Hacker News Reader

jrlockeon Ten years later, did Boston's Big Dig deliver?

As someone who commutes the full length of the road under the greenway everyday, absolutely. It rarely takes me more than 20 minutes to clear downtown Boston in rush hour traffic, an impossibility without the tunnel. Now if they could just fix the delays and inconsistency on the green line and silver line.

jrlockeon Economic Inequality

Pg, in effect: "if there was no economic inequality there would be no startups (and all the good they bring). The real problem is the number of super poor, not the number of super rich".

But this is a straw man: no one is arguing for total economic equality, just a reduction in inequality. Further, pg asserts that startups are wealth creators, and they thus create rich founders without having influence on poverty in this country. This is patently false: the best startups make money eating other people's lunch, and they concentrate this money in the hands of the founders. Jeff bezos holds money that would have found its way to book store owners, Netflix money from video rental services, Uber money from taxis service owners, etc. The startups are often the better solution, you will not see me hailing a yellow cab, but the economic inequalities they are introducing must still be addressed.

jrlockeon Economic Inequality

Exactly. There would still be sufficient economic motivations for startups and startup founders in a world where startup founders were taxed at a 75% rate.

jrlockeon This Is Not a Day Care. It’s a University

Daniel Dennett refers to this as Rapoports rule.

How to compose a successful critical commentary:

You should attempt to re-express your target’s position so clearly, vividly, and fairly that your target says, “Thanks, I wish I’d thought of putting it that way. You should list any points of agreement (especially if they are not matters of general or widespread agreement). You should mention anything you have learned from your target. Only then are you permitted to say so much as a word of rebuttal or criticism.

https://www.brainpickings.org/2014/03/28/daniel-dennett-rapo...

jrlockeon The NYPD Is Using Mobile X-Ray Vans to Spy on Unknown Targets

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/ct-homan-square-lawsuit-2...

jrlockeon NASA’s Kepler Mission Discovers Bigger, Older Cousin to Earth

I believe you meant occludes rather than occults

jrlockeon Window Switching Hell of OS X

The right side of the dock is for collapsed windows, the left for applications

jrlockeon “AppleMusic will pay artist for streaming during customer’s free trial period”

One might say that their previous position was tone deaf

jrlockeon Why You Have to Wear a Seat Belt, but Can Drive a Motorcycle

Inconsistency implies falsity

jrlockeon Digital Music Couldn't Exist Without the Fourier Transform

From that point of view a speaker makes perfect sense, and that insight points to an even deeper importance of implicit versions of this transform.

jrlockeon Digital Music Couldn't Exist Without the Fourier Transform

Or almost all forms of recorded audio for that matter. It is basically miraculous that a single speaker can create the impression of an orchestra; it obviously relies on an implicit instantiation of this same principle.

jrlockeon [dead]

Who Not to Seek Employment From: The Likely Right but Certainly Rash Founders at Karma

jrlockeon Why the sun is a poor dumping ground for nuclear waste (2010)

You are vastly underestimating the space of possible orbits and vastly overestimating the size of debris and satellites.

jrlockeon What the Apple Watch Means for the Age of Notifications

The problem that the author complains of--high noise to signal on notifications--can exist on the iPhone of a careless user.

The solution doesn't need to be as complicated as an AI for sorting your notifications, just a set of filters. Notifications for messages from my family and major stock moves, badges or silence for all else.

jrlockeon Three.js – JavaScript 3D library

Coming soon, an original and addictive JavaScript 3D library: 2048.js

jrlockeon As Demand for Welders Resurges, Community Colleges Offer Classes

Let me direct you: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9330078

jrlockeon The Trader Who Donates Half His Pay

This may be an unpopular opinion, but I've always felt it selfish when people of means partake in 'aid trips' over sending money to an appropriate organization. If you care to help, leverage your abilities efficiently; make the money doing what you're best at, and let others administer the aid.

jrlockeon Elon Musk wants to bring the Internet in space

It's not about selling internet to people, certainly not initially. The money here is in bringing internet to sophisticated entities in isolated areas. Networked industrial control systems, mines, drilling operations, shipping, etc.

jrlockeon Fifty Shades of Manipulation

I always try to find redemptive irony in the fact that those most blinded by misleading ideas are themselves disposed to proclaim that it is actually all others others who suffer that affliction.

jrlockeon Hashpipe – Pipe iff the hash matches

A polarizing name, if perhaps less so amongst programmers

jrlockeon Where Does Religion Come From?

It comes from humoring a family of grammatical valid but semantically ill-formed questions:

What is the purpose of the universe? What is the meaning of life?

jrlockeon Offer HN: I'll test your web app from Tanzania

AaaS - Africa as a service

jrlockeon Unreal Engine 4 is now available to everyone for free

A demo of the astounding capabilities for those who haven't seen:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y6PQ19BEE24

jrlockeon British bookseller hides reading list for developers in its website source code

  <!--  Interested in code, web design and web development?  Check out our bestselling books on Web Programming: -->
    <!--  HTML & CSS by Jon Duckett :  https://www.waterstones.com/book/html-and-css/jon-duckett/9781118008188 -->
    <!--  Python in Easy Steps by Mike McGrath : https://www.waterstones.com/book/python-in-easy-steps/mike-mcgrath/9781840785968 -->
    <!--  JavaScript & JQuery by Jon Duckett : https://www.waterstones.com/book/javascript-and-jquery/jon-duckett/9781118531648 -->
    <!--  PHP & MYSQL in Easy Steps by Mike McGrath : https://www.waterstones.com/book/php-and-mysql-in-easy-steps/mike-mcgrath/9781840785371 -->
    <!--  Javascript: The Good Parts by Douglas Crockford : https://www.waterstones.com/book/javascript-the-good-parts/douglas-crockford/9780596517748 -->
    <!--  Learning Python with Raspberry Pi by Alex Bradbury : https://www.waterstones.com/book/learning-python-with-raspberry-pi/alex-bradbury/ben-everard/9781118717059 -->
    <!--  AngularJS: Up and Running by Shyam Seshadri :  https://www.waterstones.com/book/angularjs-up-and-running/shyam-seshadri/brad-green/9781491901946-->
    <!--  Transcending CSS by Andy Clarke  : https://www.waterstones.com/book/transcending-css/andy-clarke/molly-e-holzschlag/9780321410979 -->
    <!--  Jump Start Responsive Web Design by Craig Sharkie : https://www.waterstones.com/book/jump-start-responsive-web-design/craig-sharkie/andrew-fisher/9780987332165 -->

jrlockeon The New Auteurism: True Detective, Top of the Lake, and Avant Garde Television

(2014)

jrlockeon Stuff Goes Bad: Erlang in Anger

I believe you mean Fred Hebert.

jrlockeon The dominant intelligence in the cosmos may be artificial

So is a beaver dam natural or artificial?

jrlockeon Female termites found to clone themselves via asexual reproduction

Commentary on style aside, I believe you're incorrect in your presumption. While the parent comment suggests that termites can reproduce fully asexually, the article is unclear about whether or not this is the sole way for new queens to be produced. I believe that even if a queen can ensure all future queens are clones, sexually produced alates can go on to found new colonies.

jrlockeon Female termites found to clone themselves via asexual reproduction

Bacteria beg to differ[1].

1.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biomass_%28ecology%29#Bacterial...

jrlockeon Hyperlapse, Instagram's new video stabilization app

Cool project, but if you want the same cinematic smoothing without the time lapse effect, I highly recommend Steady[1].

1. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8048413

Edit: Hyperlapse can do this too. Thank you Wang.