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louprado

1,376 karma · joined April 14, 2011

Lou Prado Maker of GarageMate and developer of .NET SaaS Applications
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louprado··on Elon Musk to advise Pentagon on future of war
And to Grok token-max for key strategy decisions and automate planning, logistics, purchasing, etc.
louprado··on ZX Spectrum: Experimenting with 1-Bit Sound
More mind blowing, that entry took _second_ place! First place would probably break my brain for the day so I won't look it up.

Release party: DiHalt 2026 summer Compo: Demo Platform: zx spectrum Ranked: 2nd

louprado··on Multilingual people may have brains up to 13 years younger
"People who spoke two languages had brains about six... three about seven... and four roughly 13 years younger."

I am fluent in at least 10 programming languages. Do those count ? Probably, if this study revealing a hidden correlation such as socioeconomic level. But they did reference that possibility.

"The researchers adjusted their analysis for factors including age, sex and education... lifestyle and social engagement, could also contribute to the differences they observed."

louprado··on Crypto in 2026: Oh, This Is the Bad Place
"but as long as we all believe it has value, it does".

Would one argue that an airplane is a _story_ ? If no one believed in the technology and lost faith in all pilots no one would fly. But that doesn't change the reality of the technology and competence of the pilots.

I get the sentiment, but I am not sure _story_ is the right word.

louprado··on `Mr AI' Peter Thiel Lectures about Antichrist in Rome
From personal observation, many Christians see oil as a unlimited natural gift from God and view alternative energy sources with disdain. Not sure if that was a deliberate strategy on Big Oil's part but it effectively solidifies massive political support.

By similarity if Thiel can equate AI regulation or restricting government AI funding with the Antichrist he could guarantee political support for decades.

I don't recall Thiel ever lecturing about religion or the Antichrist prior to his involvement with government contracts. It's hard to believe any of this is sincere.

louprado··on I'm going to cure my girlfriend's brain tumor
Agreed that initially referring to it as "brain tumor" would have been fine.

Thanks for sharing your story too, perhaps this condition isn't rare. Coincidentally I once went into bar and vaguely recognized a roommate I hadn't seen in years. His appearance had changed and he now had remarkable Hulk like features. I restrained myself from asking but I honestly thought he looked great.

We chatted and he shared that he had "brain surgery" 2 weeks(?) prior to remove a tumor on his pituitary gland. He just woke up one day and his vision was distorted. The next day he woke up blind which lead to him getting a diagnosis and surgery. The tumor had also caused pituitary disfunction which induced giantism.

If I recall, the surgery was performed going behind his nose through an incision in his mouth above the posterior of his upper lip which differs slightly from the approach in the OP. It's amazingly fortunate that this is an option given it looks inoperable from the MRI.

I'll also share that towards the end of our conversation he thanked me for not commenting on his appearance and that he was self-conscious. It's compelling, especially when someone looks good, to mention it, but there's no need to lead with it.

louprado··on Don Norman on how design fails older consumers
Regarding a comment the author made in passing:

For the increasing number of people who have cataract surgery, the eye’s lenses have ben replaced with plastic, which usually have a fixed focus. (Artificial lenses that can be focused are under development.)

My dad recently had cataract surgery and I just assumed he was getting would be a deformable lens that would give him the ability to focus again. Does anyone know why it is so hard to develop such a lens ? As far as medical breakthroughs it seems like low hanging fruit and most people over the age of 45 could benefit from such a surgery since that is the age at which our lenses begin to harden and can no longer be shaped by our ciliary muscles.

louprado··on SpaceX’s Starlink Constellation construction begins
Off topic, but can anyone comment on their experience renting a portable internet satellite receiver or provide a recommendation. Thanks.
louprado··on SpaceX’s Starlink Constellation construction begins
I initially thought the same but he did write "All signs point to another Teledesic or Iridium" and I can't argue to the contrary.
louprado··on Ask HN: Amazon delisted me – what do I do?
In addition to those consultants, Cynthia Stine of egrowthpartners.com was recently interviewed in The Week's Jan 25, 2019 "The Last Word" column and her firm helps Amazon Sellers with Marketplace challenges.

Also, Amazon's Selling Partner Summit is taking place next week at Amazon HQ. It is currently sold out but maybe there is a waiting list ? I'll be attending primarily to make internal contacts should I ever encounter a problem with my account but I can't say for certain if that conference will be helpful in that regard. Sorry for this situation and good luck!

louprado··on Why Are Human Teeth So Messed Up? (2017)
This article implies that if you can't change your diet then you could achieve similar results with chewing exercises. The comments below mention mewing, but I suspect greater force would be better. Googling "chew toys for adults" gave interesting results but they are mainly used for anxiety and ADHD. Curious if anyone knows of a chew appliance for children or adults that would address the issues mentioned in the article.
louprado··on A PhD state of mind (2018)
A bit of a tangent, but does anyone know if a "paper PhD" is still and option ? The first and only time I ever heard of it was during a lecture by Nobel laureate Dr. Shuji Nakamura[1].

IIRC, the University of Florida offered PhD's if you published 5 papers which he did in one year.

[1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fUlR9DP6Me4&t=2074s

louprado··on Salk scientists find genetic signatures of biological aging
Perhaps skin samples from different parts of the body would yield different age predictions. The actual study makes no mention which seems like a significant omission if someone were to try to reproduce this experiment.
louprado··on U.S. Says China State-Owned Company Stole Micron Secrets
Yes when China does it, we call it "currency manipulation". But when the U.S. does it, we call it "quantitative easing".
louprado··on Carbon Removal Technologies
"It's time to invest and avidly pursue a new wave of technological solutions to this problem - including those that are risky, unproven, even unlikely to work".

I had a recent crackpot idea that falls into the "unlikely to work" category since my background is not chemistry.

Given that a modern automobile's tailpipe emissions are mostly C02 + H20, those molecules can be converted into ethylene (C2H2) using known efficient electro-catalytic processes. The conversion of ethylene gas to a polyethylene (plastic) is well known and has the added benefit of being exothermic.

The end goal is for my car to output a lump of plastic I can drop into the recycling bin instead of CO2.

But my gut tells me that:

1) There is no way to speed up the reactions to keep up with the 80 liters per second of tailpipe exhaust (~40rps * 2.0 liter engine) without this system being impractically large and/or requiring energy intensive compressors.

2) No one, including me, wants to drive around with a tank of hydrogen and a tank of ethylene gas.

But still, it might be fun to hack on something like this assuming I can do it safely. If anyone has any feedback, or has experience making polyethylene, I would be grateful for feedback even if it is negative. Thanks.

louprado··on Not exercising worse than smoking, diabetes and heart disease study finds
Then forget exercise for now, just take a contemplative walk around the block. Perhaps do it right before breakfast and/or after dinner. It's easy and takes less than 10 minutes. Don't think of it as exercise and do it in any clothes and with any shoes. No excuses, anyone can walk around 1 block and everyone needs 10 private minutes to collect their thoughts.

Before you know it you'll find yourself walking around several blocks, then swinging your arms, then walking faster, then you may even start jogging. You'll feel motivated, you'll keep making progress, and most importantly, you'll actually look forward to your walks.

I followed the advice above and now run almost daily before sunrise. It has really boosted my self-esteem since I had always disliked running yet admired those people who run before sunrise. But if someone had told me to start by purchasing running clothes, finding the right running shoes, choosing a good running route, stretching for 10 minutes... forget it! However, I will make one recommendation. This mask is helpful on mornings when it is below 40F. https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0796R1DPG . Please, start tomorrow morning and report back. :)

louprado··on Good sleep, good learning, good life (2012)
"I could get hit by a bus and die tomorrow"

Ironically, when I am sleep deprived I am more accident prone and more likely to get hit by a bus.

But what's almost certain, if I sleep less than 7 hours for more than 1 week, I will catch a cold. My immune system doesn't work as well without sufficient sleep.

louprado··on Invisible Manipulation: ways our data is being used against us
How is calculation of health insurance premiums not #1 on this list ?

Recently I purchased a DIY mole removal product from Amazon. An expansive actuary table would show a "concern about moles" has a slight positive correlation with "skin cancer". Arguably my premium should go up because of this.

It also blows my mind that Amazon won't allow you to delete a purchase from your Amazon order history. It is there forever and there is no reason that data can't be sold even if the account is closed. To be fair I am making assumptions without having read the privacy policy in Amazon's EULA.

louprado··on Jason Fung explains why intermittent fasting diets work
I am not an expert on psychology, but your goal "losing more (fat) and gaining more(muscle) as fast as humanly possible", might be detrimental to your success.

It probably took decades to get to your current body weight. Should it not then take at least 5 years to get back to your target weight ? True the caloric math shows you could probably get to 250lbs in a year with a 600-800 a day diet. But can any human actually stick with that diet for more than a month ? If not, you would be better eating 1600-1800 a day if you could stick with it for a year.

As an aside, at times I wonder if our obesity epidemic is in part related to an ever increasing target/acceptable weight. When I was a kid, if you could pinch an inch, you were overweight (I stop drinking calories if I pass the threshold). Even my childhood bathroom scale maxed out at 250 which implied that 250 must be extreme morbid obesity.

I know this is personal, but when you were young did you ever have such thresholds (weight, mobility, etc.) in mind ? Or did it just sneak up on you and by then you were in gaining weight at a surprising rate beyond your control ? No worries if you are too busy to respond. I wish you the best!

louprado··on Jason Fung explains why intermittent fasting diets work
Given that poor sleep quality exacerbates insulin resistance, it is possible that by not eating late into the day, the research subjects in the article's fasting study may have also lost weight because their sleep improved.[1]

Personally if I eat dinner after 5PM, I have trouble sleeping.

[1] https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21950773

louprado··on A RISC-V chip with built-in neural networks
If you are a hacker you probably would likely take a tech powered short-cut. Google has a translator toolkit that lets you upload documents and also create a glossary for technical terms and consistent terminology. Haven't tried it yet but it would be great to start a crowdsourced glossary for electrical engineering documents if one doesn't already exist.
louprado··on Amazon raises minimum wage to $15 for all US employees
From the article above.

"That morning, Ford would begin paying his employees $5.00 a day, over twice the average wage for automakers in 1914. In addition, he was reducing the work day from 9 hours to 8 hours, a significant drop from the 60-hour work week that was the standard in American manufacturing."

For reference $5/day in 1914 is ~$15.62 an hour in 2018 dollars. The similarities likely end there. Unlike Ford, Amazon's hike is not twice the average wage of a fulfillment center employee. A manager at an employment agency recently told me that you can't hire someone for less than $15 an hour to work in a fulfillment center in Reno, NV. Reno is a major fulfillment/shipping hub in the US.

This post should have been titled "Amazon raises pay to keep up with market rates just like every other company".

louprado··on The annoying habits of highly effective people
Nearly every self-help book mentions the importance of goal setting. It is important even for those with a pedigree and born into wealth (I recognize not every student in this study was born into wealth but the median Harvard family earns at least 3 times the national average).

From https://sidsavara.com/why-3-of-harvard-mbas-make-ten-times-a...

“Have you set clear, written goals for your future and made plans to accomplish them?” In 1979, interviewers asked new graduates from the Harvard’s MBA Program and found that :

    84% had no specific goals at all
    13% had goals but they were not committed to paper
    3% had clear, written goals and plans to accomplish them
In 1989, the interviewers again interviewed the graduates of that class. You can guess the results:

The 13% of the class who had goals were earning, on average, twice as much as the 84 percent who had no goals at all.

Even more staggering – the three percent who had clear, written goals were earning, on average, ten times as much as the other 97 percent put together.

Edit: I had often heard of this study and just pasted the first reference I found. I would delete this post, if I could, as its credibility is questionable. Thanks femto.

louprado··on You could have invented that Bluetooth attack
If I understand correctly, the Bluetooth exploit also requires a man-in-the-middle attack during pairing. Wouldn't the victim then see two Bluetooth devices with the same name during pairing ? Also most Operating Systems then order the list of devices by signal strength. Without physical access to the victims home/office/etc., it would be hard for the attacker to have a higher signal strength since most users would be pairing to a device in close proximity. In a public place this could be easier, but even then it would probably fail more often then it would work.
louprado··on Behemoth, bully, thief: how the English language is taking over the planet
One complaint about English is that double negatives are not grammatically correct. The word "not" is so important it should be re-enforced in someway. Spanish supports double negatives. The French add redundancy with "ne" and "pas".

It's worth noting that American gangsters often talk with double negatives and the U.S. military use the phrase "repeat NOT" since their discussions are often mission critical. But I am certain their are countless examples of harm because someone in a hurry, omitted the word 'not' in a discussion or email.

louprado··on The Rise of Edible Insect Farming
"the muddy pens where as many as 1,200 pigs once wallowed into a climate-controlled cricket farm. It’s on pace to yield 1,500 kilograms (3,300 pounds) of the edible protein this year"

Pigs reach slaughter weight at around 6 months of age at which point it yields around 180lbs of hanging weight meat.

The article further claims a 18/63 ratio of land required per gram of protein in favor of crickets.

Assuming they previously slaughtered 1000 pigs a year -> 180,000 lbs * 63/18 = 630,000lbs is their expected cricket protein capacity which is ~200X more than their current output. Any ideas on why the numbers are so different ?

Edit: I just realized that a pig steak is mostly water and the cricket protein is likely dehydrated. So it more like 50X not 200X.

louprado··on Why emergency braking systems sometimes hit parked cars and lane dividers
How would the engineers at Waymo know Tesla's trade-secret approach beyond the physical hardware ? Tesla is the only major player in the race to autonomous cars that has no patent. Waymo has 145.[1]

[1] https://www.cnbc.com/2018/02/08/a-tesla-self-driving-blind-s...

louprado··on Does China’s digital police state have echoes in the West?
On Chinese tour bus hired by our U.S. MBA class, our Chinese guide made several disparaging/dehumanizing off-hand comments about people from Tibet to the entire group. I still wonder if the Chinese government privately tells this guide to say this so that Westerners lose sympathy and interest in supporting a free Tibet.
louprado··on UPS Has 260,000 Union Workers and They've Just Authorized a Strike
A few years back our UPS driver arrived with our packages but could not scan them because his scanner is forcibly disabled during assigned breaks. So he hung out for about 10 minutes and expressed annoyance that he was being controlled. Perhaps they now have flexibility as to when their assigned break occurs.
louprado··on Bitcoin backlash as ‘miners’ stress power grids in Central Washington
Some more info on kwh price.

"Beginning Jan. 1, 2012, Chelan County PUD moved to a flat residential rate for electricity of just 2.7 cents per kilowatt hour."[1]

"energy costs can run as low as 2.88¢ per kWh and average 4.13¢ per kWh statewide for industrial customers." [2]

[1] https://www.chelanpud.org/my-pud-services/rates-and-policies

[2] http://choosewashingtonstate.com/why-washington/our-strength...

[edit] The parent article does state a price of 3cents/kwh.

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