have sold like crazy at (the unfeasible price point of) $500.
jnsie··on The future of version control
> It would be incredibly useful if before you were about to edit a file, the version control system would warn you that someone else has made changes to it already or are actively working on it. In large teams, this sort of automation would reduce conflicts, as long as humans agree to not touch the same file. This would also reduce the amount of quality regressions that result from bad conflict resolutions.

Bringing me back to my VSS days (and I'd much rather you didn't)

jnsie··on Data centers in space makes no sense
Ah, this old fallacy. There are myriad examples of the rich striving to be richer and the powerful fighting to gain even more power. Why would it be any different with Musk? If anything I suspect (this is absolutely an unverifiable opinion; I am not stating it as fact) that Musk's driving force is to become the first trillionaire.
jnsie··on An opinionated critique of Duolingo
> I totally believe that (some) people are achieving great results at the free tier. I am definitely not saying that Duolingo is useless or a bad (i.e, net negative) use of someone's time.

I definitely didn't mean to imply otherwise

> But even good things are not immune to criticism

100%

jnsie··on An opinionated critique of Duolingo
I think it's important for those responding about their Duolingo experience to include the tier that they are using. Specifically, I wonder if the conversations with AI, and the "explain this" feature in Duolingo Max change outcomes? I'm new to Duolingo, chose the max tier, and feel that I'm learning quite a bit specifically because I am having simple conversations in French daily (albeit with an AI that seems to me to have questionable hearing at times). I haven't used it long enough to provide insight or even judge the platform, but for those using the more expensive tier(s) I wonder your thoughts...
jnsie··on The health benefits of sunlight may outweigh the risk of skin cancer
How reliable are UV indexes? Genuine question. The iOS weather app is far from 100% reliable and I wonder the margin of error regarding the UV index number it provides.
jnsie··on Internal emails reveal Ticketmaster helped scalpers jack up prices, FTC says
Why the disingenuous response. What I linked was an article entitled "New Report Exposes Live Nation-Ticketmaster’s Monopoly Control of Top Arenas and Amphitheaters Worldwide". The fact that they monopolize venues strongly discounts your suggestion that they will "slowly die or be replaced quickly by something better like an AI ticketing system".
jnsie··on Internal emails reveal Ticketmaster helped scalpers jack up prices, FTC says
> Now they'll slowly die or be replaced quickly by something better like an AI ticketing system.

I highly doubt it. The merger with LiveNation made them much more than a ticketing service. They now also handle artist management, concert promotion, and venue ownership. In fact "Live Nation-Ticketmaster maintains "monopoly control" over the top 100 amphitheaters and 100 arenas worldwide" [1]

[1] https://www.economicliberties.us/press-release/new-report-ex...

jnsie··on The Sagrada Família takes its final shape
You missed out. The stained glass windows are absolutely stunning. I normally don't get too excited about stained glass, but they are truly beautiful as is much of the interior.
jnsie··on A computer upgrade shut down BART
> Honestly, within the US I can only think of NYC as having a better payment system as they were first movers on tap-to-pay adoption and it's basically fully adopted.

Chicago is pretty good too. IIRC they also have tap-to-pay. In fact, I think they had it before NYC

jnsie··on How we built Bluey’s world
It's not about the merit of the argument but rather the act of shutting down any argument by declaring something as a fact. It's completely unnecessary and quite off-putting.
jnsie··on How we built Bluey’s world
[flagged]
jnsie··on Figma will IPO on July 31
I love Balsamiq and it was great to see it mentioned here. While the wireframes are intentionally simple looking, the ease of creating a mockup is unsurpassed IMHO.
jnsie··on Hyatt Hotels are using algorithmic Rest “smoking detectors”
That reminds me - we're staying in an Airbnb later this summer and I've been meaning to research gadgets to detect hidden cameras. Now I guess I need to look out for microphones too. We're going in quite the dystopian direction.
jnsie··on Show HN: New Ensō – first public beta
There used to be a really neat application launcher called Enso. Is this related in any way?
jnsie··on What Happens When Hertz's AI Scanner Finds Damage on Your Rental
That's wear and tear and not down to negligence on the driver's part. It's abhorrent that a rental company would attempt to charge a customer to fix something like this.
jnsie··on Second study finds Uber used opaque algorithm to dramatically boost profits
A decentralized Uber is an interesting thought experiment. I imagine the processing power required is a big barrier to entry for the FOSS community.
jnsie··on Threat in Your Medicine Cabinet: The FDA's Gamble on America's Drugs
I have nothing but respect for physicians but my experience is that each acts as a more narrow filter than the last and, beyond their direct expertise they have very little expertise in billing, pharmacy or anything outside of their direct domain, nor do they have the bandwidth for it. Add to that the advertising phenomenon of 'ask your doctor about X' and I suspect that anything beyond the immediate care you're receiving has very little chance of receiving thought/cogent answers.
jnsie··on DeskHog, an open-source developer toy
Post hog ergo propter hog
jnsie··on Show HN: Loodio 2 – A Simple Rechargable Bathroom Privacy Device
> I´d say those who feel the need for a device like this are guilty by association of farting and burping even louder than average, why otherwise get something to mask their clearly obnoxious and dare I say noxious emanations in the privy?

This seems like a jump. Social etiquette is important. A desire for visitors (or others) not to be subjected to the various sounds emanating from the bathroom is a form of politeness, not cover-up of something more sinister.

jnsie··on Show HN: Loodio 2 – A Simple Rechargable Bathroom Privacy Device
Living in a tiny urban apartment, this is a problem I am interested in a solution for. However, I always read that such solutions might block the noise for the toilet-user, but not for those outside of the toilet. I'm curious as to the efficacy of a white noise machine versus this device and, specifically, if either is really effective. It's an interesting solution, OP, an I commend you for your efforts - but I fear $150 is going to be a difficult sell.
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