SyncTheory13

I think the automotive industry is finally catching on to all the new technology and new apps/utilities/data sources. Comparing a car in 2020 to a car in 2010 will be like comparing 1960 to 1995. I really hope OpenXC from Ford plays a big role in this initiative.

http://openxcplatform.com/

This is a Google initiative mirroring their Android OpenHandsetALliance. I think that worked out pretty well for them...

Data Analyst now, Firefighter in the future? I'll eventually look into volunteer efforts though...

While I initially liked this idea... I think I'd much prefer this one:

http://www.eptender.com/

It's just a gasoline/diesel (or other fuel-powered!) generator that plugs into an electric car. I believe the company is looking to rent them out to people as needed, similar to renting a truck from uHaul. If they could land a contract with uHaul or something, it could take off... Seems the charging port isn't universal on electric cars though...

Personally, I'd prefer to buy my own and have it around the house as an emergency generator as well as for the rare long trip. Much simpler and more versatile than a Hybrid, for sure.

Since this whole post seems to have turned into a debate on supporting artists, etc... I'd like to add the idea of going to as many concerts as possible and supporting local/small music at a mich higher rate thannational/international acts. Even when attending a major concert, a higher percentage of the merch and ticket sales, etc. reaches the actual artist.

I understand this isn't an option for everyone but I think more people should consider it.

I've had my Nexus 5 since it came out and haven't changed the background from stock... This is the first one I've seen that has gotten me excited. It's so versatile.

Thanks a lot! Good work!

If it really does work (sounds like it!), they'll just need to invent something to help aid the transition, before it can be really find mass-adoption.

From the way it sounds now, I'd make the switch only if I could find the time to take a month away from life... Maybe a vacation where all I do is remodel my house and have groceries delivered.

The article isn't especially informative, but it's nice to see the initiatives Ford is taking in advancing tech in the automotive industry. I feel like they may be at the forefront of major manufacturers (obviously Tesla is way ahead), especially with their OpenXC program... Which is a device in all new Ford vehicles that can be tapped into to show a lot more data than OBDII provides, and is open-source to encourage apps to use the data. Unfortunately, there doesn't seem to be a huge crowd behind this...

I don't own a Ford yet, but when I do, I'm hoping to get into the OpenXC device using Nexus 7 tablet in the dash. Lots of changes to come in the next decade...

You're correct, I did miss the point. I viewed the original link on my phone and wasn't seeing where it dived into the value of amenities. :(

I may give it a shot someday.

I'm not following... We are paying roughly market rates divided by the space we actually use. While it could be looked at as only being fair if each pays a percentage of their income, this (as you mentioned) reduces the benefit living with people to get cheaper rent.

I actually do make a decent bit more than my roommates, but I choose to live an extremely simple life for other benefits. If my rent was higher than it is now (to match my income), living there would not be worth it and I would get my own apartment without roommates, etc. It would also create trouble between us as I don't always find the benefit in just having them around for how great they are.

I can very well see how your situation works for you, but I do not agree that my setup is at all unfair.

As far as cleaning goes, none of my roommates have the income to constantly pay professionals... So that is why they can take a pick off the list as opposed to being assigned tasks.

I've lived with tons of roommates the last 5 years and do not see the utility in this... There are jut too many factors to take into consideration. We are currently in a 4-bedroom house with other amenities. Two of the bedrooms are very small, and two are large. First, each room starts at a base amount to take into consideration the shared spaces... Which is $50 for us. So... $700/mo. total - $200/mo. for all 4 rooms = $500/mo. leftover. Then we split the rooms into amounts that we agreed seem fair based on the sizes. As a median, $500/4 = $125. The large rooms are $165, small rooms are $85. Add in the $50 from before and we have:

Large Room: $215 Large Room: $215 Small Room: $135 Small Room: $135

Basically, you're paying a base price for the shared space, then an additional price for the approximate square footage of your room. We avoid going into exact measurements to keep it simple.

As far as utilities go, it was a nightmare to organize them every month and collect what everybody owed, especially when people started owing over a couple months past. Making sure to record payments, update the balances, ask for payments, pay all the bills, and sometimes organize which bills get paid first because we owed was a disaster.

So, for utilities, I calculated the yearly average of all of them divided by the minimum number of roommates (4 in our case), added ~10-15% on the top, and that was our new monthly utility bill. Everybody pays the same amount every month. Rent is due on the 1st. Utilities are due on the 15th. I track payments using Google Docs so they have access.

Also annoying was the process in which people bought supplies for the house and wanting reimbursements... Sometimes people would buy the same things and we'd have a stock of them, etc... So that extra cushion in the utilities goes toward purchasing house supplies in bulk.

All of the money goes into a PayPal student account with a debit card. Everybody has access to Mint.com to see transactions/balance, but only I have access to the actual account. Anybody can use the debit card, and I get text/email alerts for every transaction. If we end up having a large balance, we can improve something in the shared spaces or repay debts from roommates that had to be kicked out for owing (face it... that money is gone - Always collect a security deposit!).

We believe this system is fair and scaleable, as it rewards people for sharing rooms rather than making them pay more for the same space... But as the number of people grows, the cushion in the utilities grows to a larger percentage... Making it possible to improve our shared space living conditions as a reward for putting up with too many roommates. For instance, supplying everything we need for a full garden in the back yard, etc.

I apologize for this long-winded explanation, but I hope this helps somebody. Compared to the way of normally splitting up a house, this is much simpler. Everybody knows what they pay in rent for their room, they know how much they'd pay if they moved their partner in, they know how much utilities are, and everything is transparent.

The main thing I haven't figured out is chores/shared duties outside of just cleaning up after yourself. We have a whole 100+ year-old house to maintain/rehab, and there is a lot to do. Working on some kind of system where people can choose from a revolving list what chores they want to do to accumulate their points. First come, first choice. HabitRPG looks promising in that you can get groups together and tasks go up in value the longer they aren't done.

Also, having repercussions for late-payments/lack of chores. We're not big on charging interest/fines to those that cannot afford it already... But will soon be experimenting with taking away access to house amenities... For instance, the upstairs (nicer) bathroom, the high-speed Internet, our shared access to the local Hackerspace, etc.

I haven't seen this mentioned, but evidently the reason there is no Micro SD slot is to prevent a split in memory options and the confusion that comes with it.

See: http://www.androidcentral.com/why-nexus-devices-have-no-sd-c...

Though, I suppose they could develop some sort of solution that manages the split for the user so you can expand the memory and never worry about what it saved where...

All that said, I definitely prefer large internal memory over having an expandable memory slot... If I'm forced to make the choice.

Having read the original post when it was trending, I'm ecstatic to seebthis beimg implemented already. I believe I willbforbsure bebusing Stripe when I set up an online store in the next few months!

Thank you for more information on your critique. I'm not familiar with how Google leases out their mapping software, but it sounds like it's definitely worth having a conversation about. Unfortunately, I'm in no ways tied to Freelancer's Union - Just admiring from afar.

Now that it's had some time to develop analysis without my input, I wanted to explain why I posted this...

I've had some thoughts rattling in my head for a couple years now on building networks/tools to unify/empower small organizations, and to reduce hierarchical structures. There are multiple ways I hope to go about this, and would love to discuss it with anybody who wants to email me.

More or less, though, this is a very basic form of one of my ideas - or a decent starting point. I definitely agree with some of the criticism of a map-only set-up as danso mentioned, etc... I prefer the way Yelp is set up, for instance.

Also, I don't believe Freelancer's Union has been covered here much (if at all), and I believe that they could be a great resource to many of the people here.

Same here please. SyncTheory13 at the above domain.

This looks great! I'm currently vegan and have known for a while that it is not the best I could be doing nutritionally or morally. Rather than make my diet more complicated, I've been looking toward a primarily whole foods diet, sans animal products. With all the convenience, sugar, etc. of processed foods, making the jump has been much harder than I expected.

I'm excited about Soylent, but I'm not fully sold on the ingredients being primarily from supplements. I very much look forward to a vegan version.

Please continue researching, and try to gain the volunteer support of some nutritionists, then be quick to hire one when your Kickstarter succeeds!

Thanks for bringing your idea to everyone!

P.S. I also think this idea will be great for those who cannot afford the luxury of researching and buying healthy foods. Convenience is a huge reason the junk food industry is so large, especially in low-income areas. The price of $12/day is a nice starting point, and the lower it becomes, along with the more in-store availability - the healthier our population will become.

I've been watching this project since it was first posted on HN, getting giddy over the thought of it. I love the execution in how this book will teach kids about programming. I also love that the main character is a girl and that the whole book is cutesy.

I plan on using this both for my own enjoyment, and sharing it with a soon-to-be five year old boy who will be absolutely in love with the little animal/Android characters.

I'm toward the end of a rough patch financially, and usually pass up supporting projects on Kickstarter for this reason... But I couldn't resist, and ordered the double package.

Congratulations on the extreme success, Linda! I hope you find the process enjoyable enough to continue the series for years to come. I also hope the app or even a little indie game will be possible to create in the future (I realize it won't reach the $500k goal.)

As a final note - I just thought of the possibilities of this being implemented in a classroom!