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pyroniteon Rebuilding our tech stack for the new facebook.com

This used to be a bigger deal before HTTP/2 increased the number of concurrent requests to be virtually unlimited.

Unless I'm missing something, it's "optimal" for a site to have many split files. If their JavaScript were 1 file, a change to a single character would mean the need to re-download every bit of JavaScript. Instead, with 96 files, it would mean 95 of them are still cached client-side and only 1 is need of downloading.

pyroniteon Pentagon Knew of Possible Coronavirus Threat for Years

The media is not the Pentagon and it's clear that both the Pentagon (per this report) and epidemiologists have been aware of this possibility for years.

I do not understand exactly what you're suggesting here. Is this unworthy of reporting? The implication you're making is that no such articles should come out reporting on this material, since you believe the media made mistakes. Or maybe you're just venting – understandable, but it gives the appearance that you don't believe the article.

pyroniteon New report on the cellular effects of a calorie-restricted diet in rats

I feel like both can be true – the motivation here is likely to both solve a real problem (aging and all that's associated with it) and to make some profit as a result.

This is ultimately a product like any other. Like a SaaS product making any hard process easy, you wouldn't expect the solution to be wholly free. People would still have the option to take a different route (caloric restriction) to accomplish the same, but it's clear many people struggle with that.

pyroniteon The Hierarchy of Cringe

I find the font hard to read... I feel like fixed-width fonts are better suited for coding or terminals. The width of the columns are also a bit larger than recommended for web typography (whatever that's worth to you). At full width, the blog shows about 120 characters per line. I've seen the optimal line length suggested as 50-80 characters. Compare...

Default (1160px): https://i.imgur.com/6I33kYB.png

Constrained (800px): https://i.imgur.com/lcb6Qd6.png

It definitely tracks better to me at a reduced width, but your mileage may vary.

What is it that appeals to you the most about the blog's design? Admittedly it looks different and lots of sites look the same now. Someone like me would probably push to make it look more like Medium.

pyroniteon Why the Amazon Basics Keyboard Is My Favorite Keyboard

What makes you believe the author of this article, who from what I can tell is a long-term active HN user, is advertising for Amazon?

Skepticism is good, but you should also be skeptical of the first conclusion it leads you to.

pyroniteon Facebook reveals its cryptocurrency Libra

With comments like this, I can understand why he would need personal security. I feel like this rhetoric is dangerous. It sounds to me as if you might be suggesting this sort of "solution" has some legitimacy. I apologize if that's not how you meant it.

pyroniteon Do people become happier after 40?

The Economist article includes wide-ranging information on the relationship between age and happiness in various parts of the world. The information you've provided addresses a small portion of that (the percentage of the population on anti-depressants as they age).

A population can be both more happy with age and (as a percentage) on more anti-depressants. Some potential explanations:

1. As we age, we have greater access to healthcare (money/quality employment/government), so those needing anti-depressants are able to get them more regularly

2. Even with access to healthcare, there may be greater willingness to make changes in life and confront unhappiness as we age

3. Perhaps those who age are happier overall because they're on anti-depressants. The Economist article doesn't address this possibility.

I feel like the flaw in your argument may be that increased anti-depressant usage among older adults indicates increased depression as a person ages. That doesn't take into account other factors that might cause anti-depressant usage to rise with age.

pyroniteon College admissions scandal fallout: Stanford students sue UCLA, USC and Yale

This hardly seems right – UCLA, USC and Yale are victims of the bad actors involved just as much as the students are. I haven't seen any indication that the colleges involved were aware this was happening in a way they overlooked.

You can file a lawsuit for anything in the United States. I would love to hear how this lawsuit isn't frivolous or (at worst) searching for a payday.

pyroniteon Ask HN: What do you struggle with?

> They never tell you that part about losing weight, that the damage to your metabolism is already done and will never function normally again.

This New York Times reporting on weight loss and metabolism is highly relevant: https://www.nytimes.com/2016/05/02/health/biggest-loser-weig...

The study within strongly suggests exactly what you're saying: massive weight loss results in a massive loss in metabolism. The difference in metabolism is on the order of hundreds of calories per day.

I've lost a combined 150 pounds throughout my life and I'm down 80 pounds from my max. I am not in the exact same situation as you but I feel close. I, too, limit my calories to roughly 1,600 a day.

I wish this topic was studied more and the science was settled. If the study is accurate, what is there to be done about it other than learning to live with a significant caloric deficit for the rest of our lives? This is an issue that potentially affects so many people yet is so rarely discussed. Thank you for sharing your experience.

pyroniteon Apple Avoids Amazon’s Beauty Contest, Searches Secretly for New Campus

Jeff Bezos owns the Washington Post, not the Wall Street Journal. Rupert Murdoch owns the Wall Street Journal.

pyroniteon The myopia boom (2015)

Is the diet in East Asian countries (Hong Kong, Taiwan, Singapore & South Korea) significantly worse than it was in the 1920s? As the article details, myopia is increasingly common in China as well. The Chinese suffered numerous famines between 1920 and 1960.

I'm sure diet plays some role in eye health, but nutrition has likely improved in all of the countries they're discussing.

pyroniteon Spotify Form F-1

I was a Spotify lifer until I butted up against their 10,000 song limit. [1]

Now, I'm using Google Play Music. There's no doubt in my mind that everything else outside of this limit is better on Spotify.

Please, Spotify, fix this! Let me help inflate your valuation!

1. https://community.spotify.com/t5/Accounts/Library-Song-Limit...

pyroniteon Yes, but what does your startup do?

Troy Hunt's post details what Report URI does in the first paragraph but it didn't explain to Skrebbel how they accomplished those things.

pyroniteon Side Project Marketing Checklist

> A/B testing landing page and newsletter ? Is that difficult to get honest feedback from people who care ?

Individual feedback doesn't replace large-scale A/B testing. If you're getting feedback from people who care (possibly implying they know you personally), it's also possible that they could deliver biased or unrepresentative feedback.

pyroniteon SoundCloud cuts jobs, closes SF and London offices

19 days ago an employee of SoundCloud posted an Ask HN about deferred salary reviews: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14575627

pyroniteon Ask HN: Somebody is manipulating the downvotes

I've never downvoted you, but I've taken note of you as a vitriolic poster, particularly after you had inflammatory comments deleted from a recent Soylent thread.

No downvoting should be automated, but it's possible you're being downvoted due to the content of your posts. gus_massa's hypothesis sounds reasonable.

pyroniteon Show HN: Tesseract.js – Pure JavaScript OCR for 60 Languages

The text detection is lacking in comparison to Google's Vision API. Here is a real-life comparison between Tesseract and Google's Vision API, based on a PDF a user of our website uploaded.

Original text [http://i.imgur.com/CZGhKhn.png]:

> I am also a top professional on Thumbtack which is a site for people looking for professional services like on gig salad. Please see my reviews from my clients there as well

Google detects [http://i.imgur.com/pSJym1x.png]:

> “ I am also a top professional on Thumbtack which is a site for people looking for professional services like on gig salad. Please see my reviews from my clients there as well ”

Tesseract detects [http://i.imgur.com/wwbLU6g.png]:

> \ am also a mp pmfesslonzl on Thummack wmcn Is a sue 1m peop‘e \ookmg (or professmna‘ semces We on glg salad P‘ezse see my rewews 1mm my cuems were as weH

pyroniteon The Simpsons by the Data

It's fair to point out that Simpsons dialogue is 75% male and 9 out of 10 of their most prolific writers are male. That's a significant data finding.

There is a gender imbalance in The Simpsons. There's also a gender imbalance in film (1). That doesn't indicate ill-intent but it may be reflective of society and media as a whole.

1. http://polygraph.cool/films/

pyroniteon Instant Payouts for Marketplaces

It doesn't rhyme with holla, but we've also been asked not to disclose our pricing agreement, as we have a custom deal.

I can say that we aren't processing anything close to Lyft levels of revenue. (I wish.)

pyroniteon Instant Payouts for Marketplaces

> Instant Payouts cost 1.5% of the payout amount, with a minimum fee of 50¢.

This is the killer for us and, I'm guessing, many other marketplaces without a Lyft-sized (20%) rake.

Our current solution for marketplace payouts charges one quarter per payout. The funds are direct deposited in the user's account the next business day. Maybe we have a sweet deal, but to go from this to 1.5%, in addition to Stripe's other (higher than average) fees, is hard to justify. (Which is unfortunate, we'd love to use their great libraries!)

pyroniteon John Carmack: Steps to Avoid Aliasing in VR

The character count of a random sentence ("Don't try to do accurate dynamic shadows on GearVR. Dynamic shadows") puts it at 68 characters. The Rules of Typographical Style suggests 66 characters is considered ideal: http://webtypography.net/2.1.2.

This is possibly why their textual content is narrow. It's designed to make it more readable.

pyroniteon Valve funding VR projects, exclusivity-free, with pre-paid Steam revenue

In the video Mark Zuckerberg says "we have about 400 people working on this now" at 0:50 in.

pyroniteon Ask HN: Who is hiring? (March 2016)

GigSalad | Remote | Full Stack Engineer | Full time

GigSalad is a marketplace for hiring entertainment and event services. To date, we've serviced over 1 million users.

Want to learn more about the engineering role we have available? Read more at https://gigsalad.recruitee.com/o/web-engineer-wilmington or email careers@gigsalad.com with questions.

pyroniteon Ask HN: Who is hiring? (January 2016)

GigSalad - Springfield, MO - https://www.gigsalad.com - REMOTE

GigSalad is hiring a Senior Designer to design our entertainment marketplace.

Here at GigSalad, we’re building an easier way for people to hire talent and services for events. From musicians to magicians, we match customers with entertainment professionals for all of life’s events.

As Senior Designer at GigSalad, you’ll be responsible for designing a two-sided marketplace that has serviced nearly a million users. We’re looking for a seasoned pro – a designer who is comfortable creating beautiful, functional experiences and excited to instill their design philosophy in the company as a whole. As an instrumental part of the company, you’ll work closely with engineering and product management to take your vision from idea to execution. Your insights will not only influence the look of the site, but will also extend to branding and marketing initiatives across the company.

Join GigSalad if you like tackling rewarding problems, taking time to solve things the right way, focusing on a single product and making it gorgeous throughout.

Read more and apply at the following link: https://gigsalad.workable.com/jobs/175781

pyroniteon Show HN: Adopted a dog, had no clue what meds she needed, did some research

I've had 5 dogs in my lifetime that have lived to age 15+. All I do is take them to the vet yearly and feed them good quality dry dog food.

Anecdotal evidence should not determine whether to treat your dog (or any species) with medicine – particularly with a sample size of 5.

pyroniteon The Unbelievable Skepticism of the Amazing Randi

The Reagan White House was advised by an astrologer. Pseudoscience is something many people are susceptible to regardless of their position.

pyroniteon The Unbelievable Skepticism of the Amazing Randi

To anyone interested in reading more about skepticism, Carl Sagan's Demon-Haunted World is one of the most impactful books I've read on the subject.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Demon-Haunted_World

pyroniteon It Is Not About the Money, Silly, It Is All About the Time

$48,000 a year in investment is $18,000 more than the median total income for an individual in the United States.

What you are able to do is exactly what the vast majority of Americans are unable to do.

pyroniteon Uber Trials Fast Food Delivery Service UberFresh

1.) The ability to deliver from any restaurant, not just those participating or offering their own delivery service. 2.) Drivers in a large number of locations, likely closer to the intended restaurant than any "pick it up for you and deliver" service could ever be.

pyroniteon Ask HN: Experienced dev having career lull

It sounds, from his comment history, as if he moved to Valve Software. Gabe Newell (founder of Valve Software) is a former Microsoft producer.