Hacker News Reader

peejaybeeon Say hello to Google Allo: a smarter messaging app

GMail was definitely best in class for web mail when it rolled out, and if something has taken its lead, I don't know what it is.

peejaybeeon Demon Core: The Strange Death of Physicist Louis Slotin

I'm not sure I would go that far. Some considered Slotin's methods dangerous: 'Enrico Fermi himself had warned Slotin that he would be “dead within a year” if he continued'.

peejaybeeon Updating classic workplace sabotage techniques

It's easy to understand. Open plan offices have the advantage of being cheaper, and the disadvantage of harming productivity. The cost savings are immediately apparent and easily attributed. Productivity hits (or gains) come later, are harder to assign a utility to, and are harder to attribute.

peejaybeeon The cave divers who went back for their friends

I dunno, if you have been gestating a foal, you might be a little undernourished at the end of the process, so a placenta's worth of nutrients might then be "vital."

peejaybeeon Lead Water Pipes in 1900 Caused Higher Crime Rates in 1920?

"Third, a city-level analysis such as ours does not suffer from a common problem with individual-level studies, namely that individuals exposed to lead typically come from poor neighborhoods with both low-quality housing and high crime rates. Common confounders of the lead-crime relationship in individual-level studies pose less of a problem in our city-level study, where in most cases the entire city population was exposed to lead through water."

Paper's here: http://scholar.harvard.edu/files/jfeigenbaum/files/feigenbau...

peejaybeeon The Al-Qaeda Leader Who Wasn’t: The Shameful Ordeal of Abu Zubaydah

From the sound of it, "do nothing" would be no less effective, and a bit cheaper.

peejaybeeon Why Cities Aren’t Ready for the Driverless Car

Why do you need data for somewhere the car may never go? The car knows where it's going; it can get the data it needs when it needs it.

peejaybeeon How an Immigrant from Bangladesh Became America's Master Builder

Oh, man, the comments section on that article is a dog's breakfast.

peejaybeeon A small 2009 car demolishes a 1959 Chevy in a crash test [video]

I think that's a neat idea, but I personally would be nervous about smearing grease all over my tablet, or spilling fluids on it, or dropping it -- something that happens to almost every other tool at one point or another.

As a reference away from the garage, it would be cool, but I would still want something I would feel safe having by my side as I work on the car.

peejaybeeon A small 2009 car demolishes a 1959 Chevy in a crash test [video]

You might want to pick up the Chilton's or Haynes manual for your vehicle and start from there. Most of these manuals will have a section describing how you perform basic maintenance on the vehicle.

It's how I learned.

peejaybeeon The destruction of Alderaan was completely justified

That's the lovely thing about this piece. Often times when I read these thinkpieces, I know a bit about the author and his or her biases, and have to exercise some discipline to not let that color my opinion of the article too much.

I've never heard of Sonny Bunch, so in this case it is pretty easy.

peejaybeeon Lorentz forces and cheating at the Pinewood Derby

The latter won't matter if they do as my pack did, where each race had three heats and each car raced in all three lanes.

But yeah, get your wheels right and polish the heck out of your axles.

peejaybeeon “This mistake will become the thing you are best known for”

It takes only a small amount of induction to conclude that given the number of death row exonerations pre-execution, there almost certainly have been innocent persons executed.

If you hold out for conclusive proof, you will probably not find it, as it's a bit of a fool's errand to attempt to exonerate a dead man when you could devote that effort to exonerating one who the state has not yet committed manslaughter upon.

peejaybeeon “This mistake will become the thing you are best known for”

Yes, of course.

However, the primary evidence we have that Glossip ordered the killing is the testimony of the guy who actually did the deed, and who avoided a death sentence in exchange for that testimony. It's a little fishy.

peejaybeeon Our Team Won Startup Weekend and All We Got Was a Shitty New Boss

Not the founding team. Some guys who contributed 10-20 hours one time.

The guys who built the MVP.

peejaybeeon Our Team Won Startup Weekend and All We Got Was a Shitty New Boss

That grant would be bigger than anything any subsequent engineer would earn, and it's beyond dubious to think the contribution of this guy -- who's patting himself on the back for figuring out a CRM schema -- is worth more than the guy who stays for 4 years and actually helps brings the product to maturity and exit.

If I've learned anything since I got out of graduate school, it's this: what you're "worth," what you "deserve," are meaningless concepts. You get what you negotiate, no more and no less.

Someone who thinks that 40 beeps for the founding team is too much probably shouldn't invest in this startup. For me, if I thought that the company would be worth $100M in five years, the $1.6M the SW team would be getting would be the least of my concerns, well behind 'how do I get in on this?'

peejaybeeon 14-Year-Old Boy Arrested for Bringing Homemade Clock to School

It's almost like attempting to traumatize the kid and his peers for no good reason and for what?

That's pretty simple -- their "authority" depends on never, ever, admitting that they were wrong.

peejaybeeon The Hellburner Was the Renaissance Equivalent of a Tactical Nuclear Weapon

The old, grim joke was "a tactical nuke is one that explodes in Germany."

But yeah, small and designed to be delivered against enemy troop concentrations, as opposed to the larger strategic weapons that are designed to be used against enemy population centers and strategic weapons.

peejaybeeon Mini flash crash? Trading anomalies on manic Monday hit small investors

The technique is known as "running the stops." There's a description here: http://www.mypivots.com/dictionary/definition/121/running-th...

Basically, you don't know the stops are there; you make an educated guess.

peejaybeeon Who Hacked Ashley Madison?

The same "not sticking our noses into other people's relationships" was the root of the Family Values crowd in the 80's saying that domestic violence is a family issue, incest is a family issue, etc. Where do you draw the line at sticking your nose into other people's relationships?

How about we put the line somewhere between physical force and broken promises? Just an idea.

peejaybeeon Why you still get drunk drinking “session” beers

Seriously. I love me some beer, but would not tolerate a group that expressed disapproval of a refusal to drink.

peejaybeeon Why you still get drunk drinking “session” beers

Yeah, it's obviously that and not anything to do with the attitude you project.

peejaybeeon The Ashley Madison Database Was Leaked

Oh, the star-bellied Sneetches bear blame, all right. How they found out about the plain-bellies doesn't change that.

What does change is who else might be responsible, and who among them bears blame. Your neighbor is responsible, but not to blame -- she intended to help the plain-bellies hide, but made a mistake. You would bear both responsibility and blame, as your disclosures led to the plain-bellies being whisked away, you can be expected to have know that would be the likely result, and you didn't have a good reason to do it anyway.

Snowden and Manning would also bear responsibility for the consequences of their actions. Blame? I don't know. I tend to doubt it. Even though they should have expected that there would be bad fallout, I do believe they had a good reason to move ahead.

Impact Team? I'm not sure what justifies putting a man in jeopardy of his life, but personally, I (edit: do not) think that outing millions of (by-and-large unsuccessful) adulterers rises to the occasion.

peejaybeeon The Ashley Madison Database Was Leaked

Let's say that the star-bellied Sneetches are rounding up the plain-bellied Sneetches and sending them to -- well, you're not exactly sure where they're sending them, but none of them have ever come back.

Needless to say, the plain-bellied Sneetches don't think much of being rounded up, so they hide. A few star-bellied Sneetches sympathize with the plight of the plain-bellied Sneetches, and help them hide.

Your neighbor is such a Sneetch, but is not careful enough, and you find out that there are a half-dozen plain-bellied Sneetches hiding in her basement.

Fortunately, when the trucks come around at midnight, it's not your fault just because you've told everybody you know. It's the fault of those damn star-bellied Sneetches.

I'm not sure where this leaves Snowden and Manning. I would probably argue that they exposed a greater evil than might have been perpetrated as a result of their disclosures.

Impact Team, though -- snitchy Sneetches, all of them.

peejaybeeon The Ashley Madison Database Was Leaked

It sounds like the Impact Team can't get their story straight on what their real intent actually is.

peejaybeeon The Ashley Madison Database Was Leaked

I think there's enough moralizing dripping from Impact Team's preamble to the release to support Thomas' suggestion.

"We have explained the fraud, deceit, and stupidity of ALM and their members."

"Chances are your man signed up on the world's biggest affair site, but never had one. He just tried to. If that distinction matters."

"Find yourself in here? It was ALM that failed you and lied to you. Prosecute them and claim damages. Then move on with your life. Learn your lesson and make amends. Embarrassing now, but you'll get over it."

peejaybeeon The Ashley Madison Database Was Leaked

Yes. I've heard this compared to the recent "Fappening" where celebrities' private photos were stolen. I'd have a hard time justifying the AM leaks without justifying the leaks of the stolen photos.

peejaybeeon Why Not Insider Trade on Every Company?

A large swath of people where I worked a couple of jobs back were considered "covered portfolio persons" who had to pre-clear trades in all but a few classes of securities (basically open-ended mutual funds, and small trades in very large-cap equities) and report almost everything. We had to instruct any brokerage firms to send quarterly reports to our compliance department.

I don't know if everybody was covered, but everybody in my group was.

peejaybeeon Why Not Insider Trade on Every Company?

If I understand correctly, these are planned orders that are un-planned days if not hours before they go out to the exchange, not orders that are sent to the exchange but cancelled before they can be filled. The latter is what the market makers are doing.

So it is more effectively the same as deciding not to do what you have been doing every month. It would be impossible to enforce a prohibition against that, as that would effectively be a requirement to sell.