Hacker News Reader

alex-on ‘First Robotic Bar Experience in the World’ Heads to the Las Vegas Strip

Can't help but think the conveyor belt that presents the drink is there to keep you a safe distance should the controller go unstable.

alex-on Ask HN: 50 job applications, 15 interviews, 7 onsites, and no offer – what next?

> I've gotten every job I've ever interviewed for

I once said this to a friend. He then suggested maybe I wasn't being as ambitious as I could be in the roles I was seeking. Gave me some food for thought.

alex-on Two-part Rubik's algorithms

I recently re-visited the rubiks cube as a holiday project.

It really is quite accessible now with online guides and videos. I think about an hour a day for 5 days took me from never having solved a cube to being able to solve any starting configuration in a little less than 3 minutes.

If like me you ever had a cube you never beat as a kid, it is definitely worth revisiting.

alex-on Ask HN: What the fastest internet speed Larry Ellison could buy for his boat?

We can, using todays technology, use much of the electromagnetic spectrum [1] for data transmissions. Light, Radio and Microwaves.

I would assume EM regulations differ depending on the waters the boat is currently in. i.e. Internal waters or Territorial waters etc. (different RF regulations for example)

To maximise throughput we would want to consume as much of the spectrum as possible. Think broadcasting in everything; 5G bands, wifi bands, FM, AM, light, microwave links.

As you want to use todays technology; we would need to break the spectrums into chunks which we can use existing solutions on. Different parts of the spectrum will have different properties. e.g transmission distances, bandwidths, etc.

Because of the different types of broadcasts and the volume of data we would probably want a number of relay stations bridging section of the EM spectrum to a fiber optic line. Some of these stations could be very far from the boat, thousands of miles in the case of long wave RF [2].

Compression would likely play an important role also. As we don't care about latency we can take the time to send well compressed data.

I am not sure this is the kind of answer you are looking for, but the kind of wealth Larry Ellison can throw at a problem is obscene.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electromagnetic_spectrum [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Longwave#Long_distance_recepti...

alex-on Trump2cash – A stock trading bot powered by Trump tweets

As the poster doesn't this gives Trump the power to manipulate markets with nothing more than a tweet?

You could argue he already has this power, but before the message needed to resonate with a large collective of people. Any public figure (like Warren Buffet, etc) can express an opinion that might effect the stock they are commenting on.

However as this group of people automate trades on only the contents of his tweets (and not say the contents of the tweet as well as past company performance, current POTUS approval ratings, dividend plans etc) he gains a scary amount of control over the markets.

To put another way. The only people who know what he will tweet earlier than these bots are Trump and maybe a select group of people he tells before hand.

alex-on Amicus brief on behalf of 97 tech companies

Looks like Cisco did not sign either. 9 of the largest 15 IT companies in the world are US owned[1]

Looks like 5 of them did not sign up (HP, Amazon, IBM, Dell and Cisco) and 4 did (Apple, Microsoft, Alphabet and Intel)

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

alex-on The History of Asphalt

When I see speed bumps/humps/ramps I sometimes think of all the effort that has lead to durable, smooth roads.

While these traffic calming methods no doubt work, a badly made road would also slow drivers down.

alex-on Show HN: PyBites Code Challenges

Good tip, I defaulted to using sorted which is almost as fast (but not quite)

alex-on Notes for the New Year

Totally agree. I find dedicated video conferencing equipment works really well for this case.

Although I guess I work in the industry so get a lot of good equipment.

alex-on Notes for the New Year

The greatest issue I have when working, or even just talking with people in different places is not technological, but timezones.

I don't want to be catching up with my family in Europe at my 3am in the morning. Or working a hard problem at my 9pm to be in touch with people in India.

I think if you are in the same timezone good video conferencing works really well.

alex-on Ask HN: Trying to get back into the tech industry and need advice

I would have assumed that the union of tech and financial knowledge would have been a very valuable combination. Have you been looking for tech roles within the finance industry?

alex-on The Ugly Unethical Underside of Silicon Valley

Not sure startups are seeing more scandals than other areas?

Also seems strange to point to start up culture i.e. When a sportsman is caught doping we don't attack the sport.

We see ethical issues in large companies e.g. Like VWs emission scandal ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Volkswagen_emissions_scandal ) or Wells Fargo opening phony accounts ( http://money.cnn.com/2016/09/08/investing/wells-fargo-create... ). It is not hard to find stories of insider trading in banks, or corruption in oil and gas or mis-handling of private data. Arguably these larger abuses effect more peoples lives.

Unscrupulous people are a fact of life. I am not sure a solution really exists, and if it does it may well be worse than the problem.

alex-on Child uses sleeping mom's thumbprint to buy $250 worth of Pokémon toys

Small cash theft can be done over and over. An online theft leaves a paper trail, normally with email confirmation. I would be surprised if a child got away with it twice and the total harm would be much more trackable.

alex-on About Those Air Cushions in Amazon Packages

http://m.mentalfloss.com/article.php?id=13092

Looks like they tried textured wallpaper and green house insulation before packing. Maybe it was a lot harder to pop in the wallpaper version?

alex-on The real reason grocery stores are running out of whipped cream this Christmas

This almost sounds like a warning about a too centralised manufacturing process across the food industry.

> “This story is a metaphor for the vulnerability of the entire food system,” said Daniel Block

However it seems to some what contradict it self:

> consumers will still be able to get whipped cream this season if they’re willing to compromise or look around

> There will also be no impact on non-aerosol whipped cream products

I am ok with the food industries resilience being across brands or even category (i.e. aerosol v non-aerosol).

alex-on Why is Mail Online going after the fact checkers?

I guess a publication like the mail has two big reasons to feel threatened by a rise of fact checking sites.

1. It inhibits their ability to embellish stories and thus could effect revenue.

2. If you need to goto some trust worthy organisation to fact check. Why do you need to visit the publisher first?

alex-on Ask HN: How much do you sleep?

The normal 8 hrs here. I don't set an alarm (unless getting up early for something) I just wake up when I normally wake up. This means I go to bed very consistently and earlier than most of my peers.

The main thing I need to sleep is total darkness.

Some years ago I read that people don't need as much sleep as they think. In an attempt to gain some extra time in the day I experimented with reducing the amount I slept. I found even a little less sleep has a significant adverse effect on me; lower energy levels, irritability, reduced attention span.

alex-on Uber's Loss Exceeds $800M in Q3 on $1.7B in Net Revenue

I think a lot of people see todays taxi company being tomorrows ground transport ruler, once self driving cars are ubiquitous.

The theory being less people will own cars. The savings made on storage/parking, fuel and maintenance will be greater than paying for individual rides (with no labour costs).

The car manufactures would no longer be the company the consumer interact with. i.e. How much does the average consumer care if they are picked up in a Lexus or a Toyota for the average ride?

This would put the car manufacturers in competition for the taxi companies business commoditizing the car industry.

Who knows what will happen? Maybe regulation will prevent self driving cars becoming ubiquitous? or maybe some advance in manufacturing makes it much cheaper to own self driving cars.

But speculation that Uber pulls this off is the only way that I can see how Uber is worth over $60Bn (more than ford $50Bn ish, GM $50Bn ish, Nissian $45Bn ish) while making a $0.8Bn loss on $1.7Bn revenue - as a gamble for what might end up owning a $400Bn+ market.

alex-on Does It Make Sense for Programmers to Move to the Bay Area?

I moved (internationally) to the bay area. In my specific circumstances I would not say that it was financially clearly a good thing to do, due to the MUCH higher costs of living.

However as a place to live it is quite nice. Technology is everywhere. You can go to a free meet up and literally see the creator of the language doing a talk (e.g. Guido tomorrow with the baypiggies). It has A LOT of opportunities to pursue the career that interests you. It's warm, close to the coast and a manageable drive to skiing in Tahoe.

Some times it is not all about the profit loss.

alex-on Elon Musk: Basic universal income is the solution to robots taking our jobs

I can totally see the appeal of basic income. I can even imagine a culture/economy where it works.

What I don't understand at all right now is, how do we transition where we are now in such a direction?

A change of this significance will not be implemented overnight. How do you start preparing the people and the economy of a nation to accept the idea that working is an option rather than a need?

Making work optional for a subset of people will result in political divisions.

Pushing the politics before the technology is established could damage the output of the nation as well as add friction to the initiative.

Waiting until large parts of the population are economically redundant seems worse.

alex-on What Git got right and wrong

http://stevelosh.com/blog/2013/04/git-koans/

Despite being a fan of git I do like these stories. "The Hobgoblin" is my favorite.

alex-on Ask HN: What is the best sci-fi you read this year?

The final red rising book was published this year: https://www.amazon.com/Red-Rising-Trilogy-Book/dp/B0159URANK

I really enjoyed the first 15 lives of Harry August (https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00ECE9OD4/ref=dp-kindle-redirect?...) I only found it in 2016 although it was published in 2014.

alex-on Show HN: Gomix the easiest way to build apps and bots

This is really cool. Not sure how much I would use the IDE, but it seems like a really nicely indexed collections of solved problems with example code.

alex-on How Much the Polls Missed by in Every State

The five most populous states all feature in the top half of this graph (California 3rd, Texas 15th, Florida 18th, New York 12th, Illinois 5th)

While the five least populous states are mostly in the bottom half. (Wyoming 43rd, Vermont 21st, Alaska 30th, North Dakota 48th, South Dakota 44th)

It is much harder to find a small representative group in a larger population. But I a surprised that the errors appear to favor overestimating trumps margin. I would have thought that the sampling errors would go both ways.

Lots of possible explanations including coincidence, etc. But if feels like it might be some pattern...?

alex-on I am an investor in The Style Club. Or, at least, I thought I was

Looks like Hilary has tweeted on the subject:

https://twitter.com/HilaryNovelle/status/803788911403266049

https://twitter.com/HilaryNovelle/status/803790551149637632

It appears she is saying he invested in some other company (Style Me Stylish). I am guessing some lawyers out there are going to be making some money soon.

alex-on This $1,500 Toaster Oven Is Everything That's Wrong with Silicon Valley Design

I do LOVE that tag line

> Automated yet distracting. Boastful yet mediocre. Confident yet wrong.

alex-on Ask HN: What's your references to learn SEO?

Thanks for the link! They have a PDF for those of us that like reading off-line

http://d2eeipcrcdle6.cloudfront.net/guides/Moz-The-Beginners...

alex-on How a Gift from Schoolchildren Let the Soviets Spy on the U.S. For 7 Years

> Soviet agents stationed across the street from Spaso House would turn the device “on” by focusing a radio signal on it, which then bounced back to their radio receiver. When the ambassador or anyone else in the study spoke, the sound waves caused the membrane to resonate and alter the signal that returned to the Soviets, allowing them to hear the conversation.

It could contain more detail but sounds like it was altering a radio signal that was completely external to the device and therefore had no battery at all.

alex-on Why Do Millennials Hate Groceries?

I agree the author made it very clear that this was not a millennial behaviour alone

>The big story here is not that young people are uniquely turning away from groceries. Rather, the story is a structural shift toward eating out at restaurants

>So what seems to be a strictly Millennial trend is in fact part of a much broader cultural shift.

alex-on Return of the Mac (2005)

18th March 2005 APPL: $6.14 Today APPL: $111.49

I hope his father bought the shares this time!