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portman

2,605 karma · joined December 5, 2009

Portman Wills Cofounder @ https://wagestream.com

firstname.lastname@gmail.com -- please feel free to drop a line.

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portman··on Driving Range for the Tesla Model S Family
The most under-reported aspect of driving a Tesla is how severely topography impacts range.

Under normal conditions, I use 350 Wh/mi (watt-hours per mile). This is 17% more than "rated range" because -- and this is a technical term -- I drive like a madman.

However, when driving to Tahoe (7000 feet higher), I end up using 850 Wh/mi: over 2x higher electricity consumption, because mountains.

All this talk of tires and wind resistance is a red herring for topography, which does more to limit/extend range than any other factor.

What's more, this could be so easily addressed with software: when I input my destination into GPS, the car should tell me my expected range. It knows the topography. Use the force, car!

Taken one step further, since Tesla is constantly transmitting telemetry to home base, Tesla HQ likely knows the average battery consumption of all other drivers who have ever driven that route. This would allow non-topographical variables (traffic lights, potholes, road conditions) to be factored into the range calculation as well.

Edit: Mistakenly used kWh/mi instead of Wh/mi units. Hat tip to Tarrosion for the correction.

portman··on Software engineers should write
Reminds me of Steven Pinker's recently-published book on how to write well, "The Sense of Style" [1]

Pinker uses software terms to describe good writing: convert a _web_ of ideas into a _tree_ of syntax into a _string_ of words.

[1] http://www.amazon.com/dp/0670025852

portman··on Two Girls, a Golden Balloon, and Fate
The quote is actually Terry Pratchet, not Douglas Adams.

“Million-to-one chances,” she said, “crop up nine times out of ten.”

http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Discworld

portman··on Visualizing Algorithms
+1 I would contribute. Seriously you should think of how much money you would need to incentive you to really focus, then quintuple it, then post a kickstarter.
portman··on Amazon to Provide CD Buyers With Cloud-Based MP3s For Free
Source? I thought MP3 surpassed CD over a year ago...

http://www.pastemagazine.com/articles/2012/01/digital-music-...

portman··on Amazon to Provide CD Buyers With Cloud-Based MP3s For Free
I currently buy two copies of books that I really really like -- both the Kindle and the hardback, both from Amazon. Maybe there are enough crazy people like me that the publishers shouldn't offer this 2:1 deal?
portman··on Desktop App for All Your Email
Small nit: auto-discovery doesn't ask for your full name, so outbound emails headers will not include your name, which (in addition to looking woefully unprofessional) also is a spam trigger.

Fancy suggestion, related: since firstname.lastname@provider.com seems to be a convention these days, consider automatically setting the user's full name during auto-discovery if it conforms to that syntax.

portman··on Ask HN: Best books you read in 2012
Funny, I just posted this: http://willsllc.github.com/blog/books-2012/

Most Thought-Provoking Books of 2012

The Idea Factory: Bell Labs and the Great Age of American Innovation by Jon Gertner published March 15, 2012 Over the span of a few decades, a single research lab invented the transistor, the microprocessor, radar, the communication satellite, the CD, and more.

The Power of Habit: Why We Do What We Do in Life and Business by Charles Duhigg published February 28, 2012 Why toothpaste tingles, how Febreeze was a flop, and hundreds of other tidbits that are perfect for cocktail parties and future Jeopardy episodes.

The Signal and the Noise: Why So Many Predictions Fail-but Some Don't by Nate Silver published September 27, 2012 Weaves together baseball, earthquakes, the weather, poker, and terrorism. Chapter 7 is the best description of Bayes theoreom I've ever read.

The Honest Truth About Dishonesty: How We Lie to Everyone---Especially Ourselves by Dan Ariely published June 5, 2012 The third Ariely book, and just as fun. Would be ranked #1 except it's essential the same formula as his prior two gems.

Automate This: How Algorithms Came to Rule Our World by Christopher Steiner published August 30, 2012 Surprisingly good read from a first-time author (and YC alum). Expands on Andreessen's quip to cover trading, couter-terrorism, the Arab Spring and more.

portman··on Using Github issues to track house repairs
I got my wife to use it for home projects and it actually works really well.
portman··on Evernote raises another $85M
To all those asking what they are spending the money on: secondary financing means that the money is not going to Evernote. Instead, the new investors are purchasing $85M of shares from existing investors. Evernote's bank account does not grow by $85M.
portman··on How to Get Startup Ideas
GetAround
portman··on Chartio (YC S10) Improves The Way You Visualize Your Data
Anyone know if the PostgreSQL data connection will work for Vertica?
portman··on Taobao.com breaks record for online sales in a day - $3.1 billion USD
I don't speak or read Chinese, but my guess is that not all of these sales were online, that for many (most?) the payment occurred in retail stores.
portman··on Did Blowing Into The NES Cartridge Really Work?
What always worked for me was inserting a 3x2 Lego piece, oriented vertically, between the cartridge and the top of the NES container. This pushed down the game by about 3-4mm. This trick was common knowledge in the neighborhood where I lived during the mid 80s.
portman··on For Students, By Students: First Round Capital Dorm Room Fund in Philly
Josh's original blog post announcing the fund: http://redeye.firstround.com/2012/09/the-dorm-room-fund.html
portman··on Zimbabwe residents synchronize toilet flush
Public Service Announcement: the poster you are replying to has decorated their personal homepage with swastikas. I wouldn't waste your time.
portman··on Meet The Double (YC S12), A Teleconferencing Robot With An iPad For A Face
>> It uses OpenTalk to essentially let you video chat with those people.

What is "OpenTalk"? I've never heard of that protocol/API/software before. And Googling turns up nothing except some abandonware from 2009. http://download.cnet.com/OpenTalk/3000-2150_4-10568159.html

portman··on A Man Walks into a Bank
I remember this story flooding the Internet in 1995. I'm confused why the author is doing a "one-man comedic show" 17 years later.
portman··on Because Everyone (Still) Needs a Router
I currently use a NetGear FVS336G for load-balance and fail-over of two broadband connections (cable modem and FiOS).

http://www.netgear.com/business/products/security/wired-VPN-...

It's not as sexy as the FOSS solutions on this thread, but it has the advantage of working just by plugging in power and two Ethernet cables.

portman··on Famous judge spikes Apple-Google case, calls patent system “dysfunctional”
I would like Paul Graham, Richard Posner, and perhaps Mike Bloomberg to have a long, meandering dinner party wherein they discuss and solve America's most important problems.

It worked for Jefferson/Madison/Hamilton 222 years ago. This could be exactly what we need.

portman··on Poll: Do programmers care about FaceBook?
Companies must be having success targeting ads to programmers and mathematicians on Facebook, because for the last several years, all 4 of my Facebook ads have always been filled with IT, programming, and math.

Here's a screenshot of my Facebook ads right now: http://dl.dropbox.com/u/58785/FBAds-20120326.PNG

portman··on [dead]
Clickable link:

http://careers.stackoverflow.com/jobs/17035/software-enginee...

portman··on NYT reducing number of free articles available before paywall
I was surprised at a family gathering recently how many of my in-laws reach the paywall and then clear their cookies. Even non-techies can work around the paywall.
portman··on Amazon acquiring Kiva Systems for $775 million
Bain Capital Ventures. Venture Capital, not Private Equity.
portman··on Google I/O 2012
Agreed.

And Joel Spolsky's "Business of Software" conference is $1600 for two days, and Microsoft's PDCs were $2200 for 3 days.

This is about 1/2 of the market rate for major multi-day tech conferences.

portman··on All or something (2009)
Paul,

Now that you're a parent, I'm curious if your opinion has changed (or will change in the coming years).

For example, do you think you could have built ViaWeb if you had had children at that time?

Is it possible to "neglect everything except your work AND your family", and still have the same probability of success a your childless doppleganger, who neglects everything except work?

portman··on Farewell Stack Exchange
Thank you for sharing your story. I tend to do this (attempt to transfer my failed dreams onto my kids), and it's helpful to have such a powerful reminder of how selfish and unfair that is. Thank you.
portman··on Facebook's S-1 Filing
EDGAR keeps timing out for me, anyone know of a mirror?
portman··on White House Refuses To Comment On Petition To Investigate Chris Dodd
Larry Lessig (the same guy who single-handedly designed Creative Commons) has spent the last 4 years investigating how to "stop this racket", and summarizes his thoughts in this book:

http://www.amazon.com/Republic-Lost-Money-Corrupts-Congress/...

If you want to know what to do, a nice first step would be to buy and read Republic, Lost.

portman··on Welcome Garry and Aaron
>> doing statistical analysis of YC applications

What an awesome idea. You must have over 25,000 applications to-date, correct? That's enough to tease out some interesting, statistically significant correlations. Looking forward to hearing more about those results.

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