Hacker News Reader

Phillipharryton Is the era of the $100 graphing calculator coming to an end?

Interesting that the TI-84 is mentioned so much. I am pretty sure this article is making a big deal out of nothing. I think this is a case of journalists reading "graphing calculator" and assuming the 84 is being used. SAT's allow CAS calculators, the Inspire is a pretty impressive specialist calculator and makes algebraic expressions incredibly easy. Any sensible student should be taking one into the exam or they're just putting themselves at a disadvantage. I can't speak for what calculator students ARE buying, but they are allowed to buy and use far better ones, the 84 might be overpriced but just don't buy it. You wouldn't care if the Apple II is currently overpriced, no one should be using one, so it shouldn't be a big deal that the 84 is overpriced, just move on.

Phillipharryton My father had a lifelong ticket to fly anywhere. Then they took it away

Posted here less than 2 months ago, nearly 200 comments.

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20510933

Phillipharryton Bugatti has broken the 300mph barrier

I'm not sure you're actually reading my message. A bluff at the rear of the car is terrible for aerodynamics, but having a rounded shape is inconvenient for the interior and storage. A compromise is made where you have a slope and then a bluff. The prius has this slope and then bluff. The flat surface is still bad for aerodynamics, it is not there to benefit them.

Also stop just googling for wikipedia links then coming back with information you've only just learned. It's ok not to know everything.

Phillipharryton Bugatti has broken the 300mph barrier

Ok I hate to do this, but you're wrong about the tail reducing drag instead of increasing it. The rear of the prius has a design feature to reduce the effect of the turbulent wake created by having a flat rear, but it still has a large vertical surface at the rear creating a lot of wake. You can clearly see this in a wind tunnel.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ov0iNPfs-WM

Phillipharryton A Gambler Who Cracked the Horse-Racing Code (2018)

Of all the ethical considerations of betting, not gambling seems like the most peculiar.

Phillipharryton Bugatti has broken the 300mph barrier

Yeah I did clarify it's not the worst, it's a smooth vehicle but it's got pretty bad turbulence at the rear due to that flat back, so it's no aerodynamic masterpiece. I only use that comparison because it's a bog-standard car and can't get anywhere near 300mph, so it might surprise people to know it has better aerodynamics.

Phillipharryton Bugatti has broken the 300mph barrier

It has a horrendous drag coefficient, worse than a prius (not that they are a the worst car, but they're not sporty). It needs this to cool and feed the engine.

Phillipharryton Bugatti has broken the 300mph barrier

It also has a worse drag coefficient than your prius, it needs to suck in an enormous amount of air to cool and feed that quad-turbocharged w16 engine.

Phillipharryton Mark Twain’s Quest to Bring Affordable Watches to the Masses

The fantastic coincidence being the man who created the typesetting machine he invested in, had the last name Paige. I love aptonyms.

And here's an interesting read if you want to follow up about the machine.

http://www.twainquotes.com/paige.html

Phillipharryton Jack Dorsey’s account was hacked

Ok but brokers aren't less regulated, exchanges are, and Twitter isn't traded on every exchange.

Phillipharryton Jack Dorsey’s account was hacked

You're probably right. After-hours trading is so large these days that the big movers don't care when the news is announced.

Phillipharryton Software made me loathe my car

I would argue turning off traction control feels safer up until the moment it doesn't and then it causes a crash. Traction control is really impressive tech even on older cars and I wouldn't want to turn it off. By "fly-by-wire" do you mean power steering? Driving without that just sucks. I like low-tech interiors but I don't mind newer tech on cars like blind spot detectors and auto-dip headlights. If only you could pick and choose.

Phillipharryton Software made me loathe my car

Fair enough, I was just giving my driving experience. I don't like to use the car for anything but driving. The most interactive it gets is me putting on a CD.

Phillipharryton Software made me loathe my car

I think those people like the spartan features of older cars. If newer cars had those new safety feature but the same interfaces and simplicity as older cars I think you'd find less people pining for the days of their old Fiat Punto.

I don't think they're wanting to eschew safety because they like their older car, it's just A) not everyone can afford a new car, and B) the old car controls just the way they want it to, regardless of being less safe.

Phillipharryton Software made me loathe my car

I'm in agreement but I've not seen this sentiment shared much. A car is a seperate piece of technology to my phone and I've never felt the need to mix the features of them. Call me a luddite but I use the car to drive and that's it. I don't need any software integrations for the way I use it.

Phillipharryton Building a Raspberry Pi 3B+ full keyboard handheld

Another interesting build currently being polished up is SnapOnAir's Blaspberry v2. It's deemed a "communication tool". They've made a modern day pager as well, but the new one is like a linux blackberry that is entirely open source. The developer has been in talks with arturo about working together on it (based on their tweets at least) using that q10 keyboard. It's pretty damn impressive and I've seen doom running on it (though that's not the highest benchmark).

Phillipharryton A man who destroyed his multimillion dollar company in 10 seconds (2018)

Well it was the Ratners group that lost 99% of its listed value, so not just the Ratner's brand that felt the damage. It definitely affected Gerald more than it did the company though, but there was definitely a touch and go moment there where the group nearly went under entirely. They've managed to recover really well and after it rode it out properly (they fired Gerald a couple of years later then rebranded) they returned to the original stratospheric trajectory.

Phillipharryton A man who destroyed his multimillion dollar company in 10 seconds (2018)

Fair enough question. They didn't try and cut him down before. They just reported his quotes, and had a laugh at them, it wasn't even front page news. But this time they decided it was worth cutting him down, and it was on all their front page with titles like "Ratner sells 'crap'" etc. Previously it was popular to report on him because he was shaking up the industry, and once he'd taken a large portion of it, it became time to create scandal around him. The papers used him for news on the way up, pushed him and then rode him all the way back down again.

Newspapers report on people all the time and then switch when it suits them, it's always trying to move with people. It's also worth noting the reporter, Harry Arnold, worked for The Mirror, a less than reputable rag. Arnold knew ahead of time that Ratner was to make these jokes (heard about it through his assistant I believe) and was there waiting for the moment he could quote him. The scandal was prepared before it had even happened. They didn't force him to say those things, but they sure made an enormous deal out of it.

Phillipharryton A man who destroyed his multimillion dollar company in 10 seconds (2018)

So I've actually done a fair amount of research on this speech, and there a few skipped points most times people report on it.

Firstly the audience loved the jokes, they laughed at them all. It wasn't like he delivered them to stunned faces and immediate shock. The only thing that brought him down was a newspaper reporter noted it down and newspapers pushed it as an artificial scandal. Everyone buying 5 pound earrings knew they were of very low quality, they just didn't want it being shouted at them in their daily news.

Secondly it wasn't even the first time he had publicly made these sorts of jokes, in fact it wasn't even the first time they had been published in the papers.

This was entirely a newspaper driven downfall, they wanted to see him fail and wanted to sell papers about a scandal, so they did.

Phillipharryton A look back: The Bloomberg Keyboard (2017)

Considering monochrome wasn't really a limitation at the time, it makes quite a bit of sense as a display. It was certainly thinner than any CRT and so much lighter. I don't recall using one myself, how was the refresh rate on them if you do remember?

Phillipharryton A look back: The Bloomberg Keyboard (2017)

http://oldcomputers.net/grid1101.html

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grid_Compass

https://history-computer.com/ModernComputer/Personal/Grid.ht...

Everywhere says it's electroluminescent. I mentioned "burning out" instead of burning in. I know it's not the most technical term, but I mean LEDs failing in displays. In your speedometer for your car, either the whole display with fail (probably the circuit is broken) or the whole thing works, because it's one EL panel behind a translucent screen.

Also because of the nature of an ELD's components being static, (they radiate when a charge is applied, in a way very different to the phosphors that move around in CRT and plasma screens) I don't think it's possible for them to burn in.

Phillipharryton A look back: The Bloomberg Keyboard (2017)

Works on the same principle of passing a current through a substance to emit radiation, it's just the electroluminescent panels use a solid material, so I think they're able to be flatter.

Phillipharryton A look back: The Bloomberg Keyboard (2017)

"The Grid" is a fascinating machine. If you're interested in it the full name is the GRiD Compass 1101. It used a display I've never seen on any laptop before, an electroluminescent monochrome one, really weird tech there. It's primarily used in static displays like car dashboards because it's very unlikely to "burn out" (not even sure it's possible). I've never seen them on dynamic displays before.

More fun facts, it was used in space, and perhaps even as the "nuclear football".

Phillipharryton Japanese anime studio Khara moving to Blender

Avid are world leaders in buying and ruining software suites. Looking through their lineup you see a sad list of software that either used to be good, or could have been great.

Phillipharryton Funko Pop became a $686M business

Funk pops in particular are rather blob-like, their eyes protrude like raisins on a snowman so that casting is incredibly easy. For the intricate pieces (like a fish's fins) the main body just has holes, that then have a separate piece placed in them.

Phillipharryton Danish bank launches negative interest rate mortgage

That is not how the penalties are worded at all. Penalties are usually in the form of a percentage of a number of months' interest. I understand the fine is because the bank makes money on loans by being able to rely on them being a fixed long term, and the cancellation affects that, but it's not just the bank passing on that percentage loss directly.

Phillipharryton GE's smart light bulb reset process is a masterpiece of modern techno-insanity

This is a terrible analogy and I hope you see that. They are completely different use cases. Do you have your family phones situated in your ceiling all linked together in a fitting? This procedure is inconvenient, but the idea of using a procedure is very smart.

Phillipharryton GE's smart light bulb reset process is a masterpiece of modern techno-insanity

This way the bulb only has one form of input, current. It is far more basic and probably cheaper that way.

Phillipharryton GE's smart light bulb reset process is a masterpiece of modern techno-insanity

Well I would assume if you find yourself in a situation you need to reset a lightbulb in a light fitting, it's likely you would need to reset them all seeing as they're all being used for the same purpose/connecting to the same network.

Phillipharryton GE's smart light bulb reset process is a masterpiece of modern techno-insanity

I remember this being brought up on reddit. Yes it's ridiculously lengthy, but having a procedure instead of a reset button is actually a smart idea. So they've taken a kernel of a good idea and went overboard on trying to protect users from accidentally resetting.

Having a procedure allows you to reset bulbs in hard-to-reach places or a whole set of lights in one room can be reset using the one lightswitch.