Hacker News Reader

TheBillon Liquefied natural gas carbon footprint is worse than coal

Very very few LNG cars and trucks out there, as filling infrastructure is limited compared to CNG. In US it's something like 2% of total CNG+LNG fleet.

Interviewed with a midwestern company doing CNG truck conversions and building fueling infrastructure back in 2014/15. Diesel prices coming down crushed them, and they sold off the majority of their fueling station biz in 2019, to focus on renewable CNG from dairy & hog farms.

TheBillon Kids sickened by police training may have ingested decades old chemical weapons

The CWC does not treat tear gas as a banned chemical weapon, instead classifying it as a riot control agent (RCA). Article II(7) defines RCA as “[a]ny chemical … which can produce rapidly in humans sensory irritation or disabling physical effects which disappear within a short time … .” CWC Article I(5) prohibits using RCA “as a method of warfare,” but does not define the term method of warfare, leading to a potential exception or “loophole.”

https://www.justsecurity.org/76595/clearing-the-fog-of-war-s...

Pedanticisim aside, the .mil requires risk assessments up the wazoo for every training event, let alone using CS/OC, and they should have expected this. Hope it deploys and dissipates for 60 year old anything is a bad gamble in the desert, let alone a built up occupied urban area.

TheBillon San Francisco Unicorn Startup Carta Hit with Multiple Lawsuits, Exposés

Not the only suit, been an issue for a while: https://emilykramer.medium.com/equity-for-all-1ae9ac42679e

TheBillon Two new security incidents involving CLEAR ratchet up concern from lawmakers

https://simpleflying.com/tel-aviv-ben-gurion-airport-safety-...

TheBillon Ask HN: Is There a Crunchbase for Policitians?

Not that I'm aware, but there are a ton of trade trackers: https://www.quiverquant.com/sources/senatetrading https://www.barchart.com/investing-ideas/politician-insider-... https://www.smartinsider.com/politicians/ https://www.capitoltrades.com/politicians

TheBillon Ask HN: How do you sell DIY hardware to non-DIY audience?

Two options as I see it: Partner w/ a co like AdaFruit or another kit developer & push content via youtube/tock etc.

Alternatively work w/ a fab co like https://www.tempoautomation.com/ to produce small batches, and send them to a 3PL co to package and fufil for you.

TheBillon GE won’t let me use convection roast on my new oven without connecting to WiFi

Oh man, this reminds me of a story - GE Profile oven in a ski condo, last day or second to last day we were there.

Broke in a way that you couldn't open the door - and we couldn't get the bacon out. Wound up reading the repair manual and a forum while the GF cooked eggs, trying to figure it out.

The Solenoid that is used to lock the door when it goes through a clean cycle has to be powered on 100% of the time, and keeps its spring compressed. Power turns off to lock it. If the insulator/bushing for it breaks, it will jam open & lock the door. Family will never buy GE appliances after this happened. Mom just bought a new Kitchenaid that's got exactly 0 smart features.

TheBillon Peter Thiel hires disgraced ex-Austrian chancellor Sebastian Kurz

Journalists who's "reporting" actively endangered his life as he was in Saudi at the time. Where its still the death penalty for being gay.

TheBillon Apple announces Self Service Repair

Just did this with my 10, $74.95 for a new battery, spent ~2 hours down the street curating a newsletter at a bar I like. It was a similar experience when I needed the battery in my MacBook Air replaced but closer to 100.

TheBillon There may be a steep privacy cost if you park here

Also usually gets you plenty of Safeway Rewards @ Chevron.

TheBillon DeFi and the “digital asset” felony hidden in the infrastructure bill

They do, and they very much view it as a threat to the centralized power of the USG.

TheBillon Flexport CEO on how to fix the US supply chain crisis

Theres an AFB outside of LA with proper rail siding. He identified it & facilities in thread.

Railroad are a regulated monopoly. DOT/FRA can mandate service & regulate rates (either for freight or using their track) to prevent one carrier from making movement impossible. If DOT/FRA do it right they'd economically incentivise the short haul.

TheBillon It's tough being an Azure fan

I spent ~6 months getting them to properly delete a unprovisioned, un attached, properly shut down disk.

TheBillon SF Mayor violates strict mask mandate, which city has yet to soften

Suprise suprise, rules for thee, not for me.

https://www.dir.ca.gov/dosh/COVID19citations.html

SF is still actively issuing citations for this.

TheBillon U.S. Pacific Northwest heat wave bakes wheat, fruit crops

Yep, we'd manage to kill off a lot of the invasive species like eucalyptus, take a load off the water table for a few years. A chance to get ahead of things like the beetle blight that are dependent on early spring drought to kill native pine trees would be good.

TheBillon U.S. Pacific Northwest heat wave bakes wheat, fruit crops

IMO we need to burn more out west. We're digging out of ~200+ years of mismanaging the forests:

https://www.npr.org/2020/08/24/899422710/to-manage-wildfire-...

"Before 1800, several million acres burned every year in California due to both Indigenous burning and lightning-caused fires, far more than even the worst wildfire years today. Tribes used low-grade fires to shape the landscape, encouraging certain plants to grow both for tribal use and to attract game."

TheBillon U.S. Pacific Northwest heat wave bakes wheat, fruit crops

Have fun pitching your fellow Canadians on a massive regression in standard of living that hits your poor & first nations communities hardest while becoming a economic vassal state to the CCP, who literally does not give a fuck.

TheBillon Apple's “iCloud Private Relay” broke risk based authentication

If you pay attention to the time those comments come out you'll see a specific pattern around european users coffee/lunch/evening times.

TheBillon Stolen Picasso and Mondrian paintings found stashed in a ravine in Greece

Alert Fatigue.

TheBillon How to build a small town in Texas

Reminds me of https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Culdesac_Tempe Which seems to be making headway in getting built according to twitter. Ironically may drive out there this summer & check it out.

TheBillon Hackers stole $650k and got away, showing limits to law enforcement’s reach

https://www.sfchronicle.com/bayarea/nevius/article/Dumb-thie...

Old roommate's company in SF - Car, bikes and computers. Car was stashed in Bayview & cops waited till they had enough backup to lock down the blocks around the house, thieves weren't there unfortunately.

TheBillon TSMC looks to double down on U.S. chip factories as talks in Europe falter

Hundreds of comments and no one mentions that if the three gorges dam goes it's 30%+ of china gone. A literal single ton warhead ( ballistically delivered torpedo ) would accomplish this. More likely to be a nuke but...

TheBillon 1 in 5 EV owners in California switched back to gas because charging is a hassle

Pretty much, and last tennant mix was about 20% EV, 80% ICE.

TheBillon Ford Wants Billboards to Beam Distracting Ads to Screens Inside Your Car

1) Waze has been doing this for a while which addresses context as they're only served to a geofenced area: https://www.waze.com/business/ 2) QR Codes & Lane Assist cameras. Boom, done. Pay $F a bunch of $/BTC/RUB to put your companies ads on their allow list, no allow list, no open URL for Johnny Drop Tables.

TheBillon Launch HN: Moonshot Brands (YC W21) – We buy and grow e-commerce companies

What are your thoughts on the acquisitions that Aterian ($AETR) has done in the last 6 months?

Are you going to be approaching it via a similar acquisition financing mechanism? Buying at 2-3x SDE for a mix of cash and Moonshot stock issued at 10-20X Earnings?

TheBillon How to design a sailing ship for the 21st century?

90% of that is burying the lead that leaking methane is an issue. No shit, but moving from Bunker>LSFO>LNG is going to cause a net decrease in GHG emissions. Operators that have to focus on profit margins, not maintaining artificial monopolies can't afford to subsidize leaking equipment. Aliso Canyon caused a substantial investment in methane detection hardware thats in use. Next step is getting E&P co's to pay into a perpetual fund that monitors old wells.

TheBillon The Oncoming Ransomware Storm

Something that would be relevant. Would love to know who's downvoting you.

TheBillon The Oncoming Ransomware Storm

30 years ago there was ransomware in the wild:

1989 -Popp/ AIDS trojan 2005 - GPCoder trojan 2017 - notpetya (AKA the moller maersk hack) https://actzero.ai/resources/white-paper/the-rise-of-ransomw...

TheBillon The Oncoming Ransomware Storm

It's an appeal to authoritarianism. The author wants "someone" with power to tell everyone what they're allowed, and not allowed to do. " The free flow of money from US banks to cryptocurrency exchanges is the root cause and needs to halt. " Direct quote. Author is in London, but believes that #TeamAmericaWorldPoliece needs to step in because the only viable on/off ramp to cryptocurrencies is the US Bank System.

The article has the veneer of being well thought out, however if you look at their other writing & twitter there's definitely a I think I'm smart & didn't invent/make money/gain referential power from crypto so it's a scam & they now have ego tied up in being right/seeing the state clamp down on it.

TheBillon 1 in 5 EV owners in California switched back to gas because charging is a hassle

Every new multi family I've seen in the SFBA since 2015 has had charging stations in the garage. Last building in RWC was ~50% of the stalls. SF was 25% or so. Every grocery store I've been at has had 1-5 EV charging stations. Most of the peninsula office complexes have charging at them. All of these are code requirements on new construction. Just takes time to turn things like EPA superfund sites into offices and apartments.