Hacker News Reader

tarheeljasonon Why Pre-Order Food Then Wait in Line

Panera has a really good model (Rapid Pickup) whereby preorders are name-tagged and shelved on a self-service, grab-and-go counter.

tarheeljasonon Salsify – A New Architecture for Real-time Internet Video

Yes, of course--the affiliation just jumped out at me.

tarheeljasonon Salsify – A New Architecture for Real-time Internet Video

> Salsify is led by [...] Catherine Wu, a junior at Saratoga High School in Saratoga, California.

tarheeljasonon Police Say Uber Is Likely Not at Fault for Self-Driving Car Fatality in Arizona

+1. Calling this speeding is willful ignorance of the practical flow of traffic everywhere in the country.

tarheeljasonon Police Say Uber Is Likely Not at Fault for Self-Driving Car Fatality in Arizona

> There is no traffic "around" them, just the car behind.

How about when merging, or changing lanes? The speed limit is not _always_ safe or practical to obey strictly.

tarheeljasonon Silicon Valley's Secretive, Orgiastic Side

> This is white-knightism shrouded in ...

The author is a woman; not saying you didn't know that, but knights are traditionally men.

> The real causes are slew of issues that start and end in everyday human activity. If you want to help marginalized women, help them where they are being marginalized every day!

What sorts of activities, and where? I agree with all the rest of your points--just probing this one for the sake of completeness.

tarheeljasonon Introducing Surface Book 2

> "When you think about Microsoft and you hear our mission – to empower every person and every organization on the planet to achieve more – it’s powerful." What?

They're 'starting with why' - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qp0HIF3SfI4

TL;DW: a marketing consultant suggested replacing "We make computers to empower people" with "We empower people; we just happen to make computers"

tarheeljasonon Venmo is offering users an physical debit card

> money goes directly between checking accounts

Some see this as a disadvantage of Square Cash--they say individual transactions clog their checking account statements, they prefer to withdraw a consolidated amount from their Venmo balance.

tarheeljasonon Ask HN: Any “bootcamps” or courses for intermediate/advanced people?

For data science: http://insightdatascience.com/ only accepts those who have completed a PhD

tarheeljasonon Stop Fabricating Travel Security Advice

> Because it is normal for people to travel with blank devices, in no way will the CBP officer suspect that you have something to hide.

It is common for businesses to issue employees blank laptops specifically for international travel.

tarheeljasonon Homeopathy 'treatments' must be labelled to say they do not work, US gov orders

Expensive placebos work better. http://blogs.sciencemag.org/pipeline/archives/2015/01/29/exp...

tarheeljasonon Final – A credit card built for the 21st century

Yes, I immediately thought of Citi's Virtual Account Numbers.

Citi also offers a card with no annual fee and 2% cash back, so if you use Final you're effectively paying $49 plus 1% of your spending each year for a trivial increase in piece of mind that you didn't need to begin with (because you're not liable for fraud).

tarheeljasonon Paul's Online Math Notes

Really nice, succinct notes here as well: https://www.math.hmc.edu/calculus/tutorials/

(includes some linear algebra, despite the URL)

tarheeljasonon William Zinsser, Author of “On Writing Well”, Dies at 92

Zinsser* - my apologies.

tarheeljasonon William Zinsser, Author of “On Writing Well”, Dies at 92

That example affirms the power of "show, don't tell." Those pages, in the raw, assure the novice or insecure writer that even experts revise and resubmit.

RIP, Zissner.

tarheeljasonon Many McGill Education Students Cannot Calculate an Average

An average is an arithmetic mean. But if you found the question vague, you would ask for clarification. These students volunteered answers.