HNHacker News
TopNewBestAskShowJobs

a_crc

47 karma · joined November 22, 2013

submissionscomments
a_crc··on Beijing criticises Netherlands’ move to block ASML exports to China
|Why TSMC is in Taiwan and not in Denmark then?

Because the Taiwanese government paid for it to be there in the 80's

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TSMC#History

a_crc··on Ask HN: Why do games (as media) make so much money?
Another aspect to mention is games can add a marketplace directly to the media. Paying extra to change the costume a character wears in a TV show wouldn't work, but paying to change a costume of a game character is something people do every day.
a_crc··on The tank is dead: Long live the javelin, the switchblade, the ... ?
You are right that regardless of the reasons for phasing out AIM-7, there are reasons to take a look at your target before firing at it. I suppose I was only thinking about "hot war" scenarios, not police actions in civilian airspace.
a_crc··on The tank is dead: Long live the javelin, the switchblade, the ... ?
As a counter example, the US has continued to use the BVR AIM-120 even after accidentally shooting down one of their own helicopters in an IFF failure. [1]

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AIM-120_AMRAAM#United_States_o...

a_crc··on The tank is dead: Long live the javelin, the switchblade, the ... ?
True overall, (although don't discount the effect of a pair of binoculars in the cockpit) but in this case we're talking about intercepting a radar target for visual confirmation. If you have a radar track, by definition you would have the type of guidance you need to put other sensors on target.
a_crc··on The tank is dead: Long live the javelin, the switchblade, the ... ?
The article you linked makes it sound like sensor and rocketry failures on some platforms that were retired 15 years ago, nothing to do with a general fear of BVR missile use. Also I believe the willingness to engage unidentified radar tracks has more to do with the nature of the conflict. I doubt the same restraint would be shown in a war against a near peer foe.
a_crc··on The tank is dead: Long live the javelin, the switchblade, the ... ?
The horizon is hundreds of miles away at altitude. You have to consider that visual range includes optical enhancement (telephoto lens etc.)
a_crc··on The tank is dead: Long live the javelin, the switchblade, the ... ?
Could you expand on this? I'm struggling to imagine a realistic scenario where visual confirmation of a target would be a requirement. I also don't see why an F-35 is at a major disadvantage inside visual range of a target. (FYI Visual range is farther than short range air to air missiles and much farther than gun range.)
a_crc··on Things Fall Apart
A Yacht is a large pleasure boat. There's no exact definition, but you wouldn't call a 15 ft motor boat a yacht or a 40 ft work boat. Any well maintained 30 ft plus boat that's not used for commercial purposes could reasonably be called a yacht.

Edited to add: The structure in the article is in my opinion, not a boat: Boats have a means of propulsion, (sails, oars, motor) this floating school is a barge.

a_crc··on Florida state of emergency with millions of gallons of “radioactive wastewater”
Millions of years? Agriculture is less than 120,000 years old by most accounts. Are you suggesting the bulk of humanity returns to hunting and gathering? Even then accounts of early human history have us emerging less than a million years ago. I think permaculture practices have their benefits but that kind of hyperbole doesn't help the cause.
a_crc··on Battle of Los Angeles
If you read a decent bit of WW2 history, incidents like this are fairly common. A bunch of young men in a high-stress situation open fire on phantom targets. Once one person / group starts shooting everyone else tends to join in unless command prevents it.
a_crc··on Consciousness Is Just a Feeling
The founding of the United States of America was an experiment in the practical application of political philosophy. Without major philosophical disagreements between the Government of England and the colonies, the nation that sent men to the moon would not exist.
a_crc··on Leaked memos Amazon warn 'be vigilant' due to threats to blow up data centers
I agree that the lone wolf nature of the attack makes a difference, but if we are going to paint other lone wolf shooters as products of their political beliefs then we have to apply the same standard in this case.

>they generally were not paraded around as heroes by people of similar political leaning

I would invite you to look at discussions of the incident on reddit, it might change your mind. That said, I agree that the celebration of politically motivated violence is despicable, and the unwillingness of some the members and supporters of the republican party to condemn the recent riot is a terrible mistake.

My main goal with my first comment was to remind everyone that painting the people we have political disagreements with as irredeemable monsters can drive people from both sides to violence.

I'd also like to thank you for taking the time to reply instead of downvoting and moving on, this is a tough subject and I don't think my hasty 1st comment was sufficient to the task.

a_crc··on Leaked memos Amazon warn 'be vigilant' due to threats to blow up data centers
A "left-wing activist" actually shot the house majority whip in 2017, and he was actively trying to assassinate other republican politicians as well. [0]

I'll never vote for another republican for as long as Trumpism remains a part of the party, but we can't pretend that only one side has been radicalized to the point of violence.

[0]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2017_Congressional_baseball_sh...

a_crc··on “Find Satoshi” PerplexCity puzzle solved
Well you have to consider that this is the "one hobby" for a lot of people, so your own division of brain cycles leaves room for a group who works on things like this for fun.
a_crc··on Software Needs Philosophers (2006)
Who decides what is neutral? What if you are trained by masters or schools with conflicting thoughts? What if you read all sides of an argument? Is this information not valuable to the informed choices of an individual?

How can you be certain that individuals have the tools to "look inside themselves" without any training?

Also I would appreciate a deeper response to the question of reading and language. The very language(s) that you use to "try to find something authentic and innate" were not the result of an individual choice, but of training to an agreed societal standard during your youth.

Do you think that you would be better able to understand your true individual self if you had been raised without any training in a language or the other aspects of your culture?

Evidence says you would not: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Feral_child#Documented_cases_o...

a_crc··on Software Needs Philosophers (2006)
>What this means is that philosophy ultimately becomes an extended argument over which propositions to take as axiomatic.

I agree. It also involves extended arguments over the statements that follow from these axioms even amongst philosophers who agree the axioms are true.

>[W]hat almost invariably happens in practice is that individual philosophers act as advocates for the particular axioms that they believe actually hold.

I agree with this as well. My main point was about the structure of the arguments. I don't think arguing from an axiom you hold to be true turns the argument anecdotal.

a_crc··on Software Needs Philosophers (2006)
Let me ask you some questions to zero in on your issue here.

Is coding competitive? Is cooking? Is reading? Do you think that training does not help you become a better cook or coder or reader? Were you able to read without training? Do you think the fact that you had to be taught to read poisoned the well and you cannot trust anything you have read since?

a_crc··on Software Needs Philosophers (2006)
Here's my take on your questions. Anecdotes [1] generally aren't the focus of academic philosophy. Modern philosophy focuses on arguments from Axiom [2] where a statement is taken to be true as a starting point for an argument. Responses to the piece of philosophy then take the form of criticism of the logic of the statements contingent on the axiom, or as arguments based on different axioms.

In other words an anecdotal argument is "I've seen and heard x, so I believe y" an axiomatic argument is "If x if true, we should believe y".

The important difference is the accessibility of each to logical analysis and discussion. Anyone can engage with an axiomatic argument by considering its premise and following statements. Anecdotal evidence relies entirely on personal experiences that another arguer may not share.

Training in academic philosophy prepares a person to engage in logically consistent criticism of existing philosophy and the production of well argued original works of academic philosophy.

You are right that you don't have to be a trained philosopher to think for yourself. In the same way that training in martial arts helps with punching, or training in coding helps you write better software, training in thinking helps you think.

[1]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anecdote

[2]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Axiom

a_crc··on FTC Sues Facebook for Illegal Monopolization
Is it really that big of a difference? You still have to go to the one section of walmart where they stock the cheese or car batteries or whatever. Walmart can set up their own shelves to emphasize their own brands if they want.

If you pay with a credit card at walmart they can collect the same data about your purchase history as amazon would as well.

a_crc··on $30 DIY Kilowatt Wind Turbine (2017)
If you're looking for a complete solution, there are a decent number of small wind turbines designed for charging 12v batteries (car batteries) on yachts.

Here's the 1st company I found on google. I can't personally vouch for the product, but it should give you an idea of what's available.

https://www.leadingedgepower.com/le-450-wind-turbine-12-24-4...

a_crc··on Phosphine detected in the atmosphere of Venus – an indicator of possible life?
I completely agree that the great filter theory is a bit circular in its logic on that premise: Imagine the evidence the average HN reader would need to accept that an extraterrestrial civilization existed. Now contrast that with the portion of human history when we've had the ability to produce evidence like that. It seems a bit reckless to assume that ANY AND EVERY high-tech alien civilization would produce conclusive evidence on a scale such that any civilization like modern humanity around any given star would be able to detect it.

I also wanted to point out that life on Venus would not even necessarily move the great filter. It is possible, though not experimentally proven, that lifeforms could survive a cataclysmic ejection from one planet after an asteroid impact and float to another planet in the same system. In other words, the life on Venus may have come from Earth or vice-versa.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Panspermia#Lithopanspermia

a_crc··on Magnetoplasma drive could make Mars transit take 39 days?
It's a lot of solar panel. A quick search gives us a figure of 220 watts of power per square meter of space based solar panel. This would mean a 200MW solar collector would need to be almost a million square meters in size. For reference that would be a square the length of 155 NYC city blocks on each side.
a_crc··on The Global Implications of “Re-education” Technologies in Northwest China
"The Center for Global Policy (CGP) is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization. CGP is the first independent, non-partisan American think tank working exclusively on issues at the intersection of U.S. foreign policy and the geopolitics of Muslim-majority countries. We aim to enhance U.S. security and global stability by empowering our foreign policy decisionmakers with pragmatic recommendations grounded in informed and nuanced analysis.

Amid a dramatic increase in anti-Muslim sentiment throughout the United States and Europe and a simultaneous increase in anti-American sentiment in many Muslim countries, CGP addresses the underlying root causes and conflict drivers that perpetuate tension.

CGP’s nuanced and informed analyses aim to serve our country’s best interests in mitigating, transforming and providing solutions to many global conflicts."

https://cgpolicy.org/about-cgp/

a_crc··on Walkie talkie speeds up turntable. Why/how? [audio]
From the OP on reddit:

"No parameters to the speed increase. The longer I hold it, the faster it goes, but I’ve only held it for a second because I don’t know what, if any, damage I may be causing."

a_crc··on Remote war is bad war
I'm assuming most of the alt-history buffs reading this have already heard of it, but I thought I'd point out that this scenario plays out in great detail in Harry Turtledove's Southern Victory series of novels.

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

a_crc··on GM closing all operations in Oshawa, Ontario: sources
I just read the article you linked, and it says the opposite:

"The company also plans to stop building several models now assembled at those plants, including the Chevrolet Cruze, the Cadillac CT6 and the Buick LaCrosse.

GM said it will shift more investment to electric and autonomous vehicles."

That reads like they're investing in the Volt.

a_crc··on The present phase of stagnation in the foundations of physics is not normal
I'm not a physicist, so maybe I'm misunderstanding the article you linked, but it seems to support my 1st post.

If you'll reread it you'll see that I mentioned nothing about a Big Bang, but rather that the CMB provides evidence that the Universe expanded from a smaller state to its current state, which is larger than its starting state.

From the linked wiki: "Differences in the temperature of the cosmic background are smoothed by cosmic inflation, but they still exist. The theory [Cosmic Inflation evidenced by the Horizon Problem] predicts a spectrum for the anisotropies in the microwave background which is mostly consistent with observations from WMAP and COBE."

a_crc··on The present phase of stagnation in the foundations of physics is not normal
That's an interesting idea. Do you have any thoughts on the fact that the structure of the cosmic microwave background radiation is exactly what we would expect it to be if the universe had expanded from a tiny state to its current state?

I'm unwilling to assume it "just randomly looks like that" given that a random distribution on a universal scale seems highly unlikely to show the large scale structures notable in the CMB.

a_crc··on Self-driving cars are headed toward an AI roadblock
Agreed. I think radioactive decay is an even better example of a well modeled physical system that defies simulation. A simulation of an ounce of decaying uranium won't tell you which atoms will decay in which order in a physical chunk. Ergo, somethings defy simulation.