Hacker News Reader

majorlazeron The Tesla Approach to Distributing and Servicing Cars

I think Tesla is going after the premium buyers at the moment, but that can change very quickly if the Model S lives up to it's hype and they actually start turning a profit.

There are no cars on the market that even come close to the Model S, the Nissan Leaf has a pathetic 73 mile range. The Tesla is 10x the car the leaf is, performance and luxury-wise, and it get's almost 4 times the range on a single charge. The Model S Signature (equipped with an 85kWh battery for a 300 mile range) MSRPs at $87,900; a Nissan Leaf MSRPs at $37,250. Sure, that's a pretty significant jump in price, but when you consider the fact that the Model S competes with a BMW M5 performance-wise, you see it isn't all that crazy.

Even if you take the 40kWh Model S that will MSRP for $49,900 you can see that it's a way better deal than the Leaf. Sure, the Models is $12,650 more than the Leaf, but you actually get a reasonable range (160 miles) and the luxury and performance that the Leaf just cannot compete with.

majorlazeron When A Daughter Dies

I sometimes begin to think the same way, and then I remember about these:

http://futurity.org/wp-content/uploads/2009/11/oscar-pistori...

http://static.ddmcdn.com/gif/artificial-heart-abiocor-hand.j...

https://www.23andme.com/

http://www.guadalupemed.com/images/xray.jpg

http://www.eyeclinicpc.com/lasik/lasik%20steps1.jpg

http://www.piersondental.com/Portals/22078/images/rootcanal%...

http://www.bismarckfamilydental.com/dental-implants-bismarck...

http://www.nidcd.nih.gov/staticresources/health/images/ear_c...

http://emedtravel.files.wordpress.com/2012/04/brain-mri-1.jp...

And that's just off the top of my head. I think modern medicine has advanced a lot more than we give it credit for. I know a lot of hackers tend to compare other industries to the tech field, and expect everything to advance at a rate like Moore's law, but that just isn't feasible in most fields.

majorlazeron TSA Removes X-Ray Body Scanners From Major Airports

Asked about the changes, John Terrill, a spokesman for Rapiscan — which makes the X-ray scanners — wrote in an email, "No comment on this."

Rapiscan? Could they have chosen a worse name for their company?

majorlazeron Amazon founder Jeff Bezos calls for governments to end patent wars

That would be a very different context. You can't just take the same story and apply it to a different subset of companies. If Apple were to do this, it would be a very different situation since by doing so, they risk losing market share. Amazon won't lose anything from this, they can only gain.

majorlazeron Multi-core and multi-threading performance

I think it's pretty incredible to see our processors finally catch up and overtake our computing requirements. If you have a first-gen i5, or even a Core 2 Duo, your CPU is plenty fast to complete 99% of computer tasks out there without feeling any sluggishness. 10 years ago, when people would come to me for advice on purchasing a laptop/desktop, I would tell them to buy the best processor they can afford and then upgrade the rest of the components while they use it. Nowadays, most decent laptops ship with an i5 at minimum, some people ask me if they should upgrade to the i7. I always tell them to save their money and spend it on a faster SSD or more ram (if the ram is <4gb).

majorlazeron SpaceX's First Official Cargo Resupply Mission to the ISS - Launch Webcast

I think that last sentence in your comment summarizes it best. They are now, basically, just paying for "shipping" their cargo into space. That is awesome.

majorlazeron India announces plans for a Mars mission in 2013

There is a very big difference between the homeless in San Francisco and a starving kid in India.

majorlazeron Gunsmith Uses 3D Printer To Make A Rifle

The difference between Australia and the US is that here in the US, we love our guns. A lot. Look what happened during the alcohol prohibition. Look how well our drug war is going. If you try to take guns away from Americans, especially the midwest, I will guarantee you there will be riots. I don't think some of you realize just how much American's love their guns.

I own exactly zero guns, but I fully support the 2nd amendment.

Using the argument of "Hardened criminals will still get them anyway" is like saying we shouldn't have a law against murder because some people will do it anyway, so it's a waste of time. The point is to deter or make it extremely difficult for as many people as possible

No, it is nothing like saying that. Murder in itself is a very bad thing. Owning a gun isn't a bad thing, it's what the gun can be capable of that is bad. Just like alcohol itself isn't a bad thing, it's what the person is capable of doing when drunk, that is bad. That's why alcohol isn't illegal, but driving drunk is. That's why guns shouldn't be illegal, but using them in an unsafe manner should be.

majorlazeron Those budget 27" IPS displays from Korea are for real

I have an Ergotron MX arm (one of the best purchases I ever made) supporting a 23" ViewSonic and I was planning to get one of these 27" monitors. How well do these arms support monitors that big?

majorlazeron Don’t Jump to Conclusions About the Killer

Take a look at the war in Iraq and the Russian war in Afghanistan. I think people nowadays really underestimate the power of a group of armed people that don't want somebody present. The US population is much more heavily armed than any other country in the world: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Number_of_guns_per_capita_by_co...

Over 250% more guns per capita than Iraq, and it took us over 8 years of fighting in that country to get anywhere.

majorlazeron How the Norwegians Reacted to Terrorism

I was going off of this: http://www.google.com/publicdata/explore?ds=d5bncppjof8f9_&#...

Where did you get $265.911B?

majorlazeron How the Norwegians Reacted to Terrorism

Yeah, let's compare the president of the most powerful country with 300M+ people with a president from a country who's total GDP is less than some of our billionaires. Makes a lot of sense.

Can we please stop the USA hating around here?

majorlazeron Tesla Model S review: A good first impression

In response to your "towing isn't an option" comment, it most definitely is. Any decent tow truck driver will get that thing towed. Jack up the front end of the car, put a roller underneath, jack up the rear end, and winch it up the tow truck. My father used to tow cars and we would do this pretty often.

majorlazeron Why Google's Nexus 7 Tablet Is Hotter Than Apple's iPad

Well seeing as how there are only two decent Android tablets on the market (Transformer and Galaxy), I personally don't mind this one bit. Google gave the manufacturers a chance to create competitive tablets, and it just hasn't been happening (same could be said for the Android phones). The Android ecosystem is polluted with bad hardware combined with modified versions of Android that make Google look bad. Now Google has taken control and is releasing it's own hardware. Microsoft is doing the same. It seems like this is the only way to stay competitive with Apple.

majorlazeron Microsoft employee on stack ranking and its 'most universally hated exec'

I wonder if this has anything to do with HL3 taking so long to release. Only partly joking.

majorlazeron Ask HN: What one thing would you tell your younger self?

Hah! I knew someone would post this. And that's very true, I should spend less time on HN. That's why I have it blocked in my hosts file on my PC. So I can only access it from my phone :)

majorlazeron Ask HN: What one thing would you tell your younger self?

I am 21 now, but I would tell my 18 year old self to spend less time reading reddit/digg and start building more stuff.

And also, finish your projects and focus!

majorlazeron Thoughts on the Online Extortion Business of Mugshots

I was arrested earlier this year for trespassing into an abandoned area, it was a group of about 10 of us just exploring and trying to get some pictures. Normally, the cops would just let you off with a warning, but the security patrolling this area wanted everybody taken in. It was a very annoying experience and really was a waste of tax-payer money. But once we were released ~7 hours later, we didn't really think much of the arrest (rightfully so, the judge laughed at the case when we went to court).

Now, the worst part of the whole experience was when we found our mugshots plastered all over search results for our names. The results rank pretty high in some cases too, higher than some social media sites. The problem with this whole situation lies in two places in my opinion, one being the fact that your mugshot is posted online right when you get arrested, whether or not you are convicted. And two, that there aren't any restrictions put in place by the government sites that release these pictures. I am all for net neutrality, but this is most definitely an invasion of privacy.

And there are so many of these mugshot sites that you will never be able to completely remove your face from every single one of them. And I wouldn't be surprised if the same asshole owns a majority of these sites and puts your mugshot on a different site as soon as you pay to get it taken off another.

majorlazeron I will puke if I hear array search interview question again

How about everybody that criticizes these questions, post their alternatives for determining candidates. It seems like everyday there are posts on HN criticizing these hiring techniques, but rarely does anybody post any alternatives.

majorlazeron How I converted a software thief into a customer

Maybe the invalid key was posted on a warez site and everybody was trying to use it.

majorlazeron Microsoft launches the Bing Fund

I know this isn't exactly relevant to this current story but does anyone else think that the "Bing" logo is really ugly? Why didn't they make it follow the new metro theme and use a similar style to the Windows Phone logo?

And what is up with that drop shadow: http://www.bing.com/community/cfs-file.ashx/__key/CommunityS...

majorlazeron Betaworks has acquired the core assets of Digg

Digg is ranked 192 on Alexa. Its Google Page Rank is 8. And the name is very popular and it used to have a huge following. Once the media get's a hold of this story (well it already has), tons of people will visit it just to see what they do with it. Plus, they still have a ton of traffic, of course not as much as they used to.

majorlazeron Late bloomer, not a loser. (I hope)

Exactly how I feel. 21 years old and feel like I am running out of time. Always been the "smart" computer kid that is destined to do something great but after graduating from high school I slacked off for about a year or two and didn't really get much done. At age 19 I decided to start studying computer science while working in tech positions on the side. Now I can't decide if I want to continue with school or just go work full-time since I have a decent amount of experience to land a job. I will probably graduate in about 3 years if I continue at this rate and that just seems like way too long.

It's funny though, I read your story and in my mind you are way ahead of your time at age 19. I guess that kind of shows how you never think you are moving fast enough.

majorlazeron How Stress And Sleep Loss Are Shortening Your Life

22 year old here. I fall asleep instantly around 11-12, and up until recently, I couldn't nap during the day. A few weeks ago I took a nap after coming home from work at 4pm, woke up at 5pm and was amazed at how good I felt. So now I try to make that a daily thing. It not only gives me more energy for the rest of the day, but it also boosts my mood an incredible amount.

majorlazeron A Northwest Pipeline to Silicon Valley

I actually did take Vitamin D and 5-HTP for quite sometime (still take 5-HTP), and it did help me a little bit. My problem was the fact that every time I go outside to head to work/school, it's either raining, cloudy, foggy, or a combination of the three. And I used to love rain and fog when I lived in California, but it didn't last for 6+ months at a time.

Waking up in the morning during the winter has been the worst part. I have always been an early riser, but when I just moved here, for about a year I could barely get up at 9am.

majorlazeron A Northwest Pipeline to Silicon Valley

I moved up to the Portland area a couple years ago from California, and I have considered going to U. of Washington for CS. I love the school, the campus is just beautiful and the city is really cool. But since moving up here, my productivity has taken a serious hit.

From the months of October well into June, I have a constant struggle to stay motivated with such dreary weather. I know Portland isn't Seattle, but I visit Seattle often and it's almost as "bad" as Portland when it comes to the weather. Many of my friends here don't mind the weather and actually love the rain. As someone that needs sunlight, I can't stay up here another year, I will be moving back down to the bay area this upcoming fall. It really is a shame because I do love Portland and Seattle very much.

If only the Northwest had just a little bit more sunlight, I would never consider moving down. But those few months in the Winter/Spring really take a toll on me.

majorlazeron Internet Access Is a Human Right, Says United Nations

I think you meant 830k (not 8.3M) troops.

Military size is only a small factor when comparing world super powers. Going by that Wikipedia list, North Korea's military isn't too far from the US military. But we all know how that war would go.

majorlazeron Louis C.K. sees ticket scalping drop over 96% by selling tickets himself

StubHub is not owned by Ticketmaster, they are owned by ebay.

Source: http://www.stubhub.com/about-us/

majorlazeron Windows 8 Pro Upgrade to cost $39.99

How is it a "DIRECT result of Apple's usual $40 upgrade pricing" if the two OSes don't even run on the same hardware? A user won't be purchasing a Mac because his OS upgrade cost is $60 more (or however much Windows upgrades originally cost).

Microsoft knows that people will have little incentive to migrate from Win7 to Win8, so they are doing all they can to encourage that. This is not a response to Apple's pricing structure.

majorlazeron Am I crazy? Google Glass sucks (At least for now)

As did everyone else in the tech community. But I think demoing actual current functionality of the product is much more important than demoing something that doesn't work. The way I see it, Google knows that people won't be shelling out their cash for a camera attached to a pair of classes. They know that if this project doesn't go anywhere, they will have just made a fool of themselves by promoting it so heavily. So I am just gonna trust that Google knows what they are doing and they will blow our minds once the product is further along in the development cycle. And maybe the project will fail and won't go anywhere, but I just think it's a bit early for these kinds of blog posts. Let's wait until an actual product launch.