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vectorjohn

545 karma · joined January 27, 2012

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vectorjohn··on Show HN: Remote personalized training tracked with Apple Watch
I've actually been using this since the year started, and it helps you have clear fitness goals more than anything else I've tried before.
vectorjohn··on Relicensing React, Jest, Flow, and Immutable.js
Yes, that's exactly the point. It disarms people from fighting over patent nonsense. If you hate software patents you should love the bad + patents license.
vectorjohn··on Scientists Design Solar Cell That Captures Nearly All Energy of Solar Spectrum
What is it that makes solar panels cost what they do, ultimately? Not materials, right? Those are all basically sand and other not so special things. Labor? Isn't it mostly automated? Upkeep of the factories? Input energy?

Maybe it's just all those things together. But it sure seems like if we wanted to it wouldn't be that hard to ramp up production and drive costs down a couple fold. Not that I know how.

vectorjohn··on Scientists Design Solar Cell That Captures Nearly All Energy of Solar Spectrum
I think it would be much easier to use methane. Just as carbon neutral if you make it yourself, and doesn't have as many exotic engineering requirements.

I didn't know that about fuel cells though, interesting.

vectorjohn··on A new hypothesis in medicine: give patients drugs they know don’t work
Also, any doctor will tell you that.
vectorjohn··on Tesla Passes Ford by Market Value
Even buses don't take you door to door. I can't imagine a future where a streetcar is anywhere near as good as self driving cars (possibly paired with mass transit).
vectorjohn··on Tesla Passes Ford by Market Value
I really want to be in the business of writing the software that plans these things. The possibilities are crazy. Predicting where to have cars based on overall traffic flows, having cars ready for individuals who always leave at the same time. Think, a car is 30 seconds away every time you follow your routine. That's faster than getting into and starting your own car! Especially if you have a parking garage.
vectorjohn··on Tesla Passes Ford by Market Value
Cabs are expensive, relatively slow, and busses are just slow and don't take you to your destination.

Really, this doesn't seem like much of a stretch.

vectorjohn··on Tesla Passes Ford by Market Value
Those aren't congesting city streets, at least that I've ever seen.
vectorjohn··on Tesla Passes Ford by Market Value
Uh, what? Cabs are already really popular. Why would a self driving car be "from hell"? You think they can't be cleaned?
vectorjohn··on Tesla Passes Ford by Market Value
I think car sharing even works in those cases. It's all a logistical problem. Not that there won't be some people who own cars. There just aren't that many problems that are hard to solve with car shares to outweigh the huge benefits.
vectorjohn··on Tesla Passes Ford by Market Value
Driverless cars can take you between train stations and destinations. No magical form of train will come to your house or go to your office.

In fact, this is a perfect use case for driverless cars. The problem with trains everywhere is the wasted time not on the train and the million stops along the way.

vectorjohn··on Tesla Passes Ford by Market Value
Wow, so for the short time you have kids in diapers this won't work for you personally. Big whoop.

We still have typewriters around too, and some people ride horses. Old tech doesn't die, it just diminishes to a smaller niche.

vectorjohn··on Tesla Passes Ford by Market Value
Give it a rest. There is no possible way he can solve it right now, we don't have self driving cars yet.
vectorjohn··on Tesla Passes Ford by Market Value
"A teenager doesn't just "want a car." He wants that freedom that car gives him."

Precisely, and this is why owning the car isn't that important. This teenager presumably still has to pay for the car and fuel, or bug his parents for it. Paying for the (cheaper) self driving ride is no different.

vectorjohn··on Tesla Passes Ford by Market Value
You missed the point like the GP. None of those services are anything like what's coming. Car2go still has to be parked, has to be close, you have to live in the home zone. Zip car is just... Not even close. It's a rental service and you need to take the car back.

Comparing either of those or public transit to self driving cars misses the point entirely.

vectorjohn··on They Used To Last 50 Years
The fear of battery degradation is way way overblown. You'll drive at least a few hundred thousand miles before you might "need" to replace it [1]. And even then, you could keep going.

[1] https://electrek.co/2016/06/06/tesla-model-s-battery-pack-da...

vectorjohn··on What's Really Warming the World?
I like the response peer review or STFU. Maybe PRoSTFU.

What is that technique the fake-reasonable argument makers use? It's like a Gish gallop but slower. Maybe that's the best description of it.

vectorjohn··on “Old” Food Reduces Lifespan
How is that your take? It seems that would completely contradict it. If it's just accumulation of errors how would that be impacted at all by what you eat? Especially the age of what you eat!
vectorjohn··on House Passes E-mail Privacy Act
Privacy has literally no tangible value to most people. It's just a warm fuzzy to a few, and a practical value to even fewer.

Convenience on the other hand has obvious value to almost everyone.

vectorjohn··on The Middle Class Can't Afford to Live in Cities Anymore
Well good for you, but you don't speak for everyone.
vectorjohn··on U.S. government begins asking foreign travelers about social media
Doesn't seem like a problem. The fake outrage about it is laughable. This is no different than any other kind of personal interview. They want to see evidence that you're a normal ass person, this isn't some sort of action to de-anonymize the internet, spy on your private whatever.
vectorjohn··on U.S. government begins asking foreign travelers about social media
But again, why would it be bad if that "flagged" you? It's not like any of this sends you straight to jail or something. You should be investigated further if there is some signal that can help direct limited resources where they will be more effective. Law enforcement doesn't have limitless resources, and the downside to misdirecting them or looking aimlessly is you let actual criminals or what have you go unnoticed.

I simply don't understand the outrage. It seems random and unconnected to reality. Your public social media whatever is public. Why wouldn't it be investigated just like anything else about you that can be gleaned?

vectorjohn··on U.S. government begins asking foreign travelers about social media
Some of us don't see it as a problem if random people entering the country get their public tweets investigated. Why on earth wouldn't this be a good thing?
vectorjohn··on Man gets $75 after being wrongly imprisoned for 31 years
It's not like they have a time machine to go pick up old evidence. They had an old sheet, it's easy to imagine how there wouldn't be DNA left there.
vectorjohn··on Man gets $75 after being wrongly imprisoned for 31 years
Why do you call it a false confession?
vectorjohn··on Man gets $75 after being wrongly imprisoned for 31 years
DNA didn't "clear him." They just failed to find new evidence, although the DNA evidence that his friend was there corroborates the victim's story.

I think they just let him go to save the money of another trial since he already served so much. He probably would have lost the retrial since the evidence didn't change, but they decided not to spend the money. Seems OK.

vectorjohn··on Why we chose Vue.js over React
Sounds like they're referring to hiccup.
vectorjohn··on Finland set to become first country to ban coal use for energy
No. There is no point where colonizing other planets is easier than fixing this one.
vectorjohn··on Nvidia on new self-driving system: “basically 5 years ahead and coming in 2017”
I don't think it does still stand when you were off by an order of magnitude.
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